[14] - [Voice]

[sharpememory]

[Warden Filter]

[Barron sounds shaken.] Wardens. All of you. I want to know what "evidence" you think you have. Because there is no way that I would do that to two people. I didn't kill anyone. I couldn't do something like that.

[Filtered to Prefect, Olive, Loki, Eddie Nygma and Sarah Harding]

You guys. Out of all of them, you have to know that I wouldn't have done something like this. And I- [He stops. And sounds even more miserable when he continues.] I'm not going to lie to you, I confronted O'Brien about Prefect. But that was it. I spoke to him and left, hours ago. I don't know why he did what he did or whether he's trying to frame me, but you all have to believe me that I didn't have anything to do with it. I probably shouldn't have spoken to him at all, but I just couldn't have known that he would react this way. I never wanted this to happen.

[OOC: Barron's replies will either be before or after he's admitted what happened to Prefect. Feel free to specify if it's before or after in your subject line. c:]

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[No response over the journals, but a few minutes later, Prefect is showing up outside your door. He's got a blank notepad and some pens clutched under his arms.]

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[Well, this is awkward. Barron's arriving back at the same time, carrying nothing at all. Which is interesting, considering he left with a journal. He just looks at Prefect, somewhat expectantly. He's still hopeful that this will turn out to be a trick on Mirror!Prefect's part.]

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[Prefect looked at Barron, searching his expression for some kind of outrage, for some sign that he's upset or offended. He doesn't see it. What he sees there... isn't any of the things he's expecting, Barron almost looks like he expects Prefect to be... pleased with him... and suddenly there's a thought buried in the back of his mind, that he desperately, desperately doesn't want to be real.]

Barron... do you understand what happened last week? During the flood?

[He lifted a hand, to stem the lies which he expected to be automatic.]

And, I know that you never believe me when I say this, but... Beatty's warden, and O'Brien's... they know you did this, but if you tell me the truth, then I can make it better. Please.

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I- [Barron began, but stopped at Prefect lifting up his hand.]

[Barron shakes his head. What was Prefect doing? This was what he had wanted.] Isn't all of this just dedication?

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[Prefect put a hand over his mouth. Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, no.

He did this. It was the irrational voice in the back of his head. The same one that told him, that whether he liked it or not, that mad, angry, abusive man he'd become during the flood, was a force inside of him that just hadn't been unleashed yet. The same voice he argued with, the same voice which he ignored, right now was booming through his brain like there was no doubt, no uncertainty, no vaguest of chances that he wasn't responsible for this.]

Comrade... do you remember, when you first got here... the first time I met you, that you thought you were in love with me? And you touched my hand, and made me think that we'd been in love for months? Do you remember that, Barron?

[He swallowed, dropping his hand from his mouth.]

Comrade, last week, what happened to me... it was like those few days when you were absolutely certain that you were in love with me. I turned into a different person, and that other person didn't care if you lost your mind, or if you got hurt, he wanted you to be miserable, and he wanted you to be evil, and... I think, he made you use your powers so much, that you forgot, that I wasn't always that person, or that that person would go away again.

[Oh god. Prefect was suddenly very, very certain that he was the worst warden ever, because good wardens didn't do this. A good, competent warden would never, ever do this in front of their inmate. He pressed his hands over his eyes, almost as if he was trying to physically hold closed his tear ducts because no way were you allowed to cry because your inmate committed double murder and you basically told him to do it.]

I'm so sorry, Comrade. I'm so, so sorry. I was meant to stop this from happening to you.

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That didn't happen. [Barron said straight away, although the fact that it sounded like straight up emotion working made it the most plausible part of Prefect's story.]

No. [Barron kept on shaking his head, starting to back away from Prefect.] That's impossible. That's all impossible. You said that-

[He broke off, thinking of O'Brien's creepy, determined stare. How he'd allowed it. How Beatty didn't even seem that surprised. Suddenly it all made sense.]

Oh, you're good. [Barron said, smiling despite himself. It had a somewhat hysterical edge.] That's such a good con. You knew that you'd be able to get me to kill Beatty for you, didn't you? That's why you got rid of my journals, so that there was only the one with those instructions. You could get back at him while keeping your hands clean. You and O'Brien, both of you keeping your hands clean in your own way. I don't think the wardens will ever work that one out.

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It did happen, Comrade. [Prefect dropped his hands from his face, staring at Barron, his expression hollow and pained.] Get your communicator, and go back through your entires, and you'll find one where you go: "The flood didn't wear off on Prefect so I want a new warden" and then twenty comments of me asking you why you don't love me anymore. It happened. It all happened. It happened to you before, you just don't remember because you keep using your power and acting like you don't lose anything from it!

[Prefect's voice broke, his eyes were red ringed and wet with tears that he'd been trying to cram back into his eyes.]

Fuck O'Brien, Comrade! Fuck O'Brien, and fuck Beatty, and fuck Edward Nygma! The only person in this place whose hands I want to stay clean are yours. Everyone else can go look out for themselves!

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[Oh god, why was Prefect crying? Barron was trying to rationalize it, but there was no reason for it. Nothing except the con that Prefect was doing, but was it a con?]

There's no journal entry of that. [Barron said, even though he hadn't checked his communicator for days. But worse still, what Prefect was saying made sense. Far too much sense.]

I don't- [Barron started to say, trying to process what Prefect had been saying, the way that he'd just denied all those people. Barron clenched his hands into fists. Nothing else mattered but them. That made them something like friends, didn't it? Something like family? He was hit by the recollection of Anton's mother, filling the open wound on her sons neck with ash so he'd never forget. Over and over again. He looked up at Prefect. All he had to do was say that one thing. Those few little words. It was almost a physical effort, but he had very little memory of where he was, what was going on and even who Prefect really was. It wasn't something he'd ever done before. But now, it had to be happen.]

I think I need you to help me. [Barron said very slowly, maintaining eye contact with Prefect.]

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[Prefect nodded, he almost didn't trust his voice, but he spoke anyway:] It's going to be okay. I promise you, we're going to make this okay. [He reached out, and put his hand on Barron's arm, carefully avoiding any skin on skin contact.]

Come into your cabin, we'll go back over your journal entries, and mine, and figure out what's happened since you got here. I brought you a pad, so-- if you need to take notes on anything, then you can.

[He squeezed Barron's arm lightly, reassuringly.] I'll tell the wardens that this wasn't your fault, then we'll go down to Zero for a couple of days, just to get away for a little bit, and to figure all of this out, okay?

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[Barron wanted to shove Prefect off, to demand to know what exactly proved that the journal entries were real, but what was the point of it? There wasn't exactly a lot else that he had to work with.]

Alright. [Barron said eventually, realizing that Prefect bringing along the pad and paper meant that he'd always intended this to happen. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. But considering he was currently in the best case scenario aside from getting away with it entirely, he wasn't about to question it.]

How many days is a "couple"? [Barron said, assuming that the 'we' only extended to Prefect walking him down there.]

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Maybe two or three? Just... long enough for this to blow over, and for us to get our foundations down again. [Prefect pushed open the door to Barron's cabin, and waited for his inmate to enter beside him.]

Maybe I could talk to the Admiral, to see if there's any way you could try to recover the memories you've lost as well? I'll send him a message later.

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Two or three whole days? [Barron let hurt bleed into his voice. It may have been far better than expected, but it didn't mean that he was happy about it. He walked into his room though, shoulders hunched and looking at the floor.]

And you could get the Admiral to try, but it seems pretty impossible to me. [Everyone knew things like that didn't happen. Blowback was blowback.]