Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As Fear, Anger and Disgust make their way into headquarters, they find Anxiety stressfully controlling the console, she was focused, and as they try to get her away from it before she causes any trouble, Sadness quickly realizes that Joy is not there.

Her initial plan was to go up to the other emotions and ask where she was or if she was okay, but as she looked up to the console, she realized that it was not an option; they were busy with something else, and she would probably get ignored.

Worried, she tried to think of another way to contact her friend or atleast know how she was doing. The walkie talkies! 

Sadness hurried to the place where she last left it, picked it up and tried:

”Joy? Are you there?”

Disappointingly, there was no answer. Joy was apparently in the middle of something.

[Meanwhile in the subconscious mind]

”Great. Now my closest friends have decided they HATE me. This is so unfair, when have i EVER-?!” She interrupted herself to look to her side, only to find the broken memory orb that had been shattered by the subconscious mind’s harsh sea. “OHO-! And the memory i needed is broken, that too!” She remarked.

“They better apologize when they come back, it’s not like Riley needs me or anything!” She sarcastically remarked. “I hope she holds on…” She finally sighed.

The other emotions had apparently forgotten about Joy, i mean, they did have an argument which turned into them leaving her, but she didn’t think it would be THAT serious, especially to leave her stranded on the subconscious mind, Riley needed her! Right? 

Hoping was the only thing left to do.

“Come on, Anxiety! Let go!” Disgust demanded as she tugged on her arm. With little to no movement by Anxiety’s side, nonetheless. She was laser-focused on controlling Riley because of the high expectations she had put on her. 

Anger, on the other hand, found the bat he had tried to use earlier in the day. “Perfect timing.” He muttered. 

Raised bat into the air, building up power, and…-

Wait, what? Anger questioned, but before he could question where the bat had gone, Fear whacked his head with the supposedly missing bat.

“YOU LITTLE-!” He growled, making Fear run to the other end of the console.

Amidst all the chaos, a soft voice emerged. “Guys?” Sadness whispered. No one listened. “Guys?” She tried again, this time, louder. “Where is Joy?” 

The 3 emotions went silent. Where was she? 

Fear broke the silence: “OH MY GOD WE FORGOT HER!! SHE’S PROBABLY LOST RIGHT NOW AND-“

”EVERYBODY RELAX! We can’t be screaming like deranged people if we want to come up with a plan!” Disgust explained, but it was obvious that no one had listened to her, as Anger and Fear emerged into yet another fight:

”Even for you? That is LOW, Anger. Forgetting Joy? What is this, a homicide attempt?” He argued. 

“If you think I could forget Joy without YOU noticing, you must be even more useless than i thought! But of course! You’re only blaming ME, because YOU didn’t remind us!” Anger striked back.

“IN WHAT WOULD THAT BENEFIT ME?” Fear yelled.

“In what would that benefit ME?” Anger snapped back.

Disgust was sick of hearing them scream, determined to calm them down, she shut them up. ”ENOUGH ALREADY!” “This isn’t our first rodeo, now is it? Joy has been out of Headquarters before, and she always came back. Thankfully we have some controls down there.”

“Are you certain that those controls could solve this problem before it turns into a… catastrophe?” Anger muttered, clearly unconvinced.

”I would bet 30 dollars on it!” Disgust promised

With that, everyone agreed and nodded, now, it was up to Sadness to try and contact her.

“I mean, it was one argument, right?! Anxiety needed validation, not me!” Joy began.

“She was all like, ooh, i’m just like you, Joy!” “What does a new emotion like her know about what being Joy is like, huh?!” “What having to manage all the other emotions that might just make a whole mess if they’re left unsupervised feels like?!” “That’s all i told her! And now, they’re all acting like I’M CRAZY OR SOMETHING!!” She rambled, trying to make sense out of the situation and shift the blame to someone else, it wasn’t her fault, right? She was in the right, or not?

”Exactly, Joy! You did nothing wrong. Anxiety was just jealous.” Something that seemed to be Fear assured. 

Joy spun around to search for the source of the voice, Fear was there, but not exactly, was that him? His appearance was almost that of a ghost, a mildly transparent figure with a light blue, cloudy aura. Joy seemed to not pay attention or straight up ignore those eerie characteristics.

2 other voices made their way into the conversation.

”And i just started accusing you of stuff out of nowhere! You know how hot-head i can get!” An anger-resembling creature admitted.

Disgust was there too, but stayed silent for the moment, observing the scene with a characteristic expression.

”Haha, yeah! Well, don’t cut yourself short, yes i was kind of playing you up against eachother, but, i had my reasons!” Joy tried to convince her apparent friends.

“Exactly, and that’s all that matters!” Disgust agreed. “A good friend would forgive absolutely everything you do to them, no matter how insecure and cruel.” She hinted at Joy’s flaws.

“I… insecure and cruel? Well i wouldn’t say-“ She tried denying it, but before she could say anything else, Anger stopped her.

”Of course you were!” He insisted. “We tried being honest with you, but you doubled down on your flaws until we couldn’t take it anymore, but that’s just what best friends do, right?” Anger mocked. 

“Okay, this is getting weird.” She finally realized. “But you can’t be okay with this, right?” 

“Well, why wouldn’t we be, PAL?” Fear proceeded, all getting more passive-aggressive with each sentence.

Joy tried to explain. ”Because… because you’re my friends! Cause you tell me when i mess up, cause you don’t let me get away with everything, because you’re-“

”Honest?” Sadness interrupted her. “Who needs honesty?” She continued as Joy shakily turned her head around.

Sadness looked the same way as everyone else, ghostly, that light blue, cloudy aura… what did they want? 

“You just want everyone to come back to you and tell you that it’s all good, right?” She retorted. “Because that’s how it usually goes, isn’t it?”

Joy was getting more and more worried with each sentence, why were they being so mean? She had done some bad things, of course, but didn’t think it was THAT big of a deal to start making such humiliating comments.

”Your job is so important, everybody has to respect that! It doesn’t even matter that you treat everyone around you like GARBAGE! THEY should be sorry! THEY should apologize to YOU!” Sadness berated her.

Her tone was getting more and more aggressive with each sentence, that wasn’t like her at all. Why would she be so cruel, when she was nothing like that? That soft, gentle and innocent tone was completely gone, she wasn’t holding back, not one bit.

Tears started forming in Joy’s eyes, her vision started to get blurry, but even so, she could see the unusually offended look in Sadness’s face. 

“Hey, STOP!” Joy urged “I didn’t treat anyone like garbage!” “Sure, i made mistakes but-“

”Well what about me?” Sadness reminded her. “The one who keeps being repressed? Who you mean nothing without?”

“That isn’t-“ Joy stammered.

”I am the reason happiness is different from sadness, LIGHT WITHOUT DARKNESS MEANS NOTHING!” Sadness harshly scolded her.

“STOP IT! Please! You know that i appreciate you for-“ She pleaded. Tears already streaming down her face.

”BEING JUST ANOTHER EMOTION!? That’s what you said, Joy! That we can’t be anything else!” Sadness accused her. “WELL YOU KNOW WHAT?!” “I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU, AND I’M NEVER COMING BACK!”

With that devastating sentence, all 3 of them dissapeared. 

Joy was left alone shaking in the darkness, forgotten, forever. 

She started to cry, quickly going from a soft weep to a full on mental breakdown.

“Ahem! So…” Disgust quavered.

“Well? Did Joy come back?” Fear mocked. “I think i remember you making certain… promises.” He recalled.

“Not yet!” She hurried. “But we have been exploring alternative solutions!”

“Alternatives to what?”

”To having Joy?!” Anger protested.

”Uuhh, yes! Actually…” Disgust informed them. “We can survive without Joy… for a while! Yes, i know that Riley needed her to become who she is today and all that, but the changes to her behavior are pretty small right now! And will be, for atleast a couple days. If we put effort into the new way of living, we could actually have a pretty good life! That is, if we all try working together.”

”So you’re saying that, because she didn’t come back, Riley’s life will become much worse and now you want us all to work even harder than we already did?!” Anger summarized. “Until what? She becomes so unhappy it’ll be unbearable?”

“We could also pretend to be her?” Disgust hesitantly proposed.

“Hm, okay.” Anger chuckled. “I’m done listening to you, you’re gonna lose so much more than 30 bucks now.”

”You can say that again!” Fear reiterated.

Disgust sighed, dissapointed that those two ignorant emotions didn’t want to try to listen to her.

Sadness tapped Disgust on her shoulder, and when she turned around, Sadness pointed out. “Joy has the walkie talkie.”

Disgust, astonished, blurted out “What the- Joy is alive?!”

All 4 of them stood in silence, Anger and Fear’s mouth gaped open in disbelief.

”All.. according… to plan?” She nervously assured.

Joy had tired herself out. She was lying on the floor, thinking about everything; the argument, the hallucinations, the broken memory, that she was forgotten, and much, much more. Mind going a million miles per hour, when she heard it.

She heard a voice coming from the side, she turned around, and found the walkie talkie, one of which she had given to sadness.

Leaned in, and with a swift swipe, she grabbed it.

”W-Who…? Who’s… wait…” Joy stammered.

”Hey Joy.” She greeted her.

“Sadness? You… you’re back?” 

“Yes, I... I think we need to talk.”

Chapter Text

“I… i don’t understand, why are you back?” Joy queried.

“Sorry it took me so long. I had to try to fix the mess you created, but i couldn’t do much.” Sadness explained. “And now, there’s an entire uprising going on, led by Anxiety and Envy and… yeah.”

“Wait- so you didn’t really abandon me?” She was confused, after everything she said, it didn’t seem like she even wanted to see her. “You were actually… helping me? Why?” “After everything i said I-“

Sadness was surprised at her behavior, all of a sudden she sounded so frail, even with that, she shook her head and resumed.

”Listen, Joy. For how long have we known eachother?”

”For like 13 years?”

”Exactly. I’ve seen you through all your phases, you weren’t always like this you know…” She ventured. “You tried more than anyone to give Riley a good life, and you succeeded and achieved your dreams!” “But then, you changed.” 

Joy slightly widened her eyes at those words, and listened in closer to the radio.

”You started to be more controlling, didn’t let others use the console as much, you were trying to be happy all the time, even while so many things started to happen to you. None of us have been through that.”

She knew all of the things that Sadness had mentioned was true, she was controlling, faking a smile while her world fell apart.

”You’re wrong.” Joy silently denied.

”What?”

”I mean- you’re right!” She stammered. “But what? Is that my excuse? I shouldn’t try harder?”

Sadness was more confused with each sentence that came out of the walkie talkie. “Uhhh… what are you saying?”

”I’m saying that i suck, and that i don’t deserve your friendship!” She realized before she threw the radio out of her hands and turned around.

”You don’t… WHAT?!” Sadness yelled, stunned.

“How did you do it?” Anger asked. “How did you get Joy to reach out?”

”Oohh, you know… Used some controls here and there… and uh- poof! Joy is back!” Disgust hesitantly explained.

”I’ve decided i’m happy with this explanation.” Fear added.

“Hey, this whole Joy situation thing made me reflect, and i realized, we should all unite together to work in a team!” Anger declared.

”I hear you Anger. Teamwork makes the dreamwork!” Fear agreed.

Amidst the relaxing and peaceful atmosphere, Sadness called out:

”Wait- Joy’s gone again!”

Fear and Anger turned their heads to stare at Disgust.

“Oh… you know Joy, she’s probably hiding… OVER THERE!” Disgust pointed to a random spot in headquarters and attempted to hide while they were distracted. Needless to say, she failed.

Joy was alone with her thoughts, again.

All those people who used to be your friends. Thrown away in an attempt to make Riley’s life better. Well, i guess my selfishness over the console also was part of that, who am i kidding, it was all me. Maybe i’ve been too rough on everyone else… No. i HAVE.

She laid on the ground, as the waves barely reached her outstretched legs. 

Gray sky, gray sea, gray ground. Not a single color in sight, except for the faint yellow in those shattered pieces of glass.

This would have been a calming environment, of course, if it wasn't for everything going on right now, and the fact that it was the subconscious mind.

The static ambience produced by the waves of the sea, the sweet sound of nothingness, but at the same time, the noise of all those voices going through your head.

All alone, with only my thoughts, a broken memory orb, and a silent radio.

Glow beginning to dim.

Am i going to face the same fate as Bing Bong?

Forgotten?

I mean, it’s not like i don’t deserve this. 

He died because of me.

They left me because of me.

I am the one who got me here.

All me, just like the old times.

“Hey uh, Fear, i need your help.” Sadness requested.

”Well it better not be about Joy, because i am DONE!” Fear denied firmly.

”No it’s… well, yes it’s Joy! But she seems very… different.” She began. “It’s like she… wants to change.”

”I’m not buying it.” He reiterated. “And you should know better than to-“

”Just come with me, okay?!” 

Fear rolled his eyes and let out an annoyed groan as he started to follow Sadness.

“A-HEM!” Disgust coughed, trying to get Anger’s attention. “So, are we just gonna sit here and do NOTHING while Joy is gone, Sadness and Fear went to look for her, and we have NO CLUE where either of them are?!”

“Ugh.” Anger groaned. “Well if you wanna be so useful, why don’t YOU go figure out where they are!?” “You said you had controls down there, didn’t you?!”

”I- yes!” Disgust lied. “Uhh- but you also gotta do something!” 

“And what the hell should I do?!” Anger yelled.

”Chill out, do whatever you think is necessary, honestly.”

After a while of both of them not doing nothing, they united once again.

”Soo, what did you do?” Disgust asked.

“Well you didn’t tell me what to do! Besides, it’s not like i’m going down there.” Anger scoffed. “Face it, Disgust. We are all lost.”

Disgust didn’t want to hear it. “You are!” “I actually figured out where Joy is.” She lied.

“Really.” Anger said, in disbelief.

”REALLY!” She assured. “Joy is in long term memory, and Fear said he was going to look for Joy with sadness over there!”

”Actually, i’m confused as to why Sadness would pick HIM over us.” She continued “He’s a scaredy-cat! Who knows what they’re doing down there, but i’m not sure it’s going well.”

”Oh yeah…” Anger calmed down a little. “Also part of Sadness’s stupidity!” “Who in their right mind picks FEAR to go to uncharted territory!?” He ranted. “Well, i’m sure Sadness is paying for it right now, having to deal with him.”

The two emotions walked to the radio, and Sadness tried to speak to Joy.

She picked up the radio.

”Ugh, i already told you, Sadness! I don’t want to be your friend!” She maintained.

”You see? Good ol’ Joy.” Fear scoffed, crossing his arms.

Sadness glared at Fear for a moment.

”Wait wait- and WHY not?” She continued

”Because i don’t deserve it!” Joy began. “I’m an… an egocentric control freak narcissist who DESERVES to be alone!” She emphasized.

Fear stared back at Sadness, wide eyed and mouth agape.

”Well- you do know that if you’re alone, you can’t make Riley happy…” He tried to amend the situation.

Joy turned to look at the subconscious sea. ”The other emotions either take control over her, or they deserve to be miserable.” She coldly concluded.

Fear was just as stunned as Sadness was when she spoke to Joy. “WOAH HO HO, you weren’t kidding, Sadness!” Fear yelled, astonished.

“I told you! She’s like… at the bottom of the barrel!” Sadness remarked. “What now?!”

Fear grabbed the walkie talkie out of Sadness’s hands, and asked:

”Joy, do you want to be better?”

”I don’t know.”

Silence hung in for a second or two.

”Do you want to keep hurting others?” He tried again.

“I- no!” 

“So you want to be better?” He insisted.

“What are you getting at?” Joy said, slightly annoyed.

“We can help you.” Fear offered. “But you have to LET us help you, and put the work towards self-improvement!”

”But what if i don’t deserve!-“ She continued.

”Ugh! Stop with the self pity!” Sadness snapped. “He’s telling you that you can!-“

Fear placed his hand on her shoulder, and shook his head.

”It’s your choice, Joy.” He determined. “You have to take the first step towards self-improvement.”

“You’ve outdone yourself, Disgust.” Anger affirmed. “Not only did you bring Joy back, but you also managed to track down her location!”

”Oh what can i say, i’m the best at figuring out stuff.” She bragged

“You know what?” Anger started. “How about we leave all the decision making to you?” He proposed.

“Oh really?!-“ Disgust was caught by surprise. “Well i would have to check with-“

”Well, Joy’s gone again!” Sadness once again interrupted, switching the radio’s channel to Digusts’s.

Anger looked at Disgust.

”Sadness is behind all of this, isn’t she?” He asked.

”Uh-“ Disgust hesitated. “I… yes.”

”Okay, i’m taking back the decision plan i made.”

“Ah, okay…” 

“Oh! And you owe 30 to each of us, okay?”

Disgust sighed. “Okay… do you accept credit card?”

“Visa or Mastercard?” He replied.

”Visa.” 

”O-kay.” 

“Sooo… what do you wanna do while we wait on Joy?” Fear began to talk.

“Do you think she’s actually going to get back to us?” Sadness worried.

”Look, Joy hurt a LOT of us.” He explained. “She needs to reflect on what she’s done and take the first steps.”

Sadness thought Fear wasn’t understanding the severity of this situation. Joy, who used to be full of energy, positivity and ambition, now sounded tired, and hopeless.

”Wha- she’s depressed! She’s not thinking straight, and she’s talking about Riley being unhappy for the rest of her life like it’s NOTHING!” She ranted.

“I mean yeah, but-“

“I understand and appreciate your plan, Fear. But we NEED to help her take the first steps!” Sadness decided. “Let’s go to the subconscious mind.”

All that Fear could do was sigh and start following her once again. The journey was going to be difficult, but it’s not like it was for nothing. The main emotion was down there, and they could risk losing her, which was a terrible scenario.

“Do you know where Joy is?” Fear asked.

”Yes, i- she’s not where she’s supposed to be.” Sadness replied.

“Hmm… well then, let’s circle the long-term memory.”

”If you say so.” 

The two emotions wandered off to the long term memory, Fear being reminded of the recent argument that went down a couple of hours ago, and Sadness being reminded of that time Joy and her were stuck there together.

After around 30 minutes, they didn’t find anything that could lead to her.

“Haven’t we been here before?” Sadness observed.

“I don’t know, the long-term memory aisles can sometimes look pretty same-y.” Fear continued looking for clues.

“That’s because you’ve been here only once before.” Sadness began. “Me and Joy have been here a couple of times, so that’s why i KNOW we’ve been here before!”

“But then… where’s Joy?” Fear wondered.

Sadness spotted a trail of clearly disturbed memory sections. 

“Wait, look at that, that’s gotta be some kind of clue, right?” She realized. “Let’s go, and let’s try to make it quick.”

Fear walked along with Sadness, looking around the falled and out of place memory orbs, many already gray, when were the mind workers gonna clean that up? She quickly snapped out of that thought when she found themselves on the edge of a cliff that, if you fell, led to the subconscious sea.

Things at headquarters were not getting better.

The main emotions were too focused on Joy’s disappearance to realize that Anxiety was over on the console for the entirety of that important hockey game, and still was.

Riley was being ran on Anxiety and Envy almost entirely now, and the one emotion that could calm the storm was gone.

Their worrying was interrupted by a sudden sizzle coming from the console. They all turned to look at it, and remembered what they were doing before Sadness told them of the situation.

A tornado. An orange tornado. Electricity coming out of it, seemed like hard rain, but going horizontally, and in a circle. With some effort, they could see Anxiety controlling the console, slowly speeding up the velocity at which she pressed each button. 

The only ones left were Anger and Disgust; Joy was missing, Sadness and Fear were looking for her. None of them even bothered to say a thing; they knew they had little to no idea on how to possibly succeed at calming Anxiety down and stopping the panic attack that she was causing onto Riley.

One of them tried to enter the dangerous area, but was swiftly thrown away and onto the ground, as the spinning of it was getting faster and faster, blowing harsh winds into headquarters.

Joy sit up, facing the sea.

Was it a drastic solution? Maybe, but it doesn’t seem like things are going to get better for me. I’m already stuck in here, and i doubt anyone will come.

Maybe i’m being too harsh on myself.

No.

I HAVE been harsh.

On everyone else.

What am i even trying to accomplish?

Maybe i should let myself feel.

Maybe i should let myself be imperfect.

What’s even the point of being happy and positive all the time? 

How am i supposed to be happy, with every other emotion being a negative one?

Could I?

I know i shouldn’t, but it’s the only way out.

She stood up, and contemplated more than she already had been doing.

She started walking towards the ocean, feeling the waves, the water was cold, but her detachment from any kind of reality she had ever experienced made it impossible for her to care even in the slightest bit.

Everything was already cold.

Joy let out a sigh she didn’t know she had been holding.

”Everyone will be happier this way.”

Chapter Text

Joy slowly made her way further into the cold waters, the small waves washing over her ankles in the currently shallow water she was in.

Crimson liquid dripping from her hands to the ocean.

The chilly breeze echoed in her mind, eventually forming a sound, that seemed to speak to her.

“Hey Joy!” It greeted. “Uuhh… you know you’re about to enter the deep part of the sea, right?”

Joy was startled, she took her arms to her chest and quickly turned around, splashing water.

Her efforts were to no avail, as she saw that no one was around. She turned to the other side, looked up and down, even so, it still wasn’t clear where it was coming from, or even who it was.

“Wait… who- who are you?”

”Who am i?” It answered. “Well, we don’t really need that much information right now, do we?”

Joy became silent.

“AHEM! As i said…” It continued. “You do realize that the further you go, the deeper the ocean gets, right?”

“Yes, I don’t care anymore!” Joy stressed.

“Umm… but, wait!” The voice recalled. “And what about your friends?”

“They don’t care about me.”

”But you care about them!” It insisted. “Come on, you’re not thinking straight!”

Joy began to realize the absurdity of this situation. Have i truly gone insane?! Am i imagining things? Why is my brain making up noise to try to stop me?! I don’t know what is worse, the voice and its questions, or the fact that i’m ANSWERING TO IT! She grew even more annoyed and desperate.

”My friends have been looking for a way to live without me for a long time now, OKAY?!” Joy snapped. “Nobody should be close to me. Nobody wants to, so- i’ll just do them a favor and SPEED UP THE PROCESS!”

“Hey chill out, stop!” 

Joy seemed to ignore the suggestion and kept walking with her head low, as if she was trying to hide from it.

”Uh- if you get any closer i’ll-“ The voice threatened.

”Make me suffer even more?!” She filled out its words. “I don’t care.”

Disgust glanced back at the sense of self, the same words repeating over and over.

”I’m not good enough.”

Anxiety was still present, controlling the console. She wasn’t stopping, it didn’t look like she was going to stop, as the barely visible figure behind the tornado was still frozen in place, and at the same time, everywhere.

Disgust figured Anxiety would eventually tire herself out, but the relief didn’t last more than 2 seconds before the realization hit: Time was limited. After all, she was in the middle of what seemed to be the most important game in her life. 

In a panic, she quickly ran up to Anger, who was just dusting himself off from the fall. 

“We NEED to do something!” She frantically shouted. 

Anger examined the viewfinder.

Everything was as if it were slow motion, going from fixiating in a random spot, to both of her sides, and finally, to the hard floor.

He shook his head. “We’re not the ones who can stop it!” “I’ve TRIED to get inside the tornado, did you see how harsh those winds are?!” Anger pointed out. “Besides, we still have time.”

“What do you mean by we still have time?” She retorted.

”WHAT I MEAN IS-“ He stopped himself. “Just- look!” Anger pointed at the viewfinder to Disgust.

She turned over and let out a small sigh of relief. "Well, yes, you kind of have a point." 

Before Anger could say anything else, Disgust continued. 

"But we still can't just sit by and watch chaos ensue while we just hope things don't escalate!" She insisted. "And it doesn't help either that Joy is lost. I know Fear and Sadness are supposed to be looking for her, but what if they just don't find her? What then? We-" 

Anger interrupted her. "RELAX!" "You're starting to sound like that emotion who got us into this whole thing."

Sadness and Fear found themselves on the edge of a cliff.

As Sadness realized, she took a couple of steps back, while Fear, on the other hand, screamed and jumped behind her.

When the surprise wore off, they both stepped forward and cautiously looked over it.

"Joy? Joyyy?" Sadness called out.

"Come on, it's not like she'll respond." Fear mentioned.

"Yeah, and emotions aren't humanized and can't be outside of headquarters!" She argued back. "We've been ignoring the laws of psychology for quite a while now, okay?!"

Fear looked a little shocked to see her just snap like that.

Sadness let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, i'm-" She apologized.

"I know, you're worried!" He empathized. "I'm just not used to... talking to you!"

"Oh that's right, i don't-"

"You don't really speak to anyone but Joy!" He claimed. "This is literally the closest i've ever been to owning a team!"

"Ugh, don't say it like that..." Sadness grumbled.

"What?"

"You don't own a team." She explained. "It's not like we're your property."

"Hey, woah!" He exclaimed. "I didn't mean it like that! Leaders have a team and a team has a leader! It's a two-way system in my eyes! The same way we have Riley and Riley has emotions!"

"If only everyone could see it that way..."

"I think the others don't really think about it because they're comfortable with the way things are." He added.

"Well look where that got them!" Sadness continued. "Right now there's an entire revolution going on, and they want to make a new sense of Riley just to send a- message or something!" She rambled.

"Wait, WHAT?!"

Sadness caught a glimpse of a slightly glowing yellow figure in the distance.

"Hold on, that's-" She interrupted Fear's shock. "I see Joy!" Sadness turned to where she was. "JOY!! YOU'RE WAY TO DEEP INTO THE SEA!"

Soon enough, Fear also noticed her.

"I told you to leave, Sadness!" Joy spoke into the radio. "Go to do something more important!"

Sadness looked more closely, and pieced together a conclusion.

"Wait are you-" She gasped. "ARE YOU TRYING TO DROWN YOURSELF?!" 

"Everyone will be happier, okay?!" She pleaded. "You, the others, Riley, everyone will be-"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Sadness shrieked. "Please, if you could just listen for one second!"

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Joy stormed, before beginning to attempt to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

"I TOLD YOU SHE WAS UNSTABLE!" Sadness recalled.

"I'm sorry!" Fear apologized, as he hurriedly followed her down the cliff by a rough path.

Disgust had already brought together the new emotions to discuss what their next step would be, and as the 5 emotions, old and new, spoke, the clock was ticking.

“Basically, well- if Joy doesn’t show up in about 10 minutes, Anxiety will probably still be in that whole panic attack thing and she won’t be able to play when her minutes in the penalty box are over… and in short, we all must get her out of there or we’re absolutely done for.” She made it known.

”Only 10 minutes until the penalty is over?!” Envy protested, her arms waving around. “How do you expect us to solve this?!”

“CORRECTION!” Disgust rectified. “We have 5 minutes. It took me some time to bring you all here! Not counting that we literally have an advantage. In Riley’s eyes, the world is going slower.”

”WHAT?!” Everyone shouted in disbelief.

”Oh… well- i’m gonna go… prepare for the end!” Anger stammered and slowly started walking to the place where Joy had that machine which sent out the bad memories

”Nah-ah!” Disgust interrupted him. “I know that Fear’s ideas are getting to you.”

Anger stopped, and looked back, annoyed.

”You’re not going anywhere, emotions can’t quit!”

“Oh…” Envy began. “I wish i would have come up with that!…” She stopped to question for a moment, then asked. “Wait, who even thought of that?”

”Fear did, then Anger, who apparently didn’t hear why none can do that, tried to follow in his steps.”

Once again, no one listened to her. Because the 2 emotions started to become more aggressive.

“Do you have space for me?” Envy asked.

“Come up with your own ideas, Envy!” Anger scoffed.

”Oh, COME ON!” She stormed, hitting the sofa by her side, shaking Ennui, who was mindlessly scrolling through her phone. “Let me go with you!”

”Hey, i don’t have to do anything for you!” He denied, childishly crossing his arms.

”If you don’t let me, i’ll take the whole machine just for myself!” Envy threatened.

Disgust and Ennui rolled their eyes, while Embarrassment just hid under his hoodie. Disgust looked once again at the viewfinder, just to find a not very safe-assuring truth.

”SILENCE!” She shouted. “So… we just lost a whole 2 minutes… we have 3 now.”

Everyone began to frantically shout and run around, that would be, if Ennui cared. But to no one’s surprise, she continued scrolling.

“…I guess my work here is done!…” Disgust hesitantly said. She walked over to the console, a few meters away from it, just facing the tornado where Anxiety was in. Oh lord.

Sadness and Fear had already made their way down the cliff, the water barely reaching the dark gray rock they were standing in.

Fear trembled, yet, almost involuntarily, he shouted.

”Joy, listen to us!”

”I don’t want to!” She denied.

Sadness realized that she could easily jump into the water. She took a few steps back.

”Well, you’re going to either way!” She asserted, and before anyone could stop her, she quickly began to run, jumped off the rock and into the water.

“SADNESS!” Fear shrieked, as he watched the scene, horrified yet unwilling to join her.

Joy looked over her shoulder, to find her friend chasing her.

”What are you doing?!” She besought.

”Getting you out of here!”

”Stop it!” She pleaded. “Please, at least let me do THIS right!”

Sadness reached her arm out and grabbed Joy by her leg, stopping her from going any further.

She turned around, invisible tears in her eyes, merged together with the chilly water.

”My ability to drive is already fading away, my glow is dimming! I know that she doesn’t need me anymore, none of you do, you’ll be better off without me!” She implored.

“That’s not true!” Sadness assured her with a struggling voice, trying to swim upwards to the surface.

Joy looked at her surroundings, and with a swift kick, she escaped Sadness’s grasp and continued to swim to the bottom.

“Huh?!” Sadness yelled, disoriented.

She quickly realized where she had gone and followed her once again.

None of them spoke a word, both too focused on either escaping or catching one another. Sadness was getting increasingly worried, as the persecution grew more and more intense, with Joy getting faster. On the other hand, Joy was beginning to doubt whether this was the right decision, every moment spent pondering, teared her up even more. She could feel the air starting to drain from her, Joy looked around from side to side, realizing she was about to reach her, once so wished for, goal.

Just when things seemed to be over, Joy abruptly stopped, going from full speed to almost absolute immobility. 

Sadness failed to register it quickly, almost crashing into Joy. Her eyes enlarged from the shock, then squinted with concern.

Joy stared at the depths of the ocean for a long moment, then to her arms, and hesitantly turned to look at Sadness.

Before she could completely turn around, Sadness acted, clasped Joy from behind and swam up, this time, successfully.

As she was being dragged to the surface, Joy blankly focused on the darkness of the sea, feeling suffocated mentally and physically.

When they finally reached the top, Sadness gasped for air, and Joy choked on the water.

She reached for the land, and caught her breath.

”Why are you trying so hard?!” She cried.

”Because, we want you to try!” Sadness answered.

“What you’re doing is not a solution.” Fear remarked.

“It feels like a solution…”

”It’s not.” Sadness repeated. “You know it’s not.”

”I’m in pain, all the time!” Joy reiterated, and lowered her head, closing her eyes.

“Joy, we can’t possibly know what it’s like to be you, but please, give yourself a chance to be happy, to be better!” Fear offered.

She glanced over to the ocean, contemplating her choice.

In a panic, everyone was pulling at the twisted sense of self in some way or another, desperately trying to get it off. They had already figured out that if Anxiety was still on the console, the sense of self would not get any weaker. Most of them were pulling while they looked towards the root of the problem, that being Anxiety, while some were completely focused on putting all their strength into their arms. 

Disgust had somehow managed to get past the insanely fast winds, and was met with Anxiety, she looked terrified, holding the handle very tightly, and before Disgust could attempt to tackle her and take her off the console, she realized… was she flickering? She looked around the small place, and saw little flickers of her scattered across the console. She had discovered that Anxiety was actually pressing different buttons at such a speed that it created the illusion of her being in just one place, Disgust looked back at her, uncertainty and doubt in her eyes.

“I always thought doing what’s best for Riley made me special, i thought you all liked me because of it.” Joy confessed. “And when i thought other emotions could do that better than me, i…“ She tried searching for words, but couldn’t think of any.

”You felt insecure and made a mess of things?” Fear suggested.

”Yes.” Joy turned to face the two emotions.

”Then apologize and stop defining yourself on one thing!”

“It’s too late!” She lamented.

“It’s not, however it is hard, but we know you can do it!”

”You say you’re in pain and that it’s all so difficult all the time but… weren’t there moments where it felt like it was all worth it?” Sadness jumped in.

“I… i…” She turned again.

Staring at the desolate landscape reminded her of what it used to be; her once so loved home. With that, she reminisced every good moment she had spent there, right before it was taken from her arms in an instant, growing up and not being as needed anymore, like a childhood toy, overshadowed by other aspects in life that became more important, or at least, were said to be.

For what felt like hours, she finally came to the incomplete conclusion that…

“Want to try to be… better.” Joy decided.

The 2 others both watched, relieved.

After a quick moment of silence, she asked:

”What now?”

”Now we get to work.” He answered. “It’s not gonna be easy…”

They all slowly started to get up, water dripping from Sadness and Joy’s hair. When they were finally up, Fear, frightened, began walking away, but just as Sadness was going to follow him, she noticed that Joy walked up to her, fidgeting with her hands, with a low head, almost as if she was a kid who had been scolded. 

“…I know it’s probably too late to say this, but-“

”Apology accepted, Joy.” Sadness smiled, and soon enough, she smiled back.