Marvin's sleep spell didn't last long. It was only a few minutes later when he woke up and screamed bloody fucking murder. All he saw was darkness when his eyes were closed an it scared him like his worst nightmare. It was so suddenly that he spurned into a panic attack again but THAT didn't last long either.

Once he was back home under the lights in the living room, he became aware of his surroundings, albeit still curled tightly around himself.

He grit his teeth and just stared ahead of him, refusing to look anywhere else. Part of him was still trying to calm down and another was that he was too embarrassed to look at anyone.

He snarled a little and wrinkled his brow at the sound of Henrik's voice trying to get his attention. Why was he there? . . . . .After so long.

"Anti? Anti, my friend, please look at me. I want to check you, little brat." Henrik even chuckled a little at the pet name but Anti still didn't move, making the doctor sigh.

"Is he okay?" Sean asked, "Why's he just . . . . lying there?"

"Well I wonder why" Jackie growled at him, "This is all your fault, you traumatized him and now he's got PTSD or some shit!"

"Wrong but not too far off" Henrik corrected him, "He's just being his bratty self at the moment. He's fine now, he's just pouting. Think about it. Had to be embarrassing for him for us to see him in that way"

Marvin hummed, "Mr. Tough guy's walls were just smashed in and now he's trying to build them back up, huh? Anti, come on, man." he tried addressing him, "We don't see you any differently. It's okay to be afraid sometimes. We're all afraid of something"

Anti still gave no reaction for them, glaring in the distance at a wall.

JJ had been watching in concern, his observations ever so on point. He knew Henrik and Anti had always been close since he had to continuously help with his neck wound before. Since Anti possessed him, though, they had been off and on 'friends'. It seemed though that Schneep really was worried about Anti. He knew something about the void and felt pity for the glitch. 

Jameson noticed Anti's posture curled up. He seemed fed up but he couldn't run away or else they'd just follow him and bombard him with questions or make him uncomfortable, not that he wasn't already. Poor Anti just looked fed up with the whole situation but he didn't know what to do.

So Jameson being the ever so understanding one, walked over to Anti on the floor and laid down beside him in front of his face so he HAD to look at him. Anti growled softly but still glared daggers straight ahead, trying not to look JJ in the eyes. But the mute just smiled at him and laid next to him. He didn't try to start a conversation or touch him. He just laid there.

The others watched the interaction quietly but eventually Anti's muscles started to relax a little and his snarl faded away to turn his expression neutral. 

After a while with the others talking among themselves, JJ secretly signed to him, 'Are you feeling better?'

Anti swallowed but knew he could trust JJ at least a little and he mouthed, 'I'm fine.'

JJ just smiled, 'Good. Do you want to talk about it? What frightened you?'

The glitch just shook his head a little and Jameson nodded, 'Fair enough. Whenever you're ready to talk about it, we're here for you'

Anti rolled his eyes but he knew that was true no matter how much he didn't want to admit it. At least for Jameson, it was true. He was still unsure about the others.

He could hear them even if they just talked under their breathes to each other. They thought he couldn't hear them.

"What are we gonna do?" Sean asked, "You saw how he reacted to Dark. That prick must have triggered something in him or something. How did he even know!?"

"You may be right" Henrik agreed, "But Dark probably didn't even know about it at all. Dark was made from the void itself and thus has qualities transferred from the void to himself. In the void, for instance, you hear a strong high-pitch noise. That ringing combined with it being night out, must have done it"

"How long do you think it'll last?" Jackie asked him.

The doctor shrugged, "Depends solely on Anti. Could take days. Could take weeks, months or even years. You never know"

"Fuck" Sean cursed at himself, "How long did you say he was in there for then, Marv?"

"About eight hours"

"Probably felt like weeks" Henrik adjusted his glasses with a sigh, "The void has a tendency to bend beyond normal rules of time and space. You should have never-"

"I know Schneep!" Sean suddenly shouted at him, "I fooking know! I fooked up! I'm sorry! I'm an idiot. . . ." he then started to sniffle a little, his emotions being stirred up, "I feel so fucking bad, you guys have no idea. I-"

Suddenly his phone went off and he pulled it out with a soft sigh, "It's Evelien. . . .I should get home." he coughed a little awkwardly and wiped away a stray tear, "Anti?"

He still made no reaction but he listened and Sean knew it, "I really am sorry. I promise no matter what happens, I'll always hear you out in the future. I should have known better than to take Dark's side over yours. I'm so sorry, man" 

Quietly saying good-bye to the others, he left with his head down, "I'll be back in the morning. Call me if something happens, alright?"

About ten minutes passed by of Henrik still trying and failing to get his attention when the doorbell rang. Marvin went to answer it and called out to Jackie, "It's the delivery! You got money, asshole? You ordered it"

Jackie ran for the door. By this time, Jameson had gotten up upon hearing the bell and went to fetch the plates and silverware, leaving Henrik and Anti alone.

This gave the doctor the chance to study him more closely and he noticed Anti stifle a yawn, "You're tired. Didn't sleep last night?"

Anti only suddenly bounded up and glitched up to his room, away from all of them. With only Henrik in the room, he was less likely to run after him alone.

The doctor groaned lightly but thought to himself, 'That vas a clear no then. Perhaps later before I leave, I could give him some medication to help him sleep. He won't like it but it'll help.'

Anti meanwhile stood in the middle of his room, the light on and bright. He just stood there and crossed his arms, upset with himself. He had done it again. He made himself look weak and childish in front of them.

How pathetic! He just panicked in front of Dark and everyone, screamed when he woke up and the only thing he could think of to do was to lay on the ground and pretend they weren't there, ignoring their existence. 

Henrik was right, he had acted like a child. A brat.

'Why can't I help myself?' he thought, 'Why can't I just suck it up? It's just the dark. I've been in it before the void so why does it bother me so much now!? It's so stupid! And now Dark think me even more weak than before'

He went to plop on his bed but immediately he felt his eyes drooping. He tried to keep his eyes open but he was failing.

He tried telling himself it wasn't that big of a deal but every time his eyes closed, he had to shoot them back open, his heart racing.

'No, I can't sleep!' Anti bit his lip to try and help himself stay awake, 'If I sleep then the darkness will be there and . . .  what if I'm still in the void?'

The thought crossed his mind so subtly but it was there, 'What if this is all just one big illusion and if I go to sleep, the illusion breaks!? I don't want to go back! I can't!.'

Anti slapped himself and sat up, gripping his hair in his hands and whining to himself loudly, "Damn it all! Fook my life!"

-8888888888888888888888888888888888-

Later that night, Henrik had decided to stay the night just in case Anti had another panic attack. He still had his small office in the house in the basement with his emergency medications for all of them so he went to look for one of his good sedatives. He had a plate of lasagna with him and carefully dripped some sedative onto the pasta, 'Hopefully he's hungry'.

He knew his methods were a bit crude but he worried about his ego brethren. Not like Chase would have but it was close enough. If Chase was there, he would have coddled all of them and have done ANYTHING to make them all feel better even at his own expense.

It was one of the reasons he left. He was giving too much of himself to others. Of course that wasn't the only reason but it was one of them.

'We could really use your help right now, Brody' Henrik thought to himself, 'If only we knew where you were'

Schneep walked up to Anti's room to see the glitch pacing, "Anti?"

He stopped and looked up at the doctor and the two just stared at one another for a few moments before Anti responded.

"Why are you here?"

"I brought you dinner. Thought you'd be hungr-"

"̸N̶o̸.̷"̵ ̴he growled out, "Why did you come here back to the house?"

The doctor sighed and set the food on Anti's dresser, "I vas worried about you. Jackie told me today vhat had happened. I understood your pain and trauma. I just vant to help, my friend"

"̷F̶r̴i̵e̵n̶d̶"̴ Anti smiled mockingly and snarled again, "Funny. The last time we saw each other you had a different name for me"

"That vas a long time ago, Anti. I vas angry at the time. A lot had happened so suddenly. . . ."

Anti was quiet but stood on his guard, looking back and forth subtly at the lasagna.

Henrik caught the movement, "I'll go now. If you need my assistance, I'll be staying the night tonight." he then pulled out a small card from his pocket, "And zhis is my card with my number on it. You can call me anytime if you want to talk. It helps to talk about these things, Anti. Trust me."

Without another word, he left, leaving Anti to his own devices.

Henrik smiled to himself on the other side of the door when he could hear Anti scarfing down the food, 'He'll be out in minutes. Zhis is for your own good Anti. It'll help you get over the trauma quicker so you don't have to be afraid of sleeping. If you go without sleep for too long, you can seriously damage your body'

But the good doctor sighed, 'He won't be happy. . . . but he'll feel better once he gets some rest'

-88888888888888888888888888888888888-

Meanwhile, Dark wasn't having a good time. 

He was trying to focus but he just couldn't.

He couldn't stop thinking about Anti.

About what he had just gone through. For some reason, Dark felt. . . . .bad. And he didn't know why! It wasn't HIS fault . . .right?

But he knew that was a lie. If he hadn't tricked Anti into trying to obliterate Mark's computer then they wouldn't have had a reason to punish him so harshly.

He felt his shell cracking.

"Guh!" a red aura peeked out from him and another version of himself screamed in pain. He breathed heavily, gripping onto his desk for support.

"God damn emotions!" he shouted to himself, "Fuck you, Anti! Fuck!"

A blue aura snapped out and his eyes turned black as he tried to calm himself. It took a few minutes, but finally, he was able to open his eyes again and his usual calm demeanor was present again.

'Focus' he said to himself, 'Don't worry yourself over the likes of him. He doesn't mean anything to you anymore. Just a nuisance in the way of the big picture. Same as Mark . . .'

He thought about the happy and goofy man that had created him and a snarl crawled its way on Dark's face.

'Why is he always so damn happy? He's never cared about any of his egos or their suffering. Why does he always have to be so fucking happy!?'

His shell tried to break again but he reeled it in, taking deep breathes.

'I swear. . . .one day I'll end him. I'll make him suffer. I'll see the pain in his eyes one day and relish in his sorrow. Then that'll be it. Then I'll kill him and take his place and his fans won't even be able to tell the difference!'

Dark tapped his fingers lightly on his desk, his eyes lingering once in a while to the bottom drawer, 'Then I'll be the one to finally feel happiness for a change. I'll finally be able to FEEL'

He shut his eyes and forced himself to continue his breathing exercises so he didn't lose control again, 'Focus.'

-888888888888888888888888888888888-

Anti was dreaming and he knew he was but it wasn't a good dream.

He couldn't remember what happened but he knew he fell asleep. What had caused him to fall asleep? He was doing just fine before Henrik left!

He was in darkness again. Even in his nightmares, there was only darkness.

But instead of ringing in his ears, he could hear loud whispers. Laughing at him and talking about him as if behind his back secretively.

"He's so stupid. Worthless"

"So pathetic."

"He doesn't belong around us. He just gets in the way"

"Why can't he just see we don't care about him?!"

"He was a monster when he was created and he'll always BE a monster!"

"Freak!"

Anti felt a lump in his throat, feeling the need to cry but he couldn't. He could hear all of their voices so clearly, they screamed in his head. No matter if he cupped his hands over his ears, it didn't matter.

He gasped as he woke up in the middle of the night. He had fallen to the floor before he could get to the bed to drop and apparently in his sedated state, the lights had faded off having been burning from his energy and will. 

It was dark in the room.

Without thinking, he just shouted and cried out in fear, unable to think clearly in the pitch black room. He right! He had to be! He had been in an illusion the whole time! He was still stuck in the void! He had to be!

He didn't hear the door being swung open and he didn't notice someone running towards him even though his eyes were open. He couldn't close his eyes. He couldn't! It was dark!

Someone, however, turned on the light and suddenly Anti stopped screaming.

Everything was quite as Jackie ran up to him and gently helped him off the floor. Marvin had heard the screaming and came as well as JJ and Henrik came up last from the basement.

Jackie helped Anti sit on his bed, the glitch mindlessly letting the hero touch and help him.

Henrik sighed to himself, "I vas afraid of this. I thought the sedative would help but. . .  it didn't. Might have made things worse"

"You drugged him!?" Jackie suddenly turned to the doctor in anger, "Are you kidding me!? Henrik, you KNOW he's afraid of the dark right now and you forcibly made him sleep in the dark!? Fuck, man, I brought you here to HELP him, not make things worse!"

"I thought I vas helping!" the doctor shouted back at him, "He needed sleep! It vas obvious he didn't sleep the night before! Zhe body can only go for so long without rest, Jackie! I vas doing my best to help!"

"Well look where that got you! He's still trembling! He-"

"Get out"

The two stopped arguing to hear Anti whisper the words.

Marvin stepped in, "Anti, you alri-"

"̴I̴ ̸S̸A̴I̵D̴ ̷G̶E̶T̵ ̷O̷U̴T̸!̶!̶!̵!̵!̸"̸ the glitch practically and caused all the lights in the house to flicker on and off. Unfortunately, this caused Anti to panic again a bit more and fell to the bed, eyes open, hugging himself tightly, "Get out, get out, get out!!" he rocked himself, just wanting to be alone. He just needed to be alone. No one else. No talking about him. No yelling. None of their fucking 'comfort'. None of it!

Jackie swallowed but sighed to himself, "Alright."

"Vhat!? Vhat about-"

"Not now, Henrik. Leave him be. We'll talk about it in the morning" Jackie led them all out of the room and shut Anti's door behind him.

Henrik gripped his hair and growled to himself, "I apologize, Jackie. I should have told you all before I acted on it. I vas only trying to help him. I don't know how else to do so. I'm not a shrink."

"I know" Jackie coughed, "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have yelled at you. I was just worried about Anti. He's like a kid right now in this state and well . . . . . I don't know how to help him, either"

It was already going on three in the morning but they decided they couldn't go back to sleep, either. They all went into the living room together, but didn't say anything, all lost in thought.

"Should we call Sean and tell him?" Marvin asked.

"In the morning." Jackie crossed his arms in thought, "I wish there was just a way we could help Anti. I'd hate for him to have to go through this every night. You're right, Schneep. He DOES need to sleep but . . ."

"He was having nightmares" Marvin deduced, "It's what caused him to panic more than what he would have, I think. His mind was playing tricks on him, probably courtesy of the drug."

Henrik held his head in his hands.

"But maybe we could try something different later?" the magician suggested.

"What do you think?" Jackie asked, "The way Anti reacted, I don't think he's willing to go to bed any time soon"

"Well I have two ideas" he said, "We could either try a potion that would give him a dreamless sleep OR I could try hypnotism. But with the way he reacted with a drug, he might not do the best with a potion. I'm not sure"

They decided on hypnotism but Jameson wasn't sure that would work either. He kept quiet but thought about the options in his head. You have to be completely willing to participate in hypnotism, even with Marvin's skills and Anti was ANYTHING but willing to do anything with them. Especially at the moment.

The only thing Jameson could think of was something of a long-shot but it was better than forcing the glitch into anything. Anti didn't need that right now. He needed care. He needed to feel loved and able to trust those around him.

And there was only way that could happen.