It was a nice summer day and everyone was having a great time over at Mark's house. They were all in his backyard hanging out either in the pool or at the side with the food or playing games together. Everyone was there.

Mark and Amy and their friends, Ethan, Tyler, Katheryn and Pam, the Iplier egos and Sean and the Septic egos. Even Anti and Dark were there much to almost everyone's distaste. They were off in a corner, though, by themselves like a couple of emo teenagers refusing to be social out of spite. They were too stubborn and prideful to talk to the others. Well Anti was, anyways.

Chase and Henrik's kids were all messing around playing silly games together nearby. Kallie was trying to get her brother, Sammy, and their cousins, Olivia and Noah to set up a prank with her but she was having a hard time encouraging them. This was the only source of entertainment for Anti and he watched with a very small smirk on his face every now and then at the girl's mischievous personality. It nearly reminded him of himself.

Moving his eyes along the yard, Anti spotted Chase and Stacey. The two had fake smiles on their faces as they held each other laughing with the others as someone said a joke. Every once in a while, however, Stacey would glare at Chase and they would 'bicker' about something. They were pretending to be happy together but Anti knew the truth. Stacey hated her husband's choice in career and the two had been arguing and going off and on with each other for months now, keeping it all a secret from the kids.

'That's just bad parenting, lying like that and pretending everything's fine when it's clearly not' he thought to himself but then again he wasn't a parent so he couldn't judge.

Anti's eyes drifted again and landed over to Mark having an animated conversation with Wilford. Amy was next to him and they all looked happy talking together. Anti could feel Dark bristling next to him. It was obvious he hated it when the other egos got along with Mark so well. Anti knew for a while that Dark's primary objective in life was to kill Mark but if he really wanted to end his life, couldn't he just do that whenever he wanted, really? He had so much power. What was stopping him?

He kept glancing around and he saw Henrik over with his wife smiling and laughing with a group of Ipliers including Dr. Iplier. Dr. Iplier had the running joke of 'You're dying' and Anti had to suppress a snort every time when Henrik looked like he wanted to roll his eyes at his friend.

Anti's eyes wandered around again and met Marvin's. The glitch narrowed his eyes at the magician but the other wouldn't look away. Anti may have nearly killed him months ago if Jackie hadn't been there to save him but now that Anti was corporeal, the magician seemed to strike a hint of fear in him since his magic could effect him now. Anti swallowed and was the first to look away, nonchalantly acting as if he lost interest. He could practically FEEL Marvin's smirk from the corner of his eyes but he ignored it.

He was then suddenly locked into a strange stare-down with Jameson and Jackie. Anti's snarl came back when he saw them but they didn't seem effected. They merely smiled and waved at him. They waved at him! How dare they!? Jameson was always super nice and could never truly hate anyone so he'd give him that but JACKIE!? Jackie may be the good guy but he hated Anti! Why was he smiling at him!?

Little did Anti know, Jackie had seen Anti looking at the kids with that rare 'gentle' smile. Plus since Anti had been corporeal, he seemed to stop messing with them as much. Well . . . . in a life-threatening way, that is.

Plus Sean had encouraged them all to try and give Anti a second chance since then, not that Anti knew that, and Jackie and Jameson were among the two that were willing to give that chance.

Chase was weary about it but he didn't have anything to add on the matter. He was really indifferent. Anti had caused him a lot of pain and grief before much like the others, even putting his kids in danger sometimes and that was a little hard to forgive. Perhaps that was partly why Stacey and him were 'bickering' today? They had no idea Anti was going to be there, after all. Anti felt that strange feeling in his chest again that he hated so much. He couldn't place it but it hurt and he felt a lump form in his throat sometimes.

But to Anti's defense, he never hurt the kids. If he had, he'd actually feel guilty now that he was corporeal. He never felt any emotions before getting a physical form except for hatred and an irrational sick glee. He was a sadist that fed off of other people's pain and suffering. But now he barely ever even thought of killing anyone, strangely enough. This pissed Dark off, at first but after some time, Anti seemed to think that Dark was okay with it. The real Dark was, but the thing inside of him loathed it.

Anti snarled again at Jackie and Jameson who once again looked unaffected. Jackie even had the nerve stick his tongue out at him!

"If you keep that up, your face will freeze that way" Dark found amusement in Anti's anger.

He glitched and huffed at him, "This is stupid." he tore away his eyes from the other two septic egos, "This whole thing is dumb. Why'd ̸W̵E̷ have to come to this?"

Dark shrugged, "I don't know. Wil dragged me along, otherwise I wouldn't have. And you're here because of me. Get over it, glitch bitch"

Anti flinched at the name. Dark knew he hated it and he regretted it slightly immediately afterwards but he couldn't take it back. 

Anti breathed in deeply and breathed out a big sigh, choosing to look back over at the kids to see what they were up to again. Kallie, it seemed, had finally coaxed the others to join her in a prank and they were about to douse Google and Bing with water. The two androids were charging in the sun chilling out completely unaware of their surroundings for once as the four kids grabbed the water guns Chase brought out for them. Anti smiled as they were just about to put their plan into action.

"Hey Anti" Dark's voice seemed lower suddenly and he knew what that meant. Nothing good. 

Anti sighed, "What?"

"I have an idea but I need you to do something for me."

"Of course you do. What do you want, ̶d̵i̵c̷k̶?̸"̴

Anti could see Dark's death glare from his peripheral vision and swallowed thickly.

"I have a plan to hurt Mark. There are too many people around today to kill or hurt him himself. . . . but there IS something we could do to hurt him  . . emotionally. What do you say?"

"Depends on what it is. Can't we just fuck around today and relax? I'm not in the mood to really do anything, especially with everyone here that can actually kill me now"

"Man, you really are just a little glitch bitch now, aren't you?"

Anti growled at him, "Really? You're gonna try and bait me now? What the fuck you want? Just s̸p̵i̵t̸ ̷i̷t̵ ̵o̵u̶t̶!̶"̶

"The kids are annoying. Why don't you shut them up permanently?"

Anti froze, "W-wait. . . .w̷h̸a̵t̶?̵"̴

"Did you not hear me? Do I need to repeat myself?"

"Hold on a second. . . you want me to . . KILL . . . .̸t̸h̵e̵ ̸k̶i̷d̴s̸?̵ Dark . . .I . . ..I don't think I can do that"

"And why not? You've killed before, haven't you?"

"Not fooking kids, Dark! That's different!"

"How so?"

"They've done nothing wrong! Absolutely nothing! They're . . .. they're just kids!"

"They're annoying and screechy like nails on a fucking chalkboard.  Killing them or at least hurting them will hurt Mark. Mark loves kids. I want to see him hurt."

Anti couldn't believe what he was hearing. He looked over at the kids who had failed their mission in pranking the androids, taking to running away playfully giggling and laughing as Bing now had the squirt gun spraying them from afar as they ran.

Anti shook his head, "No. Sorry Dark, but I'm not doing it. I can't do that. N̴o̵ ̵w̷a̴y̴.̸ Their my kin. My nieces and nephews."

"Too bad Dr. Iplier's kids aren't here. I'd kill them myself."

"Do you even fooking hear yourself?!" Anti stood up suddenly backing away from him, "The hell's w̸r̶o̶n̶g̵ with you?!"

Dark stood up as well, noticing that they were starting to gain attention. Mark and Sean had noticed their little argument and were glancing over at them suspiciously. 

Dark merely glared over at Mark and gripped Anti's arm, "Come with me." he pulled Anti away with him to the side of the house out of view from everyone. Once they were out of sight, Anti started to talk.

"Look, Dark, I'm sorry. I know you want to jab at Mark but- O̵O̸F̶!̴"̵ Dark suddenly slammed his fist into Anti's stomach, making him drop to the ground holding himself.

"You dare to fucking defy me you piece of filth!" Dark kicked him in his side, making Anti grunt out again and fall laying on his stomach, "When I give you an order, I expect you to follow through with it! That is the deal we had, remember!?"

Anti weakly held onto his stomach with one hand and protected his head with the other in case Dark went to kick there, too.

"I'm not gonna kill a child, Dark. Actually I'm not gonna kill anyone for you. I'm not your f̵o̸o̴k̷i̴n̷g̵ ̶d̸o̷g̷,̶ ̴y̵o̵u̸ ̴s̴m̸u̵g̷ ̷b̴a̵s̷t̷a̴r̵d̷!̵"̴

Dark suddenly stomped foot onto Anti's throat. It was just a scar now but it was sensitive. Not to mention Dark was putting nearly his whole weight on his windpipe! Anti choked under Dark's shoe until he turned blue then the man finally let up with a smirk letting Anti breathe.

"Fine. . . ." Dark grinned, "You won't do as I say. . . .I'll just have to do it myself."

Anti sat up, "̸I̴ ̶ w̸o̷n̶'̸t̸  ̸f̶o̷o̷k̸i̸n̴g̵  ̴l̴e̷t̶ ̶ y̸o̵u̵"̴

"You won't be here to stop me"

Before Anti could even comprehend what he meant, Dark waved a hand over him and fast than he could blink, Anti was in a house. But not just any house.

The Septic house. . . .In Brighton.

"No" Anti picked himself up and even though he was exhausted, he wasn't going to just let Dark win and hurt those kids. He started glitching but he soon realized that Dark was smarter than he thought. After teleporting Anti across the world, Dark managed to short-circuit all of the electronics on him and the Septics so Anti wouldn't have a connection to get there he's used before. Anti's best power arguable is the ability to teleport through his connections with technology. 

However, it's not the only way he can teleport. To get through such a distance as this without tech, Anti would have to glitch through the void. And even then after he managed to get back to the party in time, he wouldn't have the strength to fight Dark. 

But he had to try.

Meanwhile through Marvin's eyes, he saw Dark coming out of the side of the house alone but thought nothing of it, thinking Anti just went to the bathroom or something. Mark and Sean seemed to have waved off their weird behavior as just bickering and were no longer paying attention.

Marvin was going back to converse with Host when something suddenly happened. There was a strange low sound and the air changed. The sun was suddenly blocked by some clouds but that's not what got people's attention. 

Dark was suddenly clutching his head by the pool. He held a pained expression on his face and his body vibrated like mad as if trying to contain the power inside of him. To anyone watching, it'd look like Dark was having a sort of attack with the auras locked inside of him fighting and lashing out. It was always dangerous when this happened and people would get out of range from him to avoid getting hurt or killed by the lashing auras within him.

But everyone stared in horror and shouted. The kids were too close but they couldn't get away. Dark looked like he was going to walk inside when he stopped in front of the pool next to the kids. The kid's only way away from him was into the pool and they were too young to understand what was happening. Although they were afraid.

Chase screamed, "KALLIE! SAMMY, NO!!"

"KIDS!" Henrik yelled as well, "INTO THE POOL! JUMP!"

But they were too scared. Dark's power was overflowing and his power was about to lash out to strike. He gave a final cold smile as he let go, engulfing the area in darkness first and letting the red aura snap out like a molten lightning strike.

Everyone was silent.

Not a move was made.

The sound of static filled the air.

The kids were crying in fear and shaking as Anti stood over them arms outstretched with blood all over him, his shirt burned off of his back and hanging loosely on him. 

He had made it in the nick of time.

Anti let out a shaky breathe and shuddered as he fell to his knees in front of the kids. Kallie was sobbing, "Un-uncle Anti?"

"He-hey kids. . . .y-you guys okay? Hey don't cr-c̷r̵y̷. Ev-everything's okay now. You're all so-so b̴r̵a̶v̵e̴.̸"̷ he tried his best to crack a smile but it didn't really help. Kallie and Olivia hugged into Anti for comfort while Sammy and Noah hugged their sisters.

What the kids didn't see was Anti's back completely marred and burnt, bleeding profusely. 

Snapped out of the shock of everything, Henrik was the first to rush over, "Kids!" he skidded over to them and checked them over quickly only to realize they were fine, tearing them off of Anti. He then turned to gaze to the glitch who looked like hell warmed over. The first thing that came to mind was to help him.

Chase ran over as well to check the kids but his worry then settled on Anti as well. 

"Chase, get zhe kids inside! Dr. Iplier! I'm gonna need a hand over here! Marvin! Get over here!"

Anti could barely hear anything else as he started to black out but the last thing he saw was Wilford over by Dark trying to 'comfort' him. The bastard was calculating and thought ahead but the last thing he saw was Dark staring at him. He looked different now all of a sudden. Almost worried.

To anyone else, it looked as if Anti had just stepped in. They didn't know Dark had teleported him to across the ocean. They didn't know that it was all Dark's plan to kill the children. They didn't know Anti risked his very life to save those kids knowing he could have died.

All they saw was a coincidence and a decision made on a whim that was miscalculated.

"Holy fook" Sean broke the silence as soon as Anti was finished telling his end with snippets from Marvin through in between for the parts he wasn't there for.

Chase looked like he'd nearly cry, "Why the FUCK did you keep that secret all of this time, Anti? Why in the HELL would you protect that bastard? After what he tried to do?"

Anti just shrugged, "I don't know. Something seemed off, I guess. After the incident, Dark just looked like a different person. I can't really explain it. ̷I̵ ̵d̷o̴n̷'̸t̷ ̴k̵n̷o̷w̷"̵

"It wasn't just a coincidence" Chase let out a shaky breathe and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to stop tears. When he failed, he just stared at Anti before tugging him forcefully over to him for a hug, making the chair he was in made a harsh squeak as it was moved. 

Anti was about to push him away when he whispered to him, "You saved my kids, Anti. You fucking saved their lives. . ." he rocked him back and forth, "Thank you. . .. thank you so much, Anti" he kissed his cheek affectionately still crying, "What happened that night we got drunk makes a lot more sense now. You told me everything then, didn't you? But I must have forgotten it being too drunk . .  I'm so sorry. . . .I'm sorry I thought it was just a coincidence. I . . .I should have thought better of you"

Anti finally pulled away, "No, you shouldn't have. If you'll remember what I did to you not that long afterwards."

Henrik suddenly pulled him into a hug from behind. Chase, he was expecting, but Henrik? The man wasn't THAT big on physical affection so today was very weird for Anti to be experiencing.

"Does not matter. Chase is alive. And more importantly, so are Kallie and Sammy and Noah. And thanks to you I got to spend more time with Olivia than I would have if you hadn't been there to save them. Thank you, Anti"

Anti was getting uncomfortable with all the hugging and affection and crying but he found he couldn't pull himself away. He just let them hold him. He looked over at Sean who was smiling at him as well. Jackie looked damn proud and Jameson . . .well Jameson ALWAYS looked happy. Marvin had a new look on his face but it wasn't negative. He hadn't been expecting everything Anti said but as he looked through his mind as he told the story, he saw it all to be true.

The only mystery was on Dark's part.

"Why IS Dark always so keen on trying to kill or hurt Mark?" Marvin brought up, "Why so desperate that he'd want to kill the kids just to hurt him? Seems over-excessive if you ask me"

Sean shrugged, "I don't know. Don't know much about Dark except that he's pretty much the opposite of Mark. Doesn't surprise me, actually, that he'd stoop that low"

Anti kept quiet as Chase and Henrik let him go but something still bugged him after so long. The look in Dark's eyes before he passed out just haunted him. He had almost seemed apologetic. But that must have been the blood loss he had been experiencing. It had to be.

"Uh excuse me?"

Everyone turned suddenly to the new voice in the room.

Wilford stood before them all in the kitchen looking a tad insulted, "I understand where all this animosity is coming from but I'd appreciate it if you cut old Darkipoo some slack. It's not all his fault"

Everyone just stared at him still in shock and Wilford cleared his throat as to jolt them out of his sudden appearance.

"Anyways I know my friend has pissed you all off in some way or another but I could really use your guy's help right about now! Eh? What do you say!?"