Sometime Before the Fire

Anti didn't want to keep doing this. But if he didn't try then there would be a cost to pay. For him.

After trying to strangle Henrik, Jackie showed up to save him. The hero was about to attack Anti when he just disappeared out of thin air.

His 'master' had teleported him back to his apartment. Anti was nervous but refused to show him that.

"You failed again"

"Well if you wouldn't keep ripping he away like a fooking ragdoll then maybe I'd get the chance!"

"You had your chance!" he shouted. Anti flinched at his anger in habit.

"Look at you. So disappointing." he rolled his eyes, "And yet you DID throw them off their game, I'll give you that. The TV I gave you has aided you in sneaking up on them."

Anti almost felt relieved but the look on his 'friend's' face was anything but praising.

"And YET . . . You've failed in killing ANY of them with every chance you got and now they'll be sticking together! They'll be watching for you now!"

Anti tried snuffing it, "Whatever. I'm sure there's loads of other opportunities"

"Do you even WANT to kill them, Anti?" Anti knew that tone of voice. . . .  he hated that tone.

"Y-yes-"

"Because I don't think you do" he came so close and gripped his throat, his sharp nails digging into his scar, "You better make up your mind . . . or else you're no use to me. I can just as easily find someone else"

Anti gulped, "I. . .  I want to kill them. I do"

He tilted his head, "Hm? You do?"

Anti nodded in his grasp, "Yes, sir. I do. I won't fail next time, I promise"

"Good" he let him go, letting Anti rub his neck to soothe the skin, "Because now since you've alerted them all, we have to go on a roundabout way in attack."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know anything about their children?"

Back to the Present

"What do you mean he's gone!?" Chase yelled at them, "You were right there with him!"

"I don't know, Chase!" Jackie defended himself, "There was a man that just appeared there out of nowhere and they vanished!"

"It must have been the person who tried to kill Anti. Maybe he started the fire to try and destroy any evidence" Marvin suggested.

"Well that tis obvious now!" Henrik groaned, "But why did he try and kill Anti!? Who is he!?"

"We don't know" Jackie shook his head, "He was wearing a cloak and some sort of black mask."

"Damn" Chase cursed, "And you're saying they just vanished out of thin air? They didn't jump out the window?"

Marvin shook his head, "No. It was magic. He teleported."

Jackie couldn't argue with that "And he called Anti 'puppet'. I'm not sure what that means but . . . it seems that when Anti was attacking us, he wasn't alone. This mystery person was pulling the strings"

"But how do we know this guy started the fire and hurt Anti?" Chase asked.

'Well I doubt Anti cracked his skull on purpose' Jameson joined in.

"He iz right" Henrik agreed, "By what I saw examining him, there's no way he could have done that to himself."

"There was no way for a fire to start on its own, either" Jackie intercepted, "Nothing to plug it and nothing was cooking. This guy wanted Anti gone. Why I don't know but now for some reason, he wanted him back"

"Why? It's not like he'd be able to tell him anything"

Jackie sighed, "If this guy has been helping Anti in killing us then he wants us dead, too. Which means he might be using Anti now as bait"

"But . . . but we can't just sit back and do nothing. We have to help Anti!" Henrik looked at them all but none of them knew quite what to do.

Chase sighed, "We don't even know where they went, Hen. Sorry."

"I should have acted faster" Jackie berated himself, "It's my fault."

Jameson shook his head, 'You couldn't save him, Jackie. It's no one's fault'

'If I hadn't followed' Marvin sighed, 'Jackie wouldn't have left his side. Then that bastard wouldn't have had an opening'

One moment Anti was in his apartment in front of his nightmare, the next, they were somewhere else! Anti looked around and tried to escaped the man's grasp but his grip was tight.

He stared at him strangely and grinned, "Welcome home, glitch bitch. You certainly are hard to get rid of, aren't you?"

Anti couldn't speak. He was too scared to. Who was this man?!

"Oh yes" Anti felt something being taken from him and the man's eyes glowed behind his black and gold mask but it only lasted a moment. The man seemed to have noticed his stark fear.

"Oh but don't look so scared. I'm not going to hurt you. No, no. I need you, sweetheart" he pet his cheek lightly with the back of his hand, stunning Anti out of his daze, causing him to try and pull back.

"Wh-who are you?"

"Aw . . . " he mock-pouted, "I knew you had amnesia but you don't even remember me? We'll just have to fix that, won't we? Oh and you poor thing. These stitches" he lightly grazed his long nails over his head and Anti wanted to bolt away.

The man placed his hand over the wound, "Shhh" 

Anti felt a weird feeling fall over him and his head tingled strangely but when the man pulled away. . . .he felt fine.

"There we go. All better. Perhaps that'll help you remember more, as well" he slowly let go of Anti's wrist and revealed the stitches in his hand.

Anti lifted his own hand to feel his head but there was nothing there anymore! He healed him!

"H-how did you do that?"

"Take a guess . . . magic!" he chuckled lightly, "Now then . . . are you going to be a good puppet for your master? I really did miss you so much"

Anti could feel the literal evil coming off this man, though. He just knew he couldn't trust him. But he wanted information.

"Um. . . . . Thank you?"

That seemed to please him and he smiled, "Good boy. We have a lot to discuss, you know. It saddens me that you were in that fire and I couldn't help. I wish I had been there"

"B-but if you didn't start the fire. . . then who did?"

"Oh puppet" the man walked them over to a couple of chairs in what seemed to be a living room. The area was nice and looked to be almost like a mansion. An abandoned mansion.

"They've really gotten their claws in you, don't they?"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Well don't you find it odd that woke up to be in Henrik's care? That Jackie just so happened to be at the fire, too but didn't save you?"

Anti thought about it but he didn't trust this man, "They wouldn't hurt me on purpose. They've been helping me"

"They DID that to you so they could remold you into the weapon THEY want! Don't be stupid!"

Anti flinched and glitched out of instinct, "You're lying" he was brave though, "You've been in my nightmares. You're the one trying to control me! Why? What do you want from me!?" he jumped out of his chair in defiance.

"Making friends with the enemy." he went on, "I can forgive that. At least you've probably learned a lot more about them. We can use that knowledge to our advantage."

"I won't help you. They're my family!"

"THEY ARE NOTHING!!" Anti fell back a bit at his outburst but the man rolled his eyes and calmed again, shaking his head.

"They've really damaged you" he snarled through the mask and dragged out a sigh, "I see I have a few corrections to make before our plans can commence once more."

In an instant they were somewhere else. A dungeon-like place.

"Wh-" Anti was stunned again until the man shoved him against the wall and chains suddenly clasped around his wrists.

"Maybe a few days down here will remind you what I've done for you. Your memories will return and when they do, you'll remember everything those bastards did to us. They deserve our wrath and more."

The man chuckled and took off his mask, leaving Anti frozen.

"Remember that" he walked up out of the basement to taunt Anti, slowly shutting the door behind him as he removed the cloak.

Anti may not remember him yet. . . .  but at least now he knew what he was.

But he couldn't dwell on that right now. He needed to find a way out now that he was left alone. He didn't care what he said, he'd go back to his family in a heartbeat. He'd never join him!

"Do you think it's time we told Sean?" Jackie asked.

Chase growled in distaste, "Hell no. We haven't spoken to him in years and he hasn't bothered with us since Anti first showed himself. If he wants to pretend as if we don't exist then fine! We don't need him."

"Not like he'd help us either" Henrik offered, "Not after vhat Anti did to him."

"What about Dark? Maybe he could help? Can't he teleport?" Chase brought up but Jackie argued this time.

"Hell no. You can't trust that guy for anything."

"Well what exactly are we supposed to do then?!" Chase shouted, "I can't just wait and see what happens! And who exactly could this asshole BE anyways!? Do we have any leads!?"

'Could be Dark' Jameson signed.

"No, his eyes were green and his voice was different. Definitely not an Iplier ego or anyone we know" Jackie argued.

"Well that pretty much rules out all our guesses, doesn't it?" Henrik crossed his arms, "Marv? You are pretty quiet, my friend. Any ideas?"

They all turned to the magician but he just shook his head, "Nope. None."

But he lied. Now that he saw the man, he knew exactly who he was. All he could say was that they were all screwed if they couldn't get Anti back.

But what could they do? Not a damn thing. 

They just had to hope that fate was in Anti's favor.

Anti sat on the floor of the basement chained up. If anyone saw him like this, they'd say he looked pathetic. He couldn't even wipe away his tears.

He almost wished he remembered everything so he could try and trick him.

But then again, that probably wouldn't work either. What if he could read his mind? And what was with his eyes glowing earlier? What did he take from him? Why was he so creepy!?

He had a lot of questions but he didn't want to dwell on it. He needed to find a way out. He couldn't just sit and wait for the creep to return and do something else weird to him!

Anti scoot his butt on the floor and lifted his knees to try and stand. He struggled a little but after a few minutes, managed to get up on his feet with the chains behind him.

He looked around for anything useful but it was dark and his eyes were still getting used to his surroundings.

The more he looked around, though and stared, the more he realized he was in a basement that  was half-finished. The floors were cement still but the walls were finished and painted dark. 

Then he saw it. Something was flashing across the room.

'What is that?' he stared at it for a bit longer but he was too far away. 

Then he got an idea, 'Sometimes my glitching can create sparks . . .  maybe if I glitch enough, I'll be able to see better in the dark?' it sounded odd but he tried to give it a shot.

He let himself get worked up and started glitching in the room. His sparks and odd glowing helped but what was even MORE handy was that since he was glitching so much, he managed to slip right through the cuffs!

"Fuck yeah" Anti grinned to himself and rubbed his wrists. He tried to remain quiet though as he wandered the basement, being careful to not make any noise.

He went to the thing that was flashing but it turned out to just be a smoke alarm.

'That won't help me' he looked around more and found something on the wall that was covered up. He removed the tarp to reveal a window. It was barred but it was something.

'I could glitch through this!' he was about to do just that when something shocked him, making him stumble backwards.

'The hell?' he came back over to the window and reached out again but felt something stopping his hand, 'A forcefield of some sort? Man this guy really is prepared, isn't he?'

He swallowed but tried his best to look outside with the small view he had standing on his toes without touching the barrier.

'I can just make out some power-lines. Looks like we're in a town then. Not sure exactly where though'

Then he got an idea, 'I can't glitch through this barrier. But maybe I could. . . . teleport through to the power-lines?'

It sounded roundabout and dangerous but he was willing to give it a go. He just had to find something to connect himself to the power. If he tried glitching straight through the window, he'd just get knocked back again.

Anti looked around the basement again for something until he finally saw a power outlet!

'This could do it. . . although I've never done this before. Not THIS me anyways'

But this would be his only shot. He had to try.

Anti took a deep breathe and tried to calm himself. He could hear the man's feet above him, though, making his heart race again.

'Just calm down, Anti. Once you get back to the others, you're never leaving their side again'

He lightly touched the outlet, feeling the power coming from it, 'In 3. . .. .2. . . . . .1!'

In a flash, he was gone.

Upstairs, the man could feel something was wrong and he rushed back to the basement, breaking the door open. He held a glowing light in his hand to see but it turned red in his anger when he realized his puppet was gone. 

He took a breathe himself, though, 'It's fine. It's fine. His memories will still return even faster now. I've made sure of that. Soon he'll come crawling back to me like the good puppet he is. Or else. . ..  Or else I'll just kill him. I've gathered enough power from him for now. I'll work on making the first move myself.'