Sean watched as Marvin teleported them, leaving Anti behind. He could tell they hadn't exactly left but he knew what was happening. There was a secret he didn't know. How to break free.

'He's not gonna get away with it. I won't let him hurt them again'

He grit his teeth, "You think you can just-"

"No" Anti stopped him, shaking his head, "You don't get to say that. Not after everything you've done"

He took a step towards them and Chase pulled his gun up again, "Don't move!"

Anti turned to Chase next, "As for you . . . . haven't you ever thought about the possibility that Sean's been lying to you all this time?"

"Shut up!" Sean yelled at him, "If you're gonna fight us then fight! Stop spouting off fucking nonsense!"

"I know you're depressed, Sean but this isn't the way to go about things!" Anti called him out, "You KNOW that! All you're doing. . . all you've ever done is hurt the ones you care about the most! We used to be friends! But you ruined all of that just like you're ruining your relationships with the other egos!"

"That person is gone! You can't take credit for the life they lived!"

"You're still not listening . . . . Just like you never listened to Chase after you got rid of Stacey, Sammy and Kallie. No, you just 'RESET' him!"

"Wh . . " Chase lowered the gun a little and looked over to Sean, "Se- . . . . what's he . . . .what?"

"Don't listen to him, Chase. You know he's just a liar"

Chase swallowed and pointed his gun back up at Anti, 'He's right. I have to stop doubting him . . . Anti's just lying. Trying to make me drop my guard. . . but what if he's . . telling the truth?'

"I've had enough of all of this" Sean spat, "I have to start over and this time, I'll be tuning YOU up, too, Anti."

The glitch scoffed, "You have no control over me anymore. You can't-"

"And yet I was able to at the park" Sean shrugged, "What? Does the thought really scare you that bad? I can make you good, Anti. I make you into anything I want you to be"

Anti took a step back. He didn't like where Sean was going with this but the creator continued, "I can bring you back to me and we can all live together again. Of course the others won't remember and still hate you but-"

"You can't have them." Anti shook his head, "Not anymore. And you won't take me either! Not again, you selfish prick!"

Anti suddenly burst some of his glitching, distracting the two and he smirked, 'This should be more than enough time for them to have found the rift. Hopefully I can make it there and break them out in time before Sean finds it, too'

With an abrupt halt in his glitching, Anti smirked and zapped himself out of the room.

"Fuck!" Chase cursed, "Where'd they-"

"Follow me" Sean just led the way. He had a pretty good educated guess on where they were.

The Septics found where Anti was talking about. Behind the back of the stairs in the basement, it didn't look like much. Just a small empty space that was left unused. It didn't even have use in Sean's head so it made the perfect wormhole to get through.

Henrik swallowed, "Are you sure it is here? I work down here all the time and never-"

"I trust Anti" Jackie nodded, "I think we just gotta walk through it. Right, Marv?"

The magician nodded albeit cautiously, "Let's go. We don't know how long Anti'll be able to stall for"

'Hopefully he doesn't get shot again' Jameson signed.

"Geez, James. . . Yeah, that would suck" Jackie sighed, "But we'll just have to trust that Anti knows what he's doing right now. Let's go"

Without complaint, they walked forward together. At first, they thought it'd be awkward and they'd just walk into some cramped space.

Until there was a brisk stillness in the air.

Marvin opened his eyes to see darkness, "Shit . . he wasn't kidding. It really is just a huge dark space."

Jackie jumped back, "M-marv! What's that on your back?!"

Marvin seemed confused but looked up to Jackie to see something glowing floating out of him, "Ahhh! What's on YOUR back!?"

They all looked at each other and Henrik tried to study the strange rope that clung onto them.

"This . . ." Marvin understood then, "These are the strings Anti was talking about!"

"Shit" Jackie fiddled with his, playing with it like a guitar, "We really are chained to Sean, aren't we?"

Jameson tried to pull his off, 'It won't budge!'

Henrik shook his head, "It is a strong material. We probably won't be able to break it ourselves"

"But Anti can" Marvin nodded, "He said so."

"How'd he break HIS?" Jackie wondered out loud, "If we can't do it ourselves then how did he?"

They suddenly heard a glitching and turned.

"I had more power than you dolts" Anti appeared with a smirk, "More hunger to leave. I have faith you all can do it, too, but I'm afraid we don't have the time to wait and see. I'll have to help you"

'Great!' Jameson gave him a thumbs up, 'Let's get to it, then before Sean finds us'

Anti nodded and came up to the closest first who was Marvin.

The magician chuckled at him, "This is seriously messed up that this place was here all this time."

"Yeah, I'm actually surprised Sean didn't find out about it the first time I broke out."

"I did"

They all froze.

Anti felt like he was in an ice bath, "Shit"

'How in the hell did he. . '

They turned to see Sean and Chase come through the rift.

Chase looked more or less freaked out to be there but didn't raise a fuss about it. He just awed at his rope and flicked it with his gun, confused.

"I'm done, guys. Anti, this is it. You either leave now and let me help them or I'll kill you right here with the way you'd hate the most"

Anti turned towards them but they looked to be standing their ground, too.

The glitch shook his head, "Well it looks like we're fighting. Give me your worst, Sean. Not like I haven't seen it before"

"Sean, wait!" Jackie tried to stop all of this fighting, "You don't have to do anything! If you just listen-"

Sean snapped his fingers. He was far past listening to anything.

Jackie froze but along with him so did all the other Septics including Chase.

They're eyes glowed green and the ropes attached to them glowed, too, signifying that they were now under Sean's full control.

Anti shuddered. He could feel something tugging at him, too but he ignored it.

'Damn bastard' he thought to himself, watching as all of his brothers turned to face him, 'They didn't want this . . . I doubt even Chase wants this. To be controlled like that . . .  Sean's gone too far . . . . he just won't stop! Why?! Why can't he see that what he's doing is hurting them?!'

Sean's hand shook. He didn't want to do this. He cared about all his egos. Why was Anti making him do this?

'Why can't he just leave us all alone!?'

"Attack"

Immediately, Jackie rushed forward first and Anti dodged out of the way. If he wanted to live, he'd have to dodge Jackie at all costs. He glitched and moved like lightening to keep away from their grasp.

Marvin flung curses at him but thankfully he wasn't a good shot.

Henrik came at him with a scalpel and Jameson came at him physically but they themselves were no match against Anti.

The ones he really had to worry about were Jackie, Marvin and Chase because he was also being shot at!

'I need to get Sean's focus off of them! If I can do that then maybe he'll have no choice but to release them to deal with me himself!'

"What's the matter, Anti?!" Sean taunted him, "Where's your knife?! Afraid you'll hurt your puppets?"

His taunting worked and Anti shouted at him, "They're not my puppets! And they're not yours either!"

Anti glitched in front of Sean, surprising even him, "They're my brothers"

Just before Jackie could come swing at him, Anti glitched out of the way, making Sean let go of his trance on the hero.

Jackie stopped just in time before hitting Sean but the two glared at each other. Sean wasn't expecting Jackie to use his other fist to punch him across the cheek!

Sean shouted and fell backward, "aH! Son of a- What the hell, Jackie!? That should have cancelled out Anti's hold on ya!"

Jackie snarled, "Anti doesn't have a 'HOLD' on me, you idiot! YOU DO! YOU'RE THE BAD GUY HERE, SEAN! WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT!?"

The others briefly were let go before charging at Anti as well and they all fell on their knees.

Even Chase shuddered.

'Why'd he . . . . I didn't like that . . why'd he control me like that? I'm on his side!'

Sean shook his head, "No . . . . No, I'm not. . . . I'm trying to help you guys. You've forgotten what he's done-"

Marvin stood up, "What you made him do"

"I never made him  attack you guys before! I never made him possess you guys! That wasn't me! That was HIM!"

"That's already been explained. Not that you'll listen, though" Jackie shook his head, "Just let us go, Sean. Please. That's all we want"

Sean had his hands in his hair tugging at the roots and he groaned, "Don't you see?! That's what HE wants! He-"

Anti lost it, "SHUT UP!" tears started to flow down his face, "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP! WHY DON'T YOU LISTEN! YOU NEVER FUCKING LISTEN! YOU'RE THE ONE PULLING THE STRINGS HERE, NOT ME! I DON'T WANT TO HURT THEM! I JUST WANNA SAVE THEM!"

Sean was about to argue but Anti stopped him, screaming again.

"I JUST WANNA SAVE THEM FROM YOU! FROM THE SAME FUCKING THING YOU DID TO ME! OVER AND OVER AGAIN! IT WAS NEVER ENOUGH FOR YOU! CHANGING ME AND TURNING ME INTO YOUR LITTLE DOLL MOLDING ME LIKE CLAY INTO WHAT YOU WANTED ME TO BE! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH IT HURT!? I TRUSTED YOU AND YOU TORE ME APART!"

The creator shuddered, "I . . . . that's not . . . you shouldn't . . . remember . ."

Anti glitched and sparks flung off of him, "WELL I DO! I remember all of it! What you did to me over and over again! And what's worse is you never told THEM! You never told them how it was all your fault! You killed me and put me back together like some fucking children's art project. Broken. A shadow of who I used to be . . . . . . I can still feel the hole inside of me where you took away my soul and joy. It's why I can never truly be happy again. . . "

Everyone waited and watched, even Chase was transfixed with Anti's words. What was he talking about? What did it all mean?

Sean was even crying now.

Him and Anti looked far too similar, crying over the memory that was burned in both their minds.

"You  . .. never told them . . . . tell them what I really am, Sean. Who I was before"

"No. You're not that person anymore-"

"That's what I kept telling myself too . . . but now . . . standing here in front of you . . it's all too clear. I never STOPPED being that person."

Chase looked between them, "S-sean? What's he talking about? Someone else? What's going on?"

"Nothing, Chase"

"Bullshit! Stop fucking hiding things and tell me!" Chase was tired of all of this. He just wanted to know what the hell was going on now and what they were talking about. It was obvious it was something direly important.

Anti's tears soaked his face but his anger remained the same. The other Septics wanted to rush over and comfort him. Hold him or hug him but Sean's hold still at least kept them from moving too much.

"Tell them, Sean . . . . . Tell them what you did . . . . even I've kept it a secret all this time. Not that I wanted to . . . I tried to forget . . but I . . . I just can't!" he cried.

Sean didn't know what to do or say. Anti was . . crying? Was this a trick? A part of his plan?

He shook his head, "N-no . .it doesn't matter anymore"

"TELL THEM!"

"NO!"

Chase shook, the gun still in his hands, "Fucking hell, Sean just say it!"

"WHAT IS MY NAME, SEAN!? TELL THEM! TELL THEM MY TRUE NAME! WHAT YOU DID! WHAT YOU LIED ABOUT ALL THIS TIME! WHY YOU CAN NEVER FORGIVE YOURSELF AND WHY YOU HATE ME SO FUCKING MUCH! TELL THEM MY NAME!"

Sean wanted to forget. It was all too much. The memories all comin back, "N-no! Stop it! No!"

"WHAT IS MY NAME!?"

"SHUT UP!"

The others and Chase demanded answers and yelled at Sean to tell them.

All Sean  could hear was screaming. His egos screaming. Anti screaming. That same screeching that happened the same night he .. . . . .

Anti sobbed and cried out, "You won't say it . . . . . . . coward . . . . .Or did you purposely forget? Fine then. I'll say it . . . . . . I'll say it"

Sean held in his breathe. He didn't want to remember.

Everyone went quiet.

Holding their breathe.

What was this secret Anti and Sean kept to themselves all this time?

Why did they want to forget it?

Chase tensed as he saw Anti's mouth move. That one syllable.

"Sam"

Sean's breathe hitched at Anti's voice.

Anti hated how Sean had really tried to forget.

You can never escape your past. So why forget it?

Why pretend like those times never existed?

"My name is Sam . . . . . . Septiceye Sam"

It all made sense.

Right then and there in that moment, it all came together.

Why Anti was so different. So kind. Why his birthday was different.

Jackie realized Anti didn't just have sketches and the plushie of Septiceye Sam in his closet.

He had sketches and a plushie of himself to remember what things used to be!

The good times . . . . .

Sean took a shaky breathe, " . . . . . . Y- . . .ya . . . . your name  . . . ." tears streamed down his face as he remembered what he did. The deep guilt and regret that harbored inside of him all these years.

For a few more moments, no one knew what to say.