Chase nudged Marvin, "Come on, dude, can't ya just get us out of here?"

The strange man didn't even seem to notice or care that he was still looping.

Stacey was getting bad vibes but not from him, strangely enough, "Where even are we?"

Marvin had his eyes closed and looked to be concentrating but after a few more moments, he opened them back up and sighed, "Dammit . . . I THOUGHT something seemed wrong."

"What is it?" Chase still kept an eye on the man at the table just smiling away.

"I can't use my powers"

Chase snapped his head to gawk at him, "Excuse me, WHAT!? What do you mean you can't use your powers!? What happened to them!?"

"I don't fucking know! . . . But it appears that maybe that . . .Mark . . Actor guy may have dampened them somehow. And judging by how Evan and Anti's not already here, I'd have to say THEIR powers have been dampened as well"

"So what do we do?" Stacey asked, "The guy over there doesn't seem to be that Actor guy but he looks to be in a loop like he's waiting for something."

They looked back over at him again. The man was still smiling at them, "I was wondering if you were even going to show up! Come and take a seat!"

"That's so fucking weird" Marvin mumbled.

"Like an animatronic" Chase agreed, "So what do we do?"

Marvin took a deep breathe, "Well he WANTS us to sit down. Or at least one of us. Actor . .. . maybe it's some kind of a story? It doesn't really explain where the OTHERS are but maybe if we keep playing along, we'll get answers?"

"Sounds good. Now who's sitting with the creep?" Stacey asked.

"I thought YOU'D do it?" Chase wondered, "You're a girl. As long as he doesn't touch you, I won't kill him"

"What?! Why do I have to sit with him!? Why don't YOU mister macho-man!? I thought you'd stick up more for your wife! Do you not LOVE me anymore!?"

"Wh. . .what?" Chase didn't understand where all of this was coming from but Anti's words from a while ago echoed in his head.

'If you THINK she already knows, odds are is that she DOES already know'

'Ah shit, have I been that obvious and weird about my feelings lately?' Chase cursed in his head.

Stacey didn't like his silence, "Dammit, Brody!"

"Okay, I'm gonna move things forward!" Marvin suddenly shouted over them and walked towards the man at the table, "Fucking tired already of hearing you guys argue. You guys are worse than Evan and I. I don't know how little Jack puts up with it!"

He sat down at the table with one leg over his other knee, "Hey there, baby. Let's get something straight first. I have a boyfriend so things better not get handsy, got it?"

"I got something for you!" He suddenly pulled a flower from his suit, "A rose!"

Marvin shrugged and was about to take it from him when he threw it behind him.

"The fuck? Okay."

Two waiters appeared out of nowhere and started pouring water in their glasses.

"Oh!" the man exclaimed, "Thank you! Bonjour! Bonswa!" he looked at Marvin, "You look so familiar. Have we met? It must be destiny"

"Yeah, if destiny was getting fucked in the-"

"Oh!" the man shouted again as the waiters returned with a salad.

Marvin shrugged again and was about to take a bite, "Alright, I AM a little hungry"

"Good year!"

Marvin went to stab the lettuce with his fork when the waiters took it from them.

You could see the pain in the magician's eyes.

Meanwhile Chase and Stacey weren't so much paying attention to what was happening more than arguing over what just happened.

"It's not what you think, Stace" Chase whispered to her, "I LOVE you. Why would you think I didn't?"

Stacey wiped a tear away from her eyes, "You don't . . . you don't spend a lot of time around me or Jack. You're always off either hanging around one of the other egos or you're working. And don't get me wrong. I love that you're working and enjoying yourself but . . . . it doesn't feel like you love me like . . . . like-"

"Like the OTHER Chase did? YOUR Chase?"

Stacey breathed out shakily, "I love YOU. You're no different than my other Chase and I know he'd want us both to be happy."

"oH That entre looks good at least. WAIT, GIVE IT BACK, BITCH!!!"

"I know" Chase bit his lip, "I'm sorry. It's just . . . I can't help it. Whenever I see you . . . I see MY Stacey. . . and Jack. . . .. . I see them how I last saw them in your sister's house dead on the floor with Antisepticeye standing over them." he took a breathe, "All the blood. . . . his laughter ringing in my ears. Your lifeless eyes still crying tears on the floor"

Stacey hugged him, "I'm sorry. . . you should have TOLD me, Ace . . .. why didn't you just talk to me?"

He hugged her back, "I don't know . . I just . . . I didn't want to hurt your feelings. But it looks like I did anyway. I'm sorry. I DO love you. SO fucking much. It's just . . hard sometimes . . you know?"

"CAKE? Aw HELL YEAH! OH NO YOU DON'T!!" There was crashing in the background but neither paid it no mind.

She rubbed the back of his head and nodded, "Yes. . actually, I DO know."

"Right" Chase cracked a small smile and pulled away, rubbing her tears aside, "From now on, I promise I'll talk more and be more honest. Okay?"

She nodded, "Okay. Me too, baby"

They looked back over to the table to see Marvin fighting over the dessert plate with the waiter, "GIVE IT BACK, YOU SON OF A BITCH ELSE YOU WANNA LIVE LIFE AS A CRAB! And then I'll EAT YOU WITH BUTTER!!!!"

"MARVIN!" Chase shouted at him, "Just let the stupid story play out!!"

Marvin glared at him only for the waiter to win and rip it away from him. He glared back at Chase, "SEE WHAT YOU DID!? You owe me cake!"

Stacey sighed with a smile, "So about being more honest and all . .. "

"yeah?"

The chef stomped over and slammed the bill on the table, "So who's gonna PAY for this?"

Marvin scoffed, looking at the man across from him expectantly, "Evan usually pays. He doesn't trust me with money"

His 'date' gulped, "I uh . . . " he brushed over his suit for his wallet, "I can uh . . take care of. ..this . . uh-oh. .. well I . . " he smiled sheepishly, "I must have. . . lost it?"

"Okay? I don't have money" Marvin reiterated.

"Maybe you could pay? . . . . Please?"

The Chef started to hold a knife to his date's throat.

Marvin just chuckled, "Oh, this just got interesting"

Chase could tell things weren't going well and quickly yanked out his own wallet, throwing it over to Marvin, "Looks like the Chef could be a serial killer, dude, pay with that"

Marvin pouted, "Aw, I wanted to see what would happen" he gave the chef a credit card from Chase's wallet.

But just as he did so, something weird started to happen! It was like a wormhole was opening up!

Marvin stood up and shouted to Chase and Stacey, "We're teleporting again! Hold on!"

Stacey grabbed hold of Chase's face, "Chase! If we don't see each other again I just wanted to let you know-"

Chase didn't like where this was going, "Wh-what? Let me know what?!"

Marvin disappeared and Chase could feel himself being sucked through too.

"I'm pregnant!"

In a flash, Chase opened his eyes and found himself in a strange house, laying in a bed that wasn't his own.

He wanted to be confused about where he was and what happened but all he could think was. .

'oH shit. . . . I'm gonna be a dad again!?'

Jameson kept the kids close to him, looking around the strange house curiously.

Olivia and Iris couldn't stop silently crying, holding onto him for dear life but he didn't mind.

He'd protect them, whatever he had to do.

He heard voices that sounded like they were coming from outside.

It was times like this that he wished he could talk. Poor Olivia and Iris didn't know a lot of sign language yet and usually Marvin would be around to cast a spell on them so they'd be able to understand it. Of course, Marvin could do this permanently but Henrik and Eva disagreed with it, saying they wanted their daughters to learn it naturally and not go the easy way. Oddly enough, it was actually Olivia's idea.

Jameson tapped on their shoulders and pointed to the door that led outside.

Olivia nodded, understanding, "I hear it, too. Who do you think it is, Uncle Jameson?"

Iris gulped, "It sounds like the bubble man. Could it be him?" she looked up hopefully at her uncle.

Jameson wasn't sure but he motioned them behind him and led them to the door.

Opening it, he was outside and there were bubbles everywhere.

But what was strange was there were a few men running around that were unrecognizable playing with the bubbles but the voice of Wilford Warfstache was everywhere around them!

"Bubbles can solve ALL of life's problems! Parent's divorcing? BUBBLES! Crippling depression? BUBBLES! Did your wife leave you? BUBBLES!!!!"

Olivia hugged Jameson again, "I'm scared."

Jameson signed, 'Me too'

"Realizing that maybe bubbles aren't the solution to all your problems?. . . . BUBBLES. . . HAhahaheh. . . You can't beat bubbles. . . .hahahahh guh .. .uh huh hu" the voice trailed off to sobbing.

Jameson wished he could call out to Wilford but he couldn't, which really put a fork into their issue.

But it seemed as though the kids had the same idea.

"Mister Warfstache!" Olivia called out, "Where ARE you?"

Iris sniffled, trying to be brave, "Mr. Bubble man? I wanna play with bubbles. . . .Can I, Uncle Jameson?" she pulled gently on the fabric of his pants.

Jameson pat her head and nodded, trying to give her some hope. But it didn't seem like Wilford heard them.

"ORDER YOUR BUBBLES TODAY! Call 1-888 Bubbles! That's 1-888 Buuuuuubbbles!"

And suddenly just like that, Jameson felt himself being yanked.

He opened his eyes, blinking them open to see himself behind bars.

'Wh . . .. what?'

He gasped, looking around, 'The GIRLS!'

He had failed to keep them safe, after all.

Anti saw the others were blinking open their eyes and she ran over to help Henrik and Evan, knowing Antisepticeye would only try and punch him anyway.

"What the hell happened? Can you get us out Evan?"

Evan just shook his head, "No. I don't know why but I can't seem to feel my powers. Looks to be like a dampener and I'd have to say Marvin has the same issue, too, or else he'd be here already. How about you?"

Anti shook his head, "I can't do anything either"

Antisepticeye snorted, "Wait . . . so I could totally kick your ass right now?"

"Just try it" Anti snapped at him, "You don't have your powers, either and it's three against one. If we wanna find a way out, we have to work together."

"Ugh" Antisepticeye scowled, "Whatever. Just don't expect me to help out. I'm just here to get back my . . . thing, kick Dark's ass and go back home"

Henrik fixed his glasses, "Funny, I'd think the next on your hit list vould be US"

Antisepticeye growled at him, "Well I'm sure Anti-goody-two-shoes over here already has a contingency plan set in place to take away my powers again as soon as Dark is taken out." he tried to save his ass.

In truth, he didn't know why he wasn't feeling like wanting to kill them, either.

The itch was slowly returning but he knew as soon as he got Gab back, it'd go away, so what was the point in trying to attack them when they could just take him out again like before?

'Things certainly have changed' he thought to himself, 'The effect she has had on me. . . . I need her body so fucking bad. That's all it is. . . .But maybe I could double cross them somehow?' the thought did seep into his head but he wasn't sure he wanted to be on the same side as that Actor, either, OR Dark.

"Let's go into zhis building" Henirk suggested, "Perhaps there are answers in here"

"Whatever Sherlock" Antisepticeye rolled his eye.

Henrik paid him no mind and led the way up to the building. When he tried to open the door, he found it was locked, "Well that was MY idea. Who else has one?"

Anti pointed to the ground, "Where'd that bag come from?" curiosity overtaking him, Anti wandered over to it and unzipped it, "What the FUCK?"

"What's in it?" Evan asked.

Anti pulled out a grappling hook, "I don't . . . know"

"Oh!" Evan chuckled, "It's a grappling hook! Marvin and I have one for when we. . ."

Everyone was staring at him and Evan cleared his throat, "It doesn't matter . . . maybe we could use it to get inside?"

"Isn't that illegal, though?" Anti asked.

Henrik shrugged, "Anything's legal if you don't get caught"

Anti glared at him, ". . .. I'm not sure I want to know the implications of that sentence from you, Hen"

"Well if we don't use THIS" Evan went on, "Then how are we gonna-"

Suddenly there was a crashing noise and the sound of glass breaking.

They looked over to see Antisepticeye walking through the shattered window he just broke.

Antisepticeye poked his head back to out to motion to him, "You fuckers coming or what?"

Henrik snorted, "Now THAT'S illegal because he's definitely going to get caught"

But nonetheless, they hurriedly followed Antisepticeye into the building and up the stairs.

"What are we even trying to LOOK for?" Anti asked.

Suddenly they stopped upon hearing a loud yelling and a man crashing through the ceiling and landing gracefully in front of them.

It looked like the Actor! Mark!

The man looked around, "Alright! We're in! You remember the plan, right? Pft. What am I saying? You practically WROTE it!"

They all stood dumbfounded.

"Everything you need is- AHHHH!!!"

Suddenly Antisepticeye was stabbing him in the chest until he couldn't move.

When he was dead, he looked to the others twirling his knife around, "See? You fuckers DO need me. Even without my powers, I'm still a badass motherfucker! You stupid bitches didn't even KNOW what to do! Lucky I'm here to save your asses, HUH!?"

Little did he know, Mark was back up again like nothing happened.

"Everything you need is in your bag so let's synchronize our watches and- AHHH! OH GOD!"

Antisepticeye had twirled around and stabbed him once again, "FUCKING DIE, BITCH, OR TAKE US TO DARK!!"

Once more, though, the man fell dead and now Antisepticeye was covered in blood.

He spat some blood out of his mouth, "Ugh. . . . Doesn't even taste good anymore" he shook his head.

Anti looked like he'd throw up, "Dude! What the FUCK!? Stop killing him!"

Antisepticeye snorted, "Why?"

"Because he could have ANSWERS!" Henrik shouted at him.

Antisepticeye just rolled his one eye, exasperated, "Whatever"

"Look" Evan swallowed heavily, "The next time he jumps back up-"

"If he DOES" Anti grumbled.

Evan continued, "How about we DON'T kill him?"

Antisepticeye groaned, "Fucking ridiculous. Why am I even here? But FINE. We'll do it YOUR way. Pussies"

But just as the others hoped, Mark hopped back up and continued where he left off, "So let's just synchronize our watches on three . . . .THREE!" He hit a button on his watch.

"We don't have watches" Henrik blandly stated.

But it was as if he couldn't hear him and continued his speech.

"Perfect! Now .. . stick to the plan, and you'll be just fine. But" his face darkened, "If you deviate from it for even a single moment, I WON'T come back for you"

Antisepticeye blinked, "Damn .. . . Think I like you 50% more now"

".. . .Okay?" Mark suddenly turned sweet, "Good luck!" he took out his own grappling hook and shot out of there.

Antisepticeye stared back at them, "There. Are you happy I didn't kill him now? Still made NO fucking sense whatsoever"

Evan hummed, "Actually. . .. something IS making sense here. Actor. . .or Mark . . .whoever it was. . .they told Wilford it was time for some revisions. This guy seemed to be in some sort of loop and came back to continue where he left off after you kept killing him. It's like a big story is being told here"

Anti nodded, "Yeah. You're right. So do we just keep following along with it?"

"Even so" Henrik scoffed, "Where do we go to now?"

Antisepticeye took it upon himself to look through the bag again, "Aw sweet! There's MEAT in here!" he pulled out a steak and bit off a chunk, "What? I'm hungry"

"Hey!"

They all turned around to see a security guard, "What do you think you're doing!?" he looked down at Antisepticeye, "Oooooh no! Not the old Steak trick! I'm not falling for that twice!"

Antisepticeye snorted and tore off another chunk, "Wasn't offering it to you anyway. . . . is that plant moving?"

Suddenly Mark appeared from within the plant and tackled the security guard.

"Yeah! Get him!" Antisepticeye cheered, laughing as he munched on the steak.

"Vill you put zhat down already?! What if we need it for something else?!" Henrik bopped him on the head.

Evan took the steak from Antisepticeye, ignoring how he almost got his arm torn off.

The guard was taken down and suddenly they all looked around and seemed to be somewhere else in the building, following Mark.

"We're in a MUSEUM!" Evan finally realized, "We're. . . oh.. . . we're robbing a museum?"

"Nicely done buddy!" Mark complimented them with finger guns, "All according to plan. And speaking of plan" he whipped out a large piece of paper that looked to be a map, "Looks like we are . . .. uh. Yeah! We're moving on to phase 2!"

"Zhere was just a bunch of gibberish on that!" Henrik complained.

"Are ya ready? On my go. . .. GO!" Mark suddenly whipped around and did a bunch of very unnecessary maneuvers to get to the other side of the room.

While this was happening, Anti decided to try and speak to Antisepticeye.

"Hey. . . So I know we haven't gotten to really talk a lot yet"

Antisepticeye glared at him, "And? That's a good thing"

"It's just . .. I can feel that you've changed. At least a little bit"

"Keep dreaming"

"What WAS it that Darkiplier stole from you? You never actually explained what it was."

"And I don't need to"

"Sounds fishy" Henrik had been eavesdropping.

"Mind your own business!" Antisepticeye seethed, "Look, I'll get my thing back and you get your . . . friends back and we kill Actor and Dark. That's the deal, right? I'll go back home with my . . .thing and that's that!"

"Why WOULD you go back HOME, though?" Anti wondered out loud, "And you consider it your home now . . .. something still doesn't sit right here-"

Antisepticeye knew he was on to him but luck seemed to be on his side as there was a loud flop noise.

They all watched as 'Mark' dragged himself across the floor.

They didn't have the time to talk more, though, as another security guard waltzed in. They all collectively hid, cringing as the guard started to talk to a statue.

Mark threw a random baseball for the guard to go chase after.

Mindlessly, they all followed Mark as he spoke about a vault.

But the question still weighted heavily on Anti's mind. What could Antisepticeye be hiding? They had to keep an eye on him . ..

Meanwhile, Evan wasn't dumb. He had an inkling Antisepticeye was lying about what the 'thing' was that Darkiplier took from him. But he didn't want to tell the others yet until he was absolutely sure.

They ended up having to give the rest of the steak to an ADORABLE security dog but Antisepticeye didn't seem to mind, funnily enough. He actually fed the dog himself but if ANYONE FUCKING TALKED ABOUT IT, THEY WERE DEAD.

And just like that, they were IN the vault!

"Oh, this is IT" Mark walked up to a very strange box behind glass.

"Zhe fook is that?" Henrik asked but no one had an answer for him.

"This is really it!" Mark took a glass cutter to the glass but then just ended up throwing the glass box behind him.

"This is what we've been working towards all those years! It's finally ours!" he lifted the box only for it to glitch out in flurries of red and blue.

Anti took a step back, "Wait! That thing has something to do with DARK, doesn't it!?"

Antisepticeye felt it, too, "Should we break it open?"

Henrik shook his head with a sigh, "Please don't"

"This is gonna change our lives forever-"

Suddenly red lights started to blare along with the alarm.

Evan groaned, "Dammit! He Indiana Jones'd it!"

"All the glass breaking we did and THIS is what set it off?" Anti asked.

"It's fine! This is why we plan!" Mark laughed nervously, whipping around to survey the area, "Ah I see there's TWO ways out of here! There just so happens to be a sewer that runs directly beneath this vault. . .. I . . . suppose we could have gone IN that way. .but that doesn't matter! We could either go through the sewer all sneaky like OR we could go out guns blazing!"

He pulled out a gun and a bomb, "Yeah~ I found these bad boys in the pirate exhibit!"

"Aw FUCK yeah!" Antisepticeye laughed, "Now we're talking!"

"Wait, so we have a choice now!?" Evan panicked, "We need to think about this carefully. We really should keep a low profile"

Henrik agreed, "It WOULD benefit us to be sneaky in this scenario."

Anti nodded, "So we should-"

"GUNS BLAZING!" Antisepticeye shouted, grabbing the gun out of Mark's hand.

"NO!" they all yelled at him.

But just as soon as Antisepticeye made a decision, something started to happen.

Evan recognized the feeling, "We're teleporting again! Hold on!"

And just like that, they vanished.

Henrik opened his eyes to be sitting on a picnic blanket in front of Mark. Looking around, he locked eyes with his daughter, "Iris!"

"Daddy!" his little girl hugged him, "You won't believe where we were!"

"Hen?" Jackie was there, too, "We got a problem"

Looking over, they saw another person with them. A woman he didn't recognize.

Jackie didn't believe him, "You expect me to believe you're NOT working with that Actor freak!? And who the fuck is SHE?" He pointed at Gab.

"She" Dark shoved her behind him, "Is none of our concern. She just so happened to be near me when Mark teleported us into his little game."

"Game?" Eva inquired, "Could you please elaborate?"

"Gladly, mam" Dark nodded politely, "Mark used to be an Actor. He was always so caught up in trying to be the best of the best and it went to his head. He made. . . . deals. Upon the sorrows in his life with his wife leaving him and his career tanking, he killed himself and made himself into an idol. That is his story as the top of the chain. He is basically . . . . in your terms. . . MY Antisepticeye. If that makes sense? He created me out of mistake, Celine, my sister helped make me complete. I used to be Damien, just another ego in the chain. But Mark has deviated in his role many years ago and created his own . . . world"

"Why are you telling us all of this?" Jackie asked, "This is A LOT of information you're just giving up willingly"

Dark shrugged, "Because you asked. AND. . . we're going to have to work together if we stand a chance at getting out of here alive. I've been through this maze before. Currently, all your friends are spread out throughout other stories dealing with something different. Our greatest chance of survival means you all listening to me. I've gone through all the choices before. I know which ones work."

"Choices?" Eva squeaked, getting excited.

But Jackie was anything but excited. He was still staring at the girl behind Dark, "What do YOU think? What's your name?"

Gab wondered if she should tell Jackie who she really was. From Antisepticeye's stories of the Septics, she did like their determination for survival. But she also realized her powers were dampened here and if HERS were . . . then so were all of theirs and that didn't bode well for anyone. She chose to keep her secret for now and follow Dark's story he made for her. If they knew her relation with Antisepticeye, who knows what they'd do to her.

"My name is Gab. I think . . Well I really don't know ANYONE here yet. But Dark's explanation seems legit. I think we should listen to him?"

Jackie turned to Eva, "And you, Eva? What do you think?"

"Seems like the right decision to me. The sooner we go forth with the story, the sooner I can get back to my kids and husband"

Jackie sighed, "Alright, Dark. It's a truce for now. What do we do first?"

Dark looked around the cabin, "It seems as though the first part of the story has already played out. The basics of the story is that we're trying to get to the warp core room to shut it down or else the entire universe will collapse."

"Great" Jackie sighed.

"OOooooO!" Eva just seemed excited and Jackie realized he wished Henrik was here instead. At least Henrik THOUGHT things through. Eva was more the type of scientist to DO and ask questions later.

"The problem is, you and I don't have our powers here so we have to rely on our decision making and not our brawn" Dark snarled at the thought, "Got a problem with that? Hero?"

"No." Jackie growled at him, "No, I don't, asshole"

"So what's gonna happen first?" Eva asked, "Nothing seems to be happening. Do WE make the first move?"

Dark shook his head, "We won't be here long. For some reason, Mark transported us away from the main action, I'm assuming to keep me out of it or to keep me guessing since I've already been through this all before."

"So what's gonna-"

Suddenly the window looking out to space shattered and they were sucked in.

Dark turned to find Gab, "Just go with it and remember what I said!" he gave her a certain look but Gab got the idea.

She wasn't about to tell any of them anyway.

Eva tried to grab Jackie's hand but she was suddenly pulled through a door.

When she opened her eyes, she was on the floor of a brightly lit room and something that sounded like an audience.

Fixing her glasses, she stood up at a podium. Looking around, she recognized the other faces and felt a little relieved. So it was just as Darkiplier had said.

'We're all being scattered and pulled throughout different stories with every choice we make. . . . How fascinating'

"Marvin!"

Eva smiled, seeing Evan and Marvin reunited. The two hugged each other tightly while Antisepticeye looked to be gagging.

"I wonder where we are now?" she wondered out loud.

The lights shined down on her and a loud familiar voice boomed.

"Aaaaaaaaaand, welcome back to DISC OF RICHES!!!"

Wilford Warfstache stood before them with a big smile on his face looking just as clueless as always.

"Hello everybody my name is-"

Marvin shouted at him trying to crawl over the podium to attack him but Evan was yanking him back, "Wilford Warfstache, you son of a bitch!!!"

"Thaaaaat's right!" Wilford laughed.

Great. Just great.

'I wonder where the others are now?' Eva wondered.