Jackie stretched out as he finished a scene. Being a stunt man was difficult but it was easier than being a vigilante, he'd admit. That, and he was getting paid for it.

Changing into his casual wear, a friend of his offered to pay for dinner. He was going to the fast food joint downtown.

"Yeah sure. I'll come with. I love that place!"

As they got there and walked inside, however, the air felt odd.

He looked around for any weird signs of trouble but nothing. A man in a black hoodie left the restaurant quickly but he had tons of food with him in a bag, 'Must be in a hurry to get somewhere'

Shaking off the weird feeling, he went up to the cash register.

Before he could order his food, however, the kid who was going to take his order just stared at him, "Dude. That guy must have a lot of brothers. You related to Chase, too, man?"

Jackie, a little taken aback just nodded, "Yeah. . . who was just in here for you to say that, kid?"

He shrugged, "He said he was Chase's brother. Andy or something like that."

Jackie stilled and forgetting about ordering food, he looked out the back door and stomped towards it where the man in the black hoodie left.

He ignored his coworker calling back for him and ran out.

'I knew I felt something weird. Is it really him, though? Could it be? It can't be, right? He's gone.'

Jackie wanted to go after the man but unfortunately, he just vanished without a trace.

Swallowing uncomfortably, Jackie sighed and walked back in the restaurant. Maybe it was just a coincidence? Maybe the kid misheard the man and it was really one of the others?

'Could've been Chase trying to get out of something and lying' but really Jackie didn't really believe that himself, 'But then again he has been acting strange lately. The other day with the kids he seemed off like he was looking around and waiting for something to happen'

Jackie bit his lip and walked back inside. His coworker tried to grill him on what just happened but he just waved it off.

But he couldn't just let it go. Something felt weird. And the man in the black hoodie. He couldn't deny he felt a strange energy coming off of him as he left. Plus disappearing so suddenly . . .

He retired himself from hero work but Jackie couldn't just let this go. Something was going on and he was going to figure out what. That was his addiction.

 Chase laid in his bed looking up at the ceiling. Marvin left a while ago but told Chase he'd make sure to place a spell on his boss and coworkers so he wouldn't get in trouble for not coming into work. Chase wasn't in the best spirits right now and definitely not in the mood to deal with any sort of people.

Everything was really silent in the house. It was starting to get dark hitting at five in the evening but Chase hadn't eaten anything since that morning when Marvin ordered out breakfast after the kitchen incident.

He knew he had been harsh on Marvin but he couldn't bring himself to care.

The images of Stacey being thrown down the stairs and seeing himself possessed like that. Having Anti take control over him  . . . . Watching himself kill those civilians. That part wasn't Anti and would full-well admit that. Marvin could argue all he wanted but Chase KNEW. It was all him. Anti had just been the bystander in THAT moment.

That art may have been Chase's fault but . . . . knowing that his unborn child was just gone like that. And he wanted to forget it? He remembered what they were going to name her but he felt tears again knowing that Marvin wiped Stacey's memory completely of the baby. 

It wasn't right but he knew it would spare her more grief. She didn't need that. Chase knew that it was selfish in a way to just take that memory from her without her permission but he couldn't have her hate him for ANOTHER reason. She wouldn't understand.

Chase then thought about Anti and he thought about him carefully. Soon, if Anti made himself known, they would have to face-off against him. The others would have to know and they'd have to contact Sean. And then Sean would. . . .  end him. Would it just be easier that way? Is that really the best thing to do?

Chase knew that Marvin didn't quite believe it but he KNEW that Anti had changed. Regaining those memories only proved it. Plus the only ones Anti has killed so far were that crooked lawyer and those nasty gang members. Now if he started killing innocent people or children then it would be a different story entirely but he wasn't. 

And why not?

The past Anti would have gone on an immediate killing spree starting with all the egos. But the very first chance he gets with killing Chase, he runs instead. Two days now and the others are just fine, too. And they all would have known if he had gone after Sean.

Was he really just living it up? Was all he really wanted just to live or was there an ulterior motive?

The perk about having the man in his head for a while was that he could FEEL him. Chase knew Anti was different now. Did that mean he forgave him for everything he had done to him and his family?

That, he didn't know.

He was still working that out.

'I wonder what he's doing right now.' Chase thought to himself, 'I almost wish I was with him. How's he getting money to eat and drink, though? Is he staying anywhere to sleep?'

He sighed to himself, 'There are those dad instincts again. Just hope he doesn't cause any more trouble. I've had enough for a while'

Anti decided that before he'd go on the prowl and hunt that he'd get just a little hammered first.

Just a little.

He was at some sort of underground party. He couldn't remember how he got in. He guessed he just glitched there hearing the music from afar. He was drinking, some guy offered him some white powder and showed him how to use it. He had joined in on a bong circle and then crushed a small drinking competition.

He was fucked up.

Off and on, he'd black out and whenever he'd come back a little, he was in a different place. The only thing he knew was the drinking, that white powder, the smell of smoke and blood and the sound of his own laughter.

At one point, however, he woke up in some bathtub in a random person's house. It was weird  but he looked down and saw he had started to cut himself with his knife, leaving the tub a little bloodstained.

Anti reached in his pocket and took out a small package that some guy gave him 'free of charge'.

'Wonder wha' this one does' he snorted it like instructed before and his mind started wandering and flying. His breathing was fast but he giggled at the feelings overwhelming him.

Stumbling out of the tub, he tripped only to catch himself on the sink counter, looking at himself in the mirror.

He just. . . . stared at himself.

Behind him he could see a shadow. It was getting colder and darker. In a slight panic, Anti glitched and he could feel the softness of the cool and slightly wet grass under him. He was outside somewhere. 

Anti looked up at the night sky and reached his arm up in the air as if trying to catch some stars, "C'mere" he pouted. 

Getting antsy, he took his knife again and threw it straight up into the air to try and stab a star only for it to fall down by his head. He started to giggle again watching the moon. After watching it for a few minutes, his breathing started to slow.

In a dreamscape, Anti felt more sober but that didn't help matters. It was in darkness and silent but in the distance he could just make out the sound of screaming. Slowly, it started to get louder and louder the closer it got until it was just screaming right into his ear like a siren, blaring ridiculously. The voices pleaded for help and for it all to stop. 

Anti couldn't take it and just started to run. Under him, he could feel splashing and imagined in his head it was blood. Why else would the voices be screaming? 

He ran for a while but the farther he went, the deeper the liquid got until it was up to his waist and he waded in the blood. He shut his hands over his ears to try and block out the screaming but it was no use. It was all in his head.

'Please make it stop, make it stop. Fucking hell please, please please! I can't do this!'

Suddenly all the screaming stopped and at first, Anti was hopeful but spotlights appeared all around him. under the spotlights were all the other egos. Marvin, Jackie, Jameson, Henrik . . . . Chase.

Anti shuddered and held himself with tears running down his face. Behind the egos were other people and of course he recognized their faces.

People he had killed before. People he had hurt. They were all crying and staring at him.

"Leave me alone! Go away!" Anti tried to be brave but his words were lost.

"Why'd you do it, Anti?" Jackie asked him. His arms were crooked and bent indicating Anti had broken his bones, "You're a monster. Evil"

"You didn't have to do vhat you did to us" Henrik spoke next, his neck red and his eyes dead white from Anti strangling him with cords, "Why did you do it!?"

"I. . . ." Anti whimpered, shivering in more than just cold now.

Jameson suddenly threw a piece of ceramic at him and Anti winced as it hit and lodged itself deep in his arm. He recognized the piece of the ceramic to be that of the pumpkin he bought from him.

"I'm . . . .   no, please. I didn't-"

The screaming started again but he could still hear the egos.

Marvin glared at him without his mask and showed multiple stab wounds in his body from Anti repeatedly attacking him, "Now look who's the coward. You're nothing but a waste of space. I don't understand why Sean didn't just kill you and get it over with"

Anti covered his ears but just stared over at Chase. He had been quiet and just stared at him with disappointment. No words were said from him but he had the most physical damage. Slit throat along with rope burns on his neck, blood dripping down his head from a gunshot, his chest covered in blood from a gunshot and slit wrists. His eyes sad as ever, just stared right into his soul. . .  was that what he had now? Did he really have a soul? How else would he feel this way? It only made sense.

"Br-brody?" Anti waiting for Chase to say something but he didn't. He wouldn't.

"Say something! Stop staring at me like that!"

But he just blinked and sighed with disappointment.

Anti cried outright,  "Say it! Tell me!"

Nothing.

"Brody, please! Just say it!"

"What do you want me to say!?" he finally responded, "They're right. You did so much evil and you deserve everything you're getting. Every bad and anxious feeling, every time you feel sick to your stomach. You deserve it. I'm disappointed in you Anti. You could have done better. But you're just a monster, aren't you?"

"No please" Anti sobbed and floated in the blood as it slowly rose higher and higher. The screams rose louder and louder, "Please  . . . . please"

"PLEASE WHAT, ANTI!?" the egos plus all the people behind them all screamed at him, "WHAT!?"

All just started chanting all sorts of different names for him, describing just what he was, "Monster! You freak! Evil! Glitch Bitch! Fucking psycho! Bastard! Worthless! Pathetic! Stupid Virus! You're nothing! LOOK WHAT YOU DID!!"

The blood started to pull him down as it rose and he sobbed and cried, giving up on fighting it, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm s-sorry. . . . sorry. . . . s. . rry"

The blood carried him under and he started to drown. The blood fought its way into his body and Anti couldn't fight it, letting it drown him. The last thing he could see in his mind was Sean's face glaring at him, disgust in his eyes.

Chase had his phone open. He couldn't sleep. Here it was reaching on five in the morning and his insomnia was worse than ever. He couldn't stop thinking about Anti.

He still hated Sean. . .but he couldn't help but to scroll through some of his videos to try and get him to fall asleep. 

Out of coincidence, he found a few that were about Anti. After Sean's incident with him, he wasn't as perturbed as his egos and used him as another character to act out on his own.

There was one video that seemed to lift his spirits and that was one of the Antisepticeye bloopers where Sean let himself show when trying to look and act like Anti.

Chase wanted to hate Sean so much. . . but looking like that, there was no way. That smile and laugh. It was contagious.

Then he said something that really hurt.

"Well I hope you're happy! And Anti hopes you're happy! He might be a character but he's got a good heart. He wants you all to feel special"

Chase didn't know why but that struck him. Why would Sean just say something like that after Anti tried to kill him? Was there something they didn't know or was Sean just acting still and messing around?

But Chase really wanted to believe it. After gaining emotions with his new human body, Chase really wanted to believe that Anti could be good now. Or at least . . .  a somewhat 'okay' person.

Chase sighed, 'I really hope you're doing okay, Anti. You may have done a lot of fucked up shit but . . . you could have hurt my kids and you didn't. You could have kill me the other day and the rest of the egos but you didn't. Please tell me you've changed. If only just a little. . . .'

Jackie was sifting through camera footage throughout the city. Of COURSE he couldn't just let it go. He had to find out. And he felt as if he was really close to figuring something out even if he didn't want to.

Something strange had popped up on a few scans he made checking for anomalies. One just so happened to be just outside of the building where he worked.

Clicking on that footage, he saw the alley just outside of that building. Like lightening, a man and a little girl appeared in the alley and Jackie held his breathe when he saw the man turn.

'Anti. Yeah, that's him for sure.' Jackie stared at the footage as he disappeared for a few moments leaving the little girl behind before returning and glitching away with her again. 

The whole thing was weird but the biggest thing that threw him off was that the little girl was happy when he returned. Surely he had just hypnotized her though? But why would Anti hang around a child like that? Did he take her? Was he going to kill her or her family?

Jackie swallowed and bit his lip, 'Whatever the reason, the others have to know. I have to call them now'

Chase was just finally drifting off to sleep when he heard something downstairs. He blinked slowly but sat up as quickly as he could. Waking himself up and shaking it off, Chase took a breathe and carefully took out his gun from under his pillow, taking notes from Anti.

Slowly and as quietly as he could, Chase tip-toed to the door and down the stairs. When he got to the stairs, he could hear someone  . . . . someone crying. 

Taking a chance, Chase bolted down, running towards the kitchen where the noise had come from and halted in his tracks when he saw who it was.

There on the floor covered in his own blood and tears was Anti. The man was nearly unrecognizable sobbing uncontrollably. Chase barely registered he was cutting himself with one of the kitchen knives.

"Anti stop!" he raced over and grabbed the knife out of his hand, throwing it aside. Anti didn't even put up a fight and kept crying.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm sor-rrry" He sniffled and started to hiccup, eyes red and puffy from all his crying.

"Anti  . . .  what the hell's happened to you? Come on. Come with me. Get up" Chase didn't know why he was doing it but he wrapped Anti's arm over his shoulders and gently picked him up off the ground, "Come on, now"

Anti clung onto him with his other hand in his shirt, "I'm sorry" he whimpered.

Chase didn't know what was happening but it broke his heart. Once he finally got Anti to the nearest bathroom, he set him on the toilet seat and bust out the first-aid kit to try and stop the bleeding. He didn't make too deep of cuts in his arms that they'd need stitches but they were still ugly. 

Anti was quiet as Chase took care of him and the father took his chance to get a better look at him. He was without a shirt and his hair was as wild as ever. He was covered in self-made wounds and needle-pricks most likely from taking drugs. 

Chase wasn't stupid. Anti was shaking and running a slight fever and was clearly delusional. He was on the verge of overdosing after having a REALLY bad drug trip but thankfully, Chase knew what to do from experience with Henrik helping HIM.

Anti still cried and carried out apology after apology, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Chase finally couldn't take any more of his rambling and tried hushing him, "Shhh. It's okay, Anti. Just take deep breathes and relax, okay? It'll pass, trust me, alright? It'll pass. I'm here for you."

Anti shivered and looked up at him with scared eyes. Completely the opposite of what he'd usually expect from Anti and it haunted him. He looked so much like a child in this moment.

"I'm sorry, Ch-chase. I'm so s-sorry for everything."