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crystalninjaphoenix · 4 years

Text

To Those Who Wait

Septics Inverted

A JSE Fanfic

I said this one would probably be longer, and it is! By quite a bit, actually. After the end of the last part, we jump right into the action. Jack and Sam are in a mysterious other dimension, looking for Anti. Who is there, but so is someone else...and things back in the main world, or whatever you want to call it, soon reach a head as well. Hope you guys enjoy! This one took a long time to write

Read the intro story: Part One | Part Two

Various other AU-related stuff found here

Taglist: @watermelonsinmyattic @asunachinadoll @a-humble-narcissus @odysseus-is-best-boi @acuriousquail @beerecordings @human-being-kinda @romanticslimecreature @samisabigmess @rachelclutch @septic-nebula-art @toboboby @the-parentheticals @rammypaige @amyxmiaplay @rats-this-username-is-taken @immabethehero @eridangan @bupine @violet--majesty

The air was cool. The silence was deep. Jack opened his eyes, and looked up into a crimson sky. He looked down, and the ground was made of small chips of metal, like discarded circuit boards. Blocks of metal stuck out of the ground at uneven intervals, forming a circle that he was standing in the exact center of. A quiet hissing sound filled the air. “Well...this definitely worked,” Jack muttered.

Something wiggled in his hands, and he remembered he was holding tight to Sam, pressing them to his chest. “Oh, sorry,” he said, looking down and opening his hands. “You okay?”

Sam swished their nerve-tail, and looked up at him. Their glow was...weaker. That was a bit worrying. But they assured him they were fine.

“Uh...okay,” Jack said slowly. “But if you feel, I dunno, sick or something, just tell me.” He looked back up, staring at their surroundings. Beyond the circle, there was nothing. Just an endless plain of metal chips and a red sky above. “Man, no wonder Anti prefers to spend time in the real world.”

Jack started walking, but after he took just a few steps, the ground started to shake, suddenly and violently. He staggered and looked down at the ground, just in time for the metal chips to start falling, the ground collapsing. There wasn’t even time for a proper scream, just a strangled gasp, and then he was tumbling, sliding down the metal waterfall, until suddenly landing on solid ground and immediately fall to his side. He once again held Sam close to his chest and curled around them to shield them from any stray chips still falling.

“Jesus fucking...” He trailed off into muttering, looking down at Sam again. “You okay?” Sam shook themself, and said they were fine. Jack let out a slow breath. “Okay. Good.”

Slowly, he stood up. He was now standing in...a theatre? Yes, that’s what it appeared to be. Looking out, he saw rows and rows of seats, rising, with dangling globes of red light illuminating them. He himself was standing on a stage, complete with curtains. Strange...why would he have suddenly fallen into a theatre? Actually, upon looking up, he couldn’t see any space to have fallen from. Just a bunch of overhead lights and rafters. Weird.

And there was more weird about this theatre, too. The curtains dangling on either side of him were in tatters, looking almost as though they were burned. The stage was made of metal, and pitted with holes. Whole sections of seats looked oddly...melted.

Jack walked over to the edge of the stage and slowly lowered himself to the ground. “Oh, I’m getting a bad feeling about this, Sam,” he muttered, looking closely at one of the melted sections. And that was indeed the best word to describe it, the way the chairs drooped and clumped together. Sam agreed that this was bad news.

Cautiously, Jack walked up the aisle, head darting side to side in case anything happened. Nothing did, but he still felt on edge as he approached a pair of double doors around the edge of the room. “Hang on, Sam,” he muttered, slipping them into his hoodie pocket. They didn’t protest.

The doors swung outwards, revealing more of that crimson sky from before. A path twisted downwards, curling and turning in on itself, a sloping path that rested on nothing. It led down onto what looked like a regular city street, if not for the fact that there were no buildings lining the sides. Jack hesitated before stepping onto the path; it just looked like it was floating. But it did hold his weight. He hurried downward and onto the ground.

Only moments after his shoes hit the pavement, the ground shook.

Jack yelled, but managed to keep his balance. He blinked, and suddenly, there were buildings. It now looked like a regular city, except for the floating path he’d just stepped off that led to an empty double-wide doorway. And except for the red sky and the underlying humming sound. And except for the fact that occasionally the buildings would suddenly start to flicker and glitch crazily. If Jack had any doubt that he’d ended up in Anti’s home world, it quickly vanished.

“Okay, now what?” Jack muttered. He patted his pocket. “Sam? What do you think?”

Sam poked out of the pocket and looked around at the city that had suddenly appeared. They replied that this was all very odd, and honestly it didn’t make them feel too good. They actually felt kinda nauseous.

“What? You’re an eyeball, how can you get nauseous?”

Sam said that they didn’t think they could, until now. But maybe if they followed where these glitches were coming from, they would find Anti?

“That makes sense...” Jack said slowly. He looked more carefully at the glitching buildings. Now that he was paying attention, they did seem to sort of be coming from a direction. It was like a wave of glitches would shake its way down the street. Jack headed in that direction, not noticing how the humming sound was getting louder.

After walking for what felt like a long, long while, Jack stopped. “Wait, Sam, I just realized something. Didn’t we read in the notes—the ones from that spirit, Caedmon—didn’t they say something about time not existing here?” He paused. “Wonder what that meant...”

Sam replied that they didn’t know, but that something felt wrong.

“Wrong?” What do you—” Jack cut himself off. There was something happening...in the distance. He squinted down the street. Something was moving. In fact, a lot of things were moving. Jack’s eyes widened as he realized what he was seeing: the glitches from the buildings were growing in intensity, entire houses shuddering rapidly and multiplying, covered in static. And the glitching was approaching. Quite rapidly. “Fuck—!” Jack turned and bolted.

He wasn’t nearly fast enough. The humming grew louder, turning into electronic screeching that could make anyone’s ears bleed. Soon he was swept off his feet, being thrown around by glitches.

The glitch wave crashed onto the ground. Jack landed hard on his back and stared up into the crimson sky, gasping for breath.

“Oh fuck off with that already!”

Jack felt his heart freeze. He recognized that voice.

“I get it, you can throw the place around! Now stop hiding behind this fucking fake city and actually fight me again!“

He looked in the direction it was coming from. Some ways down the street, pretty far away but still clearly within earshot, was Marvin. He had his back to Jack, thankfully, but was still easily recognizable, his hair wild and his cape in tatters. Jack slowly sat up, never taking his eyes off the lone Void.

“I know you’re heeeere!” Marvin looked from side to side, allowing Jack a glimpse of his purple eyes but luckily not noticing Jack himself. “Where are you?”

The static seemed to rise in the air, and it sounded like laughter. And words. “I͏'vé t͏ol͟d ͡yo͢u͝ béf͟ǫr͟e͠,” it said. “I'̕m̨ e͡very͢.͞.̴.wheŗe.” There was the slightest shift in tone in that last word. The barest hint of surprise, as if the voice had just noticed something strange.

Jack stiffened. He knew that voice. But where was it coming from? It certainly sounded like it was coming from everywhere.

Marvin suddenly screamed. “That’s! Not! Funny!” There was a flash of dark purple, and then a few black orbs dripping with violet spun away from Marvin. Some hit nearby walls and burned into the surface, a few melted deep grooves in the street. Jack ducked as one wild orb flew right over his head.

And then once again, the floor gave out.

Jack cried out, but this fall wasn’t nearly as long. He soon landed on a lumpy, soft surface. Pillows? He didn’t have much time to take note of it, because—

“What are you do̸in͞ģ here?! Wait, how did you even g̀ȩt here?!” Anti appeared in front of him, grabbing him by the shoulders and looking him over. “Are you h͢ųr̡t? Oh fuck, I can’t look over e͟ve̛ry̸t͟hi̸n̕g all the time! Especially not with this crazy bitch here! If something in here got you—”

“Anti, I’m fine.” Jack shrugged off his grip. “I, uh...are you alright?” He did his own once-over of Anti. He seemed alright. But he definitely looked different. His eye-patch was missing, letting his green eye shine, and so was his scarf. The wound on his neck slowly dripped blood. Glitches and static constantly tore across his body, making him seem less solid.

“What? I’m fi̧n̨e͝. Why wouldn’t I be?” Anti looked a bit confused. He glitched, and was suddenly standing.

“I dunno, I just—I got worried!” Jack climbed to his feet. “You disappeared off the face of the earth three months ago! Last I heard, you were fighting someone who almost killed you! So I...I came to check on you. Well, me and Sam.” He patted his pocket. “They’re not feeling too good, though.”

Anti stared at him silently. “You...came to check on me?” He asked in a quiet voice.

“Well...yeah,” Jack said. He looked down at his feet. “I mean...you seem alright, so I guess it was nothing, but still, it’s been a while, so—”

“No, no, I—it’s g̨re͡at,” Anti hurried to say. “But...still, h͞o̡w did you even get here?”

“Uuuuuh...it’s a long story.” Jack laughed a bit. “So me and Stacy went back to the cabin, and there was a, uh, magician guy who lives there now. So we told him all about you, cause he already seemed to know something was up, and he helped us summon this, like, ghost magician guy. And the ghost guy told us how to get here.”

“There’s a necromancer living in the cabin now?” Anti asked.

“Yeah, he’s pretty cool. I mean, kind of nerdy, but you know,” Jack said. “Apparently his ancestor knew you, which is crazy, right? Anyway, that’s who we talked to, the ghost was some magician with red magic, called Caedmon—”

“Y͡ou ta͞lk͠e͏d to ́Cáedmo͝n͢?̀!” Anti repeated in an utterly shocked tone.

“Yeah. Tiernan—that’s the necromancer—passed out for like twelve hours afterward.”

Anti stared at Jack, eyes wide. Then he laughed. A spasm of glitches ran through his body. “Oh my gods. Jack...you’re...wow.” He calmed down a bit, and his voice softened. “You...really went to all that ef̧for̢t...just to check on me?”

“Course I did,” Jack said. He tried to shrug it off, but just couldn’t. Not when Anti sounded so touched. “I mean...it wasn’t that hard. And you’re...you’re my best friend. I couldn’t just let you possibly die because of this asshole and his stupid Void powers.”

“Oh...” For once, Anti seemed at a loss for words. “Well...thank you.”

Jack nodded. “You’re welcome.” He hesitated. “So...how are you doing? I mean, you said you were fine, but there’s...still a guy out there...who looks pretty pissed...”

Anti laughed. “Marvin? He has n͟ò̧th̴in̶̢g̸ on me h̴er͞ę.” He paused. “Well, no, not nothing. He’s fucking resilient. And quick. I can’t pin him down long enough to try my plan. You said it’s been three months in the other world?” Anti rolled his eyes. “Well, certainly fucking f̶èel̷s like we’ve been fighting for that long.”

“Huh.” Jack hesitated. “Is...is there any way I can help? I mean, I’m already here. Might as well.”

“Hmm...” Anti flickered with static as he thought. “Maybe...if you could distract him, I might be able to get close enough to—only if you’re sure, of course. I’ve tried distractions before, but he’s dead-set on fighting me. But if it was y̷ou̸ as the diversion...”

Jack hesitated. He didn’t really want to face Marvin. But...if this plan of Anti’s went well, then they’d never have to deal with Marvin again. “Alright, I think I can do that.”

Anti grinned. “Ver̵y̕ gǫo̵d. Now, let’s be quick. Eventually Marvin’s going to be over his outburst. This is what I’m thinking...”

- - - - - - - - - -

The makeshift city was silent, except for the strange humming that was ever-present in the air. The buildings were slowly losing their detail, becoming mere black shapes with a white glow where windows and doors were supposed to be. Marvin stalked through the streets, not caring to notice the changes. Anti had to be here somewhere. He’d stopped with the weird glitch waves, which probably meant he was preparing something else. And if he was busy preparing, then he would be vulnerable.

There was a door up ahead that hadn’t yet lost its definition. Marvin shot a bolt of black violet towards it. The bolt hissed as it made contact, blasting pieces of the door away and melting what remained into a puddle. Behind the empty doorway, Marvin caught a glimpse of something moving. No, someone.

Marvin laughed. “I seeeee you!” He rushed forward into the building, eyes lighting up bright violet as they dripped black liquid. Splashes of black and purple danced around his hands.

The inside of the building was barren, the walls, floor, and ceiling made of a smooth black material. Red light came from bulbs mounted in the ceiling. There was a single door in the wall, made of metal. Someone was trying to pull it open. Marvin’s eyes immediately locked onto him. “Aaaanti, are you running?”

The person at the door jumped, looking over his shoulder. He managed to get the door open and disappeared inside.

“Wait a second...” This was different. Marvin realized, and he laughed. Anti wouldn’t run. He hadn’t ever run before, not the whole time Marvin had been stuck in this weird other dimension. Retreated, yes. But this wasn’t that. Because this wasn’t Anti. “Jack! How did you get here? Checking in on your glitchy friend, I bet. Where are you going? Come back!”

The door was starting to swing shut, but Marvin caught it, swinging it open with force that it slammed against the other wall. The other side was a long room, walls similarly made of black. It was probably meant to be a hallway, but it was void of any distinguishing features. Marvin glanced down at the other end. There was a staircase, barely distinguishable against the rest of the black room. Jack ran towards it, heading upward. Marvin grinned. “Stop running! I just want to talk! I just want to taaaalk!” He ran after him, heading up the stairs. Yet strangely, it felt like he was heading downward.

The staircase emerged from...a hole in the ground? That was what it looked like, at least. The ground was made of dirt, and the ceiling of the next room up was supported by rafters one might find in a basement. Bare bulbs dangled from chains, lighting up the small room. There were no doors or windows leading out. Jack was pressed against the opposite wall, hands running over the smooth surface. Upon hearing Marvin, he spun around, eyes wide. “No!” He pressed his back against the wall.

Marvin grinned wildly. “Hello Jack. How long’s it been? Feels like forever. I can’t keep track of the time in a place like this.”

“H-hey...back off!” Jack stammered.

“Why should I?” Marvin laughed, and started approaching. “Are you going to stop me? Couldn’t do much last time, could you?”

Jack flinched. He pressed closer against the wall—and suddenly it spun around. Like an entrance to a secret passage in an old movie, the wall rotated on an axis, and suddenly Jack was gone. Something clicked.

“What?!” Marvin ran forward, pounding against the wall. “Fuck this! Fuck this whole world and its fucking traps and illusions and nothing making sense!” He screamed in frustration, and hurled a blast of dark violet at the wall. The magic slid right off the black material it was made of. “Oh, of fucking course you’ve figured out some fucking way to make it resistant to my magic! Well fuck you! You don’t know the spells I have!”

Marvin stepped back against the opposite wall. He raised his hands above his head and closed his eyes. Violet magic began to gather, droplets clustering together and running down his arms, becoming a sphere of running purple magic that was black at its center. Marvin shouted, and threw his arms down. The sphere flew across the room at the opposite wall, gaining size as it went. It was almost the size of a person by the time it slammed against the wall, spattering everywhere in a bright violet explosion.

As the magic faded away, Marvin walked up to the wall again. It still looked mostly solid, just with a few dents. Except for near the bottom. It appeared the spell had been concentrated there. A small hole had been blasted through the thick material, smoking at the edges. Much too small for a person to get through, but maybe big enough for something else.

Marvin hesitated for a moment. Was this really worth it? He quickly decided that it was. Jack had somehow slipped away last time he tried to grab him, he wouldn’t let him do so again. Besides, if Jack got in here, maybe he knew a way out. So Marvin took a deep breath, and cast a spell.

Soon, a cat slipped through the hole in the bottom of the wall. A black longhair cat with four white spots on its forehead, its eyes glowing purple. The room beyond was dark, but the cat could see easily. It was a small area, about the size of a closet, and packed with pipes winding around the room, filling the little empty space there was. Jack was huddled in the corner. It wasn’t clear how he’d gotten through all the pipes, but given how this world could change at the flip of a dime, Marvin assumed the pipes had suddenly appeared.

The cat flattened his ears against his head, and started navigating through the pipes, easily squeezing through the small spaces left. What was he going to do once he got close enough? There wasn’t enough room to turn back to human form, and he couldn’t cast most spells in an animal form. But perhaps that had changed, now that he had all this new power. Yes, that made sense. Why would he be limited by shape now? Limits were a thing of the past. He started getting ready for a teleportation spell.

The air in the room started humming, vibrating with a low current of electricity.

Jack looked up, noticing the glowing purple eyes that were getting closer. “Wait, Marvin, let’s talk about this!” He said in a hushed yell.

Marvin purred, amused. Silly Jack. He can’t talk in animal form. He kept getting closer, climbing through a particularly tight gap in the pipes. All he needed was to get close enough to teleport the two of them away.

The electricity increased, causing the fur along Marvin’s tail to stand up. He didn’t notice.

“No no no, wait!” Jack tried to back up, hitting the corner. “Look, I can—I can get you out of here!”

Yes, that was the plan. Marvin lunged through one last hole in the pipes, landing on Jack’s lap. Immediately, he tried to activate the teleportation.

Instead, a strong electric shock ran through his body.

Marvin yowled, jumping backwards—right into a waiting pair of arms. He hissed, claws shooting out as he looked up, right into a glowing green eye.

“He̸͟ļ̀l͏͠o,” Anti grinned.

Green lightning shot through the air. Anti dissolved into shadows and static, yet still held tight to Marvin as he clawed and squirmed. The air was filled with electronic screeching. Jack clamped his hands over his ears. Flashes of green and purple light burst with a snap! and so he closed his eyes too.

All of a sudden, the screeching and flashing stopped. And there was laughter. “You can look n̡o̷w, Jack.”

Jack opened his eyes. Except the room was completely dark. “Uh...no I can’t.”

“What? Oh. Hang on.” The humming sound returned. Suddenly, the room fell apart, opening up like a paper diorama turning back into the two-dimensional plan it was made of. The walls hit the ground silently, seamlessly merging into a plane of blackness, lit up by scarlet light pouring from the sky. Anti grinned. “Here we are.” He chuckled. “Lo̢o͡k a͏t̵ th̛is͏.”

There was a black cat, four white dots on its forehead, lying on the floor. It slowly stood up, shaking its head and looking around. Its eyes were green.

Jack stared, still a little wary. The cat looked up at him and hissed. There was a moment of silence. Then the cat looked back down, turning its head side to side and walking in circles. It seemed confused.

“So it worked then?” Jack asked. “You took his magic?”

“No, I didn’t t̢a͝ke his magic,” Anti said. “Gods, how fucked up would that be? I just locked it away so he can’t use it.”

Jack nodded. “So now he can’t turn back.”

“Exac̀tly̧.͡”

The cat’s—Marvin’s—eyes suddenly widened, almost comically. He let out a loud scream, and turned around and started attacking Anti’s leg. Anti looked unconcerned with this, and merely bent over to pick him up, ignoring the way Marvin struggled and tried to climb out of his arms.

Jack couldn’t help but chuckle. “And we’re sure this was the best idea?”

Anti nodded. “According to Dark, the options were to kill him or somehow keep him from using magic. Dark might’ve been fine with the former, but it’s always a last resort.” He paused, expression falling. “If we’d kept fighting...”

The unfinished sentence lingered in the air.

Anti shook his head and continued. “And if we left him as a human, he would just find some ǫt͠he͞r way to cause trouble, maybe even unlock his magic again.” He looked down at the squirming cat clawing at his arm. “Wo̢u̢l̷dn't y͢ou?”

Marvin snarled.

Jack nodded slowly. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t glad that Marvin wasn’t able to cause trouble anymore. He just wanted to make sure that they’d made the right choice.

Something squirmed in his pocket, and Sam poked out. They said that this was all well and good, but they were feeling very...bad. Could they please leave this place?

“Oh shit. Yeah, of course.” Jack pulled Sam out, looking them over. Their glow was barely visible. “Anti, we have to get out of here. Sam’s not feeling too good.”

Anti nodded. “Of course.” He bent over. Suddenly, there was a cat carrier sitting on the ground. Anti dumped Marvin through the hole in the top, quickly zipping it up as the cat tried to inch his way out. “We’re bringing this a̷ssho̷l̵e̶,” he muttered. “I’m sick of having him running around here.”

“Understandable, have a nice day,” Jack said.

Anti chuckled tiredly. “Okay, so where did you come into here from? You were in the old cabin?”

“Yeah, in the room off the left hallway. It’s a storage now, for magic shit.”

“Nice.” Anti considered this. “I think I can aim for there.” He reached to the side, and his scarf, his patch, and a roll of bandages suddenly appeared in his hand. “Don’t wanna freak out anyone there,” he explained, wrapping up his neck. “Can you grab the bitch kitty?”

Marvin hissed, and rammed against the side of the cat carrier.

“Got it,” Jack said, picking up the handles of the carrier. “Let’s go. I’m sure the others are worried.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Footsteps sounded down the hall, and Stacy threw the door to the room open. “What happened?! It sounded like a bomb went off! Wait…” Her eyes scanned the area. “Where’s Jack?”

“Um…” Frederick laughed nervously. “He may have…convinced me to do the spell.”

Stacy blinked. “The spell to send him to another dimension? That we couldn’t get him back from?”

Frederick nodded hesitantly.

“What the actual fuck?!”

Everything seemed to freeze for a moment, as if someone pressed pause on real life. All of a sudden, static built up in the corner, the world stuttering. And in an instant—

“Shit!” Jack stumbled as he partially landed on a pile of boxes, which then clattered to the floor. Marvin yowled as he dropped the carrier. Anti, standing next to Jack, helped steady him. Sam wriggled out of Jack’s pocket and flew up, stuttering a bit in flight until they landed in a nearby box. They stopped moving. It was clear they were ready for a long rest.

Stacy’s head snapped toward the corner. She blinked. “...well. I guess he can come back.” She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Hey Jack?”

“Hi Stace,” Jack said, waving.

“What were you thinking?!” Stacy shouted. “You can’t just jump into another dimension!”

“Hey, it worked out!” Jack flashed a smile. “Look, Anti’s here! He’s okay. We even, uh...dealt with the problem. Sorry to worry you. We must’ve been gone a while.”

Frederick, previously gaping blatantly at Anti and the way he glitched, looked over at Jack. “Um...actually, that was about twenty seconds. At most.”

“Wait, what?” Jack asked, confused.

“Time is inconsistent between here and there,” Anti explained idly, looking over Frederick. “So. Are you the magician who lives here now?”

“Me? No, I just stopped by,” Frederick said. “Tiernan lives here, he’s still asleep. I’m Frederick. And you’re Anti?”

Anti nodded. “So you sent Jack to find me.”

“...yes?” Frederick said slowly.

“Well. Thank you,” Anti said shortly. “Hello again, Stacy.”

“Hi, Anti,” Stacy said. “You’re, uh. Alright. That’s good to know.”

Anti didn’t answer, looking around the room. “This place sure has changed,” he muttered.

“Oh boy, you haven’t even seen the rest of the house yet,” Jack chuckled. “C’mon, let’s not stand around in a storage room where we could easily knock over more boxes.”

Back in the living room, Tiernan was still napping on the sofa, and Jackie and Heather were talking quietly. Heather glanced over as the group reentered the room. “Oh hey! What happened?” she asked. “Wait, who’s the new guy? A second Jack? Or maybe a second Jackie, given the eye-patch, haha. Wait, no. I’m an idiot. You’re Anti, aren’t you?”

“An—!” Jackie turned around with so much force that he almost fell off the chair. “Fuck!” He suddenly clutched his side and hissed. “Stupid fucking...” The phrase trailed off as he looked back up at Anti, face wary.

Anti stared at Jackie coldly. “Jack failed to mention you were here.”

“Sorry,” Jack said. “But, uh, it’s fine, he’s...cool.” Jackie flinched a bit at the slight hesitation before the word.

The cat carrier suddenly jolted. Marvin meowed, clawing at the mesh sides, and gave Jackie a look that screamed let me out so I can claw out your other eye.

Jackie stared at it, then suddenly shot to his feet. “Wait a second! I recognize—you—Marvin—!”

“Oh yeah, we turned Marvin into a cat,” Jack said, holding tight to the carrier handles.

Frederick whipped over to look at him. “You did what?!”

“We did not turn him into a cat!” Anti corrected hurriedly. “He turned himself into a cat, then I sealed his magic.”

“You can’t just leave someone as an animal!” Frederick protested.

“Look pretty boy, do you want the Void who burned your hand off running around?!” Anti yelled. “No? I didn’t think so!”

“Wait...” Frederick took a step back. “How do you know Marvin did that?”

“I recognize you,” Anti said, looking Frederick over. “It took me a moment, but I do. I dropped you off at that ABIM hospital. Tricky business, making sure no one saw me, and it could’ve easily ended badly. But it seems it was worth it, since you sent Jack to my home.”

Frederick stared at Anti. “You...did that?”

“Yes, I did. Please keep up.” Anti folded his arms. “I had to take my eyes off the Void to do so, too, who knows what could’ve happened in that time?”

“...oh. Well.” Frederick coughed. “Thank you. They said I would’ve died. If you...if you ever need anything—”

“No, you don’t owe me something,” Anti interrupted. “I didn’t do it in the hopes of getting a favor someday.”

Frederick let out a small breath and smiled. “If you insist.”

Jackie had an odd expression on his face. Without another word, he pushed past the rest of the group, muttering something about needing air. He then headed into the hallway. Frederick stared after him, concerned, and followed.

Jack set the cat carrier on the coffee table. Heather scooted her chair closer, staring at Marvin inside. “Y’know, he’s kind of cute, for an evil magician.”

“Clearly it’s a trick,” Stacy drawled. “Get you to lower your guard.” She glared at Marvin. “So that he can get inside a diner and fight a glitch right in front of you.”

“Huh. That’s an oddly specific example,” Heather said.

“Never mind,” Stacy chuckled. “It’s a long story.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Jackie leaned against the wall, feeling a bit dizzy. Everything was happening so fast. In just this day alone, he’d followed Jameson around Ireland, met up with Jack again, and now Anti and Marvin were here. After three months of being on his own, he was meeting up with everyone from his past in such a short time period...and they all hated him.

But wasn’t that justified? Well, for Jack and Anti, at least. He’d stood by while Jack had been hypnotized, traumatized, for two years. And in that same time period, he’d fought Anti countless times for the crime of just trying to get his friend back and stop the actual criminals in the city...criminals that included Jackie himself.

Of course, Marvin was just an asshole who’d always hated him. But...he’d hated Jackie because Jackie was a do-gooder, right? Who kept getting in his way. And who...kept lying about being a do-gooder...even to himself...when he clearly wasn’t...

Jackie felt hot tears start to gather in his eye. He quickly wiped them away before they could even fall.

“Jackie?”

“Wh—” Jackie spun around. Frederick was in the hallway. “H-hey,” he mumbled. “I’m fine, I just...needed a moment.”

Frederick frowned. “No, you’re not fine.”

Jackie didn’t answer.

“Hey.” Frederick walked up to him. “What’s wrong?”

A lot. A lot was wrong. He felt like he was spiraling out of control, down a pit in his own mind as the foundations he’d built his life on spun out from under him. He was starting to realize he...he didn’t save people. Though he claimed he did, it was a lie. He was now seeing people who really helped others, and interacting with the people he’d wronged and hurt, directly and indirectly. And then Anti...he’d never liked Anti, but here he was, having apparently saved someone’s life for no reason other than it was the right thing to do, even putting his own plan in trouble to do so. Jackie never would’ve done that. “I...” he started to say, choking on the words. “I think I might be a bad person.”

Frederick fell silent for a while. “You’ve made some bad choices,” he said in a soft voice. “You know this now. So...what are you going to do about it?”

Jackie jolted, looking up at Frederick. He wasn’t expecting that. He’d been expecting—seeking—reassurance, but not...that. It...it stung a bit. But...

‘What are you going to do about it?’

Reassurance would’ve done nothing. It wouldn’t have rang true, anyway. But...he could do something about it. He could do something about this realization. Perhaps...now that he’d faced the truth...he could find some way to change.

From the living room, someone shouted.

Frederick’s head snapped back towards the sound. “Heather?!” He looked back at Jackie, and the two of them ran back to the other room.

Heather, Stacy, Jack, and Anti had gathered around the living room window. Upon hearing the others return, Heather looked back over at them. “I-I saw—I saw Yvonne!”

“What?!” Frederick rushed over, pressing against the window with the others. Jackie followed more slowly. Outside looked mostly the same. Except for a few wisps of blue light dancing in the breeze. “That’s her magic,” Frederick recognized. “She’s here!”

“What? Why is she here?” Jackie asked. “Does that mean—”

Heather pushed through the group and ran out the front door.

“Heather! Wait! Shit!” Frederick looked at the others. “If Yvonne is still hypnotized, who knows how she’ll react to seeing her? She could attack!” And without another word, Frederick followed Heather in running outside.

“Who’s this Yvonne?” Anti asked.

“She’s a magician,” Jackie explained. “Heather’s sister, and Frederick’s partner.” He hesitated. “Jameson got to her.”

“Fuck,” Anti cursed, jittering with glitches. “If he got to her, and she’s here, then he’s not far away.” He backed away from the window. “I have to find him.” And he glitched away.

Jack also backed away from the window, dread pooling in his stomach. “Jameson is...here?”

Jackie glanced over at him. “I...Don’t worry, Jack, I’ll go look for him, too.” He took a deep breath, and headed out the front door.

Stacy remained looking out the window. If she pressed her face to the glass and looked to the side, she could barely make out flashes of emerald and sky blue light. She glanced back at Jack. “Should we go help?”

Jack shook his head. “No, I-I don’t think we should. And I...don’t...want to.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “We’ll stay here and make sure Marvin doesn’t get into trouble.

Back on the coffee table, Marvin stopped his efforts to shove the cat carrier onto its side. He meowed, somehow sounding like a spoiled kid caught in the act of stealing from the snack jar.

“Good idea,” Stacy said.

- - - - - - - - - -

Anti zipped around the edge of the clearing in energy form. Jameson, where was Jameson? There was a strange car on the road, partly hidden in the trees. That must be how he and the magician got here.

Speaking of the magician, it seems there was a magician’s duel brewing. Yvonne, hair faded and eyes clouded, was hurling blasts of blue magic at Frederick, who conjured a shield just in time to cover himself and Heather. He sent a rope of green magic around it, wrapping around Yvonne’s waist. She sheared it off, and sent a blue breeze at Frederick’s unprotected legs, knocking him over. Heather ran forward, shouting something, tears in her eyes. Yvonne paused for the slightest moment, then sent a blast at her. It was quickly diverted by a shoot of magic from Frederick.

Jackie was outside, too, heading in the fight’s direction but staying at a safe distance. He scanned the nearby area, perhaps assuming that Jameson would be nearby.

Which he should be, shouldn’t he? He wouldn’t leave his puppet behind. After all, he hated to lose him.

Anti continued his search. Jameson couldn’t be too far.

- - - - - - - - - -

Jack sighed, and took a seat in one of the armchairs. He glanced at the sofa. “Man...Tiernan’s a really heavy sleeper, huh?”

“He’s been exhausted,” Stacy said, shrugging from her position near the window.

“Still, didn’t he wake up for a bit?”

“Yeah, and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night because I hear a noise or something. Then I fall back asleep, especially if I had a long day.”

Jack nodded. “That makes sense.” He sighed. “Maybe we should go help—”

{/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\}

Stacy collapsed to the floor, landing hard on her side. Jack instinctively tensed, but the gesture was useless, as he slumped back against the chair, unable to move. But his heart was racing. This had happened before. This had happened before. This had—

Footsteps sounded down the hall. Jameson entered the room, looking as proper as ever, watch clutched in his hand. His gaze swept the area. {Well. Isn’t this an interesting sight? It’s been a while, you two, hasn’t it?}

Jack’s eyes locked onto him. His instincts screamed at him to run, but his muscles wouldn’t move. Not again not again not again not—

{I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m not sure how long my distraction will last.} Jameson smiled, returning Jack’s gaze. {Perhaps we could catch up another time. You and I could have a talk.} He looked away, and turned his attention to the cat carrier on the table. Quietly, he walked over to it and leaned over, looking inside.

Marvin backed up, hissing. He turned and once again tried to knock over the carrier, but Jameson reached out and grabbed the handles, righting it at the last moment.

Jack wanted to scream. He wanted to yell for the others to come back, or even to ask what Jameson wanted. But it was impossible.

Jameson tipped his hat. {Until we meet again, farewell.} And, whistling a jaunty tune under his breath, he turned and left the way he came.

Silence filled the house.

Two minutes passed.

Five.

Ten.

Fifteen.

Jack counted them on the clock mounted on the wall, glancing at it every so often. The hands on its face moved steadily, ticking softly. The sound sent panic through his veins.

The front door slammed open. Frederick and Heather stumbled inside, Yvonne draped between them, not unconscious but seeming unresponsive. Her eyes were no longer cloudy. Jackie followed shortly after. “Hey, so we—” Frederick started to say. Then he stopped. “What happened here?!”

Jackie looked at Stacy, who was unmoving on the floor, and Jack, whose eyes darted back and forth. “Jameson was here,” Jackie muttered. “He did this. Wait a moment.” He looked at the coffee table. “Where’s Marvin?!”

The air broke. Anti appeared. “I couldn’t find—” He then looked around the scene, and his expression darkened as he quickly came to the same conclusion as Jackie. “How?! I was looking all over! Constantly!”

“I don’t know!” Jackie said. “But he took Marvin!”

“So he did,” Anti growled. He glitched over to Jack’s side. “I think I can get rid of this. Give me a moment.” After hesitating for a second, Anti’s hand turned into pixels, and he reached into the side of Jack’s head. Jack immediately shuddered, then jerked and bolted upright. “Jack, are you alright?”

Jack didn’t answer, leaning over the arm of the chair and shivering. He held up his hand, asking for a moment. Anti nodded, and glitched over to Stacy, doing the same thing.

Stacy sat up. “Oh god...that was...” She shook her head.

“It was a trap...” Heather muttered. “We got Yvonne back, but...that magician cat...”

“He’s gone,” Frederick finished grimly. “He probably can’t do much while his magic is locked—and he’s, you know, a cat—but that Jameson guy...he probably has a plan.”

“He definitely has a plan,” Anti confirmed. “That’s the kind of person he is. A little schemer.”

“Fuck him!” Jack suddenly shouted. He pounded his fist against the arm of the chair. “Fuck! Him! I hate him! He should just go off and—and—” The words dried up in his throat, and he blinked back tears. He buried his face in the back of the chair.

Anti looked at him and walked over, sitting on the chair’s arm. He put his hand on Jack’s back, leaning closer. “We’ll get rid of him,” he said in a voice low enough for only Jack to hear. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Well...I guess we can’t do anything right now,” Frederick said slowly.

Jackie nodded. “I guess we just...make sure Yvonne is alright, and...and then we can look at what to do next.”

“Yeah...yeah, that’s a good plan,” Heather said. “Fengge, you and I should find Yvonne somewhere to rest, since Tiernan took the couch.”

“There’s a bedroom that way,” Stacy said, pointing down the hall. “Actually, I’ll show you.” She climbed to her feet and headed out, Frederick and Heather following her.

Jackie glanced over at Anti and Jack, then silently also left, heading in the opposite direction the others went. “I...I’m going to...think,” he mumbled.

Soon after the others were gone, Jack took a deep breath, and straightened. “Thanks,” he said, not sure what he was saying thanks for. He fell silent, staring out the living room window. “Anti...” he said slowly. “What did you mean by...get rid of him?”

Anti didn’t answer for a bit. “Jameson is a bit more complicated than Marvin is,” he said quietly. “There are questions there that...I still don’t know the answer to.” He paused, and looked back at Jack. “But he won’t hurt you again.”

Jack nodded. “That...that would be ideal.” He chuckled a bit.

Anti grinned, and started to laugh too. “It would, wouldn’t it?” The smile faded. “Well...we’ll find a way. It’s going to be alright. I promise.”

Jack sighed, and said nothing. The two of them stared out the window and let the time pass.

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