Part Eight of the Switch AU
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of an ongoing fic series I started in April 2019. Schneep runs into Distorter, and comes away mostly unscathed. Though, later, he has to admit it was more serious than he initially thought.]
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“Henrik, what are you doing back there?”

Schneep pulled off his headphones, stuffing them back in his backpack. God, he really had to be more aware of his surroundings when back here. He managed to zip up his pack just as Jennifer, his coworker, poked her head into the back room. “Just listening to music.”

“Well, alright. It’s almost lunch, though, so you might want to get out here.” Jennifer disappeared again.

“Understood.” Schneep pushed his backpack behind the nearest table. They should really get lockers in the back room. Not only would it be convenient, not only would it prevent random thefts, but it would save him a lot of worrying. He didn’t like thinking about people finding the police scanner he hid in his backpack and listened to on break. That would be awkward at best, and a giveaway of his secret vigilante identity at worst. He sighed. He was basically having to juggle two full-time jobs, and sometimes it was more stressful than he thought it was worth.

But then again, if he didn’t have a job he wouldn’t be able to afford an apartment AND superhero gear. He kept that in mind as he pulled on his apron and headed back out into the front of the coffee shop. Jennifer, manning the percolators, glanced at him. “Hey. So before you do any sort of work, I think someone just walked in who’d want to see you.” She grinned, and jerked her head towards the entrance.

“Hmm? Oh.” Schneep smiled. He approached the counter, waving down the pair who’d just entered. “Hello Anti. And William, nice to see you. What brings you here?”

“Came to see if they’d fired you yet,” Anti said, grinning.

“Ha! No such luck, I am afraid.”

William jumped, red curls bouncing as he gripped the edge of the counter. “Hi Uncle Hen!”

“Also I need a hot chocolate,” Anti added. “Small size. And a medium ristretto.”

“And a cake pop?” William asked hopefully.

“Alright, fine,” Anti agreed. “But just for today.”

“Ah, I’d think you only use me for my connections, Anti,” Schneep muttered with a smile, writing down the order on two cups. He turned to leave, but found Jennifer interrupting him, taking the cups with a smile and a glance. “Oh! Okay, I suppose we can talk.”

“Nice.” Anti looked down at Will. “Hey, kid? Want to go find a comfy seat while we wait?”

“Yeah!” Will jumped up one more time before scurrying off.

“So, what is the occasion?” Schneep asked.

“Well, Will just started spring term, so I promised him a treat if he got through the first week,” Anti said. “And it’s all cold outside, so hot chocolate made sense.”

“Is unusually snowy, I will say that,” Schneep agreed. “It was very cold walking to the bus earlier.”

“Yeah, I know. Nearest stop’s like fifteen minutes away from here, I have no idea how you manage to do that every day in winter, it totally sucked today.”

“I have been colder.” Schneep shrugged. “Do you have any plans today?”

“Nothing new. Maybe some more recording.” Anti suddenly perked up. “Oh. Hey, how are you liking that game I told you to play?”

Schneep froze, suddenly glaring at him. “I hate you.”

“Whaaaat? Why?” Anti was trying very hard not to laugh.

“I knew something was up from the very beginning. I thought, wow, it is odd that he told me to play this since it’s very cute, there must be some dark twist inside it. But then!” Schneep threw a hand in the air. “I got too attached to them! And I was not expecting the entire second half! The game just decided to kill everyone and it was terrible!”

Anti was giggling now. “But you had fun, right?”

“It was…interesting,” Schneep conceded. “I can see why it is your favorite, it does all those programming things. And it was honestly scary.”

“Great! Now you can check out the videos I did on it,” Anti said cheerfully. “Who do you like best?”

Schneep rolled his eyes. “Actually, I liked Monika. She was very…fascinating. I wondered a lot about her.”

“That’s fair. I like Natsuki.”

“Really? I think you have more in common with Yuri.”

“You’re only saying that because of the knives.” Anti hesitated for a second. “I do…relate to her the most. But that doesn’t make her personality interesting.”

“I am never playing any game you tell me to play ever again,” Schneep mumbled. “I am never trusting you ever.”

“When should you ever trust me?” Anti grinned. “Anyway, do you have any plans today? Since you asked about mine.”

Schneep looked at the clock mounted on the wall. “Well, my shift ends in two and a half hours, and after I get home Jackie is coming over.”

“Oh? And you didn’t invite me. Wait!” Anti held up a finger, thinking. “This is that thing you told me about last week. Batman movies?”

Schneep nodded. “If you have changed your mind you are free to come. We plan on ordering pizza.”

“Hmm, tempting. But I think I’ll pass.”

“If you insist.” Schneep glanced away. “Hey, I think Jennifer has your order now.”

“Oh? So she does.” Anti looked over. “You like her?”

“She is friendly, yes,” Schneep said slowly.

“Good, I don’t need to be a bi—a jerk about anything.” Anti grinned again. “Heh, there are kids here. Anyway, text you later?”

“Sure. I will see you.”
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Two hours and forty-five minutes later, Schneep walked outside to find dusk waiting for him. He scowled vaguely at the sky. It was barely five o’clock. Stupid winter nights. The sun hadn’t set yet, but he had a hunch it would if he waited around for an hour. But he had no intention of waiting that long. He zipped up his coat, adjusted his scarf, made sure his backpack was secure on his shoulders, and started walking.

Fifteen minutes. It was only fifteen minutes walking to the bus stop. What could happen in fifteen minutes? Apparently a lot. About halfway to the stop, a pair of hands reached out and pulled Schneep into the gap between two buildings.

Schneep cried out, but found a hand covering his mouth. Instincts kicked in, and he stomped down hard on the assailant’s foot, simultaneously jabbing his elbow backwards. The hands released, and he gasped, looking around. There was no one in sight. Or at least, no one he could see in the shadows. He shook his head, and started towards the street, only for his vision to waver and blur. Between one blink and the next, he was suddenly staring at a wall. He turned around, looking back towards the street, only for the same thing to happen again.

He groaned. Not again. “Okay, where are you?” he said, spinning around. “I know it’s you.”

Silence. And then the slight sound of laughter. “/Clever boy./” The world suddenly shifted its view as the illusions faded away. Distorter was leaning against one of the building walls by the entrance to the street. Still smiling. Still dripping blood from his eyes and the wound on his head. “/You know, there’s one good thing about you. /It’s so easy to make fake things in your mind./ Because of your…/” He twirled a finger beside his head, the sign for cuckoo. “/You know?/”

Schneep flinched, then growled. “You gang up on me when I am walking home? Really? Were you getting tired of having an even playing ground?” All the past times he’d fought Distorter had been at night, when he was out on patrol and had his suit and gear with him. But now? He didn’t have anything. And that made him wary.

“/I like how you make everything about you. /And let’s be honest, were you really doing such a good job before?/” Distorter pushed away from the wall, reaching above his head and stretching backwards. And kept bending backwards, until several cracks echoed through the alleyway. Schneep took a few steps backwards. Distorter laughed, righting himself. “/Don’t worry, this’ll only take a few minutes./”

“No thank you.” Schneep turned around and ran, intending to make it to the other end of the alley and out onto the street. But he only got a few steps in before he ran into something solid with a smack! He stumbled backwards, rubbing his forehead as the world shifted again, showing how he’d been running right into a wall.

Distorter laughed. “/Wow, I wish I had a video of that. /I could play it in a loop./”

“Motherfucker,” Schneep said, glaring at him.

“/Oh, I know. /Now stay still./” Distorter took one step backwards, and then launched forwards.

Schneep yelled in surprise, ducking to the ground and rolling out of the way before he even knew what he was doing. Distorter crashed against the wall, but didn’t seem bothered by it in the slightest, just pushing away for a second attack. Schneep scrambled to his feet, backing up while keeping one hand against the wall to make sure it was really there. The moment Distorter was in range he shot out with a fist, connecting solidly with his face. Distorter stumbled back, then laughed. He suddenly dropped to the ground like a ragdoll. Schneep found his feet being pulled out from under him. He cried out as he fell to the ground, barely managing to catch himself before he could hit the back of his head against the cement.

“/Wow, not so tough without your lightning gadgets, are you?/” Distorter’s nails were digging into his shoulder, blood dripping on Schneep’s face from the creature’s eyes and nose. “/Now stay. /STILL./”

Schneep managed to fling an arm out, fist connecting with the side of Distorter’s head, snapping it to the left. “If you want to kill me, I will not go down without fighting.”

Distorter recovered easily, grin unphased. “/Who said I wanted you dead?/ Well, YET./”

Schneep opened his mouth to retort, but instead suddenly gasped as he felt a sharp pain in his midsection. For a moment, it felt like a strong punch, and then he felt wet leaking.

“/Have fun with that./” And between one blink and the next, Distorter seemed to disappear.

Schneep climbed into a sitting position, pressing a hand to the painful spot. Did…did Distorter just stab him? That…was different. He couldn’t remember that creature ever using a knife before. Slowly, with the help of the nearby wall, he stood up and walked back out onto the street. He looked down. It wasn’t bleeding too badly. And he’d been stabbed before, and this didn’t feel like the worst wound he’d had. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. He unwound the scarf from around his neck, unzipped his coat—no, this was his only winter coat, and it had just been ruined!—and pressed the balled-up scarf to the wound. He had a first aid kit at home. He could probably get there quickly, provided the bus was on time.

Wait, the bus! Schneep reached into his pocket with one hand, withdrawing his phone and checking the time. Oh, good, he should still be able to get to the stop before it came. He replaced his phone, zipped his coat again, and started off.

Part of him thought it was ridiculous that he wasn’t calling anyone. But it didn’t seem too bad. Nothing he hadn’t survived before. Maybe he could just handle it by himself, without needing to bother anyone.
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And once he got back to the apartment, it seemed like it wasn’t anything to worry about. The wound was small, probably from a small blade, and he managed to bandage it up well enough. He hadn’t lost a lot of blood, and he got to the bus stop without much difficulty. Despite the searing pain, it was probably fine.

Probably.

“Okay, I know I am bullshitting myself,” Schneep said, glaring at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. “But Jackie is coming over, and if it really starts to cause problems, he is a doctor. He can help.” Though he’d feel terrible about ruining what was supposed to be a fun night. “It will be fine, I promise.” His reflection didn’t answer any of his ramblings.

He’d arrived back at his apartment at about 5:40. Jackie arrived twenty minutes later, at six. “Okay, so we’re good to go all night,” he said the moment Schneep opened the door. “I don’t have a shift tomorrow, so we can stay up late and watch all three.”

“I doubt you’d make it that long,” Schneep muttered fondly, standing aside to let Jackie in.

“Hey! Not everyone’s a night owl.” Jackie breezed past him, then paused, standing in the center of the studio apartment. “It’s kind of hot in here, did you turn up the thermostat?”

“Oh, yes. Because it is cold outside.” It didn’t feel too hot to him. He was actually a little chilly, slightly shivering as he closed the apartment door.

“Huh. Won’t the landlord charge you for that?”

“I do not think so.”

“If you say so.” Jackie pulled off his hoodie, draping it over the back of the nearest chair. “Still hot, though.”

Schneep decided to change the subject. “So are we ordering food now, or do we wait until we actually have the movie set up?”

“We can set it up first.” Jackie flopped onto the sofa.

“Alright. Don’t hurry to help or anything.”

Jackie hesitated. “Did you want me to, or…?”

“No, it was joke, don’t worry. I will get it.” Schneep joined Jackie over in the living room section of the apartment. He bent down to turn on the TV, but when he stood up, a dagger of pain from his wound suddenly flared. He hissed, hand instinctively pressing against it.

Jackie sat up straight. “What was that?”

“Is nothing, I just…pulled a muscle at work today,” Schneep said, coming up with something on the spot.

“You work at a coffee shop,” Jackie stated.

“Well, yes, but sometimes we have to carry boxes and bags of ingredients from storage to the front.” That wasn’t a lie, at least.

“And that would result in…you pulling a muscle. In your stomach. And not your back or your knees, which is where that would usually happen.” Jackie raised an eyebrow.

“…yes,” Schneep said after a long pause.

“Okay, what happened?”

Schneep sighed. He should’ve known better than to hide anything from Jackie, He had a sort of sixth sense when it came to something being wrong with his friends. “It is nothing to worry about. I got pulled into an alleyway walking home.”

“Pulled into a what? Like a mugging?”

“Yes, like that.” Schneep pressed his hand against the wound again. “The man had a knife, and he used it.”

“You’ve been stabbed?!” Jackie shot to his feet.

“I took care of it!” Schneep hurried to say. “It was not bad!”

“There’s no such thing as a ‘not bad’ stabbing! Here, sit down, I want to look at it.”

Schneep sighed. Well, at least this’ll be quick. Then Jackie could stop worrying and the two of them could relax. Schneep sat down on the couch. “Happy?”

“Yes. Now pull up your shirt so I can look at it.” Jackie waited patiently while Schneep did so. “You actually did a really good job wrapping. Unfortunately, I have to undo your hard work.” Jackie sat down next to him, slowly unwinding the white bandages.

Schneep tried to stay very still, despite the way the pain would surge every time he shifted weight. This was actually worse than the walk home. How was that possible? Maybe shock, or something like that. After a moment of silence, Jackie placed his hand against Schneep’s stomach. “Ah!” Schneep instinctively pulled down his shirt. “Jackie, your hands are cold, do not do that!”

“Okay, that’s weird,” Jackie said, not responding to what Schneep said. “Lean forward.” He put his hand against Schneep’s forehead. “Um…I don’t think it’s my hands that are cold, I think it’s you.” He bit his lip. “I think…did you lose a lot of blood?”

“Not a lot. There was not a lot of bleeding, and I had something pressed against it a lot of the time.”

“Weird…” Jackie leaned back, thinking. “You’re cold, and also you look like you’re sweating a bit. Huh…did you put any disinfectant on the wound?”

“…ah.” Schneep tried not to squirm.

Jackie sighed. “Who knows what was on that knife? I keep telling you—well, never mind now. I know you have some. First aid kit’s in the bathroom, right?” Schneep nodded. “Wait here, I’ll get it.” And with that, Jackie stood up and left.

Schneep had nothing to do but sit. The day had started off so well, now this was happening. He sighed, blinking around at his surroundings. He was tired…really tired, all of a sudden. He leaned back against the couch, now staring up at the ceiling. Was it…was it spinning?

“Alright, I’m back! I have the…are you okay?”

“What?” Schneep rolled his head over to look at Jackie. “Yes, I am just…I just got very tired very quickly.”

“That’s…just suddenly?” Jackie’s brows furrowed. “Are you sure you didn’t lose too much blood?”

“Yes, I am sure.” Schneep blinked again. For a moment, everything was swimming.

“…okay.” Jackie sat down next to him. “I’m gonna put this on the stab wound, now. It might sting a little. Okay?”

Schneep didn’t answer.

“Hey, Volt, buddy?” Jackie patted the side of Schneep’s face. “I need to know that you understand.”

After a moment of silence, Schneep said, “The walls are melting.”

“Wh-what?” Jackie asked, taken aback.

“They are melting.” Schneep’s eyes fluttered. “I think I am seeing things. That happens, but this time I know it is happening, so that is a start.”

“…I’m just going to take a look at the wound real quick.” Jackie lifted up Schneep’s shirt. His eyes widened, and he looked back between the wound and Schneep’s face. “I’m…going to take a pulse, okay?” He pressed two fingers against Schneep’s neck. Then he withdrew them sharply. “Holy—” He dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing a number.

“What is wrong?” Schneep asked. He tried to focus on Jackie’s face, but it was blurry, like it was hidden behind a pane of frosted glass.

“I-I don’t know what was on that knife, but there was definitely something,” Jackie said, pressing the phone to his ear. “It’s doing something to you, we need to get emergency—what do you mean no service?!” He pulled the phone away.

“The lines nearby have been down for a while,” Schneep mumbled. “There was a storm…though I remember they said that it looked like…sie wurden sabotiert…”

“Okay, I don’t know what that last part was.” Jackie stood up, hurrying to the door. “I can drive you to the hospital, I—what?!” He pulled on the doorknob, then pushed on it. “I-it won’t open!” Giving up on getting it open, Jackie started pounding on the door. “Hey! Hello? The door’s stuck, someone let us out! It’s an emergency!”

“Jackie…” Schneep looked back up at the ceiling. It was dripping into his eyes. How was it melting when it was so cold? “You are doctor, you can fix…”

“I’m not trained for-for poison!” Jackie stammered.

“You can try…or maybe we can go out the window, it is not too far.”

“I can’t go out the window!” Jackie had come back to stand next to Schneep at some point, now standing over him and chewing on his hair nervously. “I-I can try? But I gotta keep trying to get someone, too!”

“Mm…you do that.” Schneep paused. “Jackie…I should tell you. The one who stabbed me…was not just some random thief…it was…lächelnde Mann. Distort…” He closed his eyes.

“It was Dis—?! No no no no, Volt, Henrik, stay awake!” Jackie leaned over him, shaking him slightly, only to get no response. “Oh, fuck fuck fucking fuck.” He took his pulse once again, finding it just as rapid as before. “Okay. Okay, Jackie, you can figure this out. You can do this.” He took a step back, lifting up Schneep’s shirt to expose the stab wound once again. It was yellow around the edges, the blood darker than it should be. “Okay, uh. I have no idea what that is. I can find out, I guess?”

Jackie picked up his phone, opening a window to the Internet and typing as quickly as possible. Luckily he knew several websites that knew what they were talking about, so he didn’t have to search through shady sites. “‘Get to the hospital as quickly as possible’—yes, I know, I can’t do that. Fuck. Okay.” He pushed Schneep to the side, lying him down. Schneep’s eyelids fluttered. “Cleaning is always a good place to start. Okay.”

He ran to the kitchenette, throwing open the cupboards until he found the largest cup possible. Turning on the sink, he filled it with water. Warm or cold? God, if he knew what was in the wound, he’d know which, but he had to settle for lukewarm and hope that would work. He grabbed a wash rag and dashed back to the sofa as quickly as possible, kneeling nearby. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but this is going to sting.”

As soon as the water touched his skin, Schneep’s eyes flew open and he screamed, flailing. “I know, I know!” Jackie said. “Just, please! Stay still! Stay—hey!” He grabbed Schneep’s arm with one hand to prevent him from whacking him in the face. “Please, you have to let me do this.”

Jackie reached out, ready to…to…what was he doing? He shook his head, clearing away the sudden fog. He had to clean the wound, that was a good starting place.

It wasn’t easy, but he managed it. As soon as he was sure he’d done as good a job as possible, he checked Schneep’s pulse again. It was slower than before, but…but it was also slower than it should be. “No no no no no,” he muttered, a constant stream while he tried to look up what else to do. “There has to be a way, I have to…” he trailed off. What…? His head turned, and his hand reached out, fingers exploring into the open bleeding—

Schneep screamed again, and Jackie jerked backwards. What the hell?! What had he just been doing?! “No no no, I-I’m sorry, it’s okay!” It wasn’t okay, but that didn’t matter now. He stood up, once again running to the door, but it was just as unmovable as it had been before. He pounded on it once…he…his head tilted to the side, his arm dropping. Was someone laughing nearby?

No! Jackie shook his head. He had to—there was something on his face. Something warm and wet, and coming from his eyes. He reached up, fingers coming away red. “Shit, no, fuck!” He looked around the apartment, not finding anything. Well, did it matter? His friend was dying!

There had to be something else he could do! He rushed back to Schneep’s side, checking his pulse once again. His breathing was slower, a wet, rattling sound coming from inside his throat. Fuck, this had happened so fast. Jackie tilted his head back, keeping his mouth open. What else could he do? The disinfectant? It was probably better than nothing. Jackie grabbed the small tin, unscrewing the lid. He dabbed his fingers inside, then tried to gently apply it to the surface around the wound as gently as possible. Schneep didn’t protest beyond a slight twitching. There was red dripping on the sofa in between them; he knew it was coming from his eyes.

“Come on, come on, please please please.” Once more, he checked the pulse. He checked the…the…

He couldn’t find it.

“No. No no no no no no—” He tried to find it by pressing fingers against his wrist. Then by pressing his palm against his chest. He still couldn’t find anything. “No, Henrik, please don’t—wake up! Please, wake up!” The world seemed leeched of its color, everything in gray. He couldn’t concentrate on anything, anything. He was shaking him and getting no response. “Henrik, no! No, my friend!”

There was nothing, nothing, nothing but gray distortion.
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A steady, slow beeping was coming from somewhere. Everything felt heavy, especially his eyelids. Yet he managed to open them somehow, staring uncomprehendingly at his surroundings, until something cleared and he recognized that he was in a hospital room somewhere.

After what felt like forever, he rolled his head to the side, catching sight of a woman in nurse’s scrubs. She was watching him. He closed his eyes again…
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The beeping was back, as well as a low murmuring. He could hear two voices.

“So how are you related to him again?”

“I’m not, he’s my neighbor.”

“And you found him how?”

“Well, I heard shouting from his apartment, so I was a little worried. It went away after a while, but I thought I would go check anyway. And when I did, his door was wide open, and so I peeked inside and I…”
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More voices, muffled like they were through a wall. A few sounded familiar…

“Fuck you, he’s our friend and you’re going to let us see him!”

“Sir, if you would please calm down—”

“Fuck calm! I have a hunting knife in my backpack that I’d think you’d like to see!”

“Now, really, Anti, that’s going too far.”

“Yea, a bit. Y’wouldn’ want t’get arrested.”

“There’s nothing illegal about knives. Guns, maybe, but knives?”

“I’m sure threatening a doctor has some consequences. They could throw us out.”

“Mnngh…”
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He opened his eyes again, looking around at the same hospital room. Everything felt…floaty. Like he could bounce away at any minute. But he was awake. He tried to sit up, fell back, and looked around. The same nurse from the last time he looked around was still there. She watched him for a moment, then smiled. “Oh, good, you’re awake. Everyone was worried.”

“Wh…happened?” He asked.

“Well, we’re not too sure. You were found unconscious, and wounded. I personally don’t know too many details, but they had to hurry.”

The stab wound. Schneep tried to bolt upright as soon as he remembered, but just ended up falling down again and knocking the breath out of his lungs.

“Oh, be careful. You could tear open the stitches.” The nurse paused. “You know…there are some friends of yours waiting outside. I could let them in, if you want.” Once he nodded, she stood from her chair, opened the door, and poked her head outside. “He’s awake,” she said. And then the door opened wide as three people came in.

“Henrik, what the FUCK dude?!” Anti demanded. “In the span of a few hours since I’d seen you, you manage to almost die?!”

Schneep smiled at him. He couldn’t remember the last time Anti had called him by his first name, he must’ve been really worried.

Marvin poked his head around Anti. “I don’ t’ink our group should be makin’ a habit of visiting others in the hospital,” he said, smiling.

“Had no say in th’matter,” Schneep mumbled.

“How are you feeling?” JJ asked.

Schneep paused for a long moment, trying to find the right words. “Bad,” he settled on.

“Yeah, I bet,” Anti muttered. “I did some research on what the doctor said got to you, and it’s pretty nasty. I mean, you were out for a night and half the day.” He looked over at the nurse. “Hey, can we get some privacy here?”

The nurse pursed her lips. “It’s against policy.”

“Sh’s fine,” Schneep said. “‘M just…happy you all’re here…” His eyes darted around the room. Something was wrong…“Where’s Jackie?”

The three boys looked at each other. “I thought he came to see you earlier,” JJ said. “Do either of you two know?”

“I was just assumin’ he was somewhere in the hospital,” Marvin said. “Because he works here, I t’ought…”

“He doesn’t have a shift today,” Anti said. “Wait! I texted him.” Anti dug into his pocket, pulling out his phone and checking his messages. His brows furrowed. “And…he hasn’t even seen it, let alone replied yet.”

Schneep tried to sit up one more time, finally managing to prop himself against the pillows. “He was with me…”

“Wait, he was with you when you got stabbed?” JJ asked, eyes wide.

“No, later, when…everything started…I blacked out…did he bring me here?”

“No, some neighbor lady of yours checked on you, and lucky she did,” Anti said. “She…didn’t mention anyone else.”

Schneep made a strangled sort of gasp, covering his mouth. “He’s gone.”

The others looked around, expressions confused and worried. In the background, the nurse opened the door and left, standing outside.

“We don’t know that,” JJ hurried to say.

“Jems, I don’ t’ink…” Marvin sat down in the nearest chair, realizing the truth before anyone else. “Henrik, d’you mean…?”

“He poisoned me,” Schneep whispered. “He knew Jackie would try to fix it…” It had all been a trap. A plan, of some sorts. How long had Distorter been planning this? Since he first met them all? “So he could confuse him, and take him, and if I died…well, two birds, one stone.”

The others said nothing. There was nothing to say, in the face of such knowledge. It weighed heavy on the air of that room.

And somewhere across the city, a man dressed in gray was smiling, perfectly delighted.

Part Twelve of the Inverted AU
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of a fic series I wrote from December 2018 to August 2021. Stacy's been having the strangest feeling that someone's watching her, and Anti figures this is as good a time as any to catch her up to speed on the group. Meanwhile, Marvin goes to Schneep for help with a problem (even though he'd rather not trust anyone with this.)]
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Stacy liked to think that her computer was secure. She kept up-to-date on her antivirus software, didn’t give trust anything that asked for her security information, and kept her passwords on a sheet of paper in her nightstand drawer instead of anywhere digitally that could be hacked. However, she quickly learned that all these precautions were for naught when it came to the living glitch who decided he wanted to check on her every ten hours or so. She’d be browsing the Internet and suddenly the webpage would freak out. That didn’t mean she was being hacked (actually, technically she was) it just meant Anti decided to pop in.

Honestly, she was starting to warm up to him. Maybe that was because he hadn’t showed up in person for the last week so she didn’t have to deal with his personality. Occasionally she’d get an email or text from a blocked user, asking her how life was, if she was safe. And, well, life was better. She’d gotten a new job at a department store with better pay. The hours were good too, now she had time to spend with her kids and also get enough sleep. Things in the city seemed to have calmed down, in that there was less death and disappearance on the news.

But…something was off. There were times when she was out and about, driving the kids to places or running errands on her own, when she felt like someone was watching her. When she looked around, she usually didn’t see anyone. But there were times when she thought she saw…him. To the point where it was starting to freak her out.

One night, after putting the kids to bed, she sat down at her computer and typed a simple phrase into Google: “how to tell if someone is stalking me.” Immediately, the page froze. She hit enter several times, trying to search, but a strange, rapid staticky beeping just came out from her speakers. And it was that moment when she realized it wasn’t just something wrong with her Internet.

A fizzing of pixels later, Anti was sitting on her desk, legs dangling off the side. “What are you, seven?” she asked before her brain could catch up with her mouth.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Anti said. “So what’s up with that search?”

“Are you spying on me whenever I use Google?”

“No, I just installed a program to let me know when certain words were searched. Such as ‘stalk’ or ‘stalking.’” His eye narrowed. “So? What’s the deal? Is it him?”

“I’m…not sure,” Stacy said slowly. “Sometimes I think I see him, other times I just get a…a vague sort of sense that…someone’s watching me. It’s probably nothing, I’m probably just being stupid, but…better safe than sorry, y’know?”

“Definitely, especially considering they could be magically tracking you.”

Stacy gaped at him and his nonchalant statement. “Excuse me?”

“Come on, you were there that night at the diner. You saw that magic was real. Didn’t you think something like that was possible?”

“No, I didn’t.” Stacy leaned back in her swivel chair. “I guess it never occurred to me that that was a-a possibility. I didn’t know the rules for this sort of thing. Sorry, I should have thought—I should have known.”

Anti stared at her, then glitched off the desk and into a standing position. “No, you really shouldn’t have, because nobody told you. It’s not your fault, so don’t assume it is. I could possibly give you a brief overview, let you know what you’re in danger of.”

“Oh! Th-thank you!” Stacy hadn’t realized she was apologizing for things that weren’t her fault. Force of habit, she assumed. She looked at the computer screen, where her question still lingered, unsearched, in the search bar. “Do you think…I-I mean, I know Chase doesn’t have any magic, unless he does and I didn’t know, so…are they teaming up?”

Anti considered this. “Probably. Your ex and the magician aren’t on the best terms, but they’re civil. You’d be in more danger of having the doctor or the vigilante stalking you for him, those guys are closer.”

For some reason, that simple statement made dread pool in her stomach. “H-how many of them are there again?”

“Five.”

“And…and they could all help Ch—help him follow me?”

“Mmm, probably.”

“Oh my god. Oh my god.” Stacy sat on her hands to keep them from shaking. She’d never done anything in her life to warrant so many enemies. And, if she remembered correctly, these guys were responsible for most of the current chaos and terror in the city. She worked hard to take deep, controlled breaths. “Do you…do you have any, uh, um, any info on these guys I could see? You’re all computery, do you have files on them or something?”

“I do. But you don’t want the full files, you’ll lose sleep. I can maybe give you some edited versions…” Anti’s head tilted to one side. He stared intently at her computer screen. She watched as her browser closed and her file explorer opened. By itself, the computer navigated to the downloads folder, then five new folders appeared, each one labeled with a name, followed by (edit).

“Huh…that’s handy.” Stacy scooted her chair closer to the desk, grabbing the mouse. She stared at the folder with his name on it for a while, but she couldn’t bring herself to click on it. Instead, she clicked on the next one down, opening up the folder to reveal various .txt files.

“There used to be photos and videos in here,” Anti said, peering over her shoulder.

“Why’d you remove them?”

“How squeamish are you?”

“I mean…my daughter broke her arm once. It was all bent but I could look at it.”

“I probably made a good call then.” Anti pointed at one of the files, and it opened up. “Brief overview: guy’s a doctor. Not really, ‘cause he got booted from medical school for maltreatment. Didn’t stop him from faking graduation, getting a job at a hospital, and then stealing the patients who wouldn’t be missed.”

“This sounds like the backstory of a horror movie villain,” Stacy laughed nervously.

Anti didn’t laugh. “I’m sure the patients thought they were stuck in a horror movie.” He gave Stacy a dead-eye stare until her smile faded. Then he turned back to the screen. “Police in his home country found out. He ran, ending up here. Started a nice little black-market clinic and kept up his hobby.”

“You know I think I’ll read this one later, when it’s lighter outside.” Stacy hurried to click out of the folder. She opened up the next one instead. This one had videos as well as text files. “…should I be worried about these?” she asked, circling one of the videos with the mouse.

“Nothing explicit, just violence like you’d see in a movie. Criminals get the shit beat out of them. The works.”

“Wait…this is for that vigilante, isn’t it? The one on the news?” Stacy looked at the folder name. “That’s his real—”

“Yep. So if you see a guy who looks like this—” He opened one of the videos, fast forwarding until he got to a good image of the vigilante’s face. “—and he introduces himself to you as that, you better run. Actually, don’t, he’s probably faster than you. Distract him until you can sneak away.”

“He can’t be that bad, can he?” Stacy asked, skeptical. “I mean…getting rid of the criminals in the city? It’s like a real-life superhero.”

“Well, superheroes don’t beat confessions out of mob members and then murder them. He’s probably the safest to have a conversation with, though. Assuming you haven’t done anything illegal.”

“O-kay…then…” Stacy was starting to realize just how deep this trouble she was in really was. She could feel the beginnings of panic edging in on her, but she pushed it away. She’d let herself freak out later. “Wh-what about that magician guy? I think you called him Marvin in the diner? Can he really…magically track me?”

“Probably.” Anti closed the vigilante’s folder and opened up the magician’s. There were a lot of images in this one, what looked like pictures of pages from books. “I’ve been trying to keep track of the spells he knows, but it can be difficult. There’s a good chance he knows a tracking spell, but he probably wouldn’t use it unless someone, like your ex, asked him to.”

“…do I want to know why?”

“Eh, he doesn’t really care for spells like that. If they can’t produce effects he can see, he won’t use them unless necessary. He’s a flashy bitch like that. Has a style and sticks to it. Like that cape, which he only takes off maybe one day per week, and that mask, which I actually haven’t seen him take off yet.”

“Really? Never? Not even to sleep or take a shower or anything?”

“Sleeps with it on. And I’m don’t know about that shower thing, I didn’t put a camera in their bathroom.”

Stacy briefly wondered if his knowledge about sleeping with the mask meant he’d put cameras in the bedrooms, but she pushed that out of her mind for now. “Why? Seems uncomfortable…”

Anti laughed. “Well, a long time ago, he tried a spell he wasn’t ready for, and it blew up in his face. I’m pretty sure he’s embarrassed about what it looks like underneath there…”
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“Schneep! I know for a fact you’re in there!” Marvin banged on the door. When there was still no answer, he sighed, looking around the reception room of the clinic where he was standing. He didn’t like this place. It was that kind of almost-nice that looked like it was trying to fool you into thinking it was less shady than it actually was. The good doctor really needed to upgrade his decor.

Having enough of contemplating his dislike of this place, Marvin turned back to the door and started banging harder. “Hey doc! I’m not against melting your door down if you don’t come out in the next thirty seconds!”

The door flung open, and Marvin barely jumped out of the way in time to avoid getting a whack to the face. Schneep poked his head out. He was wearing his mask, which he proceeded to pull down in order to scowl at Marvin. “There is no need for such a commotion, my friend!” he scolded. “I was in one of the back rooms, I did not hear you for a while and then it took me a tick-tock to get here.”

“Whatever. Get a security camera wired up here, or a buzzer or something. I could’ve been a customer who just decided to take business elsewhere.”

Schneep barked out a laugh. “If people come here, it is not because they have options to take business to. But enough of this, what did you want?”

Marvin shifted on his feet. “I…need you to take a look at something.”

“Oh, is that all?” A wave of relief crossed Schneep’s face. He stepped back, opening the door wide enough for Marvin to pass through. “Come in, come in, I can see what it is back here.”

Marvin let Schneep lead him into the operating part of the clinic, but he refused to sit down on the table. “It seems not so serious, so if you would please wait a moment while I take care of this…” Schneep vanished through one of the metal doors leading deeper into the building, leaving Marvin to tap his feet impatiently. He didn’t like this. First of all, this place looked like it was thrown together, and also needed an upgrade. Second of all, he was already having doubts about this, he didn’t want them to have time to fester.

Schneep reemerged, tossing an empty syringe on a nearby tray. “There we are, we will not be disturbed now,” he said. “What is it you need help with?”

Marvin started fidgeting, pulling on his fingers. “Okay. So. I am—look, I’m trusting you with this. You can’t tell anyone, alright?”

“That is no problem.”

“I’m serious. I will literally put a fucking curse on you if I find out you told anyone.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve been working on one that can make it feel like pins are being shoved in your eyes whenever you look at something, and that something can be as vague as a specific color. Y’know, like the literal version of ‘cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.’”

“Now you are going overboard with this. I have no intention of telling anyone whatever it is this is about. This secret of yours is safe with me.”

Marvin exhaled slowly, and looked toward the ceiling. “Okay. Okay, good. Fuck. Here goes nothing.” Before he could change his mind, he reached up and undid the straps of his mask, then pulled it off. He slowly looked back towards the doctor.

Schneep’s eyes were wide. He stepped forward until he was uncomfortably close to Marvin. He raised his hand. “May I…?”

Marvin hesitated. “…fine,” he grumbled. “But take off your gloves, they’re still messy. And be careful.”

The doctor pulled off his gloves, then put his hands on either side of Marvin’s head, turning it from side to side so he could get a better look. “My god,” he muttered. “What happened to you?”

“That’s not your fucking business,” Marvin said through gritted teeth. “But they’ve been…itching for a while now, and I’m wondering if they’re infected or something.”

“I would be surprised if they were not. They look…angry.” Schneep’s eyebrows furrowed. “How old are they?”

“I think about…four years at this point?” Marvin started turning his mask over in his hands. It was hard to remember sometimes.

“Really? I would think only a couple months.”

“Doc, I’ve been living with you for two years and haven’t once taken off my mask. You didn’t think there was a reason for that?”

“Ah yes.” Tentatively, Schneep reached out and tapped Marvin in the middle of his forehead. “What is this?”

“Okay, that’s enough.” Marvin yanked his head back.

“Excuse me, I am concerned! That looks like bone!”

“It’s not bone, it’s just—making my first mask out of ceramic was a really bad idea, ‘cause even magically-enhanced pottery can still shatter.”

“Why do you have ceramic embedded in your face?!”

Marvin resisted the urge to touch the places where the shards had ended up lodging. He had them memorized by now, mostly because of the dead spot in his nerves there. Forehead, upper cheeks, one between his nose and left eye, one above his right. He could have dealt with the rest of the scars, if only the shards weren’t there. “Look, I was wearing my old mask at the time this happened, it broke, I ended up getting pieces of porcelain fucking stuck to my face, can we move on?!”

Schneep raised his hands in surrender, stepping back. “Okay, okay, fine!”

“Thank you.” Marvin began spinning his mask around his pointer finger, using one of the eyeholes. “Anyway, can you tell if they’re infected? And can you help if they are?”

Schneep bit his lip, eyes scanning the damage. “Well, I would have to know what caused them. They look a bit like burns, but in the pattern of knife slashes. Like hot glass.”

“What?”

“Bits of broken glass, heated up so they will burn, flung at your face. That’s what it looks like. There are also parts where I am reminded of Lichtenburg figures.”

“What?” Marvin repeated, exasperated.

“When things are struck by high voltage, patterns will appear. These are not quite the same as scars of lightning, they are…bigger. But I am reminded of them.”

Marvin sighed. “You know what? Let’s just work under the assumption that someone took a hot, electrified knife and repeatedly applied it to my face, that’s probably as accurate as you’re going to get. There might also be some lingering traces of magic in there.”

Schneep rolled his eyes. “Well, I cannot do anything about that, but if they are itching and irritating you, I have some salves that may help. They are in the other back room, the storage one, if you would kindly follow me.”

“Alright, alright, but I hope you find this stuff quickly. Chase is making me watch his ex for him, and I don’t feel like getting into a shouting match with him over not actually doing it.”
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It was around midnight when Stacy decided to go to bed. She’d tried to read through the file Anti had given her on the magician, but had to stomp halfway through. Some of these spells…why would anyone want to use spells like that? Instead, she switched to reading the vigilante’s file, managing to finish it. Then she realized it was way too late, and she had to get up early to make breakfast for the kids, get ready for work, take the kids to school, and go to work herself. That was only four things, but that was too much.

She was walking down the hall to her room when there was a knock on the front door.

Fear jolted through her. Who could be knocking this late at night? Nobody good, probably. She stood shock-still in the hallway, waiting for something else. When nothing happened, she swallowed her nerves and crept toward the living room and the front door. Maybe it was nothing?

When she flipped the lights on, the front room looked exactly the same as it had earlier that day. Except for one thing: there was now a brown envelope sitting on the floor, in the perfect position to have been pushed through the mail slot. Stacy slowly stepped forward. She peered through the peephole on the door, seeing nothing on the other side. So she looked down at the envelope on the floor, then bent over and picked it up. She turned it over in her hands.

There were words written on the back of the envelope. “Hello sweetheart.”

Stacy recognized that handwriting.

She collapsed on the couch, staring at the envelope, listening to her heart pounding in her ears.

He’d found her.
Actions

Part Twenty-Two of the PW Timeline
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of a complete series I wrote from July 2019 to July of 2022. Dr. Laurens recieves an unusual visitor at the hospital. Meanwhile, Chase and Marvin try to figure out what to do, Jackie and Jack talk to each other for the first time in over a year, and Schneep and JJ try their best to cope with the situation.]
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This whole thing was a nightmare for Dr. Laurens. Schneep was gone, going through who knew what at the hands of the same man who’d kidnapped him last time. He must be so scared, reliving the same thing again. It certainly wouldn’t help ground him in reality. Not to mention the security concerns. It turned out there was a record of someone using HER keycard signature to get into the building. It wasn’t her. It could only be…him. But how did he get a keycard of hers in the first place?

It had been a week since he’d disappeared—no, been taken. It was the first of December, and Laurens found the Christmas displays on the way to work even more irritating than she usually did. She had been considering not even going to work, since she currently didn’t have any other patients to look after. But in the end, she decided better safe than sorry. Someone might need help, or Dr. Fells might decide to assign her to someone new. Who even knew?

She spent most of the day hanging out in the break room. Nobody had offices in the building except for the head doctor, so she didn’t have anywhere else to be. None of her coworkers talked to her. They hadn’t all week. They must have thought it was best to give her space.

Around noon, when it was nearing the end of her hours and thinking about what to do for lunch, Laurens’s pager beeped. Sighing, she checked it. Looked like she was needed at the front desk. Wondering what that was about, she stood up, drained the last of her hot chocolate, threw the paper cup in the trash hard enough to tilt the bin, and headed out.

Oliver was on duty at the desk. He also didn’t have much to do these days, but as an orderly he had more chores he could take up. Giving her a quick smile from where he was sitting, he said, “Sorry about the problem, doc, it’s just that someone wants to talk to you.” He gestured to the person standing at the front desk.

“There’s no problem, don’t worry.” Laurens gave the visitor a once-over. A woman, dark-haired and wearing a brown leather jacket. “Hi, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Dr. Laurens, how can I help you?”

“Ah! Yes, Dr. Laurens, I saw you on the TV,” the woman said.

Immediately, Laurens recognized the accent. Not just German, but that specific dialect of German that Schneep spoke with. A bit lighter, but still, this woman was no doubt from that same area. Perhaps she knew him? Was she here to talk about him? “What do you mean? I don’t think I’ve ever been on television,” she said.

“Oh yes you were,” the woman replied. “I saw you, you were part of that trial.”

“…oh.” Laurens nodded, recalling the hearing where she testified against Dr. Newson and her abuse of power. She hadn’t thought about that in a while. It had been…nerve-wracking. Just to have so many people watching her. “I remember now. Yes, you are right. I was there.”

“Great!” the woman smiled. “You were also calling me and sending me lots of mail, yes?”

“Um…excuse me?” Laurens asked tentatively.

“Ah, forgive me, I forgot to introduce myself.” The woman straightened, pulling down the edge of her shirt and brushing her hair over her shoulder. “I am Mina Pfeiffer, I am Henrik von Schneeplestein’s wife. Well…separated, but semantics.”

“Oh,” Laurens gasped a bit. Now she remembered. “Sorry, I wasn’t…expecting you to visit. We assumed you weren’t going to contact us after there was no response to our, um…frequent messages.”

“I’m sorry,” Mina said, looking honestly apologetic. “That was deliberate. My non-response, I mean.”

“It was?”

Mina looked faintly ashamed, but she pressed on with her explanation anyway. “Well, you see, after I heard on the news what Henrik was supposedly doing…all the killing, you know…after I heard that, I left the country. I thought it would be safer.”

Laurens tilted her head. “Did you believe he would come after you, or something?”

“Or something,” Mina said vaguely. “But I did not mean to assume!” She hurried to add. “I know now that he’s innocent, but I did not at the time, so I thought to be safe—”

“It’s fine, Ms. Pfeiffer,” Laurens assured her. “It makes sense.”

Mina looked down at her boots, still avoiding eye contact. “I…spoke to some of his friends. They told me it was unfair to assume, especially with his condition, and I did some thinking and they are right—”

“It’s fine,” Laurens repeated, a bit more firmly. “At the time, with the way things were looking for Schneep, it would have been more worrying if you weren’t concerned. Things have happened in the past to women in your position.”

“That is what I thought!” Mina seemed relieved. It was probably reassuring to know her actions were justified. “But his friends were very defensive.”

“Well. None of them knew what was happening until much later, they would have a different perspective.” Laurens paused, then cleared her throat. “Anyway, what can I do for you?”

“Right!” Mina nodded eagerly. “I very much need to speak to Henrik. I looked on your website for visiting hours, but I thought it would be rude to just drop in without you knowing who I am. Concerning, perhaps? So I thought I would introduce myself and explain.”

Laurens said nothing. She shifted awkwardly on her feet, looking away from Mina’s face (which was not that hard, considering Mina was, like most people, taller than her.) “Well…there is a problem.”

“…oh?” Mina’s face fell. “Did he…does he not want to see me?”

“I don’t know. And…unfortunately, I can’t find out.” Laurens sighed. “A week ago, there was…an incident. Henrik is no longer here. He’s been…taken.”

Mina blinked. “Ta…ken?”

“Like before. By the same person,” Laurens explained. “It…that person managed to get inside. The police are looking for him, but haven’t found Henrik yet.”

“…Oh. Oh nein,” Mina whispered. “That’s…not…good.”

Understatement of the year. “We’re doing everything we can,” Laurens said softly. She almost reached out to put a reassuring hand on Mina’s shoulder, but wasn’t sure if that was going too far, so she stopped. “In good news, the police have already found some of the criminal’s hideouts. They’re hoping that by limiting his safe spaces, he won’t have anywhere to go.”

“That is…a good idea,” Mina said quietly. She went silent for a while. Laurens could practically see the gears turning in her head. “Well…thank you for letting me know, Dr. Laurens,” she finally said. “Can you let me know when they find him?”

“Of course. Oh, I have to ask you if the phone number we’ve been using is still good—”

“It is, I have gotten calls from you,” Mina said. She glanced towards the door, but before she left, she turned back to Laurens one more time. “Oh, can I ask you something? I did not see the trial all the way through. What happened to that doctor in trouble, the blonde one?”

“You didn’t see it?” Laurens was faintly surprised.

“I’m sorry, I…I was too shocked after hearing Henrik didn’t kill those people. Shocked in a good way!” she quickly added. “But I had to talk to someone about it, so I called my family right away.”

“Understandable,” Laurens nodded. “Well. Dr. Newson was found guilty of malpractice. Her license to practice was revoked, and she no longer works here. Though…actually, I think the website still hasn’t updated. It probably still has her phone number on there.” She laughed drily. “I-I’ll get someone to fix that.”

Mina nodded as well. She looked a bit absent-minded. “Well…thank you very much, doctor. Again, please let me know about anything.”

“I will. Thank you for coming.”

“Good day. I will be seeing you.”

Mina left rather quickly, like she had something on her mind. Perhaps she did. Laurens had no way of knowing. She was a psychiatrist, not a mind reader. Sighing, she leaned against the front desk.

“You good, doc?” Oliver asked.

“Ah!” Laurens squeaked and stood straight up. “I forgot you were there.”

“Oh sorry. Should I have said something?”

“No, no, just surprised me.” Laurens smiled weakly. “I…well, my hours are almost up for the day. Not quite, though. I was going to get lunch or something, do you want anything?”

“I’m good. I had a snack beforehand.” Oliver grinned. “Thanks, though.”

“No problem. See you later.”

“See you later, doc.”

Rubbing her eyes, Laurens headed over to the cafeteria. She was tired…so tired from this last week. She hoped this mess would be over soon, but…it probably wouldn’t. That Anti character had held her hostage for a while, as well. She could still vividly remember everything, including the fact that she only got away because she dislocated her wrist. If Anti was as much of a control freak as he seemed, he’d be ready for someone to try that again. He’d have tightened his methods.

But there wasn’t much she could do, was there? No matter how much she felt like she should be doing something. All there was to do was wait. Wait and hope.
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“—I mean I really appreciate it, but you really don’t have to, you know? I think I’m getting the hang of, uh, you know. It. Again.”

“Oh, yeah, no, I can tell,” Chase nodded, leaning awkwardly against the wall of Marvin’s living room. He held tight to the strap of his backpack. “You’re doing great.”

“Thanks.” Marvin shifted awkwardly on his feet. Or maybe he was just shifting. He rarely stood still when standing. “I mean, if you want to hang out or something, you can. But I mean, you should tell me beforehand instead of just vaguely texting me ‘hey I’m coming over is that okay?’ I’d want more information.”

“Sorry.” Chase winced. “I, uh…I got really wrapped up in this and almost forgot to tell you. I texted you while getting in my car.”

Marvin gave him an odd look. “Okay, see, this is what I meant. What do you mean ‘this’? What ‘this’ did you get wrapped up in? Are you actually, like, not stopping by for what I was thinking about?”

“Well I mean…if you want me to feed your cats or snake, or make food for you, or do laundry or whatever, I’d be down to,” Chase said. “But…no. This is more serious.”

After a moment, Marvin sat down on the sofa. “Okay, what’s it about then?”

Chase sat down in the chair nearby, taking off his backpack. While rummaging around inside, he said, “I wasn’t just saying that to say it, by the way, you really are doing great. It’s…hard, sometimes. You know?”

“Thanks,” Marvin said again, more softly. Things did look a lot better for him. He was fully dressed, hair pulled back. There were actual dishes in the sink instead of food delivery bags in the trash. And when Chase had peeked into his room, it looked just a bit tidier, with the bed made and laundry moved into the corner. Small steps, but Chase knew they were important ones. Just doing a little was always better than doing nothing. “Uh…anywayyyy…”

“Right.” Chase pulled out some papers he’d taken from his printer—blank, ready to be written on—and a few pens. “So…I was thinking. And…we both agree this has gone on too long, right? It…it shouldn’t have even happened in the first place. This whole thing with JJ and Schneep never should have happened.”

Marvin’s expression hardened into anger. “Yeah, that fucking freak needs to be stopped.”

“Exactly.” Chase nodded. “So, we need to find some way to stop him.”

There was a moment of silence. “Wait, you mean, like, us?” Marvin asked.

“Yeah.”

“Not the police?”

“Well I mean, we’re not gonna STOP them or anything—”

“I—Chase, last week you were telling me that going after Anti was a terrible idea,” Marvin said. “Remember, in Jackie’s hospital room? I’m confused. What changed your mind?”

Chase paused. He put the paper and pens on the coffee table and idly arranged them for a while. “I just…I’m tired of feeling like I can’t do anything,” Chase said quietly. “Do you remember what you did when that doctor was being terrible to Schneep? You went right in and took control of the situation. It was…kinda stupid to break in—”

“Well damn, no need to rub it in,” Marvin muttered. “The fine I’m still paying off is reminder enough.”

“—but really brave, and smart to take action, a-and it worked out. Nobody else was making any progress with that, and you did. I…I want to do something like that.” Chase took a deep breath. “We don’t have to get directly involved. Like I said, it would be pretty dangerous to mess with this guy directly. But we can investigate, or something. Give the police tips. Right?”

Marvin leaned back against the sofa, crossing his legs. “So, you’re saying we’re gonna do what Jackie does, become private eyes.”

“Do you…not want to?” Chase asked uncertainly.

“Oh I didn’t say that. I’m down to do anything to get JJ and Schneep back. And put that motherfucker in his place.” Marvin flashed a grin. “I’m just not sure how we’re going about it.”

Chase’s shoulders slumped in relief. He’d thought Marvin would say something like that, but still, there was always that little sliver of doubt. “Well, I thought we’d start by putting together everything we know, and everyone who could help us. That’s what this paper is for.”

“Okay, then.” Marvin leaned forward again, picking up one of the pens and clicking it a few times. “Number one thing we know, there’s this guy named Anti, and he’s a murderous asshole.”

Chase smiled a bit. “Yep. Real asshole.” He grabbed one of the sheets of paper and wrote down ‘THE BAD GUY: ANTI’ on it. “He’s an assassin—which I know ‘cause I found his website.” He shuddered. “But also, this thing about kidnapping Schneep, and like…manipulating him. That seems like it was just…for fun. Which is fucked up.”

“Also this creep is JJ’s brother,” Marvin added. “But JJ ran away from him.”

“Right, right.” Chase nodded. “And now JJ is missing.”

“Okay, let’s get a timeline or some shit out.” Marvin drew a line on his piece of paper and started writing events. “August last year, Schneep put Jack in a coma and then got kidnapped. October, we met JJ. December, Jackie went looking for Schneep and also got kidnapped. March, Anti fucking stabs me.”

Chase hissed through his teeth. “Forgot about that.”

“Well fan-fucking-tastic for you,” Marvin drawled. “Anyway. In May, the police were getting close to Anti so he let Schneep go to take the fall, and Schneep ends up in Silver Hills. A whole ass summer passes, then that doctor lady also briefly gets kidnapped before escaping. Was that August or September?”

“One of those, they kinda blurred together for me. Also, Dr. Laurens. We could probably get her to help, she wants Schneep to be safe.” Chase wrote down her name.

“Right. She escapes. Anti finds out JJ is here and kidnaps him because that’s apparently how he deals with everything. That was Halloween. Then nothing happened until a week ago, when Anti got Schneep again but we found Jackie.”

Chase wrote down Jackie’s name as well. “That’s a good timeline. Maybe Jackie will be able to remember things? D’you think?”

Marvin shrugged. “Y’know, it was weird, but Jack…you know, he helped us find Jackie. He, like, knew the location. Why is that?”

“Well…” Chase hesitated. “I’ve talked with him about this. Apparently, Anti would pretend to be one of us and go visit Jack. Talk to him about stuff. Jack…hasn’t told me what any of that was, but he remembers a lot of it. It…freaked him out.” He looked down at his growing list, then slowly added Jack to it. “I-I don’t want to make him think about it if he doesn’t have to, but…if he knows anything helpful…”

“We’ll ask,” Marvin said softly. “And Jackie, too. If they don’t want to tell us, they don’t have to. We can figure this out.”

“Right.” Chase hoped they would. It would be really helpful to have more inside information like that. As things were now, they didn’t know all that much about Anti, or where he was hiding, or where he might be keeping JJ and Schneep. But…he wasn’t going to make them talk about things if they didn’t want to. If it upset them. “We can ask them if they want to help us next time we visit the hospital. For now, let’s keep going. We can find some way to put this all together.”
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Jackie used to have a problem with hospitals. He didn’t like how clean and neat they were, even though he knew that they had to be, for sanitation reasons. It just felt weird. No decorations or anything anywhere. And they usually had that chemical-like smell of cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer, which he wasn’t fond of. Not to mention he rarely liked the idea of sitting in bed with nothing to do.

But now, he found he didn’t mind the hospital as much. Probably because it was so, so much better in comparison to what he’d just gone through. Even if there was still nothing to do, at least he wasn’t constantly afraid for his life. And besides, Jackie had since figured out a way to pass the time. Daydreaming. He spent so much time in his own head now, coming up with little stories he could act out in his mind. It was great. He could be entertained or distracted whenever. He found himself wanting to drift off more and more. But so far, he hadn’t started daydreaming during anything important, like a conversation.

Or like today.

Apparently recovering from several injuries and eleven months of malnutrition was difficult, who knew? He’d spent most of the past week resting and healing, but the nice doctor lady said that they’d be starting him on physical therapy soon. Which reminded him: he wanted to see Jack. It took a while for him to convince her, but after a few minutes, she said she would talk with Jack’s doctor to see if something could be arranged. That conversation happened yesterday. Early this morning, the doctor returned and said that if he wanted to meet with Jack, this would be the only time he could do that for some time. He’d immediately agreed.

They’d be meeting in “the atrium,” which was, as Jackie understood it, a central wide-open area that looked like it belonged in a mall (staircase, balconies, fancy design with curves and glass). There would be a couple nurses nearby, just in case anything went wrong for either of them. And they could only meet for a half hour or so, as they both had different types of therapy that day. Jackie was fine with all of this. As he waited in the atrium, he pushed back against the urge to start daydreaming. Not now. He could be here any moment.

He was keeping an eye on the staircase, when suddenly he heard a voice cry out. “’Ackie!” Gasping at the familiar sound, he turned to look towards it. And there…was Jack. Unmistakably him, even as his hair was longer and his skin was paler. (Though to be fair, Jack probably thought the same thing about him.) He was being pushed in a wheelchair by a nurse, and had one of those nose thingies that Jackie didn’t know the name of. But he was beaming.

“Jack!” Jackie stood up and started to run towards him, but was stopped by his own nurse. She gave him a look of combined sympathy and scolding that he took to mean ‘I know you’re excited, but you’re not supposed to do that.’ Rolling his eyes, he waited for Jack to get closer. “Hey! It’s you!”

“‘S me! Wha’ werre you expec’ing?” Jack laughed.

“Oh, well obviously I was expecting another clone or something. Very clearly. I don’t know what you thought I meant.” Jackie grinned. “It’s so good to see you! Hey can I—can I like, get close to you or is that gonna upset your nose thing?”

“Nah, ‘s fine.” Jack spread his arms wide, already anticipating what Jackie would do next.

Sure enough, Jackie immediately bent down to give Jack a tight hug, much to the surprise of the two nurses watching.

“Miss Donovan, you’re still healing!” his nurse spluttered. “You can’t move so suddenl—”

“Hey!” Jack reached down to the side of the wheelchair, where a bag was hanging. He took out a handful of pencils and threw them at the nurse. She yelped in surprise. “Nnno! Yackie’s not a miss!”

“It’s fine, man, she was probably just going off my medical info and shit.” Jackie pulled back.

Indeed, the nurse looked very shocked and ashamed. “I’m sorry, I just assumed—”

“Hey, Jess?” the other nurse who came with Jack jumped in. “Why don’t we go sit down and let them talk?” He indicated a bench that was farther away, but still close enough to rush to aid if something went wrong. The first nurse nodded, and the two of them wandered off, still keeping an eye out for any trouble.

Jackie watched them go, then turned back to Jack. “Great, now that they’re gone we can talk about our illicit scheme to steal medicine from this hospital.”

Jack laughed again, though he had to break off at the end as a cough started to develop.

“You alright?”

“Yeh. Hey, c’n yuh move me overrr there?”

“Sure.” Jackie wheeled Jack’s chair over to a group of armchairs, and immediately sat down in one nearby. “It’s…wow. This is…it’s so good to see you.” He took a deep breath. Now that the initial excitement was starting to fade, he was a bit overwhelmed. He hadn’t really expected to see Jack awake again. At first, it was easy to hold onto hope. But then he got kidnapped, and the idea that he’d ever see anyone…just seemed so impossible. Yet, he was here now. Talking to his friend who he’d last seen unconscious and completely unresponsive.

“Sssame,” Jack said, grinning. His smile was a little different than the one Jackie remembered; Jack still had trouble with facial muscles. But it was bright as ever. “H’w’re you?”

“Well…I’m in a hospital.”

“Ah, ffair point.”

“Everything’s healing fast, though,” Jackie said. He patted his chest, pressing into it until he felt a flare of pain. Probably shouldn’t do that. “I got stitches. They’re saying the real problem is, uh…sort of recovery from all the other stuff. Like not exercising and stuff like that. I’m…” he glanced at the nurses, then leaned close to Jack and lowered his voice a bit. “I’m actually supposed to be using a cane, but I hid it, and this nurse wasn’t familiar enough with me to know I was assigned that.”

“Only cane? Luckyyy.” Jack put his head in one hand and leaned it on the armrest of the wheelchair.

“Oh shit I didn’t mean—”

“Nah, ‘m messin’ wif yuh.” Jack’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “‘S fine.”

“Ha. Well, still. Sorry.” Jackie paused, then made himself perk up. “Hey, we can be the hospital bros!”

“Hhell yeh. Hos’ital bros.” Jack held up a hand. Jackie high-fived it. “Yuh see Shase? Mahvin?”

“I saw them when I first got here, yeah. We talked for a long time.” Once again, Jackie fell silent, now recalling that day. He’d been in the hospital for a while, but still didn’t fully believe it until Chase and Marvin walked in. “It’s been, what, a week since then? Chase stopped by a couple times. Said he saw you, too.”

“Yeh.” Jack nodded.

“Right. No Marvin, really.” Jackie paused. Out of all the friends in the group, he was the least close with Marvin. Not that he’d ever say it out loud. You didn’t say stuff like that. But it was true. So he shouldn’t really be as disappointed as he felt.

“Hmmm.” Jack looked away, brows lowering. He didn’t frown, but then again, maybe he had trouble with that. “Well…Mahvin’sss been…haffin trouble.”

“Trouble?” Jackie tilted his head. “What d’you mean?”

“Uh…” Jack hesitated, not sure if he should say. But after a moment, he pressed on anyway. “Well, Mahvin ‘nd Yay-Yay—ugh. Mahvin and JJ were close. And now JJ issss…not here. So he’s been haffin a tuff time dealin wih it. But…y’know, Mahvin felt really bad ‘bout not seein’ me t’at much. Ssso he prob’ly fffeels th’ same ‘bout not seein’ you.”

“Oh.” Jackie wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Well…I hope he gets better.” He looked away. “I hope they find JJ,” he added in a quieter tone.

“D’ yuh know what’ss happen’d?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, of course I know what happened to JJ. I—I talked with him, we were together for…what was it, a month?” Jackie blinked furiously. “Y’know what’s crazy? That…that man is his brother. And he’s…he’s weirdly attached to JJ. It’s creepy.”

“Yeh. JJ tol’ Shase, ‘nd Shase told me,” Jack said. “Um…did th’ police talk t’yuh?”

“Some detective asked me a few questions a couple days ago, yeah,” Jackie nodded. “I…I don’t know if I was that much help. But I told them everything I know. Hopefully it’ll be useful.”

Jack gave him an odd look. “Did…did they tell yuh ‘bout…Sheep?”

“Schneep? …No. Why?” For some reason, Jackie’s stomach started to twist.

“Uhhhh…he’ssss…he’s there,” Jack said, sounding reluctant to explain. “Wih JJ. An tha’…Anti guy.”

Jackie felt his heart stop. “Wh-what? He’s…he’s back with that creep?”

Jack nodded slowly.

“How the hell did that happen?!”

“I dunno! Ask Shase nex time yuh see him.”

“That—that—” Jackie struggled to put his thoughts into words. There was a pit of dread, worry, and overwhelming fear that had opened up in his stomach. “He can’t be there, Jack. Schneep can’t be there. I-I-I don’t think anyone else knows what—I was there, I saw the effect it had on him. I-it was…horrible.” Jackie tried to stand up. Unfortunately, it seemed his legs had decided to stop working, and they couldn’t hold his weight.

“Yackie, what’re you doin’?” Jack asked nervously.

“I don’t know! Something! He can’t be there, Jack! I have to—I have to help, o-or get out of here, or—”

Jack put a hand on his arm. “Yuh can’t leave, Yackie. Yuh—you’rrrre still hurt.”

“But I have to do SOMETHING,” Jackie repeated desperately.

“Well, yuh can’t like t’is.” Jack sighed. He closed his eyes, and his head rolled back to look at the ceiling. “Y—Jackie. I get it. I…I wanna go, too. But I can’. You can…get better faster. Only wih time, though. So…you haf to rest. Yuh haf t’do tha’. So you can leave…a-and hhhelp. For both of us.”

Jackie looked at him. “I’m…sorry, Jack,” he said softly. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“‘M jus’ really…tired o t’is shih,” Jack mumbled. “I can’ even feckin’ walk. So you an’ Shase and Mahvin haf to do this. Okay? Do…doesss t’at make sense?”

“Yeah. It does.” Jackie grabbed Jack’s hand, giving it a tight squeeze. It was a bit unnerving how he could feel the bones in both their hands move with the motion. “I’m going to get better so fast. Or, uh, I’m going to get rest and then my natural healing is gonna make me better so fast. I’m not gonna get up and then—well, you get it, you know?” Jack chuckled a bit, and Jackie smiled. “So when I get out, we’re all going to find JJ and Schneep. And we’ll tell you everything we do, too.”

“…thanks, Jackie,” Jack said softly.

“No problem, Jack. You know we’ll be here for you, too.” Jackie smiled. He straightened, and glanced back at the nurses, who were thankfully out of earshot. “So. Why don’t we talk about something more lighthearted. Uhhhh watch any good TV shows lately?”

Jack groaned. “’ve wa’ched so, so much Tee-Fee. ‘m feckin’ sick of it.”

Jackie laughed. “Cool, so in that case, tell me everything you hate about TV.”

That got a slight laugh out of Jack.

Their meeting was short, and it felt like no time at all had passed before they both had to leave. At which point, Jackie came clean and told the nurse he actually needed a cane, but hadn’t said so earlier because he thought he’d be fine without it. If he was going to do this ‘rest to get better’ thing, he should start by actually following the doctor’s instructions.
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It had been eight days since they arrived in this apartment.

Or at least, Schneep was pretty sure that was how long it was. He had a hard time keeping time straight under normal circumstances, but as he’d learned in the past few months, being stuck in a small room and not being allowed to leave just made everything harder.

The situation was terrible, but Schneep was trying to list the good things. For one, there was a window. Sure, it was kept closed, but sunlight crept through the gaps in the shutters. That helped with keeping track of time.

For another, Anti hadn’t done anything too bad yet. Sure, he still…wasn’t good. Several times each day, Anti decided he wanted to mess with Schneep. He would tell him he could read his mind, remind him that he was always watching even when he wasn’t there, and say he could make him do anything he wanted, and there was nothing he could do. Some days Anti threatened him, grabbing him and whispering “I could fucking kill you right now, and I might have if you weren’t so useful or fun to watch.” But…at least Anti hadn’t made him…do anything. Schneep was constantly on edge, waiting for the day he’d be dragged out the door to some other location and told to—to—he…didn’t like remembering that. But it hadn’t happened yet. So that was good.

Anti spent a lot of the time on his phone or computer, almost always grumbling to himself about something or other as he stomped around the apartment. From what Schneep could put together based on what he overheard, something had gone very wrong for Anti, and he was scrambling to recover from it. That was also good. If he kept being distracted like this, he’d probably leave Schneep and the other man alone.

Yes, the other man. His name was JJ. He was always nearby, hovering around Schneep silently. His presence was comforting. Things had been a bit awkward at first, since JJ couldn’t talk—or, well, form words was the better way of saying it. He could vocalize easily enough. But slowly, JJ had been giving Schneep refreshers on BSL, which he was really rusty on. By now, they could hold conversations. They talked about a lot of things. Getting to know each other, mostly. Work, friends, favorite books and movies. That sort of stuff. Schneep was glad for the shred of normalcy these conversations provided.

Though…he could tell JJ was holding back from some things. In one conversation, JJ had said he knew Schneep’s friends—Chase, Marvin, Jackie. That he’d spent a lot of time with them. Schneep had been excited, but also a bit sad. “Is—is that why you are here now?” he’d asked. “Because you knew them, and they know me?”

JJ had coughed awkwardly, shook his head no, then moved on, talking more about their respective friends. Schneep had dropped the subject, but he could tell that JJ didn’t want to talk about why Anti had taken him. And he wondered…The only other thing JJ didn’t want to talk about was family. Schneep didn’t mind, he didn’t want to talk about his, either. But still he wondered…if those two things were connected for JJ.

He also wondered why JJ was allowed to walk around the apartment freely. Schneep was pretty much stuck in the bedroom. His ankles were cuffed together, so he couldn’t walk out on his own, and when JJ had tried on Day Four to carry him out, Anti had gotten really angry—the angriest he’d been in the eight days they’d been stuck here—so clearly, it wasn’t allowed. So why was JJ different?

He didn’t want to press him. But eventually, he got his answer anyway.

It was night time, judging by the lack of sunlight coming through the closed shutters. Or maybe it was cloudy. That was a possibility, too. Either way, he and JJ had been sitting on the bed, talking about the places they’d grown up in. JJ had apparently moved around a lot when he was younger, and was in the middle of talking about how he once lived in a town surrounded by a forest…when the bedroom door opened.

“Jamie.” Anti was standing in the doorway. “I need to talk to you.”

JJ immediately stopped signing. He glanced at Schneep, who was staring at Anti with wide eyes, then slowly stood. He reluctantly walked over to Anti, who closed the door the moment JJ walked through it.

For a moment, Schneep just sat there. Waiting. That hadn’t happened before. What if…something was happening? Something bad? Could he—did he want to—? He wasn’t sure. If JJ was hurt, would he shout or scream, or would he just stay silent? After a while of thinking over these agonizing questions, Schneep made a decision.

He slid off the bed and onto the ground. Obviously, he couldn’t walk over to the door, but he refused to crawl, not wanting to give Anti that bit of control over him. So, it was an awkward hopping-shuffling over towards the door, using the walls and furniture to help. Once there, Schneep sat down, putting his head against the wood of the door to listen.

“—it’s not negotiable.” Anti’s voice. There was a slight pause. “It was, in the past. But clearly, you want to bury the past, which I still don’t understand.” A long period of silence. “Well, I’m sorry you feel that way. But I’ve already said everything I can on the matter.”

Schneep frowned. The way Anti was speaking…it wasn’t how he expected. He’d thought that maybe Anti had some sort of special grudge against JJ. But that theory was immediately disproved by this. That wasn’t how people with grudges talked to the subject of their anger. He knew; he’d experienced that for weeks while Dr. Newson was ‘supervising’ him. No, this sounded…almost familiar. No, Familial.

“Just put it on,” Anti said. “I don’t want to arrange a punishment for something this small.”

Oh. Schneep sucked in a breath at that. For a moment, he was back in the past again. Anti was staring him down, saying, “If you don’t, I’ll just do it myself. But to that friend of yours, instead. Do you want your friend to die, Henrik?” Then he forcibly pulled himself out of the moment. He breathed deeply, pressing his hands against the walls, the floor, his head. These were solid things. They were there and now and real, and that meant he was here and now and real.

“Perfect,” Anti said, sounding delighted. “Now, was that really worth all of that?” A pause. “Alright, you don’t have to say anything. That’s—” He stopped. “No. I also wanted to ask you. About Henrik. You two…are getting close.” A pause. “Well, I didn’t have to. I can put you in separate rooms, you know. Maybe I will. That depends. I just want to know. Do you have feelings?” A pause. “You know. Those kind.” A longer pause. Then, Anti laughed. “Yeah, it’s weird, right? I wonder why these people all look like us. I don’t think we’re related to any of them. Anyway, good to hear. That’s it.”

Slight footsteps.

“Actually,” Anti said. The footsteps paused. “I’d advise you not to get too close, in any way. You got really close with Jackie, right?”

In the silence that followed, Schneep panicked internally. Jackie. What had happened to Jackie?! He’d assumed that he was being held captive somewhere else, as Anti often had them separated in the past. But the way he was talking now—what happened to him?!

“NOW that’s it. Well? Go on. You can even close the door.”

After another moment, the footsteps returned. They were getting closer, so Schneep quickly moved out of the way of the door. He was clear just in time for it to open, and JJ to walk in, closing the door quickly behind him. JJ rubbed his eyes, then turned around and hit his head against the nearest wall with a gentle thunk!

“Oof. Be careful not to hurt yourself,” Schneep said.

JJ glanced over at him. He waved.

“Ah…nice jacket,” Schneep said slowly.

JJ scowled. When he left the room, he’d been wearing a white T-shirt and black pants. Now he was wearing a hoodie over his shirt. Bright blue, with a cartoon image of an open book on the front with the text ‘Sorry I can’t make it, I was completely booked’ in big bubble letters. It was…well, Schneep had never used the word ‘cringe’ before, but it certainly seemed a bit childish, and definitely didn’t fit JJ.

“Did…did he make you leave just so he could make you wear that?” Schneep asked slowly.

JJ let out a long breath. He sat down on the floor across from Schneep. 'I had a hoodie like this when I was sixteen,' he signed slowly. 'It’s not bad by itself. I’ve just outgrown the whole ‘quirky bookworm’ part of my personality.' He finger-spelled a lot of the words, so his point would be conveyed perfectly.

“Oh.” Schneep blinked. “Why would he care about that? And did he know you when you were six—” Something clicked into place, and he visibly started. “Wait a moment. Are—are you related? To him?”

A long pause. Then, JJ sighed. 'Yes. Anti is my older brother.'

Schneep stared at him. “He kidnapped his own brother?”

'Yes.'

“What the fuck?” Schneep couldn’t process this. “Did you—did you know? About everything he’s done?”

JJ slowly shook his head. 'Not…not everything. Years ago. He…made me help him. But I ran away when I was twenty-three.' He looked down at his lap. 'I didn’t…know about any of the things with you. Not until everyone else did.'

Schneep leaned back against the wall. “He’s a fucking monster,” he whispered. “His own brother…”

JJ breathed in shakily. 'It’s fine.'

“No, it is not,” Schneep snapped. Then his voice softened. “I am…sorry. This—this should not be happening. To either of us.” He swallowed. “I…do not have a good perception of what a family is. But I know this is not it.”

Slowly, JJ looked back up, his eyes meeting Schneep’s. 'You’re right. He’s not my family.'

They didn’t talk much for the rest of the night. Schneep wasn’t sure what he would have said. So, he just stayed close. And JJ appreciated it. He didn’t say anything more about Anti. Which was fine. Schneep understood.

The two of them fell asleep on the bed a few hours later, their backs pressed against each other. They weren’t awake to see Anti ease open the door and stand there, watching both of them for a long, long while.

Part Twenty-Two of The Stitched AU
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of a completed fanfic series of mine with 24 total chapters. I started this October of 2018 and finished it May of 2021. The boys attempt to destroy the strings, but they find that comes with a side effect. And quickly, things start to topple and collapse.]
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“It’s going to be fine,” Chase muttered, bouncing nervously in place. “It’s allll going to be fine. It’s going to work out.”

'Are you alright, Chase?' JJ asked, giving him a look of concern. 'Do you not like elevators?'

Chase laughed. “It’s not the elevator that worries me, it’s what’s waiting on the floor once we get there.” It was also the fact that Jackie was holding onto his arm tightly, head resting on his shoulder. Clingy as usual. But hopefully, that wouldn’t last long. Because right now, they were going to try to destroy the strings.

The magicians had proposed it the day before. They thought that using magical fire or electricity would be able to get rid of them for good. After a short talk, all the boys had agreed to try. Hopefully, once the strings were gone, Jackie and Marvin would…well, not go back to normal. They knew that was impossible now. But they’d be friendly, at least. In the best-case scenario.

The elevator dinged, and Chase and Jameson stepped out into a long hallway. This was the sanctuary’s very top floor, reserved for any magical testing that might go wrong. Apparently it was heavily protected. It didn’t look like much. Just like all the other halls, it seemed like something you’d find in a hotel. But then Chase noticed all the doors were made of metal. Ah.

Jack and Schneep were some ways down the hall, waiting outside a door, sitting on a bench against the opposite wall. The moment Jack saw Chase and JJ approaching with Jackie, he stood up and waved. “Hey!”

“Yeah, I see you, Jack.” Chase waved back. “Can’t miss you.” They quickly closed the distance. “Are things—ow!” He looked down. “Schneep did you just whap me with that thing?!”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” Schneep twirled his white cane like a baton, causing everyone to back up. “I was just confirming you were here.”

“I—don’t you, like, sense souls or something?”

“Chase, please. I still cannot see you.”

JJ chuckled a little, the sound muffled. 'Is everything ready?'

“Yeah, all the magicians are getting ready.” Jack pointed at the door, which was labelled ‘Dangerous Reaction Room 7.’ “When they’re ready, you and I are supposed to go in, while Schneep and Chase keep an eye on Jackie out here, to make sure nothing happens with him while we get rid of the, uh…S-T-R-I-N-G-S.”

“He can spell, Jack, he is not an idiot,” Schneep said.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think he’s listening,” Chase muttered. He tried to pull his arm away from Jackie’s grip, but he held on tighter, making Chase grit his teeth to ignore the uncomfortable closeness. “Do you two really need to go in the room? I mean, look at that sign. It says ‘dangerous’ on it.”

“Yeah, well, JJ’s shields will be really helpful,” Jack said. “But you’re right about me. They want me to tell them if anything happens with the soul bits that are part of the…well, you-know-whats. And I was like ‘Don’t you have instruments or something for that?’ and they were like ‘Yeah but we’re not going to risk something happening to them’ and I said ‘But you’re okay with something happening to me…a living person’ and they said ‘You’ll be fiiiiiine.’” Jack sighed. “Anyway, I’m not gonna argue. It’s too much effort. And anyway, I want to see those green bastards gone.”

Before the discussion could continue, a voice came through the door. “We’re ready!” Yvonne shouted. “Come on in!”

“Well, good luck, bro, both of you,” Chase said.

“Yes, break a leg,” Schneep added. “Or do not. Actually, please do not break anything.”

JJ gave another muffled giggle, and Jack smiled. “Thanks, guys. We’ll see you soon.” He reached over and pulled open the door, and the two of them disappeared into the room. When the door shut behind them, it briefly glowed with a yellow light, then returned to normal metal.

The room beyond the door was entirely bare, its walls, ceiling, and floor reinforced with metal. Waist-high metal walls made a circle in the center of the room. Griffin, Delyth, and Yvonne were all gathered around that circle, with Griffin holding a pair of boxes. In the center, the strings were lying in a bowl-like shape built into the floor. They were trying to wriggle up the sides, but were evidently having trouble grasping the slick metal, and kept falling back down. JJ gave Jack a look. 'This isn’t a very encouraging room.'

“Yeah, I know, it’s like…I get this is for safety and all, but it just feels like things are about to blow up.” Jack closed the door behind him, sealing the room. “You guys just…have a place like this?”

“Yes, of course.” Griffin walked over to the two of them, taking something out of the first box and holding it out. “Here, please put on these goggles, in case of shrapnel.”

'That is even less encouraging,' JJ signed, but took the offered goggles and put them on. Jack did so as well. This whole thing felt less like getting ready to cast a spell and more like the start of a dangerous scientific experiment. One where things could explode.

Delyth was busy reading something on her phone, lips moving silently. “Are we uh…are we ready?” Jack asked.

“Sorry, just reviewing.” Delyth shut off her phone and put it away. “Fire and lightning aren’t my specialties; it’s been a while.”

“You sure you should be casting it, then?” Yvonne muttered.

“Yes, of course. I’m still a highly skilled agent, and if I must say so myself, probably the most powerful magician in the sanctuary at this moment.”

“Alright, alright, I get it. You want to continue with that horn-tooting, or should we get started?” Yvonne pulled her own goggles down over her eyes.

“I say we should start now,” Griffin said. “Eventually those strings are going to climb their way out of the target zone.”

The five of them gathered around the circle. Jameson, wary, half-held up his hands, weak circular shields flickering in between all of them and the strings, ready to snap into greater strength the moment they needed to. “Alright, I’m about to start casting,” Delyth announced. “We’ll start out with a slow burn, and hopefully that’ll be enough. If not, I’ll increase the severity until they’re gone. Ready?” Everyone nodded. “Good.”

Delyth reached forward, muttering a spell under her breath. Above the circle, directly over the strings, a small, pale purple fireball appeared. It started off the size of a golf ball, but as Delyth slowly lowered the gently burning flame into the circle, it grew to baseball size, then to about the size of a basketball. Below the heat, the strings started skittering frantically, like a cornered animal. They tried to climb the walls, but once again fell back.

When the ball of flame hit the bottom of the bowl, it burst, filling the entirety of the area in a liquid way. In the fire, the strings became panicked, twisting and tripping over themselves in any attempt to get away from the flames. They were unsuccessful. But apparently, so was the fire. The strings were not burning, though they certainly acted like they were. Jack closed his eye to look at the strings in his soul vision, but saw no change there, either.

“Nothing’s happening,” Yvonne said cautiously.

“Indeed.” Griffin nodded. “Delyth?”

“On it.” Delyth clenched her fist, and the flames filling the bowl disappeared. “These next spells are going to be a bit more…pyrotechnic.”

“Oh shit.” Yvonne took a few steps back. Jameson, agreeing with the sentiment, strengthened the shields just a bit.

Delyth raised her hand, then brought it down with a fierce shout of a spell word. A fireball slammed down into the bowl, exploding at the bottom with a loud BANG! Purple flames licked at the sides of the walls, and the strings thrashed frantically, some of them clustering together. Delyth repeated the spell one, two, three more times, making everyone cover their ears. The fire inside grew, but the strings were still intact. Now starting to look frustrated, Delyth started chanting. Fireworks of hot purple magic exploded repeatedly in the bowl, causing ear-splitting snap! snap! snap!s every time they blew, giving off smoke.

But the strings were still there.

“Keep it up!” Griffin shouted over the noise. “It’s possible that we’re doing damage, just slowly!”

“Right!” Delyth took a deep breath, wiped her forehead, then raised her hand and sent another fireball down into the bowl, this one sending spears of fire into every direction. The bowl was now full of searing purple flames, yet the strings remained. And so, Delyth started another spell.

A bolt of purple lightning crashed into the bowl, adding yet more flames in addition to smaller branches of electricity that remained, crackling, connecting between the walls. And she did it again. And then sent more fireworks. And another fireball. And another electric spell.

Outside the room, Schneep and Chase remained sitting on the bench, Jackie now in between them. When the first BANG! echoed from the room, the two of them jumped in unison. “What was that?” Schneep hissed.

“A spell, probably,” Chase said. “Uh…sounded like a big one. Do you think it worked?”

There was the second BANG! Schneep flinched, then muttered, “Apparently not.”

“Right.” Chase looked down at his hands, twisting his fingers. “I guess we won’t know until they come out if it worked.”

“I suppose not.”

Chase sighed. He really, really hoped this worked. Maybe things wouldn’t go back to normal afterwards, but it would be better. Things would be…what was Jackie doing?

He paused in his hand-wringing to give this situation a better look. Jackie was rocking on the bench, forward and backwards, gripping the fabric of his pants in white-knuckled fists. Chase blinked, and stared. Jackie’s expression…it was pained. Every time one of the bang!s went off, he flinched, not out of surprise, but as if he’d been physically struck. “Uh…Jackie? Are you okay?”

Jackie didn’t respond. His mouth opened just a bit, letting out a small groan. Schneep stiffened, turning towards Chase. “Is everything okay?”

Chase didn’t get a chance to answer. “No,” Jackie whispered. “No, no, no, this—this isn’t okay.” He gasped as more loud noises came from the room, then suddenly doubled over, both hands shooting upward to press against his chest. “This—! This—! Isn’t okay!” He cried.

“Jackie!” Chase and Schneep shot to their feet in unison, Schneep backing up and holding his cane defensively, Chase standing in front of Jackie and crouching down again so he could be level with his face. “What’s wrong?!”

“Hurts. Hurts.” Jackie was shaking, all the color drained from his face. “It hurts! IT HURTS!” He lunged forward, grabbing Chase’s shirt and burying his face in it. “MAKE IT STOP!”

“I—I’m sorry, I can’t,” Chase said, at a loss for words. “I…Schneep, can you go—”

“No!” Jackie choked the word out from behind a sob. “Schneep, don’t leave.”

Both Chase and Schneep froze. That was…the first time Jackie had actually acknowledged any of them by name. Anyone other than Chase. “I…okay, I will not leave,” Schneep said slowly. “What should I do?”

“I don’t know,” Jackie shook his head. “I don’t know, I just—just stop it! Make it stop!”

“We—we can’t, Jackie.” Chase instinctively wrapped Jackie in a hug, holding him tight as he continued to rock back and forth, crying into Chase’s bandanna. “What’s wrong? What does it feel like?”

“I—I’m dying,” Jackie rasped. “I-I’m dying again. Chase, I don’t want to die again.” He let out another sob. “I—I’m being torn into pieces. Please, someone. Just stop this! Please!”

Schneep suddenly stepped up next to Chase. “Jackie, I am going to take your pulse, okay?” His voice was surprisingly gentle, and Jackie nodded, letting him press his fingers against the pulse in his neck. “Okay, okay. And your temperature. You need to back up a bit so I can feel your forehead.” Jackie did so, trembling a bit as Schneep put a hand on his forehead. “Scheiße,” Schneep hissed.

“Oh no, it’s in German, that’s not good,” Chase said. “What’s wrong?”

“He is burning up.” Schneep hurried over to the room’s door, hand trailing across the wall to find the doorknob. “And I think I mean that literally.” He grabbed the handle and turned it. Only to be met with resistance. Locked. His face drained of color. “Hey!” He started banging on the door. “Open it! Stop the whole thing, for god’s sake!”

“I’m going to die again,” Jackie said quietly, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head. “No, no, I don’t want to die again. I don’t want to go to hell.”

“You weren’t in hell, Jackie,” Chase said, trying to sound reassuring. “A-and it’s going to be fine.”

“Hell,” Jackie insisted. “Hell hell hell. Awful things…happening. Bits of my brain swirling around. So…angry. So much hate. It ate at me. Us. There were two of us, a-and we were just one, and I wasn’t sure—who am I? Chase, who am I? Chase, I don’t know.”

“You’re Jackie,” Chase emphasized. “Jackie Parker. The guy who decided to be a superhero because you thought you needed to. The guy who offered to let Marvin move in after he decided to sell his house. The guy who would babysit Lily and Moira when Stacy and I were too busy. A good guy. That’s who you are.”

Jackie was quiet for a moment. And then, softly, he asked, “Are you sure?”

Before Chase could answer, a loud crashing noise came from the room beyond the door. Jackie screamed, and fell forward off the bench, only held up by Chase still holding him. “Stop stop stop STOP STOP STOP!” He shrieked, writhing and seizing. His temperature continued to rise, and Chase could feel the heat radiating from his entire body, like standing near a fire that was getting increasingly larger.

“Scheiß drauf!” Schneep kicked at the door under the handle one more time, then dropped his cane and reached to the side, grabbing his scissors from out of nowhere. He made a downward slashing motion, suddenly causing a membrane of yellow magic to appear over the door. It lasted for only a second before Schneep cut through it, leaving it in tatters. Then Schneep stepped forward and disappeared, teleporting straight into the room.

There was a lightshow of lightning happening in the center of the room. Jameson had his shields raised against any possible threats, and everyone except Delyth had backed up to around the edges of the room. In contrast, Delyth was stubbornly staying her ground next to the circle, hurling spell after spell at the strings, voice starting to crack and rasp as she shouted the spell words.

“Stop it! Shut it all down!” Schneep yelled.

Delyth looked over at him. “I’m making progress!”

“That is the problem!” Schneep ran at her, hands outstretched, and managed to grab her arm before she sent it down to cast again. “Stop it!”

Delyth shook him off, readying herself for another spell. But before she could cast it, the blue shield in front of her suddenly slammed into her stomach, knocking her to the ground. Immediately, the lightning fizzled out, and any fire slowly died into pale purple embers that soon stopped glowing. Jameson lowered his hands, and glanced back at Delyth. Sorry, he signed, circling his fist on his chest.

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked. “Why’d we have to stop?”

“Something is wrong with Jackie,” Schneep explained hurriedly. “I-I think we are hurting him.”

Jack’s eyes widened, and he ran out of the room. Jameson followed shortly thereafter, and then Schneep. The magicians stayed in the room. Yvonne walked over to help Delyth up, and Griffin approached the circle in the middle, taking the lid off the second box he was holding so he could put the strings inside.

While the magicians cleaned up, the boys gathered around Chase and Jackie. “What’s wrong?” Jack asked. “What’s happening?!”

Chase looked up at him, not answering. Jackie had calmed down considerably once the spellcasting had stopped, and was now shaking and gasping for air, face pale and hair damp with sweat. He continued to hold onto Chase, who luckily didn’t seem to mind as much as he might have in other circumstances. Glancing upward, his eyes darted around the people surrounding him. “…Jack?” he whispered. “Schneep?” Then he looked at JJ, and frowned, confused. “Who’re you?”

“I…” Jack was temporarily at a loss for words. With this spellcasting, they’d been fully prepared for Jackie to lose it and start fighting to get to the strings, but this? They hadn’t even considered this. He seemed…normal. “This is Jameson, Jackie. He, uh…he’s a friend. But he can’t talk.” JJ waved, looking understandably nervous.

“Are you okay, Jackie?” Schneep asked urgently. “How do you feel?”

“…bad,” Jackie said after a while.

Chase laughed a bit. There were tears in his eyes, but he wasn’t sure what emotion was causing them.

“Where am I…? H-how did I get here?” Jackie looked around some more. “I don’t understand. I don’t understand what’s happening.”

“It’s a long story, Jackie,” Jack said. “We need to know if you’re okay, that’s all you need to focus on for now.” He paused, then closed his eye to activate soul vision. Usually, he’d see a mess of red and blue light in Jackie’s chest when he did this, but this time it was…different. The red and blue were neatly separated out, forming a circle that was roughly three-quarters red and one-quarter blue. But it wasn’t going to stay that way. He could see the edges where the colors met starting to swirl and shift already. “I don’t think we have much time,” he said in a hushed voice.

“Jackie, what do you remember?” Schneep asked. “Can you tell us? Quickly?”

“I-I…that depends on what you mean by remember.” Jackie shut his eyes tight. “I…there was…it was horrible. I-I saw—there were these—horrible, horrible things. Awful things, ha-happening to people. You guys were there. But I don’t know. I-I don’t know if they were all real or just my thoughts. Maybe both, but I…” He bit back a sob. “…I don’t know which were which. And just…so much…hating. I was so…felt so…much…hate.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Chase murmured. “You’re going to be alright. We’ll make sure of it.”

“Jackie, I have a question,” Schneep said. “Do you remember…did you and Marvin do some sort of spell? In your apartment?”

“Spell…” Jackie’s eyes suddenly shot open. He reached up and grabbed something around his neck. That amulet. That broken amulet, one of the pair that Anti always wore. “That spell! That—I didn’t—I didn’t—I didn’t want—”

“What? Did you not want to do the spell?” Schneep asked.

Jackie shook his head. “I did, at first. But then—he lied to me—”

“Marvin?”

“Yes, he didn’t tell me everything, I—I didn’t want that, I tried to stop it—” He suddenly froze. “Oh my god.” Reaching up, he covered his mouth with a hand as tears started to swell in his eyes. “Oh my god, I killed him.”

“What?” Chase asked, shocked.

“It was an accident! I just wanted to stop it! We got in a fight, I-I had a knife, I—he wasn’t supposed to die! I didn’t want to kill him!” His breathing sped into hyperventilating as he started rocking back and forth. “It was an accident! I—if he didn’t move—if I’d just been more careful—he wasn’t supposed to die! I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO KILL HIM!” The last sentence was ripped from his throat in a scream, and Jackie doubled over, curling over his knees and covering his head with his arms.

“Jackie, Jackie, it’s fine, we believe you!” Chase bent over as well, trying to keep his head level with his. “It wasn’t your fault, and we know that. It’s fine. You’re going to be alright.” For a moment, Jackie was frozen in that position. “Hey, it’s okay.” Chase patted his back, and at that, Jackie moved, leaning into him. “It’s okay.”

“…Chase.” Jack’s voice was low and warning, but Chase didn’t hear him.

“It’s all over now,” Chase said reassuringly, giving Jackie a hug and straightening, pulling him into a kneeling position. After a moment, Jackie responded, wrapping his arms around him. “It’s alright. It’s…” Chase paused. “You’re uh…squeezing pretty tight there. Could you loosen up a bit, bro?” Jackie didn’t answer. In fact, he started to squeeze tighter. “Jackie, I—I really don’t like this.” Chase started to squirm. “Jackie?”

Jameson finally stepped in, quickly pulling Jackie away from Chase. He didn’t seem to mind much, eyes now looking a bit glazed. His head turned around absentmindedly, not really looking for anything. “Where are we?” He asked. “Where’s the rest of me? It’s close…we think.”

Chase quickly backed away, scrambling to his feet. Looking shaken, he walked all the way until his back was pressed against the hall wall. “What…what happened?” He asked quietly.

“It’s weird,” Jack said. “His soul…the two colors were separated, but they were starting to mix together again. Then he started talking about—about killing someone…and it all just snapped back to being all jumbled up.”

“Marvin,” Schneep muttered. “He was talking about how he accidentally killed Marvin. During the transference spell, it sounded like. They fought, and it…must have…” He turned around, burying his face in his hands. It was hard to imagine. And he didn’t want to imagine it at all.

“Yeah, that would cause some problems in the spell.”

The boys jumped in unison at the sound of the voice, and looked over to see the magicians had left the room. Yvonne, noticing them all staring at her, continued, “I mean, I don’t think it’s ever happened before. If it has, it was probably a long time ago. Long enough that all records of it are gone now. But I imagine the spell would want to keep going—black magic like that almost has a will and drive of its own—but without both of the participants, it couldn’t, so it just messed their souls up.”

“God…” Jack breathed.

'That must have been terrible,' JJ signed sadly.

“I imagine so,” Griffin said gravely. “But I’m afraid I must ask…do we want to continue with the spellcasting?” He held up the box. “We were actually making some headway there near the end.”

“Are you crazy?!” Chase, though still a bit rattled, was put together enough to whirl on the magicians. “We almost killed Jackie!”

“There was no guarantee that was going to happen,” Delyth said calmly. “The chance that he would have survived is equal to the chance that he would not have.”

“You know, I think he would not have,” Schneep stated flatly. “I may not be a doctor anymore, I may be blind, even, but I can still fucking recognize when someone is having a crisis.”

“And the point of this is to get rid of the strings, not Jackie and Marvin,” Chase added, folding his arms. “That is the last thing we want.”

“It might not have killed him,” Delyth repeated. “And besides, while these strings exist, they’re both a high threat—”

“Are you fucking insane?!” Jack shouted. “Are you asking us to kill our friends?!”

“No!” Delyth shook her head furiously. “Alright, what if we took this in short bursts? That took a lot of my magic, anyway. We’ve damaged them slightly, if we keep this up—”

'There’s still a chance they’ll die once the strings are gone,' JJ interrupted. 'I understand you’re concerned about what might happen, but this isn’t the way.'

“Yeah, Mae, I knew you were strict, didn’t realize you were heartless,” Yvonne emphasized.

Delyth took a step back, shocked. “I didn’t mean—I…I’m sorry. I didn’t want to come off that way.”

“Don’t do it again,” Chase said in a surly tone.

“But what do we do now?” Jack asked quietly.

“That is not clear,” Schneep said. “But one thing is. We cannot destroy the strings.”

“Then…what can we do?” Chase whispered.

Nobody had an answer for that.
.............................................................................................

The sudden pain in his chest was fading. Still, he could only lie on the ground for a few moments, panting and shaking. What was that? Why had that suddenly happened?

…where was he?

Marvin sat up, looking around. This…looked like some random street. The buildings were tall but run-down, and there were no cars or pedestrians in sight. He must have collapsed right onto the sidewalk.

…how did he get here?

He reached up to his face, and felt a mask covering half of it. What? He pulled it off. This…looked like his mask, except snapped in half, with the white ceramic stained blue. Hadn’t he seen this? Or…had he just imagined it?

Attempting to stand up, Marvin winced, falling back down to a sitting position. His feet really hurt. He could remember walking…so much walking. For days, it seemed like. And his stomach was turning in on itself. He hadn’t eaten anything in…in…he couldn’t remember.

“Hello?” He called. “Is…is anyone there? Um…help?”

He tried to recall the last thing he remembered. And immediately regretted it, as all he could find were visions of people suffering, horrible, gruesome sights. Were those real? Or were they just thoughts he’d had? Shaking his head to physically ward off the images, he tried to remember something else. He had been…angry. Full of rage so hot it was like it was physically burning him. But everything was disconnected, broken, shattered. Held together by tenuous strings. His mind was in pieces. He’d been pulled apart.

Suddenly cold despite the sun overhead, Marvin wrapped his arms around himself, squeezing his eyes to hold in tears. “It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine,” he muttered. “It’s fine, it’s…” He let out a sob, and started rocking back and forth. That helped. Tapping his arm with his fist helped, too. What was happening? Why was it happening to him?

What…

He…

There…

Feel…

Marvin shook his head, climbing to his feet and holding the half-mask close to his chest. He was coming apart again. Bits of him were…they were…mixing up. Again. He couldn’t…think…

What else did he remember? What…we…I…you…? Us…? He didn’t feel…whole.

“No, no, no, no.” Jackie pressed a hand against his head. Jackie? No, he was Marvin. Or…was he someone other than both of those? No, he was Marvin. Marvin Marvin Marvin…

He didn’t feel whole. Why? Because…he was broken…?

His hand brushed against his neck. There were…stitches…strings…there. Stitches. Strings. Strings. Strings. Strings.

The rest of him. The rest of them.

He could feel it. He couldn’t feel it for a while there, but something had changed. Now he sensed where they were, clear as day, easy as following a sound.

Turning in that direction, he slid the mask back over his face, and smiled. Now he knew. Now he would be brought back together. He headed straight in that direction, any pain and discomfort instantly forgotten. He had to find the rest of him.
.............................................................................................

The whole group had quickly dispersed after aborting the spellcasting. Griffin and Delyth had disappeared to wherever they usually spent their time, Jack, JJ, and Chase had retreated to their rooms with Jackie in tow, and Schneep had gone down to the basement to do some more training. But not long after, he found he wasn’t in the mood. He just…kept thinking about what they were supposed to do next. Maybe if they put the strings somewhere else, somewhere far away? But where would even be far enough? Eventually, he left, taking the elevator back up.

The doors dinged open much sooner than he expected. That might have been surprising, if he hadn’t sensed the presence of someone on the other side. “Oh! Hey, it’s you.” Yvonne’s voice. “You mind? I can wait for the next lift.”

“No no, is fine.” Schneep stepped to the side, feeling her brush past him.

“Thanks.” The elevator doors shut, and he heard the sound of Yvonne pressing a button.

“We are on the same floor, yes?” He asked. “Are you not going to your room?”

“What? No, I am, I just pressed it again. Y’know…cause I wanted to press the button.” Yvonne giggled a bit. “Huh. Didn’t realize that could be confusing if you couldn’t see what was happening.”

“I did not either, until just now.” It had been months since he returned to the waking world with his sight missing, and he was still learning new things.

“Hey, actually, can I ask you a question?” Yvonne said.

“Go ahead.”

“How’d you manage to get through the protective spell around the reaction room? That’s supposed to prevent anyone from barging in and interrupting everything, but you just teleported right in.”

Schneep frowned. “Well, I just…when the door would not open, I thought there must have been some sort of magic protection. And I was right. So I…I did not think about it too much, actually, I just grabbed my scissors and cut right through, then jumped inside.”

“Huh.” Yvonne paused. “Are these scissors of yours…magic?”

“I am not sure, actually.” Schneep reached forward and grabbed them, pulling them out of a pocket in thin air. “They seem very normal to me, what about you?” He snipped them a few times for emphasis.

“Yeah, they look pretty normal.” Yvonne paused. “In uder’m magima,” she muttered. There was a cool breeze, and then she said, “Nope, I couldn’t pick anything up. They’re just regular-ass scissors. Guess that must be part of your magic, then. To cut straight through wards? Hey, do you mind if I call you some time? We can go on a trip to some of the most protected ABIM storages.”

“Ha ha,” Schneep said. “I suppose that—” He suddenly stopped.

“What? Something wrong?”

“We stopped moving,” he said. “But the doors are not opening.”

“…oh. I hadn’t noticed. That’s—oh my god!”

“What?!”

“The lights went out,” Yvonne said in a hushed voice. “Is there a power outage? That…shouldn’t happen.”

“Why? Are the lights magic?”

“No, but I don’t think sanctuaries would be prone to blackouts.” She banged on the elevator doors, then pressed several different buttons. “Ugh. This is taking too long. Can you teleport us out?”

Schneep raised an eyebrow. “I could, technically. But I should warn you first, teleportation is not a pleasant experience.”

“Hey, I’ve tried it…once. Twice. Anyway, it was fine for me then.”

“You cannot do it again?”

“Nah, can’t remember the spell.” He could practically hear Yvonne shrugging.

Schneep sighed. “Alright. I will do all the work, then.” He held out a hand, and Yvonne quickly grabbed it. Making sure he had a firm grip on her, he thought about where to jump. He had no idea where they were in the building, and he could only really imagine the basement, his room, and the ground floor. That last one would probably be the most convenient. They could just take the stairs. Debatably, his room would also be helpful, but he didn’t want to bring someone into there without asking Jack if he could, since they shared the space. “And going now.” So he jumped.

Instantly, they were back on the ground floor. And instantly, Yvonne yanked her hand away. “H-holy shit,” she breathed. “Holy—” She stumbled away, bracing herself against the wall and taking several deep breaths. “You weren’t kidding.”

“I did warn you,” Schneep pointed out.

“That is not normal teleportation. I don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s not normal.” Yvonne paused. “Wait…do you hear that?”

They both fell silent. Some ways away, there was the sound of crashing and shouting…some sort of fight. In unison, they ran towards the sound.

Rounding a corner, they ran right into a magical battlefield. The ground was broken up, with purple crystals protruding from the floor and stabbing the air. The wallpaper was singed with purple flames, and a couple of the doors had been knocked off their hinges. The moment Schneep rounded the corner, he ran into a long, blue string, which immediately wrapped around his torso and pulled him down with a yelp.

“You two!” Delyth was holding her own against her opponent, eyes glowing pale purple. “What are you doing here?!”

“Mae!” Yvonne gasped. “What—”

“It’s Marvin,” Schneep said through gritted teeth. “Isn’t it?”

“Maaarvin?” That voice identified him shortly before he came into sight, stepping out of one of the rooms with broken doors. His broken mask was firmly on his face, set above a wild grin. “Is that who we are?” Blue strings of magic danced in the air around him.

“Oh fuck.” Yvonne took a step back, raising her hands instinctively. On the ground beside her, Schneep was struggling with his scissors and the thread entangling him.

“Get out of here!” Delyth demanded, thrusting her hand forward to conjure a purple crystalline shield, deflecting the wave of blue strings that flew at her. “I’ll take care of this!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Mae, you’re running out of juice!” Yvonne protested. “Look at how faint that shield is!”

“You need to get to the strings! That’s what he’s—” She was cut off as one of the strings wormed its way under the shield and wrapped around her ankles, yanking her upwards.

“Mae!” Yvonne reacted instinctively, hurling a ball of pale blue magic at Marvin, knocking him to the ground and making him drop Delyth. “Oh, sorry!”

Marvin got to his feet, swaying for a moment. He glanced upwards towards the ceiling, and grinned even wider. “We’re really close,” he muttered. A ball of wriggling blue thread spawned in his hand, and he threw it upwards. Once it hit the ceiling, the strings spread out in a fan, digging into the plaster and causing white dust to fall down onto Marvin below.

“Oh no you don’t!” Yvonne swung her hand, sending a wave of magic at the strings and knocking them to the ground. Frowning, Marvin turned his attention to her. More strings appeared in the air, slithering in a way that seemed distinctly hostile.

Schneep finally managed to cut through the string wrapping him up, and he scrambled to his feet. “I can make sure the strings are secure,” he said. “You two hold him back.”

“Got it.” Yvonne raised a shield, then reached down and helped pull Delyth to her feet. “We can handle this.”

Schneep nodded, and jumped away, just before Marvin lunged forward at the two magicians.

His jump took him to the floor directly above him, though he fell a few inches onto the floor. Not bad, for being entirely unsure where he was going. But it sounded like he hadn’t escaped the chaos on this floor, either.

“Got him!” The scene he’d stepped into had Jack, Chase, and JJ struggling with Jackie. Jack had managed to grab Jackie, wrapping his arms around him in an effort to hold him back from…going somewhere. “Guys, can you—”

“Let go!” Jackie twisted around, and suddenly there was a flash of red light. Jack cried out and staggered backwards, suddenly bleeding from a cut across his cheek. Immediately, Jackie started to run again, only to run into a wall of blue light as Jameson created several shields around him, trapping him in.

“What is going on?!” Schneep asked.

“Oh Schneep! Jackie just went crazy all of a sudden.” Chase hurried over to Schneep’s side. “It was weird, he was talking about ‘the rest of him’ again.”

“The rest of me!” Jackie whaled. He started pounding on the shields—no, not pounding on them, stabbing them. With bits of red light, long and sharp and almost shaped like a knife. “I need to get to them! I need to—”

Jameson flinched, and one of the shields abruptly shattered. Jackie wasted no time, dashing forward, right past Schneep and Chase, and running up to a closed door. With another flash of red magic, the door was cut right in half, wood folding to the ground, and Jackie disappeared inside.

“No!” Jack cried. He and the other three hurried forward, into a dimly-lit room filled with coppery boxes. Jackie was quickly knocking them aside, until he found one the size of a shoebox. Grinning maniacally, he pried at the lid, but it wouldn’t open. “Stop him!” Jack shouted.

Chase dived forward, tackling Jackie to the ground. He shrieked, but managed to keep hold of the shoebox. “No!” Jackie yelled.

“Give me that!” Chase reached for the shoebox, but Jackie held it away from him. Of course, the other three quickly stepped in to help, with Schneep managing to grab the box, Jack prying at Jackie’s hands, and Chase and JJ holding him down. Jackie shouted, struggling and twisting, and soon the whole situation devolved into a wrestling match on the floor of the room. It only lasted for a few minutes before one wrong kick knocked down a nearby stack of boxes, which came crashing down onto the four of them, momentarily stunning them all.

Unfortunately, Jackie recovered the quickest. He pried the box away from the others and scrambled backwards. “You don’t understand,” he hissed. “We need it. We need to be whole. And we WILL have it! We will—!” Suddenly, he stopped. And looked down. And then, out of nowhere, he laughed. Raising one hand, sharp blades of red light appeared in the air.

Jameson immediately tried to shield the others, but it turned out, that wasn’t what Jackie was planning. The blades plunged downward into the floor around him in a neat circle, slicing right through. And then the floor gave way, and Jackie fell through the new hole onto the floor below.

In the room beneath, Marvin had been locked in a fight with Yvonne and Delyth. Well, mostly Yvonne, as Delyth’s magic was quickly draining. Shades of blue magic traded blows, blasts pushing back strings and strings wriggling through shields. Then the ceiling was cut through, and Jackie landed on the floor behind Marvin, who immediately froze and spun around. His face split into a wide grin.

“Bell, they have the container!” Delyth shouted, pointing at the coppery box in Jackie’s arms.

“On it!” A pale blue wall sprang up in between Jackie and Marvin, stopping Marvin just before he was able to pull Jackie to his feet. “Now what?”

Jackie got to his feet, looking at the wall of magic. And he laughed. He raised one hand and swiftly brought it down, cutting through the air. An arc of red light ran right into the blue wall…and it instantly shattered. Yvonne gasped, stumbling back. A trail of blood started to leak from her nose.

Marvin grabbed Jackie by the hand, and they both smiled the exact same smile. Then he spun around and sent a wave of blue strings at the magicians. Delyth tried to conjure another shield, but it was much too weak, and the strings cut right through and pinned both of the magicians to the walls.

“No!”

Something flashed in the faint light, and Marvin cried out, stumbling back. He’d been stabbed. A pair of scissors was sticking out of the back of his shoulder.

Schneep had dropped through the hole Jackie had made. Now, he stood behind Jackie and Marvin, expression twisted with anger and his eyes glowing turquoise light. There was a second pair of scissors in his hand, and he lunged. Marvin sent out another wave of strings, but Schneep disappeared, reappearing on the other side. Jackie whirled around and grabbed his wrist, preventing him from using the scissors he was holding. Except that now Schneep had a third pair in his other hand, which he opened wide and slashed, hitting Jackie’s other arm, the one holding the coppery box. Jackie yelped, and dropped it, only for the box to be caught in a net of blue strings and pulled over to Marvin, who picked it up.

Jackie and Marvin looked at each other. “Getting out,” they said in unison.

Marvin sent a few more strings Schneep’s way, who disappeared and reappeared behind the pair. But shortly after doing so, Jackie made a slashing motion, and an arc of red light hit Schneep in the chest. He cried out, falling backwards from the force of it. The moment he hit the floor, Jackie and Marvin grabbed each other’s hands and ran, right out the room and down the hall.

“They’re heading to the front!” Delyth shouted.

Jack, Chase, and Jameson, hearing the shout, ran for the front entrance, though it was far away. Schneep climbed to his feet and jumped, beating them there. But it was too late. By the time the group arrived there, Jackie and Marvin were nowhere in sight.

For a moment, all they could do was stand there, staring at the empty lobby in shock. Then Chase fell to his knees, Jameson collapsed on the nearest chair, and Schneep dropped his scissors. “They got away…” Jack breathed. “They…we have to go after them.”

Schneep nodded. “Yes. We have to, now.” He buttoned up his coat. “We cannot waste any time. Jameson, could you track them?”

“Wh…am I super out of it, or did you not have a coat just a minute ago?” Chase asked. “Where’d you get that?”

“I, ah…don’t…know.” Schneep blinked, running his hands over the black coat he was wearing. “But I recognize this feel. It is my black one, yes?”

“Yeah, but…how’d you get it?”

“And I’d like to know how you got like two other pairs of scissors.” Yvonne and Delyth appeared in the lobby entrance, both breathing hard from running and still with blue string wrapped around their limbs. “Like…seriously, where did those come from?” Yvonne tried for a laugh. It failed.

“Look, I think we have more important things to think about,” Schneep said irritably. “Jamie, can you track them?”

Jameson nodded. “He said yes,” Jack told Schneep.

“Good. We have to do it now, or—”

“Whoa, no way any of you are going out there now,” Delyth interrupted.

“What?!” Chase got to his feet and whirled on her. “Did you see how fast they broke in here?! Do you want to know what the two of them could do with those strings?!”

“It’ll probably take them a while to get the container open,” Delyth said calmly. “It’s designed to be unable to open without the proper authorization. Right now, we can’t just go barging in there, we have to have a plan.”

“Barging in there is a plan,” Jack protested. “We can’t let—”

“No.” Delyth’s voice was firm, unshakable. “Somehow, Marvin got right through our wards. Facing an opponent like that—two opponents like that without a plan? I can think of little more foolhardy.”

“I’ll tell you what’s more foolhardy,” Chase said coldly. “Letting those two have time to open the box, get together, and form Anti again.” He laughed hysterically, grabbing his hair and pulling at it. “That’s what they want to do! You’ve heard them! They’re all ‘we need to be whole,’ and ‘whole’ is Anti! That motherfucker! We can’t—can’t let that happen! We just got rid of him! We were going to fix everything!”

'Delyth, please,' Jameson signed. 'I understand your caution. It will be dangerous. But time is of the essence. We need to go NOW if we want to have any chance to prevent this. Chase pointed out how easily and swiftly they broke in and found those strings, they won’t have trouble with the box they’re in.'

Jack translated all this, and added, “Plus, you haven’t seen Anti like we have. We…we still haven’t told you everything he’s done.” He swallowed nervously, eyes shadowed for one moment. “There were things that were just too…too hard to talk about. A-and he might have a grudge against you, too, if he reforms. We can’t let…any…anything ha-happen.”

Delyth looked thoughtful for a moment. But then she shook her head. “We can’t risk it. Besides, we have to look at the wards. Figure out why Marvin attacked now.”

“It has to do with us trying to destroy the strings, I am sure,” Schneep mumbled.

“If this Anti reforms, we can protect you—”

“That is not the point!” Chase shrieked. “We had to go through hell to get Jackie and Marvin separate again! We might not be able to do it a second time! We have to go now!”

“Mae,” Yvonne said softly. “I think you’re right.”

“You do?” Delyth said, clearly surprised.

“I mean, yeah, we’re not in any shape to fight right now. Especially you and me.” Yvonne touched her bloody nose. “I think we should go get cleaned up in the clinic. These guys can rest in their rooms. Once we’re all good, we can discuss what to do next.” She looked over at the four others, making significant eye contact with all of them. “In fact, we should go now. It’s on this floor. And you guys should DEFINITELY go upstairs while we do this. We might be a WHILE.”

Delyth sighed, thankfully not catching on. “Alright. Let’s go. I know you four are anxious, so we’ll be quick, we promise.”

The boys were silent, but they all nodded in unison as the two magicians retreated back into the halls. They remained silent as they listened to the retreating footsteps until they could no longer be heard.

Schneep whirled around. “Jamie? You really can track them?”

'Yes, definitely', Jameson said. 'I’ve been practicing while in this hotel, finding random things.' He held his hand out, eyes scrunching up in concentration. A spinning blue disc formed on the tips of his fingers.

“Should we get weapons?” Jack asked.

“I’d like my gun,” Chase said.

“One moment.” Schneep reached to the side, hand disappearing into a pocket. When he pulled it back out, he held Chase’s gun. “Here you are.” He tossed it in Chase’s general direction.

“Whoa!” Chase leaned heavily to the side in order to catch it. “Your aim’s still as bad as ever, I see.”

Schneep chuckled. “Jack? Do you need anything?”

“Um…no, not now. Maybe I’ll reconsider later.” Jack looked over at Jameson. “Alright, let it go, JJ.”

Nodding, Jameson flung out his arm like he was throwing a frisbee. The tracking disc spun off, disappearing quickly through the front entrance. The four of them ran after it, with not a single ounce of hesitation between them all.

No more waiting. They needed to finish this now.