Chapter Text
"it's obvious the best choice for Anti to go to the market with, is Jackie." Henrik huffed.
"And why is thatobvious?" Anti crossed his arms and gave the doctor an ugly look.
Henrik just snickered in response, "You might be the most lethal of us, but in human terms you're like a toddler, you don't know how normal things work! And you can't deny that!" Henrik pointed to him, smirking smug. "And Jackie is the most patient out of all of us."And you listen to him the most, the doctor wanted to add but chose not to.
Anti rolled his eyes and gave his back to him, unfolding his arms and staring at the window once again, deep in thoughts for a moment.
"So be it, Jackie let's go."
The hero's name still sounded weird to his tongue whenever he said it (he still called him hero sometimes), but it also now felt natural...? He no longer felt awkward saying it, and the hero himself happily went to his side and smiled.
Why was he even smiling? There was no reason to smile-
"It's alright buddy! Jackaboy here will buy you chocolate!" He said playful and placed an arm around his shoulder, but Anti shoved him away, glaring his away.
"Shut the f*ck up." Anti growled and twitched, ignoring his glitches for a moment.
Some in the room snickered or hid their smirks and maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to be mocked for once... It wasn't mockery was it? It was... A joke. Whatever, he was just glad the room wasn't so tense anymore. But it also felt so humiliating to be treated so casually by the beings like them, it felt so-
He rubbed his eyes and sighed to himself.
"Whatever." He mumbled to himself. He had to get used to this anyway.
And besides he could have a chat with the "himself" from the future (or past?) but how would he even escape the hero to do that? Was that even worth it? The other him didn't seem to be friendly nor gave him any signs to want to talk, maybe- No, f*ck it, he knew himself, he wouldn't want to talk. That other one was here to cause chaos it was very evident.
He'd just have to protect the hero... Who knew one day HE would be the one to do it, huh? The villain protecting the hero...
"Ironic." He half grinned bitterly, sometimes still quite confused on how to act or "be himself" around the others.
He just had the feeling one day, all this fantasy would end. Either by his own hand or theirs, it was just a matter of time.
"Ah!! Don't overthink buddy!"
Jackie went to his side and punched his arm playfully.
Anti stopped and just stared at him.
Since when did the hero have so much freedom around him? How the f*ck did that even happen?
Jackie in response gave him finger guns and Anti decided this creature was not worth his time or attention, so he just looked away and decided to be quiet, or else he´d slaughter all of them once and for all (with the exception of Dark, for now).
"Let's go already, Dark you're paying for eveyrhting we buy." He said (or more like ordered) the other darker ego.
The others were broke as hell and no way they'd ask Jack for help, so Dark would have to fit the role just fine for now, he was the one who owned a manor, he sure had money to keep it running with bills and such.
Although Dark gave him a nasty look for the way he said it, he just gave the hero some card instead and smirked.
"Don't ask where it all came from." He winked Jackie's way, making sure to make him "torment" him a little bit.
"What?! Why-"
"Let's just f*cking GO!" Anti grabbed Jackie's arm and got him out of the room, leaving behind their little unusual group, very amused with how things were going on between all of them.
But deep down, even though they weren't as tense as before, they hoped that Anti and Jackie would be fine on their own outside.
"Freedom!" Jackie ran outside and opened his arms. "Sky!! Earth!! Trees! Ah the wind-" He took a very deep breath and let it out. "I missed all this!"
"Oh shut up." Anti shook his head, "Stick close." He mumbled quietly.
Jackie as if a flip switched, remembered they weren't alone outside and stayed near him, and as they started to walk away, everything was... Quiet.
When they entered the woods and started following a familiar trail, the forest around them was completely silent. No crickets, no birds, nothing. Just the rustling of leaves moving, some fallen leaves crushing below their feet as they walked and the wind around them, it was like the forest was haunted, or maybe like something awful was about to happen. Maybe it was both things at once, with the other Anti now residing in it.
It made a shiver go down Jackie's spine, he was scared, he would admit that.
"...Anti?" He called very quietly.
"What?"
The other ego turned his head around and with neutral eyes, looked his way.
"It's just... Everything is too quiet."
He had read somewhere that when everything is too quiet in a forest, where it´s a place full of life and sounds, then it means the animals know something is wrong and very dangerous inside. He wished he hadn´t know that information as now everything made his skin crawl and as much as he was a hero, a personification of bravery itself, he was still scared.
But that´s what a hero was right? Being scared and still doing it, still saving people and facing death even if they´re scared.
Anti in response slowed down his pace and walked by his side for a moment.
"I know. We are being followed, so walk ahead of me." Anti then kept on walking and still kept being quiet, but the way he was not unnerved by the offensive atmosphere just made Jackie think he was the brave one here after all, it was an admirable effortless bravery.
Walking ahead like Anti ordered but also not so far, he didn't mind it as well because the trail they had been walking was a little long and unfortunately, the marketplace would be even farther since they weren't even near the city for now.
He missed Marvin and his teleports but... A good walk would help them, right?
Wrong.
"We walked so much already..." Jackie took a moment to regain some of his breath as they stopped in front of the market, his feet hurting from the long, long very long walk.
Meanwhile Anti knew they still were being followed but as long as they weren't attacked, he didn't care. Yet the very bright building in front of him was not an unfamiliar concept to him but he could remember in the past avoiding such places due to the huge amount of people gathered in one area.
It also made him remember that he once thought it was a great place to find people to kill, to try and make a feast out of blood and guts and steal things but well, like he said before, he couldn't exactly go on a killing spree as he wished, there's only so many people and things he can find amusing and quite frankly he didn't want to be bothered or fall that low to the humans levels of "murder", nor the bothersome police after his trail, it was too much trouble for momentary satisfaction.
Besides they would never understand everything he did had a meaning...Or that sometimes he simply didn´t need one at all. It wasn´t worth it, then he didn´t do it. But the thought that hecould hadbeen tempting.
Jackie entered the place and the door opened automatically, Anti following soon behind, looking at every face that passed to remember if anything seemed out of place.
It was strange how humanity was so... big, so crowded, he forgot there was more people in the world than the others he had hunted sometimes, and it was strange to remember how big everything was, that things also existed besides his motives and own existence, in a way very intriguing. It was also kinda... envious of his part to be bitter and see how unique each human looked, while him and the rest of Jack´s "egos" were just... alter egos after all. Different copies of Jack, parts of his imagination that burst to life.
At least they had the gift of life and to act on their own now, instead of being stupid characters in some of Jack´s videos.
Thankfully the very bright objects in all shelves inside many hallways called his attention to somewhere else than his thoughts, not noticing Jackie went to quickly grab a cart then went after him like a lost duckling.
He grabbed one very bright item from the shelf and stared, reading the logo and the tiny phrases below it and it said... "insecticide"?
"What you got there, buddy?" Jackie went closer to him and got his hoodie down.
"I have no idea." Anti mumbled with one brow lifted then passed it to Jackie, lazy to read the entire manual and what seemed to be recipe behind the item.
"Oh! It´s just some bug killing stuff, like, a spray that kill bugs. It´s toxic for animals sometimes." Jackie placed it on the shelves with the others. "We are here after food, not these things, nowyou,mister, will follow me." He grinned and hopped off to some aisle while now Anti followed close behind, rolling his eyes.
He hadn´t noticed Jackie had grabbed a cart and it was almost f*cking full already and as they walked, he stopped every few minutes to look at his phone and check the list, time had passed as they walked the halls and aisles and Anti kept looking left and right, it was all so much information everywhere about everything, it was incredible in a way how they had everything to either kill something, make something tastier, to sugar it more, to clean more effectively- It was all f*cking too much and the incessant talking everywhere was starting to irritate his ears but he had to bear it, Jackie was walking fast and doing it as fast as he could as well, he could notice it because the hero was scared even though he didn´t want to show it.
He wasn´t paying attention to where he was walking when someone bumped shoulders with him really hard, making him freeze for a moment and look back irritated.
"My bad." The guy with brown hair giggled and entered the nearest hallway with some random items.
He knew that voice, he knew that laugh.
It washis voice after all.
Anti widened his eyes and went to the aisle that man had went and... There was no guy like him in there, just an olderly people buying washing items, a mother with a child in a cart and two hooded men talking between themselves. And none of these people were the man that bumped into him. None of them were... him.
"Stay close-" He mumbled to Jackie and-and... The hero wasn´t there anymore.
Anti looked back and noticed he was now alone, in a crowded place with unknown people and a threat nearby.
He didn´t want to admit but panic made his heart start to beat faster and he sped up his walking, looking left and right everywhere for the bright red hoodie of Jackie, his blood was also boiling because he was angry at himself, his enemy otherself and at Jackie for not f*cking sticking close as they had said they´d do.
So he started walking everywhere, every aisle, looking at every person in the eyes and even if he got some looks back, he didn´t care, he was just worried for the hero´s safety, none of them knew how dangerous this enemy was and Jackie was alone, f*ck, what if he was even killed already?!
That´s when Anti spotted Jackie talking to someone far away. Someone who looked exactly like him, had the same black shirt he was wearing... And the same neck scar.
The same face, and a very familiar grin.
He ran and ignored the weird or angry looks some people gave him and he called the hero´s name loudly.
"JACKIE!"
Jackie looked back confused.
"I´M HERE!" He walked faster to the hero since now he was significantly closer and pushed a couple away, which had been blocking his way and he sprinted to where the hero was, now looking panicked and looking at the impostor in front of him.
Then the lights went out and some people screamed.
