Chapter Twenty-Three: When I Couldn't

Anti flew harder than ever to get to his final trial, not caring what it was, just wanting to get it over with. He flew far south of the monument, finding a smaller ring arena than the others, the center being a hole which he couldn't see the bottom of as he landed at it. He peered down, panting from the heavy flight, before biting his lip with slight nerves, looking around for any other Guardian.

"...Should I just...jump in?" He thought out loud to himself. "What are the rules here? What do I do?"

With no answer, he looked back down to the hole. His nerves built as the dark appearance reminded him of the demon he had to deal with for so long. He had hoped he was safe from it, but something about the hole...made him uneasy. But with the hope of getting to Jack still burning in his mind, he nodded, hovering gently, easing himself over it. However, as his foot sank into the hole, the rest of his body was dragged down suddenly, without Anti having time to react.

Screaming down to the center, he landed hard on his stomach, groaning as he pushed himself off of the pitch black ground. As he sat up, that was all he saw, pitch blackness, with no tell of how deep or wide the hole was. He looked up and couldn't even see the top from where he came in...just darkness.

"...Hello?" Anti called out, his voice echoing. "...I'm ready for the trial...is...someone gonna test me?" Being met with silence, he tightened his fists, looking around. "Okay, uh, I know this was meant to be a surprise, but I'm in kind of a hurry, so...surprise me! I'm ready!"

Silence fell once more as Anti attempted to search the area, flying around, though not feeling the same loop as the first test. Rather, he felt like he wasn't moving at all, but he wasn't meeting any boundaries to keep him still. Something just kept him in the same spot, and he was growing more tense.

"Hey! What is this meant to be, huh?!" Anti called out, going back to his feet, looking around. "I already had a patience test or whatever it was, and I'm done with waiting! Give me the test already! I have to get to my human!!"

Almost like those words were an activating trigger, a light rose behind him, giving off a slightly reflective surface in its wake, like a window. Anti approached it as it solidified, as a voice spoke out in a soft whisper to him.

"As it is with all Guardians...you are meant to protect one human upon completion of these trials..." it spoke out, Anti noticing a figure, though still shadowed, appear on the other side of the window. "Endurance...strength...chivalry...it's all a part of being a proper Guardian...but a Guardian must also be able to...choose what's right..."

Anti watched on as the voice spoke, seeing the figure search around as well. Anti tapped on the window, getting the other's attention, feeling a sudden tug at his heart as its head turned to him. Why? He felt as if an old, familiar pair of eyes finally fell onto him.

"You request getting to your human, but every Guardian has to be able to make a decision, no matter how hard...This Guardian before you has an equal request, to urgently get to their human...chose now...who should go?"

Anti fell to his knees the moment the darkness eased. He wasn't prepared to be brought to tears from this test. He wasn't prepared for the surprise.

He wasn't prepared to see him again.

And neither was Mark.

"Jack!!" Mark bolted for the window, placing his hands to it, hot tears streaming from his eyes, as Anti fell silent, both hands to his mouth.

He shut his eyes tight, hearing his old name called out from his old friend. He shook his head, sobbing openly at the sight of his no longer demonized friend. His best friend was back, and he finally stood quickly, surprised at how his plant onto the window didn't shatter it.

"Mark!! I-..." Anti sobbed out, placing one of his hands on the opposite side of the window where Mark's was. "I missed you so much! Wh-...What happened?!"

"I don't know!" He responded, running a hand in his hair. "I started going through the portal, then one of those things attacked me, and I woke up back home! I was stuck somewhere, and I couldn't get out...it felt like forever, and then I wound up here all of a sudden, and now you're here!" Mark smiled wide through his tears, relieved greatly to see his friend as well. "I...I'm so happy...wh-what are you doing here?"

"..." Anti was about to respond, before a light beside them blinded each of them, their full attention going to it. On either side, a small sphere appeared, hovering. One, the one on Anti's side, was pink, the other on Mark's side, green. The voice that spoke before called out to them.

"Who of you requires going to your human more...you both have such an urgent situation, which one will solve it first?"

They looked to each other, both of them realizing what was going on at that instant. One of them would have to chose to let the other go. Anti's last test, right after reuniting with his friend, was to decide...convince him to let him go, or...

"...Mark...I...Jack really needs me...I..." he said, before remembering. Dark had fully bonded with Mark's human. He was more at risk, but then again, how close behind was Jack? The demon could easily take him over in his sleep, turn him evil, make him someone else...Anti looked away, then back to Mark, another thought hitting him.

How perfect was this? Anti's final test just so happened to have his best friend right there with him...

"Mark..." Anti said, stepping away slightly. "...Is it really you?"

"Wh-...Yes, it is!" Mark said, nearly feeling insulted. "How could it not be?!"

"...Because, for the past year, it's been...Dark...I...I need to be sure it's really you...I've been so lost without you, and my human here was just a fake too! How can I really know anymore?!" Anti shouted, a bit louder than he expected, as he gripped his green hair tightly. "I've been nothing but a failure, when I tried to get back to you, it was already too late! And that...damn demon, both of them! They manipulated me! Nearly killed me and both our humans, and where have you been?!" He growled, tears falling from his eyes. "I needed you more than before, and you weren't there!! I had to deal with so much without you and...I failed...and now I'm here, and I have to make the hardest choice in the world...my human's going to die if I don't get back to him...but your human is gonna end up doing far worse things...and now you're here and I don't even know if it's you!!" As he shouted, he hit the window hard with his fist, head hanging low, silent tears falling.

Mark watched on in his outburst, feeling himself cry just as hard as his old friend. He looked to the sphere next to him, reaching out for it briefly, before pulling back, placing his hand back on the glass...he thought long and hard for something to prove to him that he was real...something that only he could do, not a test...not a demon...just Mark...

"..." He eased his head up to Anti, clearing his throat, leaning his forehead on the glass. "I want to make a toast...This Guardian...is a true...kind-hearted warrior...he fights to keep everyone safe...and without him, well...I don't think I would have gotten this far. He's the real reason we're all here right now, and...out of everyone here...I'm glad that he's my friend..."

Anti looked back up to him as he spoke...he remembered those words, they were what he said about Mark at the ceremony...when he was still Jack...when they were friends...Mark smiled back to him, placing his hand on the glass once more. Anti reached for it briefly,

Before hitting the pink sphere.

Mark's eyes widened as he looked to him doing it, unable to stop him. Anti smiled softly, sniffling with a nod, as Mark expected to just vanish at that moment. However, they watched on, as the window that separated them melted away, to the dark floor. Neither of them were sure who moved first, but in an instant, they were in an embrace, the spheres vanishing as well.

They sobbed hard in each others' arms for a solid minute, both of them going to their knees, as they were only interrupted by the voice once more.

"Young men, you've made your choice...and you both have a very dire situation ahead of you...take this time to reunite, tell me when you're ready..."

They each sighed heavily, pulling away and standing once more. Anti looked on in wonder, getting the same look from his long lost friend. They couldn't help but keep their goofy smiles on their faces, laughing as they embraced again, tears of joy still falling.

"We...really should stop...we have to help them..." Anti said, forcing himself to pull away.

"Right...we can talk all day after we're done...I promise," Mark responded, his long, pink wing around Anti's green set. They looked up as Mark spoke out to the voice. "We're ready...let's have one last fight..."

"Be warned...the demons are strong, and have gotten stronger since both of your departures...you both had a bad time dealing with them before...but that was all due to their mind tricks and abilities...you're both very strong Guardians, and remember...together, you will prevail...now go to them...your humans depend on you..."

They each nodded to the darkness, as Anti's eyes widened at what he saw next. Two bright blue fireballs painlessly hitting both their chest, the both of them escaping the dark realm, returning to Earth.


Jack had set out two sets of suitcases. One built up for PAX, the other built with the rest of his clothes, which he would deal with upon returning. Around him were a few empty boxes, as he and Signe managed to get to packing, deciding on the house in England that she liked so much. All the while, a constant headache persisted in Jack's mind. He was tired of it. He hated Anti.

Well, he hated this Anti. He popped up in the worst possible times, continued terrorizing him, getting to the point that he was not sleeping most nights due to his torment. He wanted the old Anti back, the one who was, at least, considerate. The one who tried to help rather than fuck everything up. Even if he may have, it was because of...this Anti. That's when Jack came up with one, last ditch idea.

He had ordered a space with a large monitor to do videos off of for his panel, and he wanted to use it for gameplay things and fan interaction, but what kind of fan interaction, he wasn't sure of until now. He decided, in a brief moment of Anti-less clarity, that he wanted to remind his old Anti about how much he actually meant to him. How Jack actually had started to care about him before his takeover. How...he was about to ask him to bond...

Jack set up his camera on the tripod in his room, smiling as he thought, grabbing the old prop knife from Halloween, as well as one of the unused blood packs and setting them aside, before hitting record, thinking of what to say quickly.

"Well, hello there!" Jack started, waving to the camera. "How's everybody doing? Are you all good? Are you all enjoying your PAX? Good! Welcome to the panel!" he smiled, arms outstretched. "I know this is a little bit of an...unorthodox sort of intro, but I had a cool idea for this one," he said, pointing to the camera with a grin, though intending on using this time to show Anti just how important he was, if he could ever see him again. "I had a cool idea before I actually get up and do the whole Q&A thing, and before we start this whole panel, all completely, I wanted to do a little game with everybody! Because, you guys know how much I love audience interaction, you know how much I love...getting in touch with you and doing cool stuff with you, so...what I wanted to do for this, because it's a live event, what I want everyone to do right now...uh..."

"Ok, so bare with me," he said, not wanting to get too wordy, but wanting to get his plan across. "If you have a phone...a lot of you probably have a phone, right, hopefully? Maybe? Uhm, if you have a phone," he said, counting on his fingers, trying to run through everything he could think of that could take video. "Or you have a camera, or you have an iPad, or anything like that, that's able to record something, we're all gonna do something together, right now, we're all gonna record...a message all together. Okay, are you with me so far?" he asked, hoping his audience would be up for this idea. "I-I guess I have to...leave a minute of space..." he said, looking to his watch, wanting to give people time. "...in here for everybody to actually be able to take out something," he said, an awkward silence filling the room, as he thought on to what he wanted people to do exactly. How he needed to prove to Anti that people cared. That people loved him. That Jack missed him...

"This is, uh...this is a little awkward," he said to the camera, hoping for a brief laugh from them. "Right, ok, I dunno, this is gonna be weird," he laughed himself, getting a little nervous at the thought. "Is everybody ready?" he finally asked with a smile. "Ok, so what I want everybody to do, is start recording, and then record a little message saying...hello to everyone in the room, just turn the phone, point it to everybody else, scan the place, and all wave at each other! It's about you guys, the fans, all of you, and when you're doing that, then we're gonna do a pan to the screen, and I'll start talking again, and it'll show everyone around you with your phone in your hand, and I think that'll be a really cool thing if you see everyone else doing it, so it means more when it comes out...so, go ahead, I'll cut to black and give you all a chance to do that! Ok, and go!"

He paused, looking to the camera, the red light blinking as he counted down in his head to where he would have to edit out the dead air. He sighed and smiled back for it, waving again.

"Hey, everyone! Welcome to the Jacksepticeye panel! I'll be right out in a little bit, and I'm so happy to start taking questions from everyone! Thank you all for..." he paused, acting like he heard something behind the camera, before scanning the room, shaking his head and smiling. "Thank you all for coming! And I do hope I'm not taking up any of the other panels you wanted to see, I know how annoying it could be, when you want to see two things that clash with each other...you'd literally have to be two people...at once..."

He tried, very hard, to suddenly act like his old Anti was glitching in, hoping Robin could do a few last minute edits to make it look good, before he heard a genuine knock on the door. He jumped and stepped over to it, spotting Signe on the other side.

"Hey, ready to go eat? We have to make our reservation," she said, Jack suddenly nodding.

"Oh, crap! Yeah, lemme get changed, I'll be right there!"

Quickly, he hurried to get dressed and leave with her, unaware of the camera still recording. He hadn't even suspected that his moment of headache free peace was due to that Anti having seeped from his mind before his recording, keeping hidden under his bed. He slithered towards the camera, chuckling low, before latching to it, destroying some of the footage and deciding to have a little fun with what was left.

He wanted to send a message to his little friend, after all...

After a moment of synthing up every moment he was forced to be in, all with glitches and distortion galore, he chuckled darkly, leaving the camera blank as he spoke out.

"D͝i̷͜d ̵͝͞y͏̀ou ͞҉m̢į̛s͜ś͏ ̢́̕m̶͢ę?̶" he began, going through every glitch he could think of on the device, deciding to play along with the 'crowd'.

"̵̡͘L̡ó͢ǫk̨̀̕ a̢̨̛t̡ ̢y̡͞ǫų̛́ ̸̴̢a̸ll̕! ̶̵͝͝ ̵Ju̴̵͞śt̷͡ ̶s̸i͢ţt̵i͜͜͜n͘g ̴̛th͘e̛͝r̛͝e̴̸͏!̕ ͘͘Y̵̧͟o̵҉u͟ ̛a͘͟l͜l ͘͠͞t̴̶̨h̴ó͡u̕g҉h̀͟t ̵̛͠I͢͡ ͜҉w̴as͠ ̶͟g̢̨on͜͝ę̴͝, ͘͟no҉̸͟t ̴̀w̴o̸̷̡r͘͠r͝y̴͏i̸̕n̨҉̵g̛͟ ab́o̢u̢ţ͠ ̧͞a̶͞n̵͝y̸th̀i͢ng̛.̛͘.̢͜.̷" as he spoke, he made sure to keep it all as an act, while also sending out warnings to Jack...and the other Anti. He left the blood pack aside and forced real blood to seep from his throat scars, playing around with the knife as he spoke.

"͞Y̶o͠ų ͘͏a̧l̸̡ļ̛ ̷t͡ḩ̕҉ó͘u̵ģ͟h̴̛t̶͜ ҉͘I̷̡͘ ̴͏͟w͢͏a͡͏͏s g̸̛͟ơn̨̡ȩ̡̡,́ ̨͡͏but ͏Í'̧v̕e͢ b́̕͜ȩen ͡he̸r͢ę̴ ̡̛ţ̕his͘͏ ͟e͜ņ͝t͢ire̶҉͝ ̷͘t̕͟͝i͘͟m͟e̴͠!̕҉ ̡͠K̷̛e̷è̛͢p͘͠i̴̡̕ng̢ á̢͡ǹ̴ ̛ey͘e̕ ͘o̵ņ͠ ̵t͞͞h̸in҉ģ̶ś̵͘.̸͠.́.̛̕" he said, his eyes turning pitch black.

"̡́͟Yò͘u ̶̢s͡͏t̶op̀p̛e̴̷̢d҉̀ ̶͘p͞a̧ý҉̧ìņ̨ǵ̢ ͟͜ą͠t҉t̨̛e̵̢n̵t̴͏i͏͞o̵͜n! ̷̸͝W̢͜e͘͝l̢̀l͡ ̴͠I ͢͠h͡o͢p͠e̢͟ ̨͡y̢̕o͏̨u̧̕'̷r̕e̸ ha͠҉p̕p̷̨y̢.̶.̵̵.̸͘" he began to speak more directly to Jack. "Y̶ò͠u͏̧ ͟f͟o̡͝͏un͞d̢ ̡͟͜so̴m̢͝èǫ͞n͘e̸ ̢͠new͞.͝.̷̶͟.̴͠t͘h̡͜͡r͜e̶͡w̷ ̴̡͘m͢͠͝ę̀͝ a҉͠͠s̢͟i҉̸̧d́e͏͞͠!̛ ͏҉̷͠S̢̢o͏͜m̶͝e̕o̸̵n̷͜͜e t̵o͢ ͟re̸̡p̶̸͜l̴ac̢͘e̡̛͠ m̴e͡!̕ ̸̧͘͘͜I̢̨̕'̵̛m̷҉ ҉͘n͝o҉͝t͢͡ ̸̸͟g̸͏o̢i̶̵n̛g̷̡ ̧͜a̷͝n̵y̸͢w̵̴h͝҉͘ę҉͞r̀͞e̵!̕͜" he said, chuckling with evil glee as he twirled the knife in his hands, before holding it up to his face. "҉I̴̕҉'͏̴m̸ ͟a͏̨l͘͏͏ẁ͟͠a̴ys ̷̨̛th̢é͝re̡.͏̀.̨͜.̢a͏l͢w̵̛ay̶s ̸̴ẃ͜a̶t̴̵̀c͢͝͡ḩi̷͡ń̸̢g͏̡͟..̷.̵̸́̀͜Y̕o͠u̵͞ ̵̵͞c̷̕͜ą̵n'҉̧t ͜g͏̴͟et͜ ̷̶͡r͡i͢d̛ o̧f m̢̧͡e.̛͏.͡."

As he spoke, he thought he heard Jack returning to his room, so with one last, quick warning, he blackened the screen and hid away as Jack turned the camera off, not even noticing his little message.

"͘E҉̀ņ̛͞j͏̵̴o̵y̴̛͟ ̸͡t͢ḩe͞ ̴̵s͝͏h̴o̡͞w.͝.̨͘͠.͡"