Mark's POV

I stared at Anti. "You and Dark will be able to possess mine and Jack's bodies?"

He nodded. "I can only possess Jack and Dark can only possess you. We'll be able to talk to you in your head and you can reply by thinking back a response. It's also possible that while Dark and I possess you guys, some of our demon powers—like flying, for example—will transfer through."

I continued to stare at him blankly. "Anti, I don't know any exorcists. What if something goes wrong?"

Anti laughed, "What could go wrong? The two of you would be in mine and Dark's hands!"

I mumbled a quick, "That's what I'm afraid of," to myself.

Anti didn't hear. He patted me on the shoulder and opened the door to the room. "I'm going to explain everything I just told you to Jack. Come in when you're ready. There's some other stuff I need to talk to you about."

I nodded and briefly peered around the room before the door closed. Cry's hood had been pulled off and he was nurturing a red handprint on his left cheek. Felix and Percy were talking to him about something that seemed important, as both of their faces held stern looks. Thomas, Logan, PJ, Dan, and Phil were having a conversation near the corner across from the door. Anti had been making his way toward Dark and Jack, who were excitedly playing with Chica.

Once the door shut, I sat down on the wall across from it. I tried to think back and remember everything that had happened in that other world.

I stopped after remembering that Kyle had told me that Anti knew about what was happening in the human world and had brought me here to slow down whatever process was occurring.

I tried to make a list of priorities.

Jack and I had to find Dan, Phil, Nate, and Jason, assuming they had all managed to stick together. If Dan and Phil hadn't already, we had to find Felix, Cry, Percy, Kyle, Ethan, and Tyler in the orphanage. We also needed to get to Reagan and explain everything about Robert so that she could try to get him back to reality.

I paused after thinking about that. Hadn't Reagan hit Robert with a laptop? Didn't she say she knocked him unconscious?

Robert should have already woken up.

That left three options: Reagan had been lying about hitting Robert, everyone else had been lying about a simple slap being enough to wake someone up, or we had to do something specific to each person to wake them up.

I groaned. It was going to take more effort than just slapping everyone we saw if either of the last two options were true. I had a nagging feeling that it had to be one of the last two, as Reagan had no reason to lie about hitting someone.

I sighed and stood up. I pushed away the thought and went back to my priority list.

I had to find Dan and Phil first. We had to start getting our group back together.

I walked to the door and opened it. Once I was standing in the doorway, the room went silent.

"What?" I asked.

"You're going to allow Dark to possess you?" Thomas inquired.

"Yeah?" I replied. "Anti and I already went over this."

Anti smiled while Phil responded, "As long as you're aware and he doesn't do anything without permission–"

"Why would I do anything without permission?" Dark asked before quickly turning to face Phil. "And what would I do without permission?"

Dan glanced at Phil. They looked at each other for a second, then Dan brought a hand up to the side of his face. "Phil, why the hell would he do something like that?"

"Do what?" Dark questioned.

I caught Dan smirk to himself before answering, "Dark possessing Mark to make a move on–"

"Absolutely nothing!" Phil interrupted, catching Dark and Anti glaring at him.

"Onto the next subject!" Anti declared. "I think we need to talk about why Jack came to the Underworld before we send him, Mark, and Thomas back to the human world."

"Why I was sent to the Underworld?" Jack echoed. "I assumed it was because we were switching places."

Everyone nodded in agreement except for Anti and Dark. Dark replied, "That might've been part of it, but something I've learned while working as a policeman is that Anti would have had to make a deal with someone in the human world. I doubt the deal was just 'switch places with your human part'."

Anti hesitated a second before nodding. "We didn't just switch places. I tried to tell Mark about this earlier, but the right time never came."

"Tell me about what?" I inquired, noticing how filled with anticipation everyone was.

"Well," Anti continued, "part of the deal was that Jack and I would switch places. The only problem with that was the fact that I was and still am completely content with my life in the Underworld. First, I requested that the person told me their name. I really didn't want to make a deal with someone I knew nothing about."

Jack sprung off the ground. "You didn't make a deal with the voice, did you?"

Anti sighed, "I don't know who 'The Voice' is, but I wouldn't be able to answer that either way. She didn't tell me her name, and the only reason I know she was female is because while we were talking, someone addressed her as 'ma'am'."

"Okay," I replied, "what else did you ask for?"

"The second thing I asked about was why she wanted me to switch places with Jack in the first place. As far as I'd ever heard, Jack was a really good guy, definitely not the type to make enemies or have people want to banish him to the Underworld."

"Did she answer?" Thomas inquired.

Anti shrugged. "Kind of? She said that it didn't concern me—which, of course, it did—so I replied with, 'I'm not helping you if you don't explain.' She sighed and said that she needed to get Jack out to try to prompt Mark into agreeing to do something for her. She told me, and I quote, 'What better way is there to blackmail someone than with the one person they truly care for?'"

I felt my face heat up a bit, but it was nothing in comparison to Anti's vibrant shade of red clashing against his pale skin. In my peripheral vision, I saw Jack sending me a sideways glance. He seemed like he was smiling, but I couldn't quite tell.

"Did you ask for anything else because this still doesn't feel too intense," Dan stated.

Anti stayed silent for a moment before answering, "I asked for a third thing as well."

I noticed Dan and Phil exchange a quick glance before Phil asked, "What was it?"

Anti sighed, "Well, I decided I would try to mess with whatever plan she was piecing together in a way that wasn't very noticeable. I would help Mark out from the inside with any information I received."

"Okay, but what did you ask for?" I inquired.

He grimaced before replying, "It's a bit difficult to explain, but I demanded that time moved differently."

There was a moment of complete silence, then PJ asked, "You did what?"

"I made it so time outside of the orphanage in the human world would...be on fast forward? Everyone in the orphanage would be on normal time, but everything outside would be on the highest level of fast forward?"

My mouth was hung open slightly. That's why Robert had said it took him two years to find us. We'd been missing for at least two years.

"Anti," I started in a somewhat shaky voice, "how much time has passed since we entered the orphanage?"

He looked at the floor. "I'm not sure."

Jack stood up first. "Cool! When we get out, we'll be in the future!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You're taking this news astonishingly well."

He shrugged. "Well, if there's no way to fix it, we might as well embrace it, right?"

"There's no way to fix it," Dark started, "but once Anti and Jack switch back to their own worlds, time should go back to normal. It won't reverse and go back to how it was, but it should slow back down."

"You'll all be fine!" Phil encouraged as Anti and Dark approached me and Jack.

Logan pushed Thomas toward us as Anti and Dark stopped in front of us. "Alright you three," Dark grinned, "time to do your thing, I guess."

A chorus of "Good luck" and "You guys got this" filled the air around us as a group of demons cheered us on.

Anti smiled before placing his hands on Jack's shoulder. "Time to save the world, I suppose."

A barrier of swirling colors slammed down before any of us could reply, separating us from the demons.

A/N

And so, Mark finally gets the fuck outta the Underworld with Jackaboy (and TS hA)

I'm a mess

Anyways, BUH-BYE BROTATOS!