Anti shuddered when he realized what he just did.

Gary's limp body underneath him with blood starting to pool on the tiles and in between the cracks.

Marvin saw the whole thing and Jackie wasn't there to save Anti from him.

He still had the bands around his wrists and neck. Marvin could hurt him without anyone else knowing.

Suddenly, Anti bolted off of Gary's dead body and whimpered, "F-fuck! I -I d-didn't mean to! I didn't mean to ki-kill him! I'm sorry! S-sorry! Pl-please don't activate the bands again! Pl-please!"

He didn't know why he was so scared all of a sudden. Perhaps it was because he knew Marvin could make it hurt FAR worse without anyone else around.

Anti kneeled down on the floor shaking, not looking at Marvin but it was increasingly concerning how Marvin hadn't even said anything yet. Perhaps he was relishing in the feeling of power he was about to have over him. Even if Anti didn't HAVE to do what they said anymore, it didn't matter if Marvin was alone with him. He could do whatever he wanted to him right now and no one else would believe Anti's point of view.

Anti gripped the roots of his hair, ready for the waves of pain to course through him.

He faintly heard a couple footsteps come closer but he refused to look.

But he felt pressure on his shoulder and flinched . . . until Marvin shook him slightly and Anti squinted his eyes open.

"Hey! Don't worry about it" but Anti was surprised that Marvin looked almost just as frantic, "Nobody else saw, I think. I'll clean up the blood, here. First I'll just uh-" he flicked his wrist and the open sign on his door flipped over to close, "There we go. Let's get rid of the body"

Anti stared at him, "wH . . .What?"

Truth be told, Marvin wasn't too sure why either, but he just picked Anti up by his armpits and had each other standing, "We need to get rid of the body! Oh! I know! We could hide it in the dumpster out back!" he then frowned, "But then my store might get investigated. . . ."

Anti blinked at him, "Wh . . .what about just using a spell?"

Marvin waved his hand at it, "That won't work as well on an organic being. . . . " he suddenly gasped, "The basement! Perfect! Quick! Help me drag him down there before Jackie comes back!"

Marvin started to lift Gary's body up but Anti just stood there confused as all hell, "Can't you just . . levitate him?"

"Oh! Right! Yeah, let's do that" Marvin flicked his wrist and the body levitated off the ground, following him, "Get the door open for me over here. We gotta be quick so I can come back up and get rid of the blood! No evidence left behind!"

Anti was concerned but didn't ask questions at the moment.

The basement was where he needed to go anyway, right?

Anti didn't want to piss Marvin off, so he followed him and opened the basement door. Which . . didn't even look like a door. He had to point it out to him. The door looked to be one with the wall almost camouflaged.

Perfect for hiding bodies in.

Anti followed Marvin down the stairs to see many totes, boxes and jars full of junk and things. The whole basement was just as big as the store itself packed full of boxes of things.

'Oh no . . . I'm never gonna be able to be down here on my own for so long. It'll take forever looking if it's as real as Bing says it is. And I don't even know what it looks like!'

But really . . . he was nearly giving up at this point. What WAS the point anymore?

He watched Marvin forcibly stuff Gary's body in a large tote, blood oozing everywhere until he finally shut the lid on him.

"There we go! Now the blood!"

Without asking Anti for help, Marvin set to work lifting his sleeves up and muttering a spell to disintegrate the blood on the surfaces all the way up the stairs.

Still heavily confused, Anti followed him up the stairs and watched as he successfully cleaned up all the blood, leaving no evidence of what had transpired there.

"There we go! Now that that's taken care of- . . . what?" he finally noticed the look on Anti's face.

"Wh . . . . why did we just hide a dead body in the basement of your store? And . . and why are you so calm about it?" he really had to know.

Marvin swallowed, "Well . . . uh . . .. shit, Jackie's coming down the street. We'll talk later" he waved it off and quickly flipped the door sign back over so it said it was open again.

Just in time for Jackie not to notice.

But they both seemed to forget something until Marvin gasped and slapped Anti's arm, making the glitch yelp. He was about to snap at the magician until he saw the bandage on his arm. They both had seemed to forget that Anti had used his arm as a shield when Gary had tried to attack Marvin.

Just then Jackie walked in and the two froze as he barged right in.

The hero cracked his back as he walked in with a groan, "Hey, glad to see you guys didn't kill each other! Was it busy while I was gone?"

"Nope!" Marvin chuckled, "We were just getting to know each other a little better, weren't we Anti? He had some questions about herbs and stuff"

"Oh yeah. I told him to ask you since you'd know more about it than me" Jackie laughed, not finding anything suspicious, really.

Anti just stayed quiet.

But before Jackie could go back to Marvin's computer, he stopped himself, "Hey . .. what happened to your arm, Anti? You alright?"

"Uh . . ."

Marvin swung in, "Oh he's fine! He just scratched his arm on a loose chip of wood on the bookshelf is all! I took care of it already, nothing to worry about"

Jackie looked between them and seeing Anti not argue with it, he just nodded, "Alright . . . how about you try being more careful, huh? I guarantee you this place probably has termites"

"Oh fuck off, Jackie! I got this building on a hell of a deal!"

"Yeah, I wonder why"

The rest of the day dragged on and the whole time, Anti just wanted to know.

What the hell happened with Marvin?!

'He .. he almost acted as if he had done that before'

Now if that was true . . . he'd REALLY be shocked.

When the day was over, they went back home. Thankfully, there were no more in-person customers and all Anti had to do the rest of the time was mindlessly sweep the floors and he look inside a few books here and there. Jackie and Marvin didn't seem to mind and Marvin, in fact, encouraged it much to Jackie's confusion.

Getting home, Chase was helping Jameson make dinner and Henrik was in the living watching the news.

Anti stole some glances at Marvin again. He did that a lot of the day but the magician hadn't seemed to notice. What was he hiding?

Truthfully, Anti was very interested now. He never thought any of them would be capable. But it seemed as if he were wrong.

Chase burst into the living room with a big fat grin on his face, "Sup dudes!? We're making homemade pizza for dinner! Who's hungry!?"

Anti licked his lips but before he could even think about saying anything, Marvin spoke up, "Oooo! Yum! I'll be ready to eat in a bit. I gotta go upstairs and get some ointment on Anti's arm."

Jackie stared at him, "What? Why? You said earlier it was just a scrape from the bookshelf"

Marvin chuckled awkwardly, "Well . . . on his way falling down, he also fell on one of my poisonous plants. I hadn't thought about it until a little bit ago but it's not too serious! He'll be good as new by the time I'm done with him!"

"Uh . . . alright?" Jackie didn't trust Marvin's word and he had every right to. It seemed it was almost too easy for him to lie.

Chase caught Jackie's strange look and bit his lip, "Cool . . .just be nice to him, alright? Remember? You promised"

Marvin just rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever" he waved it off and grabbed Anti by his arm under his armpit to drag him off with him.

Anti could only watch as the others let it happen.

'Did they REALLY trust Marvin that much!?' Anti whined in his head, 'Although, he IS good liar. And if Jackie thought Marvin would really hurt me after today, he would have come with us . . I wonder. . . does he want to talk about what happened earlier today?'

Anti let himself be dragged along into Marvin's room but the glitch did think he seemed to excited about something. What did he have to be excited about?

Marvin shut the door and released a loud, long groan, "Uuuuuughghghghh! Fuck, the day was long" he shook his head and came closer to Anti.

The glitch took a step back instinctively and Marvin stopped, "What? After today, you really think I'm gonna hurt you?"

"I . . . I'm not sure. Why not?"

Marvin crossed his arms, "Well we're pretty much bonded now. We hid a body together and neither of us want to tell the others. . right?"

Anti blinked, "About that . . . . why did you do that?"

Marvin actually seemed embarrassed now . . .. that was new. He blushed and sighed lightly.

"Well . . .. actually . . . . I don't know. I should have burned the body, shouldn't I have?"

Anti slapped his own hand over his face, "Fucking hell. THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT! WHY did you hide the body when you could have just told Jackie I did it? Or better yet you could have tortured me and be in the right doing so!"

"Actually, that's where you're wrong"

"What?"

Marvin took a deep breathe in and came forward again. This time, Anti let him and the magician started to unbandage his arm, revealing the nasty gash.

"You took that knife for me . . . . . . even though I was perfectly capable of defending myself . . .. . you broke in front of me . . to what? Try and save me? I know you won't actually tell me . . but I'm not stupid. We both know what the situation was"

Anti didn't say anything.

Really, he hadn't even thought about it. Did he really do that? He didn't really recall. All he remembered was snapping and losing control, slicing the man's throat.

"It doesn't matter" Anti just muttered as Marvin ran his finger down his wound, healing it. He shuddered at the feeling of his skin and tissues regenerating themselves too quickly, "I . . . I just acted is all. He was . . . .. threatening"

Marvin just nodded, "I see" but he still smirked, "You still saved me. How's that make you feel?"

"If I want a therapy session, I'd go to the Iplier doc. Certainly not you."

Marvin just chuckled, "I wouldn't blame you" he pat his healed arm and held out his hand to him, "I think . . . . we've learned a lot of new things about each other today . . . . . . Truce?"

He wasn't expecting this. Was this a joke? Marvin was really wanting to call off his grudge on him?

He didn't really believe it but the more he looked into Marvin's eyes, he could see the truth there. It was then that Anti also realized Marvin's mask had gotten shattered by that man shoving him. Marvin's scars were in full view.

Anti slowly looked away from him, "I .. . . . . . I'm-"

Marvin took his had by force, "I don't wanna hear it. You already apologized before, remember? Don't hurt yourself by doing it again. I know it's just absolutely AGONIZING for you to do. Does it hurt? Does it?" he teased.

Anti glared but shook his hand, "I'm going to get some pizza. This conversation is over"

"Oh but we were just starting to have fun!" Marvin flicked his fingers along Anti's arm, "Plus now that I know you like some of my stuff . . . we have a LOT to talk about!"

Anti pouted but had an ace up his sleeve, "You provoke me with that again and I'll tell everyone you hid the body in your basement"

"Then that'd be admitting you killed him"

"So? They'd expect that from ME"

" . . .. Touché" Marvin smirked, though and flicked his wrist, making a new mask appear in his hand, "But I have another play. You tell me more about this merger device and I won't show everyone this adorable picture of you!"

Anti didn't expect Marvin to pull out of picture of him in his store cuddled up in a bean bag reading a book about plants.

Marvin had that shit eating grin on his face, "Nerd"

The glitch made the lights in the room flicker but groaned to himself. What was the point of hiding it anyway?

"Fine."

Someone had hacked their way into the Septic house. Through every device all at once. No one would notice the faint blue glow emitting from any of them.

The one watching snarled but there was a smirk in it, too.

"So . . . .. you're a traitor, after all." the android snorted, "I always knew you were just an easy pawn. So easily manipulated. They show one ounce of kindness and you're putty in their hands"

The android chuckled to himself, "Good thing we had a plan for this, too. . .MY plan. And once I tell Dark all of this, you will no longer be number two by his side. But I WILL!"

He cringed as he glitched out a little, his eyes turning red, "It's all coming together. Soon, I'll find the device, myself and win favor at Dark's side." he glared at Anti once more through the screens as he followed the magician down into the kitchen for dinner.

"You were never meant to be a part of us anyway . . .. virus"