With a gruff sigh, he looked around the rest of the house, yet to no avail. There wasn't a sign of an answer to the problem that had been placed in his hands.

Then, the realization hit him like a truck.

~

To the demon, the answer was like a solid punch to the face.

Almost literally.

Actually, very literally.

He accidentally walked into a door.

But that wasn't the point. Anti had seen something under that bed, something that resembled a book, a book that was supposed to be in Hell.

How had Dark managed to get this? This was supposed to be impossible to sneak out.

Well, Dark was just about desperate enough, Anti supposed.

Flipping open the book to the first page, he saw Dark's familiar handwriting scribbled along the margins. He smirked to himself, playing with the jar of fine black sand tied around the thick black string around his neck.

Anti knew what to do.

"Thank you, Dark," the Irish demon whispered, sighing and putting the book down, having the contents of what he needed to save, not only him and his family but could possibly bring back the dead.

He rushed outside and tried to find what he needed. He needed to go back to his brothers in order to find the ingredients for the spell.

"Brothers!" Anti cried, glitching through the door. The two Irish counterparts looked up slowly with their dull, lifeless eyes. "I know how to save us! I know how to save Dark and the others!" They didn't do anything, but what Anti said next gave even Schneeplesteen some hope. "I know how to bring back Robbie, Henrik!"

"...How?" the doctor asked slowly, getting up with a wince. Anti could hear the creaking of the man's bones and joints, but he could worry about that later.

"Dark found a book in Hell. We need a spell. But we need Seán."

Anti knew how they would react. Horror and a minor uproar. Even though they were dying, they wouldn't kill their original. The superhero was especially against it, having the heroic personality who wouldn't hurt an innocent soul and all.

"We can't do that." Jackieboy Man shook his head, making the demon roll his eyes.

"We're not going to kill him, guys," he growled.

"Zen vat are you going to plan to do, Anti?" Henrik asked, his eyes flashing with suspicion.

"We just need a bit of his DNA. His and Mark's. A bit of their hair or something, I don't really care, but they'll be safe. With that, I can keep his protection on us, stopping the transformation into... wherever they go." he explained.

"And how are we supposed to bring back the others then?" the hero asked.

"If I do the spell right, then their DNA could be strong enough to reverse the effects the egos had gone through, returning them back to this world," the demon explained patiently. "Are you in or not? At the state I'm in right now, I might knock Seán's head clean off his neck getting his hair. You're gonna have to do it."

"I'll do it," the good doctor volunteered, standing up and groaning from the sudden lack of movement. He took out a pair of scissors from his pocket and held it up, the metal, somehow still sharp, glistening in the sunlight. Anti nodded and grabbed ahold of the doctor's coat, firmly, dragging him outside and letting his wings show. Without a warning, the Irish demon leapt into the air, easily carrying the malnourished man towards the direction of old Seán Mcloughlin's home.

"Just do it quietly, yeah? They should still be asleep, but don't do anything that'll cause them to wake up," Antisepticeye snapped, putting Dr. Schneeplesteen down on the roof of the house, and prying open the window. Herik nodded and climbed through, stumbling at first as he gained his footing and lost some energy, but trudged forward anyway, a tightness in his chest and his jaw clenched to hide the pain. Anti stayed by the window, his wings out and his body leaning forward in case the two of them needed a quick escape. The demon was doing all in his power to save them, so the least the doctor could do to help was complete this one task for him. How hard could it be?

When Henrik reached Seán's bedroom, he saw him fast asleep beside his wife. He looked peaceful and absolutely oblivious to the pain he caused the egos. For a second, Henrik understood how Anti felt, being angry at the mortal for turning them into nothing but husks, a shell of their former power, but the feeling soon faded afterwards. He wasn't a demon, and he wasn't going to kill their maker anytime soon.

Holding his breath so as to not let his hand tremble too much, the "certified" doctor snipped off a lock of the Irishman's brown hair, peppered with grey and even a little bit of white now. It fell into his open hand, and he snatched it up, hurrying from the room to make sure that Seán felt and heard nothing.

"Got it?" Anti asked his brother as soon as he made it back. He showed the demon the strand of hair, and Anti pulled him out the window, flying him back home.

"Stay here, and if you want to fade, don't," Anti warned the two other egos. "I'll do everything in my power to save the Faded, but I can't guarantee anything."

"We understand, Anti. Thank you," Jackieboy Man smiled unsurely, making the demon nod and turn his back towards them. He walked down to the basement and prayed to Satan that he still held enough power to bring his family back.

"Dark, you better be goddamn right about this," Anti muttered, taking the hair that he had gripped in his sweaty palm, and put it on the table in front of him. He took a dagger and sliced open his palm, muttering some unintelligible words. The blood dripped onto the hair, making it sizzle and burn, making the room smell of burning hair and, for some reason, melting rubber.

The demon continued chanting, lost in the words he memorized from the book. He couldn't be distracted, or this was all for naught.

Visions swirled in the darkness of his closed eyelids, making him see things that weren't there. Dark was standing in front of him, smirking tauntingly.

"Why don't you go kill yourself again, and come back to me when you're ready?"

The Irish demon paid no attention, shutting his eyes harder, but that just made Dark appear more life-like and real.

Anti sighed gruffly at that, squeezing his fists tighter, his chanting getting louder and louder until he was felt like he was shouting at the top of his lungs to drown out the voices trying to stop him from bringing back the dead.

All of a sudden, it was like time froze around him. Ever so slowly, the demon opened his eyes and saw that everything around him was a haze.

"What's... happening?" he whispered to himself, looking around the room. It was like a blurry, out of focus picture around him, but all the colours in the world had gone like it had been sucked away. The world was grey, dark, and dreary.

"What are you talking about, Dark?" Anti asked to the room, frozen around him. Darkiplier appeared in front of him, scowling.

"This. This world. We were made in it for other people's entertainment, and then cast out of it like unwanted garbage," he spat, looking at the ground.

"You don't think I've thought about that too, Dark?" Anti asked, scoffing at the suited man. Dark cast a curious glance at his friend, but Anti just shrugged, shaking his head. "We're breaking fate. Isn't that enough? You've saved us, Dark."

"So... you aren't... gone?" he asked. "The spell actually worked?"

"I assume so. Are you coming, or not, makeup man?" the Irishman chuckled darkly.

"I suppose there isn't enough room for both of us here, after all," Dark sniggered.

"Rather you than Markimoo," Anti shot back. "Anyway, you wanted me here, so here I am."

The Korean demon shrugged and took a step forward.

"I think my brothers would be waiting for me."

Together, the two of them walked away, and when Anti looked behind, he saw the ipliers and septiceyes following in their footsteps, chatting and laughing like everything was right in the world. Even on the sidelines, Robbie was grinning to the demon.

Looking to Dark, he smirked,

"Ready to rule the world?"

With a grip on the handle of the shadow world's handle, Anti threw open the door. Outside, the colours never seemed so vibrant, like neon lights in a dark alley.

Then, the realization hit him like a truck.

He was home.