One and The Same (a Jacksepticeye and egos AU story)

Chapter 12 - Broken

Jack ran blindly through the streets, shoving people out of the way as he went. He hated to be rude, but his terror was controlling him more than he logical mind was. Other passers by stopped and stared at this man covered in blood pushed his way through the people, frantically looking for something, though he didn't know what.

Eventually, Jack passed a cafe and was stopped when he heard a woman scream:
"Get off me, you creep!"
Jack whirled around and was met with the egos, who were trying to haul Chase off a waitress. They were gaining quite the audience, with passers by crying out at that apparent assault.
What the...? Was all Jack could think. As he got closer, he heard Chase speak.
"Stacy! Why don't you recognize me?!"
"Stacy doesn't exist you dick!" Jackaboy cried, grabbing chase by the waist and pulling hard enough for Chase to let go of the woman. The witness ran back into the cafe. Jack could hear the shouts of the crowd:
"I'm calling the police!"
"What's wrong with him?!"
"He's insane!"
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Jack demanded, pushing through the crowd to get to the egos, "I told you to stay in the house!"
"It was Chase's idea!" Marvin shouted, gripping Chase's wrist and, together with Schneeple, dragging him away from the crowd as he screamed and struggled. "We got bored so he suggested going outside! I tried to stop him but he wouldn't listen! All we were going to do was have a drink!" Marvin grunted as Chase elbowed him in the face, letting go of his wrist and grabbing his nose, which had started to bleed.
"Stacy!" Chase screamed, tears rolling down his face as he struggled against Schneeple, trying to run back towards the cafe. Jack took the hint and grabbed Chase's other arm, "It's me! It's Chase! Please, you have to remember!"
"What's wrong with him?!" Jack cried.
"He vent to order our drinks!" Schneeple hissed, giving Chase's arm a sharp yank as he struggled, "Ve don't know vhat happened, but zhe next thing ve know he's freaking out because zhe waitress who served him is called Stacy!"

Together, the egos pulled Chase back further, causing him to trip and fall backward. He landed on his back but before he could get up Jack jumped on him.
"Hold him down!" he shouted. He could hear the screams and cries of the crowd still around the cafe, some of them watching the group in fear. The egos obeyed, Jackaboy and Marvin each grabbing an arm, Jack and Schneeple grabbing a leg and Robbie sitting on top of his chest. Chase continued to thrash and scream, sobbing loudly.
"Why is he like this?!" Jackaboy Man shouted.
"I think..." Jack said, racking his brain trying to remember anything from the files that might help, "Remember back at the lab when Chase would constantly talk about a woman called Stacy, and how he thought he had a wife and kids? I think that waitress's name brought all of that back," he paused, looking away in sorrow as Chase screamed again, "I think...he thought that woman was his wife. He thought that after all this time he was right about having a family. But of course, when he brought it up, the woman had no idea what he was tailing about. She didn't recognize him. She didn't know him. And..." Jack looked straight at the other egos, who were staring back at him with a mix of fear and sympathy on their faces, "...it broke him."

Chase threw his head back and screamed again, sobbing loudly. The public watching them didn't dare come any closer, but Jack was glad for that. He wasn't in the mood to answer questions now.
"Stacy!" Chase cried again. He stopped struggling, and instead just lay there, sobbing uncontrollably. The other egos stayed still, frozen, watching him warily. But he no longer made any effort to fight.
"Let him go," Jack said quietly at last.
"But-" Marvin started.
"Let him go." Jack repeated, "He's lost the will to fight, I think."
Reluctantly, the egos slowly drew their hands away, letting Chase free. Robbie sprang off his chest and Chase curled up into a ball, hugging his legs and sobbing. Jack slowly shuffled closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"It's ok, Chase," he whispered soothingly, "It's ok."
"Stacy..." Chase whimpered, "Why don't you love me? Let me see my kids...just once...please..."
Jack's eyes filled with tears when he heard this. There was something about seeing Chase, a literal part of himself, lying completely broken like this that made his heart ache. He knew if Anti was here he would have called him a softie. Jack slowly bent down and wrapped his arms around Chase, holding him there and letting him cry. After a moment, Robbie jumped over and hugged Chase too, followed by Jackaboy, Marvin and finally Schneeple. The six of them stayed like that for a moment, ignoring the chaos around them. It ended when Jack glanced back and saw a police officer start walking towards them.
"We need to go." He said. The others obeyed without question.

***
They managed to lose the police in the crowds of people clustered around the hospital Jack had just been at - with Jack noticing the officer Anti now possessed missing - and walked back to Jack's apartment, Jack explaining what had happened on his end on the way.
"So...Anti's not in your head anymore?" Marvin asked. He had Robbie's lead tied around his hand to make it shorter, a safety measure so Robbie couldn't run away.
"No," Jack replied, "If I understand correctly, he's in the mind of one of the police officers now. He's possessed his body and is using it for himself."
"Can he do that?" Jackaboy asked, "Just switch bodies like that?"
"Of course he can," Jack replied, "Remember the incident at the lab with Robbie? He possessed Robbie's body and went on a complete rampage!"
"Robbie remembers the robot too!" Robbie spoke up, "When the demon went inside the robot and shut it down from the inside before returning to Jack!"
"That's a good point." Jackaboy agreed.
"But vhy zhat police officer?" Schneeple asked, "Vhy vas he so important?"
"I got a strange vibe from him from the start," Jack explained, "I had a feeling he wasn't who he said he was. Turns out Anti knew this, and so found out that man actually works for the lab. He was probably a spy sent to capture us when he had the chance. Anti's probably using his mind to get directions to the lab."
"The lab?!" Marvin said, "Why the hell would he want to go back there?"
"Why else?" Jack replied, "For revenge."

They made it to Jack's apartment shortly after, wasting no time in getting inside before anyone found them. After the egos went inside, Chase went through last. He'd been noticeably quiet the entire way, so Jack stopped him.
"Hey," he said, looking Chase in the eyes, "You ok?"
"Yeah," Chase muttered, pushing his way past Jack without another word. Jack hesitated for a moment before going in.

"It feels so good to be back here," Marvin said, breathing a sigh of relief and collapsing onto the sofa. Jackaboy joined him and Schneeple crouched down in front of Marvin to have a look at his still bleeding nose. Chase moved into the corner of the room and sat in it, legs up to his chest. Robbie moved over to him, whining at the fact he was sad.
"Leave him," Jack warned, "Just...give him some space."
"Nah, it's fine," Chase replied, patting the patch of carpet next to him, "Come here you zombie bastard." Robbie obeyed and curled up next to him, putting his head on Chase's legs once he lowered them. He began to make a sort of purring noise as Chase stroked his hair.
"So...vhat are ve going to do?" Schneeple asked, looking up from examining Marvin, "Are ve just going to leave Anti or...?"
"We can't just leave him," Jack said sternly.
"Why?" Marvin asked, "He's not really doing any harm to us. As long as we lay low, we should be fine, right?"
"No," Jack replied, "Think about it. We all know how unpredictable Anti can be. I mean, hell, the first thing he tried to do when he was created was kill us! What's to stop him turning us all in, huh? What's to stop him capturing us all just for the shits and giggles? We have to stop him somehow before he puts all of us in danger!"
"So...to repeat Schneeple's question: what are we going to do?" Chase asked, speaking for the first time. Jack gave out a long sigh.
"I don't know," he said at last.
"Maybe zhat robot that attacked us, that S-3-4-N, could be useful?" Schneeple asked.
"Maybe-"

Before Jack could finish, the doorbell rang. Everyone froze.
"Um...I don't mean to worry anyone, but...who the hell could that be?" Chase said, "I mean, we don't really know anyone who knows where we are, right?"
"I'll go answer it," Jack said, making his way towards the door, "It might just be the postman or Robin or something, we don't need to panic just yet."

With this, Jack made his way out of his apartment and down the stairs to the bottom floor. When he got to the front door, he hesitated with his hand over the doorknob. He took a deep breath.
I'm sure it's fine, he said to himself, It's going to be fine. He opened the door and was not prepared for who was on the other side. The sight of this person made him stumble back a couple of steps. Once he got over the initial shock, he finally found the words to speak the person's name.

"Officer Taylor?!"