Raising Anti

1

"Come on, Will." Dark lulled impatiently as he watched his host movements. Anti giggled beside him with his arm draped over his knee clutching his knife tightly. He's literally never without it. 

"So what's the mission again, Darky?" Dark rolled his eyes as Anti eyed the target closely. "You never really explained it."

"We're turning Mark into a child." Anti faltered as he shot the elder demon a look.

"Why?" Dark just shrugged as he spotted Will on the upper floor waving.

"I don't know. Will said it would be fun and that would also give me access to his channel for a while." Anti hummed as he watched Will started to power up.

"I thought you and Mark had this arrangement. He doesn't get hurt and all that." Dark laughed softly as he shook his head. 

"It's not an arrangement, Sam. Mark has just proven himself to be a good host. He cares about us." Anti's eyes darkened and Will beamed as he held up a glowing ball. Dark frowned seeing the look in Anti's eyes and sighed. "Jack will come around, Anti. He just doesn't know you."

"So are you killing him or not?" Dark shook his head making Anti groan in annoyance. "Of course not. Why am I here then?"

"I just thought you would like to get out and do something, Sam. We may not be hurting him but it's still something so..." Dark frowned as he watched Mark start to get up. Dark followed suit straightening himself out as he smirked. "Let's get started then."

"Fine." Anti glitched appearing on his feet with this annoyed look in his eyes. "Let's go turn your man-child into an actual one." Dark laughed sinisterly catching Mark's attention who froze up with this sad look in his eyes.

"Dark? Is that you?" Mark shifted back only to freeze as Anti started to glitch around him. He was barely opaque at all but Mark still saw him and his face went white. "Anti?!" Anti growled as he glanced over letting the shine of his knife draw Mark's attention. "W-What are you doing here? What do you want? DARK?!" Dark appeared right before him with a sick smile as he fixed Mark's collar. 

"Relax, Mark. We aren't going to hurt you." Mark narrowed his eyes as Dark laughed. "No pain... But, I will be taking over for a bit. Wilford, now!"

"On it, ol'chap." Mark spun around to find Wilford waving at him. Mark's eyes filled with fear as Wilford held his hand out like a gun, a ball hovering right in front of his fingers. He winked and did a finger gun gesture firing the ball right at Mark. Except they forgot one thing... Mark's a human with goodwill to live... meaning...

Mark jumped out of the way.

The ball fired at immense speed just as Mark dropped to the ground making it just barely miss him. Anti froze up instantly, his glitching stopping in his frozen state. The ball hit him right in the chest sending sparks and glitches cascading through the room to the sound of glitched-out screams. Mark jumped back up with complete fear as Dark freaked out.

"Damn it, Mark. I said you weren't going to get hurt!" Dark ran over as the glitching slowly started to recede revealing a very small and near frail-looking boy. He wasn't weak in the slightest... or weel for demon standards he was but for a human, he could still throw a damn car at you. Dark sighed sadly as the boy shook and shivered. "Damn it all..."

"He's a child. Anti got turned into a child... Why is he a child?" Wilford laughed as he popped up next to Mark making the host jump.

"Well, that wasn't supposed to happen. Markimoo was supposed to be the kid." Dark growled as he gently touched the child making him curl up more in a ball.

"Hey, it's ok. Sam, it's ok." The boy just shook horribly making Dark frown as he sighed sadly. "Out of all the people to regress... It just had to be Anti."

"Well, maybe you guys shouldn't have tried to do that to me?!" Mark yelled out causing Anti to whimper and spark making ll of the suck in a worried breath. "What's... What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing!" Dark growled as he shook his head. "Anti has a lot going on and now being a child he's regressed so... He's back to the beginning."

"Oooooh, I remember." Wilford chuckled as spun his gun, that he just randomly had, around his finger. "Poor chap. Won't even be able to talk."

"What?! What is going on?!" Dark growled as he moved around till Anti was facing him. 

"Just shut up, Mark." Mark jumped as Dark placed his hand gently on the floor catching Anti's eyes who just stared at it. "No touch, right? I won't touch you... but I do need you to look up ok." Dark pointed at his tie making Mark frown in confusion. "Right here... look right here ok." Anti slowly glanced up to where Dark was point making the older smile a little in relief. "Good job, Sam. Good job. Now... Can you sit up for me? I won't touch you. No one will touch you. I promise."

"Why are you talking to him like that?" Anti flinched making Dark growl. Mark paled as he stepped back as Wilford just laughed.

"Darkipoo is the only one who knows how to handle Anti. The three of us were thick of thieves back in the day. Dark cared for Anti and helped him as they grew up." Mark's eyes went wide as Wilford wrapped his arm around his shoulders. "You'll have to forgive Dark, Mark. He must be finding it difficult to see Anti so far back. It wasn't easy back then... but he did his best."

"The problem is I can't care for him again." Will nodded as Dark sat carefully on the floor. Anti frowned as he slowly reached out to hold the man's hand. Dark's eyes softened as he let Anti pull his hand in close "I'm going to have to take him to Jacks."

"You can't." Mark frowned with obvious concern as Anti shifted closer to Dark now letting the man actually old him. "Jack made it clear he wants nothing to do with him." Dark's eyes flashed making Mark smile sadly. "I never said I agreed with him. I just said he doesn't want anything to do with Anti."

"He won't have a choice."