Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A loud bang was heard from one of the rooms of the Egos. Dr Schneeplestein looked up from his case notes and stormed out as he identified the bang coming from Chase Brody’s room. The Doctor quickly knocked at the door of his friend. As he heard no answer, he pried open the lock and looked in shock at his bloodied hair. “CHASE!” he screamed and kneeled next to his friend.
“Ztay vith me!”
Chase was already passed out so it was no use talking to him but Henrik hoped. A lot.
The bang must have awoken Marvin because he was standing in the door frame.
“Guys? Oh- OH FUCK! Wait wait wait,” Marvin muttered as he saw Chase. They were immediately in Dr Schneep’s room with all of his supplies set. “There- please do something.”
Henrik nodded and immediately got to work. It was 3 am.
Marvin looked around and helped where he could, handing tools toward the Doc and preparing some coffee as it got later and later. At precisely 6 am, the doctor leaned back and looked at the magician. “He’s stable.”
Marvin looked at Chase and moved his hand over him, Chase was now slowly levitating. “Thank you,” Marvin just responded and laid Chase down on the bed.
“So, what happened, do you know?” the magician asked. Schneep just shook his head.
“I voke up becauze ov zhe gunshot,” he explained and Marvin nodded that’s how he had woken up as well. “Thankz vor your help,” he then added.
“Anytime. I’ve been training teleportation.”
Henrik nodded and watched Chase sleep for a moment, then he turned to the magician. “I’ve been meaning to ask you somezhing,” the doctor then started.
Marvin carefully adjusted his mask. “Yes? What is it? Am I dying?” he joked and turned towards Schneep, he got pretty quiet as he saw his serious face.
“Your powers. Are zthey just magic related? Zthey just appeared overnight, correct?”
The magician blinked. His powers had never been questioned. Not by one of his friends at least.
“Yes, they’re magic-related- I can fly, read minds, levitate stuff and teleport. Also, I can do some sleight of hand card tricks- Why do you ask?”
Henrik just waved his hand, Chase was groaning and waking up.
“What… happened..? Am I finally dead?” he asked and moved his hand toward his head where he could feel the bandage. He wasn’t dead.
Henrik and Marvin then kneeled next to the bed. Chase felt a slight tuck from Marvin’s magic and then focused on the doctor.
“Vhy didn’t you say somezhing?”
Chase blinked. “Hold on... Did you save me?”
Marvin nodded in steed of Henrik. “He did. There’s the bullet,” the magician explained and pointed at a glass. A dented and a very small bullet was laying in it. “Shit…” Chase muttered quietly. He now realized what must have happened.
Henrik slowly stood up and sighed. “I am going to get zome coffee vor us,” he said and walked out of the door.
“Okay, real talk,” Marvin suddenly said and sat down in front of the bed, not facing Chase who slowly started to sit up.
“What? There’s no “real talk” there. I just… it got to my head everything that happened.” Marvin was just quiet. “It’s been a tool on me ever since I found out about the accident…”
“You’re not hearing voices?” Marvin then asked. Chase flinched, he was lucky that the magician didn’t look at him. However, his answer didn’t sound sincere. “N-no? Do you hear voices?” he asked.
Marvin took a deep breath. It looked like he was crying as his shoulders were shivering and Chase laid a hand down on the magician’s shoulder.
“Sometimes. Yes. I wanted to warn you. I was his first victim. You might be next.” With that, Marvin stood up as Schneep stepped back into the room and handed Chase a mug and Marvin as well.
“Vhat iz going on? Vhy are you so tenze?”
Marvin just waved his hand and left the room.

Chapter Text

It has been a week since the accident. The only thing Chase kept complaining about were headaches. Schneep thought that that is a good sign. That his wounds were healing. Chase wasn’t so sure. The voices had started appearing, especially a male voice. He couldn’t quite put it. He was persistent, trying to get Chase to drink, not only coffee and water and cola. Stronger stuff like booze. Chase was resilient. At least he thought so until he woke up today. A bottle of strong Whiskey in his hand. He couldn’t remember what had happened.
Chase started to slowly sit up and look around. That wasn’t his first bottle. It must have been the third by the looks of the two empty Whiskey bottles at hand. Shit.
Someone was also very loudly knocking at the door. “Fuck man. Come in,” Chase then said and Dr Schneeplestein opened the door. The doctor slowly opened the door and flinched slightly as he saw the sorry state of his friend.
“Vhat happened?” he asked.
Chase shrugged. “Apparently,” he started while standing up and collecting the empty bottles. “I was drinking.”
“You don’t remember, do you?”
Chase shook his head. “I don’t. Not at all. I don’t remember when I decided to drink or Why. It just… happened.”
Schneep shook his head. “Vell, that only causes more headaches. Sit down. I vill give you somezhing for zhat.”
Chase nodded after he had put down the bottles on his desk and sat down. He was currently editing a few trick shots he had done. Seemed like he had worked on that at night as well, he needed to look at it as soon as Schneep was gone.
The doctor was currently rummaging in his bag. It had a Red Cross painted on it. Marvin and Jameson had painted that.
Chase sat down back on his bed and sighed strongly. “Here,” Schneep handed him a blister of tablets. “They are juzt painkillers,” he explained.
Chase nodded. “Thanks, dude,” he mumbled and looked up.
“And. My friend, come to us if anything is wrong,” the doctor said as he stood up and walked out of the door.
Chase sighed a long breath and walked to his desk. He moved his mouse so the screen was lit again. He flinched at the shot that was currently on screen. It wasn’t a trick shot. It was Chase himself but it didn’t look like him, he was grinning, his hat off of his dyed green fluff and in his hand. In his other, he had a nerf gun. He remembered taking that shot but he also remembered wanting to edit that shot out. “Why is it…” he started and then his screen was black. “What- fuck! Not now! Not like this! I don’t know if I saved!” he muttered and tested his light- the power was out.
Chase sighed strongly, took the empty booze bottles and walked into the kitchen.
Marvin rubbed his eyes, he wasn’t wearing his mask, so the symbols he had on his foreheads were visible though he was trying to hide them with his hair.
“Yo. Is the power out?” he asked. Marvin nodded. “Apparently. Yeah. Man. What timing,” he muttered and looked at Chase. “What is that? Were you drinking?”
Chase looked at the bottles that he sat down on the counter. “I don’t remember honestly. I guess better than another suicide attempt.”
Marvin looked at him in disbelief, his longer and darker hair was hanging in his eyes. “You don’t remember? I mean. I guess you drank three bottles- what the fuck.”
Chase waved with his hand. “It’s fine. It’s fine.- I think.”
Marvin shook his head slightly. “Alright. I guess it is better than a suicide attempt but it’s still not good, Chase.”
Chase sighed and put the bottles away. “I know. But I need to ask you something. What did you mean with Voices? Are they gone?”
Marvin nodded. “Ever since- Alright. I am going to tell you something that no one knows from the others so please keep this under wraps. Follow me.” With that, the magician walked out of the kitchen and into his room. He didn’t check if Chase was following but he was indeed, he was curious.
The mage was rummaging through his room and found a small piece of paper. “There we go,” he muttered.
He handed it over to Chase. It was an old piece of paper and some Latin was scribbled on it. “What is that?”
“A contract,” Marvin replied and took his mask that was lying on his desk. He rubbed over one of the green ears and slowly put it on.
Chase was still trying to figure out the symbols that were on that piece of paper. “Why do you keep that?”
“This was the voice,” Marvin explained. “He manifested. He’s a demon or whatever. He gave me my magic. I was able to do some magic tricks but… after that interaction I could do a lot…”
Chase was still looking at that piece of paper in disbelief. Then he looked up at his friend. He had his cape and his mask put on and held his magic wand in his hand. “Well. Now you know. I’m also not the person you thought I was.”
“Hold on. You exchanged your soul?!”
Marvin nodded. “And you would have done too if you died that night. He’s tricky. I have given him the name of Anti but I don’t know if that’s his name.”
“Jesus Christ, dude! Are you alright?!”
Marvin laughed at that sentence and shook his head. “Chase. Relax. It’s over now. It has happened. We’re both fine so-“
Chase just shook his head. “You have exchanged your fucking soul!”
Marvin flinched this time and brought out a small and slight chuckle. “It’s fine. Trust me. I know what I did.”
Chase handed him the piece of paper and stormed out. Suddenly the power was back on again.

Chapter Text

As the power went out, Jackieboy had to curse.
He was just done with editing one of Chase’s shots. Sometimes, the hero helped him edit videos. Yesterday he asked him to help- though he was drunk. Jackieboy knew he hadn't saved in a while and he sighed strongly. He stood up and stretched strongly. “Fuck. That was very unfortunate timing.”
After a moment, he walked outside.
Marvin stood there, talking with Chase, in the kitchen. Maybe they did something so the breaker had turned off, so the hero decided to walk into the basement.
JJ was already at the breaker looking at it. He was deaf and since the light was out Jackieboy couldn’t warn him that he was coming from behind, so he took a big step to the side so that JJ could see him approach. JJ did see him and looked up.
Slowly he raised his hand to sign something. Jackieboy and Marvin had been taking lessons with him to understand JJ better. Communication was sometimes hard. He was able to speak and read lips but even then, sometimes they just couldn’t understand each other so he had been teaching them.
Now he just signed “Breaker?”
Jackieboy nodded, he was trying to sign along but still spoke in case he messed up. “Yeah, wanted to take a look.”
JJ nodded and turned his attention to the switch. Indeed, it had turned off, so Jackieboy just flipped the switch up and the power was back on.
Schneep was currently coming down the stairs. “Oh! Zhank you!” he called downstairs as the light flicked on.
“You’re very welcome!” Jackieboy called back as he waved to JJ to get back upstairs. They met the doctor halfway up the stairs.
“How’s Chase doing? He was drinking yesterday,” the hero then asked and watched the reaction of the Doctor.
“I do not know vhat’s going on vizh him, he has been behaving very strangly,” Schneep replied and sighed, he was at his limits, Jackieboy could tell.
“What happened to Chase?” JJ then asked- he hadn’t heard the gun shot obviously.
“Chase tried to kill himself,” Jackieboy explained, making sure he was facing JJ. He let his hands fall in shock and then nodded.
As they all had walked back up, Chase was standing in the hallway, obviously he was in shock as he wasn’t moving.
“Chase?” Jackieboy started at which Chase flinched and turned towards them.
“You good?”
Chase brought out a forced laugh. “Yeah, yeah, just freaked out by Marvin’s magic tricks- as always.”
Schneep nodded, neither of them believed him, even JJ seemed to know that something was wrong. “You’re lying,” he suddenly signed.
“I’m not lying, I’m actually freaked out by Marvin!” This at least seemed to be true, Chase was definitely freaked out.
This in turn let to the Magician looking outside. “I just practiced to read minds,” he explained and smiled. “Sorry, Chase.”
Chase seemed to have calmed down a little at least and waved his hand. “Okay,” he muttered and wanted to walk off. Though he did not walk into his room- he walked into the kitchen.
Schneep and Marvin had started a conversation that Jackieboy wasn’t following, so he decided to follow Chase.
He was standing in front of the cabinet where they stored their liquor, he shook his head. “Ugh, what’s happening,” Chase mumbled.
“Hey, you alright?” Jackieboy then asked and leaned against the counter next to the liquor cabinet. Not another night of drinking. It wasn’t like Chase was unbearable while drunk but drinking can become a problem very quickly, Jackie wanted to avoid that.
Chase closed down the cabinet. “Yeah, yeah, I think so. Just weird urges.”
“Urges to kill yourself and drink? I feel like these are signs of depression.”
Chase gave back this slight fake chuckle. “Dude, I’m fine. I haven’t thought about killing myself- I’m glad Henrik and Marvin saved me. Yeah, lives sucks but whatever.”
Jackieboy just shook his head. “You need to rehearse more, I can still hear your pain in those words and the lie as well. I know you’re mourning but killing yourself or drinking isn’t gonna take the feeling away.”
Chase closed his eyes and sighed, he had decided something.
“That is actually not the problem,” he suddenly said, “I’ve been hearing voices- I think that’s why I was drinking. The accident doesn’t affect me as much- I mean. It does but not like that.”
Jackieboy blinked. “Really? Voices?”
Chase nodded. The hero then pushed himself away from the counter. “Marvin also said he heard voices from time to time.”
Chase nodded. “We think it might be the same voice,” he then suddenly replied. So Chase knew about Marvin’s voices as well. Jackieboy had known for forever since the magician came to him to talk about it but the same voices? That couldn’t be it.
“Why do you think that?”
“You should ask Marvin. That’s not… my place to tell,” he muttered and ended up taking a bottle from the liquor cabinet.
“Chase. Please.”
Chase flinched and looked at the bottle. “I’m just getting one glass,” he muttered and indeed took a glass and poured some liquor into it. Then he put the bottle away and walked off, this time into his room.
Jackieboy sighed strongly. “Goddammit, Chase…”

Chapter Text

After just a few seconds, someone stood before Jackieboy, he didn’t exactly see him but he was there, the hero was very sure. Within a blink of a second, the shadow was gone again and Jackie had to question his sanity for a moment.
“What was that?” he asked confused, then he shook his head and walked out again.
He sat down in front of Chase’s room and sighed strongly. The hero wanted to prevent Chase from drinking more.

Marvin walked past Jackieboy and stopped. “What are you doing?” he asked confused and looked around, about three hours had passed since the Hero had sat down.
“Oh, just watching Chase, I don’t want him to drink more than just that glass.”
“Chase is a grown ass man, you shouldn’t need to supervise him,” the magician realized and looked at Jackieboy more than confused.
“He told me about them.”
With that, the Magician sat down and sighed. “Alright, good. I was hoping he would. I think it’s the same voice that I had a few nights ago.”
“You were able to fight him off, right? Why don’t you help him?”
“Because my fight with him did not end well!”
Jackieboy sighed and leaned against the door which was a mistake since the door just opened. The hero landed with his back in front of Chase’s feet. He had his glass in hand and first looked at Jackieboy and then at Marvin.
“What… are you guys doing?”
“Preventing you from drinking?” suggested the magician and smiled a slight sickly sweet smile.
“That’s right!” Jackieboy pointed upwards before sitting up in one swift movement.
Chase rolled his eyes. “Guys, I’m fine. Really. I’m just gonna- thank you…” he muttered while stepping out of his room and past the two. Chase made his way into the kitchen while Jackieboy and Marvin just watched.
“Is he getting something to drink? Can you see that?” Jackieboy asked, Marvin shook his head but looked at the kitchen, he was quietly watching.
Jackieboy suddenly felt something behind him and he turned around quickly. Chase was back standing in the door. “Uhhh…Marv?”
Marvin turned his head and looked in shook at Chase. The magician quickly stood up and walked toward Chase. “You’ve done it too!”
Chase laughed. “Marvin, he was driving me m̸͚̲̽̚ă̵̜̤͘d̶̎̄ͅ!̸͙̲̓̾ I had to do something,” he explained.
“What are you two talking about?” Jackieboy asked confused and stood up.
Marvin sighed strongly. “We… made a Contract with someone we named Anti.”
Jackieboy flinched strongly and took a step back. “You’ve… exchanged your souls. For what?”
“Magic,” Marvin replied.
“Control,” Chase continued.

Chapter Text

Finally. They were all in _his_ control. Everyone was turning against each other. Chase did not believe in his friends. He was broken, like _he_ wanted. Marvin had been in _his_ control for quite some time but now _he_ had him officially. The hero has started to go corrupt and the doctor will soon be out of the picture.
Soon _he_ could start with his plan and finally kill all of them.

Anti appeared next to Chase. “Hey- what’s happening to you? Been a while since you’ve been drinking _that_ much,” he realized and let out a small giggle. Chase was lying in his bed as if he were just asleep.
Chase blinked and he looked around confused. Was everything that just happened just been in his head? He looked around and at the clock. “Ugh. What happened?” he asked, confused and sat up. Anti sat next to him in bed. “We all had a few beers- you apparently had one to many and we got you here.”
“So… you’re not a corruptive demon that’s been trying to kill us all?”
“What? Oh! No! That’s just for the videos. Jeez. You’ve dreamt some weird shit, huh, Brody?”
Chase had to laugh. “God. I’ll tell you after I’ve had some coffee.”