A Lullaby For Gods Chapter 146

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: NOBODY BELIEVES YOU NOW

The coast of Florida was flooding.

It had to happen someday, but for it to be minutes after the entire state had gone into a statewide blackout wasn’t what most people expected. The doomsday preppers, of course, already had Carrington Event Two Electric Boogaloo and Noah’s Flood on their bingo cards, but the rest of the general population were left baffled to see that the ocean had stopped being satisfied with snatching tourists off the beach and had come to meet them on their doorstep.

It would recede, they’d thought. Perhaps some sewer system had been blocked, resulting in water climbing up to their knees. The heat of the day will dry it all up.

But while the ocean had come to them, the heat of the day was running off with the sky, which had started flickering two hours after the blackout. Nearly 24 hours later, the thing had sputtered like a faulty screen and completely shut off.

The sky was dark, the waters were rising, and residents were fleeing towards higher ground, carrying pets and children and whatever precious belongings they could bring. Those with vehicles sped away into the hills. Those who didn’t, waited for cabs that barely drove past (as drivers were busy saying fuck it and hightailing it out of there in their vehicles), and were soon forced to escape the waters on foot.

48 hours after the blackouts began, the dead began to visit their living.

#

JANUARY 29, 2014

NIGHT VALE

“Very helpful for him to just pass out on the fucking couch,” Vriska said, glaring down at the prone form of the boy who’d introduced himself as Cronus Ampora on one of the living room couches. Almost everyone – save for the two human girls who were asleep – was gathered in said room, warily watching the troll as he slept.

They had a hurried introduction and a summarized version of why he’d suddenly shown up at the estate two hours ago, before he decided to just conk out right where he was sitting. The other troll he’d brought with him who Vriska refuses to believe was Dualscar (even though he did have two huge scars on his face) was similarly asleep, though he’d been moved to one of the guestrooms by the boys, since there was no way he was going to fit on the couches without his horns gouging into the furniture.

The humans were rather touchy about things getting broken in the estate. Probably some sentimental bullshit to do with their recently-deceased Anathema Point. Vriska didn’t really care.

Currently, both of their visitors were dead asleep, and they were all too curious to wait.

“Are you guys, like, friends?” Vriska heard Wilde asking behind her.

“No, but he’s one of our, uh, friend’s dancestors,” Terezi said.

“What the fuck’s a dancestor.”

While her moirail was busy with explaining the simple concept of ectobiology and bloodline succession to the human, Vriska quietly approached the couch with the sleeping troll; nobody stopped her, not that they were awake enough to, as even though they were curious, most of the humans were already drifting in and out of sleep from where they sat behind her.

Cronus was older than them, clearly, unless he was just one of those lanky sprouts who loomed over the rest of their peers even when they were the same age. He was alive, though he reeked of blood, and his clothes were torn and tattered on places.

Several jagged tears on the shin and thigh areas of his pants indicated the fabric harshly dragging across surfaces and ripping. The bottom left portion of his leather jacket was completely burnt off. Most alarmingly, the collar of said jacket and the undershirt beneath it appeared to have also been burnt away, only hanging onto his torso by the sleeves.

Whatever had hit him had hit him square on the neck, or under the jaw. It had been strong enough to burn his clothes, but somehow, he was alive.

Was he godtier? Had he ascended? What the fuck was someone’s dancestor doing here?

“Should we really be watching him while he’s sleeping?” The Palmer kid in orange asked, slurring his words from how drowsy he was.

“Maybe he’s faking it and he’ll kill all of us when we’re asleep,” Vriska deadpanned. “You never know.”

She turned, slowly; Benzedrine and the Palmer in violet looked slightly concerned, but the one in orange just gave her a flat stare. She snickered.

“Oh, lighten up. It was a joke.”

“How the hell did he even find this place?” that was the one with the spiky hair now, sitting on the floor blearily looking at their guest. What was his name? Something kinda like Leijon? Leon, right. “I thought this city was supposed to be like mysterious and all that shit.”

“Probably something to do with how we can see live news from the rest of the world now,” Miscer murmured. He was still on his phone, lying flat on the carpet as he scrolled. “Everything’s going to shit out there.”

“How bad is it?”

“Like two steps down from the movie 2012,” he said. “Except like, apparently people are getting lost in mystery spots and some people are seeing the sky go dark.”

“How fast is it spreading?” Vriska asked.

Miscer took his time looking at her, as if surprised to heard her speak, though his expression didn’t betray much. Eventually, he said, “Forty-six out of fifty states are affected. I can’t fucking remember the route we took to get here so I have no idea which state we’re in, but the entire country’s nearly gone under.”

“The rest of the continent’s probably next,” Leon grunted. “You think people will have any luck if they cross the ocean?”

“The ocean’s rising.”

“What?” Leon sat up, pushing off from where he was leaning into his seat. “For real?”

“Yep,” Miscer said. “It’s bad out there, I’m telling you. It’s 2012, Day After Tomorrow sort of bullshit.”

“Jesus fuck,” Leon breathed, turning towards Cronus. “And that was the sort of shit Saph was holding off?”

They did a shit job at it, Vriska thought, but she held her tongue for Terezi’s sake; the girl looked way too tired to break up any fights that would break out between her and the dead kid’s friends.

“I don’t think it’s all just the end of the world,” Benzedrine muttered.

“Yeah?” Vriska raised an eyebrow, turning on her heel so she could face the rest of them. Benzedrine stiffened, surprised to be addressed. “Stop mumbling, share your thoughts with the rest of the class.”

“It’s just a hunch,” the boy said. “But the timing’s a little suspicious, isn’t it? We already knew the world was ending but why’s it suddenly accelerating at a pace we’ve never seen before?”

“Maybe something’s reached a breaking point,” Orange Palmer said, shrugging. “Something had to have been tipped off the edge for an apocalypse to suddenly spread this fast.”

That was a good point. And since Cronus and his friend were the only people here who came from the outside world, they were their only clue as to exactly what had kickstarted the apocalypse. With any luck, Vriska would be able to pinpoint what the problem was, and if she could, she could probably find a way to fix it. It was already proven that there was a way to hinder the end of the world, after all, that’s what the Anathema Point had been. Angeles just did a piss poor job of stopping the apocalypse.

God, what were these people going to do without her? Flounder in the face of catastrophe, that’s what. Good thing whatever separated this city from the rest of the world was going down. Maybe she could just walk out and get to where she needed to go this time.

She marched forward, intent on kicking Cronus off the couch to jolt him awake, but she was hurriedly telekinetically pulled back. She froze for a moment, the memories of being brutalized and thrown around by Aradia cropping up in her mind, before she whirled on Cecil Palmer with a glare. The boy held his hands up placatingly.

“Let him sleep, you idiot,” Kevin Palmer hissed, disapproving. “He’s clearly been through a lot, he’s not going to be much help when he’s sleep deprived.”

“How are we supposed to get answers out of him?”

“We wait,” Kevin said. “It’s not like we can do much even if we did find out what’s wrong with everything.”

Vriska begged to differ, and was about to say as much, but Terezi turned to her, shaking her head. The girl frowned. If she didn’t see the merit in making sure the information they got out of Cronus was as reliable as possible, she would have contested but – she’ll let Terezi have this. Besides, the girl had been sullen and tired since they’d fallen into this universe. It was nice to see some life back in her again; good for her that she’s found some fascination with their new surroundings instead of being way too tired to deal with being back in the saddle again.

Still, Vriska made sure to stay awake even as the rest of the house slept. She wandered around the house’s massive library even though she couldn’t read the books displayed there, took a walk in the estate’s massive backyard, before eventually making her way back to the house as soon as the sun was peeking over the horizon.

By the time she’d gotten back, Orange Palmer was already awake, and was handing a mug of tea to Cronus who was similarly slowly pulling himself out from exhaustion.

Vriska sat on the couch next to Palmer, crossed one leg over the other, and looked at Cronus expectantly. The older boy stared and then blinked at her.

“Yes?” he hazarded.

“Aren’t you going to explain what you’re doing here? You’ve made us wait for hours, you know. Don’t you have any manners?”

Cronus stared at her some more. “…I don’t know why I expected you to be like Aranea.” He took a sip of his tea. “Guess that’s on me since Eridan’s also a little shit. Our descendants are just worse, I guess.”

Vriska glared, but he didn’t seem to be too bothered, instead taking his time in blowing steam away from his mug and taking small sips from his drink. She kept her gaze on him, waiting for him to take the hint, but the only thing he did was continue to drink painfully, annoyingly, almost deliberately slowly.

Asshole.

Half an hour later, two other people came down from their rooms – Cecil Palmer and Ruben Benzedrine. Upon seeing Cronus awake, they huddled close, nervously standing behind the couch Kevin and Vriska were on.

“Twins?” Cronus asked, eyeing Cecil and Kevin.

“Yep. I’m older, he’s younger.” Kevin pointed to himself and then to Cecil. “Do you guys have twins on Alternia?”

“I’m from Beforus,” Cronus said, though he said it with a smile. “And no, we don’t. Every generation is laid by the mother grub.”

“Ohhh,” Kevin said, nodding. “That’s pretty neat.”

“Thanks,” Cronus said. “Are twins common on Earth?”

“Oh my god, can you stop talking about anything but the situation at hand?” Vriska kicked the coffee table. Benzedrine immediately turned to her, furious, but she ignored his stare in favor of crossing one leg over the other again. It got everyone’s attention, didn’t it? So what if she kicked around some dead person’s furniture. “Helloooooooo? It’s the end of the world? People are dying out there, aren’t you supposed to be good guys, you selfish assholes?”

Benzedrine’s glare tightened, but he said nothing. Cronus, meanwhile, raised his eyebrows and clicked his tongue. “Are you self-aware or is guilt tripping just a poor replacement for your social skills?”

“I can trip you in real life too and smash your ugly mug on the floor if you don’t start talking.”

“I can’t believe I actually prefer Aranea,” Cronus muttered. “What part do you want clarification on? I think I told you the gist of where I came from.”

“How exactly did you find the city?” Kevin said, eager to put the conversation on a much more productive path. “What’s the Moon?”

“Oh, right. I didn’t explain that.” Cronus extended a foot out, hooking the top of his shoe under the table so he could drag it back towards him. He set his mug on it as soon as it was within reach. “I was helped here by the Full Moon of Derse.”

He reached into empty air and with a quick flick of his wrist, plucked a large silver coin out of thin air. Vriska’s eyes widened in surprise. Huh. This Ampora was a magician.

“She’s one of the treasures of Derse,” he said, turning the coin over to them. Vriska frowned. All she could see was one of those ordinary silver coins used to buy merchandise on the few markets scattered all over the wasteland of Alternia. What was so special about that, that it would be a Dersite treasure?

“A Liberty dollar?” Kevin asked.

A what now?

“Ah, is that what she looks like to you?” Cronus asked. “Well, she’s no ordinary coin. I think this is just her physical form; she’s…hm.” He paused, returning her to nothingness. What the hell. “It’s a bit difficult to describe, but she’s like an entity.”

He paused again, before snapping his fingers.

“You know those NPC guides I games?” When he got nods, he continued, “She’s like that. When you hold her, she can help you find what you need, and call what needs to find you. Or find her, specifically.”

“Ah, and she helped you find the city,” Benzedrine said.

“I wanted to find someplace to rest and hide,” Cronus said. “That said, I actually have no idea where I even went. I just followed the path she showed me.”

“…where did you go through?” Vriska asked.

“A mausoleum,” Cronus said. “It was so weird. I opened the doors and there was a whole town on the other side.”

Both Palmers and Benzedrine shared a look at that. Vriska tapped her fingers on her arm. It lined up with what Miscer was reading about last night, about people suddenly finding completely different places behind doors that shouldn’t lead to them. This coin of his must have showed him a doorway that happened to lead into the city.

“How exactly does she show you things?” Benzedrine asked.

“Moonlight,” Cronus said. “She draws moonlight and makes it shine on certain things.”

“Huh. Like a searchlight,” Kevin said.

“Do you know anything about the apocalypse happening out there?” Vriska asked. “Considering you got here looking like you forgot how legs worked.”

“For your information, I was trying to stop the apocalypse. That’s why I look a little worse for wear. Some gratitude would be nice,” Cronus said through a tight smile.

“Well, you were shit at stopping the apocalypse weren’t you?”

“Did a better job than you ever could, I’d bet,” Cronus muttered bitterly, picking up his mug again.

Vriska sat up at the challenge. “Yeah? I bet I’d fix whatever’s causing it under an hour or something. An Ampora really shouldn’t be trying to fix something a Serket easily could, you guys just make things worse.”

“Be my guest.” Cronus’ smile widened. “Eridan would eat you alive.”

“He’s causing the apocalypse?” Kevin asked.

“No, but he’s guarding the person who is.”

Vriska snorted. Figures. Of course Eridan would fuck things up for everybody.

“And you lost to him?” she asked. “How much of a loser are you? Sure, he’s got some fancy magic now, but he doesn’t even have control over it. Last I saw, he keels over when he uses something even a little bit powerful.”

The older troll’s eye twitched, his grip on his mug tightening briefly. “You know what?” he said, “You should definitely go and clean up my mistakes. I totally need your help since I can’t do anything; I was having a hard time just knocking out my descendant. Silly little me.”

“Keep yapping, Ampora.” Vriska rolled her eyes. “Put me out there and I’ll have everything solved, you’ll see.”

“Sure you will.” He turned away, bringing his attention back to the others. “Do you guys know who Anshu Jaeger is?”

Kevin tilted his head in confusion before recognition sparked in his eyes. Cecil and Benzedrine, however, shared surprised, knowing looks.

“She’s dead, isn’t she?” Benzedrine asked. “She’s the girl Saph told us was killed by the, uh, Empress? And her corpse was delivered as, like, some calling card.”

Cronus blinked. Vriska turned to Benzedrine, eyebrows raised.

“Wait, what?” Cronus asked.

“We heard she was killed after the escape from S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Empress sent her body to her friends as some mutilated trophy,” Kevin said.

“Huh,” Cronus said, staring down at the coffee table. “No wonder Eridan’s a little off his rocker.”

It’s the Empress, of course she was going to do something that cold and fucked up.

“Anyway – apparently, the Heir of Blood’s managed to sink his claws into her so she’s helping him accelerate the end of the world with her – ” Cronus waved a hand. “Manifest powers. The way it’s been explained to me, her body got thrown into a sprite kernel with some of the Heir of Blood’s magic, so now she’s a walking corpse being puppetted around by him.”

He traced the handle of his mug, brow furrowing. “Kinda fucked up. The poor girl couldn’t even rest in peace.”

“Does Eridan know?” Vriska asked.

“I’m not sure,” Cronus said. “I just know he’s unhealthily attached – with her death and her reanimation being so close together, I’m not sure the kid’s had time to process his grief. Which kind of explains it, I guess.” He made a face. “Asshole didn’t have to shoot me point blank, though.”

“You should probably see a doctor for that,” Benzedrine murmured, but Cronus waved his concern off with a laugh.

“I’ll be fine. I think. I mostly just got tossed around,” he said. “Dualscar’s got it worse.”

“That’s not Dualscar,” Vriska instantly said.

“It most definitely is Dualscar,” Cronus said, then, after another hesitant pause, “Whoever the fuck he is on your planet.”

“You have no idea who – oh, right, you’re from Beforus.” Vriska clicked her tongue. “No wonder you got your ass kicked, you’re from the weak planet.”

“Sure.” He barely paid attention as he replied. “But, anyway, if you’ve got doctors who can help, you should probably get that sort of help for Dualscar. He might lose his arm.”

“…well, the city’s weird enough, I think we can find a doctor who knows your biology, somehow,” Kevin said. “What about the apocalypse outside, can we do anything about that?”

“If we can kill Jaeger,” Cronus said. “Though, again, we’d have to get through Eridan first.”

“Let’s go then,” Vriska said. “That sounds easy enough. I’m getting tired staying in this stuffy house.”

“That’s easier said than done, who knows if we can get to New York with what’s going on out there,” Benzedrine said.

“He’s practically got a cheat code that lets him take advantage of map glitches, stupid.” Vriska pointed to Cronus. “That coin of his or whatever. We can just use that, find this girl, and then kill her.”

“And Eridan?” Kevin asked.

“I’ll deal with him,” Vriska said. “It’s nothing I haven’t done before.”

The trio shared another look between themselves before turning towards Cronus, who shrugged.

“I’m not Alternian. I don’t know how power levels work on their planet, and me trying to guess before’s made me eat shit,” he said. “I say let her have at it, though I’d appreciate it if we got Dualscar fixed up before we went anywhere.”

“I’ll try to see if there’s anyone in town who can help,” Benzedrine said. “In the meantime, uh…rest up, I guess. You look like you need it.”

“I’d be glad to, honestly. You guys got a kitchen here? I’m starving.”

Cecil stood, bouncing on his feet as he motioned for Cronus to follow him towards said kitchen with a smile. Kevin, meanwhile, turned towards Benzedrine to discuss which doctors they could consider going to – Vriska turned them all out, instead sinking into her seat with a widening grin on her face.

Finally. Something to do around here. She was getting tired of being benched – Terezi had told her that Angeles kid brought her here as a contingency, but screw that. That was a stupid plan; they already had matters under control, she wasn’t needed here. And she didn’t have anything to do.

But kicking someone’s ass and stopping the apocalypse, however, that was definitely something up her alley.

Oh, she couldn’t wait.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: THE DOCTORS AND THE NURSES, THEY ADORE ME SO

Wait, that was all they could do.

Well, that sucked major fucking ass.

“Language,” Kankri Vantas murmured, though from how he had been staring off into space earlier, Meenah Peixes could tell that he, too, was contemplating about how much their situation blew.

“Yeah, yeah, what the shell ever, Vantas,” she said, crouching to form another snowball in her hands so she could chuck as far away as she could.

After he’d broken the news to them, Aethra had given them all time to process what they’d just learned; he’d pulled aside Megido’s weird, older, alternate self, along with Sabera, right after, so though the situation was serious, he probably had something in mind, but was just keeping them kids out of it.

Which made them essentially nothing more than sitting ducks, especially as they had no idea what happened to alternate Ampora. And it fucking sucked.

Meenah tossed another snowball into the horizon.

She’d opted to come out here and blow some steam off by chucking snowballs into the distance until she tired herself out. For some fucking reason, Serket decided to sit and watch, followed by Megido the Second and Captor Jr., and then Vantas and Maryam and Mituna decided they wanted a piece of the boring ass action too and sat in the damn snow.

Well, the rest of them were sitting. Mituna was lying down on the snow without his helmet on, looking to be asleep. Beside him, Kankri Vantas was staring off into the distance while Porrim sat with her head leaning on his shoulder.

God, everyone looked like such a depressing bunch. Sure, the world was ending, but still.

They could live a little.

“Hey, talks-a-lot,” Meenah called.

Kankri blinked and turned to her. “I have a name.”

“I know. Just didn’t wanna use it then.” She motioned her head towards Mituna. “Wake Captor up.”

“Why?”

“Cause he’s an Heir of Doom too, right?” Meenah said. “And he was workin’ with the other Heir of Doom for that Anathema thing. Any chance he’s got any idea what they’re up to right now?”

“I doubt they’ll have disclosed anything to him that they didn’t to the rest of us.”

Meenah snorted. “Shore, to you, you mean, what with you bein’ a Seer of Blood and all.” She crossed her arms. “Wake him up anyway.”

“Just ask him later when he’s awake,” Porrim said, her gaze sliding over to Meenah. “What would you do if he does know where the Heir and the other are? It’s not like we can help them or if they’ll be able to communicate with us. And if they really wanted us to help, they’d have left instructions for us.”

“Well maybe they can’t leave any finstructions ‘cause they can’t talk to us? Ever think about that?”

“They left instructions for Dualscar, the Handmaid, and the Knight,” Porrim said.

Meenah pouted.

“Regardless of how we feel, the three of them do have a better grasp at magic than us,” Porrim continued, sitting up properly and smoothing her skirt out. “There is a reason why the Heir and the Mage left them in charge and told them to look after us.”

“Do you ever have fun?”

Kankri threw her a glare for that. Meenah raised her hands up in mock surrender, though she snickered.

“Still,” Serket spoke, to Meenah’s surprise. She turned to her as the girl continued. “We can’t just sit around if it’s the end of the world, can we? I mean, do none of you feel like we should be doing something, instead of being benched?”

Serket looked around at the faces of her peers. Meenah watched in fascination as she locked eyes with Captor Jr. – what was his name, uh, Pollux? No, wait, Sollux – and the boy turned to share a look with Megido the Second, who lifted a shoulder and tilted her head.

“Well, it does feel kind of worrying to just wait for news,” Aradia said. “But we don’t know how to reach the Heir.”

Sollux grunted. “Still have no idea where in bumfuck nowhere Fishdick the Elder landed either.”

Aradia elbowed him, muttering, “Sollux,” to which he rubbed his side and said, “What.”

Meenah snickered. At least someone in this ragtag team had a sense of humor.

“He’s with someone from his bloodline,” Kankri said.

Meenah brought her attention back to him, raising an eyebrow. “What?”

Kankri paused, hesitating, before repeating, “He’s with someone from his bloodline. Dualscar, I mean.”

“How’d you know that?” Meenah scratched her cheek.

Serket, meanwhile, was leaning forward towards Kankri in interest. “Your Sight abilities, yes?”

“It’s the connection I saw earlier,” Kankri said, shrugging. “Couldn’t exactly tell where it was, but I could tell what it was. I didn’t get a good look at who, though.”

“Whale, I mean, who’s there? Cronus?” Meenah snorted.

“He’s got his descendant from Alternia,” Kankri said. “And there’s N – ” He shook his head. “Nevermind. But there’s at least one other person that could have been.”

“Do we know where they are?” Serket asked.

Kankri paused again, but this time, he looked contemplative. “Earth.”

“And how’d you know that?” Meenah asked.

“Aethra,” Kankri said. “If he’s on Earth, trouble’s likely brewing there.”

Meenah scratched her arm idly, before stalking forward and choosing a spot on the snowy ground to sit on, crossing her legs and hunching slightly as she started tracing lines onto the snow. “That’s where a good chunk of the others were supposed to go, right? Place must have turned into a shellshow.”

“How far does your Sight extend, Kankri?” Serket asked.

“I’m…not sure,” Kankri said, blinking as if he’d just come to this realization himself. “I haven’t exactly tried to quantify it. But I know I’ve been able to see connections between people across realms and lightyears – it gives me a headache if I do it for too long or if I focus too hard on a particular point, though.”

“Could you find the Heir of Doom, then?”

This time, Vantas took a while to answer, but when he did, he looked towards Mituna. “I’ve been trying, using Mituna as a gauge,” he said. “I can’t see them.”

Porrim was the one who turned to him this time, frowning. “What do you mean?”

“I can’t see them,” Kankri repeated. “It’s like I’m looking at a sort of dead zone for my Sight. I can’t see anything when I try to look for any of them.” He started dragging a nail across the snow. “Wherever they are and whatever they’re doing, they don’t want to be found.”

“That, or it’s a place where your powers can’t reach,” Serket said. “Have you been able to see connections with dead people, Kankri?”

All of them hushed. If he couldn’t and Kankri wasn’t able to see any of the team, then that meant…

“So far, only if I try really hard, and only very faintly,” Kankri said. “They’re like…smudges on my consciousness instead of threads and points.”

“So what you’re getting is completely nothing.”

“Yes.”

“Well.” Serket sighed. “I guess that’s a relief; at least we know they’re all still alive somehow.”

“Who can you see clearly?” Aradia was the one to ask this time, standing from where she was sitting beside Sollux.

Kankri glared down at the snow; for a moment, Meenah thought his eyes glowed a deep, rich red, as he did so.

“Well…I see most of everyone, but so many of them are faint,” he said. “They’ve been getting fainter and fainter the more time passes.”

“They’re dying?” Meenah asked.

“I don’t know. I can’t tell. I’ve never seen a connection die before,” Kankri admitted. His frown deepened, strain evident on his expression now. “I still can’t find Dirk Strider.”

“Who’s that?”

“One of the humans’ dancestors,” Kankri said. “He’s a dead zone for me too.”

“You think if we find him, we can find the Heir and the others?” Meenah asked.

Kankri didn’t look up at that, far too focused on writing on the ground and at whatever he was seeing with his Blood-Sight thing, so Meenah turned to Serket, who had a similar thoughtful look on her face.

“Can you see Dirk Strider’s relative?” Serket asked.

“There’s two of them. One of them is still holding strong but the other is very faint, and he’s fading fast,” Kankri said. “But yes, I can.”

“That’s something to work with. Perhaps we can try to focus on the one still strongly visible.” Serket stood. “What other connections are there to that one?”

Kankri closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose before massaging his temples. Meenah watched, forcing herself to be patient, as Vantas collected himself. Eventually, he opened his eyes again and swept a hand on the snow, flattening it out and beginning to draw again.

His eyes, once more, looked to be a deeper red.

“I think her name is Rose…Strider?” He poked a dot onto the snow and scrawled a name underneath it. “Or something. I’m not too sure how human naming conventions work, or if they differ from clan to clan.”

He drew a line from the human to another dot.

“She has a matesprit,” Kankri murmured. “Connected to…” He took a moment to glance at Porrim, muttering, “Interesting,” and then drawing two branches on that dot. One he wrote Porrim underneath and the other, he wrote under with a displeased frown.

And then, Kankri began to seize. He hunched over, eyes wide, and began to claw at his chest as his breathing shortened. Porrim bolted up from where she was sitting, dashing into the house as fast as she could, yelling, “Megido-sama! Mr. Nightwalker! Miss Leijon!”

Seconds later, the Handmaiden, Aeon Nightwalker and Sabera Leijon were racing out the house and towards Kankri’s side. The Handmaiden knelt down next to him, putting a hand on his back while telekinetically drawing his hands away from his neck and chest before he gored himself out with his nails. Nightwalker joined her right after, and as soon as he did, Kankri lunged at him, one hand stretching out – he slapped his palm straight onto Nightwalker’s forehead, as if a preacher anointing someone.

Nightwalker’s eyes flashed a deep red for a split second.

Then he drew back, blinking in confusion, before raising a hand to the empty space at his side. His hand began to glow silver and green, and right in front of him, a huge portal sprung open, the other side revealing a landscape of fire and blood, screaming of roaring monsters, and yet at the same time, looked to flicker between other sceneries, as if the portal – or perhaps even the realm – couldn’t decide exactly what it was.

And then another Kankri jumped out of it, clothes burnt and hair wild, and completely drenched in bright red blood.

He left a massive track of red as he rolled onto the snow and landed on his hands and feet, lifting his head to reveal crazed, candy red eyes, and sharp teeth. He lurched backwards so he could crouch on his heels, lifting his hands, and the blood all over him flew off to form four sickles in mid-air, all aimed towards them.

And then he looked at Kankri and shouted:

“YOU!”

And he sounded nothing like Kankri.

“I fucking knew it! I knew something felt annoying about the thing looking into my head!” the shouty little Kankri-look-alike said, rising to his full height. As he did, the blood-sickles around him fell to the snow into piles of blood. Still-warm blood from how they fucking steamed as they hit the ground. “Of course it was you!”

“Hello, Karkat,” Kankri said, before collapsing to his knees, and then prone onto the ground. The Handmaiden hovered by him for a moment to check on him before standing and lifting him up, still prone, with her telekinesis.

“Who the fuck is that?” Meenah asked, just as Sollux and Aradia yelled:

“KK?!”

“Karkat!”

“Who – OLY SHIT!” the newly-identified Karkat said as he turned towards both of them. “WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU GUYS HERE?”

Sollux got to his feet, initially running towards him with Aradia, but then began to slow as he seemed to remember that Karkat was still drenched in bright red blood. Aradia, meanwhile, had no qualms about her friend’s state, instead leaping at him full force and tackling him into a hug. Both of them flew off their feet and landed a foot away, straight into the snow, leaving a huge mess of red onto it.

“Hey, who the fuck is that?” Meenah repeated, approaching the floating form of Kankri to whisper to him.

Kankri lolled his head to the side to be able to speak with her. “That,” he said, in the flattest, most exasperated voice Meenah had ever heard him speak, “Is my descendant.”

#

“You are going to choke.”

“Fuck you, asshole, I haven’t eaten in half a sweep!”

Apparently, despite the fact that he shared genetics with Kankri Stick Up His Ass Vantas, Karkat Vantas was loud, proud, and annoying, and he was not afraid to be just that, which was refreshing and hilarious, especially when he was swatting his dancestor with what looked like a tendrils of blood that would spring out of his open cuts every time the older boy tried to get him to slow down while he was eating.

With most of the blood now cleaned off of him (the Handmaiden wrestled him into getting a bath, and as ready to throw down as he was, he was evidently no match for her telekinesis, as she just psychicly shoved him into a bathroom with a tub already filled with water, and then locked the door), his famished state was evident. His cheeks were gaunt, the angles of his face and body sharper, his ribs were prominent, and his elbows looked like they could kill someone if he wasn’t careful with where he jabbed them.

Half a sweep, he’d said. He hadn’t eaten in half a sweep.

“That sounds like bullshit,” Meenah said from her place by the kitchen doorway, idling together with Serket. Porrim and Mituna had gone to assist the adults in powerwashing the blood on the front yard away.

While Kankri turned from the table to give her a chastising look, Karkat barely looked up from his food and just reflexively flipped her the bird. She snickered. Oh, this Vantas was so much fun, who could have known someone from this bloodline was capable of doing that?

“You know what I fucking meant, rocks-for-brains,” Karkat said.

“How did you survive?” Aradia asked, seated across her friend, her eyes glittering with interest, while Sollux, sat at her side, just looked concerned.

“Where the hell were you, anyway?” he asked.

“Fell into some – jegus, it’s been a while – some black hole thing with Kanaya, John and Rose.” Karkat bit into half a bread loaf and tore it off with his teeth, chewing around it to speak. “When I woke up, I was alone and on the meteor. And then, like, once I figured out I was probably dreaming and that place wasn’t real, it just started to go out of whack. Kept trying to kill me, though.”

He finished the rest of the bread, washed it all down with cranberry juice (to help with the blood loss, Aethra had said), and then pushed the empty glass towards the pitcher. Aradia lifted a finger, and the pitcher lifted to pour more juice into the glass while Karkat continued to eat. Once it was full, the pitcher settled back onto the table and the glass slid itself back to its user.

“Started keeping track of time as best as I could and by my count, it’s been like, half a sweep.” He waved a half-eaten chicken leg as he spoke. “Give or take, anyway.”

“And how’d you survive?” Aradia repeated.

“Fought everything I could see,” Karkat said. “The edible ones, I ate.”

The room immediately quieted after that, prompting Karkat to look up at everyone’s faces, – save for Aradia and Sollux, who were largely unbothered for some goddamn reason – and then frown like he was judging them.

“What?” he asked. “What the fuck do you assholes think grubloaf is made of? You think I’m drawing the line at some beasts attacking me? We used to hunt for food on Alternia. We ate anything that didn’t made us shit our skeleton out. Fuck you.”

“Were they good, at least?” Meenah asked.

“Fuck if I can remember.” Karkat punctuated the declaration with another bite at the chicken he was holding.

“So you were on…” Aradia prompted, and when Karkat filled in, continued, “Earth, and then you fell into a black hole with some friends, but ended up alone on the other side in a world that continuously transformed, triggered by your awareness that the meteor there wasn’t real. Am I following?”

“Sometimes, it showed me dead people and they attacked me,” Karkat said.

“Where’s Kanaya?” Sollux asked.

“I don’t know. I’m gonna go look for her after this.” He reached for the juice to drain it again and then push it back towards the pitcher. Aradia obliged as she did before.

Kankri stared at him in surprise. “You’re going back there?” he asked.

“Yeah, why the fuck wouldn’t I?” Karkat asked. “Kanaya, Rose, and John are still in there.”

“Have you seen them in that world at any point during your half-sweep stay?” Serket butted in.

The inquiry made Karkat pause, chicken bone still in his mouth. Eventually, he spit it out. It clattered onto his empty plate, and he pushed it aside in favor of grabbing the bowl in front of him.

“…no,” he said, foregoing the spoon in favor of sipping straight from the bowl. “Place was huge and kept warping, though, I never know.”

“Hmm, it is possible. Perhaps the area kept warping you away from each other,” Serket said, pushing away from the doorway so she could take one of the empty seats by the dining table. Karkat didn’t look too bothered by her presence, but then again, since he’d gotten into the dining room, the only thing he’d been focused on was food.

“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Karkat said. He proceeded to drain the soup, then set the emptied bowl down with a burp, before drinking his juice again.

Finally, with all the plates in front of him empty, he sat back and looked around. Realization shone in his eyes, and he sat up straight, as if a thought had just occurred to him, and it appeared it did, as he asked. “Where the fuck is this place?”

“The Land of Snow and Stars,” Kankri answered. “It’s the Mage of Space’s land.”

“Where is the Mage?” Karkat asked. “Why the hell are you guys here?”

“Mage’s off to god knows where,” Meenah said, crossing her arms at the memory of being left out of the action. “We’re here because they didn’t want us to fight.”

Karkat stared at her, and then clicked his tongue. “Well that’s fucking unfair.”

Meenah’s eyebrows rose. Finally, someone with some sense –

“Why do we have to fight for our fucking lives while you’re lazing around here. That’s bullshit. I want to fucking sleep somewhere that’s not trying to melt my fucking skin off.”

Never mind.

The boy stood, still grumbling under his breath, and made his way out of the room. His friends trailed after him, as did Kankri and Serket, and out of curiosity, so did Meenah. Since his clothes were tattered and burnt when he got here, he’d been given new ones, and those were effectively the only things he owned at the moment since he’d portaled out of his mysterious hellworld three hours ago. Still, audacious as he was, he shot a hand out to the side as he marched towards the front door, snagging Nightwalker’s coat off the rack with a tendril of blood from a cut on his palm.

Actually, it didn’t look like a cut. Meenah had gotten a good look at them earlier when he was sitting down and eating. There were puncture marks on his palms, one huge hole on each one, and they looked like they hadn’t been healing at all. Which made sense since he used them as exit points for his blood, but, jegus, didn’t that hurt?

The little asshole put the coat on like it belonged to him, even when it swallowed him up, as emaciated as he was. When he marched out the door, surprisingly, Aradia and Sollux followed him, though Sollux grabbed the back of his collar and said,

“Do you even know where you’re going, idiot? You got here through a portal, didn’t you?”

That made Karkat pause, and then look up. He backed into the room and then turned towards his friend. “Where’s the guy with the blue eyes that did the portal?”

“Nightwalker’s upstairs, I think,” Aradia said helpfully, and Karkat nodded and immediately marched towards the staircase instead.

When Sollux let his collar go, Kankri immediately snatched it back, causing his descendant to choke and automatically turn on his heel, barbed whips springing from the holes in his hands and lashing towards Kankri. The boy’s eyes were wide and wild, and it took him a second to realize where he was and who he was with. Luckily, Aradia had immediately taken hold his created weapons with her telekinesis, and he’d hit nothing.

Fucking hell, what did this kid go through?

“Should you really be going back there when you have no idea if your friends even are there?” Kankri asked, eyeing the hovering form of the blood-barbs Karkat still had out.

Karkat frowned at him. “If there’s a chance they’re even still in there, I’m going to.”

“And if they’re not?”

“I don’t know that.”

“Just – ” Kankri straightened, pinching the bridge of his nose once more. Karkat took the cue to similarly relax, retracting his blood and keeping his weapons away. “Think about this, for a moment. I think we can make up a better plan than your idea of just storming back into wherever you came from.”

Karkat’s frown deepened.

“What?” Kankri asked.

“How fast does time go here compared to…there?”

Serket tilted her head at that. “What do you mean?”

“Well.” Karkat motioned to Kankri. “Last time I saw him, it was half a sweep ago, and he looked just like how he looks now. He’s alive right now, isn’t he? He’s supposed to age. But he still looks the same.”

“Huh.” Meenah put a hand on her hip, the other going to her chin as she thought. “So it’s possible time there works differently from time here.”

Karkat walked over right next to Kankri, hovering a hand over his head, and then moving it over Kankri’s like he was comparing heights. Kankri gave him a look of confusion before he did it again, and realization dawned on his face.

“Oh,” he said, “We’re the same height now.”

“I was slightly shorter than you when we last saw each other,” Karkat said.

“Huh,” Sollux said. “You got smarter too.”

“OH, YOU SON OF A – ”

“That just means we have to navigate whatever the place you were in carefully,” Serket said. “Because if you two – ” She motioned to Sollux and Aradia. “Are going with him, as you seem to be, and you get separated just like how he and his friends who initially entered the world did, you might never find each other and lose more time in there.”

Karkat’s eyes widened at that, and his shoulders dropped, the logic in Aranea’s words and the idea of putting more friends in danger taking the fight out of him. Kankri shot the girl a grateful look.

“Well, we could ask Nightwalker,” Aradia said. “And I think…nee-sama might be of some help too.”

Karkat paused. He turned to Aradia. “That one was your ancestor?”

“Oh! Yes,” Aradia said, brightly. “I haven’t talked to her much, but she looks super cool, doesn’t she?”

“Is mine alive here somewhere, then?”

Aradia shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “Why? Do you think he could help us?”

“Help us? Oh, he probably could, couldn’t he?” Karkat said, slightly absentmindedly , though he immediately waved the thought away. “No, I have a score to settle with the bastard for giving me such shitty blood.”

“Hey, that blood is the reason why you’ve survived for this long,” Kankri said, hackles immediately raising at the insult to his mutant blood.

“HEY, YOU GREW UP IN BEFORUS. I GREW UP IN SHITHELL, KENTUCKY – ”

This was the scene the adults – plus Porrim and Mituna – came back to later, a few minutes later, when they came back from cleaning the yard. Meenah, who’d decided to move and lean by the doorway as she watched both Vantases argue at each other, looked up at them and grinned.

“One of them’s wordy and the other one yells a lot,” she said. “I hope you guys have earplugs.”