The last thing the trolls remembered was winning the game.
What came next was going to surprise them all. Everyone that had died - due to Gamzee's massacre - had come back to life. This was no surprise to Aradia, as she'd done this before, but to everyone else this was a miracle. They rose, their heads pounding, they multicolored blood caked on their hands, and exchanged looks of disbelief.
They were alive.
The joy ran through them instantly. Seeing their moirails and matesprits – and even kismesis's - again was undoubtedly the greatest feeling ever. Especially when all of them were there.
... all of them. Except Nepeta.
She was the only one where she could have run away, the one that wasn't meant to die. She should have stayed hidden. If she listened to her moirial, she would have been fine. She shouldn't have died, she died without a good reason. Sure, she was brave to go and fight the killer of her best friend, but she was stupid. Very stupid and very brave.
There are others, such as Equius, where he didn't have to go search for the high blood, but he did. He knew that he was going to fight, and probably die as well, but he still died for a reason. He tried to stop Gamzee and that just made things more complicated. Why did he die smiling? Why didn't he do something? Why would he just leave Nepeta to fend for herself?
So many questions to be answered. All of this will be answered over time, but not until then. Not until they all wake up. Not until they open their eyes to see that they're alive once more.

"Hey that's not fair! He he, Equius! Come on!" Nepeta laughed as Equius picked her up and put her over his shoulder. He started to run and try not to smile when he heard her laugh. They were all dead and liked it. Here nothing could hurt them, here they were safe from harm in every way. They saw their friends almost everyday, Eridan, Feferi, Tavros, everybody. They were naturally upset that they had died, but in the end, they accepted it and were just glad that they had each other. Better to be dead and surrounded by trolls than alive andalone. It would have been horrible to be alone if you were dead.
Equius chuckled when his moirail started to playfully punch his back. "Nepeta, you're fine, you know I'm not going to drop you."
"He he, I know, but I can walk on my own!" Nepeta started to laugh a hearty laugh and Equius smiled. He stopped running and started walking. He saw their friends and put Nepeta down. She grinned and ran over to hug them all.
After hugging them to death, figuratively, of course, she went back over to Equius and sat down next to him. She looked all her friends. She was sad that they all died, but always got over it after a while.
"So, what do you guys wanna do today?" she purred as she rested her head against Equius's shoulder.
Aradia stroked the silk skirt she was wearing. "How about we play a game?"
Vriska opened her mouth to say something demeaning, but Nepeta cut her off. "Purrfect idea, Aradia!" The group seemed to agree.
All the trolls ran off to their hiding spots, giggling excitedly. This game was funner than the one they had played previously, at least. They could hear Nepeta counting off in the distance, her soft catlike growls echoing off the ground.
"10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... fur... 3... 2..."
They never heard her say one. They all jolted awake, on some floor.

Equius woke up on a hard floor and STRONGLY open his eyes. His throat felt tight and wet. He brought his hand up to it and pulled off the string that was on it. It was soaked in his blue blood and he got up gingerly and rubbed at the wound on his neck. It was already a scar and was healing considerately fast.
He glanced around at his surroundings and took note of where he was. He was in somebody's hive and all the others who had died where still waking up and or standing up. He was over by the wall and he had a towel underneath him, to soak up the reaming blood.
Eridan was more shocked than the others of how he was alive. He was cut in half, after all! He lifted up his shirt to reveal a long scar going across his stomach and going around his entire body. Tavros lifted up his shirt to see that there was a huge circle that was only bruised and not in anyway looked like he was stabbed there. Feferi was the same way. Vriska crossed her arms and looked away, still confused and in shock from being alive again.
All of them were in shock from coming back, and looked around at their surroundings before Karkat, Gamzee, Kanaya, Terezi and Sollux come running into the room. When they saw that their friends are alive again, they started cheering and high fiving each other.
"Wwhat are you celebrating about?" Eridan asked the group of trolls jumping around.
"We won the game! Everything is back to normal now! And you guys are alive again!" Karkat shouted, clearly excited about everything that has just happened.
"All of us?" Tavros smiled, he would love it if he got to see Tinkerbull again. Everybody smiled and was thankful that they were back alive and they had their old lives back.
….Except for Nepeta.

Nepeta opened her eyes, expecting to see them immediately, thanks to her awesome cat skills! But...she didn't see any of them. She didn't see a sign of them.
Confused, and ready to pounce on the first one she finds, Nepeta slowly crept out with a smile on her face. She had always loved games. She prowled around, looking for some one to tag first, and looking for hiding spots for herself when she finally gets somebody.
She searched for about an hour before she came to a conclusion that they left. After all, they couldn't hide that well from her without turning into thin air. Slowly, she sighed and started walking around to see if she could spot one of them.
"Eridan?" She called out.
No response.
"Feferi?"
No response.
"Tavros?"
Complete and utter silence. Now she was starting to panic and her walk quickly turned into a run.
"Aradia?!"
No response.
"Vriska?!" Nepeta screamed. "This isn't funny!"
She ran so fast that it was now a flat out sprint. Tears were coming down her face as the dream bubble turned into a flat out green. Her green. Her blood green. She gritted her teeth and ran faster, soon switching to all fours running as she ran as fast as she would if her life depended on it.
Finally, she stopped and screamed louder, harder, higher, and more desperate than she had ever done before. "EQUIUS! WHERE ARE YOU!?"
She stopped running and fell onto her side, gasping for breath and trying not to cry. Her friends were gone. She was all alone again. She hated this so badly. She wanted some one, something, somebody with her. She wanted her moirail. He would always cheer her up, no matter what it was. Her heart clutched inside of her, and she felt herself losing hope.
"Where are you?" Nepeta whispered to herself, as if an answer would tell her where her friends were. Or even if they were still dead.

All the trolls had gathered in the kitchen and were enjoying some well deserved food. They were laughing and trying to watch Equius drink his milk without breaking the glass in the process. Kanaya smiled a small smile as she watched the others. She had missed them -well, most of them at least- and she was glad that they were all back.
After eating, they were telling funny stories about themselves and another troll that was with them. At the moment, Terezi was telling them about a role playing that she and her secret online friend were playing, it was how she and Nepeta met, but she wanted to keep it a surprise until the end.
"And then we were talking about names and-" Terezi stopped, just realizing that Nepeta wasn't in the room.
"What?" Karkat asked, sensing something was wrong.
"Where's Nepeta?" Terezi sniffed the air around them, but couldn't pick up a single sent of the feline troll. Everybody perked up a little and looked around for her.
"Shit, where is she?! Was she with you guys in um...the dream bubbles?" Karkat asked, almost afraid to bring that up.
"She was there, we were playing a game of hide and seek when we last saw her," Feferi calmly said, but a tad bit of panic crept into her voice. The group got up and started to search the house for Nepeta.
Equius was the first one to get up and STRONGLY search the house for his moirail. He ripped doors off handles and searched the rooms for her and then punched a hole in the wall when she wasn't found in the room.
A lot of yelling was heard in the house that day.
Finally, they all stopped and started to calm down a tad and then they went outside to go and search for her and she was in a tree eating a tuna sand which that a nice old lady gave to her and they hugged and everything was all bright and sunny and happy again!
No.
No, that's not what happened.
That's stupid.
What really happened was that after Equius ransacked the house, they all met downstairs and tried to figure out where she could be. Swear word were yelled angrily, tears were spilled and questions were fired at each other. Finally, Gamzee remembered something from his sober state (since they won the game, he was in his non-sober state and didn't need to eat sopor unless he wanted to for fun).
"Wait, motherfuckers. Let's chill out and think for a second." Gamzee said in his normal voice. Some of the others stopped immediately while others kept yelling at each other. After Eridan yelled at them to be quiet, everything was silent.
"Well, you know how you just motherfucking woke up in this hive? We did too. We actually ran into this room by chance and saw you guys alive then fucking remembered that we won. Honk."
"Oh yeah," Karkat agreed. "So how did you guys get here and not her?"
The question went unanswered for weeks.
During the weeks, they all searched for their friend. Mainly Equius, but hey, who could blame him? The troll he cared about most was gone. They had no idea if she was alive, or...dead. The world was also searching for their lost ones. Apparently, a few of the trolls that died didn't come back either, and there was no way of knowing where they were. Some found their bodies, but they were lifeless. Which gave so much encouragement to the others.
Every time Equius woke up, somebody had to force him to eat before he went out and searched endlessly for Nepeta. He didn't stop, and kept looking for her, even if it was obvious she wasn't anywhere near where he was looking, he still searched.
Only when he fell over from exhaustion did he stop. And even when he was walking back to his hive, or the closest hive, he searched.

He yearned for her.

~Few days later~
Equius took deep, raged breaths as he tried to steady his breathing. He was over heated, more than usual and was coughing a lot.
Currently he was walking through the forest that Nepeta liked to hunt in a lot of the time and was trying to call her name. His voice was cracking though and sounded weak.
"Neppppppeeeeeetttttaaaa," he called out, using both of his hands near his mouth. "Where are you?"
He didn't know why he even searched for her anymore. If she was coming back or wanted to come back, wouldn't she have done that by now? It had been a while since they all had come back to life.
He sighed and kept on searching for the lost cat troll that he loved so much.
Equius ducked through some branches and looked up at the sky. It seemed so different now that they were back alive. He still thought so even if he should have been used to it by now.
After a few hours of searching hopelessly for her, he gave up and tried to go home. On the way there, his vision started to blur and he was having a hard time standing up, let alone walking in a straight line. He was starting to sweat heavily and had to stop to try and breath. Finally, when he thought that he could take no more, he collapsed and went unconscious.

Equius blinked a few times before he opened his eyes fully. He sat up and saw himself in a dream bubble. He looked around and saw it was a green and blue one. Wait..a green one!?
Equius jumped up and studied the green. It was the exact same color as Nepeta's-
"Equius!" Equius was pushed to the floor by a force from behind him and they landed on the floor. Equius turned over gently and saw Nepeta crying into his shirt. "I found you!" She sobbed.
"Nepeta..." Equius smiled at her and gently put his hand on her back. Even IF they were in the dream bubble, he could still hurt her. Or so he thought, he and Nepeta had a lot of fights about it.
"Where did you guys go?!" she whined.
"We returned to...um..." he started but thought better of it. "It doesn't matter. I am here now."
A smile crept on her lips as she hugged him a little harder.
"You promise to never leave me again?"
"I promise."
Nepeta's smiled grew larger, if that was possible, and she hugged her moirail. "I was so alone...I missed you so much, Equius! I hope you never leave me again." She got off him so he could stand up then she jumped up onto his chest and wrapped herself on him. Almost like a backwards piggy back ride.
Equius smiled and wrapped his arms around her.
"I won't."
They stayed like that for almost an hour, reassuring the other that everything was going to be alright. Equius felt bad for leaving her while she was just glad they were together again. Suddenly, everything started to get blurry again for Equius and Nepeta was getting quieter, blurry and hard to feel.
"Nepeta? Nepeta!" Equius shouted, trying to reach out to her, but to no luck. She was gone. And he was awake.

He woke up on a couch in his hive. He groaned and got up to see all of the other trolls there. Some of them were looking quite sad while others, like Kanaya, looked sympathetic. Equius groaned and leaned back onto the couch then remembered Nepeta. Once he did, he sprung off and tried to get out, but the others forced him back onto the couch, which groaned under the weight of him.
"Equius, look, you passed out because you were sick and didn't get any rest. Now, please, as friends we're concerned about your health. PLEASE," Kanaya implored. "Stay down!"
"What about Nepeta? I promised I wouldn't leave!" Equius whined, but he still went down.
"Well...about her..Equius, the president went on a speech and well...you know all the trolls that haven't come back, how they can only find so many fucking bodies?" Karkat spoke in a surprisingly calm voice. "Well that's because when they come back, they usually wake up in a different spot than where they died. It's really fucking confusing, but basically if you come back to life you wake up in a different spot than you died in. Well, because Nepeta died in the veil, her body isn't coming back. Which is why we could never find it. But um...the reason...is..." Karkat looked over to Kanaya, silently asking, no pleading, her to tell him the rest. She nodded and turned to look at Equius again.
"Equius," She started. "Has Nepeta ever told you how she had died?"

"We tried to avoid the topic, it had made her sad. So no."
"Seriously?!" Sollux barked in shock. "I thought that an asshole like you would have demanded to know how she had died. After all she died right after yo-" Terezi elbowed him in the ribs. She turned and whispered something into his ears and his face went gentle.
Equius stared at them for a few seconds then demanded they tell him the rest of the tale of how she died.
"Well...Equius, are you sure you want to know? You might...not be the same towards some trolls." Kanaya gently asked, just in case he was already mad.
"I am sure. Now, if you would please tell me what happened to her?" Equius grunted in a matter that made him look like a statue. He sat in a still way and didn't even blink, he just stared at the trolls that held the information.
"Alright, if you're so sure..."

Nepeta sat in the vents, she was so sure that it would be just fine if she went in there. After all, if Equius didn't find out, she would be just fine. He just worried so much for her. It wasn't as if she couldn't handle herself. He just cared for her so much. Sometimes it still shocked everybody that a troll like him, who believed in the hemospectrum so much could ever care for a green blooded troll like her that much.
Anyway, Nepeta crawled around in the air vents and peered through the vents at openings every now and then. Finding a good one, she sat near the openings and looked through them to see Equius and Gamzee talking. She pondered what they could possibly be talking about. Gamzee was talking in a voice that sent chills down her spine.
"You should probably kneel."
Nepeta shuttered to herself and tried to tell Equius to run away. But nothing came out of her mouth. She was too frightened. She whimpered to herself when Equius got shot in the knee.
She screamed a little and closed her eyes. She was scared. So scared.
She never been this terrified before in her life. She wanted to burst through the gate and defend her moirail, but she couldn't. Equius would find out that she disobeyed him and then she would get in trouble.
When Gamzee came up to Equius and broke the bow she almost did break through. She even tried to, but the gate wouldn't open to her. Not yet, anyways.
Equius smiled and dropped to the ground, dead. Nepeta stopped what she was doing and tried her best to remain breathing. Her moirail was...
dead.
Gone.
Just like that, he was gone.
Equius...
Nepeta took a deep breath. Now determined to fight off the monster that had just killed Equius. She burst through the gate, hissing and screaming. Gamzee turned around and calmly grabbed her wrist. He grabbed it so tightly and hard that she instantly heard the crack of her wrist snapping.
She winced and tried to pull away, now scared again as adrenaline started to pulse in her body. Now she was truly scared. What was this thing going to do to her?!
She almost screamed out when he dragged her claws across his face, leaving three long scars across his face. He then threw her to the ground and honked his horns. She looked up, more terrified than ever before.
She screamed as her brought his clubs down on her. So much pain...so much darkness...where was the Gamzee she knew? Where was the protection that came from Equius? Where was she? She would have handled this fight like a snap, but now she was left on the floor bleeding...
"Gamzee, please, stop! Why are you doing this?!" She screamed as he continued to beat her to death.
"The dark carnival. IT HAS BEGUN!" He screamed and hit her horn so hard she felt it snap.
Suddenly the beating stopped. She looked up to see Gamzee laughing as he walked away. She closed her eyes and rested her head for a few seconds then he cracked one eye open to see her horn on the ground, next to Equius. Her horn was beaten off, broken. She cried and crawled over to him. She collapsed and grabbed his hand.
"S-sorry I'm not a good meowrail. I-I didn't pawtect you. I'm so sorry, Equius. I hope you ca-can furgive me s-s-somehow." She sobbed. Slowly, she lied still and no matter what, held onto his hand. It made her less afraid of what was coming. And what lied ahead for her. It brought her comfort though all the memories they shared together. She loved him so much. She just hoped they were going to be in the same bubble.
"Goodbye, Equius, Karkitty, efurybody. Sorry," she said as she closed her eyes for the last time and drifted off into a everlasting slumber, as the sinister honks became more distant.

Equius didn't move, blink, or even breathe. There was a long silence that fell upon them. It felt like forever before he spoke again. "She...she did all that," he shuddered after the silence. "For me?"
Gamzee nodded and looked at the floor, walls, anywhere but Equius.
"So..she died...because...I-I need a towel." Equius got up and went to the bathroom to get a towel. None of the trolls stopped him. Most of them just felt bad for him, learning how his best friend saw his death then died in a world of pain and hurt. The others were just in much as shock. They didn't know how she had died, but...they must have sucked. Seeing your best friend die like that? They would have rather died.
Nepeta got both of those.
Equius came back and sat down. He was trying not to cry in front of all these low bloods, but he was having a hard time with that. His eyes finally rested on Gamzee.
He was the cause for so much pain, so much suffering, so much agony. He needed to do something about it. Equius stood up again and stomped over to Gamzee. Gamzee winced with every step. Equius got in his face and took off his sunglasses, revealing the eyes with so much pain in them.
"You took her away from her life." Equius hissed at him ferociously.
"I know, but I am so motherfucking sorry, I really didn't-" Gamzee started but Equius grabbed his shirt and pulled him up to his face.
"YOU MURDERED HER!" He screamed into his face, shocking everybody. All the trolls got to their feet and slowly Kanaya and Karkat went over to Equius. Tears were falling down his face as he screamed again. "YOU MONSTER! I'LL KILL YOU!"
Kanaya gently guided him out of the room while Karkat took care of Gamzee. Equius was still crying when he was brought outside. She made him sit down next to the door against the wall.
"I am sorry, Equius." Kanaya said in a motherly voice.
Equius didn't respond. He just sobbed silently. He knew he should have done any of that. It wasn't in the least bit proper and not only that, but he was crying now. Even worse: he did that to a higher blood. Kanaya hesitantly sat down next to him and put a hand on his back and rubbed it.
"I miss her, Kanaya. I don't know what I will do without her." Equius sobbed.
"It's alright. Equius, I guarantee that you haven't seen the last of her. If nothing else you can still find her in your sleep, correct?" Kanaya forced a small smile at him, but he didn't even notice it.
"Yes. This is true. But what of when I am not asleep? Who will be there for me whenever I need something? Who will keep me calm or calm me down?"
"I am sure that we can-"
"No. Did you see how I acted towards Gamzee? I wouldn't have done that if she was there. She would have calmed me down befur something happened." He stopped and chuckled a bit at what he had said. "She even got me to slip a few cats puns in my life."
Kanaya looked at him and smiled a small smile. "Equius. I think she would have been proud of that. But as for Gamzee, I cannot offer any advise. Normally if it were me in your position, I would go for a walk to calm the nerves. For you, I would recommend-"
"No. A walk sounds...nice." Equius got up and walked off towards the woods again.
He walked in and immediately went to the place where Nepeta loved to hunt the most. It had a lot of trees to climb up and tall grass to hide in. There were some animals passing by the meadow in it a lot of the time as well, so it had very good hunting grounds.
Equius sighed and rubbed his eyes from under his glasses. He found a good rock to sit on and looked around. He could almost see her bounding up to him and pouncing on him.
What he wouldn't give to have that happen.
He let his head fall into his hands and he listened to the world around him. His thoughts raced around in his head. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't get a new moirail and even if he did they would never be as perfect as her.
He sighed and was about to get up on his feet when something knocked him down. He tumbled around on the ground down the hill. When he finally stopped he was about to kill whatever did that to him when he saw, or rather felt, a small troll hugging him.
Equius almost had a heart attack. "I-it couldn't be." Equius didn't care for the shock and hugged her.
"Nepeta."