She crept along the corridors of the ruined hive near the oceanside. She knew that he had gathered most of the spoils from his conquest and hid them away here. She had already seen several more gruesome spoils... disfigured and dismantled bodies of trolls, most of which she knew. She would have been overwhelmed with grief and sorrow at the sight... she could still feel herself about to cry as she tried to stifle it. No. You're not doing that anymore. She told herself as she pressed on in search of her objective. If she could just find it... maybe things would be better again. Like they were before. She found her prize in a room painted with rust colored blood. A skeleton was crumpled up in the corner. She averted her eyes, and reached out for the once gleaming devices on the table, and took them in her arms. She had ever used them before... but she knew she had to try. "I'm coming..." A tear rolled down her grey cheek. "Karkitty..."

"What is he the mayor of anyway?" questioned Dave to no one in particular, as they watched the newly healed Mayor sleeping. "It kinda looks like he just made that sash himself.

"HE'S THE DULY ELECTED MAYOR OF THE FRUITY RUMPUS ASSHOLE FACTORY, AND HE JUST CUT THE RIBBON TO A BRAND NEW MUSEUM FULL OF PRICELESS SHUT THE FUCK UP." The grey skinned boy standing next to him replied tersly.

"He's actually kinda adorable, don't you think?" Dave asked Karkat.

"IS THAT YOUR HUMAN IRONY MUSCLEBEAST SHIT AGAIN?"

"Um..." Dave hesitated. "Yeah, let's go with that."

"BESIDES, HE JUST LOOKS LIKE A PAWN. WE'VE BOTH SEEN TONS OF THEM AND THEY'RE NOTHING SPECIAL."

"Well yeah, but none of them were wearing badges of office forged from a mayo label."

"WHICH REMINDS ME, THE FUCK IS MAYO?" Dave shuddered and shook. "THE FUCK WAS THAT STRIDER?"

"I just got the willies or something." Dave shook his head. "Like a million twelve years old cried out in rage, and we're suddenly silenced by an xbox live ban." Karkat just looked at him funny for a moment.

"WHAT."

"Goddamn do I wish this hunk of rock got Netflix." Dave sighed. While he'd recovered with a witty joke that he knew would go over Karkat's head, and he truly had felt something just then. Since reaching the god tier, he'd been more in tune with his element... he could sense divergences in the time line... could guess with a reasonable certainty what actions would result in a doomed time line, and sense the arrival and departure of other time travelers. He hadn't really talked to anyone about it... he didn't figure anyone but a time player would really "get it". Anyways, this didn't feel like a doomed timeline. And he sincrely doubted anything he or Karkat were doing at the moment would spin them off into one. Of course, he had no clue what the rest of them were doing at that moment. He returned to the topic of movies. "Got any movies in this place?" Karkat sighed with dismay.

"NOPE. MAYBE I COULD HAVE RETRIEVED MY COLLECTION IF WE HADN'T IMMEDIATELY BEEN BANISHED FROM OUR UNIVERSE. OH GOD, I JUST REALIZED THAT YOU HUMANS HAVE SINGLED HANDEDLY WIPED TROLL CINEMA OUT OF HISTORY. I'LL ADD IT TO THE PILE OF "OH GOD I FUCKED UP" YOU'LL ALL HAVE TO RECKON FOR ONE DAY."

"Cat?" Dave replied.

"THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN-"

"KARKITTY!" A new voice shouted, waking the mayor from his slumber as he flailed about in panic. At the same time, Karkat found himself pounce-tackled to the floor by the troll who had run into the room on all fours like a wildcat, and now held him to the floor in a bear hug.

"NE-NEPETA!" Karkat was shocked. "HOW THE? WHAT THE? WHEN DID?" There were too many questions rushing him for him to form a cogent sentence. But he quickly realized that she was not going to be paying the least bit of attention to what he was saying. Tears dripped from her eyes onto his face.

"You're ok!" She cried out. "AC is so happy you're OK!" As she squeezed her hug tighter. Karkat gasped for breath. He'd been tackle-pounced and hugged by Nepeta before this, but not nearly this strongly. Sadness and joy were mixed in her eyes as Karkat noticed some differences about her. Her signature blue hat was nowhere to be found, and she now wore pair of goggles over her fore head. Her hair had grown out slightly, and was longer than he remembered. Instead of the signature olive jacket, she was wearing a black one, with the left arm torn off, revealing one of Equius' metal prosthetics in place of her left arm. Finally, she wore a white t-shirt with a black Leo-symbol, an outfit Karkat had never seen her in before.

"BUT BUT BUT..." Karkat stuttered. "YOU DIED! HOW ARE YOU HERE!?"

"AC's dead here?" She raised an eyebrow. "That makes things simpler."

"Hey yo. Troll boys and girls." Dave got their attention. "What's going on here?"

"Who are you?" Nepeta demanded, seemingly noticing Dave for the first time. She leapt up from Karkat and took a defensive stance between Dave and him. "What are you?" She remarked a second later with wider eyes.

"HE'S ONE OF THOSE STUPID HUMANS, REMEMBER?" Karkat told her. "HE'S NOT GONNA HURT US, CALM DOWN."

"Humans?" Nepeta glanced back at him and asked.

"YEAH, REMEMBER? TEREZI FOUND THEM AND THEN YOU ROLEPLAYED WITH A FEW OF THEM?" Nepeta returned a blank look.

"OH!" Dave exclaimed. "The roleplay troll with the cat fetish! I remember you. I was playing Arqueet Purrmusk, remember?" Nepeta returned a confused stare, but then got a good look at Dave's god tier robe, with the crimson gear of time emblazoned upon it.

"AC doesn't remember, because it must have never happened fur me." She told them as she finally untensed herself. "You're a time player, right?"

"Knight of." Dave answered.

"OK." She reached for her sylladex. "AC supposes she should probably tell you then. It's what she would have done." From the sylladex, a pair of glass music boxes on floating platforms appeared at her sides. Aradia's music box time machines, covered with an array of colorful blood. Dave suddenly understood everything.

"WAIT." Karkat interrupted. "YOU'RE FROM..."

"My name is Nepeta Leijon." She held her mechanical left arm in front of her, and made a fist with an intense look on her face. Three thin, shining claws shot out of the knuckles of the hand. "I'm here for the head of Gamzee Makara."