There was only one thing on Vriska Serket's mind at the current moment: survival.
Nimbly jumping on top of a low-hanging beam, she was out of sight for the time being. She inspected the wound on her am carefully, hissing softly when she prodded the inflamed flesh around the long cut. The rest of her wasn't doing too well either. Her left arm and at least three ribs were broken; several deep gashes had been inflicted on her arms, torso and legs; a cut on her forehead bled sluggishly into her right eye. Black spots form a probable concussion received when she was thrown at a wall earlier obstructed her vision even further. Her head was spinning and Vriska's consciousness was slipping and she swayed unsteadily on the beam, nearly losing her balance and tumbling to certain death below.
Six of them had already been killed earlier and Bec Noir was killing the survivors with frightening ease. Eridan and Gamzee had just been taken care of by Kanaya, but their deaths wouldn't bring Feferi, Equius, and Nepeta back to life. It wouldn't help Tavros either.
After achieving her revenge, Kanaya had disappeared, leaving Vriska with Eridan's cooling corpse. Aradia was similarly missing, Karkat was with Sollux somewhere in the labs, and Terezi might be with the aforementioned duo. Everything was nice and quiet—just her and the two halves of Eridan. She looked over at the ridiculous expression carved on his face, something she placed between fear and disbelief. She raised a hand to her throbbing cheek. It still hurt; Kanaya was scary when she got angry.
John wasn't answering her either. Where was everyone? Only a few minutes ago to entire station had been filled with activity, her friends running around killing each other. A steady stream of Eridan's blood trickled down the ledge. Vriska briefly wondered if it was hitting Gamzee down there but dismissed the thought as stupid. The sound of it was strangely comforting and for a while she just sat there, listening, staring blankly at the laptop screen in front of her.
Vriska thought heard something outside the door. Footsteps? Eridan's blood had run out maybe ten minutes ago so the silence was becoming unsettling. She heard it again, and the sound of running footsteps steadily grew louder until the door was shoved open, loudly crashing against the metal wall.
Terezi burst inside breathing heavily and clad in her FLARP costume for some indiscernible reason. She bent over, trying to catch her breath.
"V-Vriska! I was on the roof…and he showed up! I barely managed…to get away...think he's following me…" the Seer of Mind gasped, clutching her dragon cane in a death grip. This wasn't right. Terezi was never like this, was never vulnerable, was never scared. Vriska decided to humor her, interested in how this new game would play out. She smirked and leaned back on her hands.
"Whoooooooo's chasing you? You're going to have to tell me if you want me to do anything about it."
Terezi glared at Vriska, hands tightening on the cane, "This isn't a game, spiderbitch! It's Jack, but he's different now, stronger! He's here, he was on the roof and he probably followed me down here too!"
"Alright, but are you sure? Haven't been eating any spoor slime pies lately?" Vriska said, pulling up her god tier hood. Terezi snarled, the seriousness on her face looking extremely out of place.
"Vriska…"
"Fine, let's just see, and if it's Noir we'll kick his ass!"
It wasn't funny anymore when Bec Noir turned out to really be attacking their hideout. Vriska and Terezi had been climbing the stairs to one of the numerous labs when a lethal-looking beam of light from the GREEN SUN was shot from the outside, destroying part of the staircase. They knew who it was almost immediately and as frightened and hopelessly outclassed they were, the two fled. Jack Noir, snarling and charging another energy beam in both hands, had chased after them. Vriska had picked Terezi up and managed to take off to the air after a blast had come dangerously close and despite her wings straining from having to lift both her and Terezi she dodged the next ray of green light. The blind troll hadn't complained, frozen in shock from nearly dying.
They had lost Jack Noir, disappearing into a less-traveled area of the hideout. Coming across Karkat and a (useless) blind Sollux and adding them to their group didn't seem to increase the odds of survival at all in Vriska's eyes. She held the Fluorite Octet tightly in her fists, alert and ready to throw them at a second's notice.
The first to die was Sollux, caught in a stray GREEN SUN energy beam. He had disintegrated upon impact with it. None of them had the chance to mourn as Bec Noir sent another their way. Karkat got killed next, disoriented by seeing his friend die before his eyes a second time. A moment of hesitation cost him his arm and then his head.
With their numbers brought down to two again, Terezi and Vriska were quite aware of their imminent death. Four of them working together to kill Noir hadn't worked and none of them had even gotten close enough to wound him. Watching from the beam and barely hanging onto her consciousness, Vriska numbly witnessed Terezi's limp form impaled by Noir's sword being thrown in the air. The blind troll appeared to be floating for a few seconds, a distant light hitting the black blade shoved in her gut. Bec Noir lifted his hand, charging a ray of the GREEN SUN'S power to finish Terezi off.
Vriska barely noticed anything except the hand slowly rising towards her only remaining friend, the entire world silhouetted in sickly green light. She didn't notice when she picked up the abandoned Fluorite Octet, she didn't notice tossing them in the air, the eight D8s shining softly in the light. The Octet descended, clattering onto the metal roof one by one.
3
8
6
1
4
7
7
2.
A bright flash of vermillion light erupted form the Fluorite Octet, swirling overhead into a giant, looming spirograph. Vriska felt herself being pulled into it and felt too weak to resist. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Terezi's body being moved to the Spirograph as well, the GREEN SUN ray narrowly missing by a few inches. The Thief of Light smiled as the black spots overtook her vision and the world turned dark.
The woods of Arcady are dead,
And over is their antique joy;
Of old the world on dreaming fed;
Grey Truth is now her painted toy.
-W.B. Yeats, The Song of the Happy Shepherd