Chapter 1: The Secret

Nepeta woke up in her compound, ever since The Great Change Alternians didn't live in hives anymore, their compounds were gray rooms, decorated with only a few small items of their own choice, in her case they were things like some yarn balls and a few other objects. but nothing that could be used to liven up the room such as paint, those were banned after The Great Change too.

Nepeta decided the best way to have fun is to go visit Karkat. She doesn't see Equius anymore, so Karkat was the only joy in her life. She sprinted out of her compound and dashed to his compound. Karkat's was a very long way off, all the compounds had been separated to make interaction difficult and even with the separation Karkat's was the furthest of all the three others in her area. But Nepeta never cared. The mutant blooded troll was her only joy in this otherwise dull life and she had to visit him at least once a day. The journey was always worth it for her. She finally reached Karkat's compound, feeling fairly winded, She breathed heavily. She was really tired, but it was all worth it in the name of her best friend. She went and knocked on the compound door. Karkat answer the door.

"Hi Nepeta," he greeted.

Karkat had become considerably nicer towards his friends since The Great Change.

"Hi Karkitty!" Nepeta said.

She liked the new Karkat, how he was nice to her and such. But she actually missed the old him more. She missed Equius telling her not to hang out with him, then Karkat walking in then a fight would happen. She missed that time the most.

"How've you been?" He asked opening the door wide to let her in.

"Good! Well, as good as things get here. You?" She walked in.

"Same as you," He said.

Karkat's compound was pretty empty, as it had been before the great change, having only a few black and white movie posters, his recoopracoon and his big black book. The olive blooded troll looked around, not really expecting anything new. But she didn't know what else to say. They had talked the day before about a lot of things so.

"I wish it wasn't so dull around here, I often wonder what is up with this affinity of dullness we've been subjected to," Karkat admitted.

"Same." Nepeta sighed. "I really miss Equius, I haven't seen him since this all started. I hope he's okay."

Karkat got a bit of a guilty look in his eye but quickly tried to get rid of it, hoping Nepeta didn't see.

"I'm sure he's fine," Karkat reassured.

Nepeta didn't notice. She was pretty observant, and noticed A LOT of things usually, but when thinking about Equius all she could do was just that, think. Her memories of Equius were like a pool for her to drown herself in.

"I hope so." she said in almost a whisper.

Karkat was thankful she hadn't noticed, he knew more about the situation than he let on, but didn't dare tell Nepeta for the truth of it would probably destroy her.

"Well, uh, how about we go for a walk- or something?" Nepeta suggested.

Karkat nodded, glad to get off the subject of Equius' disappearance. she opened the door for Karkat.

"Thanks" He said, walking out.

Nepeta shut the door and smiled. "Welcome!"

The Cancer and Leo trolls walked around, the nice grassy areas around where Karkat's hive used to be were reduced to charred patches of ground and dead grass, all the other hives in his lawn ring had been destroyed and pieces of their structure littered the ground. Nothing was beautiful anymore. Nothing was right anymore. Nepeta shivered a bit, looking out at the skeleton of a once beautiful land.

Karkat looked at her. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Nepeta tried her best to smile.

"You sure?" He asked concerned.

"Yes." Nepeta lied.

"Alright," He said continuing the walk.

"Anywhere specific you want to walk to?" He asked.

"How about Equius' hive?"

"Alright," He replied. They started heading toward Equius' hive, It was a much longer trip then from Nepeta's compound to Karkat's and they had to cross Feferi's ocean, which had practically dried up ever since the great change, leaving only a bit of water near the center.

Nepeta watched everything, trying to remember the world before this.

"You miss the old world too?" He asked, noticing the look in her eye.

"A lot." She sighed.

"Me too," He agreed.

As they walk we see The hives of Feferi, Eridan, and Gamzee, for whatever reason they, among a few others, had been left untouched when the other hives had been destroyed to build compounds, but the areas around them had still been reduced to barren wastelands, Karkat knew it was just to remind them who were left of the disappearances the olive blood looked at all of them. She was struck with sadness. She missed everything and everyone, Karkat looked at Gamzee's hive with sadness and guilt, he would've hung his head and broken to the ground crying and screaming if Nepeta hadn't been with him. Nepeta felt the sadness within Karkat. She slowly took his hand and squeezed it lightly. That's the best of comfort she could give him.

Karkat looked at her and smiled a bit, "Come on, let's keep going," He said.

Nepeta looked ahead and kept finally reached Equius' hive, She could see that Vriska's hive was also still standing. She looked at it. A little tear rolled down her cheek. She had no idea why she had want to come here. It brought back way too memories that was too much for her to handle.

Karkat looked at her, "Are you okay Nepeta, do you want to leave?" He asked.

She shook her head and smiled. "It's just all the memories."

He rested a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. "At least you have them right?" He said.

She nodded. She's glad for her memories. She's also glad Karkat was there with her.

"One way, that I get through keeping the memories of Gamzee and knowing that he's missing, is by thinking this, if somebody offered me the choice to rid myself of the burden of sadness by ridding of the memories, would I choose to? No, I wouldn't, because just remembering we were once friends, makes me feel happy, and one day, the idea that he's missing, won't be able to hurt me, because he's not truly gone as long as I remember him,"

Nepeta smiled. "That's great thinking Karkitty!"

Karkat smiled back. "Thanks, do you feel better now?"

"Yep!" She told him.

"Anything else you wanna do here or should we head back?" He asked.

"I think we should head back now."

"Okay," Karkat agreed as they headed back.

Nepeta took one last look at the hive and then she followed Karkat home. As they arrived at Karkat's house he turned to her,

"See you tomorrow?" He asked.

"Right!" She said, waving and walking to her compound.

As she walked back toward her compound she realized Karkat didn't invite her in for a snack, something he did everyday. She stopped. That was not usual of Karkat. She quickly ran back to his compound. When she returned she didn't notice anything too unusual, except some rather large foot prints but she sort of shrugged it off. She wanted to make sure Karkat was fine, her thoughts focused only on that. She ran to the compound door and knocked. But there was no answer, confused she knocked again, still nothing. Nepeta began to shove against the door, trying to open it. With a mighty shove the door opened, but the room was completely void of life. Nepeta was shocked. How could that have happened? Then she remembered the big footprints. She began to follow them. But nothing could have prepared Nepeta for what she would find at the end of the trail, nothing at all.