Karkat and Terezi lay there, just a few feet apart from each other, slowly dying.
Neither of them, no matter how hard they had tried, could fight off Bec Noir. The most they could hope for now is that the others- remaining trolls or humans- would somehow be able to defeat him. For the two, however, completely powerless and bleeding out, it was over.
Terezi used what little strength she had to turn and face Karkat, who could only roll his head to the side to see her. They remained in those positions, simply staring at one another for some moments, savoring the last time they'd ever see each other alive; it could perhaps be the last time the ever saw each other at all, given dream bubbles were too unfamiliar at this point. Terezi managed a faint smile, and a breath of air that vaguely resembled a laugh.
"What are you so happy about?" Karkat asked with a slow but steadily fading voice, strongly contrasting his typical yell.
"Remember back when we were wrigglers and we tried to be like the older trolls and FLARP? But it wasn't really FLARPing… it was more like…" she trailed off to breathe, "like grubs flopping around."
"Why would I remember that, and why would I care right now?"
"Because it was fun. It was pathetic, sure, but we all had fun. Even you," she spoke with slowing breath.
Terezi's attempt at smiling traveled its way to Karkat, and brought him into the memory game as well.
"I remember," he paused for breath, "when you were about two or three sweeps old, and you started getting all those dumbass fucking scalemates as if you'd be culled if you didn't have every single one of them."
Terezi attempted a laugh, but it became a mere puff of air, barely making a sound. This one was even more pitiful than the last. After a silence that seemed to last an eternity, Karkat finally spoke up.
"You used to laugh a lot," he muttered in a voice barely louder than a whisper. It was all he could manage at this point.
It was too much work to try and laugh this time. Terezi simply looked him over, her lips twitching into what was supposed to be a smile. She reached her arm out towards Karkat, who mirrored the gesture. They were too far away from each other for their hands to touch.
Karkat closed his eyes for a moment; keeping them open was too straining on him. No, he thought to himself, don't close your eyes, you'll never wake up. He snapped them open to find Terezi making the same mistake. However, she hadn't snapped out of it.
"Terezi…" He whispered. She didn't answer.
He tried to scoot himself a little closer, reaching his hand as far as it would go, trying to grasp onto hers.
"Terezi, you can't sleep now," he spoke in a barely audible voice. She couldn't hear him anymore.
"Terezi," he tried one more time. There was no response. New streaks of red began to run down Karkat's face.
Now I can close my eyes…