Summary: That's what this came down to, really. If he died, she was going to march through the halls until she found that miserable, cheating wretch and she was going to rip those stupid dice right out of her hands and she was going to beat her until she stopped moving. And if he lived, she was going to wait until he was well enough to get back to their hivelodge, and then she was going to find that miserable, cheating wretch, rip those stupid dice out of her hands, and beat her to death.
Team Charge's defeat at the hands of Team Scourge was legendary, almost as legendary as the events that followed.
Development fic #1 for Gloryseekers AU.
Disclaimer: If I owned Homestuck, Gamzee's arc wouldn't suck and Equius would be a relevant character. Since neither of these things are happening, i am forced to assume I do not own Homestuck. An imaginary and equestrian-themed gift basket is offered to Andrew Hussie for his creative prowess and impressive vocabulary.
Author's Note: Yes hello I'm not dead. I have been working on this AU for months, and still all I have is the fuckin development fics. Ah well. Next up is Roxy/Dirk, aka Team Weabooze (Roxy totally picked that name).
Introduction: Sollux Captor, Aradia Megido, and Tavros Nitram are TEAM CHARGE, the best Alternian fighting team of their generation. They are without rival and without equal, and their galactic dominance of fighting rings is universally accepted.
Legendary is Charge's rivalry with Team Scourge. This rivalry can be traced to early in Scourge's career, when young fighter Vriska Serket broke the rules of the match and crippled the team's best fighter.
Teal eyes met rust, and the grin slipped off the midblood's face as she realized her defeat was certain. For once, her wide mouth was turned down and it was glorious. She licked the blue off her lips, slow and vulgar, and shouted her surrender loud enough for all to hear:
"Team Scourge is defeated!"
Immediately, the crowd exploded, in equal parts elation and rage, for once the rustbloods dancing high above the blues. But Aradia felt no pride in her victory, and she didn't have to dig very deep to know that this was only the beginning. It was petty and it was cruel and in the end it would accomplish nothing, but as soon as Pyrope turned her back, Aradia raised her whip and brought it down one more time, again splattering the ground with blue-green blood. The defeated troll cried out and stumbled forward, but she did not turn back.
"This isn't over," Aradia murmured, narrowing her eyes. Her pusher should have been beating a victory march, and instead she thought she was going to be sick. And it was her fault.
As she watched Pyrope drag her bloodied teammate towards the medics that waited expectantly outside the ring, she was sure the bluebloods knew it too. She sincerely hoped they did. She felt her lips being pulled back into a snarl as she caught sight of her ex-opponent's ruined face and resisted the urge to throw herself across the arena and finish what she'd started.
She stood poised only long enough to hear the scratchy voice of the speaker, announcing, "And the winner is…TEAM CHARGE!" and she was gone, spinning on her heel and practically leaping out off the ring. Her jacket was discarded with practiced ease and left on the ground for someone else to clean. She kept her whip out, finding a comfort in the feel of the warm leather in her hand. That, and she rather liked staring at the blood that stained it, gaining both a sadistic satisfaction and a burning rage at the sight.
Even as they dragged him away, Tavros was screaming still.
The screams were unlike anything she'd ever heard. They were broken wailing, with an edge so feral and raw that her fingers shook to hear them. Occassionally they'd die down and she'd hear echoes of breathless sobs of pain, and then, she assumed, someone would bump him, and the wails began afresh. She hadn't thought he would have the energy to scream so, but scream he did, and he continued screaming. They echoed in the hall, multiplying until they were all she could hear even with the din of attendants struggling to tend to her as she passed. Every time a new cry rang out, Aradia's heart sank further and her stomach clenched and her claws dug into her palms until she left a trail of reddish spots on the ground behind her.
He wasn't hard to track…she just followed the trail of brown blood. The screams quieted and died abruptly, and, heart pounding, she quickened her pace.
Aradia gritted her teeth and pressed on, feeling slightly better as she stomped and slammed past people. She left a trail of upset and blood behind her, and she didn't care. The trail ended in a familiar room and she didn't bother announcing her presence before throwing the infirmary door open and crossing the room.
Her face flushed as she entered, and she fumbled immediately for a bin to empty her stomach. She hadn't eaten before the match, so it was a painful ordeal she overcame before she raised her gaze to look at her teammate again. He looked so…broken.
Pity and hatred tore her heart in two, aimed at two very different trolls.
He was unconscious now, his face glistening with sweat and his cheeks colored a hideous shade of blood loss and exertion. He whimpered now instead of wailing, but Aradia knew the sedative would put him so far under he wouldn't know what pain was, let alone how to feel it. The medics stood in her way now, and she could just pretend that the damage wasn't as bad as she thought it was. When all she could see was his torso and head and ridiculous horns, he looked okay. Like he'd just been knocked out or had his leg broken or something. His face was twisted with pain, but it twisted like that whenever he injured himself, however light, and without seeing the damage, she could pretend he had done nothing more than fall and bruise himself.
She almost smiled.
And then someone moved and she saw it, the explosion of brown at his hips, where that vile bitch had broken the rules. Even without much medical knowledge, Aradia knew that he was hurt. Bad. Bad enough that…that they may not be able to fight any more.
It's all her fault.
She was finally noticed when she almost slammed the bin back on the ground, ignoring the disgusting slosh! of the liquid contents of her stomach at the bottom. A medic moved near to her, his brows furrowed. He was a green, a low green, and she hunched slightly as he came closer. Best not to step on the toes of the man with her friend's life in his hands.
"Miss Megido, you've arrived…"
"How bad is he?" she interrupted, her voice husky and aggressive. Drats. She had planned to be respectful, but respect be damned at this point. He looked like he was dying. "Will he…" She didn't even know how to finish that sentence. "How bad is he?" she repeated. Concern promised anger a turn and took her over, and her whip hung loose from her shaking fingers. Now that she wasn't feeling so hot and flustered, she was aware how sticky her hands was, and how metallic the air around her smelled. The infirmary was full of prior fighters, knocked out by sedatives and sleeping off their injuries until the rematches later in the night.
"He's…we don't know for sure, but…it's pretty bad," he admitted. He looked like he wanted to say something more, but, looking at her face, clearly thought better of it. "Allow us to take care of you?"
"I'm fine," she insisted, and she meant it. She wasn't uninjured, but a few bumps and bruises were nothing compared to what Tavros had done to him. She had already snarled off several ringside medics, and had no intention of giving in now. Until he was alright, she was content. She couldn't even feel the pain. "Where's the waiting room?"
A bit startled by the question, he raised a hand to point to a door at the back end of the infirmary, obviously not often used.
"Thank you. I will wait there until there is news of him." She didn't know what she was going to do, but she couldn't stand to be in this room staring at him any longer, and she knew she'd never be able to leave.
The handle of the door stuck and a layer of dust cascaded off when she finally shoved it into submission. The room was obviously set up a long time ago for comfort and then promptly forgotten. A lounge bag was set up in a corner, and there was a chair at the far end of the far room, where a dusty hustktop was set atop a rickety table and plugged into a fraying socket. A few husks that were likely once gamegrubs wilted by the wall. There was a graying sign on the back wall that read in peeling letters, 'Kill Or Cull: Be Aware Of Teammates' Failures'.
She closed the door with a disturbing finality, and the medics' frantic voices were cut off from her. If she pressed her ear against the door, she could kind of hear them, but she could also hear the pained moans. She also felt rather silly with her ear pressed so awkwardly against the metal, and so she backed away.
Moaning is good. It means he's still alive and kicking. But the sedative…soon he'll stop making noises at all.
Hissing, Aradia shook her head. Her head began to clamor as the rage slid from her veins, and as voices began to push at her brain, she began to pace around, running her hands through her bangs in increasing agitation. She kept her whip, comforted by its aggressive weight. The dark, perhaps imagined, forms of ghosts began to grow in the shadows of the room, their mouths open and always, always talking. They taunted her, telling her gleefully that soon his soul would join their ranks. She hummed under her breath, but as usual that did little to quiet them. They seemed to delight in her torment tonight, and those with any comforting words were drowned out by the vengeful chorus.
She hissed again. The voices didn't bother her; she had long gotten used to them. She just didn't want to think that soon he might join them. Her partner, who had had her back since she'd started this entire thing. They were gonna go far together, they were going to graduate to the Alternian Circle, and then, maybe, they were even going to go to the Match. They were supposed to be invincible. This was all in fun, this was the time of their lives. It couldn't be the time of his life if he was dead.
She collapsed onto the lounge bag and within seconds fell deeply and unfortunately to sleep.
Aradia's daymares were not anything especially traumatizing, nothing compared to, say, Sollux's, but they were bad enough that, when she forced her crying eyes open hours later, she was curled into a ball so tight she couldn't tell one limb from the other. She shook and ached and felt as if she hadn't slept at all. Her mouth tasted like copper and the infirmary outside was deathly quiet. Something unnamable stopped her from opening the door and looking out. They would come and get her if they needed her. She shouldn't bother them.
Right now, she needed someone.
Feeling nauseous, she dragged herself to her feet, feeling every joint slide and crack as she did so, and lurched over to the husktop. She didn't even bother wondering about permission before turning it on, almost shoving it off the table in her shaky haste. She fell into the chair with a heavy thump, wincing as she dropped onto some of her still untended wounds.
To anyone but Aradia, it might have been difficult to navigate the ancient operating system. But with her interest in all things outdated, she had seen it before, and had it running in just a few minutes. She just stared at the screen for a moment, not even sure what to do. After several moments deliberation, she installed a compatible version of Trollian, opened it, and logged in.
Her list of available contacts was small. Her moirail was idle, and she had no one else to talk to. Her only other close friend was dying. Her cursor hovered over Karkat's name, knowing he and Tavros had been close, but he hadn't been online in sweeps. Not since he and his mate/rail vanished. She had a feeling he sometimes got on to talk to certain people, but she had never been in his circle of close friends.
Moirail it was. Aradia's fingers began to shake as she hesitantly began to type.
apocalypseArisen [AA} began trolling twinArmageddons [TA] at 16:05:42
AA: are y0u there
Silence. She sighed. She looked back at the door, but when no one burst through, she turned back to the flickering screen. Her fingers shook as she continued typing to no one.
AA: its daytime 0n y0ur side of the gl0be isn't it
AA: im alive but that's n0t why im trying t0 talk t0 y0u
AA: n0t that my safety isn't imp0rtant but there are much bigger fish t0 fry right n0w
AA: fish with blue bl00d and ugly smiles
AA: the fight ended awhile ag0 and i d0n't kn0w what
Didn't know what? She didn't even know how she was going to finish that sentence. Her hands began to shake and she swallowed. Rage and worry warred inside her, and exploded across the keyboard in a nigh incomprehensible dump of emotion that would have been much more productive if she'd actually had her palemate there to talk her through it.
AA: its fucked up
AA: sc0urge fucked up and they fucked up bad
AA: she br0ke the rules and she fucked him up
AA: she fucked my partner up s0llux
AA: she sh0ved her sw0rd right thr0ugh him and i was t00 busy fighting 0ff that stupid greenbl00ded tank of theirs t0 get t0 him in time
AA: the greenbl00d's dead n0w, but that d0esn't make me feel any better and i think it sh0uld
AA: i think he's g0ing t0 die
AA: i kn0w y0u're pr0bably busy but i think he's g0ing t0 die and that makes me want t0 kill her
That's what this came down to, really. If he died, she was going to march through the halls until she found that miserable, cheating wretch and she was going to rip those stupid dice right out of her hands and she was going to beat her until she stopped moving. And if he lived, she was going to wait until he was well enough to get back to their hivelodge, and then she was going to find that miserable, cheating wretch, rip those stupid dice out of her hands, and beat her to death.
She thought imaging her revenge would calm her down, but it only made her more agitated. Her hands began to shake and she wished desperately Sollux would log on. When the seconds passed and her moirail showed no signs of responding, she got up, growling in exasperation. She began to pace. She stopped frequently to look at the door, but it showed no signs of giving into her glares. She almost walked out twice, but she was too afraid to see what was on the other side. She could hear activity again, but it was not the kind of activity she wanted to dwell too long on. It was mostly talking. Mostly screaming.
This wasn't her strong suit, the waiting. She liked to jump in, she liked to test her limits, she liked to be moving. She didn't do well when all she could do was sit back and wait. She didn't even know if she was entitled to revenge yet, though she was starting to realize that she was.
Wired as she was, Aradia didn't miss the chime that said her prayers had been answered. She almost broke the chair throwing herself into it, and went weak from relief as a flood of yellow poured itself across the dim screen.
TA: whoa whoa whoa what the fuck happened? 2he fucked tavro2 up? that chiick you were talkiing about ye2terday? the cobalt took out tavro2?
TA: how the fuck diid 2he do that, he'2 liike…really bada22?
TA: ii'm a jealou2 priick and you won't dare fuckiing tell hiim ii 2aiid thii2, but that kiid had 2eriiou2 fuckiing talent, how diid 2he get hiim that bad?
AA: y0u're 0nline
TA: no 2hiit ii'm onliine, aa, get wiith the fuckiing program and tell me what the fuck happened.
AA: i was dealing with that g00d f0r n0thing piggybacker and while my back was turned, vriska caught him by surprise
TA: wa2 iit her 2tupiid diice?
AA: it was her stupid dice
AA: all i heard was the screams
AA: and then i had t0 take care 0f pyr0pe and i c0uldn't get t0 him in time t0 d0 anything
TA: holy 2hiit.
AA: s0llux i want t0 kill her
AA: i want to find her and drag her 0ut 0f the h0le she's n0 d0ubt hiding in and i want t0 beat her t0 death s0 she never hurts an0ther tr0ll with her stupid cheating ever again
AA: and then i want her t0 ap0l0gize t0 tavr0s
AA: p0sthum0ously
Aradia took a deep breath. Once again, speaking her fantasies aloud (aloud?) did nothing to actually ease her aggression, and Sollux was taking a painfully long time to get back to her. She could see him in her head, staring at the screen with that dumb blank look on his face he got when he was trying to figure out how to calm her down. Her moirail cared so deeply for her, it was almost sickening. If she weren't so worked up right now, she'd probably drown herself in diamonds.
TA: that 2ounds very…piitch.
AA: d0es it
AA: i d0n't kn0w i've never had a kismesis bef0re
AA: i d0n't want t0 kiss her th0ugh
AA: i want t0 kill her
TA: lii2ten ii know murder 2ounds liike a really good iidea riight now but iit'2 really not. trust me on thii2. for once murder ii2 a bad iidea.
TA: he'2 2tiil aliive riight?
AA: yes
TA: lii2ten why don't you waiit untiil you tell me how bad iit ii2 and ii'll help you deciide iif iit'2 a good iidea to beat her to a motiionle22 pulp? we'll take thii2 one 2tep at a tiime.
AA: …
TA: do you even know how bad iit ii2?
AA: …
AA: n0
TA: ii diidn't thiink 2o.
TA: you don't want to be a repeat of KK, do you?
AA: n0
AA: that wasn't that bad
TA: were we watchiing the 2ame fiight becau2e ii thought they kiilled fourteen people and de2troyed/2tole theiir worth iin government property. la2t ii checked that was "pretty bad" on the 2cale of "event2 we don't want to repeat".
AA: y0u kn0w what i mean
TA: not really.
AA: let's get back t0 the subject at hand
TA: ye2, let'2 talk about your murderou2 rage, 2hall we? ii'm all for 2howiing her who'2 bo22, but iif you attack her now, there'2 goiing to be a lot of trouble.
AA: i d0n't kn0w what i'm supp0sed t0 d0
TA: okay giimme a second, ii thiink ii can come up wiith 2omethiing. we can work thii2 out.
Aradia never did find out Sollux's plan for working through her emotions in a constructive manner. The door opened and barely two words had gotten out of the medic's mouth before she was across the room, pushing past him. The sharp tang of antiseptic and other unspeakable substances hit her immediately, and if not for the fact that the blood she smelled was a familiar and affectionate hue, she would have backed out immediately.
The medic grumbled in annoyance as he followed her to the curtains that hid Tavros from her. "He's starting to wake up and it's customary that—"
Aradia pushed back the curtain and immediately almost reached for the bin again.
He looked awful. The sweat had mostly been wiped away from his face, but there was still blood all over his now-ruined uniform. Not all of it was blue. His head was placed at an odd angle to account for his horns, and his eyes, which were barely open, found hers immediately. He was still drugged, she could tell, and it took several moments of unintelligible mumbling before she could make out an understandable word, which happened to be her own name. She tried to smile, and he tried to smile, but both expressions fell apart almost immediately. She moved, dragging a stool forward and ignoring the medical tools that fell to the floor from the motion. Behind her, she could distantly hear chimes as Sollux tried desperately to reach her.
"How do you feel?" she asked, and winced. Was her voice really that raspy? God, she needed some tea or…some murder. Murder would be nice. She hesitated only a second before reaching for his hand, and found a strange comfort in him squeezing her as hard as she squeezed him.
He looked as troubled as he could in his state. "I…my legs feel…invisible." The last word was so quiet she could barely hear it, but it dropped like a weight in the air.
Her stomach plummeted and her rage evaporated as the weight of what he had just said hit her.
"Can…can you move your foot?" she asked, not even bothering to keep her voice light. She looked down at the foot of the bed, hopeful despite what her mind told her. But his limb didn't move. Not an inch.
His face twisted with effort for only a few seconds and then he shook his head. He turned his eyes to hers, his pupils so wide they almost took up his entire eye. "Aradia…am I going to die?"
She almost started crying. She shook her head, but he was already drifting into the land of incoherence and she didn't know if he saw her assurance.
She sat there until he fell back asleep. There was conversation, but it was mostly one-sided because she didn't understand most of what he was saying. She stroked circles around his knuckles, which were still swollen from the fight. She tried to breathe but as she looked at him longer, so small and still on the bed, her rage rose again. Sollux's unknown plan be damned.
She's going to pay for doing this.
"Miss Megido? There's some things we need to discuss."
Aradia stared at Tavros a few seconds more before she got up and followed the medic out of the closed-off area. His face was nowhere near as grave as she felt…in fact, he looked bored. She wanted to punch the expression right off his face. This was her life at stake.
"He's never going to walk again, is he." Her deadpan wasn't even a question.
"Well…no," he didn't even try to lie. "Even if we were to try and repair his broken bones, the damage done to his support column is too severe and he would never be able walk." He spoke in a bored, businesslike tone that had her fangs gritting. "Now as you know, honor stipulates that a disabled fighter's teammate has the final say in the method of their eventual culling." The medic wasn't even facing her, rifling through papers he had picked up at some point. He picked one page up and continued to talk as he searched for a pen in his multitude of pockets. "It's more tradition than anything, but it can be a legal matter when certain castes are involved, and I've heard that Pyrope was considering pursuing such a career path should the need arise, so I think it'd be best to avoid that spectacle. Anyway, all you have to do is sign this document, and we'll all be on our way. A messenger would come to you later to discuss the final method, or, if you don't want to choose, pick the method themselves."
Aradia didn't even look at the paper he offered her. "No."
Confusion twisted the medic's already ugly face. "Come again, Miss Megido?" He said her name so polite and strained. He hated using titles for someone so much lower than him, but she was in no mood for his hemocaste bullshit right now.
"I said no. He will not be culled."
"But he is…" His face twisted into something completely different, and he spat out the word, "disabled."
"I am aware of his condition," she continued, amazed at how cold and sure her voice sounded. "And my answer is the same. I will not allow you to cull my teammate." They had gotten this far together and she wasn't about to just leave him because some spider-obsessed freak decided not to play the game. "I am going to take him with me when I return to our hivelodge, and I will take him from there back to our hivestem across the continent. Disabled or no, he is my friend and I am not going to sign on his culling."
He thought she was crazy. That much was immediately obvious. And…well, he was probably right. Even if they didn't cull him here, who knew what would happen later.
Well…everyone. Everyone knew what would happen to him. He couldn't fight anymore, not like this, and the very thought of him facing conscription chilled her heart. The Cavalreapers wouldn't take a cripple, no matter how illustrious his fighting history. Just thinking about it made her sick. That was his dream. But she would figure it out. She always did. He was counting on her to figure it out.
"Well, he can't stay with us!" the medic sputtered, recovering from the shock of her statement and managing to sound just offended enough to piss her off more. "We are only set to handle contestants for a night at most…in the morning, you are going to have to arrange transportation on your own. And we can't give him anything more for his condition. Conditions this…grave aren't usually allowed to continue, so you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who'll deal with him."
"I will handle it," she stated, and sounded so sure of it she almost had herself convinced. She waited a few moments before asking, "Are we done?"
He obviously hadn't been expecting her to stand her ground, and narrowed his eyes at her. "Er…yes."
"Call me again when he wakes up. I have a few people to contact. I'll be in the back if you need me." She felt grown-up for a moment, if grown-up meant keeping it together only as long as people were watching.
She hoped her desperation didn't show in her quick pace as she fled back to the waiting room. Twenty messages had come from Sollux, which she only skimmed before shakily filling him in on what had just happened, as brief as possible, and admitting, just as brief, that while she had promised herself it would even out in the end, she didn't quite know how it was going to happen. When the story was told and she leaned back slightly and rested her forehead on the dusty table, her shoulders slumped. What the hell was she going to do? She knew how they were going to get home, that part was easy, but what about when they got there?
She wasn't used to this. This feeling of…unease. Normally she was fine, she rolled with it, and it took a lot to get under her skin and break her resolve. Her partner losing the use of his limbs was…well, that could be considered "a lot," she supposed.
After several moments, Trollian chimed and she looked up, squinting even at the dim, flickering screen.
TA: well why don't you talk to KK?
TA: or, more accurately, that hiigh-blooded moiiraiil of hii2?
AA: h0w will he kn0w what t0 d0
TA: he won't.
TA: that 2liime-for-braiin2 exce22 of liimb2 excu2e of a hiighblood wouldn't know what to do wiith a criiiple iif he came wiith an iin2tructiion manual. you'd be better off a2kiing the bu2ine22 end of a hoofbea2t for adviice.
TA: but he ha2 acce22 to thiing2.
AA: things
TA: thiing2.
AA: things
TA: 2top iit.
TA: ju2t thiink about iit. ii can hook you up wiith kk's new account. gz'2 not riich but wiith a bloodcolor that briight he'2 2ure to have quiite a few priiviilege2. he can probably get anythiing he a2k2 for, a2 long a2 he a2k2 the riight people. and ii know the riight people.
TA: iit'll all be alriight, AA. ii promii2e.
Things. Aradia could work with things.
This was going to be okay. This was all going to be okay. She repeated this to herself as she and Sollux ranted, plotted, and planned (not in that order), as she dealt again with the bone-headed medics again, and as she sat by Tavros, changed out of his bloodstained clothes and sitting in what she sincerely hoped was a more comfortable position for him. This was going to be okay. She began to mutter that under her breath as she fought and got a wheeled device to carry Tavros on for the duration of their stay there. After everything was taken care of, she returned to his side, holding his hand.
"It's going to be okay," she murmured, and he nodded, barely conscious. "I'm going to get some friends to help and we're going to get you permanent transportation and then…then I'm going to find that filthy girl and I am going to make her pay."
He stared at her for a long time, his eyes cloudy, and then he smiled. "Thanks, Aradia," he whispered, slurred and soft, and drifted out again. She didn't let go of his hand.
Serket wouldn't get away with this. As soon as Aradia knew for sure Tavros was going to be alright, she was going to do everything she could to find her and hurt her. And when she made her pay, Tavros would be there, just behind her, to share in their vengeance.
Prologue: Aradia never needs to contact Gamzee Makara. On their journey back to their home, she and Tavros encounter another fighting team, familiar faces they know through a mutual acquaintance. Aradia and Nepeta Leijon immediately become friends and, less than a sweep later, Leijon's moirail agrees to construct a pair of robotic legs. After another sweep of physical rehabilitation, Team Charge makes their triumphant return, immediately taking back their rightful place at the top of the chain.