And We Will Fall Together

I don't own the characters, Andrew Hussie does, and I just borrowed a few of them. Just in case that wasn't clear. So, I felt like I had to write this. I had the idea, and then my mind told my I had to. I think I'll write a lot about random things that I imagine could have happened during the Journey-through-the-Furthest-Ring as I dub it. Major spoilers if you haven't read up to the end of Act 5. Maybe some minor spoilers that you may or may not catch if you haven't read the first few intermissions of Act 6. There shall be a sequel. I have decided that there must be one, so there shall be one. This is the kind of Sadstuck half. The other half may begin Sadstuckish, but it will resolve. I promise.

Karkat: Abscond

Karkat desperately fought the desire to scream again. He usually failed at this and started ranting, but now there was nothing to rant about and no one to rant to. He could just scream at the top of his lungs, but if he did that, someone might find him. Right now, Karkat knew he would not be able to stand anyone's presence. And so he found the power to stay quiet for once. Well, relatively quiet. He felt like he couldn't breath correctly. As a result, he gasped and wheezed for breath, but maybe that was because of the pain. His candied blood seeped down his chest, forming droplets at the ends of the small lines that ran down his shirt. For a moment, the gash cutting diagonally through the Cancer symbol tauntingly resembled the mark of the Hero of Blood. Then more blood flowed out, slowly dripping onto the ground and leaving an obscure trail. There really wasn't enough blood for him to be followed, but the cut was deep enough to be agonizing with each breath. And he had to deal with other major wounds on top of it as well. Time took forever to pass until Karkat finally reached his destination: his block. Random pieces of computer lay strewn on the floor where he had thrown them. No one would find him there. No one would hear him. Karkat breathed in deeply through his mouth, but it turned into a gasp as his cut protested. Pressure began to build up behind his eyes. He held the air in his lungs as he stiffened and grimaced. Under different circumstances, the pain would have been bearable. But not this time. Karkat released the air in his lungs in a long inhuman (not strange considering his species) screech.

Karkat: Remember what happened

Remember? What was there to remember? Nothing had happened (Yet). Karkat was in the room with a large pile of Gamzee's horns sitting in the middle. He walked over to the door so he could close it and lock it. He did not want anyone, especially Kanaya, to enter this room. He knew almost for a fact that everyone knew what he was doing here and respected his decision, but it was soothing to his paranoia to make sure that no one would come in. The lock clicked.

"Is iT AlRiGhT FoR Me tO LeAvE ThE MoThErFuKiNg vEnT NoW?" Gamzee's voice rang out through the room.

"IT SHOULD BE. IT'S SO FUCKING STUPID THAT YOU HAVE TO HIDE," Karkat answered. Gamzee slipped the cover off of the vent, spilled out and replaced the cover.

"I DoN'T MoThErFuKiN MiNd iT," he claimed, "ThE OnLy aGgRaVaTiNg tHiNg aBoUt iT Is tHe fAcT ThAt yOu'rE LoOkEd dOwN On fOr iT."

"WELL, I DON'T FUCKING MIND THAT."

"yeah, you do," Gamzee accused. Karkat sighed. Stupid moirail. He was fine, there was no need to get into a deep conversation about everyone else ignoring him for the duration of this forsaken journey towards the new game session.

"FINE, BUT I FIND IT IRONIC THAT NOW YOU ABANDONING YOUR STUPID QUIRK IS ANNOYING ME MORE THAN THE QUIRK ITSELF." Gamzee's wide grin faded away. He tilted his head, an unreadable look in his eyes. That unnerved Karkat...he should be able to read everything about him as though he were his favorite romance novel. Biting his lip, Karkat continued, "DON'T FUCKING LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT. I'M JUST SAYING THAT I'M OKAY WITH YOUR QUIRK NOW THAT WE'RE OFFICIALLY MOIRAILS. ACTUALLY, IT NEVER ACTUALLY BOTHERED ME. I WAS JUST GIVING YOU SHIT ABOUT IT, OKAY?"

Gamzee nodded, "I UNDERSTAND THAT KARBRO. but i wasn't abandoning any quirk. I WANTED TO TALK TO YOU BECAUSE I FEEL MYSELF SLIPPING BACK INTO THAT MOTHERFUCKIN RAGE!" By the end of his last statement, his eyes had a reddish tint to him along with a slight desperation in his voice. Karkat shuddered, not liking this at all. He hadn't really had to "shoosh-pap" Gamzee after his initial...loss of control. Nonetheless, he wrapped his arms around his moirail. They Gamzee returned the hug stiffly, alerting Karkat to the fact that he was concentrating very hard on not hurting him. Karkat proceeded with the shoosh-paps. He summoned the calmness which had overcome him when he had observed his ring of remaining friends preparing to war against each other. He remembered how he had hated the thought of any more trolls dying at one another's hands. He hated it so much that he lost his own will to fight. He had to defend the remaining trolls, including Gamzee, damning his own fate. He hadn't cared that Gamzee was in a murderous rage to destroy the lower end of the spectrum. He hadn't cared that he was so low that he was an abomination, so Gamzee would probably specifically target him for a painful death. But now, he was afraid. What if he failed?

"honk," Gamzee whispered. Karkat shoosh-papped more insistently. "HONK honk HONK honk HONK," Gamzee continued honking in the most demonic and creepy way possible. The shoosh-paps weren't working...obviously. However, Karkat continued with them, hoping that they would work eventually. After all, it would be miraculous that way, which Gamzee would enjoy. Right? No, it definitely wasn't working.

'FUCK D:B,' Karkat thought.

"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!" As Gamzee honked ever more menacingly, Karkat began to feel terror similar to what he felt during Gamzee's first rampage. But instead of running away, he bunched the fabric of Gamzee's shirt into his hands and hid his face in his shoulder. This was his instinctive reaction with Gamzee being his moirail, even though his moirail was the threat which caused the reaction. Karkat felt his diamond begin to crack as he thought about how he would be murdered by his moirail. Surprisingly, it hurt just as much as he thought it would in this situation. Agonizing, but slightly bearable. He winced, shaking as he held back tears of betrayal. Karkat told himself he shouldn't feel betrayed: Gamzee wasn't in his right mind. Then he remembered that this actually was Gamzee in his right mind. Therefore, tears continued to threaten him. "fucking look at me karkat. LOOK ME IN THE FUCKING EYE!"

Reluctantly, Karkat obeyed him. At first, Gamzee seemed to relish the painful emotion showing almost blatantly on his face. Then Gamzee's maniac grin was replaced with a scowl. His lips began twitching as though unsure of what they were doing. Gamzee shoved him, knocking Karkat over due to the strength gifted to him by his indigo blood. Karkat drew two of his three sickles, trying to perhaps keep some shred of dignity and fight before he died. However, he stopped when he saw Gamzee holding his head in his hands. Karkat took this to mean that Gamzee was still trying not to hurt him, so he was letting him run. But Karkat knew he couldn't just leave Gamzee here on the verge of a fit. There was still one and a half human years left before they would reach the new session. No one would survive Gamzee's rage for that long.

"gamzee," Karkat whispered, "just let me help you calm down. okay? otherwise, you'll regret what you'll do." He placed his black Regisickle on the ground and reached out to touch Gamzee's hands, but suddenly there was a blur of gray and a crack. Karkat reeled back before he registered what had happened. Then pain stabbed at him, spreading through his head from a spot just next to his left eye. Karkat realized that Gamzee had actually hit him. He was lost in rage. Terror consumed Karkat as he tightened his grip on his sickle. He hadn't been enough of a nooksniffer to drop both before approaching Gamzee. He pretended to go in for a lunge as Gamzee pulled out his juggling clubs and blocked an attack that wasn't coming. He swung the rounded edge of his other sickle, the Clawsickle, at Gamzee's head. It hit its mark, the small spikes on the rounded edge scraping his scalp. Gamzee chuckled, his hands flew, and the Clawsickle went flying along with one of his motions. Then Karkat did. Gamzee pounced onto him, pinning him down and pressing an arm against his throat.

"oh, you're more fun than the others karkat. YOU ALWAYS WERE! but amusing as you are, i can't let such a motherfucking mutant blood live." A drop of blood from the scrapes on Gamzee's head landed on Karkat's face. Gamzee smiled, wiped the blood away, and raised his left club, "WOULD YOU LIKE TO DIE QUICKLY OR SLOWLY LITTLE MOTHERFUCKER?!"

"MAKE IT QUICK ASSHOLE," Karkat shouted.

"hm...no. I'LL DO WHAT I MOTHERFUCKING WANT MOTHERFUCKER!" Gamzee swung his club lower and hit him in the arm. Karkat cried out, but the bone did not break. Gamzee laughed and swung again. He hit Karkat repeatedly in the arm. On the last strike, there was a cracking sound, as though someone had stepped on a large patch of ice and broken it. Karkat assumed that was the bone in his arm making that sound, as he screamed in pain immediately afterwards. The scream ended in a sob as Karkat could no longer keep the damn behind his eyes from breaking. He knew he sounded pitiful and pathetic as he cried and begged Gamzee to stop, but he couldn't help it. Gamzee kept hitting him in his broken arm, ripping a shriek out of Karkat's throat each time. The fact that it was Gamzee doing this to him hurt just as much as the broken arm. He feared that it was driving him insane because of how much he was suffering.

Karkat thought of Kankri, who had told him about his ancestor, the Signless. The Sufferer. His Subjugglator moirail had been the one to betray him and got him killed viciously. Karkat figured that this was the two of them repeating history.

"GAMZEE, YOU'VE GOT TO STOP! YOU'RE GOING TO HATE YOURSELF FOR THIS WHEN YOU SNAP OUT OF YOUR RAGE. GAMZEE, STOP, YOU'RE HURTING-AAAAAAAAAHHCK," Karkat sobbed, but Gamzee cut him off when he grabbed Karkat's Regisickle off of the floor and sliced it across his chest. Karkat screamed louder than before until he abruptly stopped emitting sound. His mouth was still open, but instead only small gasps and whimpers came out. The overall pain was simply too much for him to handle. Now that he wasn't screaming though, both him and Gamzee could hear the rest of their group pounding on the door and shouting. Gamzee paused when he heard them demanding that the door be opened.

"Moove outta the way," Rose slurred, "I'll pik the lock."

"No," Kanaya grunted as she rammed at the door, "You Already Tried. You're Too Drunk To Do Something So Useful."

"shut up, we need to get in that room now!" Dave shouted. Throughout the whole conversation, Terezi could be heard shouting in outrage as she kicked, punched, and clawed at the door.

The pressure on Karkat's chest lightened as Gamzee got up off him and walked to the door. He left Karkat's sickle beside him, obviously deeming Karkat as to weak to fight. Or maybe he wanted him to fight. Either way, Karkat painfully sat up and grabbed his sickle with his uninjured left arm. He stood, trying to remain relatively quiet. Thankfully, Gamzee hadn't hurt his legs yet. He pressed his right arm into his stomach, trying to keep his upper arm still, and walked up behind Gamzee. When Gamzee whirled around with a club in hand to strike him, Karkat thwacked him over the head again. This time, he put all his strength into it. Gamzee fell. Karkat knew that wouldn't keep him down forever, so he sliced the handle off of the door so that the only way through would be to break through the metal. Now he just had to figure out how to keep Gamzee out of the vents. After taking a moment to think, Karkat crawled through the vents himself, moving slowly because of his arm. From outside he found rope among the things lying randomly all over the floor, secured it around the heaviest object he could find near the vents, and then he crawled back to the horn room with the rope trailing behind him. He checked that Gamzee was still on the floor. Thankfully, he was. Karkat retrieved his Clawsickle and went back to the vents. Using the heavier Clawsickle, he bent the Regisickle out of shape while it's curved edge was wrapped around two slots in the vent. He hammered on it until it couldn't be pulled out, and tied the end of the rope to the handle. He shortened the rope several times with the Clawsickle until the rope was taut. Karkat shoved at the vent as hard as he could, but it would not budge.

Satisfied that Gamzee would be trapped, Karkat crawled to the nearest room through the vents. As adrenaline faded, his emotions caught up to him again. And so the story comes full circle.