Bad Timing

The sandy plain was quiet save for the whistle of the wind through the dunes. It was hot here, but being dead for so long gave Vriska and Tavros a bittersweet advantage against the climate. They were alone and had been as long as they had existed in this dream bubble, save for an odd human man who wandered the plains on his own and leered at Vriska a little too much when he saw them.

"Hey, Vriska? Do you see that?"

"What now, Tavros?!"

Tavros pointed away at a figure the distance and said, "That."

Vriska pulled a face and groaned, "If it's that horse guy again I swear to god—"

"No, it's not him! I-It's someone else and they're floating!"

Vriska shrugged. "So? I float, maybe it's special to someone who never got to god tier," she sneered, transforming into her god tier form and rising into the air to prove her point.

Tavros frowned and retorted, "We should still check it out! I mean… we haven't really seen anyone else in a really long time?"

Vriska rolled her eyes—he'd gotten really snippy in the last half sweep since they died. "Fine." They started toward the floating blue speck in the distance, Vriska keeping pace with Tavros in the air for a while before she got bored and sped on ahead despite his fading protests. That shade of powder blue was familiar now that she looked at it more closely. Her heart would've started to beat faster if it still worked.

She stopped short when she got close enough to see who it actually was. "John?!" she yelled at the boy. She'd know his face anywhere, he was one of the last people she saw before she died. He didn't slow down. "John!" she shouted again, fluttering closer to catch up. She grabbed his shoulder and tried to turn him around—until he swung Zillyhoo wide around him and barely missed her gut. She jumped back. "What the fuck, John!"

John tensed up into a fighting stance and readied the hammer for another attack. "Who the hell are you?!" he shouted, "I'm really not in the mood for this, I'm having the worst fucking birthday ever and now Bec Noir just got away again!"

Anger flared up in Vriska's chest. "I'm Vriska, you asshole! Vriska Serket!"

"Vriska?" John repeated blankly, relaxing a bit. He blinked and stared for a second, then: "Oh. Right. That troll girl."

"That troll girl?!" Vriska screeched, "You don't even remember me?! I taught you everything you know about this stupid game and got you out of so much crap and that's what you have to say?"

John shrugged and scratched his head. "It's been a long time, I guess."

"It hasn't been that long! How could you not know who I am, you ungrateful loser!"

John gripped Zillyhoo tighter, his eyebrows knit together in anger. "I am not a loser! I've been stuck on a ship with nothing to do but talk to salamanders and try to avoid my sister and her stupid fucking boyfriend for two years, do you have any idea how done I am with being stuck and not being able to do squat even if I tried?"

Vriska's face was hot, an angry flush filling her cheeks. "That's not an excuse at all!"

John turned to leave, calling over his shoulder, "Well I guess this sucked, this day is just getting worse. See you around, Vriska."

Vriska clenched her fists until her fluorite octet cut into her palms. This wasn't what she'd expected at all! "What happened to you, John?! I thought you were a cool guy, no one else would bother to listen to me but you when I was alive!"

"That's pretty sad, honestly, I mean there were twelve of you, right?"

"Shut up," she hissed through needle sharp teeth. She threw her dice in the air as if by reflex and caught the sword they transformed into.

John raised an eyebrow and sighed. "Really…? I'd really rather not, I mean we used to be friends…"

"Key words there being 'used to'" Vriska snapped, getting into a fighting stance, "You don't call me pathetic and get away with it!" She charged at him and swung the sword at him.

John whacked her away with Zillyhoo. He frowned and wrung his hands on the handle. "No really, can we not right now? I don't want to fight you, and my dad always said hitting girls was an awful thing to do…"

"Well your dad's not here to tell you what to do now," Vriska spat, getting up from the sand dune where she'd landed, "It's either you fight or I kill you—you're not the only one who's been cooped up alone way longer than she should be."

A dark, dark shadow cast over John's expression. "What did you just say about my dad," he said, his voice dangerously steady.

"You heard me," Vriska said, "What, I strike a nerve—" she was sent tumbling back into the dune as Zillyhoo smashed into her gut again. She heard a snap, probably a rib or two. She rolled over and coughed, dark blue blood dotting the yellow sand. "Aha ha, what do you know!" She rolled over just in time to block another attack with her sword. She kicked him and shoved him off of her, pointing her sword at his nose. "Look, it's been a long time and it's not like either of us is going to die in this fight since it's neither heroic or just. Let's have some fun in the meantime," she sighed, slashing a cut across John's nose. He screamed and she grinned, everything she hadn't felt in a long time flooding back; the only person serving as a levy to her bloodlust had fallen apart in her eyes in one fell swoop.

John grabbed at his face, scrunching his eyes closed from the pain and opening them wide again as he healed with his god tier abilities. He grabbed his hammer again and hit Vriska squarely in the shoulder, followed by a loud pop as he dislocated it. Vriska didn't lose any time and stabbed at John's side "You'll have to do better than that, I've had plenty of time to practice fighting with one arm," she laughed.

John rolled out of the way and flew up into the air. Vriska followed close behind, John's blood dotting her cheeks as it dripped out of his wounds. He stopped suddenly and whipped around, hitting Vriska again and again and shouting, "Get! Away! From! Me!" Vriska ducked a few swings but soon was getting hit left and right like a rag doll. She watched carefully through the thuds of each attack and—there! She grimaced through the pain and grabbed her sword with both hands, stabbing John through the middle. Her shoulder exploded in pain, but she pulled the blade back, the hook at the tip sinking into his back.

John froze mid-swing and drooped toward the ground, coughing up blood as it spread over his blue shirt from the wound. Vriska was starting to feel hazy, fluttering around in confusion until she hit something that felt like the ground. Half her face was swelling up and a sharp pain throbbed on the top of her head. She half-grinned at what she assumed was John from her place in the sand, now a blue and red blob in her hazy and quickly fading vision. "Don't worry… about it…, you'll just wake up again," she said, "Hopefully I will, too." She could hear Tavros's voice coming toward them, yelling something she couldn't understand. "You fucking suck, John Egbert," she spat before the world faded away completely and she passed out.