Now dear reader, I must inform you of some terrible news. Seventeen bodies lie dead in this world with only three remanning alive. The awful game had ended, but not without consequences.
The battle with English had ended. The Condece, she had disappeared. The dream bubble had vanished leaving all the ghosts no where to go. Calliope had come and taken Caliborn away from this world after his defeat. Every troll and human was alive and well at this point.
As everyone was approaching the final gateway, a large green, purple, and red house with a single door that swung outwards, Jack Noir swept out of the sky from seemingly nowhere.
Everyone did their best to fight off the sudden sneak attack, but to no avail. Everyone died a bloody and heroic death.
Right as they could taste their victory, right as they were about to emerge victorious into a new and beautifully created world, death was brought upon all. All except for three.
Only a timely knight, a fortune teller, and a luck stealer had survived the brutal slaying.
Those such as John or Jade, not even Roxy or Karkat had survived, even if they were the ones to bring English to his knees.
Only Dave, Rose, and Virska had lived to tell the vicious and gory tale of their almost final battle and of the session that had almost succeeded.
They had tried to return to the exit gate, but Jack had set up Derse guards to protect it and make sure no kid or troll got through...alive.
Now they must find a way to defeat Jack Noir and his minions and the game once and for all.
Dave, Rose, and Vriska - Rainbow Falls, New York: 14:32
Late December. The air was filled with a brisk chill. A light snow fell softly and gently, covering the ground in a thick pad of pearly white powder. Dave pulled up the collar of his leather jacket as a bitter, freezing wind blew across his face. Just inhaling made his lungs sting. Being from a hot and dry climate, handling the cold wasn't easy for him. He cupped his hands and blew into them, attempting to warm them. No luck, they were still numb.
Despite how unbearable this was to him, he somehow enjoyed it. It was peaceful. It was quiet. There was not much sound other than the cold winds and the crunching of snow under his boots. It was relaxing. Dave stopped and looked ahead. He saw nothing but the white mist created by the falling snow. But he eventually made out the outline of a large building. A mansion. Rose's place. Another wind blew, stinging his face. He looked down again and continued walking.
As he neared Rose's dwelling, he saw a faint, white silhouette standing by the front door. It was Rose. He could tell by the pink scarf flailing in the steady breeze. Dave hesitantly took his hand out of his jacket pocket and waved it in her direction. After a few moments, she returned the gesture. Dave nodded and quickened his pace. Getting out if the cold was his one priority at the moment. He did not slow down until he could make out the face of his long time friend, Rose Lalonde.
Rose took a few steps forward to meet Dave. She opened her arms and embraced him. Dave accepted it, but did not take his hands out if his pockets. Rose understood why. Rose let him go and took a step back. There was a moment of silence until Dave broke it.
"Got any gloves?"
Rose smiled and nodded. She reached around into her back pocket where she retrieved a pair of black gloves. She held them out to Dave, who took them and quickly put them on. Dave couldn't help but notice her black lipstick, glistening from the white snow. It was one of her many attributes that stood out quite a bit.
"When do we leave?" Dave asked, rubbing his hands together to warm them up as quickly as possible. Rose clasped Dave's hands between hers, attempting to help him.
"We have some time. I'm not sure when she is getting here. Shouldn't be very long though." She replied. Dave nodded. Rose could tell Dave did not want to wait in the snow.
"Perhaps we should go inside. It's a lot warmer than it is out here." Rose said, walking back to her door.
"Please." Dave mumbled, following hastily behind Rose. She opened her door and stomped her feet to get the snow off. Dave did the same and they both went inside.
Dave and Rose sat in silence by the fireplace. Burning logs and the sound of a ticking grandfather clock were the only noises. Dave flexed his fingers multiple times. The feeling in them was returning. Rose kept looking impatiently at the teleportation pad she got from her sburb session. Dave watched as she frequently stared at it.
"I don't think staring at it will make her get here any faster. She'll get here when she gets here." Dave said, breathing on his hands again.
"I know that Dave, but she really needs to hurry up. We need to move quickly. This is our last shot at beating the game, and Vriska taking her sweet whole time isn't helping." Rose said, irritated. Dave rolled his eyes, but Rose couldn't see obviously.
"Do we even have a plan?" Dave asked almost sarcastically.
"The sooner she gets here, the sooner we'll get one." Rose replied, not even looking at Dave. A few more moments of silence passed. Dave leaned forward and sighed deeply, covering his face with his hands. Rose looked back at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Something wrong?"
"This shouldn't have happened Rose."
"What shouldn't have happened?"
"It shouldn't have come to this. There's only three of us left. How the hell are we supposed to win this with only three if 17 of us couldn't even take on Jack at once?"
"We'll figure something out Dave."
"Yeah, fat fuckin' chance."
Rose stood up and walked to the other couch where Dave was sitting. She sat on the edge and put her hand on Dave's back. Dave didn't fight it.
"We'll beat him Dave. I know we will."
"I'm not sure if I can believe that yet."
Rose was silent, she wasn't sure what else to say. Dave continued.
"John and Jade are dead, Rose. I watched as Jack slaughtered our two best friends, and I couldn't do a damn thing about it."
Rose thought she saw his eyes begin to water behind his glasses before he turned away from her. She knew he would hide it as best he could.
"That's just it Dave, there was nothing you could do. But you know what you CAN do? You can avenge them. I suffered too. Especially when-"
Rose almost couldn't finish.
"Kanaya..." Dave finished for her.
"Yeah." Rose said, getting up. She returned to her place on the other couch.
The house was once again silent, aside from the crackling of the fire and the grandfather clock ticking away. Although the situation was dire, the house seemed comfortable. It was pleasant. Dave thought he heard a faint laughter, but he was sure it was just him hearing things. After all, they had been through a lot in the past few weeks. Rose had heard it too. She was facing the direction Dave thought her heard it from. She seemed to be taking it a bit more seriously. She turned and walked over to the edge of a dark hallway. It wasn't pitch black, but it was dark enough that the end was barely visible. Rose squinted as she peered down the hall. There was the sound of shuffling at the end. Then the pleasant feeling of the house vanished. The air went cold and the sound of laughter returned, but this time a bit more audible. Rose's strifespecibus then appeared and she equipped her Thorns of Oglogoth. Dave shot straight to his feet.
"Rose, what is it?" His voice was hasty.
"Imps." She answered, not looking back at Dave.
Dave appearified his strifespecibus and equipped the Caledscratch. He youth rolled over the couch and took his place next to Rose. The shuffling sound in the hallway grew more frequent. Some sounds of growling also emerged from the darkness. A pair of blindingly white eyes appeared from the black. Then another, another, and another. Pairs of eyes appearing from all dark corners. Small human like shapes wearing jester hats behind each glowing light eyes. All at once, the small shapes lunged forward quickly. An imp then Revealed itself out of the darkness. It focused its gaze at Rose and pounced towards her. Rose anticipated this. It's kind of a thing for imps. She thrust one of her needles forward, plunging it through the center of the face of the imp. A dark liquid spirt out of where the needles entered and spattered across Rose's face. These things were extremely messy. Another imp immediately launched itself out of the darkness, taking the place of the imp that Rose had just killed. This one also seemed fixated at Rose. It too jumped towards Rose, but was cut short by Dave's blade severing it's head.
The imps began pouring out of the darkness. Some attacking Rose, others had their eyes set on Dave. The first imp to reach Dave was diverted by a fist to the face. It's was knocked back into two others. Dave took this opportunity to drive his blade through all three at once. He quickly pulled his weapon out of the imps and turned to cut the legs off of another. Rose pointed both of her needles forward. Two auras of purple energy formed around both. A beam of light then shot out of both. The beams passed through several imps each, completely disintegrating them. The two battled furiously, this was their first encounter with imps in a long time, but due to their levels, it wasn't difficult.
"How the hell did these things get here Rose?!" Dave yelled, throwing off an imp that had latched onto his back.
"How should I know?! Bec can do just about anything now!"
The horde seemed endless. In fact, there seemed to be more imps than before. The room was beginning to fill with them. Dave and Rose were backed into the center of the room, surrounded virtually on all sides. Sweat trickled down Dave's face. He could kill them easy enough, but he wasn't sure how long he could keep up with the numbers. They were closing in and increasing in amount rapidly.
"Jesus these things are endless!" Dave yelled, throwing off two imps that had clutched his legs.
Rose and Dave weren't sure how they were going to make it out of this one. The thought had crossed Dave's mind that their new adventure would end before it even started. The imps suddenly spread apart from the teleportation pad. It had begun glowing with a faint cerulean light. It grew brighter and more imps seemed to notice it, their focus shifting from Rose and Dave to the pad. The glow grew brighter. The imps seemed to fear it, backing away from it. Some even hugged Rose's and Dave's legs. Confused, Dave and Rose looked at each other, then at the pad. They both knew what was going on.
Suddenly, a white flash appeared above the pad. Out of the flash flew eight blue dice. Each was diamond shaped and had eight sides, each side with a number of one through the eight. The dice hit the ground and rolled in front of the imps. They drew a but closer to the dice curiously. One imp drew close enough and reached out to touch one. Upon it's hand getting within a few inches of one of the die, a blue bolt of electricity shot out of it and struck the imp in the face. It's face imploded and it's inky black blood sprayed across the other imps. They all turned back to the dice in fear. A sudden fog emitted out of the dice and begin to fill the room.
"Run." Rose whispered over to Dave.
"What?"
"Run!" Rose yelled, grabbing Dave by his wrist and pulling him behind her up the stairs.
The fog in the room began spinning into a circle around the room in a vortex-like fashion. It spun faster and faster until it was a blur of gray. The current made by the vortex began lifting the imps off the ground, they were pulled into the walls of the vortex and vaporized instantly when they touched it. The whole room was pandemonium, the imps grabbed anything to keep from being killed, but it was futile. The vortex sucked in the last of the imps and began slowing down. The outlines of the fog were visible once again. Then the fog started to disperse. It seemed to just fade into nothing. Then it was gone. The whole house was silent once again. Dave and Rose peered out from the balcony on the upper floor. The imps were gone. They hesitantly stood up and cautiously moved down the stairs. They stopped in the center of the room.
"Well... That helped." Dave said, finally allowing himself to breath.
"No kidding."
"What the hell even was that Rose? It came right out of the teleportation pad thing."
"It was Vriska's dice. She must have thrown them onto her own pad. Whatever she did, she did it in very good timing. Much longer and we might've-"
"Let's try not to think about it." Dave interrupted Rose.
Another flash of white came from the teleportation pad. Dave and Rose turned to find Vriska Serket appearify before them on the pad. She had changed a lot since they first met her. She was now god tier. The Thief of Light. The events that had happened had taken a tole on her. Her venomous smile was no longer present. She no longer spoke much and she even allowed herself to become somewhat sensitive, even though not very much. Things like this can change anyone. Vriska pulled her orange hood down, revealing her blue-lined eyes and vision eightfold.
"Are you two ok?" She asked solemnly.
"Uh yeah, we're ok." Dave replied, putting away his strife specibi.
"Thank you Vriska. You helped just when we needed help most." Rose said, also putting her strife specibi away.
"Yeah well, I guess that's what I'm here for."
Vriska moved forward and picked up her dice.
"How'd it do?" She asked, grabbing the last of them.
"How did what do?" Dave replied.
"The dice. How'd they do? Was it a high roll?"
"Well, there was a big ass windstorm that like, made all the imps disappear." Dave explained.
"Yeah, that was a high roll. Actually a very high one. Surprising that you got such a lucky one."
Rose stepped forward toward Vriska stood next to her.
"Where were you? What took you so long?" Rose asked her, seemingly irritated.
"Stuff." Vriska replied.
"Stuff?" Rose said back, she wasn't too happy with the answer.
"Yes Rose. Stuff."
Rose shook her head. Whatever. She thought.
"Ok nevermind that. Now that you're here, we need to get some planning done for what we nee-" Rose was interrupted by Vriska.
"I've already got our start planned. Through an anonymous source of mine, I've discovered weapons in different lands that are better than our current ones. We are going to go find those and give ourselves a better chance of winning this." Vriska told Rose.
"Well ok then." Rose said in response.
"What's our first move then?" Dave asked. He flipped the couch back over and sat on the edge.
Vriska walked over and sat next to Dave.
"Well first we are going to get a new sword for you Dave. So we are going to the land of heat and clockwork."
"Cool. Caledscratch is pretty sick though, you sure there is something better?"
"Yes. But it can only be used if you are in God tier. We are going to have to get you to your quest bed."
"Wait, so I'm actually going to be god tier? I was told by Terezi that I didn't become god tier in any of my timelines."
"Well we are going to break the timeline cycle, because you becoming god tier is an enormous asset. We may not be able to do this if you are not. Rose we will have to do the same for you."
"Isn't it a little late for this?" Rose questioned.
"It may seem that way Rose, it's amazing we got as far as we did with so few god tiers. But in this situation, it's crucial that all three of us are as best as we can possibly be. We will take as long as we need to get the best equipment we can for out class and get to our highest rank possible. Our denizen isn't going anywhere." Vriska replied.
"Ok, well how are we getting to the heat and gears place?" Rose asked.
"Clockwork." Dave corrected her.
"Whatever Dave. Anyway, how are we getting there? Bec closed most of the gates." Rose asked again.
"I paid a certain individual a certain number of boon dollars to put teleportation pads in the worlds we need access to." Vriska answered.
"And how the hell did he do that? I'm pretty sure you can't just put a teleportation pad anywhere." Dave said.
"He has his ways. He isn't important at the moment, so forget about him. The point is, we can use that teleportation pad there to get access to the lands we need." Vriska replied.
"Well then what the hell are we waiting for? We need to go!" Rose said, grabbing Dave and Vriska by their wrists. Vriska yanked her wrist back.
"Two things Miss Seer of Light. One, don't touch me. Two, if you go into that pad right now, you'll be teleported into a void and this game will be over immediately." Vriska said forcefully.
"What? Why?" Rose asked confused.
"Because the registered location on that pad right there is my hive. My hive was just destroyed by Bec before I got here. I teleported just in time as he sucked my world into a world of nothing. I'm not sure how he did it, but my hive is now a void. It is nothing. We need another pad to take to where we need to go. Who ran your session Rose?"
"It was you wasn't it Dave?" Rose asked Dave.
"For show." He replied.
"Do you still have those weird computer shades?" Vriska asked Dave.
"Hey, they ain't weird, they are sick as hell. But yeah I do." Dave said as he uncaptchalogued the shades and equipped them.
He then captchalogued his regular aviators.
"Is your session still running?" Vriska asked.
Dave was silent for a moment as he search through the many open tabs on his computer. Or shades. Whatever you prefer.
"Yeah, it's still open. Rose you have way more than enough grist. I'll place one over by thy it's place." Dave said.
Dave was quiet another moment. The silence was broken as a teleportation pad slammed down next to the fireplace.
"Well, problem solved." Rose said pushing Vriska and Dave onto the pad.
"Alright just let me set it to our destination." Vriska said, pushing Rose away.
Vriska placed her fingers on her temples and stood silent for a few seconds.
"Ok we're clear. Let's go."
There was a flash of white light and the three disappeared.