Disclaimer: I do not have the legendary Hussie lips, therefore I couldn't possibly own Homestuck!

A/N: This is my first Homestuck fanfiction, and I'm sure I have a lot of editing to do, but I wanted to post it so that I can motivate myself to get it finished and maybe get some feedback so that the rest of it is truer to the characters; I don't know how well I did here...

Also, just so it's clear, this is an alternate universe where the circumstances of the end of the world are slightly different, and the different worlds in the Medium do not exist; I wrote this for a creative writing assignment in school where the people reading it will not be familiar with Homestuck and it would be absurd to attempt explaining it to them. Also, Rose's mom and John's dad do not die in this universe.

Warning: Character Death, Minor Gore

Finally, my work was done; I could stop time-hopping, I could go back to everyone else's present, I could find my brother. It felt like he'd been gone for so long, even though I was the one who was gone, but I had to do my part right. I couldn't create a doomed timeline; I had to travel in the right way to ensure that my friends were as safe as possible, even if the world was crumbling apart around us. Being the Knight of Time means always being alone, but it's an important job if we're going to survive the Reckoning we brought upon ourselves. But I'd done my part for now! It was up to John now. Heir of Breath… I had no idea what that meant, but as he was the leader of our party, I know whatever it meant he was, it had to be pretty damn important. I could search for Dirk now… He'd taken care of me my whole life, and I knew he was stronger than I could imagine, but so was our enemy, and I couldn't leave him alone to die when we were looking for what we needed to survive!

It felt as if my insides froze when I appeared at our community's soccer field, an open field at the end of the block our apartment was on. Like everything else on our planet, it was ravaged by the meteors, tracks of dirt carved into the field as though a great monster had taken offense to its existence and tried to tear it from the earth it stood on. The grass was alight in places, small fires burning but doomed to die when they could no longer spread. I expected the devastation here, and that wasn't what ripped the air from my lungs; lying at my feet was a familiar pair of sunglasses. They weren't like mine; they were pointed instead of rounded, and if I'd cared to pass judgment on them at the moment I would've scoffed at their absurdity, but I was more concerned with the brownish substance dried on the lenses. I bent down and picked them up, and to my dawning horror with a closer examination I could tell that the substance was definitely blood. I couldn't be too late; I was a time traveler—I was supposed to have all the time in the world.

I ran in the direction where I saw scarlet and black stains on the grass, knowing but refusing to acknowledge that they meant both my brother and his opponent were injured. I'd be the only time traveler in the universe that didn't have enough time to save his own brother if I'd really screwed up despite all of my careful planning. Wasn't so careful if I'd neglecting the guy who raised me, though, so I guess I can't even say that. No Dave, don't think about it, he's alive, he has to be, keep moving, go find him! I made it around the bleachers and stopped in my tracks before I could even process what I saw in front of me.

The first thing that occurred to me was the stench. It reeked of blood and shit, and I knew it was a dead body before my brain would process who it was. But I recognized that sword, that shirt, those boots, that hair, this was my brother's body and he'd been run through with his own katana and pinned to the ground. I stumbled backwards a few steps, feeling bile in the back of my throat, but I slipped and fell on my ass just a few feet away from my brother's corpse. I really was too late, I couldn't save him—I realized suddenly that even though I was sitting on grass, there was no reason for it to be slick enough to make me fall. I raised a hand to my face and saw that it was redder than it should be, scarlet etched into the lines of my hand and holy hell I'd slipped in my own brother's blood, he was dead, I felt like I was going to throw up—

And then I was sick, right there where I sat, only just managing to roll over so I didn't get myself any messier than I already was, sitting there behind the bleachers of the soccer field I'd played on all my life, covered in the blood of the only person I'd never admit I really did love. I didn't have to admit it, though; the tears streaming down my face did that for me. I staggered to my feet, falling to my knees next to Bro's body as if the sobs wracking mine were a physical presence behind me forcing me to kneel there. I closed his eyes as gently as I could and placed the sunglasses I'd found and kept on the bridge of his nose where they belonged.

"I'm sorry I fucked up, Bro… If I could go back in time to save you, I would…" I slammed my fists down on the ground. "I'm a goddamn time traveler and I can't even use it to save my own brother! What the hell use am I if I can't even save one person?"

I was pulled out of my wallowing by a chime from my phone. I wanted so badly to ignore it, but my friends were still in directly in the path of danger, just where I was heading back to as soon as I could pull myself together, and I refused to let one of their calls go unanswered. I didn't do unnecessary things like alter my facial expression to show my feelings, but I'd do whatever it took to save them anyway.

- gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 15:37 -

GG: Dave, there might be something wrong with your bro

GG: John and Rose just found their parents, and they were fighting Noir so they almost died-

GG: Find your bro right now

TG: I already found him.

GG: Oh, that's great!

TG: I was too late.

GG: Oh, Dave…

GG: I'm so sorry…

TG: Is there something you needed?

TG: Cause I'm about to find Noir and flip the fuck off the handle

GG: Dave, you can't!

GG: If you confront him, you'll die, too!

- turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering gardenGnostic [GG] at 15: 48 -

I closed the application and slid my phone back into my pocket, pushing my shades up my nose as is my habit. I felt them stick to my hand, so I took them off to see what it was only to see that there was blood smeared on them now too. Sliding the sunglasses back onto my face, I stood and started walking away; when I got to the edge of the street, I turned and saluted at what was left of my brother, leaving for the apartment without another gesture, making a point of kicking over a trashcan on the way even though it made my whole leg sore. He couldn't see or hear me anyway, so why should I do anything else? There was still work to do, and it would be moronic of me to ignore that in favor of mourning someone I had the rest of my life to mourn. Hell, maybe this stupid game was unwinnable; maybe the apocalypse would kill us all and then I wouldn't have to worry about it at all. It's not like I'd never gone a few days without seeing my brother, considering his tendency to take off to the puppet factory or wherever the hell he goes whenever I'm not paying attention, which is always. Anyway, my work with time-hopping might have been done, but there was still plenty more work to follow if I wanted to keep everyone else alive.

Time to get down to business.