It seems that there are a lot of short stories written about the 'Seek the Highblood' minigame from Homestuck based on the author's take on it. Well, I've decided to do something a little different, to switch it up a little. In this little scenario I've concocted, our favourite kitty stumbles upon the murderous clown before Equius...

As an added note: If you have an idea for a short story/one shot for a few Homestuck characters, feel free to review the story and include what you want me to write about next. Just give me the characters and the situation and I will try my best to write out a little short story based around that. ^.^ Thank you to anyone who ends up being brave enough to do so!

WARNING: Violence, blood, and lots and lots of feeeeeeeels.

A Failure of Duty

Normally, he could not defy the highblood. When Karkat's message had come to him, he had looked upon it with disdain. How could he ever raise a finger against that uncouth slob? It seemed that Makara was finally coming into his roll, actually. But his message was urgent, pleading. The mutant blood even stooped so low as to order him to do it. He needed to learn his place. And yet...the way he commanded such respect...

He needed a towel.

"Equius?"

He looked over at his moirail, Nepeta. The perfect example of any lowblood, obedient, serving as his lesser half. Though he would only admit in private that she was one of his only friends, the only person he had to talk to on this damned, excuse the language, meteor. She'd comforted him after Aradia had blown up, after he had been admittedly distraught by her mixed up farewell.

"The highblood has gone on a rampage," he told her. "Vantas has ordered me to apprehend him and put a stop to his murderous tendencies."

No one knew him better than Nepeta and he could see within her eyes what she was thinking. She knew as well as he that it would take a great deal of motivation for him to raise a finger against Makara due to his exquisitely purple blood. Finally, she shook her head and smiled.

"I'm not sure I can believe it, really!" she laughed.

"Most likely due to the fact that you refuse to look upon the hemospectrum as the deciding behoovioural factors that they are," he chastised, giving her a stern look. One of the stern looks that never really seemed to get through to her. Instead, she gave him a weird look.

"Behoovioural?" she questioned.

"Behavioural," he corrected himself quickly. "My apologies, my heart is galloping at a mile a minute and I canter nunciate..." He shook his head. "The horst I mean worst case scenario is upon us." He was trying to be serious, but it was all Nepeta could do to contain her laughter.

"This is a serious matter, Nepeta," he growled irritably. "His blood is the richest of all land dwellers. He is prone to be the most violent and unpredictable of all of us. I can not say that I am surprised that he has gone off on this rampage." He let loose a tiny, and perhaps sheepish, smile. "And I suppose not all of us are blessed with a moirail such as I. I am not sure what I would be without you, Nepeta."

He was surprised when she pounced on him, hugging him tightly. Not enough to send him to the floor, his stance was too strong for that. She gave him a huge grin.

"Oh thank you, Equius! You know I'll always be ready to pounce you when you start getting furrious!" she exclaimed happily. "And you're always here to make sure I do the right thing, too!"

"Yes and it is for that reason that I hold your protection in the highest of priorities. I would not have the highblood targeting you, next. You will, under any circumstance, avoid the highblood and any other whose behaviour has turned volatile since the time we entered this lab. Do you understand?"

"W-Well, if you mean Vwiskers, I mean Vriska, I'm already kind of scared of her..." she admitted with a slight stutter to her tone. "And Ampurra!" she snarled. "That guy really gives me the creeps, he always looks at me all funny and I don't like it! But what do I do if I see any of them, Equius?"

"You have proved yourself adept at moving around this lab," he told her. "I am sure you can find a suitable place where they would not be able to reach you."

"Where do you think I should hide?" she said, seemingly excited by the game.

"It is you who excels at such things, not I," he told her. "I trust your best judgement."

"Okay! I think I can do that!" she purred, giving a close eyed smile. His shoulders drooped a bit, and he gave her a sad look.

"I will now seek out the highblood, then," he said. "Hide, just like I told you to." She gave him a tiny nod.

"Okay, Equius. I promise I'll do my best to stay out of the way!"

"Nepeta, I would like to take the opportunity now to...to say goodbye," he said quietly. She frowned, her eyes going downcast. But she forced a smile for him.

"Well, okay, goodbye! But I better see you soon, Equius! Oh, and take this!" She removed her cat hood, handing it to him. He looked at the object smirking up at him with its cat-like grin. When he looked up to thank her, she was already gone, leaving him to search out Gamzee on his own.

Equius was right, she really did know all the great hiding places. One of her favourites, though, were the vents, which she was the purrfect size for! She loved to crawl into them and run through the maze, spying on people and acting like a hunter stalking her prey. Many a times had she pounced on the inhabitants of the meteor, including Karkat. His reaction had been the funniest, and she blushed to think that that was why she liked him so much!

Of course, she should probably stay put. Equius might get mad if he found out that she was recklessly scurrying around in the vents! But, with a conspiratorial glance to make sure he had already left, she removed the grate and crawled inside. Her many trips into the air ducts had cleared them of the dust, but her nose still twitched, threatening to make her sneeze as she began her journey.

Making her ways through the air ducts, she came upon more grates on the way. At one point, she looked through and gasped. Oh no, look at Purrezi, er, Terezi's, poor stuffed animals! They were all torn up and thrown everywhere! She remembered the hours she and the blind troll had spent role playing with those and was saddened to see them so brutally murdered.

"Aw, Purrezi always says they deserve justice, but I don't think she meant it like that!" she lamented quietly to herself.

But the stuffed dragons were quickly forgotten as she moved on. She froze mid step, though, when she was sure that she heard...squeaking? Her ears perked up when she heard it again, the sound of a small rodent scrabbling against the metal of the air ducts. How lucky! She could have a little snack while she was waiting!

She entered stalking mode as she crept down the vents, following the slight sounds of her prey. She grinned when she peeked around the corner and saw it, nibbling on something or another with its back to her, facing yet another grate. She slowly got herself into position, wriggling her rump a little, and pounced.

The cheesecritter squealed in surprise as Nepeta caught it between her claws. She soon realized, though, that she had no grip in these tunnels and went barrelling through the grate. She managed to hold onto her prize, though, and opened her hands a little to watch it squirm. She was about to indulge when a shadow fell over her.

"HONK HONK... peasantblood..."

Equius knew this part of the lab fairly well. A glance told him that the highblood was no where to be seen, and had not been through this area. Yet. As he continued his search, though, pressing deeper and deeper into the lab, he stumbled upon what appeared to be broken glass containers, containing the many experiments that occasionally got out and needed to be taken care of. A little further exploration down the hallway to the right, though, led him to discover where one of the experiments had gone missing.

The huge, 12 times prototyped beast lay dead in the middle of the hall. A single jump brought him to the creatures face. Imbedded deeply within its eye sockets were two arrows, shot true with unmatched precision. He stared, in awe of whoever could perform such a feat that he could not. There appeared to be blood on the arrows... None of it purple, though. Brown, violet, and a pinkish colour, but that was all that decorated the shaft. It could be anyone of the murderers running around the lab at the moment.

Paying a silent prayer to the mighty hoofbeast, he continued on his search. Only he and Nepeta ventured down these parts. The lighting was dim, and the floor tiles reflected back an eerie red colour that was more discerning than usual. It set the mood, he acknowledged. Even he, with all his strength, felt nervous. The highblood was most certainly crafty.

Suddenly, all the lights cut out. It took a second for his natural night vision to kick in. Gosh darn it, he needed another towel. His heart was racing. The quietness seemed to magnify the rushing of the blue blood through his veins. If only he could hear the blood of others, so he may sense if the highblood were nearby.

It seemed that his anxiety had left him distracted, though. His foot caught on something and he was unable to retain his footing, crashing to the floor. He landed in a pool of something...something warm. Its colour was indiscernible in the darkness, but he was almost sure that it was blood. It had already begun to cool, so he could not tell the colour from its warmth. He had only one option, and he couldn't help but fear the worse.

Slowly, he turned, kneeling in the warm pool of blood, to face the body he had tripped over. He removed his glasses, his eyes tracing over the slight, feminine form of his moirail. Viciously beaten to the point where bones had been broken and livid bruises, faint in the dark, had formed. With shaky hands, he gently lifted Nepeta's broken body off the ground. He dared not to hold her to him for fear of harming her further.

The faint rise and fall of her chest was nigh unseeable. Whoever had done this had seen fit to keep her alive and lit her die a slow death. Her eyes opened a slit, glowing yellow in the dark. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but a trickle of blood trail down her chin instead. He could only stare. Blue tears slipped down his face.

"Nepeta..." he murmured. "The...highblood...?"

"THAT'S RIGHT MOTHERFUCKER!" a voice chuckled from behind him. Equius released his moirail, whipping around to face the uncouth noble. Gamzee's face paint had long been smeared and ruined, but it only served to make the wicked grin on his face all the more frightening. "her blood... IS A RUNNING MOTHERFUCKING JOKE... and now... IT'S RUNNING THROUGH MY FINGERS!" he crowed.

"I demand that you stand down, highblood," Equius snarled. An unrestrained kind of rage coursed through his veins. "Or I will kill you."

"i demand that you... KNEEL MOTHERFUCKER!" Gamzee snarled, stalking closer. In his hands was a bow.

He could not let the unspeakable acts against his moirail go unpunished. He met the highblood's loathing gaze, his hands clenching into tight fists. No longer did this troll's blood matter. All he saw was the lazy slob who had never saw fit to truly be integrated into the ranks of true aristocracy, who indulged in his drink and his pie, leaving him in a haze of muddled thoughts most days.

Whatever had possessed this monster to attack Nepeta the moment that haze cleared, though, did Equius in. His moirail had been nothing but kind to the purple blood. It was he who had treated him with disdain, loathed him for his disgusting habits. He crushed his glasses in his hand, his gaze alit with fury. She did not deserve this.

"I will not," Equius growled. Gamzee's lip twitched into a disgusted sneer.

"kneel peasantblood," he ordered. Equius did not budge. "I SAID MOTHERFUCKING KNEEL!"

He notched the arrow and drew the string back, aiming for his heart. Equius was quicker, leaping forward and slamming his fist into Gamzee's face. There was no way even the highblood could compete against his strength. The clown slammed into the wall on the other end of the room, stunned for a second. A single strong jump brought Equius to stand before him.

Wrenching the bow from the clown's hands, he dealt him the same courtesy that he had dealt Nepeta not too long ago. When the bow was no more, he proceeded to use his fists. He'd never actually beaten something, or someone, so badly. He'd always had Nepeta their to calm him down. The brief thought of his dieing, possibly dead, moirail caused his anger to surge.

By the time exhaustion dragged at him, he was covered in purple blood. Gamzee was no more than a bloody pulp, mostly unidentifiable save the blood colour. This time, the clown was down, and it was with 100% certainty that Equius knew he would not be getting up. A little numb from this murder, he turned and plodded over to Nepeta.

She'd stopped breathing long ago. He cradled her in his arms for a long time. At one point, the lights came back on. Hesitant footsteps could be heard, but he was frozen in his grief. Shocked, even, as he stared down at his moirail in disbelief. Silent murmurings told him that the others had arrived and were now gathered around Gamzee's body.

"Equius?" someone whispered from behind. They kept their distance, and with good reason.

"The highblood is dead," the blue blood said in a tone void of emotion. "Have I pleased you by fulfilling this duty, mutant blood?"

"U-Uh... Yeah..." Karkat said, clearly put off. "Is that... Oh god, is that...?"

He said nothing. The question was answered by his silence.

"I think... I think we should head up top," Terezi whispered. "We don't want to miss the beacon."

"Yeah," Karkat agreed. "Equius, are you..."

"No," was his immediate reply. They left without another word.

"I have failed you, Nepeta."