Equius Zahhak looked up from his muscletop, a mobile computing device in the shape of a majestic hoofbeast. The suspense caused by the calamity his client player had only narrowly escaped as well as her impressive display of physical strength had made him sweat. He had not talked to the jade blood before and was quite surprised by her excellent manners and language. Her status in the hierarchy was not great, but at least he did not have to help a complete gutter blood into the game. The recent revelation that forced him to cooperate with the red team and their foul-mouthed leader had changed his mood for the worse already. The thought alone made his noble blue blood boil with unfathomable rage.
Equius noticed that he was perspiring again, when he felt a towel being placed onto his shoulders by the gentle robotic hands that could only belong to Aradia. It was as if that towel had not only absorbed his sweat, but all of his anger at the same time. He turned around to look at her. Aradia's gleaming red eyes were surrounded by metallic fibre lashes, each of which he had affixed individually. He was a master artisan and she was his magnum opus. Equius' vision went dark for a second as Aradia wiped the towel across his forehead. The next moment he could feel her lips on his own and reciprocated the kiss sensually. After they had detached, Aradia asked with her reverberant voice: "How did it go?" – "What?" – "The entry." She clarified. "Right. It went orderly." He responded and added: "The jade blood survived, mostly unharmed." She nodded. "Good. Kanaya's role is crucial in regard to the ultimate goal of this game. We can't afford to lose the Sylph of Space." Equius silently approved. Aradia seemed to know a lot of things and she had become the de facto leader of the blue team, carried over from her dominance in her relationship with Equius. In the three hours after their disastrous first encounter their quadrant had flipped colours twice, both times on account of Aradia's moodiness. She dragged him with her from red to black and back again. Equius would not say, especially not out loud, that he was unhappy, but he had envisioned their relationship to be a little less volatile.
His gaze wandered down her smooth body. Only half an hour ago she had finally allowed him to repair the gaping hole left in her chest after she had ripped out her own heart and destroyed it before his eyes. He shuddered at the memory. Perhaps she noticed or maybe she could read his mind – Equius was almost certain that this was not one of her powers, but he could never be entirely sure with a psychic like her – either way she said: "I have not forgiven you for what you tried to do to me yet. It is not unlikely that I never will." He could feel the temperature in the room falling. He needed to do something, if he didn't want the situation to deteriorate, something strong. Equius looked straight into Aradia's eyes through his cracked shades and took a heavy step towards her. Even though her face did not change, he was certain that he could make out a spark of surprise in her eyes – excellent. She did not resist when he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. "Aradia, you know that what I did, I did only because of my unfaltering love for you." He spoke with an even deeper voice than usually. He could feel her arm press against his back with a softness that belied her metallic exoskeleton's real rigidity. She kissed him again. "Yes, Equius, I realize." She answered and added in a tone of voice that could melt a glacier and freeze a volcano all at once: "That is why you are still alive."
Equius did not know how to respond to that, so he simply kept holding her. She did not seem to mind; in fact she looked quite satisfied. "I think we should return to the quest at hand." Aradia stated after a while, "The denizen isn't going to kill himself and neither are all the imps standing between him and us." – "Of course, Aradia." He could go for killing some monsters right now. "Go on ahead, I will catch up with you in a minute." After a moment of consideration she nodded and departed for the first gate. Equius let out a short sigh of relief. It was not that he did not enjoy her company, far from it, but it was very intense and he needed a little time to recover his breath, so to speak. Besides he wanted to check on Kanaya and make sure she was alright for the time being. He would have to build up her hive later. When he found the Sylph on his screen though, she was most certainly not alright.
Kanaya did not move for a few seconds. The noise of the meteor impacts outside had stopped. Only now, that everything was perfectly silent, she realized how loud it had really been before. She looked around. Wherever she was, this place was a lot darker than the desert she had just left behind forever. Maybe it was night time over here. She enjoyed the sunlight and hoped that she would not be forced to spend the duration of her quest in darkness. 'Don't be so picky, you are lucky to be alive', she scolded herself. At the same time she could hear some movement behind her back. She had seen Vriska fight small creatures bearing the features of every lusus that had been prototyped so far. From what she could tell, they were rather weak on their own. Another sound – the imp was trying to sneak up on her. Kanaya realized that she was still clutching her chainsaw. There was hardly any fun in facing a minor enemy like this up front, she thought, so she decided to play a little and lure the creature into attacking her. She slowly lifted the lipstick up to her face and put a new layer of black on her lips, despite the fact that she did not have a mirror on hand. And there was the sound! In one fluid motion she turned around, the chainsaw in her hands, and cut right through the imp jumping at her, which was caught completely off guard. Before it exploded into grist, she could make out eight eyes on its startled face, framed on both sides by gigantic bull horns. Kanaya could not help but smile a little at her quaint ruse as she gathered the colourful grist. She then decided to head back to her room before any imps started messing with her belongings.
There was nothing to worry about though. Even if any imps had tried to intrude into her room, her lusus had been keeping good watch over it. Kanaya had heard from Vriska, that their guardians could speak in their new sprite form and she was definitely looking forward to finally conversing with her lusus, who had raised and protected her ever since she had emerged from the brooding caverns. First things first though. She needed to check on her client player and make sure that all the irons she indubitably had in the fire did not get too hot for her to handle. She opened the SGRUB server software on her lunchtop. D'aww, there she was, lying on the floor next to some dice Kanaya had neatly piled up when she had been cleaning Vriska's hive. She was even wearing the pretty costume Kanaya had sewed for her earlier. The view was about as heart-warming as it could possibly get.
One of Vriska's windows burst as something came crashing into her hive all of a sudden. It was a very confused looking Tavros and his rocket chair. 'What is he doing there?' Kanaya wondered. It did not seem like he could answer that question himself. The impact had catapulted him out of his vehicle and now he was lying on the floor, incapable of getting up due to his paralyzed legs. Vriska on the other hand seemed to have just woken up. She got to her feet and looked at her visitor with, as Kanaya could tell, insincere surprise and excitement. The excitement turned out to be not quite as insincere as it was mischievous, when she could see a flashing of devilish joy in Vriska's eye. Kanaya was bewildered and worried at the same time. Vriska had bullied Tavros around before, not to mention thrown him off a cliff. 'What do you have planned, Vriska?' She wondered. The girl on her screen proceeded to walk up to Tavros and – threw some glittery powder at him? She then grabbed him with both arms by his shirt, pulled him up and – the world fell apart.
Kanaya, thunderstruck, watched in horror as Vriska pressed her lips against Tavros'. She could not believe it. So this was why Vriska had her make that dress? Kanaya could feel her heart shattering inside her chest as she went from perplexed to angry, angry at her own stupidity, to distressed. Jade tears started flowing down her face, their warmth fuelled by the unbearable pain tormenting her innocent, youthful emotions. A whirlwind of burning shards of ice was raging through her soul, leaving deep wounds. She could feel a claw resting on her shoulder softly. The voice of her custodian had an echoing sound to it: "There there, sweetheart." Kanaya could plainly hear the sincere compassion carried by these words, but it was no use. She could never be happy again. That is what she was thinking, when a new message sounded from her lunchtop, waking her out of her baleful sorrow. She was about to dismiss it due to her emotional state, but something inside her welcomed the possible distraction. Unsure what to do she looked at her sprite. The ghostly mother grub nodded and said: "Go ahead and answer your friend, Kanaya. They may help with cheering you up." She took a look at the chat window. It was Equius of all people. 'Oh, of course, he can see me through his server software.' She reminded herself. Kanaya had not heard a lot of good things about the blue blood. Especially Karkat reviled him a lot, but she was not about to judge him solely on that basis. She would see what he had to say; after all he had saved her life.
centaursTesticle [CT] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]
CT: D - E%cuse my intrusion, Kanaya
CT: D - It 100% like you are quite distraught
CT: D - Also I could not help but witness the scene in your server window
CT: D - When such fraternization in blatant disregard of the b100dlines hurts a delicate young lady like yourself, it is adding 100fold insult to injury
CT: D - This is una%eptable
CT: D - I would take a%ion against this 100di%ly depraved activity myself
CT: D - Alas, I am not the red team's leader though and they are outside my jurisdi%ion
GA: I Appreciate The Sentiment Equius
GA: I Suppose
GA: But Im Afraid Forcefully Separating Vriska And Tavros Would Not Serve Any Practical Purpose At All
GA: Least Of All Raising My Spirits
CT: D - I see
CT: D - I apologize, I have strayed off course in attempting to mend your wounds
CT: D - I should have known better
GA: Its Ok
GA: As I Have Said I Do Appreciate The Sentiment
GA: I Would Not Have Guessed That You Cared So Much For Those Beneath You
It took a minute until she received an answer to this.
CT: D - I certainly do
CT: D - A b100 b100d must be STRONG for the ones of lesser status
CT: D - It is only reasonable
CT: D - Don't you think
GA: I Suppose So
CT: D - 100king at you I must say
CT: D - The way that you are conducting yourself with such grace despite being in such e%treme emotional distress is
CT: D - Admirable
GA: Thank You
GA: Am I Really Though
GA: I Can Still Feel The Tears When I Think That She Would Do This To Me
GA: Wait
GA: Fuck
CT: D - Please, mind your language
GA: Yes I Just
GA: Wish I Hadnt Said That
CT: D - So it is Serket after all
CT: D - There is no reason to be ashamed, she is the f001 who loaded shame onto herself
CT: D - She is a disgrace to her class
CT: D - And not deserving of your affe%ion
CT: D - I suggest you demolish everything that reminds you of her, starting with this costume bearing her symbol
CT: D - The one that you are currently holding
CT: D - In fact, I command it
Kanaya felt confused, tossed back and forth from her sorrow to the anger against Vriska Equius was stirring inside her. Either way, she thought, it was better to get the Thief of Light off her mind. She looked at the dress in her hands. Not even an hour had passed since she had made it, but it felt like forever ago. She saw the jade tear stains on the white cloth, tears she had cried because of her. Her fault! Giving in to the impulse she ripped the costume in half – and again, while letting out a sharp cry, and tore the transparent blue wings from the cloth.
When her flaming rage had subsided, Kanaya stared at the white tatters teary-eyed. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve feeling strangely relieved, but also exhausted. When she wanted to thank Equius, she found that he had already logged off.
