Another Chapter. So I'm plotting everything out. At first I was going to have it be Dualscar, but who doesn't love some Cronkri every now and then?


Blurring lights. Distant voice. Darkness.

In and out, in and out. My breath comes in short rasps, but it hurts it feels dry. Everything around me is dark; I hear voices but can't make out words. I see brief light but it quickly fades away. A dull ache fills my head as it tries to grasp the situation, as it tries to work.

Am I dead? No I can't be dead, there's voices and light, I'm unconscious. Where, why, how? What happened?

I was walking, I was hungry and then…? Purple fills my mind and I want to wince in pain, I want to groan out as the eyes bore into me, as the memories flood back slowly.

Blood. Death. Purple. Monster.

I groan loudly, my head is pounding, and attempt to blink my heavy eyes open only for a blinding light pierce them; I squeeze them shut, trying to move but finding myself unable to do so. I struggle, tugging at my arms and legs, only to find that they are bound, strapped to something. I'm restrained.

"Good to see you're finally awake, Mr. Vantas!" A cheerful and unfamiliar voice greets me as the darkness slowly loses its grip on my mind and the reality of the situation hitting me. I growl out and jerk at the restraints, blinking fastly, trying to get used to the light so I could meet the assailant.

"Now, now" the voice chuckles, I can feel the sarcasm dripping from his tone as he lightly pats me on my aching head "Wouldn't want us to subdue you again now would you?"

Finally my eyes adjust to the lighting and I glance around frantically. White, I'm in a white room, no, I'm in a lab. Various tables surround the chair that I am currently strapped to; needles, medical instruments, vials of god knows what, and odd devices lying casually on them as if this was a normal occurrence.

I turn my stare to the man currently hovering above my body; I pull my head up, the room still dizzy. I squint and take in his features; he's elderly, grey lightly dusting his combed back black hair, his eyes were a pale grey, cold and trained on me, taking in my state and my reaction. Hanging loosely on his shoulders was a white lab coat, buttoned all the way down as to cover whatever attire he had on underneath it.

"W-wha" I attempt at speaking but it comes out in a short hoarse rasp; the man grins and clasps his hands together, turning to his right and nodding at another figure.

"Now I'm sure you have many questions, as do we" the man began, cutting of my attempt and pressing the rim of a small plastic cup to my lips "Here, it's water, the sedative we injected you with has a nasty effect of leaving one dehydrated"

I want to protest, to fight back against him, but he's right, my throat is as dry as a desert and I greedily wrap my lips around the rim of the small cup and slurp and the water as he tips the cup up. It stings going down, but I feel much better than before. I find myself licking the remainder of it off my lips as he pulls the cup back. He asks if I want more but I shake my head no, in truth I'm dying for more water, but I had enough to allow me to talk, I don't want whatever these bastards give me. They have me strapped to a fucking chair for fucks sake.

"Where the fuck am I" I snap out, glaring up at him and turning the glare to the few others in the room. I recognize Sollux but that's it, a few hold guns, some stare at me in awe.

"The same place you were two hours ago" the man replied, pulling a metal chair from under a table, it scraped loudly against the floor as he drug it to sit across from me and I winced at the noise, before he plopped down onto, folding his hands under his chin and staring at me in interest.

"That much is fucking obvious" I scowl, jerking my head to glare heatedly at Sollux who returns it just as angrily, before continuing "I meant, where in this fucked up place, a lab? Going to test on me? Turn me into a little experiment?"

The scientist or doctor, I'm leaning towards both only smirks and waves his hand out my outburst, seemingly unfazed by it.

"My, my, what a temper you have there! And here I thought we hired a leveled head young man! Tell me.. Karkat" He drawls out the r in my name, leaning in slightly, his face mere centimeter away from mine "What were you thinking going into the room? Hmm? Spying perhaps?"

Spying? Who the fuck would even try to spy on that… whatever it was. I give him a look of incredulousness.

"Who in the hell would even fucking try to spy on that?" I snort loudly "I heard someone scream, I freaked out and went to check, it was an accident."

"The man before you deemed it ok and safe" Ah, so the man who had died hadn't worked here, another intruder on their dirty little secret, and he had unfortunately dragged me into his mess. A flash of his bloodied face appears in my mind and I shake it away with a frown. "The cameras do in fact show what you say… but you see my assistants and co-workers think differently, I for one believe you!"

I want to snort and laugh at his obvious lie. There was no way in hell he trusted me, otherwise I wouldn't be pinned to a metal chair with armed people glaring at me like I'm the monster. Would they even let me go?

"I'm sure you want to leave, those restraints mustn't be quite pleasant after all!" he chided, poking at one of the rather tight ones, around my midsection "How about I strike a little deal?"

"Cronus!" I hear someone burst out, their voice dripping with anger and paranoia; he simply raises his hand waits for my answer.

"A deal?" I hiss out at him baring my teeth at him, leaning as close as I could get with restraints and barking back "I woke up and came to this shitty ass job at five in the fucking morning, stood out in the fucking cold for a goddamn hour, got blabbered to about fucking cleaning shit for another hour, pestered all fucking day by little brats and their tired cranky guardians, then I watch helplessly as a man bleeds out in my arms, nearly shit myself as some, some… thing nearly rips my fucking throat out, then the fucking guy decides to fucking have nuzzle the Karkat time with his BLOODIED FUCKING FACE on me, and to top it the fuck off I wake up in the goddamn room with a douche shoveling asshat like you offering me a fucking deal"

I finish my long rant, panting towards the end, I want to say the guy looks surprised, but he doesn't. He just frowns and takes a phone from his pocket. But it's not his, it's my red flip phone, I can tell because of the little cancer charm Kankri had gotten me dangles from it. He twirls it in his hands before flipping it open.

"A deal of sorts" his eyes meet mine, and for a moment I want to shiver, they look colder, harder "You see, the 'thing' you mentioned in your little hissy fit happens to be one of our most disobedient and … dangerous... experiment. So I find it quite peculiar that he should have spared you, honestly watching from the screen I thought for sure he was going to rip you to shreds at first. So why it is that he spared you, Karkat?"

I blink and I hold back the scream boiling in my throat. They had been watching the whole time, they watched the man die, they watched me, they were waiting for me to get rip to shreds and end the same way. They didn't care if I died or not, but now I'm something, I'm an object for them to use, they want to use me.

"Maybe it was just a thing, a fling if you will" he stated, flipping my phone open and scrolling through my contacts in plain view of me, the cursor landing on Kankri's name before he finally looked back up "There's only one way to find out"

I open my mouth, my eyebrows knitting together as I piece together what he means. He wants me to go back, to go back in the room with that monster. To see if I really am worth keeping, worth risking. I swallow around the lump that had formed in my throat.

"Why should I do it" I ask in a hushed voice, very unusual for me, he smiled brightly as if delighted by my fears.

"You have no other choice, or should I place Kankri there in you stead?" I couldn't hold back the angry shout that left my body.

"You leave him the fuck out of this you pertinacious cuntwad!" I spit out angrily, jerking again against the restraints, feeling their tightening hold on my body only making me angrier.

"And I will" came the calm and steady reply "But first you must hold up on your end. Should it be true that Gamzee does indeed take a liking to you, you would be a valuable instrument to our little project we have going on here and we would treat as such, your pay will rise sufficiently and we will see to it that Kankri is left out of this and no harm come to either of you"

I take in his offer, it's a take or suffer one, I am only given one choice, there is no refusal.

"And what if it was just a onetime thing?" I ask, taking to looking at the floor than to look up into his eyes that already hold the answer in them.

"Then you die" he bluntly answers me.

"And Kankri?" I whisper silently, I can fill my eyes begin to fill up with tears that I don't want to fall.

"We can't have any loose ends" I understand what he means and a choked sob shakes from my body "You must see how very tight the situation is, Karkat, we hope that you do understand that we do give our deeps regrets and apologies should you fail" I know it's bullshit but I nod.

"Can I call him?" I ask jerking my head to the phone; he pulls his lips tight and thinks over the request.

"You have three minutes, one distress signal and you will find not only yourself, but anyone you care about in the Highblood's sector, and that is somewhere you do not want to wander aimless into"

I want to bite back at him but he has the phone already dialing, on speaker of course as to listen in on the call, near my mouth. It doesn't take but two and a half rings before the obnoxious voice of my older brother picks up.

"Karkat Vantas! Do you even want to begin to think over how worried I have been? Do you?" I try to answer him but he continues on, flying into one of his rants, many of the people currently in the room with my trying the best to stifle a giggle, I can't help the red blush that paints my cheeks "You told me five, five, do you know what time it is now? I slaved over the stove trying to prepare a decent meal, and god knows how horrid I can be at cooking, because you finally managed to find a job and now you can't even pick up your phone?"

"Kankri look I-"

"Don't you Kankri me, little man!" He cuts me off, more smirks and giggles, even Cronus is trying his hardest to suppress a smile in the tense situation "The food is cold, Crabdad is lonely, and I have a cramp in my backside from sitting on the wooden chair waiting for you, really I should get some cushions for the darn things don't you think? Why I-"

"KANKRI" I cut him off sharply, if it weren't for the situation I would have been cursing like a sailor at him to shut the fuck up.

"There is no need to raise your voice Karkat" Came the curt reply. I groan loudly.

"Something came up ok? Feed Crabdad, I'll be home later, and eat. Don't wait on me" I tell him but I know he can hear my voice wavering.

"Is something wrong, you're not hurt are you?" he asks in a little panicky voice, I smile softly the tears that had threatened to spill earlier now flowing down my face in streams.

"Everything is fine, some guy ate too many fucking tacos" I manage out.

"That is…disturbing" there was a break of silence and for a moment I thought he could hear through the lie "What did I tell you about that vulgar language!"

"Goodbye Kankri, I love you" The words tasted foreign coming from my mouth and I ushered them out quickly, Cronus signaling to me that my time was up and ending the call after, shoving the phone back into his pocket.

"You'll get it back after" that was all I got before I felt the restraints being released and arms tugging on mine, I would have glared up at Sollux, I knew it was him due to the lispy yes sir that was muttered before they had, but I didn't want to look pathetic . "That is, if there even is an 'after'"

And with that, I was shoved away.

XoX

"His name is Gamzee" the blonde headed scientist informed me, swiping her card into the identifier, the green light flashed above the door and the same audible clicking noise was heard as it unlocked, if I could hear it I'm sure 'Gamzee' could as well. I stared blankly at the door waiting to be pushed back into the room, the room I might die in.

"We hope that you do not hold any grudges against us for doing this should you succeed" the woman spoke again, her overly purple lips pursed and staring at me quizzically "We send you in with high hopes, you have to understand that, whatever ideas you've conjured up into your mind to fit the scenario is more than likely wrong, we're sending you in there in hope of saving more than you think you're risking"

I roll my eyes and scowl at the pep talk, if there was one thing I didn't want, it was to here bullshit. The lady seemed to catch on as she moved to the side and nodded to Sollux.

"Alright" he muttered, grabbing ahold of the door handle and turning it slowly. The door creaked open, and even with it only open partially, I could hear the snarling coming from the other side. I shivered at the noise, wanting nothing but to run, but a firm hand gripping my wrists shoved me forward.

The room was chilly, everything exactly in its place except for the body and blood that had previously been there, whether or not Gamzee had disposed of it himself or the people keeping here had was unknown to me and I don't think I really want to. I hear Sollux take in a deep breath, his foot keeping the door from closing.

The snarling from before had grown louder, I clenched my eyes shut and drew in a deep breath before re-opening them and looking up at the beast.

Gamzee was in a defensive stance; his lips pulled back and hunched over, ready to launch himself at any second. His purple eyes were trained on Sollux and the gun held in his hand steadily, a louder and more drawn out growl was released from him, his eyes narrowing.

"Go" I spit out at the guard, Gamzee briefly glances at me, his eyes raking over my body in an uncertain way before going back to Sollux. Sollux nods curtly, sparing me no glance and backing up, outside of the door, every step he received a growl or hiss from Gamzee until the door closed behind him.

Gamzee's composure slackened and his eyes once again trained on me, I shivered and stared back into those menacing purple eyes. He let out a gruff noise and sniffed at the air, his eyes continuing to roam over me, inspecting me. I take in a shaky breath before speaking up.

"G-Gamzee" his ear seem to perk up at the mention of his name, his eyes widening "That's your name right? Gamzee?"

There was a huffed noise of content before I felt his body crush into mine; I let out a long withheld scream, afraid that he was attacking. But there was no biting or scratching, and there was no pain. I felt warmth envelop me and his arms wrap around my form pulling me tightly against his body like a child would a teddy bear.

A small whine escaped his throat as he nuzzled my head, I was like a small mouse compared to him, at full height I'm sure he would standing a good one and a half foot above me. I let myself be coddled and nuzzled on, the room was cold and his body was emitting a very strong warmth that I found myself unable to deny, even if I would try to pull away he'd only rumble and tug my tighter.

I don't know how long we've been sitting like this, me curled up in his arms as he nuzzled and hugged himself around me, it felt like hours, hours of nothing but being fawned over. It was annoying as hell.

"Karkat, you are now permitted to leave the room" a voice filled the room, startling me and Gamzee, I sighed and pulled away from the dangerous creature, going to stand up when his hand wrapped around my wrist tugging me back down against him and growling dangerously.

"Hey!" I yelped as I land with a thud into his chest, his arms once again wrapping themselves protectively around my mid-section.

"Stay"

The voice was raspy and slow, at first I thought it was another command coming from the scientist and I was about to raise hell, but a look up at the face of the only thing keeping me here told me different. I blinked, trying to process what had just occurred.

"You can fucking speak?" I growl out, giving him a shove which proved futile considering he barely even moved a centimeter, his hold tightened. He cocked his head at my aggression, his eyes pulled together.

"Karkat stay" he formed the words again, his voice was hard and his eyes held little emotion as he said the command, he might be able to speak and understand certain things, but I doubt he knew much of English and only repeated or understood what he generally heard over his course of being here. I frown at him and tugged against his grip harder.

"Karkat leaves" I bark back at him, he grins at my attitude, shaking his head and pulling me tighter, I wince at the bruises I can tell have already formed, he notices and immediately releases me, sending me crumbling to the floor.

"Hey you fuck ass" I snap at him, leaning up on my elbows. I freeze up as I feel a warm clawed hand slip underneath my shirt, my face heats up and I scoot away from the travelling hand, only for his other hand to grip at my hip, pulling me back down. It doesn't help that he's stark naked either, I squirm underneath him my shirt being pulled up to reveal my stomach.

There are cameras, they're watching me. I've done my job I want out, this is too much, I wave my arms frantically, kicking my legs as Gamzee examines my bruises, searching for more bruises.

"I know you can fucking see me!" I shout up at the ceiling and corners of the room, there were cameras somewhere. Gamzee snarled and clamped a hand over my mouth, glaring behind him and returning to looking over my body, a hand travelling way too low for my comfort; I bring my knee up in-between his legs and shout at him from behind his hand. He howls in pain and rolls off of me, his hand shooting down to cup his pride.

I pant out and pull my shirt back down by the hem, sparing him an apologetic look before darting towards the door, banging my fists against it before he could recover. I wince every time my fist came into contact with the hard metal material, I fucked up, I hurt him, and he might rip m to shreds now.

They said I could leave; all I had to do was prove that I was worth their time.

"I did it!" I wail, beating harder into the door "You said I could go, let me out you assholes!"

More tears spill from my eyes, Kankri flashes in my head, I don't want to die; I don't want him to die. Everything I've take for granted all the bullshit I've done and haven't done. I scream hoarsely and loudly, I sound like the animal in the room not Gamzee.

The door slid under my skin, and steady arms caught me, pulling me out of the room. I heard Gamzee scream loudly his body thudding against the door as it slid back into place behind me.

XoX

I'm watching the screen in disbelief and confusion. I was sure that Gamzee was going to rip my body apart as soon as he regained his composure after my hit. But what I was viewing proved different.

The minute I had left the room, he had taken to slamming himself against the door, tearing and scratching at. He had given up, only after his nose began bleeding from a rather harsh throw, on throwing himself at the door and taken to ripping his surrounding up, tossing things around and screaming loudly up at the cameras he knew were there.

"He did not approve of your removal from the room" Cronus stated with an interested expression on his face, he studied me with caution.

"Can I go now" I wince at an especially harsh throw of what looked like bones; it nearly hit one of the cameras watching him.

"Not quite, there's one more thing I would like to test" he informed me, clicking his pen impatiently. "Now that I know for certain that he doesn't want any harm to come to you, I would like to continue these visits with him but firstly, I want to see if he will listen to you"

"Excuse me?" I snap at him in disbelief "You expect me to go in there with him every day? Are you fucking crazy?"

"Not every day necessarily" he answer, ignoring my main question "We can't have him becoming too… clingy… so to speak, but having you near him would definitely benefit in our studies. After reviewing the footage himself, the boss also agrees in keeping you, though he had a very different perspective on how to do so, I myself believe that you wouldn't try to run away. Do you, Karkat?"

I had pondered over that, running away with Kankri. But Kankri wouldn't believe me, and even if he did they would know, they could hurt him or worse, I'm putting my own feelings over his life; I couldn't do it.

"No" I answer him. He flashes me a smile and pats my back proudly.

"Good!" he cheers and point at the screen "Now I'd like to test something, I'm going to have you speak into the intercom connected to his room, I want you to tell him to calm down, anything that comes to mind"

Before I can respond he's pressing the button to Gamzee's room and speaking into the tiny microphone.

"Gamzee, I have someone who wants to talk to you."

Gamzee pauses and snarls up at the intercom, I look at Cronus only for him to jerk his head towards the microphone. I sigh and lean close, watching his face on the screen.

"Hey fuckass" I manage out, his face instantly lighting up and his ears perking at the sound of me, a slow whine being heard "Quit tossing shit around ok? Look at the fucking mess you've made, it looks worse than my room! If you be good I'll bring you something tomorrow..." I pause and look at Cronus for confirmation; he nods his head lightly "Ok? Clean the shit up you shit, I'm fine, and I'll be back"

And with that he removed his finger from the button, studying Gamzee and his next move. Gamzee frowned and scratched the back of his head, and looking around the room at the mess he had made, I can hear him let out a long groan before he moves to pick up a piece of tree he'd torn loose.

Cronus laughs loudly, tossing his head back and patting me hard on the back.

"You are very interesting, Vantas, wouldn't mind running a few tests on you myself" It sounds as if he's joking, but his eyes tell a different story, he reaches out, my phone resting in his hands "Your brother should be here soon, I called and told him you've finished working, even threw in a few compliments"

I grab the phone from his hand, flipping it open to look at the time. It was already half past eight; I sighed and shoved it into my pocket angrily.

"What did you have in mind when you said you would bring him something?" I thought over the question before answering.

"Underwear, if I have to see his fucking nude ass one more fucking time I'm going to lose my mind"

XoX

"Thank you very much for looking after him Dr. Ampora " Kankri blushed like a fucking virgin and shook the man's hand, flushing brighter at the contact.

"No problem, Karkat is much welcomed here, he did fabulous today" said man grinned and gave my brothers hand a small squeeze and a wink that made me want to vomit up food that wasn't there.

"Kankri, I'm tired" I say, turning to leave, they talk for a bit more before Kankri finally relents and we drive home. We eat dinner, I give him a whole explanation of my day and how it should have went, I excuse myself from the table and take a hot shower, examining the bruises covering my body in various places, and there was a rather nasty one from the dart. I could feel Gamzee's lingering touches over my skin, like fire tickling my body.

I went to bed early for the first time in years, and cried myself to sleep, letting all the feelings and lies out finally before passing out, praying the next day never come.


Hope you liked it~ Drop a review.