Here, have some tragedy.

WARNING: Self harm


Chapter 4

Janyah was awake when he got back. She was on the husktop, even though he'd told her that she wasn't allowed to be up this late in the day. He tapped her shoulder, making her turn. She didn't look guilty that she was caught, though. Rather, she looked kind of sad.

"What's wrong?" he asked, the lecture he had for her dieing in his throat.

"I had another nightmare," she murmured. "I was alone again." He rubbed the back of his neck, frowning. His race was prone to nightmares, but he'd never had the room to get her a recuperacoon.

"When your room's done, we'll get a cocoon," he told her, throwing the scarf in his chest and removing his cloak.

"I don't want to sleep in slime. What if I drown?"

"That's just fucking stupid, why the fuck would you drown in slime? It's the only way you'll stop having nightmares," he snapped as he flung his cloak onto a small, nearby table. The weather was cool (although it never went below freezing like on Earth, where the temperatures were absolutely ludicrous), so he was wearing two layers. He began taking off his sweater, an older one that had his symbol on it.

"Why wouldn't you drown in slime?" she said loudly. "It's not air!"

"Because you won't," he insisted, plopping down on the bed. "Are you going to sleep or what? I don't really want you waking me up when you crawl over me." He always had her sleep on the wall side so she didn't fall off the bed.

"Karkat, did you know that Jade and Alex aren't getting married anymore?" she said, abruptly changing the subject.

"Yeah." He was a bit jealous that Janyah knew before him. "Why does it matter?"

"I thought you liked Jade?"

"I don't."

"Not even pale?" she asked.

"No," he snapped, pinching his temples with a finger and a thumb. "Humans don't have quadrants."

"But that's dumb because quadrants are the most logical way to do things," she muttered.

"Not really. Not if you have to fill them all up. At least humans can get by with only a matesprit," he muttered. "Where's the satisfaction unless you fill up all your quadrants when you're a troll?"

"I guess. I like the complexity, though. And four's a nice number," she replied. "Almost as good as seven."

"If there were seven kinds of romance I would go outside and give myself up to the undead," Karkat groaned. Janyah laughed, it was stilted, odd, but he'd grown used to it.

"Yeah, me, too. I'm still pretty sure that you like Jade, though, even if I can't tell which quadrant you guys would be in half the time. What about black?" she pressed.

"I don't hate her," he grumbled, folding his arms across his chest.

"You guys argue so much, though!" she exclaimed.

"Go to sleep, Janyah," he growled. She stuck out her tongue and shut down the husktop before climbing into the bed.

"Will I ever get to fill my quadrants?" she asked as he lay down beside her and pulled a blanket around himself. "I've never actually met another troll like I know you."

"I don't know," he admitted. "You'd have to leave to do that." He didn't really want to bring that up. It'd plagued his thoughts all day.

"Unless I wanted you or Jade," she added. "But it'd be weird with you two. Jade said that you're like my human dad, and I think that she's kind of my human mom, too. I read about them, once. How come trolls don't do that kind of stuff normally?" Janyah knew full well the story of how Karkat came to be raising her.

"Because we have lusus, idiot," he growled.

"Why did you have a lusus while I don't?" He fell silent. "Karkat?"

"I don't know," he finally told her.

"Okay," she said, followed by a yawn. "I'm going to sleep now."

"Finally," he muttered, making her laugh as he turned so his back was to her.

"Good night," she murmured.

"Night..." he said, even though she couldn't hear him.


Karkat was back in his old respiteblock, about a sweep before Sgrub happened. He was alone in the dark. Blood ran down his left arm just like the red tears ran down his face. What was he doing with himself? Why was he so fucking pathetic? He pressed against his forehead with his free hand, face twisted in emotional agony.

His computer beeped. Someone was messaging him. He didn't want to get up and answer it, he wanted to watch his mesmerizing blood more. So he ignored it, even as it beeped again, instead reaching for the knife on the floor beside him. A tap on the window interrupted him, and he looked up abruptly in confusion. This wasn't how the memory went.

There was a panicked face in the window, one he didn't recognize. He stood up, and suddenly he was older. The blood was gone, his cuts were scars. His shirt was still gone, though, as he went to the window. Why couldn't he see their face very well? He grabbed the handles, about to open it...

His eyes popped open and he sat up abruptly, covered in sweat tinged red, just like his tears had been. It was midday and he'd removed his shirt while he was sleeping because it had gotten too warm. Something felt wrong. He heard beeping, just like the beeping in his dream. It was coming from his chest, where his phone was. He opened it and grabbed the device, checking his messages.

TA: hey, kk.

TA: kk.

TA: dammiit.

TA: what happened two you beiing an iin2omniiac and beiing up at all hour2? FUCK.

TA: thii2 ii2 really fuckiing important 2o why don't you hurry the fuck up and an2wer me, you iin2ufferable fuckwad.

CG: SOLLUX?!

CG: WHAT THE FUCK?

TA: jegu2 FIINALLY.

CG: HOW THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING TO ME RIGHT NOW?

TA: ii'm a fuckiing hacker, kk.

TA: iit happen2 two be somethiing we can do.

TA: but that'2 not the fuckiing poiint 2o 2top dii2tractiing me.

TA: you and your moiiraiil or whatever the fuck 2he ii2 need to get out of there.

CG: WHAT? WHY?

CG: AND JANYAH'S NOT MY FUCKING MOIRAIL.

TA: 2omeone mu2t have ratted you out or 2omethiing.

TA: ii have no iidea who, but they know that you raii2ed her and that 2he'2 a red blood liike you.

TA: whiich ii gue22 ii2 agaiin2t the fuckiing rule2 or 2omethiing, ii don't fuckiing know.

TA: ju2t get out there, okay?

CG: HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS?

CG: WHAT IF YOU'RE WRONG?

TA: oh gog.

TA: no, NO.

TA: ii am not fuckiing doiing thii2.

TA: ii am not doiing the 2tupiid fuckiing dance you make me do everytiime ii tell you 2omethiing that'2 2uppo2ed two be fuckiing helpful.

TA: iit'2 liike everythiing ii 2ay ii2 put under iimmediiate 2crutiiny.

TA: ju2t take her and get the fuck out of there and don't even fuckiing que2tiion iit.

TA: iif they're not already there, then they wiill be 2oon.

There was tapping on the window, just like in his dream, that interrupted him before he could send a reply. He looked up and over the top of his husktop still open on his desk. When he found were wide eyes and a wide, sharp toothed grin to greet him, heavily shadowed by the sun that made him squint. He immediately stood from his chair and grabbed his scythe from his strife specibus.

"Come inside, I'll beat the shit out of you!" he dared them. The intruder snickered, disappearing from the window.

He immediately grabbed his cloak and shoved a couple of things in his pockets, including his phone and the scarf. He shook Janyah awake and dragged her out of the bed. She draped herself over him, though, unwilling to wake up. So instead, he propped her up on his back and went to the door. It was quite a ways down, though.

I knew I'd fucking regret this stupid ass tree hive... Karkat thought irritably. This was going to hurt.

He was right. When he landed, pain shot up his entire right leg and his ankle started hurting mercilessly, causing him to stumble and fall to one knee. He cursed loudly, frozen in place until the pain had subsided enough for him to move.

"Dammit, Janyah, wake the fuck up!" he yelled, shaking the girl on his back. Curse her heavy sleeping habits!

He forced himself to his feet and, with a quick look behind him, started limping away from his hive. But honestly, where the fuck was he going to go? He really didn't have anywhere to go, and Sollux's warning had come a little too late for him to find somewhere. To make matters worse, though, he could barely see because of the stupid sun.

One of his ears twitched when he heard the snapping of twigs nearby. His pursuers probably didn't care about being quiet, now. There was no way he could outrun them. So he decided to switch to Plan B, which involved putting Janyah down beside a nearby tree and grabbing his sickle again to defend himself. In the other hand, he had his phone.

With one hand, he began texting Jade, 'HARLEY, THEY'RE TRYIN'. He accidentally sent it early in his rush. He didn't get a chance to correct himself before one of the attackers slapped it out of his hand.

"Fuck!" he cursed, swinging and missing. They moved way too fast, not to mention that he was pretty much fighting blind.

Are they even trolls? he thought with a jolt. FUCK YOU AND YOUR BRIGHTNESS, SUN! he continued angrily in his head. He couldn't even think straight with it in his eyes. He tried to remember the grin in the window, if it was a troll or not, but the sun had been messing with him then, as well.

"Karkat...?" Janyah's sleeping voice was like music to his ears. He turned to see her squinting at him groggily. "Ow, why are we outside?"

He was about to pull her to her feet and get her to run when someone, or something, swung from the branches above and slammed their feet into him, sending him sprawling to the ground. He swung wildly, but hit nothing but air. He heard Janyah scream, but a foot planted on his chest stopped him from getting up. A second foot kicked his sickle away.

Even now, his vision was filled with black spots and blooming flowers of colour and his eyes were starting to hurt. A lot. They were watering, too, and making what he could see blurry. Afraid that he might go blind, he closed them tightly, causing tears to run down his cheeks.

"Why the fuck are you doing this?!" he yelled angrily.

"She's a mutant blood," his captor hissed in a voice that could be either male or female. It certainly wasn't troll or human, he was sure. "She has no place on the hemospectrum."

"So am I!" he protested.

"And don't you think one is enough, Mr. Vantas? You are one of the Heroes of Alternia, you have done too much for the trolls for us to apprehend you. This one, though, is a different story," they purred.

"Bullshit!" he yelled. "Let her go, she's not doing anything wrong!"

"I think you know better than most that it's not a matter of what you did wrong, but of weakness in the trolls' society," they chuckled. "Not only is she a mutant, but she's also deaf. Useless," they sneered. "And you red bloods have already proved that you don't have the guts to even begin to serve the Alternian army! You can't kill worth anything!"

Janyah's screams stopped abruptly. This only made his struggles more desperate, but the creature holding him down was much stronger than he was.

"What are you doing with her?!" Karkat yelled frantically. The foot pressed down harder, suddenly making it hard to breathe.

"None of your buzzbug wax," they sneered. "Knock him out, we don't want him following even if his ankle is beat up."

He didn't know how many of them there were, they were too quiet. More than three or four of them, though, as two dragged him to his feet and a third grabbed him from behind. The two held his arms to stop him from struggling while the third wrapped their boney arm around his throat and pulled him into a tight hold. Within seconds, everything went black.


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