Terezi sniffed the lab with interest. Something was up.
She had found Karkat's blood all over the lab. Well, not all over, but on the computer, then on the floor. Maybe he had cut it and headed to the transportalizer because his body was not here. Or outside, for any matter. The blood cut short and he probably stenched the blood. And she had licked it once and immediately regretted it. Although she liked red doesn't mean she was a rainbow drinker and enjoyed the taste of blood.
"Inspector Berrybreath!" She cried out to the blue scalemate sitting next to her. "What have you found?"
Of course the reply was silence until Terezi held the scalemate and shook it, squeaking sound echoing the silent lab as she attempted to talk to it.
"No Karkles and the memo was half-way finished?"
Squeak.
"And a bloody sickle?"
More squeak.
"What color was the blood?"
And definitely multiple squeaks.
"Red? OK, then Karkat cut himself. Investigation's over."
Ten minutes and the investigation was done. Karkat probably was messing around with his sickle while writing a memo, and cut himself, resulting in him going crazy over his blood color like he always did, then went out to stench the blood because he freaked out. She turned around and left the lab, stepping onto the cotton padded floor of… wait, cotton?
Terezi touched the ground which was littered with cotton balls, as well as shreds of yellow and pink fabric, identical to the color of her other scalemates. She cried out in horror. "Professor Pucefoot?" She asked, knowing fully well that she won't get the squeak as a reply. "Doctor Honeytongue?"
She was startled to hear the sudden maniacal laughter. "Hello?" She asked to anyone particular, clutching her cane and drawing out her blade slowly. "Anyone?"
Terezi was met with a sudden flash of color in her nostrils. Something very colorful was coming.
She turned to meet someone she almost didn't recognize.
"Hello Terezi." Rose said in a manner that reminded Terezi of Vriska. The times when she was about to do something horrible.
"Rose?" She sniffed, trying to confirm the person as Rose. It was weird, the way her hair was lime colored instead of the usual golden. But it was unmistakeable. It was Rose Lalonde, stinking of blood. "Are you alright?"
"Yep. Perfectly fine." The Trickster replied, her hands behind the back, hiding a few cards.
"Are you sure, Rose? Because since when was your hair all blueberry?" Terezi asked, sniffing, the multitude of colors making her nose itch. "And you smell of candy and strawberry?"
"Never mind that, Terezi." Trickster Rose giggled, her high pitched laughter carrying across the empty corridor. "Have you seen Karkat today?"
"No, but I was hoping you had." She muttered, hoping in the slight chance that Karkat was fine. Which she actually hoped since the situation seemed not to be heading in the most generous direction.
"Oh I did." Rose grinned, stopping her laughter for the moment. "And I rubbed his nubby horns."
Terezi first sighed in relief, then paused. "What?" She asked Rose, trying to sense deceit or lies in that voice.
"He protested, but I did it anyways." Trickster Rose replied, toying with one of the buttons on the cards, ready to eject something.
"That wasn't nice. He is very sensitive about his horns." Terezi gritted her teeth, hoping this will not lead to some really crazy strife. "Seriously, where is he?"
Rose replied with an indirect "You tell me!" and threw Karkat's head at Terezi. "What? Oh my fucking god… Karkat! What the hell!" Terezi gasped at the sight of her dead used-to-be matespirit. She was horror stricken, and her blind eyes widened in horror.
The Trickster laughed at the blind troll. Oh she liked the reaction very much. So much that there were tears in her eyes again. But unlike the others, Rose won't kill her. Not yet, anyways.
"Oh my god, Rose… You killed Karkat!"
"So?" She replied with an apathetic expression, as if she didn't care.
"I'm going to kill you myself!" Terezi grabbed her cane, gritting her teeth as she brandished it intimidatingly.
"Oh no, you can't." Rose giggled at the idea. "Kanaya tried, and she couldn't."
"Oh god, Kanaya too?" Terezi growled, in frustration and shock. She hadn't expected Rose to be like this. Even Dave, as the insufferable cool kid, would never even do this murderous thing. Was this even Rose?
"Yes, she drowned in her own blood. A sight to see." Rose glazed over, imagining the image of Kanaya dying in her head.
"No… Rose… why?" Terezi's eyes were full of tears, and she sniffled slightly.
"Because for fun!" The Trickster replied, shrugging at her. "Fun fun fun."
Terezi lunged at the Trickster Rose with her cane, in an attempt to kill. Forget the justice. She would do anything to get revenge.
But Rose easily disarmed Terezi, grabbing the cane and snapping it into half, and suddenly grabbed Terezi and twisted her right wrist, breaking it with her bare hands.
Terezi screamed in agony and the Trickster sighed, as if enjoying her screams like a hot bubble bath.
"Rose… why?" Terezi asked again, gritting her teeth, clutching the broken wrist.
"I told you. It's just for fun. Fun with you, fun with me, and fun with myself!" Rose kicked away another corpse that appeared in front of her. There was the dead Rose Lalonde again.
"Oh my god." Terezi said again. "What the hell are you?"
"I'm just the better version of her, the more fun loving Rose Lalonde." She giggled at the introduction of herself.
"The crazy psycho version more like." Terezi growled again, clutching her broken wrist.
"Oh, I'm offended." Rose cooed, and stabbed Terezi in the leg.
Terezi shrieked as she clutched her leg and collapses on the ground, pain dulling from her wrist as another pain seared up on her leg.
"Oh I love that teal. Makes me want to stab you some more." Rose raised the needles again, as if poised to strike. But that's not fun when you die."
Terezi decided that the best course of action would be absconding right now and live to see another day. Dave might be alive still. He couldn't be dead, right? She tried to scramble away, leaving a trail of teal blood.
"Oh this just keeps getting better and better." The Trickster purred as she pranced along the teal, singing "run, run, run along, Terezi Pyrope."
Terezi tripped while jumping, supporting herself by leaning her good arm on the wall. She got up again, and tries to run when Rose catches up to her, stabbing her in the other leg.
"I like it, all this teal littering the floor." Rose said satisfied when Terezi falls to the ground, lying in a puddle of her blood.
"Please… stop this. I'm begging you." Terezi begged. She wanted to live, not die like this.
"Nope! I won't." That left Terezi sighing in relief. "But after this, I will dress you in this costume that Kanaya has made!"
"What? What costume?" Terezi perked up. This wasn't over.
"She made it for you." She replied, and revealed the fluffy dress Kanaya was making earlier, except for the fact that it was littered with jade blood.
"I changed my mind. Just kill me now." Terezi said as she sobbed. This was worse than death. This… monster was trying to make her a toy. A plaything. But she wanted to survive still, and thought about it. "Please… if I wear the stupid dress, will you spare me?" She said between the sobs.
"Well that depends. If I like you in the dress, then I will spare you!" She jumped up and down at the thought of it, exciting her. She flings the bloodstained dress at Terezi, shouting "quick quick! Wear it!"
Terezi first mentioned if Rose could turn around while changing, in hope to get away before Rose realized. But with Rose's short response "I don't wanna" Terezi decided she should just get this over with, and changed as fast as she could despite her wounds.
"You look great!" Rose clapped her hands together. Terezi gritted her teeth again, unable to smell anything but Kanaya's blood.
"Now will you let me live?" Terezi asked, hoping to live.
"Sure!" Rose replied eagerly. "But I don't like that arm of yours."
"Oh sorry, I can't fix that, I guess. Because of you." Terezi growled at her, trying to drag herself away with one good arm.
But then, Rose had gotten out the dead Kanaya. And Terezi watched in fear as Rose suddenly grabbed Kanaya's right arm and tore it right off her. "Wait, what the hell are you doing?" Terezi practically screamed, not liking the situation at all.
"I'll just replace it, don't worry!" The Trickster got closer to Terezi and grabbed her broken right arm. "Don't move!"
"Stop please! Look, it will heal, okay? You don't have to do that!" Terezi tried desperately to get away, but with only one good arm, it was impossible to fend for herself. "Please don't!"
And Rose began twisting and pulling on Terezi's arm, straining the muscles in Terezi's arm. "NOOOOO STOP FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Terezi screamed as she felt her arm being torn off from the socket.
"Gotcha!" Rose shouted triumphantly, covered in teal while Terezi fell on the ground again, nursing her bloody stump.
It didn't end there when Rose grabbed Kanaya's arm, along with needles and strings. "Come here!" Rose sounded eager, too eager.
"Oh god. Why don't you please kill me?"
"Because killing you isn't fun." Rose replied. "Playing with you is." With that, Rose roughly places Kanaya's arm onto Terezi's bloody rump and started to stitch aggressively. Terezi screamed in pain and terror at the dead arm being attached to her. "You are insane!" She screamed as Rose finished the final stitchings.
"Now you look much better!" Rose basically gleamed with joy. Terezi mumbled about how this was going to get worse, until Rose said, "I don't like the legs either, the legs are bleeding!"
And the Trickster proceeded to Kanaya again, and despite Terezi's protests about her bleeding just a little and able to get up, Rose had grabbed Kanaya's spare lipstick, and made it into the dreaded chainsaw. Terezi started to pull herself away again, when she heard the rough revving of the chainsaw and smelled the green blood everywhere. She watched in horror when Rose turned and said, "Your turn!" and basically approached her. "No, don't! You don't have to! My legs are fine!"
Again, completely ignoring her protests, she had placed the revving chainsaw on Terezi's waste, and teal splashed everywhere. Terezi lay on the floor covered in blood, crying, with more tears streaming out of her as teal blood littered the place.
Rose proceeded to grab Terezi's upper half ((and miraculously undamaged but more bloodstained dress)) and plopped it onto Kanaya's legs, stitching her again. "Can you walk now?" Rose giggled mockingly, knowing fully well she couldn't.
"You've fucking dismembered me, so of course I can't fucking walk." Terezi said between her gritted teeth.
"Try!" Rose said, and though it lacked malice, to Terezi, it sounded very intimidating, and didn't want to find out what this Rose would do to her. She moaned on the floor and tries to push herself up with her good arm and Kanaya's very dead arm, stitched on her uselessly. "See? I tried, and I can't walk, dumbass."
Then Rose seemed to brighten up a bit and went outside, leaving Terezi alone again. Terezi took this opportunity to drag herself outside. She was horrified. The legs and arm of her dead friend was on her, stitched on her like some rag pieces on the doll. Then Rose came back dragging the Aradiabot that was in the corner of Kanaya's room.
"A…Aradia?" Terezi asked, but then watched Rose rip the metal arm off and start dissembling it, announcing brightly "Let's play doctor!"
Rose soon grabs Kanaya's arm attached to Terezi, dragging Terezi along with her, and rips it open. "What are you doing?" Terezi protested as she watched the Trickster place the mechanism from the robot and stitches it shut. "OK, move it!" Terezi wills it to, and it does move in a very creaky motion. "Oh god that is so fucking creepy." Terezi commented at it. It was. She couldn't feel anything in that arm, and it was moving when she commanded it to.
"Now with your legs!" And so there was the long arduous task of Kanaya's legs being ripped open and stitched shut along with machinery from the gears in Aradiabot.
Terezi stood up slowly, wobbling unsteadily. She couldn't feel her legs as she stood up, but there she was, standing on her dead friend's legs. Then Rose had snatched up Terezi's red glasses and plopped on Dave's shades. And it stank of blood. "I hate you so much!" She screamed at Rose, but Rose didn't reply to that. She just responded "dress up is sooo fun" and took the shades away. "You look better without your glasses!"
Terezi wished this was a nightmare, and she will wake up in her recuperacoon, safely tucked underneath her sopor slime, and wake up in one piece.
"Oh let's play tag again!" Rose clapped her hands again in joy. "You can walk now!"
Terezi started running, getting more used to the dead legs as she wobbled, then was able to pick up the pace more steadily. She was hoping that she could outrun that Trickster. She would hurt her more if she caught her, and there was a glimmer of hope now. She was able to walk again, despite the loss of blood making her woozy. It didn't last long.
Rose tackled her behind, making them both fall on the ground and breaking one of Kanaya's legs.
"Great! Now you've broken one of my legs!" She shouted at her, mad and frustrated now that the glimmer of hope was gone. "What now, Ms. Psychopath?"
Rose looked at it and held the broken leg up, then rips the stitches apart to see the still intact machinery working inside.
"Well?" Terezi asked, but immediately regretted it when Rose got out her own corpse and ripped the leg off. "No, please no, not again!" Trickster again ignored it and ripped the leg apart, placing the gear, and stitching it back together. "Now you are going to stick bits of human on me?" She didn't reply again and finishes stitching her leg onto Terezi.
"Please just kill me already!" Terezi screamed again as she cried, in vain hope that this Rose will kill her.
"OK." That was a surprising reply before Rose suddenly brought her fist down onto Terezi's head, knocking her out.
Terezi woke up in a bed, still dressed in the teal, bloodstained dress. Near her, she could hear the Trickster humming a tune as she worked on something, and heard the dragging of a heavy object. She felt her neck with her good arm. It felt… sore? She felt the stitches on it, and was about to ask what happened to her. "Wha…" It stopped short there. Terezi gasped at the sound of her voice. It sounded ridiculously like Aradia's. She again felt the stitch at her throat and felt a metal box where her throat used to be. The Trickster had robbed her of the voice, and replaced it with Aradia's voice box for her entertainment.
"I've got a surprise for you!" The Trickster said as she walked in, carrying what looked like a stitched up corpse, in one of Dave Strider's suits.
Terezi thought she wouldn't live again, and just lie here and die. And she would make a hopeless request. "Replace my eyes, please. I want to see again one last time." Terezi requested the Trickster. "Sure!" She had replied. "But this first!" And Rose dumped the body on the bed.
It was Karkat. Or Karkat's head. Whatever body was underneath was stitched up so badly that it wasn't clear what belonged to who. And judging from the splattered color of blood, it was from the trolls and the humans.
"I… thanks. Just give him to me." And Rose laid him beside her properly, where Terezi cuddled the corpse close and cried.
"Now about that eyes…" Terezi turned her head to face her, and suddenly, Rose's hands darted out and ripped them out of her. Terezi once screamed in pain, but clutched the dead Karkat tighter.
Rose fiddled with the robotic eyes of Aradia, much larger in comparison to Terezi's burnt out eyes. "Will those fit?" Terezi asks her, but Rose just didn't reply and shoves them in the empty eye-sockets. Terezi blinks despite the pain, but was able to see again. The world, the blood, the stitched up Karkat… all of them were so clear. And that Rose was just sitting there, grinning, as if she was from something out of her nightmares. Then Rose left, and Terezi didn't see her again. Terezi sighed when she left, hugging the corpse of Karkat tightly as she ruffled his hair. Occasionally she moved around the room, and even the outside if she could, but when she heard the Trickster's laughter, she ran back into the room, clutching Karkat once more, calling him the usual "Karkles" and making up stories to tell him about the happy days.
And Trickster Rose waited outside. She didn't care about Terezi anymore. She was too broken, even more broken than the dead ones, and she didn't even feel like killing her. She had more toys to play with, heading her way. She just needed to wait a few more months.
And John and Jade will be there with her, as new playthings.