Sleep once and sleep for a whole long year
Sleep twice and sleep to bring a sister to tears
Don't sleep at all and watch the world float away
Don't sleep at all and you'll become the prey

== Aradia: Open the Arch

Your name is Aradia Megido, and you're good at breaking things.

You've always thought that was quite fun, even before your near-death experience. That is, the one that changed your life. Since, then everything has seemed pointless, useless. Since everyone's going to die anyways, what's the point?

You are fairly regularly told that you're kind of creepy.

You don't really care all that much.

As of presently, you've been told that you get to break things on this mission, which is one of the few fun things you can think of to do, because it's got a point. Something properly destroyed is very difficult to reassemble.

Your own body is proof that nothing is impossible, but your recovery was nearly impossible and that's good enough for you.

"Aradia?" Tavros asks nervously. "Uh...can you...uh...break down the door...and, uh, get us in?"

You nod and kick the keystone out of one the arches. The entire thing collapses, revealing a passage through the walls outside Ampora Castle to another keystone arch right next to Cronus and Eridan's rooms. This is where you, Tavros, and all the residents of Makara Castle (plus three Knights) will enter the castle to find and capture Duke Scratch.

The man does seem to have some control over Lord English (Lord English is twenty-two years young), and you are almost certain that removing him will give your nemesis more power, but he also does know too much and this has to happen anyways.

"Follow me," you say, leading five of eight people after you. There are there to build the wall so that it will look built but can be deconstructed in seconds, and you will only have seconds to escape. Equius, Horuss, and Gamzee are being left behind for said task. Mostly because you know they will be useless in this mission.

Second doorway. You tap three times, then once, then four times. The stones deconstruct themselves to let the six of you through. Eridan and Cronus are waiting there. "Just this way," Eridan says. Cronus looks like he's about to hit on you, but you fix him with a glare to kill and he cowers. Apparently your eyes look "dead".

Or maybe he was just about to ask what the plan was, in which case he would have been met with the same response.

"Move out," you say. The eight of you have a mission that must be completed; no sense dallying here.

Your only response is from Tavros, who asks, "Uh...Aradia? Am I, uh, guarding the…uh...the passage?"

You nod curtly. "Have no qualms about doing what you must," you advise. You already know that he won't be able to properly attack anyone, the main reason he is left to guard an empty tunnel. "We must go. If we do not return by three fourteen, we are dead. Leave and report to Headquarters."

He's shaking in his too-big shoes, but he manages a nod as you whirl around and sneak through halls towards the place where Scratch lives. It is opulent, and completely in shades of green. Except for a few white or blue items, the entire room appears to have been coated in emerald-green paint. Scratch himself is nowhere to be found.

Karkat jumps in front of you, clearly intending to take over as leader. You let him, because you honestly don't care. "Alright, fuckers. We need some people to create a distraction on the other side of the castle. Cronus and Eridan, you guys go do that shit cuz you know your way around this damn Byzantine maze. Michael, Dave, Aradia, with me."

You already know the choices he's going to make and you were anticipating this, so you are already searching the kitchen rooms. There is a white, white bowl full of black, black items that you believe are candies. You wouldn't know, as you are one of the poorer residents of Ampora Castle. Specifically speaking, you live in the outbuildings with Tavros and your mother and his uncle (who are currently married). That's irrelevant, however. You no longer care about the past, or the future. Only about what must happen and what does.

"What is the meaning of this?"

It's Scratch, of course. You saw this coming.

You turn and Scratch is right there, in his white suit and green shirt and bow tie. His face is actually tinted pink. He is holding a gun, a large musket.

You were not expecting that.

Because of this, an entirely different sequence of events is realized in your mind. You have one choice.

"Run," Dave says. He grabs your hand and Michael's hand and Michael grabs Karkat's hand and the four of you burst into the hallways just as Eridan and Cronus's idea of a distraction begins.

"AH HELP I'M FALLING OUT A WINDOW!" Eridan shrieks. You knew it would be something exactly that idiotic. But it wakes nearly everyone in the castle, including the other duke and duchess, and they are all wondering what the hell is going on.

You know the floor plans of the castle very well, so you lead your friends as you duck through hallways, Scratch on your heels. The entirety of everyone is awake and you're starting to think that panic would be an appropriate response. You're not panicking, but your allies are, and so are servants, nobles, commoners, and a variety of other people. Half are trying to find the source of Eridan's distraction and half have joined Scratch in chasing you.

You arrive at the servant's corridor and swerve down said hallway. Most everyone here should be fast asleep, and the nobles may be rather trepidatious about following you. But maybe it's too clear that you are magical, because a good number of them follow you. Dammit, you're running out of options. You know that you will make it out of here, because time says you must, but it would be rather unpleasant to go through torture and interrogation first.

Your next idea is to pour on speed, then turn several sharp corners. This would be an excellent plan, but your friends are beginning to slow. You try to pull them forwards, but there is only so much you can do.

You do try to pull ahead, and you succeed in making several sharp turns as you plunge deeper and deeper into the castle. You're into a series of rooms with no discernable purpose now and your main advantage here is that no one but four rebels holding secret meetings ever comes here. But there is a distinct lack of corners.

You have two more things that might salvage this mission. One is to freeze time. This would allow you alone to escape, and possibly Dave. You would also not succeed in taking Scratch.

You keep running and decide the second choice is the better one.

You turn a corner, shove Michael and Karkat into a random room, and turn the opposite way as Dave. Those chasing you split evenly, and Scratch chooses to follow you. Just as you planned. If you do this right, Dave will be able to go back to the room with Michael and Karkat and get them out while you take Scratch and draw the others away from your allies.

Your feel the air around you crackle with magic and everyone clutches their ears. Most of your friends' magics cause them to glow, but you make this high-pitched sound and make the air crackle.

You ought to work on controlling the sound.

Time freezes and you nearly fly to where Dave is. "Take them and go. I've got Scratch." He nods and he's about to run when he stops, turns around, and asks, "Why?"

"Because it must happen," you say. There is no better answer. Why do anything? There's no point to anything to you. No point and no use.

Dave runs, taking frozen Michael and Karkat with him. Your run the other way and are briefly surprised to discover that most of those chasing you are the women. You use your magic to bind and lift Scratch off the ground, running as far as you can before letting time continue and forcing the duke to follow you as you make several sharp, hard to follow turns. No one will follow you to your escape.

Scratch is not struggling, and if you cared, you might find this vaguely unnerving. Most men, when trapped in a web of complex and finely controlled time energy, would panic and attempt to escape. As if they could. You might find this vaguely amusing if it weren't so futile.

Your escape route is a few hallways away, right at the keystone arch with a different crest on it. Instead of the crest of Ampora castle, the keystone bears the crest of the Magicals.

Thrice, once, four times. You have no choice but to assume that your friends have escaped. According to temporal inevitably, they must've. The rocks take themselves apart and you keep running, but your time energy is running out and you don't have much time before Scratch can escape. You turn left down the third secret hallway—but wait. Was it the third or the fourth? To enter, you turned down the third, the first, then the fourth. Coming back, you're suddenly sure it's the opposite. You're lost now and if you're right, Scratch will escape any second and you'll have to run.

You need to find help.

Your best option is to call on Tavros. He is a messenger and his powers are all to do with wind. You freeze time again and stroll to where Tavros is waiting for you. You leave a note in his hand and walk back. You're not entirely sure what it is a bout your powers that everyone finds so amazing. So what you can freeze time? So what if you know what the future holds? You're bored of it.

Your unfreeze time and wait, Scratch still sitting quietly in his little bubble of time. Before long, you hear footsteps and call, "Tavros! Over here!" He must hear you, because he finds you in your damp little corridor. He's breathing hard as he braces his hands on his knees and coughs, "What is it?"

"Scratch is about to escape his time bubble and I'm lost. Incidentally, have the others made it out?"

"Uh…no. I, uh, I thought they…were with, uh, you."

You have a feeling you should react angrily to that, but you can't bring yourself to. You instead choose your usual apathy. "Okay. Take Scratch outside and take him out."

Tavros looks horrified. "But we…we, uh, we said we weren't, uh, gonna…kill him!"

"Knock him out," you clarify.

He nods, looking relieved. "Oh. Uh, okay. What're you, uh, gonna do?"

"I'll search for the others. It won't take long." It won't take any time at all.

"Okay. Uh, good," he says. "See you!"

"See you."

You let Tavros run away before freezing time again, because it does tend to disorient people when you disappear from in front of them, or appear to. You have plenty of time, at least, your relative time. You do not age when you freeze time like this; you should know. When you first discovered the true extent of your powers, you nearly died and ended up freezing time for almost a year.

Your thoughts wander as you walk through the hallways. You weren't exactly born with much magic, but with a whole ton of magical potential. This seems to be the case with the Underground; they all have weak powers on the surface, and seem to have no more, but there is a huge, untapped well of magical energy that can be uncovered in several ways. For you, it was nearly dying. Your have a feeling that it is different for your allies, but once they find their way, they will be as powerful as any sylph or mage.

You idly search the entire castle, checking every room and hall. The nobles are still chasing something, but Dave must've turned them around very thoroughly, because they are currently chasing the chef's cat.

There is a shout and you stop. It's Dave. He's shouting, "ARADIA, WILL YOU STOP FREEZING TIME WITHOUT WARNING, DAMMIT!" You sigh and turn in his direction. He is pinned in place by his handhold with Michael and Karkat.

"Sorry," you say, not apologetically, but not sarcastically.

"Right. Get us out of here, will you?"

"I told you to escape. What happened?" You're vaguely curious.

"We didn't escape, did we? This place is fucking huge, how the fuck did you expect us to just find our way out."

"You had to, according to the laws of temporal inevitability."

"Whatever the fuck that means."

"It means that there is no way for you to die here."

"Lovely. Can we get out now?"

"Follow me."

"Uh, Aradia?"

"Yes?"

"Unfreezing fucking time first."

You do, and Michael and Karkat screech to a halt. "What the FUCK?" Karkat shouts. "Where the fuck did she come from?"

"I froze time," you explain. "No time to loose, we're leaving."

Michael shrugs and takes the lead, Dave right behind him and Karkat trailing behind. Your short-legged friend can never quite keep up when running. This is not a problem for you, as the tallest girl you've ever met, including Vriska.

You soon reach the arch you need to be at and tap the crest thrice, once, four times.

It doesn't work.

"What the shit, open the fucking arch!" Karkat screams.

"It won't open."

"How do you sound so fucking calm!?" Karkat yells.

"Because if we can't open it the traditional way, we could always break down the wall. It's just stone."

"ARE YOU FUCKING NUTS?" Michael yells. You can hear the sounds of people chasing you getting closer. One of them, you don't know who, rounds your corner and points at you. They shout something and start running. They're out of shape and the hallways is long, so you don't feel the need to freeze time. But you really ought to get your panicking friends out. Even Dave is showing signs of being nervous. But he does have a fairly level head.

"Try four-one-three," Dave says.

"The emergency code?"

"It's pretty much a constant state of fucking emergency now, isn't it? I think the magic stopped responding to the normal code."

Four, one, three. The stones of the arch collapse and the four of you escape into the dark, cold hallway that somehow seems safer than the warm, well-lit palace you have just left.