WARNING: This chapter contains Pale DirkNep fluff, Closet Fanboy Sollux Captor, and a cLIFFHANGER IN WHICH I REGRET NOTHING! Also much thank to Falconface for another review! (This took up 26 pages front and back of loose leaf paper AND whatever it is I edited in and out so I'm really proud at how long this chapter is)

NEPETA:

She wakes with a start, shaking and trembling. It takes her several long minutes to remind, rather it's heavy persuasion and convincing, herself that she had just had a nightmare. The Lowry droids aren't chasing her and her friends right now. It was just a dream. Nepeta kicks off the heavy blanket and searches around for her toy, Miss Dutchess, and her purse (which she doesn't like kept very far from her anymore). After locating the desired items she quietly slips off of the bed Miss Roxy had said she could use for the night. She's supposed to be sharing this room with Miss Aradia, but the other girl isn't anywhere to be found. The next room over is where all the boys are sleeping, but she doubts that any of the older kids are actually doing that. Nepeta clutches Miss Dutchess close to her chest and leaves her bedroom, her socks muffling the sound of her footfalls on the tiled floor outside of her room.

As she walks she can't help but combine her thoughts with the silence. It's so scary. The life she has known for forever has just disappeared from her. It's a lot, maybe too much, for just a 7 year old girl like her. All she had wanted that night- gosh was it really only a few days ago?- was to dance with Mr. Karkat.

Nepeta lets out a tiny sigh and turns down yet another empty hallway. She sees a light peeping through a half closed door to what she assumes to be a study. The light makes the hallway practically glow with a fire like light. With nothing better to do, and sleep far away from her, she creeps towards the door to hear what she could hear. There are a couple of people talking. One of the voices sounds like Miss Roxy, and the other one is... Is that Miss Aradia? Curious, Nepeta engages full on spy mode and clings to the wall.

"There's still no news about where Miss Rose is? Could it be possible she has been apprehended as well? I don't like this, Patrons are suddenly dropping like flies," Yes that is definitely Miss Aradia. Why is she talking about these things with Miss Roxy?

"No, that's one of the least possible outcomes when it involves my sister. If anything she's probably trying to instigate a jail break. You know how much she cares for Kanaya," Miss Roxy sighs. "Have you been in contact with your family yet?"

Nepeta imagines Miss Aradia shaking her head as she answers, "There hasn't been any time between getting chased by the Imperials and trying to make it here per Miss Maryam's orders. Last I heard Damara was supposed to be stationed in the area near the Ampora residence. Mother had yet to return from her last post."

Nepeta's head cocks to the side in slight confusion. Miss Aradia is kind of talking weird. It's almost like she knows exactly what is going on, the finer details of this mission her Mommy gave them, and has for awhile. She leans in closer to the door.

Miss Roxy growls in frustration and something starts to make tapping noises on wood. "Communications among the Patrons have been further restricted- leaving us with a margin to warn each other, usually too late. I can't give you much intel other than what you already know, and you probably can't report back until you reach Kan's vault."

"About that," Miss Aradia cuts in. "We know the country Miss Maryam's vault is in, we just don't know where in said country."

There's some rustling and then what sounds like paper being spread out. "I can help you a little bit with that. There's a district in Siberia called Omsk Oblast, and of course because everyone is terribly original when naming things then the capital city is named Omsk too. Somewhere in the outskirts of this city is the vault. I can't say where specifically just because I don't know the coordinates like Rose does. That's why I just barely decided we're gonna have to meet Eridan before we hit Russia."

So they're definitely going to have to meet Mr. Ampora. Nepeta wrinkles her nose. She doesn't really like Mr. Ampora, and he doesn't really like her. But they've both hit a mutual agreement to keep their feud quiet so Mommy wouldn't get mad at them. (That happened once and it was rather frightening for both parties involved.) Hopefully though he'll be nice this time and help them.

Nepeta stiffens when she feels a hand latch onto her shoulder. Her mouth drops open in surprise, but luckily no sound came out. She looks up and sees Mr. Strider, a friend of Miss Roxy, raising his fingers to his lips. Expertly, he turns her around and shepherds her back down the hall, away from the discussion of future plans. It's quiet the whole way down the hall until they round the corner. Nepeta worries that he's going to scold her for eavesdropping.

To her relief, Mr. Strider looks down at her and gives a half grin, starting up a conversation about something completely different. "So you really like cats, huh?"

The question throws her for a loop, but she sighs on the inside because it meant she wasn't in any trouble. Nepeta nods a little timidly and clutches Miss Dutchess closer to her chest, tucking her chin on top of the soft head. She feels oddly shy around Mr. Strider, but she's simply chalking it up to still being nervous about her whole situation. And maybe just a little bit because of how handsome Mr. Strider is. (But not nearly as handsome as Mr. Karkat of course!) For certain, though, she knows there's really nothing to be afraid of, Mr. Strider does seem like a nice enough man.

Mr. Strider turns to look back at the hall as they continued walking, shoving his hands in his pockets. He carries on with the conversation, but at a whisper. "I like cats too. They're pretty cool. What's your cat's name?"

"M-Miss Dutchess," Nepeta loosens her grip on the toy and holds up the white kitty for him to see. He chuckles and takes one of the little stuffed paws between his fingers and shakes with they toy.

"How d'ya do Miss Dutchess? The name's Dirk," Nepeta smiles and giggles. She's starting to feel more at ease already.

She makes the cat give an awkward curtsy and replies in her most lady like accent, "The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Dirk."

They both laugh and Nepeta doesn't feel so tense anymore. Mr. Dirk isn't so bad. They continue to walk around, Mr. Dirk leading them in towards a part of the manor she isn't familiar enough with. He talks with her more about cats, sharing stories of one he and his little brother had when they were kids. It made her feel kind of like she did it all the time with him. She would like it a lot if they could. It's even a lot of fun when they gave each other code names! She calls Mr. Dirk Flash, because he's really fast. He calls her Wild Cat, because she's got untapped strength like a lion in her.

"Want something to munch on? I won't tell anyone about the midnight snacking if you don't," Mr. Dirk asks with a gesture towards the kitchen they were passing. Nepeta nods eagerly, feeling excited about making a new friend with someone as cool as Mr. Dirk. With a grin they both walk inside the clean room to make a mess.

SOLLUX:

Sollux sits on a plush couch with his laptop settled on him with a complex wall of code on the screen. Karkat sits at one end of the couch nodding off but pretending he isn't. Equius is laying on his back with a tan arm draped over his eyes to show he isn't in the mood to be bothered. He knows for a fact that Aradia isn't in the other room asleep like Nepeta is. He watched her walk off with Lalonde to talk.

He cracks his knuckles and puts his hands to the keys. Before he returned to hacking the HIC's mainframe he had checked out the security of the Lalondes' connection. He was thoroughly impressed to say the least. Even he would have a tough time hacking in if he didn't have the other project to worry about. There are layers and layers of firewalls to go through, and the traps could destroy his computer if he wasn't quick enough to avoid them. Whoever had set it up is a pure genius in his opinion. Now with this secure environment he can go back to his original task. All he needs is maybe a good 15 minutes and he can have the Condescension's security breached.

His fingers fly away hard at work and the code begins to blur as his focus enters the zone. For the next 15 minutes all he hears is the clacking of keys and the ring of silence. Music to a hacker's ears.

And then finally!

"Bingo," he whispers as the code disappears to reveal the database he needs.

"Was his name-o! Pretty slick skills you got there kid," Sollux jumps at the sound of Lalonde speaking up behind him. He looks over his shoulder and sees her leaning slightly over him with her hands on her hips and a smirk playing with her lips. Her lilac tinted eyes are filled with impress. Behind her is Aradia pinching the bridge of her nose (but with a grin on her face) and he knows that she's a little unenthused with his continuance of hacking from earlier.

"How long have you been in the hacking business?" Lalonde leans backwards against the couch, folding her arms over her chest.

A little embarrassed that she's taking an interest in his hobby he mumbles an answer. He's always been into things like programming since he was a kid, but a couple years ago he had heard about a legendary enigma that went around hacking a lot of important government things and he'd been sucked into the job since then. He's made it his goal to become an equal to that enigma, if not greater. The one hacker he aspires to be like, his idol, is known as Rogue in the hacker community.

"What did you hack into?" Lalonde falls backwards over the couch so she's sitting upside down. She swipes his computer away before he can protest, and he starts to get nervous. Her eyes widen when she sees the screen and he just knows he's in so much trouble now.

Lalonde gives it a quick scroll through before handing the computer back to him and wiggling around to stand up. She left to retrieve something, but kept talking as she did so. Her voice echoed in the hall as she left. "Dude seriously?! How long did it take you to crack that?"

"Um, about a day? Maybe a little longer?" He says unsurely. Normally he times his hacks, but given the circumstances he couldn't have been bothered to this time. His focus slips to the screen and he starts to navigate his way to the files he wants, whatever it is they're actually supposed to be called.

"A day? You've gotta be kidding me! You hacked the Batterwitch's mainframe while on the run, in a day? What motivated you to do that?" Lalonde returns and plops back down on the couch. Aradia leans over and listens intently to the conversation. Karkat groans and mutters something about people needing to shut up so he can pretend that sleep is actually an option for him. Sollux ignores this of course.

"I needed to see if there was any info on my dad and brother. I figured since he is friends with Miss M then maybe they were in this whole...," He searches for the right word to describe Miss M's job, and what might have possibly been his dad's.

"You're Psii's kid, right?" Lalonde asks, to which he nods in return. "Yeah he's a medic for the Resistance. I don't know where he or your brother are though. Pretty sure the hag doesn't have them, so they should be fine."

The statement only makes him feel marginally better, but leaves him with a ton of questions. He clicks on a file and it opens for him. It looks like a list of suspected and confirmed members of the Resistance, including if they're in custody or not. Sollux's brow furrows as he wonders how it is the Queen got a hold of this kind of information. To increase his worry, he and his friends are near the top of this list with a big red label reading: WANTED.

"I've got to say that what you've done is stupid and risky, but damn nice work kid. I've only managed to get in the system once. Unfortunately I was drunk off my ass so I can't trace my path to remember how I did it. Here lemme see your computer again," He hands her his computer and she connects it to hers with a white cord. A program with a familiar logo, a circle that isn't closed spiraling outwards, pops up and he swears that his heart nearly stops from sheer excitement.

"Holy shit no fucking way!" he breathes, reaching up with one hand to latch onto Aradia's arm and the other to slap Karkat in a spaztastic motion. A huge grin cracks against his will and he feels the kind in a candy store euphoria build up and spill out of him.

"Uh...what?" Lalonde looks at him with a mixture of amusement and confusion.

"Dammit Sollux chill out and stop hitting me!" Karkat snaps, shoving his hand away only to have it come back and keep hitting him.

"It's Rogue! You're Rogue! KK it's Rogue ohmygod I can't believe I've been talking to Rogue without realizing it!" He takes a deep breath and tries to reign in the enthusiasm. He fails hardcore.

"Rogue? Who's Rogue?" Sollux gasps and turns to his friend with a look of horror on his face.

"You did not just ask me who Rogue is. Tell me I do not have to beat you senseless for that," Sollux says seriously, entering full on geek mode. "Who's Rogue? Who's Rogue?! Rogue is the most legendary motherfucking hacker on this planet! Rogue can wreck up your shit and you wouldn't even know it until it's too late! KK I thought I raised you better than this!"

"Raised me? All you've done is raised a headache, asshole," Karkat shoves Sollux's hand away again, which Sollux also ignores. He turns back around to face a now thoroughly bemused Roxy Lalonde. Sollux pats himself down frantically and curses his lack of signable material.

"Fuck it, will you sign my shirt?" Sollux stretches out his TECH shirt in offering to his idol. Roxy stares in complete surprise before bursting out in laughter.

"Hell yeah I'll sign your shirt! Where the hell did I put my sharpie?" Roxy stands up again, still laughing. Sollux gets up to follow her around. Karkat and Aradia move to follow him. All in all there's a lot of following going on.

"Since when do you have a sharpie meant for signing pubescent teenage boys shirts?" They all turn to see Dirk walking into the room shoving a sandwich into his mouth, Nepeta trailing along happily at his side and doing pretty much exactly the same thing.

"Since just barely, and hey kiddo what are you doing up?" Roxy hunts for a sharpie in a cabinet. Nepeta tries to respond but all that comes out of her mouth is a bunch of mumbled nonsense and crumbs.

Sollux hears Equius sit up and chastise the little girl. "Miss Nepeta, don't talk with food in your mouth please."

"Aha! Found one!" Roxy straightens out triumphantly and holds up a sharpie like it's a wand. She uncaps it and turns around, prepared to sign a shirt which he has stretched and ready to go. She bends down and scrawls a loopy Rogue as her signature and adds a little winky face. Sollux stops breathing altogether.

"Do you need me to hold your hand Sollux? You looking pretty faint man," Karkat places a hand on his shoulder and snickers in a teasing manner and Sollux snaps out of it, admiring the signature on his shirt. "Geez, who knew you were such a closet case. You're more hopeless than I thought."

"Shut up KK."

NEPETA:

Nepeta settles herself down on a chair and watches as everyone converges around the computers. They're all pretty happy right now, because of how silly Sollux had been. She hopes that everyone can stay happy, even as they look at the pictures on the screen which she isn't allowed to participate in.

Sollux had apparently done something very bad though. He hacked into the Queen's mainframe. But it was also very good? Everyone is being so confusing on the matter. Nepeta can't say much on the matter, so she keeps quiet and to herself. The problem with that is sometimes her thoughts aren't very nice anymore.

"Well, this is definitely problematic, you guys being on top of the wanted list," Miss Roxy huffs. "And that's saying a lot considering that there are actually quite a few people on that list who she wants dead or alive."

Dead or alive?! Which did the Queen want with them? Hopefully alive. And the same for Mommy too. Nepeta cringes slightly at the thought of someone wanting her Mommy dead. It's bad enough that Mommy is captured.

"It looks like for now Kan's just in custody. Supposedly the news say she's gonna get a trial, but I don't think that's gonna happen until after the Queen thinks she's won."

What if the Queen does win? What will happen to Mommy then? A shiver runs down her spine and the worry for her Mommy increases greatly. And what about her? And her friends? What will the Queen do to them? She doesn't want to be placed in a factory to work (she has heard that is something that happens to children punished by the Queen). What if something even worse than that happens?

"Oh woah hold it, go back up," She looks up, hearing Mr. Dirk's voice. He's pointing at the screen, his posture going very rigid.

"Shit," The word comes out of both him and Miss Roxy like air rushing out of a balloon. Miss Roxy teeters and grips the back of the couch so tightly that her knuckles turn white. Her other hand goes up to hide her face, and she lets go of the couch to walk away and stand by the window. Her shoulders shake silently. Mr. Dirk walks over to her and wraps his arms around her shoulders. She buries her face in him and a choked sob fills the chasm of silence the suddenly sprang up around them.

Nepeta strains to see what is on the computer which had upset Miss Roxy.

It's a picture of Mr. Egbert.

The words next to his name are too far and small for her to read, but she's good at picking up signals. Nepeta lowers her head and blinks rapidly to keep tears from coming. She had only met Mr. Egbert once, when he had stopped by to talk to Mommy on her sixth birthday, but she had really liked him. He was a silly cornball that was really nice and played games with her when she asked him to. It makes Nepeta sad because he didn't deserve anything bad to happen to him. Her chest starts to feel heavy, like it's filling up with water.

Mr. Dirk murmurs something to Miss Roxy and they pull away from each other, going back to the computer and blocking it from sight. There are a few more choice words from Mr. Dirk; something about his little brother. Finally they give up and change topics.

"We'll need to leave for London as soon as possible, when daybreak hits would be ideal," Mr. Dirk folds his arms across his broad chest. She watches as mostly everyone agrees with little head nods and such.

Mr. Equius clears his throat and the attention focuses on him. "While it's a good idea, I wish to not further involve Miss Nepeta in these matters any longer. It has become far too dangerous."

"Be that as it is what other choice do you have? It's dangerous no matter how you look at it because you are all fugitives," Mr. Dirk has a fierce tone mixing into his voice, as if he's preparing to argue and win a fight. Nepeta cringes at the word fugitives, thinking that it's too harsh of a word. She doesn't like that word. It makes her sound like a bad guy, and her heart feels icky and jumpy at the thought because she knows what real bad guys are like. Bad guys are people who would point guns and her Mommy and friends, and do all sorts of mean things to get what they want.

"Yeah, but she's only 7 and bringing her along any further on this goose chase for a vault is not something she needs to be a part of any longer," Mr. Karkat steps in, his voice tipping towards a shout and scaring her. "I mean for hell's sake do you know the emotional damage she's gone through already? She's not cut out for this! None of us are, really!"

It's true that she has been all over the place with her emotions, and it made her tummy ache and made her sick, but she thought she had been strong regardless. Is Mr. Karkat saying she's too weak to help Mommy? The watery feeling in her chest rose and she starts to breath just a little harder. She doesn't want them to be arguing about her! She's good and reliable! She'll be strong and help her Mommy, she has to. Mommy entrusted her with this mission; Mommy gave her the key. These thoughts are making her feel light headed.

"And where are you guys gonna go if you split up? You guys are wanted here, that means eyes are everywhere and practically always watching unless you know just how to avoid them," Miss Roxy quietly jumps into the argument. Nepeta realizes that while she has been thinking she's missed something. But it's apparent the argument is still about her. She looks down and tries to focus on keeping calm while words run through one ear and out the other. The feeling in her chest is practically drowning her and she wants to cry because it hurts so bad. She squeezes Miss Dutchess tightly, silently begging the stuffed toy to help her.

"Guys stop it, we're scaring her," Suddenly the conversation is cut off. Big hands wrap around her shoulders and she's pulled in for a hug. Nepeta breathes heavily, and she feels herself being picked up. She moves her face to bury her face in the crook of the helper's neck. A few tears slip out and she shudders, slinging her arms over his (for they are very big) shoulders. They move and she focuses on the gentle way his body rocks.

" 'S alright Wild Cat. Have you ever seen the inside of a cockpit, you know, where they control and fly the plane?" Mr. Dirk murmurs softly into her ear, petting her hair. She shakes her head and looks up just a little with blurry eyes. Mr. Dirk gives a half grin. "Well let's go take a look then. I think you'll find it's pretty cool."

Nepeta nods and sniffles, the edgy feeling starting to drain away just a little. Mr. Dirk begins to walk away. She rests her cheek on his shoulder and hiccups, a couple more tears slipping out and falling onto Mr. Dirk's back. Before they leave she catches sight of something on Sollux's computer. It's big, blocky, red word the says: SUBMIT.

She blinks in shock but the words are gone. A shudder runs through her and her eyelids droop just a little. It has to be because of how tired she is. Just her imagination. A trick of the light and her tears. Nothing but that. She shouldn't be getting scared over nothing, and working herself up again. The two of them disappear around a corner and the word is put far from her mind as Mr. Dirk begins to tell her some more stories about him and his little brother.

ROXY:

She turns back to the teenagers after watching Dirk leave with the kiddo and sighs. "While I understand where you guys are coming from you have to realize that doing things like this doesn't help her either. I realize that I'm at fault here too, and so does Dirk, but we should actually consider including her opinions on the matter of herself.

"I still say that she's safer staying with you guys, with us, as a whole over splitting up. And once we're in a different country the Batterwitch will have a harder time pulling her strings because not everywhere is under he control just yet. Places that are either communistic or under a hierarchy ruler don't do well with crazy Queen's like her trying to take charge."

The kids remain silent and she sighs again, looking down at the computer screen. Her chest tightens when her gaze lands on the photo of John. His raven dark hair still looks like a mess, cute buck teeth poke out and makes his quirky grin seem more charming, and those transfixing blue eyes...God did she love his eyes. The word TERMINATED by his name makes her feel like she's been shot. Her throat feels dry, and the idea of taking a drink to wash away all these feelings is a dangerously tempting one.

She shoves the idea away harshly. John wouldn't be happy if he knew she broke her sobriety record because of him. And that alone is reason enough to not cave in.

"Well," she awkwardly breaks the silence. "Who else wants to go look at the plane?"

It's written all over their faces that that's the last thing they want to be doing, but she isn't having any of it. No one's gonna be feeling down right now. Not on her watch. She starts walking out of the room. Just like she anticipates, Sollux follows after her, and with him everyone else falls in line.

They walk in silence, almost. Mostly it's just her and Sollux that talk. He had started asking her questions about her hacks. Roxy is grateful for the distraction, and answers everything as animatedly and enthusiastically as she possibly can without seeming like she's forcing it. She thinks it's kind of nice to be looked up to, especially since he's worshiping her over her lesser known title.

They step outside and round a corner, walking onto the airfield that's behind her house rather than a pool. The small plane is already out of the hangar and waiting with its door open and the lights on. Dirk and Nepeta wave from the windows of the cockpit and she waves back with a small grin. It's cute how the two of them get along. Roxy jogs up to the plane, grabbing the railing of the steps and hoisting herself up and into the aircraft, ducking so she doesn't hit her head. She maneuvers to the doorway of the cockpit and knocks on the frame.

"And what do our pilots have to say about this flight?" She watches the little girl turn around with an excited grin, noting that she looks much better.

"Smooth sailing!" she giggles. Dirk bonks her softly on the head.

"Wrong mode of transportation Wild Cat, but good try."

Sollux and Aradia step next to her and peek into the room. Roxy turns and smirks at the boy. "Think you could hack into a plane and fly it?"

He gapes at her in shock, pushing up his nifty 3-D glasses. "Have you?"

"Nope, but now we're gonna have to test it out, hold that thought!" She grins and turns to go, but has another idea. "Dirk, introduce them to Lil' Hal."

An annoyed frown tugs at the corners of his lips. "Do I have to?"

"Who's Lil' Hal?" Sollux, Nepeta, and Aradia ask simultaneously. Roxy stares at Dirk, wiggling her eyebrows to show that now he has no choice. Dirk sighs in defeat and turns to get a program running. She laughs and skips out of the plane, taking another light jog back to her manor.

It's quiet inside, which suddenly feels unusual. Though those kids have been here for, what a couple hours?, they seemed to make the place louder. It honestly does not help that usually this place is almost always empty anyways. Still, she can't help but have a slight chill at how freaky it is.

She turns a corner and enters the room that's meant for the boys. On the little table are her and Sollux's computers, but it seems like something's wigging out. Frowning, she hurries over to figure out what's going on.

Immediately she hones in on the fact that her Defense Shield is dominating her screen. She quickly disconnects her laptop from Sollux's and taps in several commands to debug her computer. The she turns to the other laptop and starts to figure out what the hell is going on.

The screen pixelates and loathsome block letters flash in place. SUBMIT. OBEY. SUBMIT. OBEY. It's practically the Batterwitch's logo, and it seems that his computer has caught her virus. Furiously she starts pounding in commands to try and save the boy's computer, but she knows that unless she catches some sort of lucky break his device is toast. It's been like this for too long already.

Another message flashes on the screen.

FOUND YOU

"Shit," She slams the computer shut and grabs her own. Roxy turns around only to find the barrel of a gun pointing at her face. The blonde holding it is none other than the owner of Serket Corp., Vriska.

"Where are the kids, Lalonde? Answer quickly, I don't have the time or patience to deal with riddles right now," Though the other woman is trying to look smug about her victory, it's painfully obvious she's impatient and frustrated.

"Sorry Serket but they're just leaving," Roxy ducks, smacking Vriska's hand up and knocking the gun away from her. She pivots and roundhouse kicks the other woman, causing her to fall backwards. Quickly she takes off, sprinting like she's got the hounds of hell after her. An enraged should echoes in the halls.

Roxy swings around a corner and the wall just above her head explodes. Cursing, she scans the area for those damn droids. There are about 3 of them marching in formation from the opposite side of the foyer with guns locked and loaded.

She charges them, dodging and weaving so they can't get a clear shot. She dives and knocks them down like bowling pins. In seconds she wrestles a gun away from the one she landed on and shoots the machine in the face. Turning, she takes care of the other two quickly before getting up, snatching their guns, and running outside. At that same moment several black SUVs swerve into view and onto the air strip. She hears the planes engines start up and she kicks up the pace just a notch. Already her lungs are on fire, short bursts of gasping fits excluded.

Roxy sees the little lights flashing from the SUVs and she drops like a stone. She winces as her ribs and chest make not so pleasant contact with the ground, and even more as she hears her computer scrape harshly along the asphalt. She wriggles forward as the bullets fly long, whistling above her. She makes it to the ladder, pulling herself up and ducking as she runs up each step.

To her dismay Sollux is at the door to pull her in instead of Dirk. She guesses though that he's trying to get the plane running so they can bust this joint. Roxy hands the computer to Sollux. The plane starts to move and the door screeches angrily along the ground. Roxy fires a couple of rounds at the circling SUVs. Her targets are hit, but just barely. They swerve and crash into each other which is hella good enough for her.

She turns back around and grins at the boy. His return is shaky and he gestures for her to get in so the door can be put up. Roxy takes a step forward and feels fire flare painfully in her abdomen. Sollux's eyes widen in shock and she looks down to see a crimson rose blossoming on her shirt.

"Oh god, Roxy!" Sollux tries to reach out but she shoves him back, stumbling away herself.

"The computer's yours now kid," She gasps. "Tell Dirk I'm not making the trip this time."

Clutching her side she turns around and stumbles down the steps of the moving aircraft. She knows that there's not anything in the first aid kit that'll help her. She'll bleed out before they get to London. Hell, they might not get to London if something isn't done about those damn droids! Someone's gotta give them the headway they need, so it might as well be her.

Roxy trips off the steps and raises her guns, now both hands are free. Time to give some hell back where Karma missed on her rounds. She catches sight of Vriska storming out onto the airfield, the droids popping out of their crashed vehicles like ants with guns. She sets off and starts firing. The return fire is a bitch to dodge, but oh the rush! Just like old times!

Something brushes past her and the next thing she knows is that there are a few robots with missing heads. Dirk materializes at her side. Behind her the plane keeps moving.

"Didn't think I'd just let you fend off these assholes on your own, did ya?" Dirk flashes his signature cocky half smirk before turning back to face the enemies. "Lil' Hal is giving Captor and Megido flying lessons, but he'll get them out."

A dangerous grin, the kind that borderlines insanity and pure joy, crawls up her face. The kids are gonna be safe. That's all that matters, so all they have to do is keep it that way.

"Just like old times, right?"

"Do you want Spider-Bitch or do I get her?"

"Tag team."

"No mercy."

"Done."

They bump fists and place one foot in the grave with grins like maniacs.

KARKAT:

"Woah, woah, woah! Sol what the hell are you doing?!" he yells as the plane lurches forward. Equius ushers Nepeta into a seat before moving to bring in the stairs. Bullets ricochet off the plane and Equius flinches each time, still reeling the ladder in.

"I'm getting us the fuck out of here!" Sollux yells back. Aradia is beside him frantically pushing buttons according to a robotic jackass's instructions.

"You can't just leave them behind though!" Karkat gestures angrily to the people they are leaving behind.

"I know that! Do you think I want to? For hell's sake I saw my idol get shot, KK! But Dirk said go so we're going!" Sollux actually sounds close to tears. Karkat swallows hard and clenches his hands into tight fists at his side.

"Karkat," Aradia turns around briefly in her seat. "They're staying behind on purpose so we can do our job. Let them do theirs."

He takes a deep, shuddering breath and turns around. "Fuck this!"

Karkat stomps over and sits down by Nepeta. The little girl is sitting on her knees with her face practically plastered against the window. He looks through the one next to it and watches a gun-sword fight. He's always been told to never bring a knife (sword in this case) to a gun fight, yet Dirk Strider seems to just throw that rule right out of the goddamn figurative window like it's a piece of garbage.

The plane picks up speed and Equius finally manages to get the door shut, locking it so it will pressurize the cabin. His neck starts to hurt from craning it around Nepeta, so he gets up and moves back a row to do basically the same thing as the little girl.

Slowly it dawns on him that the fight unfolding behind him is a losing one. Roxy tosses aside both her guns in frustration and ducks to avoid getting hit. Unfortunately she's been clipped on the shoulder, and with some other wound hindering her, her movements are turning sluggish. She reaches for another gun by one of the fallen Lowry droids and she struggles to her knees, firing a few rounds. The plane bumps and jostles as Sollux tries to lift up. Faintly he can hear that program called Lil' Hal chide him by spewing out a bunch of different speeds and things like thrust equaling pull.

Meanwhile Dirk is being forced back. It's not long until they're practically side by side with droids circling around them. A blonde haired broad, the same one he had seen interrogating Miss Maryam no less, pushes into the circle and points a gun at the duo. A panic so fierce surges through him as he pinpoints the path the bullet will take, right to the woman struggling to get off the ground.

The plane jolts again and he's thrown off balance, slamming the divider on his window shut in the process. Nepeta lets out a yelp and he looks back up at her, amazed that she's still upright. Big, fat tears well in the corners of her horror stricken green eyes. He stands up and and pulls her away from the window, burying her face in her chest as he slams down that divider too.

Above the noise of the plane he hears what sounds like the loudest gunshot of them all. Nepeta chokes into his shirt and he lifts her over the seat, sitting down heavily as the plane tilts up more and more. In front of him Equius holds onto the walls with a look of blank shock dominating his features. In the cockpit Sollux finally breaks down and Aradia leans over to hug him. Inside of him his heart pounds madly. Behind him is a trail he knows is stained deeply, and will never be wiped clean.