Wednesday, February 6th update
Also, this story took a turn I was not expecting. THE CHARACTERS HAVE A MIND OF THEIR OWN I NO LONGER CONTROL THEM. DAMN YOU VRISKA.
Karkat studied his arm for a moment, the realization slowly coming to him. "You were..." He started, then stopped, not wanting to voice the words himself. His lips pressed into a tight line as hiw brows meshed. He was fighting with something inside of him, something that was conflicting.
"I had no idea." Vriska said in a low voice, trying to make him feel better. Or to make herself feel better. This wasn't exactly helping her mental state at the moment.
"So what happens if you defeat your guy, and Feferi and I both go beserk?" Karkat asked, voice wavering slightly despite the hard tone to it.
"I don't know." Vriska honestly didn't know anymore. If she defeated her infector and they both went nuts, who was going to take out Feferi for her? Who would save Karkat?
"Vriska I-"
"Maybe it would be better if you killed me now." Vriska interrupted, letting his arm drop to his side as she stepped back slightly. Karkat's head shot up.
"Don't say that!" He yelled, probably loud enough to wake someone up.
"If I'm dead that means you and Feferi can be-"
"You're not listening to me!" Karkat roared. Ok, that time someone had to have woken up.
"And you're not-" Vriska was cut off by Karkat pressing his lips to hers. Vriska blinked surprised for a moment before he backed off, and she was left just staring wide eyed and confused at him. "What."
"Vriska, I like you. Honestly, being paired up with you in class wasn't exactly how I hoped to befriend you. I'd wanted to apologize for bumping into you earlier, but I..." Karkat wrinkled his nose, stairing down at the ground.
"I have a girlfriend." Vriska said flatly. "That I'm trying to save no doubt."
"I know. I just thought-"
"Thought what? That if you kissed me I'd break up with her? Forget about her and go out with you?" Vriska asked bewildered, like she couldn't believe he would bring something like that up.
"You know, you are the worst fucking listener in the history of listening." Karkat countered, getting defensive. This time Vriska stayed quiet, unable to believe this kid actually had a backbone. "I know you're dating Feferi. I wasn't attempting to make you two break up. Honestly, I'm not even sure I want to date you. I just felt like if you're going to die soon in order to save us, you should at least know."
"I'm sorry." Vriska apologized, lowering her voice. "I jumped to conclusions."
"You had every right to. I kissed you out of no where, for no apparent reason." Karkat said, phrasing his own apology.
"Next time, I'll listen to you so you don't have to jump to conclusions like that and make me get the wrong idea."
"Good. Now about saving the world and other extreme sports?" Karkat inquired, using the title of a book for his little play on words. Vriska had to laugh slightly, but she decided to roll with it.
"Well, in the words of a famous heroine, we kick butt and find the one responsible."
"So we have to grow wings?" Karkat offered, already liking that idea.
"Heavens no. Then we'd be on their radars more so than we are now." Vriska rolled her eyes. "What we do is find some bait. If we can find someone who may know the where abouts of their infector, we can tail them and see what happens when they kill them."
"How is that going to help us?" Karkat asked, referring to himself and Feferi. Vriska concidered this for a moment.
"There's got to be people in the organization who were infected by the same person. I'm sure if we start with a little digging, we can find people with the same infector. I'm sure by then Feferi will be allowed out and about, so we can have her doing a little recon for us and figuring out who is closer to finding their infector. One of us tails that person, while the other tails...lets call them the result. Once they kill their infector, we can see what happens to the result and use that information to guess the result of our situation." Vriska explained.
"So we'll be looking for Vampire candidates?" Karkat asked.
"Yes."
"So what happens if they go crazy when their infector is killed?" Karkat pushed, wanting her to say what he was assuming.
"We kill them."
Vriska had more than a good reason to say that. If word got out to the Institution that killing your infector would send the other infected idividuals into a crazed, or maddened state, the remaining 'human' vampires would be killed. Her, Karkat and Feferi along with everyone else. Vriska was sure Feferi would be the first killed. She'd be the easiest target of the three. Then they'd be after her, but would probably get Karkat first. He wasn't as experienced and skilled as she was, and she could evade them far longer than most of the other Vampire infected could. But that wasn't Vriska. She couldn't just abandon people she knew and cared for that easily. She would stay behind and try to defend them until either they died, or she died. Chances are, they would die in the crossfire, and she would give up.
Vriska had left Karkat alone back at his house, and returned to the Institution. She figured, if anything, she could probably persuade Gamzee into helping her gather a little information, especially if it would help further his research. Once back, she made a bee-line for where they were keeping Feferi. She was asleep, a mask held up to her face and a whole bunch of wires hooked up to her, but she was stable. At least, that's how it seemed, but she didn't want to find out otherwise. Gamzee wasn't too far away from Feferi's room. He was studying information he had gathered from her. Perfect.
"We need to talk." Vriska said the moment she was near him.
"About?" Gamzee asked, eyes still trained on his paper.
"I want to get some information regarding some people here. I don't have specific individuals in mind, but helping me would help you in the end." Vriska said. Gamzee looked up from his paper just long enough to give her a look that said she needed to try harder. "I want to find two people infected by the same vampire. I wish to find out what happens when one of them kills their infector. What happens to the person left behind? What happens to the person who killed the infector? Karkat and I believe this information could be helpful to our current situation, and it would be valuable information to you, since we would tell you everything that we know."
"And how would that be valuable to me? It sounds like you're simply looking for information to help yourself." The way he emphasised 'your' implied he knew about their situation. He knew what Vriska was and who had infected Feferi.
"I'm hoping to save them. To keep others from being hurt the same way they were. I was hoping if you helped me, the information we gathered would allow you to figure out how to treat, and deal with future cases like this. You already know what to look for. With our help, you'd know how to deal with them...even if in the end its not what I want." Vriska's voice was low, sad. She knew what would happen if their information revealed that they all needed to die.
"So you would trade your life, for my help?" Gamzee inquired.
"Gladly, if it means it may save theirs."
Gamzee rubbed at his chin a moment, thinking about this. "The person you need to see, holds all the information you require. He is a little bit of an...ass though." Gamzee made a face as he remembered this person.
"Where can I find him?" Vriska asked, already willing to take on this mission.
"He works for Information Processing. He's the best there is. You will find him on the lowest level of the Institution. Its solidary down there, well below the surface of the earth. He's powerful though, so be cautious." Gamzee flicked his eyes to Vriska to give her a long hard look for a moment.
"Understood. His name?"
"You wont need it."
