Karkat couldn't help it, as they walked towards the makeshift cave/hive that the humans had claimed, he just kept glaring at Vriska's back, and she knew it. Occasionally she would turn around and give Karkat a smile that said ha, I am the one with John, not you. To which Karkat would have gotten pissed, yet Gamzee and Tavros kept bugging him about why it was that he was with humans, aptly keeping his anger that should have been directed at Vriska towards them.
John and Dave were leading the small group through the wilderness towards the cave, next to John was Vriska; she had latched her arm around John's. Terezi just held onto Dave's arm while occasionally hitting him on the top of the head if he went too slow or fast, which was often; much to Dave's chagrin. Between Dave and John and behind them a little was Kanaya. She was deep in her own thoughts while trekking through the forest. Following her was Karkat with Tavros and Gamzee flanking him, both of which kept a constant chatter. Sometimes Karkat wondered how anyone followed Gamzee's train of thought, he would jump from subject to subject so often that Karkat's thinking pan was beginning to get a dull ache.
"Ah home sweet home!" John said pointing up ahead at where a small opening could barely be seen in the side of a mountain.
"What the fuck!" Dave exclaimed as they spotted yet more trolls.
"Friends of yours I hope?" John asked as he paused next to Dave while the others caught up with them.
Vriska eyes them, pushing her glasses back onto her nose better, making John smile down at her. "Yeah," she said, "It's Sollux, Aradia, Nepeta, Feferi, Equius, and Eridan. That is all of the trolls we came here with. All twelve are accounted for."
"Didn't I hear them earlier say you had killed Aradia?" Dave asked Vriska.
"Technically she did." Terezi said.
"Damn Equius brought her back to life though." Vriska didn't seem too upset about it.
"That's why she looks like a robot now." Karkat startled them, except for Terezi, with being so close.
"It's another motherfuckin miracle."
"Some miracle," Vriska stated as she allowed John to lead her up to the mouth of the cave where all the other trolls were waiting.
Eridan looked the worse for wear, his cape was in tatters and he kept whining about some swamp, and how he would never forgive Nepeta for shredding his 'precious' cape. Feferi too was looking unusually somber with swamp sludge on her, Equius and Nepeta were both cleaning themselves, well Nepeta had taken it upon herself to clean Equius, while the muscular troll just sat there watching the group of two humans and five trolls heading towards them.
Sollux and Aradia were busy with trying to calm Eridan down while he ranted. They looked fine, a little bruised, but no trace of swamp sludge that the other four had.
After the introductions and the explanation as to why the trolls were with humans, which seemed to last for an hour, while Gamzee worked on his fourth Faygo, John and Dave collapsed on their small makeshift bed. They promptly cuddled and once more fell into a deep sleep. Vriska and Terezi cuddling up to them and listened as Aradia and Sollux told their story.
"We had just left Alternia when things started to go wrong." Sollux said. "Aradia and I were the only ones that were in the lab when Jack showed up."
"What was Jack doing on the ship?"
"Karkat just let them explain; then we can ask the questions." If anyone other than Kanaya had said that to the self-appointed leader; he would have blown a fuse, as it was, he held a lot of respect for her so he listened to her advice.
"It was just Jack luckily, he did something to the environmental controls for the lusus, then tried to do the same for all of us, luckily we stopped him before he could kill all of us."
"Well it was mainly you Sollux." Aradia said while absently doodling on the dirt floor of the cave. Even Gamzee seemed to be paying attention now.
"You helped out too," Sollux stated firmly before continuing, his lisp was barely noticeable as they all wanted to know everything. "Well we were able to make him think that whatever he had done had worked, just barely though. And for the rest of the trip we had to work at fooling him that it had worked. Just as we were approaching this planet, he must have realized that his plan hadn't fully worked. He was getting ready to blow the ship up, so Aradia and I set the pods to launch, we were able to get you all in them before the ship exploded."
"I am so sorry Karkat…"
Karkat looked shocked, "What do you mean Aradia?"
Aradia looked away before Sollux explained the lisp fully evident now, "He stabbed you before we could shove you into your pod."
Now that Sollux had mentioned it, the memory came back to him, Karkat had been minding his own business; looking out the port window at the blue planet. He then had realized that the bulk of the planet would be water, something that would make Feferi and Eridan happy no doubt, he had thought, when Jack showed up along with Sollux. He remembered wondering why a pain was searing him as Sollux shoved him into his pod.
"The human John helped me…" Karkat said, his gaze was on the sleeping John. He wished he could be the one the human was sleeping against. OH Gog! Where had that thought come from? He was seriously getting too attached to these humans, well technically one of them. This was not good…
"So then after he stabbed you, Aradia and I tried to get to the last two pods, trapping him on the ship; he realized what we were doing though and got the head start. Launching himself into mine, leaving us to share Aradia's."
"So where is he now?" Equius asked, absently he was flexing his muscles while watching Gamzee swig more of that Faygo.
"All the pods were on nearly the same course. They are all within a certain radius of one another." Aradia took over now; she drew a circle on the dirt, with an x off to the left side of it. "Ours landed here," she indicated the x. "If my thinking is right, then he could be just on the other side of this hill."
Nepeta squealed and clung to Equius.
Vriska and Terezi both involuntarily shielded the sleeping humans.
Gamzee and Tavros looked at one another; absently the latter scooted closer to the former.
"OH FUCK! OH GOG! WHAT THE FUCK! OH MAN, OH JEGUS FUCKIN BALLS, WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO NOW?"
"We keep calm, so as to not disturb your new human friends." Kanaya said, indicating John and Dave who were stirring slightly.
"We have to protect those weak humans." Karkat said, calming slightly, as he watched John. "I can't let him die."
"You have the life debt to him don't you?" Sollux asked.
"Karkat has paid it already." Vriska said as John mumbled something in his sleep and buried his head into Dave's neck.
"And you still want to protect him?" Sollux asked, "Do you have red feelings for this human?"
"Gog, I don't know," Karkat reluctantly admitted. "I just know I can't let Jack or anyone else kill him."
