Chapter 13

Karkat crawled out of bed around 1 in the afternoon on Monday, wishing not for the first time that they had a way to create the sopor slime-holding cocoons they'd had on Alternia. The horrerterrors never went away, and more than once he'd nearly snapped John's neck when the human had tried to wake him. He splashed water on his face and pulled on a random shirt to go with his pajama pants before slugging downstairs to the boys dorm's common room to grab some breakfast. It'd taken a full year for him to finally even begin to adjust to the foul human gunk. After scarfing a hotdog Sunday morning he'd showered briefly to rinse off the dirt and blood before passing out as soon as his head touched the pillow. He'd then proceeded to sleep for a solid nineteen hours as his body practically hibernated to heal. He stretched, groaning as his bones popped and his muscles grew taunt. He was still pretty sore, and from his observation when he'd showered he had a dark bruise in the shape of Mindfang's boot on his back that probably hadn't healed yet.

"Fuckin' weird when no one's around…" He glanced about the empty common room, pulling out a box of Lucky Charms. He wanted to talk to Gamzee, but he would be in the crowded dining hall with every other student in the school. Screw Vriska and her plans. He imagined she was off running her betting club behind the dining room like she did every lunch period. He sat with his food at one of the tables.

"Karkat?"

He whipped around, surprised by the voice, and angry that he was caught off guard by a human.

"Fuck! Josh! Don't sneak up on me!" He relaxed visibly, but he focused on being more aware, giving the younger boy an irritated glare. "What the hell are you doing here anyways? Why aren't you at lunch?"

The sophomore shrugged. "I wasn't hungry so I felt like coming back to the dorm for a nap. I was just leaving though if you don't want to be…" his eyes darted to the half empty bowl of Lucky charms and he raised an eyebrow dubiously "interrupted."

Karkat wrinkled his nose at his meal. "I don't really care for either. You or the cereal."

"Thanks, asshole." Josh gave him a dirty look and pulled his backpack higher on his shoulder. "I guess I'll tell Mr. Zilly that you won't be coming to P.E."

"You do that. Prepare to be disappointed, fuckass." Karkat didn't even spare him a second glance as the kid slunk outside to the courtyard between the boy's and girl's dorms. He slurped at the milk in his bowl. He'd failed P.E. sophomore year because he hated Mr. Zilly and had refused to do anything. Roxy had royally scolded him and told him that if he failed it again she'd make him attend Dirk's sword fighting class every day. No matter how much he disliked Mr. Zilly, it wasn't worth going through hell under Strider senior's instruction.

"Dude, not cool."

Karkat jumped to his feet, practically hissing, the empty bowl shattering on the ground.

"Fucking Strider!" The bastard had flashstepped right behind him.

Dave smirked at him. "You didn't have to be such a dick to Josh. You know he has a crush on you."

"Not. Interested." Karkat prodded him in the chest with his middle finger. "It would be stupid for ANY of us to get involved with normal humans. It's inconceivable to even imagine trying to explain the game to someone else. They'd send us to the insane asylum."

"Probably."

"You are the epitome of idiotic. The statue of the founder of this school outside has more brains than you."

Dave scoffed and turned to go. "I've got to get to Photography. You've got to tell us later today why Dirk and Roxy called us in to tell us to leave you and Vriska alone today and Sunday." He waved his camera in the air. "See ya around. You might want to clean up your mess too. You know how the janitor gets."

Muttering, Karkat swept the pieces of bowl up and stalked back upstairs to his room. They would just have to wait, especially that obnoxious Strider. The troll had an hour to burn before he was supposed to meet with Vriska. He grabbed his laptop, courtesy of Miss Lalonde and idly browsed the internet until it was five minutes before time. Then he wandered downstairs and outside. He was met with a brisk breeze coming down from the Rocky Mountains. He still didn't understand why the blondes had chosen an obscure school in Colorado to nest in. Snow made him miserable, and even now near the end of Summer the white hell was already inching closer to the campus grounds.

He was glad he'd thought to snag a jacket on his way out. Sitting on the edge of the fountain, he stared across the grass waiting for Vriska to leave her building. His eyes blurred and he dozed off a few minutes before jerking awake to Vriska flicking his forehead.

He sputtered. "Tell me you did NOT just use your powers on me."

Vriska grinned viciously at him. "I didn't use my powers on you."

"Liar."

Laughing, Vriska sat beside him, leaning back on her hands to stare at the clear blue sky. "We can argue over that later. We need to talk about who the spy might be."

"We can scratch us off the list and John."

"Can we?" She stared at him intensely.

"Yes of course." He snapped. "Unless you're confessing something."

She shook her head. "I agree with you. I also see no reason for Dave, Rose, or Jade to want to get involved. Dave and Rose have their guardians here and Jade thinks hers is dead. It has to be someone who's interested in stirring things up. If that were to happen someone would start dying, probably starting with us. So anyone who's into spying on us is into our death."

"Well that could be any number of us at one time or the other. You included." He gave her a pointed look.

Ignoring him, she continued. "But we DID all make an oath. I can't imagine anyone wanting to break it. Not after what we went through. And even though you hate the idea, the only troll who keeps coming to mind is Gamzee. He killed so many people for no good reason and went off on his own and caused a lot of problems."

"What about Eridan?! He killed Feferi and Sollux and Kanaya at one point!"

"Yeah but we understand what that idiot did it."

"We sorta understand why Gamzee did it too!"

She sighed heavily. "Karkat… you're being difficult. It adds up. Gamzee was the only other person who knew about our plans."

"But we haven't had a chance to talk to him yet, dumbass! Maybe he told someone else. And maybe-" He broke off, gasping. "Oh shit. Tavros popped in right after Gamzee left! What if he'd been listening the entire time?!"

Vriska scowled at him. "You think Tavrosis the spy? Really Karkat?"

"Well you know he doesn't like me very much. He could want me dead." He grimaced.

"Yeah sure, but why would he want me dead?"

He looked at her skeptically. "I shouldn't even have to answer that."

She growled and pushed him off the ledge, causing him to fall smack on his ass.

"Ow, you bitch! I'm just saying it's a possibility, just like you think Gamzee is!"

"Well maybe, if Tavros did overhear you two, he told someone else. Aradia's his Moirial. He could have told her."

"Yes and Aradia could have told Equius and he could have told Nepeta and Nepeta could have told Dave and the cycle goes on. We really don't know how much they know which is why we need to fucking talk to them!" Karkat stood, brushing off dirt and sitting warily beside her again.

"But anything everyone knows is something the spy knows. If he knows we're aware of him, he'll be more careful and be even harder to find." She put her elbow on her knee, resting her chin in her hand.

"Stop talking like it's Gamzee!"

"Stop acting like he's not the prime suspect!"

Karkat buried his face in his hands, groaning. "God this is awful. How do I know you're not saying this just because you have a fucking Kismesisitude with him?"

She glared at him spitefully. "You don't know anything about having a Kismesis because you've never experienced it! I don't actually want him to die or anything. There is an element of respect involved, scum-blood. I'm just trying to lay out the possibilities in a logical manner. Things go wrong when you let your feelings get too involved."

"You would know." He shot back.

"Yes, I would." She whispered, her eyes haunted.

Karkat shifted uncomfortably, guilt washing over him. "Sorry."

"I don't need your pity." She blinked, her eyes turning hard and haughty once more.

They then proceeded to bicker for another half hour.

"OKAY ENOUGH!" Karkat shouted. "I'm getting a violent headache thanks to you! This is a waste of time. We have to go talk to dumb blonde number one and two in less than two hours, and people will be getting out of class in an hour and this will no longer be a private place to talk."

"Fair enough. We need to discuss our fucked up ancestor and dancestor situation. We have to think of a way to stop our Ancestors from fighting and release our Dancestors, and we have to figure out why they're at it this time. They already split up once and we know how that turned out. My guess is they were fine until her Imperial Batterbitch showed up and rekindled old flames of loyalty. Someoneneeds to get into one side and figure out what's going on." She gave him a look.

"Oh hell, hell no."

OH HO HO.

So guys. Start guessing who the spy is. Next chapter you'll get some more looks at who it could possibly be and I'll be giving more hints every chapter (even if they're subtle.)Also, I'm sorry to say that the next two chapters are a lot of dialogue and mechanics and crap, but hopefully Chapter 16 will bring you some more action! Karkat'll be visiting John again pretty soon too, since he's kinda important. XD

Hope you like the new chapters!