"Jade, Jade come on look at me." Jade opened her eyes and they focused on her brother. Her head was pounding and her body felt tired and heavy. John's hands were pressed against her head, his thumbs carefully tracing her hairline.

"W-where...?" she felt a terrible sinking feeling in her stomach as memories flashed through her head. She reached out and felt the ground beside her, and her lithe fingers brushed the edge of Dave's shirt. "N-no no God no" tears stung at her eyes and she was suddenly having a very difficult time catching her breath. She wanted it to all be a bad dream, something she could wake up from.

John was looking at her with a terrible expression. "Calm down. I-it's gunna be okay?" he seemed to ask it involuntarily, like he had meant for it to be a statement instead of a question. Jade whimpered as tears ran down her face and she shook her head slowly. John's brow furrowed and his eyes glazed over as the information seemed to hit him. Without hesitation he pulled her into a tight hug, his hands gripping her shoulders as if she were a lifeline, and she held him back even tighter. "I'm really happy you're safe." He whispered to her, and she felt his warm tears hit the bare skin of her shoulder. It made her feel awful. She had left to protect them, and instead because of her own miserable weakness she essentially forced Dave in front of the knife. She was the one who wanted to play this stupid game to begin with. She was responsible for not knowing the consequences. She thought she had all the answers. She was so wrong.

"I'm sorry John I'm s-so sorry. It's all my fault h-he's... Dave is…" John pulled back from her and took his face in her hands again, his face alarmingly serious.

"No it's not, Jade. Don't do that to yourself."

"He's gone because he saved me! I was the one who ran off! I couldn't protect him…" John opened his mouth to speak, but he did not get the chance.

"You mean to say this is a permanent death?" Rose asked in a worried voice as she walked toward Jade and knelt down, purposefully not looking at her fallen brother. The usual sarcastic air that was constantly laced within her speech was conspicuously absent, and her eyes were full of fear. John turned his head without taking his hands from Jade's face, and the look he gave Rose must have answered all of her questions because her hands flew to her mouth, and she appeared to be suddenly holding back tears. "He was so… horrendously reckless. Idiot." She moved her hands up to her eyes and rubbed them, leaving the skin red and splotchy as she lowered them once again.

"I do not want to be intrusive, but I believe we should move his body. That horrible clown will not respect the dead in the way you would prefer." Kanaya had walked up behind Rose to place a tentative hand on her shoulder, and Rose accepted her gesture by closing her own hand over it.

"Thank you, Kanaya. We will move him," Rose responded.

"I'll take care of Gamzee." Karkat grumbled, Terezi clinging to his arms and crying silently.

John turned his face back to Jade's and attempted a smile, and she returned it the best that she could, but tears still streamed down her face. She felt like she was moving more slowly than everyone else, but John seemed privy to her state of mind and did not rush her. "We should take him inside." He said softly, brushing her cheek again with his thumb. "Do you think you will be okay?" Jade nodded at him and game him another small smile, trying to push down her grief and regain a more optimistic demeanor.

"I can take him." She said quietly, touching John's hand affectionately as he finally moved it away from her face. "I can carry him. You lead the way, okay?" He nodded and helped her to her feet, afterword turning to take Rose into his arms as she cried. Kanaya looked at the two of them with worry, her hand still in Rose's. Jade stepped away from Dave's body and as she took in the scene and at the sight of his crumpled body in a pool of dried blood she felt herself on the verge of retching. Karkat walked behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder and she steadied herself.

"Fuck… You don't have to do this, Harley. We can take him." Karkat told her, but she shook her head and held her breath as she raised her hands. Dave's body was enveloped in a pulsing green light as she lifted him gently off of the ground. She heard Karkat sigh as he walked away from her, back toward Terezi who was running back into the lab. Jade looked to John, and he nodded at her that he was ready to go, pointing toward Kanaya to let her know that she was leading the way. Jade had to try hard not to look at his body or else she would not be able to continue on.

They set Dave in an empty room, covering him delicately with a sheet that Kanaya brought to them from his bedroom. Jade had trouble leaving him there, but she eventually pulled herself away out of necessity and headed back to Dave's bedroom almost without thinking about where her feet were taking her. She was still exhausted, but terribly afraid to sleep. Afraid of more void, afraid of waking up and having a moment of ignorance before reality came crashing back down over her. She pushed her way through the door and was met with the room just as disheveled as it had been from her fight with Jack. Dave had not even attempted to pick anything up besides her broken flowerpot which sat in pieces on a half-broken table. It made her sad, though she was not sure exactly why; it was just the care that had gone into cleaning up the only broken thing in the room that belonged to her.

Jade walked into the bathroom and she was surprised to find the mirror broken, blood in the sink and on the floor and many other places throughout the room. What happened? She walked to the sink and began picking up the pieces of broken mirror, dropping them into her palm. Once she had collected a large amount of shards, she was unsure what to do with them and so she dropped them back into the sink, spreading her hands apart as she did so. A green light enveloped all of the shards and she made a motion with her hands, the pieces levitating between them and shrinking to a minuscule size. She smirked at herself momentarily, and proceeded to clean up the rest of the debris in the same manner.

When she was finished she moved slowly back into the bedroom and looked around. Dave's laptop was on the ground and the light on it was blinking slowly. She moved toward it tentatively and picked it up off of the floor, sitting back on the bed and placing it on her lap. Setting a finger softly on the touchpad, the computer screen lit up to show her Dave's Pesterchum client, red walls of text in an open pesterlog window. She scrolled through them, noticing that they were for her, and as she did so she felt the grief wash over anew. He had tried to contact her, begging her to respond. She had not thought it would be so hard on him. She had not thought of much besides wanting to protect her friends. The guilt she felt was overwhelming, and she wiped the tears from her eyes as she continued reading. His last message was the hardest; all illusions of confidence seeming to fall away. He was just a boy who worried for her, and she was not there to help him.

fuck im scared just come back please come back

She choked out a sob as she read the last lines over and over, eventually slamming the computer shut and throwing it across the room. She raised her hands to catch it midair and let it drop more gently to the ground, unwilling to allow herself to be so senselessly destructive. She curled up on his bed, breathing deep to take in the smell of him on every inch of the fabric. She missed him so much it was like physical pain; worse because she knew she would never be able to stop missing him. Guilt and pain and missing and she was losing control. Just a week together again had changed everything, a week to figure out just how much they meant to one another, and without him she did not feel right anymore. She sobbed as visions of him came unbidden to her mind, memories of his arms around her, his lips on hers, and she clutched the blankets to her body as she shook against them. She had been fighting with herself to stay strong, but she was done fighting.

She let it all wash over her.

Jade heard a knock at the door what felt like hours later, and she knew she should answer but could not make herself open her mouth to do so. The knocking came more frantically, then, and she heard Rose's voice on the other side of the door. "Jade, I am sorry to bother you but we have a very serious problem and I need your help. Please answer me or I will be forced to break my way in." Jade pushed herself up and flicked her wrist to unlock the door.

"What's the matter Rose?" Jade asked as she wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. Rose walked quickly into the room, obvious in her distress.

"I thought we may have had more time to grieve, but the game is cruel as always." a hint of anger and impatience was in her voice. "We are going to make impact. I tried to tell everyone that this would happen soon, but 'everyone' was quite a bit distracted. I thought to give you some time alone before I burdened you with the news as well, but I do not have that option. We are heading toward the new battlefield quite quickly, and without your help I am afraid it may be a very dangerous collision. I know…"

"It's fine, Rose." She gave her friend a small smile. "I can do this."

"I loved him, too." Rose said quietly. Jade rose to her feet and wrapped Rose in a tight hug.

"I know. Let's go save everyone now, okay?" Rose let out a tired laugh and nodded, both her and Jade turning toward the door to head to the roof.

As the two of them entered the roof, they gaped at the vision of Skaia inching closer to them by the second. It was small and flat and square, not like the huge round planet their Skaia had been. Jade understood why they had not known how close they were to it until they were right on top of it. "We have very little time, Jade. Do you understand what you need to do?"

"Slow us down? No problem!" Jade raised her hands and the entire meteor began to glow the green of her powers. She lifted off of the ground to survey their movement. It was travelling terribly fast, and quickly approaching Skaia. She focused as hard as she could and they began to slow down, but not enough. She was exhausted, and it was hard to keep her concentration on the meteor when her grief kept ebbing away at her no matter how hard she tried to push it down. She reminded herself of her friends, the people that were depending on her, and she focused harder, letting her anger fuel her power. Slowly, the meteor lost speed, and she could see the checkered ground of the battlefield rushing toward her. With one final burst her light strengthened and she slowed the meteor enough so that when they made their impact, they did not immediately destroy themselves along with everything around them.

The giant rock crashed against the ground, pieces of white and black debris scattered all around them. Jade reached out for Rose, but the blonde girl was already in the air with a deeply concentrated look in her eyes as they watched the meteor slide for a moment across the hard ground. When it finally stopped moving, the last of the tremors ebbing away, their companions began to exit the lab. Jade and Rose headed back toward them as they surveyed the damage. Jade felt drained as the adrenaline wore off, and by the time she was face to face with John and the others, she was fighting back tears again. She hated herself for being so weak. Dave would have been able to keep his cool.

"The fuck just happened, LaLonde?" Karkat complained, and Jade stopped listening as Rose began to give him and everyone else a verbose retelling of the events that had just taken place. She stared off onto the ruined battlefield, and as the smoke cleared she made out four figures heading toward them. As they came closer, she could see their faces and she knew immediately who they were; the heroes from the new session, their ecto-relatives.

"Hey, look whose here!" she said, and everyone turned their heads in her direction, soon after registering their guests. They were all wearing their God Tier outfits and Jade could not help but be impressed by their obvious progress despite their barren session. The two dark haired kids landed first, a boy and a girl that had to be hers and John's relatives. The other two followed, first the girl Roxy who she recognized immediately from Rose's description of her, and then a boy who looked painfully like Dave, only with pointed anime shades rather than the round aviators Dave would wear. The dark haired boy must have been her penpal Jake, and she sorely wished she could be happier to see him. He walked up to her and gave her a big smile that reminded her so much of the vague memories of her grandfather.

"Well hello there! It sure is great to finally get to meet you! I'm Jake, and you must be Jade! Wow I was really expecting you to be older. Heh guess I was wrong, you're the same age as me! Blimey this is unsettling. But good! Very good. Oh wow I'm sorry I'm babbling." Jade tried to smile at him, but he immediately noticed something was the matter. Before he could say anything more, the blonde boy spoke up, and he even sounded like Dave.

"Where is he?" she knew exactly who he meant, and her heart dropped to her stomach as tears came to her eyes.

"I-I'm sorry" she managed to say before the tears started falling down her cheeks. She wiped them away quickly and Jake looked at her with worry all over his expression.

"What are you sorry for Jade? What's wrong?" Jake asked her as he placed a hand on her shoulder. Jade could not answer, but Rose spoke up instead.

"He died saving someone he cared for very much." She said, and Jade knew she meant for it to make her feel better, but it only made her feel worse. She did not want anyone to die for her, especially not Dave. Jake moved away from Jade, then, and over to the blonde boy to touch his hand. He responded and took Jake's hand as well, his expression impassive and controlled as he remained silent.

"Sorry, Dirk. I know you wanted to meet him." Dirk nodded and turned away as Jake squeezed his hand tighter. The dark haired girl turned toward them then, and her emblem was one Jade did not immediately recognize, but Karkat, Rose, and the other trolls stared at it with a weird expression. The girl looked anxious as she struggled to find words to say.

"Do you have him here still?" she finally asked, glancing sadly at the two boys who now had their backs turned on the group.

"We do." answered Rose.

"I think I… I'm not sure but I might be able to help."

Ugh okay I edited this a lot since I first posted it, because I didn't proofread anything and so when I read it this morning I was suprised at how shitty it was. So... yeah. EDITED.

AGAAAAAIN - OH my GOB I edited it AGAIN I really need to not post shit that isn't proofread like 50 times. This was the first chapter I didn't painstakingly go over before posting so I mean... ugh. SORRY. I will post an author's comment on the next one to let people who read the unedited version to come back and read it again. I added a little bit. Thanks to the person who told me I spelled Skaia wrong I seriously ALWAYS spell that wrong. Anyway. So sorry.

So I have been SO crazy busy recently, but a good busy. I was going to write this last night but I fell down some stairs and fucked up my ankle so I was kind of lazy and wanted to just lay around like a piece of trash while I complained to my boyfriend. Good times. I love him. Hehe ANYWAY this was actually a hard chapter to write because its like... lots of important crap but also boring I guess? It's necessary. I just wanted it to still be interesting. I find that I enjoy writing Jake.

Anyway, the response for the last chapter was phenomenal, and I am overwhelmed. Thank you all so much for the support. My boyfriend is suffocating me with hugs right now so ima go snuggle him back. 33

-CS