A/N: Hey guys, I'm back!
First off, I would like to apologise for the massive wait time. I honestly have no idea what I was thinking when I said there would be no delays. Suffice to say that I am extremely busy with stuff this year, and this past month has been the most brutal one yet. This story is far from dead, but I just want to put out that I don't have anywhere near as much time to work on it as I wish I did. Combined with writer's block, and the distractions of the internet, and we get such a long wait time. Again, I am really sorry for that.
As always, I own nothing save the OC's, and I hope you enjoy. This is, after all, the last chapter before the excrement hits the ventilation device...
Deep in the vast darkness of the veil, within a cavernous meteor laboratory, a pair of trolls lounged together in a room of husk-top computers.
Reclining in his chair, violet cape lazily draped over it's back, Eridan Ampora remarked, "no wway no wway ...you and vvris"
His jade blooded companion delicately sighed, "Yes Eridan As Difficult As It Is To Believe Myself And Vriska Were Once... involved In A Flushed Relationship"
Eridan's jaw still hung open, the concept utterly unfathomable to him, "vvris. in a flushed relationship. howwww" he asked, bewildered.
Kanaya shrugged, "It Ended Not Too Long After It Began, So As For The 'How', It Would Seem Not Particularly Well" Thinking back on the relationship, she stared intently at the floor for a few moments, prompting her new moirail to ask,
"err, kan are you alright"
She glanced up at him sharply, breaking out of her melancholy remembrance, she sighed deeply and replied, "Yes... I Suppose I Just Am Feeling Rather Worn Out Right Now,"
Eridan nodded, "i knoww howw you feel theres practically no spoor slime left for any of our recuperacoons and wwhat little is left's bein hoarded by kar" rubbing his eyes, he added, "i dont think ivve slept since wwe entered this stupid session"
"Well Karkat Needs The Spoor To Keep Gamzee Under Control You Know How He Gets When Hes No Longer Under The Influence" Kanaya replied, grimly adding, "I Am Certain We All Remember What He Did To The Black King"
The fish troll opposite her grimaced, remembering the brutal carnage their docile clown companion had wrought upon the terrified Black King. He knew that the land-dwelling high-bloods were particularly mentally unstable, but to see it in person, was utterly horrifying, even to the troll that had held the blood soaked title of 'Orphaner' for so many sweeps.
"yeah" he slowly muttered, "kar can havve all the slime he wwants just so long as he keeps his juggalo friend under control, last thin wwe need is a highblood tearin the place up"
He could have sworn Kanaya had muttered something under her breath just then, but he failed to catch her on it. Mentally shrugging, he asked, "so is there anything else you wwant to get done or are wwe just goin to keep sittin here and wwait until wwe fuse wwith the chairs"
Standing up, the jade-blood nodded, "Actually Yes There Is"
Hunching over, and entering a series of commands into the husk-top, she continued, "I intended to deal with the matriorb and rebirth a new mother grub when Jack was dealt with, but it has uncaptchalogued itself."
Eridan was certainly not an unobservant oaf, so he knew full well what she meant. Kanaya's fetch-modus worked on the principles of fate and stuff, so items captchalogued would stay in her inventory until she was supposed to use them. For the matriorb, the unhatched egg that housed the last Mother Grub in existence, the final hope to rebuild their species, to appear now, meant only one thing. Kanaya was supposed to hatch it right there and then.
She withdrew the grey, spiky egg and gently cradled it in her arms. Turning back to him, she continued, "It Has Become Clear That The Egg Needs To Be Hatched Now, Within The Meteor Itself, Will You Help Me Eridan?"
He sharply stood up and nodded, "of course kan"
Together, they walked to the door. As Kanaya fumbled with holding the matriorb and pressing the small door control panel, Eridan leaned in, and opened it for her. Giving a brief nod of appreciation, she stepped into the dim hall, her companion close behind.
Just before they disappeared into the gloom of the corridor, Eridan remarked, "you knoww it kinda fits that im doin this wwhat wwith bein the prince of hope and all"
As they reached the translocator pad that led into the depths of the laboratory, she replied, bemused, "I'm Sure It Does. Just Try Not To Break It, Oh Prince Of Hope"
Eridan's defensive reply was cut off as she stepped onto the engraved metal disk, and vanished with a flash of white light, that for a few moments, chased away the lingering shadows...
XXXXX
Elsewhere within the space rock's depths, an exceptionally muscular blue-blood and his petite companion made their way down a stairwell.
Glancing at her tall moirail, Nepeta cheerfully murmured, "hey equius?"
"MMMMMMMM?" Came the throaty rumble of her silent partner,
"i was wondering," she began, "what do you think of the humans?"
Descending a few more steps in companionable silence, Equius thoughtfully replied, "...I think the ones I have talked to are quite different from each other, much like you and I, in a way"
Gazing at the softly flickering lighting, he mused, "I have little good to say of their society though, they allow the common rabble to rise above their stations, such a practice can only lead to ill results"
Nepeta simply shook her head slowly. She had long since grown used to Equius's ideas about how things should work, and knew that there was nothing that any-troll could do to change his mind. At least he was reasonably good to those beneath him on the hemospectrum, and never went out of his way to intentionally torment other trolls.
For that, at least, she was thankful.
As they descended further, Equius asked, "Are you certain that you wish to be doing this, Nepeta, I do not want to compel you to partake in an activity that would bring you boredom and misery"
She shrugged and beamed at him, "i'm in this with you," she reassured, "i don't mind doing this at all, besides what could gamz33 want to do that wouldn't be fun?"
Equius sighed, the high-blood had never taken his position with any degree of seriousness, and he had great doubts that this experience was going to be any different.
As they reached the bottom of the stairwell, and he reached for the small door control, excersizing great control as not to break it, a curious realization struck him.
Gamzee had seemed quite different in their last conversation. Perhaps, though he did not dare to hope, the violet blooded troll had finally accepted his responsibilities as a superior high-blood.
He then mentally scoffed at the thought. The high-blood was simply not capable of being serious. It was not in his nature. Once upon a time, many sweeps ago, when a younger Equius near begged Gamzee to pretend to be a real high-blood and boss him around, the violet blood failed to do even that.
Simply put, he sincerely doubted this was going to be anything more than an attempt from the purple juggalo to cheer him up, perhaps due to the aradia-bot explosion not too long ago.
The only other option, was that Gamzee had somehow finally grown up and become a serious and brutal high-blood, and obviously, that was something that could not possibly happen.
His earlier excitement dimming under the cold light of logic, Equius opened the door, and stepped into the room at the bottom of the stairs...
XXXXX
Within another section of the space-rock, a bull-horned troll crept stealthily through the darkened corridors, his metal legs breaking the tomb-like silence in the hall.
Trying to keep his breathing under control, Tavros went over the plan again in his mind. Vriska was not only responsible for creating the winged horror that now hunted them, but she also intended to try to fight it, and thus lead it right to them.
This was completely unacceptable, and if he didn't know any better, he would have thought the spider troll was insane. As of his last conversation with her, however, it appeared that she was anything but. How someone could be so in control of their mental faculties, and yet decide that fighting a near immortal, teleporting, killing machine was a good idea, was beyond him.
His initial plan was quickly scrapped the second it fully hit him just what he was about to do. Thus, he simply tried to contact Terezi. As a paragon of Justice and punishment, she was bound to see the danger in Vriska's plans, and go forth and arrest the cerulean pirate before anyone got really hurt...
But she wasn't answering her pesterchum so Tavros now found himself in a dimly lit hall, about to face one of the most dangerous trolls on the meteor. Alone. This could not possibly end badly.
Still, he had no intention of facing her head on.
A few moments of creeping forward brought him to the lip of a very large staircase, that abruptly descended downwards, deep into the cavernous bowels of the laboratory. Here, was where he would set his trap...
Uncaptchaloging several trash filled black bags that he had brought from the common room, he piled them against a wall, and awkwardly crawled into the pile.
Immediately, the rank odour of twelve trolls worth of refuse assailed his nostrils, causing him to nearly gag. Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes and tried not to breath through his nose. This was a perfect plan, and he would be darned if some stupid garbage would be his downfall.
Manoeuvring himself into a position where he could sort of stand, he slowly parted the bags from his face a tiny bit, to allow himself a small hole to see (and breathe) through.
From his makeshift blind, he could see the entire top of the stairs. The corridor was quite narrow, and about three trolls could fit in it shoulder to shoulder. If he wasn't mistaken, the room Vriska had claimed as her own, would be somewhere further down the hall, and to get to the main outside platform, she would need to pass right by him.
Inside his pile of garbage, Tavros smirked, he was so clever. He'd show that human bully who was 'weak', he'd show Vriska who was 'spineless'. He'd show them all.
Now, all that remained was to bait the trap.
He fumbled around for a few moments, pushing the bags far enough away to create a small pocket where he could place a husktop. Uncaptchaloging his device, he opened his chat client, and contacted Vriska...
XXXXX
At the same time, a cerulean blooded troll was idly sitting at her husktop, watching the progression of a windsock hatted human as he made his way across Skaia. Just then, her observations were interrupted by the telltale noise of a pesterchum notification.
Annoyed, she muttered something under her breath and clicked on the glowing little yellow icon. To her immense surprise, the fool that dared to disturb her was none other than toreadumbass. For several moments, she sat, gaping, at the message he had sent.
It was so unlike him, that she briefly entertained the thought that someone else was using his account. She narrowed her eyes and frowned thoughtfully.
No... it couldn't be anyone else. His idiotically pathetic typing quirk was difficult to sucessfully reproduce, and this particular sample of writing was so accurate that it could be no-troll else. Somehow, Tavros had found it within himself to...actually stand up to her.
It was kinda adorable, actually. Like a declawed grub, trying and failing to run away, only managing to roll itself over into an even more vulnerable position.
Still, such insolence practically deserved to be ripped to pieces. Grinning maliciously, she began to type...
-adiosToreador began pestering arachnidsGrip [aG] -
aT: aLRIGHT VRISKA, THIS IS IT,
aT: iVE TOLERATED YOUR ABUSE FOR TOO LONG,
aT: yOU HAVE DONE A LOT OF EVIL AND MEAN STUFF,
aT: bUT THIS IS THE LAST STRAW,
aT: i CANNOT NOT ALLOW YOU TO GO AND FIGHT JACK,
aT: yOU'LL LEAD HIM RIGHT TO US AND DOOM US ALL
aT: ...
aT: ,,,UH, aRE YOU THERE,
aT: i HOPE YOU HAVEN'T LEFT YET
aT: ...
aT: ...
aT: oH NO I GUESS SHE IS GONE,
aT: sTILL, i GUESS I WAS RATHER BRAVE AND CONFIDENT TO DO ALL THIS,
aT: sO IT WASN'T A WASTE OF TIME
aG: Really Tavros?
aG: This is seriously your attempt at thre8ning me?
aG: If it wasn't so utterly pathetic, I'd say it was adora8le
aT: yOU,,,UH,,,READ THAT LAST PART,
aG: It was completely stupid of you to type that, pupa.
aG: For a moment there, I almost thought you were genuinely serious
aG: YOU, honestly think you can stop ME?
aG: Don't make me laugh, Tavros. You're not funny.
aT: i,,,I,,,I'M SERIOUS VRISKA, i WILL STOP YOU,
aG: That's cute. With what, might I ask?
aG: Your stupid lance thing?
aG: New Majjyk powers you've just discovered?
aG: A hidden arsenal of martial skills you've 8een holding 8ack this entire time?
aT: i'M BEING SERIOUS VRISKA, i REALLY DON'T WANT TO FIGHT, pLEASE DON'T DO THIS,
aG: Of course you don't want to fight me, pupa, I'd destroy you.
aG: ::::)
aG: Out of some sort of pity, perhaps, I'll tell you what,
aG: You stay out of my way, and I'll go kick jack's stupid canine ass, and I'll forget you ever challenged me.
aG: Especially from me, I think that's a generous offer.
aT: ,,,I,,,CAN'T DO THAT, vRISKA, i HAVE TO STOP YOU,
aG: That's a shame,
aG: You just grew a spine, and now you're forcing me to rip it out. Still, you 8ring this on yourself.
aG: I'm going outside to hunt for Jack. If you want to stop me, you'll have to fight me somewhere along the way.
aG: And for wh8ver it's worth, Tavros, Your new-found confidence is still as fake as Eridan's 'science wand'.
-arachnidsGrip [aG] ceased pestering adiosToreador -
With that final crushing put-down, Vriska exited the conversation and closed pesterchum. Thinking back on Tavros's amusingly defiant actions, she snorted in puzzlement.
Just what had gotten into that useless imbecile?
Captchaloguing her husk-top, and scooting back in her chair, she sharply stood up. Proudly standing to her full height, she shook the wrinkles from her grey overcoat, flicked her long dark hair over her shoulder, and fearlessly walked through the door and into the dark hallway beyond.
Confidently walking forwards, her boot-steps echoing loudly in the quiet of the dim space-rock, she smirked. She was, after all, the most dangerous troll on the meteor. Nothing, especially not toreadumbass, could possibly hope to threaten her.
Like a cold and clinical predator, she drove forwards, into the enveloping darkness of the corridor.
XXXXX
Elsewhere, upon a Land of Frost and Frogs, within a damaged spherical structure, a young girl frantically shook a prone boy...
Groggily, Chester slowly returned to consciousness... He couldn't see anything, and his limbs could barely move, he felt like he was deep underwater or something. Dimly, he heard a girl's voice, distant and echoing, as if from the end of a long tunnel.
Trying to ignore the throbbing of his head, he shakily tried to open his eyes.
Immediately assailed by a flood of light and indistinct colours and hazy shapes, he regretted his decision, and snapped them shut again. He rested like that on his back for a few more moments, trying to gather what remained of his thoughts.
One thing he noticed, was that someone kept shaking him, which made his pounding headache even worse. It was probably just his grandpa, telling him he missed the school-bus or something. Chester wanted to tell him to stop, but he couldn't quite grasp the English language just then, so he settled for muttering an incoherent burble of noise.
Thankfully, the shaking stopped. He was happy for that.
His grandpa's annoying voice remained though, to his displeasure. He just wanted to go back to sleep, couldn't the old buzzard see that?
"...chester? ...can you hear me?" the voice called, still rather indistinct.
Sleepily, he frowned. Grandpa never called him by his name, instead using terms like 'boy', and 'you', to refer to him. Something wasn't quite right here.
Flinching from a particularly nasty spike of pain, Chester frowned, if this bloody migraine would go away he could actually begin thinking about things, and bring most of his higher mental processes 'online'.
The voice came again, intensifying his headache, "...hey, can you hear me? ...do something if you're conscious..."
Against his better wishes, he tried to comply with his grandpa's strange request. Shifting his weight slightly, he tried to open his eyes again. This time, he was moderately more prepared for the brightness of the room, and despite the intensity of the sudden light, he kept them open, until eventually some things gradually came into focus.
He was in some kind of dim room, that was really big. It didn't seem like his room at all, or anywhere in his house in fact. Where was he?
There was an indistinct figure leaning over him, still somewhat shaking him with an outstretched arm. Chester mentally frowned. His grandpa seemed...taller. Something wasn't quite right here, he just couldn't figure out what.
Slowly, with a mental effort that felt like crushed nails were being drug through his head, his vision slowly cleared. Blinking spots out of his eyes, Chester saw that the figure in-front of him wasn't his grandpa at all, but rather a concerned looking girl.
At least she'd stopped shaking him, so there was that.
Still, staring at her, he wondered just what had gotten into Jade, she seemed pretty rattled...
Wait, he stopped. How did he know that name? He didn't know this person... right?
Seemingly with that first nugget of remembrance, his brain began to fill in the pieces of the hazy past. He remembered getting the game, playing with Evan. The meteor. The medium. Fighting the Black King. ...Dying. Coming back. Arriving on this snow-world. Going into the tower. ...A green flash, falling and...nothing.
Finally speaking, he coughed out, "...Jade?"
Her concern faded somewhat, and she smiled, relived. "are you alright? you took a nasty hit to the head, and for a moment there i was really worried" she mumbled quickly
Chester weakly smiled back, inwardly cursing the pounding in the back of his skull, "I'm alright. I suppose. All things considered."
Glancing around the crumpled and devastated wreckage of what he vaguely remembered as Jade's attic tower thing, he asked, "What...What happened? I can't quite remember."
Jade brushed it off, instead asking, "are you sure you're alright, nothing's broken?"
He frowned, briskly muttering "I'm quite alright Jade. Seriously. What happened? The last thing I remember is a green light and...a feeling of...falling."
Glancing at the ground, her relieved smile fading away completely, Jade grumbled, "that's what i intend to find out..."
Before Chester could enquire as-to what she was even talking about, the girl stood up from his side, and agitatedly stomped off into the cavernous depths of the spherical chamber, heading in the direction of a weakly flickering green light...
For several moments, the dull ache in his head momentarily forgotten, he stared after her. 'What on Earth has gotten into her?' he mentally shrugged.
Girls were confusing creatures... Well, damn near every human he had ever run into was an irrational, stupid, and exceedingly unpredictable creature. He never really understood how anyone worked, even his only two friends were enigmas to him
Chester still marvelled about how his species hadn't driven itself into extinction through sheer stupidity. Grumbling internally about his blasted head, he slowly staggered to his feet, and began to shuffle across the room towards the rough direction where Jade had disappeared.
After several moments of ponderous, sluggish, movement, he rounded a shelving unit to see Jade holding onto a sobbing green sprite, that oddly seemed to resemble her.
Not really sure how to react to such a strange situation, (and flinching at the painful brightness of the sprite), Chester stayed back, and leaned against the shelf. Once again, he cursed his lack of social prowess.
Moments later, the two girls' hushed conversation turned louder, as the sprite began to bawl, and Jade went from soft, calming muttering, to semi-aggressive shaking of the sprite, and illegible words that didn't entirely sound friendly.
The situation escalated to a point where Jade outright shouted, "shut up! stop being such a damn crybaby! really, we both had the same exact experiences, and i'm managing to keep my head up, despite all the bad stuff."[1]
Even more angered by the sprite's continued bawling and disregard, Jade slapped the sprite. The sobbing stopped, and the sprite glanced slowly up at Jade, with a face so much like her own.
"...you hit me..." The ...Jade...Sprite said quietly, in disbelief.
Jade sighed, "im sorry, you drove me to it with your constant whining." Glancing tiredly at the ground, she continued quietly "you didn't even experience the worst of it, when jack got first guardian powers, he became able to kill anyone, wherever they were. he became completely unbeatable. that's why we brought you back, you have the same powers through Bec, you can fight him. you can stop him from hurting anyone else," Jade pleaded, "please, help us, you're the only one who can."
Jadesprite's eyes widened in fear, at the mere mention of Jack. Slowly, she began to back (err...float?) away, hesitantly gazing at her surroundings, as if anticipating a killer monster to pounce from the darkness at any moment.
"i...i can't." The sprite choked out, on the verge of breaking into tears again,
Jade impatiently rushed forward and grabbed Jadesprite's arms roughly. "like hell you can't!" she spat, "it's not a question of what you can do, but what you must do. we all have our parts to play in this, and we don't exactly have the luxury of complaining."
This sent Jadesprite once again into hysterical sobbing, inter-cut with faint, occasional murmurs of "i'm too weak," and "i can't"
This did not please Jade one bit.
She resumed thrashing and shaking her counterpart, demanding that the bawling immediately cease, and incoherently yelling. Wisely remembering what happened at his school whenever the strange beings called girls fought, Chester cautiously backed away behind the shelf, safely out of the firing line.
It was never a bad idea to let other people solve their problems by themselves. After-all, he'd been doing it since childhood. What was their excuse?
Meanwhile, Jadesprite had seemingly had enough of being smacked around by her human counterpart, and with a really flimsy push, managed to shove Jade away.
Before anyone could react, a green flash of light engulfed the spherical space. When it cleared moments later, Jadesprite was gone.
For several long, awkward moments of tomb-like silence, Jade stood there, motionlessly staring at the spot that Jadesprite had formerly occupied. With a sudden burst of motion, she sunk to her knees, and buried her face in her hair. She wasn't quite crying, but she was slightly shaking.
Behind the shelf, Chester really wasn't sure how to react. The damnable flash had caused his headache to flare up again, and now he had to deal with an upset companion.
He really hated dealing with people. Particularly those he had grown to like. Glancing at her shaking body, he anxiously frowned, mind buzzing with a mess of jumbled thoughts, 'What was he supposed to say? Should he do something? Girls needed their space, right? Maybe? What if they didn't? He didn't know what to do... What would Evan do? ...Actually, scratch that, not a good train of thought. What would Chris do?...not really applicable either...and highly illegal. Oh gosh, now she was making quiet sobbing noises. That was bad. Right? He really needed to do something...but what if that made it worse? ...but what if it became worse on it's own?...unless it didn't...'
His brain torn between an incoherent mess of mental gibberish, and a droning migraine, Chester failed to notice how he slowly shuffled towards the sitting girl, and crouched beside her.
When he finally returned to his senses, and became mostly aware of his surroundings, he realized he was crouching right. beside. her.
This was single-handedly the most anxiety-inducing moment of his life.
Worse still, he was awkwardly patting her on the back...
That was about the last thing he was able to clearly process before the mental orchestra of confusion returned. After yet more confused mental babbling, he was snapped back to his senses when he realized she was saying something.
Quietly, she slowly muttered under her breath, "i hate that that happened...sorry about that"
Not sure how to react, Chester settled for yanking his hand back as fast as humanely possible, and muttering something along the lines of, "Ummmyea...uhuh"
He felt that suitably conveyed all possible dialogue options at once, and was not in any way offensive, or unoffensive.
Parting the hair from her face, Jade continued, "it's just that...i don't even know... she's just so useless, and she made me so mad."
'Hmmm'...he thoughtfully muttered in his mind. The logical side of him was beginning to see some vestiges of rationality in her actions... He was slowly beginning to genuinely understand where she was coming from... Wasn't it wonderful to deal with people that actually did things because of reasons, as opposed to 'why not'?
It seemed as if she was upset with the sprite because Jadesprite was uncooperative and useless. But... that was kinda obvious. There had to be something more to it.
In the meanwhile, he awkwardly gave an intrigued nod, and gestured for her to continue. Perhaps, if he figured out why she was so bent out of shape, everything would go back to normal... Now he just needed to figure out why people got angry at things... Easier said than done.
Maybe if he tried to put himself in her shoes, so to speak. Hmmm... So, the sprite was continuously whiny and useless. He could definitely see how that could get anyone annoyed and "set off", but not quite to Jade's extent. Something else was at play here...
Thoughtfully gazing at the floor, he pondered the problem. He just had no idea how people worked. (His blasted super-brain didn't seem too helpful in this regard either.)
Then, as Jade wistfully said, "i just don't see how anyone could be so selfish and cowardly... and to think she's basically a clone of...me"
It suddenly hit him like a kilogram of bricks. '...What if...Jade is upset because...the sprite basically is her...and...she finds the comparison frightening and insulting... because she dosen't act at all like that...or something' he mentally puzzled out.
Yes. This had to be it. ...Right?
Girls were weird.
Still, he had a reasonable working hypothesis for her upset mood. Now he just had to figure out how to cheer her up.
Taking a shot in the dark, he delicately commented, "You know that the ...sprite thing likely is not a perfectly intact version of you. Right?"
She turned to him, very much upset, but also somewhat curious.
Feeling like (Or, rather, desperately hoping) he was on the right track, Chester continued, rapidly adding, "Mentally. I mean. This version of you was prototyped from a corpse. One that had very traumatic final moments as well. It seems logical that her behaviour would be... difficult and unstable."
Jade nodded thoughtfully.
Sighing, she replied, "i guess so, it's just that even then, we don't have time for her problems and issues, just like we don't have time for mine or yours."
Gesturing at her spectagoggles, she lamented, "everyone has to pull their own weight if we're gonna survive. even her."
Chester agreed. "I can't argue with that. It's a reasonable expectation to have of people." shrugging, he then added, "It's a shame that so few people can actually live up to even the most basic of expectations though."
Jade disagreed, "you can't really judge all people like that though, how many have you even met in your whole life? a hundred? a thousand? there are..." Her eyes widened and she suddenly fell quiet, awkwardly resuming after a few moments, "...there were billions. each and every one not too different from you or me."
He frowned, it was annoying to be wrong. That was partially why he liked to rant to Evan and Chris, neither knew or cared enough to call him out on things. Still, Jade seemed to be... somewhat better, at least.
"Regardless." he tried to shift the topic, "What happened with the sprite was in no way your fault. You don't need to get upset over it. We'll figure out another way of dealing with Jack."
Quietly shifting her gaze across the room, Jade murmured, "i'm not sure there is one..."
Chester tried to smile encouragingly, (and trying not to show how afraid he was), "There is one. There has to be." with faux humour, he added, "If not. We'll make a way. Now, how about we try something else. Talking to the trolls perhaps..."
Jade's optimistic smile slowly returned to her face, "i could try contacting rose again," she suggested.
Uncaptchaloging his laptop, Chester nodded, "I'll see if the purple guy I talked to is around. I'm sure we can brainstorm a way to defeat Jack."
Jade grinned fully and, despite his crushing pessimism about their odds of survival, he smiled back. Maybe, things would turn out alright...
A/N: So, in light of recent events, I really can't say how long the next chapter will take. It'll definitely be a big one, which will lengthen proceedings. The third week of May seems like a reasonable estimate for now, but it could take a week or two longer. As for the [1] bit in the text, it marks a bit of text that is mostly taken from the comic itself, as I can't really find a better way to say that part. Obviously, whatever Hussie has directly written belongs to him, and even the rest of this story is borrowing from his work in one way or another.
Anyway, I really hope you folks review, as I immensely appreciate it. Thank you for sticking with me, and I'll see you all later.