Homestuck: Dimensions Intertwined

by aregulargamer1

Four Humans flee before the hound's wrath, twelve trolls cower within the depths of their meteor, whilst twelve more look on from the dream bubbles. These groups are on the verge of collapse even now, so how can they hope to stand against the Lord of Time. Yet, all is not lost, a new session will soon connect to the others. Perhaps these new players, can help the others to stand.

47. End of Act II, Part 2

A/N: Hey guys and gals! It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm pleased to report that I've regained interest in writing this, and hammered out this chapter in about a week of work. 13k words, and the ending to S Cascade. I'll take this time to make the announcement that I intend to cross-post this story to SpaceBattles where its easier to talk to readers, post some of the art that this story's accumulated over the years, and frankly, the site has better formatting than FF. I may or may not make an update in the story when that happens, but that's not the important part. The SB version of the story will be the "Remastered" edition, complete with a great deal of editing to fix a few lore mistakes, spelling errors, and everything that got mangled by FF formatting.

New chapters will be coming once I clean up the whole story and have it over there. From this point, I plan for Spacebattles to be the main home for this story, and my other works as well.

Thank you for sticking with me, and I hope you enjoy!

---

Above the temperate surface of the Land of Frost and Frogs, a boy clad in black flew through the cold, crisp sky at a breakneck pace, a limp form cradled in his arms.

Chester's eyes were red with exertion and stress, frantically searching back and forth across the dense canopy of trees below, desperately looking for Jade's quest slab. His super-brain had brought up a relatively reasonable suggestion of an optimized and methodical search pattern, and he'd stuck to it religiously. Already circumnavigated the world twice, and was almost finished with a third go-around. Less fast than going to the quest slab directly? Of course, but he didn't know where it was. Methodically searching everything was the mathematically superior method, his own panicked desires to dart around randomly notwithstanding.

He'd hit the planet's frozen north first and was making his way down to the south pole, circling the planet in increments of a thousand kilometres. At his altitude, it was the optimal way to cover ground, while not being able to miss a structure as tall as a quest bed.

'Just hold on', he thought to the girl in his arms, 'we're almost there'

Moments later he saw it, peaking right over the horizon. A black pillar of basalt, ringed by a small path and crowned by the now familiar sight of a quest bed.

Chester simply tensed, and gracefully banked downwards, coming in for landing as fast as he dared. Gravel crunched underfoot as he slid to a stop, swiftly rushing to the bed and laying Jade atop it, before backing away to a safe distance.

As a vibrant glow of soft white blanketed the tower and surroundings, Chester couldn't help but feel as if he'd come home after a long day. There was comfort in the emptiness of space. In a way, it just meant that there was room for things to be built, for civilization to grow and learn and improve. Space didn't judge, it didn't punish. It was just there. Always.

As Jade's limp form rose, Chester sighed in relief. It was okay. He'd done it.

Well, things certainly weren't okay. Not at all. But he'd deal with it. They'd all deal with it.

XXXXX

Far away, at a different point in time entirely, several hundred years in the future; upon a post-Sburb planet Earth, four diverse carapacians congregated beneath some ancient ruins.

Windswept and battered by centuries of wandering, the Aimless Renegade; a Dersite clad in yellow caution tape, fiddled with detonator wires while the Peregrine Mendicant, a Prospitian ex-mailwoman, looked on. A light dust-storm was sweeping through the camp, with both carapacians trying to ignore the sharp grains of sand and rock deflecting from their bodies like rain.

His tweaks concluded with a satisfactory result, he rose from the dust, wiping his hands on his knees. He offered the detonator to the Mendicant, who accepted the small device with solemn interest. The pair made eye contact, and the plan was reaffirmed.

The former White Queen's ring of orbs fourfold would be protected. Their small group of four would cover their tracks by destroying the ancient temple that loomed over their dusty camp, as well as the more modern structures in which they had travelled from the medium to this dead land.

In such a way, they would have all the time in the world to train a champion to don the ring and return to the past to challenge the Sovereign Slayer on equal footing.

The Mendicant frowned, reaching up to remove the crude crown that the Queen had bestowed upon her, a reward for fulfilling her mission centuries past and ensuring the Heir of Breath had the resources he needed to succeed.

She stared at it pensively. Former she may be, but the White Queen would always be such to her. How could a mere Parcel Mistress hope to live up to the wisdom and prudence of the old Queen, now Windswept Questant?

As if sensing her doubt, her new "Royal Armaments Regulator" shuffled closer and patted her awkwardly on the arm. He at least, trusted her to do the right thing.

She felt like she didn't deserve his trust, let alone anyone else's trust, but she nonetheless reaffirmed her commitment to do whatever it took to not fail her new subjects. Speaking of new subjects, the former Queen was in the temple itself at the moment, doing Skaia only knew what. The last member of their quartet, the dashing Wayward Vagabond, who the old Queen seemed to think would make for the ideal champion to carry the battle into the past, was inside one of the new metal structures.

Truthfully, PM didn't quite know what to make of him, yet the White Queen had never been wrong. Perhaps there was more to the dusty Dersite than met the eye.

With a sigh, she replaced her paper crown and returned her attention to the detonator in her hands. Everything seemed to be in place, at least to her amateur's eye. Besides, if the Regulator figured it was okay, then it must be so.

Together, they glanced at the looming stone temple before them, the unbelievably ancient structure weathered almost beyond recognition, a vast toad sculpture sitting atop it.

Just as soon as their companions finished, they could get started on the demolitions.

XXXXX

Upon a Land of Heat and Clockwork, reality screamed as the Beat Mesa was marred by a crystalline needle, white as spun milkglass.

John Egbert fought with every fibre of his being as underlings by the thousands descended upon him. Razor-sharp blasts of scalding wind shredded and scattered Imps and Goblins by the thousands, while he struck down and crushed Ogres, Giclopses, and worse with every blow of his hammer.

It was a magnificent thing, truly; the Pop-a-Matic Vrillyhoo Hammer. The blue and red warhammer incorporated Vriska's eight legendary reality-warping dice, as well as aspects of Vriska's sword.

Every strike caused the dice to roll in their glass bubble, each result twisting reality to manifest random effects that sowed chaos across the battlefield as explosions and pony stampedes thinned the enemy ranks, while chocolate rain fell from the sky and a pack of dinosaurs rampaged in the enemy rear.

Darting back to avoid a Lich Queen's gigantic withered arm, John twisted the winds into half-a-dozen tornadoes in the magma sea below the mesa, the maelstroms of fire rapidly growing into colossal titans of churning wind and glowing magma, destroying the offending monster easily.

With a second to breathe, he glanced back. Propelled on its path by the iron grip of his power, Echidna's needle was almost at the halfway point, a blindingly white light emitting from the gash left in its wake. It hurt to look at.

His gaze darted forward and saw the enemy ranks reforming in a tide of inky flesh and colourful costumes. John grinned, and reallyflexed his power for a moment, the winds of LoHaC eagerly leaping to serve. A massive blast of compressed air utterly swept the mesa clean, annihilating most underlings on contact, and scattering the survivors into the magma below.

He didn't even get a minute before more titanic foes bore down on the platform, while thousands more imps and goblins crawled over the edges of the mesa in a living tide, scrambling over each other to stop him.

Playfully swinging his warhammer in a gentle arc, John tore into the enemy once more.

XXXXX

Upon an abandoned meteor base, deep in a dense asteroid belt, a trio of trolls were quickly working together to assemble a novel piece of technology.

Equius, mostly still bedridden and heavily bandaged around the torso, mopped his own forehead with a convenient towel to dispose of accumulated sweat. It wasn't hot out, not in the vacuum of space, yet the troll always sweated like an arson-extinguisher whenever he was stressed.

"Eridan," he started, staring at the few dozen blinking computers and husktops they'd jury-rigged into a navigational supercomputer.

"Did Kanaya speak to you of the coordinates to which we must travel? You know we shall surely need those to progress further in our great and STRONG work."

The yellow-shirted troll with mismatched red and blue sunglasses piped up from underneath the massive pile of computers where he was doing some last-minute welding.

"jegu2, fiish2tiick. you diidn't even a2k her, diid you?"

Eridan Ampora, cape-less and busy tinkering with arrays of lenses and wires drawing power from his former energy weapon, Ahab's Crosshairs, snapped back.

"of course i asked, mustardblood. she, uh... dosen't knoww."

Equius threw up his muscular arms in frustration, before dropping them and accidentally crumpling part of his metal cot. He winced momentarily, before rounding on Eridan.

"Of course. Leave it to a jadebloodto concoct a scheme. If anything, the heiress should be the one LEADING us."

"hey! you leave peiixes out of thii2!"

"howw dare you insult my moirail, you blue-blooded trash!"

Sollux and Equius froze. The blue-blooded troll immediately began to sputter apologies for inadvertently insulting the ally of a sea-dwelling highblood. Sollux, meanwhile, simply scooted out from under his workstation, pulled down his glasses to look Eridan in the eye, and muttered in disbelief.

"you and kanaya? how? more iimportantly, why?"

Eridan flushed but maintained eye contact, straightening his spine somewhat in awkward pride as he puffed out his chest.

"wwell, wwe didn't exactly plan on announcing it officially yet, but it kinda happened earlier. clearly, someone appreciates my obvvious superiority as a partner."

Sollux rolled his eyes,

"what, 2he took piity on you after feferii kiicked your a22 two the curb?"

Eridan gasped in offence.

"wwhy you..."

"OH FOR THE SUFFERER'S SAKE, JUST BANG ALREADY, YOU TWO MORONS.", Karkat snarled, having apparently wandered back to their worksite in the middle of the argument. He didn't look impressed.

"HAVE YOU BEEN WASTING TIME ON THIS HOOFBEAST SHIT THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS GONE? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING TO SAVE ALL OUR COLLECTIVE ASSES FROM JACK!"

Eridan was about to snap back but paused a moment. With what seemed an intense force of will, he sighed.

"kar is right. wwe need to get back to wwork."

"I did not wish to interfere, even though Captor's behaviour to a highblood was unbelievably rude, but Karkat is correct. We must return to the task at hand."

Sollux huffed, "yeah. ii'm nearly done here, then we can 2piin thii2 baby up and run a diiagno2tiic. "

He didjab a demanding finger at Eridan before consenting to slink back under the computer pile, however.

"2eriiou2ly though, fii2h-face. you need two talk two kanaya and get her two cough up 2ome kiind of coordiinate2 two feed the machiine. we're goiing nowhere fa2t wiithout them. "

Eridan just waved a hand in annoyance and went back to work, making sure that each connection was properly fitted, manually checking each one with a voltmeter. Just as he did the last one, his portable husktop went off inside his inventory with a pesterchum notification sound.

-ErROR0124nOtFoUnD[#$] began trolling caligulasAquarium [cA]-

*%: Greetings, Mr. Ampora

cA: okay, time out. wwho the fuck are you?

&*:Charming as any other troll, I see. Hold that thought.

-twinArmageddons [tA]- Has Joined the Chat

-centaursTesticle [cT]- Has Joined the Chat

tA: are you really wa2tiing tiime textiing whiile workiing, fii2h2tiick? really?

ct: D - Who is this, Eridan?

cA: howw should i knoww? i thought it wwas kan messaging me for some reason.

)#: Now that I have your attention, I will be brief, as time is running out.

$: The humans are running blindly into a trap, and it will fall to you to rescue them.

&^: The coordinates you so desire will be attached. Proceed to this location and do not deviate. Our margin of error is slim.

*#: Good day.

-ErroR0124NoTFoUnD[%^]ceased trolling caligulasAquarium [cA]-

-ErRoR012NoTfOuNd[! ] sent a compressed folder-

The three trolls (and Karkat) sat there for a moment, collectively confused. Eventually, Karkat broke the silence, "WHO THE FUCK WAS THAT?"

XXXXX

Upon a violet moon crowned with towers and citadels, deep in the lightless dark-beyond-dark of the furthest ring, four kids sat around the kitchen table of a run-down Winnebago, drinking juice and idly chatting to kill time.

Evan, who was sprawled over two-thirds of an entire couch, forcing Chris to barely be able to squeeze in, grumbled as his offer to "spice up the apple juice with 'something strong'" was shot down.

"Chesteronce saidthat Evan'salcohol islike draincleaner, if thathelps!" Chris chimed in,

"Imean, EZclean always smellsnice, sothat'sgood, right?"

Dave just chuckled uncontrollably while Rose donned a worried expression. She reached across the table, grabbed Chris's hand, and implored,

"Chris, I need you to promise me that you will never eat or drink anything Evan gives you, do you understand?"

Chris looked unsure, but nodded slowly.

Evan waved a hand dismissively, reaching for a package of jerky, "Come on! I wouldn't feed him anything dangerous, that kinda stuff puts hair on your chest and makes you into a man, dad said so"

"Besides, I've been drinking it all my life, and I turned out just fine"

There was a thunk as Dave graduated into full-blown laughter, and his head dropped to strike the table.

"Evan." Rose began, "I think we need to have a talk about what kind of influence you have over Chris, and what sorts of negative behaviours you've been teaching the poor boy."

With his mouth full of questionably expired jerky, Evan jabbed a finger at her.

"Look here, you nosy dame, we were just fine until you came along'

Delicately shielding herself from jerky bits and spit with a plastic plate, Rose lowered it once Evan finished speaking and gave him an unimpressed look.

"Clearly table manners were not a part of your education."

"Education, eduschmation," Evan parroted back, "I didn't need any fancy school learnings then, and I sure don't need it now, I can learn whatever I need on the internet"

"Pleasedontfight!", Chris whined, causing the two to back off from each-other's faces, and glance at a worried Chris, and a hysterically laughing Dave.

"My apologies, Chris." Rose pointedly said, leaning back daintily.

Evan grunted boorishly, "Sorry,"

Grinning like a child on Christmas morning, Dave rejoined the conversation.

"so, rose and i know everything about each-other, like some kinda estranged roommates in a Jim Carrey movie, and i guess you two know all about each-other, but our two groups don't really know anything about one another, you know what' I'm diggin at?"

Evan turned thoughtful.

"According to the High School Musical script of American kid interaction, our groups must now to engage in a dance battle to determine supremacy and pecking order. Are either of you cheerleaders or footballers?"

Dave actually looked on board with that nonsense, before he was interrupted.

"Weshould playtruth ordare!"

Everyone turned to Chris, and he muttered defensively, "Mybrother usedto playit, isall."

Evan shrugged, "Sure, what the hell, not the worst way to break the ice"

"Hey, Rose, truth or dare?"

Rose sighed gracefully as if she was descending from a royal pedestal to condescend to play their silly game, but she replied nonetheless, a competitive smirk flashing across her face before it settled into an impenetrable neutral expression.

"Truth. Hit me with your best shot."

Evan leaned in, equally intense.

"We've all apparently only had one family member, tell us about yours, four sentences or more, go"

Rose hesitated for a second, a sombre look flashing across her face, and Evan backpedaled.

"Fuck, sorry, you don't need to answer, I shoulda figured everybody else's folks would end up dead, too"

She waved away his surprising concern,

"It's alright, you could not have known. Still, perhaps I shouldhonour her memory here, among... friends"

The last part was said somewhat awkwardly, with a pinch of uncertainty, but not unkindly.

"My mother and I were never on the best of terms. In truth, we spent little time together. Yet... she was graceful and wise. If nothing else, I respected her. I suppose such a thing is a cliche to end all other cliches, yet I truly wish I had spent more time with her when I had the chance."

Evan frowned slightly, "...I'm...sorry,"

She just shook her head, "You couldn't have known. Dave? Same question."

The cool kid, clad in red God-Tier pyjamas, took off his shades and looked at the people huddled around the table. He blinked once, and began his tale, far more composed and light-hearted than Rose, though there was unmistakable tension there.

"okay, so like most of you know, i lived with my brother in texas; a pair of handsome eligible bachelors doin' their thing in the big city."

He waggled suggestive eyebrows at the rest of the table and an uncomprehending Chris.

"We were like the cast of the most badass familial movie ever made. Things were pretty much awesome all the time, we fought with swords, i did music, he shot films with his creepy smuppets, and... yeah, we generally had a blast."

Rose gave him a look, and Dave's cocksure attitude diminished somewhat,

"well... i guess things weren't perfect, if you're gonna guilt-trip me into dumping some sad stuff and being a total kill buzz on this awesome feelings jam we're having"

He took another sip of his juice. "i guess he wasn't around much and that sucked, happy?"

Looking directly across the table at Chris, he popped a pair of finger-guns.

"your turn, knight-guy"

Chris positively glowedunder the recognition.

"WellIlived withmy brotherin Seattle"

Evan chimed in, "I video-chatted with him sometimes, they lived in a condemned building under an overpass, it was awesome, I kinda wish I lived there"

"Yeahexactly! Ikinda missit, actually. HomelessSanta andtheladies atthe Brotell werereally nice."

Dave furrowed his brow at the terms "homeless santa" and "Bro-tell". Rose shot him a look that said, 'I'll explain later'.

"Mybrother was thebest, sure wedidn't reallytalkall thatmuch, andhe dissapeared to hisleaf farmup north allthe time, buthe reallyshowedthat hecared, whenever he... leftme alonein the Brotell with allthe nice ladiesin swimsuits..."

Chris looked on the verge of having a devastating epiphany when Evan shoved a bottle labelled "McCready special reserve" into his hands and told him to drink it.

Rose didn't even object as Chris took an unsuspecting swig, and coughed up most of it seconds later, phasing out as if he'd been attacked.

"Whatwere wetalking aboutagain?", he wheezed as he phased back in.

"My turn, I guess" Evan replied quickly while the others sagely nodded.

"My dad was the best damn man that I'd ever known, he fought in Korea, and stayed behind after the chickenshit cowards left, to fight a one man war against the commie scum."

Dave was intently watching Rose's slowly dawning look of confused horror, grinning behind his shades.

"He raised me to pick up where he left off, we spent a decade together moving across the enemy's rear lines in the Winnebago, hitting supply hubs and ambushing patrols"

He patted the wall of the camper fondly, continuing,

"He was a tough bastard, clever and self-reliant, he taught me how to be strong, and how to look after folks that needed it. We did everything together."

Evan leaned in, "He missed our rendezvous spot when the meteors hit, I can't say for certain if he's dead... its the not knowing that's the worst"

"Sburb won't let the guardians of players live to assist them." Rose quietly said, "In a way, all of them were doomed the moment we were born... through an ecto-biological paradox, strange as it is."

"i guess we can still remember the good times", Dave removed his shades, voice strained, "go on in their memory, kick this game's ass"

Evan's eyes were murderous, "I like the sound of that"

"Yeah! Mybro maynot havebeen avery goodbro, but hewas mine!"

Rose sighed, "Declaring revenge against a cosmic video game seems somewhat foolish and toweringly arrogant, but I suppose that I too will toss my hat into the metaphorical ring, and vow to bring that canine murderer to a swift and well-deserved end."

She smirked, "I did wound him the last time we fought, didn't I Chris?"

As the boy nodded enthusiastically and tried to give a rambling recount of their epic fight, Dave chuckled, "did it go any better for you than it did for us? jack beat us like a set of drums"

Evan protested while Rose made a so-so gesture. They devolved into warm conversation after that, camaraderie formed through trauma settling in, as Evan offered yet another toast of "McCready brew", only for Dave to actually take him up on the offer, both boys coughing hard enough to nearly hack up lungs seconds later, much to Rose's amusement.

XXXXX

Far in the future on the meteor-blasted corpse of Earth, inside a frog temple containing a lotus time capsule, a robed figure that was once Prospitian royalty waited intently.

The Windswept Questant was a tall and willowy carapacian, shrouded in grey cloth that was choked with dust. The former queen watched a large stone construct that was crowned with a beautiful lilac lotus. A counter built into the pedestal ticked down the last minute.

This strange machine was a time capsule, something able to connect a session of Sburb and the medium contained within to the homeworld of the noble players, albeit far in the world's future, long after the meteors would have cleansed it of life.

She was serene in her patience. The plan was agreed upon with her royal husband long ago, on the very day that Jack Noir had demanded their crowns in exchange for the strange disks the nobles would need to enter the session.

She frowned. It was a grim choice, though the survival of the nobles being at stake reduced it to no choice at all. The Questant had sacrificed everything for the hope of the nobles' victory; her throne, her world, her people.

Few had escaped Prospit before the Sovereign Slayer had descended upon it and unleashed the power of the Green Sun to destroy the golden world.

Still, her husband had sought shelter in the time capsule on their end, while she took the long way to this rendezvous. Soon they would be united, and though stripped of their rings and crowns, they could begin to plan for the final victory.

The counter reached zero. The stone flower unfurled, and a blinding light erupted from its depths. When it passed, the unmistakable form of her king stood within it, not having aged a day. The sight of colourful, untarnished Prospitian clothing almost brought a tear to her eye.

He rushed down the stone stairs and embraced her tightly. She leaned into him, and though no words were spoken, none were needed. They stayed like that for a moment, before a hiss interrupted them.

Both swiftly looked up to the structure, noticing that a new lotus had formed upon its crown, and a new counter had begun. The lotus was sickly, diseased even. The counter read ten seconds.

They ran.

It wasn't enough.

Dark light filled the room before they had crossed half its length. She dared a glance back to confirm what she already dreaded. The Sovereign Slayer had pursued them through the time capsule.

Her husband bid her keep running as he turned, drawing a simple longsword. At that moment, he looked every bit the King of Prospit that he once was.

She kept running, and reached the windswept exit of the cavernous temple pyramid, even as steel clashed once behind her and a fleshy thunk hit the ground.

The former queen raced to the top stair and managed to look upon the Peregrine Mendicant and Armaments Regulator before a black sword erupted from her chest. Jack pushed the queen off his blade and down the long flight of stairs, her broken body landing sprawled at the bottom.

The Armaments Regulator panicked, sprinting to a stockpile of supplies, and drawing an assault rifle. He fired upon Jack, who simply teleported into their camp in a flash of eldritch green. He was upon the other Dersite in an instant. The assault rifle was bisected as the Regulator used it to block a sword stroke, then two more strikes hacked the carapacian's head from his shoulders.

Simultaneously, something... strange happened.

The Mendicant backpedaled in panic. She needed a weapon, something, anything.

Then, a h̵̬͊ŏ̵͚l̷͚̓ȅ̷͎ in reality opened behind her, its edges frayed and glowing, as if it was a wound cut into the world. A tall Dersite clad in an immaculate dress suit with a red flower pinned to the lapel stepped out, rag dripping with an unknown substance in hand. He struck quickly, smothering the Mendicant's face with the rag while grappling her from behind to keep her still. The Mendicant fought hard, elbowing her attacker in the gut, and writhing like a thing possessed, yet her struggles quickly slowed.

The Dersite dragged her limp form back through the p̵̂ͅǫ̷̔r̵̦͂t̵̚͜a̸̗͠l̵̩̚ quickly, the tear closing as soon as they both passed through.

Jack Noir, for his part, whirled around to slay the Mendicant as well, yet she was missing. The canine angel of death huffed, sniffing the air intently before a puzzled expression flickered across his features. He took a few unguarded moments to inspect the area, before turning elsewhere. In a way, his actions were driven by forces beyond his knowledge, as he was here to close a time-loop that his future self had begun.

He had entered the session of the trolls just as they stood upon the platform of the ultimate reward, and only a distraction of hundreds of Aradia-bots had prevented all the trolls from dying then and there. It didn't matter that he would only become the Sovereign Slayer much later, in the session of the human kids. A time loop had been formed, and the nature of paradox space would ensure that it would always happen.

As if entranced, Jack teleported into one of the more modern metal structures, slaying the Wayward Vagabond with a careless strike, before disembowelling the corpse to retrieve a chunk of uranium fuel that the carapacian had eaten earlier.

This structure was a Sburb construct and it contained a curious mechanism. When powered, which Jack saw to by depositing the fuel in an exposed hopper, it allowed for the teleportation of individuals to the victory door of a session.

Jack walked like a predator scenting blood to the silver disk in the room's heart. A classic Sburb teleporter. A flash ignited the darkness in the metal room.

XXXXX

In the somewhat distant past, within the session of the trolls, just after their ultimate victory against the black king, eleven trolls and hundreds of Aradia-bots slumped, exhausted.

"jEGUS,,, wE DID IT", Tavros marvelled quietly.

"We?", Vriska exclaimed, "I think what you meant to say was, 'Oh wow Vriska, I can't 8elieve you did everything for us like the awesome 8adass you are, what would we ever do without you?' "

Terezi snorted, "1F YOU'D SP3NT L3SS T1M3 PR33N1NG 4ND MOR3 T1M3 K1LL1NG, W3 M1GHT H4V3 F1N1SH3D HOURS 4GO "

Vriska had the dignity to look utterly outraged for a second, before she snapped back with something equally vicious, and the two began to argue intensely, snarling and hissing.

Eridan, meanwhile, smoothed out his torn and burnt cape and then proceeded to pester a clearly reluctant Feferi. Nepeta simply uncaptchalogued some bandages and proceeded to dress an uncooperative Equius's wounds. Gamzee, Karkat, and Sollux joked around; the latter two just a little disturbed by their easy-going and simple-minded friend's rampage against the black king.

They took a few moments like that, just... decompressing after the horror and intensity of the fight against the titanic colossus that twelve cumulative prototypings had turned the black king into. Most were aware that there had been a great many moments where they skated by on sheer luck and the skin of their teeth.

At last, Karkat; the self-appointed leader of their motley crew of apocalypse survivors and Sgrub players took a step towards the massive blue two-dimensional house that dominated the platform. It was only ten centimetres deep and divided into twelve cubes for twelve players, but the crystalline handle upon its only door glowed with brilliant light. The ultimate reward, a new universe, was within their grasp.

Karkat reached out to it reverently, palm brushing the handle, electric jolts shooting down his arm.

In that serene moment, a titanic explosion of eldritch green light suddenly swallowed the platform, scattering the trolls. It was a miracle that none were knocked into the infinite void below, though an Aradia-bot didhave to catch Gamzee.

Karkat looked up from where he lay sprawled, mind muddled and ears ringing. Before him, a tall canine figure hung in the void, huge wings as black as the nights on Alternia splayed behind him. The intruder was drenched in blood that was not his own and carried a vicious sword.

The monster struck before anyone could react, splitting the house construct and the gateway to their prize in half with a single sword stroke. He whirled to cut down Kanaya, but an Aradia-bot flew in to intercept the hit. Two more bots dove onto the monster, but they only bought seconds.

It was "Aradia-Prime" as they called the main robot controlled by the ghost of their deceased teammate, who seized the initiative and took action. The blue troll-like robot unleashed her hundreds of minions upon the winged menace, while simultaneously uncaptchaloguing a teleporter pad. She channelled ghostly powers through the robot, telekinetically grasping her friends, and threw them all through the teleporter in a single burst of speed.

Once a screaming Eridan was sent through, she crushed the portal into scrap within her telekinetic grip. She hesitated for a moment, before joining her horde that was swarming the canine intruder.

XXXXX

The time loop continued from there.

Jack slaughtered the horde of robots with ease and then began to systematically teleport across the trolls' session, exploding every world in his path, and utterly annihilating Prospit and Derse through the power of the Green Sun.

The trolls, meanwhile, cowered within the depths of the meteor laboratory they found themselves within. Eventually, they made contact with the new universe that was supposed to be their reward. Four aliens known as 'humans' were found within, and it turned out that it was theiractions that led to the creation of the invincible monster known as Jack Noir. Karkat decided to troll them as punishment, unwittingly contributing to the time loop and ensuring Jack's creation and inevitable travel to their session.

The Sovereign Slayer, meanwhile, had finished his razing of the session and travelled to the furthest edge of the universe, beholding the universe frog in person. Its incalculably giant body proved no obstacle, as Jack unleashed a devastating burst of crimson entropic energy known as the Red Miles. Amplified to near-unlimited power by his first guardian nature, the cancerous crimson tendrils reached across the star-spangled void of space to the universe-sized Celestial Frog that the trolls had spent their time breeding; Billious Slick, the universe containing Earth.

The energies utterly ravaged the whole universe, causing the frog's star-spangled body to convulse in agony. Stars ignited into supernovae, while others collapsed into black holes. The Red Miles were the physical manifestation of a cancer that Karkat had given the human's universe while breeding it, and it showed. The whole universe was dying under their touch.

XXXXX

Elsewhere, within a hollow black and white orb in the safe possession of Rose Lalonde, within a Winnebago camper, riding a violet moon into the furthest ring, one of two glass cylinders flooded with crimson liquid like fresh blood...

XXXXX

Within the home universe of the trolls, upon the surface of Alternia's green moon, within sight of the good doctor's emerald mansion, two Dersites faced each other on the edge of a roof.

Former Arch-agent Jack Noir, or at least his dimensional alternate native to the trolls' session, stood a few feet away from the trolls' former Black Queen, now clothed in a black trench coat and hat.

He had her held at gunpoint, and she had just finished daring him to fire, when a muffled cough broke the silence and Jack fell forward, dead. Blood pooled on his mobster's clothes from a gunshot wound to the back.

Before the Black Queen could even react, she too was knocked off her feet by a muffled gunshot, blue blood spilling from a hole in her chest. With fading vision, she saw a blurry shape loom over her, a red flower pinned to the lapel of her killer.

The tall Dersite in a black suit shot her once more and disassembled his silenced pistol with practised efficiency. From within his breast pocket, he withdrew a notepad upon which he'd written his tasks.

-Disable and remove the Mendicant from the board (for the time being)... Check

-Kill the former T2 session Black Queen (current alias: Snowman)... Check

-Kill Jack Noir from session T2... Check

With every indication of satisfaction at a job well done, the killer checked off two more tasks. Amusingly, his terrifying employer hated Jack Noir just as much as he did. It was frankly a pleasure to kill every Jack he could find. Well, except for the winged one, that is. His employer had plans for that one. A shame, but C'est La Vie. Such was life.

He supposed he could afford to wait a little longer before returning to the humans' homeworld and releasing the Mendicant so she could get started on her little revenge quest. His next target would be in the B1 session.

The Dersite turned and exited the moon through a distorted ẃ̶̩o̷͚͛u̶͈͛n̴͈͝d̵͚̑ in reality, the ṕ̶̻o̴̯̕r̶̜̆t̵̘̅ā̶̤l̷͚̈́ quickly closing behind him.

XXXXX

An oblivious Rose recited a story involving her mother, a dinner party of snooty rich ladies, and a nest of hornets. Her equally oblivious audience listened with rapt attention to her masterful story-telling skills.

Within her inventory, inside a hollow black and white orb, a second glass tube filled with blue liquid. Between the two filled tubes, a complex machine came to life. A digital counter read: 10:00.

XXXXX

Upon a meteor laboratory, the labours of several trolls had come to an end. All of them had congregated upon the exposed landing pad, standing under the stars, as Eridan and Sollux ran through preliminary checks to ignite their improvised engine.

Sollux frowned at the navigational coordinates that had been set, "are you 2ure about thii2, guy2? we won't get a 2econd 2hot at thii2."

Kanaya reassured him with a placating gesture, "The Rose Human Is Out Of Contact. This Feels Too Easy, I Admit, But This Is Our Only Lead."

"bliind gambliing wiith our liive2, eh? ii've 2een wor2e odd2, ii gue22."

Karkat interjected himself into the conversation, "ITS A STUPID-ASS PLAN, BUT ITS OUR ONLY PLAN. IS EVERYBODY READY TO GO? WE'RE NOT TURNING AROUND BECAUSE ONE OF YOU BULGE-MUNCHERS FORGOT THEIR FAVOURITE SWEATER OR SOME STUPID MUSCLEBEAST SHIT!"

He was met with a chorus of affirmatives, jeers, and (in Vriska's case) a thrown object.

The platform had been transformed after it was judged that it would be the place where they would have to control the meteor from. Able-bodied trolls had brought and welded chairs with restraints to the deck. Healer beds had been wheeled up from the meteor's interior, and likewise secured to the ground, their patients strapped in.

A lively Nepeta dozed in her bed, welded to the ground right next to Equius' own bed. The blue-blooded troll had a large cluster of husktops and computers sprawled in his lap, which would be used to monitor heat buildup in the machine. In the event of catastrophic overheating, Equius would manually override the power transfer and dump it into prepared heating coils.

Feferi's bed was placed with an awake and complaining Vriska. The two were having an almost cordial conversation, while next to them both an exhausted Tavros slept.

Kanaya and Karkat were strapped in together, close enough to the machine to talk to the operators, but still out of their way.

Eridan was anchored by the primary targeting computer for the engine, remotely controlling the angle and alignment of the thruster to make minute course corrections mid-flight, as they couldn't get where they wanted to go on one trajectory.

Lastly, Sollux was seated at the platform's very edge. His yellow-bloods' biological telekinesis would be used to propel and guide the meteor, much like adult yellow-bloods once guided the warships of the troll empire across the stars, in the days before Sgrub doomed their race.

"ready?", he muttered.

"ready.", Eridan confirmed.

Sollux closed his eyes, telekinetically reaching out to hold the whole meteor, while Eridan slammed a fist down on the ignition button, and the fusion torch engine began to heat up.

They started moving almost immediately, though it took minutes for the speed to become noticeable. It took every ounce of Sollux's fine control to keep the g-forces from harming the crew, while behind him the engine roared with deafening power.

At this point, all the trolls could do was hold on and pray that their coordinates would lead them to the proper place.

XXXXX

Upon a violet moon, Rose Lalonde was suddenly and rudely interrupted from her story by the pesterchum notification sound. The suddenness elicited an unladylike yelp, and she dug out her computer-glasses with visible irritation, Dave and Evan laughing at her from the other side of the table.

-ErROR0124nOtFoUnD[#$] began trolling tentacleTherapist [tT]-

*%: Madam Lalonde, I will be brief for time is of the essence.

#): You have been deceived and are minutes away from death.

#: For your own part, you cannot survive what comes without ascending to the god-tiers.

^%: You must seek a tunnel that leads to the hollow heart of your moon, and race to your quest slab within at once.

*!: The tumor has activated, and you must deploy it there.

^$: If timed properly, the detonation will kill and ascend you, allowing you to survive what comes after.

$: For your companions... I have no solution, I fear.

: If they wish, they could flee into deep space as fast as they could, but that would not help. The blast radius of the Tumor is too vast.

tT: You again?

tT:What do you mean, "I have been deceived?"

tT: By our mutual friend with the cue-ball for a head?

! : The Tumor will not destroy the Green Sun.

^%: Fueled by the ongoing deaths of two universes, which are occurring as we speak, the Tumor will create the Green Sun.

(#: To forestall questions, I permitted this outcome because victory could not be had here. This session was written off from the beginning.

% : It is in the post-reset universe where our last stand will be made.

tT: Why exactly should I trust you? Everything you say could well be a lie.

!^: If I sought to manipulate you, would I not be more pleasant and alluring?

*$: Besides, ask your comrades while they still live. I guided them through the doomed ruin of their session, and I will guide you through the collapse of yours.

%: But you must act fast, your window of opportunity is closing.

-ErroR0124NoTFoUnD[%^]ceased trolling tentacleTherapist [tT]-

Rose had opened the conversation on her laptop as well, so the boys could follow along. Behind her, Chris was imploring her to trust the mysterious stranger who was "one of his best friends". Evan had grudgingly admitted that the user hadn't led them wrong yet, and indeed, was responsible for explaining most of the game mechanics to their group.

Dave doubled back to a more pressing point.

"hold up, she just said that bomb in your wallet is going to explode"

Rose slowly nodded, mouth dry.

"and she said we 'could try to run, but it wouldn't matter', that's a little concerning"

She nodded again, not quite trusting herself to speak as the gravity of the situation began to sink in.

"That's bullshit, we could make it", Evan declared, squinting out the window thoughtfully. Then, he stood and clapped Rose on the shoulder, "That's for us to figure out, you need to move your ass and get in position before it's too late!"

Rose wanted to argue, wanted to pass off the irritating user as a liar or a fraud, but really, too many pieces didn't add up. Indeed, some small part of her was urging herself to run like her life depended on it, because upon the balance of probabilities, it likely did.

She exhaled, and bolted to the door, half turning at the threshold to bid her friends goodbye, before Dave heckled her to keep running and not to look back.

So, she did.

Rose flew through the sky of the moon faster than she ever had before. She combed the ground beneath her for anything that resembled a 'tunnel to the core'. Not knowing how much time she had was like being under a pendulum's scythe and being blindfolded, not knowing the moment of your death until it happened, but knowing that it was so close you could reach out and touch it.

Mercifully, she broke through a maze of streets to a wide-open courtyard, a vast pit in the centre, stretching down into utter blackness. With no better options, Rose shot down like an arrow, the stalls in the square toppling at the shockwave in her wake.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, Evan paced the Winnebago's interior like a caged animal. Dave had talked him out of making a run for it, and instead, the three boys tried to put their heads together and figure out a plan.

The bunny; or, "General Patthare" as Evan demanded it be called, was in the driver's seat, piloting the Winnebago at best speed away from the violet moon, but the mystery user's prophetic words that they wouldn't be able to run didn't fill anyone with confidence. If anything, the running was just to make them feel better.

Dave tried to puzzle out some way to use his god-tier powers over time to perhaps freeze the incoming explosion, or accelerate their time and let them run far faster. So far though, he was about as useful as Chester when he'd first ascended. That is to say: not very.

Evan's strength and weapons were useless, so he turned to wilderness survival training alongside more general principles. They had no idea what kind of explosion they were facing, but perhaps a blast shield combined with god-tier durability might be enough.

Chris suddenly chimed in, sitting up straight, "heyguys! WhatifI couldtake youwith meto thephasing place?"

Evan froze. He whirled on the spot and pointed at Chris. "Say that again"

"...uh...Icantry tophase youguys outwithme...maybe?"

Evan's grin was ear-to-ear. "That's genius."

He waved Dave over, and the three of them stood close.

"so..." Dave whistled,

"now what, i gotta say, if this was a movie, i wouldn't like where it was going, you know, three strapping young lads alone, that's room for all sorts of non-PG stuff right there, you know what i'm saying?"

Evan just blinked in incomprehension, while Chris excitedly squeaked, "threetwooneGO!" and grabbed both their hands. In that instant, Chris pulled himself deep into the 'other place', and the other two boys were dragged along with him.

For Dave, it was like being submerged in a tub of ice water. He reflexively shivered intensely, before blinking to clear his eyes and looked around. They were still in the Winnebago, it was just that everything looked pale and washed-out, like it was a photograph taken with a shitty filter in a pretentious sad movie that was Oscar-baiting too hard.

He moved his free arm and found that it shot up far faster than he expected. This strange place was like, the opposite of being underwater where everything was slow and there was resistance to moving. As he marvelled at the strange place he'd ended up in, an overwhelmingly bright flash of green rushed over them, and the world went white...

XXXXX

Upon the burning corpse of the Battlefield, within the ruins of a major armoured skirmish between the two armies, a pair of sprites slowly wandered, flinching at each meteor that struck somewhere nearby.

The feathered and orange Davesprite floated alongside the vibrant green Jadesprite, the pair huddling close as the crimson fires on the horizon loomed ever closer. No words were said, but Davesprite wrapped a protective wing around the smaller sprite.

Suddenly, a thunderclap echoed across the plain, and Davesprite's chest burst into a shower of orange ichor. He didn't have feet, but he was still knocked forward, sprawling in the mud like a puppet with strings cut.

Jadesprite screamed and rushed to his fallen body, desperately trying to do something, anything for him. Though there was nothing that could be done, her panic and distress left her unable to notice her own body beginning to subtly glow...

XXXXX

On an overlooking hill, quite far away, a Dersite in a black suit with a red flower pinned to the lapel rose from the dust and dirt, an enormous sniper rifle held firmly in his grip.

The assassin began to calmly and systematically disassemble the large weapon, carefully placing each piece into a nearby black case. With his work finished, he stood and brushed down his suit with a few rough pats, and then exited into a glowing p̶̘͓̀̅͘o̷̥̎̈́r̵̲̖̦͆t̶͈̺̏á̵̪̇͆l̵͚̅ that appeared before him.

The p̶̘͓̀̅͘o̷̥̎̈́r̵̲̖̦͆t̶͈̺̏á̵̪̇͆l̵͚̅ closed as soon as he was through, and silence reigned on the battlefield, broken only by the slowly intensifying rain of meteors that pounded the land.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, upon a land of Frost and Frogs, a young girl rose higher and higher into the air, flocks of pink hummingbirds taking flight from the surrounding forests to settle around the quest bed like supplicants or pilgrims.

The pale light grew ever more intense, but Chester didn't bother to shield his eyes. As a Space player, it was... pleasant, in a way. Wind swirled around the tower, scooping leaves and branches into a twister of debris, while the light built to a crescendo and burst.

A single sentence boomed through the minds of every living being on the planet.

"ARISE, WITCH OF SPACE"

Chester hissed, blinking spots out of his eyes. By the time he could see again, Jade was sitting up on the stone slab, looking at him with a faraway look of concern. She was clad in black and grey robes with a two-tailed hood and a skirt. The only spots of colour on her were some strange red shoes that almost looked like they were carved from solid ruby or something like that. On her chest was emblazoned the same silver symbol of space that Chester wore on his own god-tier pyjamas.

Oh, and a pair of white, fluffy dog ears poked out from within her hair, twitching furiously. Her eyes darted around frantically behind her glasses as if she was reading something only she could see. Then, she blinked and seemed to see him for the first time.

Jade bolted to her feet and rushed past him, grabbed his hand, and pulled him behind her in flight. Her only explanation was a shouted, "OH, SHOOT! We need to move now!"

Chester flopped in her grip like a fish out of water, before he managed to start flying himself and sort of keep pace with her.

"What the hell are you doing?", he wailed as they blasted across the sky.

"NO TIME TO EXPLAIN, WE'RE SO SCREWED!", she shouted over the wind, head rapidly darting around as if looking for something. Seeing the forests and mountains of LoFaF around her, she muttered, "Here? This... this isn't right."

"HOLD ON!", she shouted, before beginning to glow green.

Chester didn't even have time to scream before they both vanished in a flash of eldritch emerald light.

XXXXX

The pair appeared upon the devastated Battlefield in an eruption of green energy. Immediately, the smog of burning forests hit them. All around them, the chess squares were pockmarked with meteor craters and devastated castles.

Jade let go of him, and a dizzy Chester turned and threw up while she scanned the horizon with a critical eye. He wiped his mouth with a sleeve and turned back to her.

"I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS, WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING?"

Jade ignored him and pointed forward, where the hull of a huge golden warship was grounded upon a black square. The Prospitian battleship seemed mostly intact, as if it had performed an emergency landing and skimmed the ground before coming to a stop.

"i know, chester, i know, but we need to move quick", she turned and gave him a weak smile, "ill explain later, i promise"

He sighed, "I'll hold you to that. Harley. Its... good to see you okay."

"its good to be okay, now come on"

They flew together over shell craters and meteor impacts. Over burning forests and ruined castles. The air was suffocating under the sheer weight of planet-wide fires. Finally, they touched down on the nose of the great golden ship. Jade furrowed her brow in concentration.

She uncaptchalogued some strange construct the size of a laptop that resembled four black screens, arranged in the vague shape of a window. The displays activated after a moment, screens turning from dormant black to a mess of colour that hurt Chester's eyes to look upon.

Jade extended her hand, and the panel floated away quickly, coming to a rest about a kilometre from the battleship, hovering in the air. She brought up her other hand and arranged them as if she was taking a picture with thumbs and index fingers. Slowly, she expanded the picture, moving her hands apart. As she did so, the panel... got bigger. As if she had clicked and dragged in a Crocker Corp picture editor, the panel grew to gargantuan size, dwarfing the battleship and casting a deep shadow over them.

"okay", she sighed. "hey, i need you to grab your space-goggles and check who's still in the session, in case i missed someone"

Chester frowned, but sprung to action quickly. He uncaptchalogued his helmet, donned it, and flicked through view settings until he got to the correct one that let him observe the whole medium. Evan, Chris, and Dave, as well as Jade's other friend Rose couldn't be found. All he got was a hissing static whenever he tried to will it to show them.

When he told her that, all he got was a "good, that's good"

The only person he could find was her other friend, John. A black-haired boy in blue god-tier pyjamas and holding a big hammer, standing on a huge gear construct. There was an expanding, glowing line across the middle of it, that seemed about 95% done.

At that, Jade exclaimed, "great! we've got a few minutes to finish up"

The next few moments... made Chester deeply uncomfortable about his place in the universe, in the grand scheme of things. Jade did that thing with her hands again... to the Battlefield. The planet. The entire checkered world slowly shrunk, the battleship and panel hovering fixed in place as the ground rapidly disappeared beneath them.

By the time she was done Jade held a checkered ball in hand, no bigger than a grapefruit. She captchalogued it, then they teleported in a flash of green. The battleship, the panel, and them as well appeared above a white and blue world, that Chester recognized as the Land of Frost and Frogs. She shrunk that planet too, captchaloging it with a flourish.

She glanced at Chester and shrugged, "evacuating the consorts and denizens was a part of my deal with echidna. now i just... know what to do, there's not long left to go"

They repeated the process twice more, teleporting to a world of oceans and light and an inky world shrouded in fog. Both were quickly shrunk and captchalogued. Then, they teleported once more...

XXXXX

Far in the future, upon the ruined corpse of planet Earth, under the shadow of a weathered temple crowned with the head of a toad, a p̷͖̿ȍ̴͕r̸̳͂t̸̳͌ạ̶͑l̴̯͂ opened in the fabric of the universe.

A figure in a dark suit with a flower pinned to the lapel stepped out. He supported the limp form of a female Prospitian clothed in grey rags. The assassin gently set her down amidst the corpses of her companions and made sure that the ring of orbs fourfold that the White Queen once owned was within arm's reach, and prominently visible.

With his task done, the Dersite departed.

Sometime later, the Peregrine Mendicant stirred. Her eyes fluttered open weakly, and she slowly staggered to her feet, pawing for purchase in the dirt. She dimly looked around and was horrified as memories rushed back, as she saw the corpses of her queen and comrade around her.

She rushed to the building where the last member of their party was, but the Vagabond too was dead, messily hacked open by the Sovereign Slayer. She wasn't sure how or why she survived, but her horror was slowly growing numb. Hate and anger filled it's place.

As she exited the dim metal room and returned outside to the dust and gloom, a glint caught her eye.

The Mendicant approached and picked the queen's ring from the dirt, the little object unsullied by the filth and blood around it. Her eyes narrowed in steely determination. She put it on.

A titanic green flash engulfed the camp, churning the dust into a cloud.

When it passed, a white figure stood; surrounded by charred earth and the corpses of those closest to her. White wings spread from her back and her canine muzzle twitched in a grimace as the power of a first guardian overwhelmed her.

That was okay though. She only had a single overriding thought, FIND JACK, and her limited omniscience granted her what she needed to know. Still cringing through the pain, and with a feral snarl across her snow-white features, the raggedly clothed carapacian blasted into the air with a powerful sweep of her wings, white sword in hand, and trails of green embers in her wake.

XXXXX

In the somewhat more recent past, within the session of the trolls, Jack Noir hovered above the destroyed ruins of Derse, all the trolls' dreamselves upon the planet dead.

Yet something stirred in the depths of space, at the heart of the sphere of violet rubble.

Jack lunged forward, body churning with green energy, and black sword gleaming in the faint light from Skaia. Yet he didn't get far. A crimson energy field pulsing with translucent gears and clock hands froze him in place. Or, more accurately, froze him in time.

His assailant revealed herself; a female troll with ashen skin, orange curved ram's horns, the crimson robes of a time player, and a pair of red fairy's wings sprouting from her back. For the first time since her death a long time ago, Aradia Megido, the Maid of Time breathed with every indication of satisfaction.

The troll girl eyed Jack's still form warily for a moment, before thinking on the situation, aided by her understanding of prophecies and timeline shenanigans. Her fellow players, hopeless as they were, had things under control.

The human creatures in the other session would initiate the scratch, while also creating the Green Sun due to being foolish enough to be susceptible to the manipulations of the cue-ball-headed one. Mistake though it was, the creation of the Green Sun was firmly inevitable. Likewise, her bubble couldn't hold Jack for long, simply because he was needed elsewhere to close his own time-loop.

If there was no good to be done here, then perhaps she would simply skip forward to when things were better placed for her interference. With that thought in mind, she leapt into the time bubble and submerged herself in the green energy that radiated from Jack.

In a flash, she disappeared, while Jack suddenly rocketed forwards on his attack, only to stop in confusion at the lack of an enemy. He glanced around, huffed, and continued on his way. He had a universe frog to kill.

XXXXX

At the edge of the humans' session, brushing the borders of the furthest ring, a new star was born.

The Green Sun had the mass of two universes and its baleful light shone across the whole of the session, even being visible from the furthest ring, the trolls' session, and many other places besides. Above the gargantuan mass of swirling green energy floated three boys, now phased back into reality.

Evan clapped Chris on the back for 'a job well done', while the smaller boy basked in the praise. Dave just watched the surface of the sun for Rose with a faint hint of worry. He needn't have fretted as moments later a form clothed in an orange hooded dress with blue slippers, the symbol of a golden sun emblazoned upon her chest, rose from the burning green star and approached them quickly.

Rose's ascension to the god-tiers went unannounced, but the Seer of Light had a presence to her now. Rather than Dave's aura of ticking inevitability, Chris's formless absence, or Evan's simmering rage, Rose was the Illumination of Victory. The guiding light that saw every path, and always took the correct road. She stood a little taller, and her eyes were a little sadder.

Dave immediately flew in and swept her up in a hug, ignoring her sputtering protests as she attempted to maintain some scraps of aloof dignity. The situation was not improved when Chris hit the pair like a guided missile, joining the hug with a shout of, "grouphug!"

Evan just crossed his arms and frowned. "You couldn't pay me to join that,"

A somewhat self-conscious Dave wriggled out of Chris' grasp, and the hug fell apart, all four kids hovering together above the sun, the moon they had ridden utterly annihilated in the swirling green hell below. The Winnebago was forgotten for the time being, but for once Evan wasn't worried. It'd turn up again. It always did.

Rose frowned. "It seems that the insufferable harpy was correct after all. The good doctor lied."

Dave shrugged, "lots of doctors lie, don't beat yourself up over it, it's like that guy that published a paper to convince people that vaccines cause autism, only to then try to sell them his own vaccines, except by that point things had spiralled out of control and he got arrested or something, I swear that guy could have had a nic cage movie about his life and it would be less stupid than what actually happened"

Evan had a smug look in the shadows of his cowl, "told ya so"

"Oh please, you were only correct to trust her out of sheer luck. You had no evidence to base your decision on, you insufferable oversized marmot."

Evan started to get in her face again, "Oh yeah, well I'll have you know that the marmot is a proud american animal and it is useful for lots of stuff like fur and food. So you know, the opposite of you"

Rose didn't back down, "Well if it wasn't for your utter lack of coordination and information disclosure, we may have avoided such an unfortunate scenario."

"OH, so you think this is MY FAULT?"

"I can prove it mathematically with my seer powers.", she declared, hands on her hips.

"are you two going to keep floating there and arguing like the ugly kids at prom, or is anyone else going to notice the huge space rock hurtling towards us?", Dave interrupted.

The rest of the group all looked up, following Dave's pointing finger. Sure enough, far away though getting closer quickly was a huge plume of white fire. Behind it, not very visible yet, was a massive asteroid. As it grew closer the plume began to wind down and the rock started to slow, outcroppings of buildings faintly visible upon its surface.

The kids hovered there, with Evan drawing his sword as the meteor floated up to them slowly, what was now visible as a thruster completely deactivated, the metal surrounding it red-hot.

It was huge, comparable in size to a whole island, torn free from the world and cast adrift in space. A few sets of metal office-building-like structures protruded from it, hinting at a far larger complex within.

The thruster itself was mounted on an exposed cargo platform, open to the air. A great deal of machinery and wires were sprawled across it. More importantly, eleven grey-skinned humanoids with orange horns in a variety of shapes were upon it, looking up at them warily.

Evan muttered a curse under his breath while Chris giggled in glee, "toldyouso~"

"holy shit", Dave murmured.

Rose's face was inscrutable.

Dave was the first to start descending towards the platform, "well come on then, let's go meet the neighbours."

He descended easily and comfortably, crimson god-tier tabard fluttering behind him. Evan was second to follow, chainsword still drawn, yet held at low ready. Rose and Chris were last to descend, Rose maintaining an aura of decorum, while Chris tried to strike some kind of heroic pose on the way down.

Dave hit the deck with a light tap and was immediately face-to-face with a female troll with nubby horns in a teal and red trenchcoat. She smirked at him from beneath her opaque crimson shades.

"H3Y COOLK1D."

"hey yourself, terezi, right?"

She drew a sword from her cane in a flash, twirled it with a flourish, before stabbing it point-first into the deck. She leaned on the handle with a cheeky grin.

"4SP1R1NG L3G1SL4C3R4TOR T3R3Z1 PYROP3 4T YOUR S3RV1C3"

"You're the suspected commie," Evan grumbled.

She glanced in his general direction, but being blind, didn't exactly meet his eyes. Staring at his chest, she replied, confused. "1 ST1LL DO NOT KNOW WH4T TH4T 1S"

She was suddenly shoved aside by a limping female troll with long flowing hair and a badass black pirate coat with blue trim. The bandaged troll grabbed Dave's hand and shook it, moving down the line while firmly ignoring Terezi's sputtered indignant protests, or the humans' discomfort at being touched by a stranger.

"Vriska Serket, charmed, I'm sure. I'm 8asically the leader around here, so you can direct your questions to me"

She flashed a dazzling smile, only to be met with flat looks from Rose and Dave, an uncomprehending head-tilt from Chris, still wearing his knightly helmet, and a confused frown from Evan.

"Hey! You're that Serkoot dame, I've got a bone to pick with you!"

Evan jabbed a finger at her, but she had already moved on down the line to talk to Rose.

Instead, a few other trolls moved up to say hi. One of them was tall, lanky, and dressed in purple hipster clothes. Evan tuned out his nasal nerd voice as best he could, and instead focused on the other few.

One was a female troll with pale grey skin and a pair of long pointed horns. She quickly rushed past him to go talk to Rose, elegant red dress swishing around her. Suspicious. He'd need to keep an eye on that one.

There was a lanky male troll with four small, pointed horns. He wore mismatched black and white shoes, and lingered on the sidelines, watching them silently through his red and blue sunglasses. Observant and patient: another obvious threat.

Lastly, there was a smaller male troll with nubby horns barely visible in his ruffled mess of black hair. He stormed right up to Evan and Dave with the self-righteousness of an indignant customer.

"HI. HELLO. KARKAT HERE. WOULD ANYONE EVER SO TERRIBLY MIND IF WE SKIPPED PAST ALL OF THE MORONIC GRUNTING AND GOT TO THE PART WHERE WE DISCUSS IMPORTANT BUSINESS?"

Dave smirked, "hey, its the angry guy, he's hilarious"

"LOOK HERE YOU UNDERDEVELOPED DROOLING APE, THERE WAS A VERY SIMPLE PLAN HASHED OUT BY US, WASN'T THERE?"

The so-named Karkat began to pace, gesturing sharply.

"YOUR HAPLESS BAND OF DIMWITS BLOW UP THE GREEN SUN, WE COME IN AND PICK YOU UP. THAT BULGEFONDLING FUCK JACK DIES AS A RESULT. SIMPLE RIGHT?"

"SO WHY.", he pointed at the painfully bright Green Sun below them.

"IS THAT FUCKING THING STILL HERE?"

Evan chuckled, "Would it help if I said it was all Rose's fault?"

There was an indignant gasp behind him.

Dave tried to play peacemaker, "should i just carry a squirt-gun of icewater to make people chill the fuck out, cause honestly, that's looking more and more of a good investment at the rate you people are snapping at each other here",

"karkat my guy, you need to chill. we all got tricked, swindled, bamboozled, conned, and deceived by that doctor guy on pesterchum."

He waved a hand vaguely down, "apparently the green sun's super-important or something, too, so it was always fated to be created"

"you know, its no biggie"

Karkat was turning a very interesting shade of red.

"SWINDLED? YOU... YOU... USELESS SACK OF MEATPASTE AND CARTILAGE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU HAD ONE JOB!"

"cut the hoomons some slack, kar.", the caped nerd intervened, "wwe fucked up pretty hard too."

He outstretched his grey hand to Evan, "eridan ampora, sea dwwelling highblood and inheritor of the great orphaner's legacy."

Evan shook it firmly, "Evan McCready. Killer of communists and champion of the US of A!"

Eridan furrowed his brow in slight confusion, as if resolving to ask about that later. He was interrupted by noises from further back on the platform, where it seemed some trolls were tied down in cots.

"hi, i'm nepeta leijon! i want to talk to the aliens too!", a female voice shouted.

Chris lit up. "Iknow thatone!"

He quickly waddled away to go say hi. Evan made an aborted gesture to grab his collar, but thought better of it and let him have his fun. The pair started chattering, and a much deeper male voice joined in from time to time from the neighbouring cot.

"OKAY, CAN WE PLEASE GET BACK TO TALKING ABOUT WHAT THE FUCK WE ARE GOING TO DO ABOUT THAT?", Karkat snapped, pointing at the Green Sun below, radiating baleful green light merrily.

The girls behind them had rejoined the discussion, and Vriska interjected, arms folded. Evan noted that one hand seemed to be robotic. Odd. Also cool.

"Why even 8other, you know there's nothing we can do a8out it, right?"

Kanaya agreed, "Upon Consultation With Rose, It Seems Like Such A Plan Was Doomed To Fail No Matter What. What We Need To Do, Is Figure Out A New Plan."

Rose took centre stage in the loose circle of debaters, arms opened placatingly.

"The new plan is rather obvious, and refreshing in its simplicity. We need only regroup in the new session, as the scratch is about to activate, and then confront Jack together."

"OH, WOW, WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA. I CAN'T BELIEVE WE DIDN'T THINK OF THAT. CONFRONT JACK TOGETHER, WHAT A GENIUS FUCKING IDEA, ROSE. YOU'RE CLEARLY THE SMARTEST MEMBER OF YOUR SPECIES."

She raised a hand, "Simmer down, Karkat. To be sure, several newborn god-tiers have failed to defeat Jack in the past, but those were defeats borne of inadequate training, poor equipment, and a lack of knowledge of the enemy's capabilities. My powers as a seer are certain that victory will be swift and easy."

Karkat didn't look impressed, but Evan chimed in.

"For once she's on to something. That bastard just got the drop on us with his bullshit teleporting and phasing through attacks."

Dave smiled weakly, "yeah, we did have him on the ropes a few times there, even if we were generally as threatening as a lobotomized chihuahua in a fruity dress"

Evan continued, "Besides, it was really more two-on-one than four-on-one. Chester and that other girl sucked." He clapped Dave on the shoulder so hard the coolkid stumbled, "I tell you guys, now that Dave's a god-tier too, we can take that bastard in round two, just watch."

Karkat seemed to finally notice Evan. One could almost see the gears turning in his head as he compared Evan to the four human kids he knew about, and found discrepancies. He then turned and saw Chris chatting to Nepeta and Equius.

He blinked twice and rounded on the taller human.

"SPEAKING OF WHICH, WHO IN THE BLOODSOAKED, ALTERNIAN HELL ARE YOU?"

"We're here from another session or something, i dunno, i don't pay attention to those kinds of things"

Karkat looked almost apoplectic when a voice called out from above them all.

"i really hate to interrupt you guys, and i'd really like to keep this feelings jam going, but we need to get out of here, and fast"

Everybody jolted at the surprise, and Evan had uncaptchalogued a rifle and nearly put a shot through the red-robed female troll hovering above them, before realizing what he was aiming at and holding fire.

The trolls were much more surprised than the humans.

"Aradia?" Sollux and Equius gasped simultaneously.

She settled down on the platform with a few graceful flaps of her transparent crimson wings. Aradia gave a cheeky smile and waved to the crowd.

"back from the dead and here to stay"

She snapped a finger at Rose, "you need to hurry up and get this meteor moving, jack's not going to be long in coming here and the scratch is incoming as we speak."

Everyone froze for a second before the platform erupted into motion, kids and trolls working together like they'd known each other all their lives.

"howw long until the next charge is ready?", Eridan shouted at Sollux, both running to their stations.

"2iixty 2econd2."

"good."

The pair and Equius got back to work, the thruster charging with an intense hum, all the while Kanaya, Rose, and Vriska moved to catch up with Eridan at the targeting computer. Rose scoffed at his demand for coordinates to reach the new session, simply stating,

"Our arrival in the alpha session is predetermined by fate. Furthermore, the Furthest Ring has no concept of, nor need for time and space. Coordinates and trajectories are worthless in such an expanse. We will arrive where we need to be, simply because we must."

She gestured beyond the Green Sun, beyond the session and Skaia's faint light behind them. "Simply go into the dark. We will travel for three years, but we shall arrive precisely when we must."

Neither Eridan nor Sollux were pleased, but after Kanaya and Vriska's support, they grudgingly agreed to just blast themselves into the darkness and hope that the stupid human girl knew what she was talking about. Still, neither wanted to be zapped out of existence by the scratch, so they worked fast.

Karkat saw about getting more chairs secured to the deck to strap the humans in. Evan went down with him, as did Dave. They came back with enough equipment, restraints, and welding tools to get to work, chatting somewhat more calmly as they did so.

Chris just lingered with the bedridden patients and Aradia, talking animatedly.

Finally, they were done.

With everyone strapped in, and Aradia lending her telekinesis to Sollux's own, Equius activated the engine and they rocketed into the void on a trail of white fire.

XXXXX

Upon a Land of Heat and Clockwork, John Egbert was almost done activating the scratch. He could feel it, the last instant of resistance before Echidna's needle slipped off the disk.

In that instant, still fending off swarming underlings with blasts and blades of compressed air, a green flash swallowed him and his vision went white. A heartbeat later, the needle completed the scratch, and a wave of absolute nothing swept out from the beat mesa, uncreating every underling it touched.

"phew, i think i got it, we need to get out now!"

That was the first thing John heard as he came to. He was lying on some sort of golden metal floor, and as he picked himself up he realized he was on the prow of one of those Carapacian ships as it drifted through space.

Just then, he noticed he wasn't alone. Right in front of him was Jade, one of his dearest childhood friends. Also apparently his sister due to weird ecto-biological shenanigans or something like that.

She smiled at him, and bid him to "hang on".

Just as John glanced at the other person on the bridge, some boy his age wearing a Space player's god-tier costume, the ship suddenly blasted forward at incredible speed. He only caught a fragmented glimpse of some kind of huge window in front of them, before they broke through it in a stomach-lurching explosion of colours and static, before emerging in a howling tunnel of energy.

The heady scent of ozone hit him like a fist, and John cringed in a sudden stab of pain from the sheer sensory overload.

Jade sighed, shoulders slumping. "we did it, we're safe from the scratch."

She uncaptchalogued five small balls that almost looked like the planets from their session. "i got all the planets too, just in the nick of time."

The boy with her sniffed, "Good job. I probably shouldn't have doubted you. But you did seem like a possessed crazy person for a little bit there. A 'hi, here's the plan' would have been polite."

Jade blushed sheepishly, rubbing her head, (were those dog ears on her head?).

"yeah, sorry Chester, I kinda woke up with so much urgent knowledge, and i just had to act, you know?"

He nodded, "I do, actually... Fuck, is this how I look from the outside whenever I'm doing space stuff? I must look like a lunatic."

She giggled and John took the moment to interrupt, "hi, i have so many questions right now."

His sister hugged him, "its so good to see you in person john, this is the best. i've met most of my friends now, well except rose. but this is still awesome!"

She was grinning in delight and John smiled too, "i've met Rose and you, so... everybody except dave. that kinda sucks actually, i really wanted to hang out with him."

He then turned to the other boy, Chester or something like that, who was standing there and just kinda looking off into space. "hi, i'm John Egbert, its nice to meet you"

The boy looked at him with uncertainty for a moment, before shaking his hand.

"Chester Dunwich at your service. I guess you were the one to initiate the scratch?"

"yep, its initiated like nobody's business, jack won't know what's coming for him until BAM! we've got him."

Chester nodded approvingly, "Excellent. Jade, do you mind explaining where exactly we are? We should be evacuating the session with everyone else, right?"

Jade pressed her index fingers together in a little bit of embarrassment. "well you see... i don't think that's possible. we can't get to them in time, so... i kinda had to do this, instead"

John frowned, as did the Chester kid.

"where are we?", he asked.

She gestured at the swirling tunnel of dark blue energy around them, crackling with lightning bolts as if they were flying down the middle of a horizontal tornado or something. John wasn't sure if there was even air here, but since god-tiers could breathe in space just fine, he figured it didn't really matter.

"my Space player knowledge suggests this place is called "The Yellow Yard", but it doesn't look very yellow, or much like a yard at all, really."

"i don't get it, its just a strange inter-dimensional space with unusual spacetime" she confessed, "anyway though; we couldn't make it to the meet-up point in time because of the scratch initiating, and because rose and dave were apparently tricked and messed up really bad, but in a way that was also a good thing so its okay?"

John was kind of lost. A glance showed Chester wore an unreadable expression, and he figured the other boy was equally confused.

"so they ended up creating the green sun by a series of convoluted shenanigans but in the process rose ascended to god-tier and they met up with the trolls so that's good. they're going to the new session through the furthest ring, and it'll take them exactly three years to get there."

Chester interrupted, "Ignoring the Green Sun for now. That doesn't answer where we are or what this place is. What did you do?"

Jade shrunk in on herself a little, almost hiding inside her robes.

"well, you see, since we couldn't escape with them, my knowledge suggested that i use a strange and powerful device called a fenestrated wall, or a fourth wall if you prefer, to access this strange dimension, and use it almost like a two-way portal to exit through another fenestrated wall, inside the new session."

She pointed forwards, and sure enough, there was a faint speck of white light at the end of the tunnel, so far away that it was a pinprick. Strangely, John noticed that they weren't moving towards it as fast as they should have been. His god-tier powers over wind were totally off-kilter in this weird place, and it didn't seem like distances and speeds worked the same here.

"ourtrip will alsotake three years", she added quickly.

John felt a little dizzy at that. Chester exhaled sharply.

They both started to talk over each other, before Chester stopped and waved him to go first.

"what do you even mean, 'three years'?", John exclaimed.

Jade sighed. "well, i'm making the ship go as fast as it can, but we're outside paradox space and beyond the light of the green sun. my abilities as a witch of space are limited, and what first guardian powers i got from fusing with jadesprite are nonexistent here."

Chester interrupted, "Hold on. You fused with your sprite?"

"yeah, um... that's what happens during a god-tier ascension, you know. you fuse with your dreamself. mine just happened to be... dead and stuffed and prototyped with a first guardian dog."

John cringed, and Chester seemed to as well, within the shade of his cowl. He could tell that his sort-of sister was feeling down on herself, so John tried to cheer her up.

"but that means you have cool powers, right?"

She grinned, "darn tootin i do. i'd teleport to prove it, but i can't right now... we're experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by"

Instead, she uncaptchalogued a snack bar, enlarged it to be thrice its size, and tossed it at John who caught it easily, suitably impressed. She tossed a second bar to Chester, who fumbled and dropped it into the bottomless abyss below.

Apparently, the look on his face was so perfect that Jade burst into poorly-restrained giggles. John couldn't help but laugh too, and Chester started to wheeze with laughter as well, the tension hanging over them beginning to dissipate.

Jade handed him another granola bar, and took a seat at the prow of the ship, legs dangling over the edge. She motioned for them to join her, and they sat together, looking forward.

"i can't do much first guardian stuff," she admitted, "but i think i can see the green sun if i focus on it. actually, hold on..."

She furrowed her brow in concentration, and a hazy green portal began to form in front of her. The three of them looked in, and they could slowly see an image forming. An industrial platform somewhat like a helipad could be seen, seemingly built into a mountain of some kind with rocky crags hugging the edges of it. A large overhead door was built into the rock face at the platform's end.

The whole place was bathed in green light; a quick glance further showed what was unmistakably the Green Sun, looming beyond the facility. Four kids and eleven grey humanoids were strapped into chairs and hospital beds on the platform, and the whole complex seemed to be moving at high speed.

"Holy shit." Chester breathed.

"that's rose and dave" John added.

"Are those aliens? The trolls I've heard about?"

"i think they are," Jade replied, squinting, "that short one that's yelling is karkat, i think"

"The one with the glasses and cape is definitely the one I talked to."

John chimed in, "i recognize some, i think. that might be vriska, there."

He then paused, and turned to Jade. "hey, can we teleport over there and travel with them? you said that you can't do that because there's no green sun here, but if you can see them, and the green sun is right there, then that should work, right?"

Chester nodded. "Seems logical to me."

Jade's smile twitched.

"i could send you guys over right now, but we'd have to move quick"

John grinned, "well what are we waiting for, let's go and say hi!"

Chester frowned minutely, lost in thought. "You worded that strangely."

She lowered her eyes, not meeting either boy's gaze.

"i can't teleport, i can only serve as a portal to the green sun. i couldn't go."

"well shit," John declared, "we'll just stay here with you then"

"Did you really think we'd leave you behind just like that?" Chester raised an eyebrow, "Even Evan would never do that."

"yeah!", John folded his arms stubbornly, "you won't get rid of us that easily"

Jade blushed and scratched the back of her head sheepishly.

"gosh, that's really nice of you guys to stay, but i'm serious; you can go. i won't be upset."

She grinned and uncaptchalogued all four planets from the medium, and the battlefield itself. The five grapefruit-sized worlds swirled around her outstretched hands gently.

"besides, i've got all the company i need right here. there's easily millions of consorts and a few denizens and sprites to talk to"

Chester just snorted and shook his head, crossing his arms as if to say, 'I'm staying and you can't stop me'.

John smiled, "come on, jade, we're serious. we're not gonna leave you. though i was wondering, can we send them a message instead, or something?"

"Way ahead of you, it looks like we can get a Pesterchum connection through the portal.", Chester triumphantly declared, full-face helmet uncaptchalogued and on his head.

Jade gave John a lookas she got out her own computer-helmet. They were sogonna give Dave a hard time over his silly god-tier costume.

Beneath their feet, the golden battleship simply continued on its path, hurtling at an appreciable percentage of the speed of light towards the faint light at the end of the tunnel.

XXXXX

Elsewhere, outside of the humans' universe, Jack Noir hung in the void. Before him, the vast bulk of the universe frog writhed under the onslaught of the Red Miles. The dog-carapacian hybrid regarded it with indifferent spite before a flash of light caught his attention.

Jack whirled, sword flashing.

His eyes widened in shock as a white sword met his own with a soundless clang in the vacuum of space. The white-winged carapacian that wielded it snarled at him in a silent cry of hate.

She struck again, and he phased to dodge. She phased with him, and by the time Jack teleported away and phased back in, he found himself bleeding from a shallow cut across his chest.

His Prospitian counterpart gave him no time to think, she was upon him again in a flash of Green Sun energy. They teleported a hundred times in mere minutes, swords flashing and colliding in murderous arcs.

The scarred muzzle of his opponent, contorted in a rictus of hate; her white wings splayed behind her like an avenging angel of death; the burning green fire in her eyes... she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Jack yelped as her next stroke nearly took off his head, so lost he was in an entranced daydream. He blinked and teleported once more. She pursued him, and for a second, he saw a green spark flash in the depths of the Furthest Ring.

He teleported towards it a few times, fending off his relentless assailant each time. She dogged his heels closely, scarcely allowing him a moment to think. Still, he got closer to the green light in the unfathomable vastness of the void.

It was the Green Sun, he realized. It had to be.

Then, a tiny white burst of energy ignited in the distant sun's orbit and his eyes snapped to it like a hound tracking bolting prey. It began to accelerate away in a clearly artificial manner. Jack sped after it, white pursuer at his back.

XXXXX

Elsewhere, within a tastefully decorated emerald mansion upon a green moon, a p̷̺̏ō̵͎r̴̥͊t̵͚̕a̷̧͘l̶̩̀ tore open in the flesh of reality. A Dersite clad in an immaculate black suit with a red flower upon the lapel emerged inside the good doctor's sitting room. The faint scent of leather and cigars caressed him. A fire happily crackled in the room.

The assassin took several soft steps into the carpeted room, before a voice called out to him from a plush armchair in the corner, positioned just by a marble fireplace with a roaring fire.

"I dearly hope that you understand that this changes nothing, my dear meddling author."

The Dersite methodically withdrew a silenced pistol from within his coat, and in a voice hardened by centuries of chain-smoking, spoke the words his employer had bid him to.

"Of course. But it's satisfying, though."

A muffled shot like a cough echoed across the still room.

Then another.

Then five more, the Dersite emptying the magazine into the doctor's chest and cueball head, the strange ceramic material cracking under the firearm's power, even as the doctor's pristine white suit was shredded, strange stuffing-like chunks spilling out of the bullet-holes.

The assassin turned his back on the slumped body and contemplated the crackling fire for a moment. He returned the pistol to its side holster within his coat and made ready to leave. His mission was done, and his debts were paid.

Elsewhere, two groups of kids and trolls sped along two separate paths towards a shared future; two universes died to fuel the newborn Green Sun; a hound of black and a hound of white raced to a confrontation in a reset session; and within an unremarkable suburb in the United States of America, inside a newly reset session, a young girl named Jane Crocker walked to her mailbox with a spring in her step.