Terezi picks herself up off the ground and shakes concrete fragments off of her shirt. Everything hurts, especially her legs. She looks around. Everybody else is getting up, looking just as battered as she feels. Jade sits in her tipped-over chair, unharmed and unmoving, bungee cords still wrapped around her.

She sniffs around. They appear to be in the entryblock to Jake's wealth hive. It smells like dust, both regular dust and concrete powder.

"k which way 2 the ships" asks Roxy, brushing rubble off of his hat.

Just then, Jake storms into the entryblock, seeming mildly displeased, which probably means that he's very displeased. "Good gravy what a dreadful row you all have made! Care to explain yourselves?"

Kanaya wipes the blood away from a scrape on her forehead. "We Wanted To Uh Examine Your Excellent Spacecraft"

Wow. Terezi never suspected Kanaya would have it in her to lie.

Jake folds his ropy arms across his chest. "Then why did you all come gallivanting in through the forking roof?"

"Well Uh The Door Was Locked"

Kanaya's a terrible liar. Terezi is not impressed.

"You could jolly well have sent me a message and i would have been chuffed to let you in. You know that right?"

"We Were Er Going To Surprise You"

Jake grins. He seems to be falling for it. This nerd's even more gullible than J- no, Terezi's not going to think about him. Not now. Hopefully not ever.

"And what a bloody surprise it is to find your foyer caved in! Its mighty good to see you all though as always! And i see that terezi has returned at long last!"

He steps forward and wraps up Terezi in a crushing, mildly sweaty hug. "Welcome back to earth c my good lady!"

Terezi wheezes and pulls away. "J3GUS, 1 TH1NK YOU BROK3 MY R1BC4G3"

"Well youre the ones who thought itd be a smashing good time to smash your way through my roof!"

Terezi grits her teeth and almost delivers a biting retort, but she restrains herself. She needs to keep everybody on Jake's good side.

Dave speaks up. "hey uh weve got nonspecific places to be so would you mind showing us your rocketships now"

"Most certainly! Right this way!"

Jake strides jauntily through his wealth hive. Everybody else follows his lead. Dave and Karkat pick up Jade's chair and carry it between them.

The group parades through a rather large, though plain hive. The decorations are few and, if present, poorly-arranged. There are a surprising number of trophies. One large and ornate picture frame contains a photograph of what appears to be Jake's butt. Terezi stops up her nose.

The peanut-free gallery enters a high-roofed hangar with a massive overhead door at the far end. It contains eight large, shiny spacecraft. The block smells like a robot diner.

Terezi elbows Roxy in the ribs. "(D1D YOU GUYS BR1NG SUPPL13S FOR TH3 TR1P)" she whispers.

"(yeah but dnt worry if we run out cuz i can alwsys do the voidy thing)"

"Tell Me Which One Of These Airless Flight Vessels Is The Fastest" asks Kanaya, attempting to feign genuine interest. Actually, she might be genuinely interested. It's hard to tell with her.

"Well dirk took my fastest one on urgent business two weeks ago. But the next fastest would be this one!" Jake points at the third-smallest craft in the hangar. It's about the size of three semis lined up side-by-side and layered on top of three more semis. Its plating is gunmetal blue. It has two triangular wings forming a delta shape and a snub, parabola-shaped nose.

"Its Very Nice Looking"

Dave catches onto Kanaya's game plan. "tell us more about it"

"I certainly will! Care for a tour of the interior?"

Kanaya's face figuratively lights up. "Of Course"

Jake strides to the side of the ship. He grabs a handle just behind the right wing and pulls down a retractable boarding ramp. The gang follows him in, leaving Jade in the hangar.

The interior is laid out like a double-decker RV, designed to maximise spatial efficiency. It's fairly cramped with so many people inside. While there's plenty of room, the ship's clearly not designed to hold more than about four people at a time. Terezi's not looking forward to spending so long adrift in space in such conditions with the same four-to-six people. That is, if Jake lets them borrow it.

The owner in question is currently rambling on about the spaceship in question.

"This beaut is the first spaceship i ever owned! I found it in a junkyard and figured dirk would love to fix it up. Well he did and it works like a charm! Quick as a whistle and wonderfully easy to handle! Of course the one he designed is faster. That ones the one he took and its the best of the bunch all things considered. But this ships right good on its own merits."

Jake proceeds to give a brief tour of the spacecraft. It's brief because the ship's not large enough for a real tour. He points out all the features, including the depressingly small ablutionblock, the communal respiteblock on the second floor, the fold-down meal table, the cramped engineblock, so on and so forth.

"I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU GUYS BUT I REALLY FORKING HATE BEING SQUEEZED IN THIS CHROME-PLATED FLYING CRIMEHIVE WITH THE REST OF YOU," comments Karkat. "CAN WE GO GET SOME FRESH ALBEIT GREASE-FILLED AIR? YOU KNOW, OUTSIDE-ISH?"

Jake nods and leads everybody off of the ship.

"So You Mentioned That Dirk Took Your Best Ship On Quote Unquote Urgent Business" begins Kanaya, punctuating her sentence with air-quotes.

"Indeed he did."

"What Sort Of Business Was That"

Jake scratches the back of his head. "I dont know. He never told me. Not for a lack of effort on my part as i do want to look out for his wellbeing. But dirk wouldnt say."

"do you have a general sort of idea about where hes headed" adds Dave.

"Like i said before i dont. Sorry chaps."

Roxy asks in a hard-edged voice, "do u got a clue abt what hes been up 2 these past cuople days"

Jake simply shakes his head. He seems uncomfortable about this line of questioning.

"hasnt he been acting suspciuos tho" Roxy steps forward.

"No not that i know of…" stammers out Jake. He can't maintain eye contact with Roxy, not even with the wraparound shades.

Roxy levels an accusatory finger at Jake's chest. "u kno more than ur letting on"

"A-about what?"

"abt dirk dumbaxe"

Kanaya steps between the two humans in order to de-escalate any possible conflict. "Stand Down Roxy I Believe Jake Is Telling The Truth"

"but isnt he in cahots w dirk"

Terezi smirks. Vriska would approve of Roxy's turn of phrase.

"Dirk Fooled Everybody Especially Me"

"NOT M3" interjects Terezi, feeling more than a bit smug.

Karkat scowls. "KEEP YOUR SEEDFLAP SHUT, PYROPE."

"I Dont See How Jake Could Have Been Fooled Less Than Any Of Us Were" continues Kanaya, faltering a bit. "You Know… Considering Hes Him"

"but hes liek kinda-sorta boyfs w dirk still" Roxy says in counterpoint.

Jake interrupts the discourse. "I beg your pardon but what in gods name are you folks blathering about?"

"dirk turned traitor and betrayed us all" replies Dave. "he hit ultimate tier and decided to manipulate us for his own twisted benefit"

Terezi can almost hear Jake's jaw hit the floor. He stands there for a good fifteen seconds, then sets his face in a hard line.

"No."

"excuse you"

"Dirk would never do anything like that. I know him."

"THEN MAYBE YOU DON'T KNOW HIM AS WELL AS YOU THOUGHT YOU DID," Karkat retorts.

Jake presses his hands to the sides of his head. "I cant believe this. Dirk would never manipulate me! He loves me!"

"is it he who loves you or you who loves him" asks Dave.

Jake doesn't respond. Instead, he changes the subject.

"Youre going after him arent you?"

After a moment of hesitation, Dave replies, "yes"

Jake slowly draws his pistols. "Im sorry dave. I cant let you do that."

Dave's hand instinctively goes to the hilt of his sword. "we have to do this jake"

Would it count as a stupid death if Jake were to die right now? Dave doesn't seem sure, so he hesitates and clenches and unclenches his fist.

Terezi doesn't hesitate. She draws her cane sword and plunges it through Jake's chest. He falls to the floor like a wet sack of cement.

Nobody moves for a good half a minute. Everybody just stares at the dead form of Jake English.

Terezi pulls out her sword, licks off the blood, and sheathes it. "1 T4K3 FULL R3SPONS1B1L1TY FOR 4NY CONS3QU3NC3S OF MY 4CT1ONS TOD4Y"

Dave is the first to snap out of his trance. "cmon guys weve gotta abscond before jake hopefully gets up"

He and Karkat grab Jade's chair and carry it onto the ship. Kanaya and Terezi follow them aboard. Roxy runs to a wall of keys and user manuals and grabs the relevant ones.

Roxy spots an unplugged fenestrated plane leaning against the wall. After a moment of hesitation, he picks it up and rushes aboard the ship. Kanaya shuts the hatch and retracts the ramp.

The gang hurriedly takes off, heading out of the atmosphere.

Dave smiles faintly as the ground rushes away from them. "where doing it man" he proclaims to nobody in particular. "where MAKING THIS HAPEN"

So she has joined Dirk on his mad rocket journey through the cosmos, Terezi realises, but not in the way that he intended. Loopholes are a wonderful thing.