Your name is Sollux Captor, and you are a colossal fuckup. In the past weeks you have decided to defect from the largest empire in the universe, you got your ship hit by one measly scout, ate mind honey and accidentally vaporized your girlfriend, and now it looks like you've been busted by these humans for secretly carrying enough power to wipe out their entire base twice over.
The humans came in shortly after Vriska left to get you. You aren't particularly surprised they knew, these humans may be primitive fuckers, but with how much power you keep trapped inside your head there was no way they wouldn't sense it. The humans appeared with guns trained on everyone in the room, and demanded to take you into custody, and that was that. Not even the fastest troll can outrun a bullet, even if bullets are completely outdated by troll standards.
Now you're sitting several floors underground, hooked up to a machine disturbingly similar to the pilot rig from your ship, and these humans are trying to drain the energy from your body. You could have stopped this, but it seems like you couldn't get yourself to do anything since the crash. Probably because of your guilt over the whole accidental girlfriend-killing thing.
You're thinking clearly now though. Maybe the machine has taken some pressure off of your head, because you still had a lot of stress placed on your thinkpan after the mind honey. You've been bottling it up so as to not kill anybody else, and it's like you've been swimming in white noise since your crash.
Now, however, you're thinking clearly. You can focus on everything around you. And you can hear the voices of the soon to be dead again. Normally that would be a bother to you, but you've noticed that some of these voices are coming from the humans standing in front of you. And you know exactly how they're going to die.
They don't even have the time to scream. Your psionics incinerate them instantly, and for a single, horrible second, the image of Aradia in a similar state flashes in your mind.
You push it aside for now. You've spent enough time being useless. Now is the time to act. First thing's first, you need to tear this room apart and find out where your asshole friends are.
Your name is Terezi Pyrope, and you are taking charge of this mess. After Sollux got dragged out of the room everyone completely lost it. Equius started packing, Karkat started cursing, and everyone else just lost their minds.
You aren't everyone else though. You are a genius of a troll, and if you hadn't left Alternia you'd have become a legislacerator the likes of which nobody had ever seen. And while you may not be on Alternia anymore, you still intend to uphold justice.
There are two humans in the room still, both training their guns on anybody who gets too close. Nobody's dared to get near them, as they're unsure how to escape without getting everyone killed. To get close to them means getting gunned down, and while Equius could likely punch through the walls, there's no way to get everyone out before somebody gets shot. The straightforward approach will only get them killed.
Fortunately an expert legislacerator is an expert in deception as well as combat. You know the layout of the room very well by now, and are one of the few armed trolls in the room. But unlike Kanaya and Equius, who are tall and imposing, you are short, thin, and very clearly blind. All of these things combined make you the least threatening troll in the room. And the troll that isn't threatening is often the most dangerous.
You take hold of your cane and begin tapping on the floor as you wander about. It's good for appearances, though you haven't needed it for getting around for a week or so now. You're not sure what the cause is, but in the past little while, you've been finding your sense of smell growing stronger, to the point where you can accurately identify everything and everyone by smell. You've kept it to yourself for the most part, so that you can freak people out with it, though you did tell Vriska.
Your tapping falters as you remember Vriska's pale advances from before. You hope she's alright, wherever she is now. You're still not sure how to respond to that impromptu shooshpapping earlier. She clearly wasn't aware of what she was doing at the time herself, it just… happened.
Well, if you want to sort it out with her you'll have to get out of here first. Your tapping takes you in the general direction of the soldiers, but you're careful not to approach them head on. You just amble along, tapping your cane for show. As you draw closer, you sense them tense.
"Hold it right there, troll, before I mow you down," one calls, raising his gun to you.
At this point the others have noticed what you're doing. You hear several people call your name; Karkat's being the loudest. You grin at them and call out "I'm over here, guys. Honestly you morons are as blind as I am!"
The other human slaps the hands of the man pointing his gun at you. "Don't lose your shit over somebody who can't even see you, dumbass." He mutters to him. You cackle inwardly.
"Terezi, get the fuck over here!" Karkat screams in a panicked rage.
"Well now Karkles, if you're going to ask me like that, then maybe I don't want to!" You grin, walking in the opposite direction of his voice, and right towards the guards. You're glad Karkat is so predictable; you didn't even have to tell him what to say beforehand.
"Miss, step away from the door or we will use force." The second guard warns. You hear their hands move to their guns again, but they haven't raised them yet. Big mistake.
"You know, normally when I execute criminals I prefer to use a noose." You remark, taking both hands to your cane. "But I think this will work just as well." Your arm lashes out as they raise their guns. Everything suddenly tastes like cherries. You hear the two men fall to the ground, with a wet splat.
"Well everybody, shall we be off?" You turn to face everybody with a grin. There's a cheer from Nepeta and Feferi, and a 'HOLY SHIT' from Karkat, and suddenly everyone is moving. Eridan rushes to your side and relieves the guards of their weapons, muttering a rushed compliment to you under his breath, before moving out to the hallway.
Kanaya is the next to follow him, pausing to look you over. "Excellently done, Terezi. And might I say, that shade of red is lovely on you. It goes very well with your eyes."
Your name is Feferi Peixes, and you're doing your best to keep your group together. At the front of the pack is Eridan, wielding the guns from the dead guards, and Nepeta, using several makeshift blades in lieu of claws. Nepeta has dispatched several humans unawares already, allowing you to proceed in relative silence. But when you think back on the loud blast your group heard shortly after your escape and think of Sollux and Vriska, who are still out there on their own, you feel like you can't possibly move fast enough.
"We're pawfully close now, efurrybody!" Nepeta whispers back to your group with a grin. "They're keeping our weapons just around the corner."
"Alright everyone, stay together!" You say softly, looking back at Equius, who is watching for soldiers behind you. Gamzee and Tavros are doggedly keeping up with the group just in front of him, but while Tavros looks determined, you can't help but worry. He hasn't had nearly enough time to adjust to his new legs.
Nepeta slips into a large building ahead of you all, and Eridan stands at the door, peering out into the night. "Looks like these glubbing humans are all moving to the opposite end of the base." He calls out to you. "Not sure if it's the asshole or the bitch who's drawing them in though."
You're not sure if this is a blessing or a curse at this point. While it's good to have a moment's reprieve, there's little chance of reaching the other end of the compound in such a small group. You smile at Eridan as you step forward. "Stay out here and keep watch, while I get our gear. I'm counting on you." Eridan sends you a smile, and you feel the trust between you.
You're not sure how your relationship with Eridan can be defined at this point; especially after all of the support you've given Karkat with his hemospectrum issues. But while you're not sure you feel pale for Eridan, you know you can trust him with your life. He is your oldest friend, after all! You head inside, knowing his skills with guns will be enough to deter any threats until everyone else is ready.
Inside the bunker you see everyone has finished gathering their old gear, and are now searching for any useful items amongst the human's belongings. Kanaya has donned a sort of armor, similar to what you've seen human soldiers wearing, but other than that seems content with her chainsaw. She's holding another vest in her hand. "I felt our guard needed better protection." She says with a smile, as she heads for the exit.
You thank her and rush for the area where everyone else found their weapons, and retrieve your double trident. After a moment's reflection, you also gather up Sollux's throwing stars, so that he'll have some extra firepower when (definitely not if) you find him. But as you look around you notice that Vriska's and Eridan's weapons are not here.
"Eridan! I can't find Ahab's crosshairs!" You yell towards the door as you don a protective vest.
"What do you mean you can't find it? I swear, if I have to spend the rest of my life using these primitive human weapons I will- FUCKING HELL!" Eridan's rant is cut short as the sound of a loud blast echoes from the doors, accompanied by a pained cry. You rush to the door and see Kanaya lying on the ground, a neat hole burned through her stomach, just to the right of her spine. She's already dead. Eridan is running away cursing. Things just got horribly complicated.
Your name is Eridan Ampora, and it's high time you took action. You've been hiding the map Kanaya's made over the past week, and made sure Feferi was staying as safe as possible, even if she was spending an awful lot of time with Karkat. But now shit has hit the whirling device. Vriska has vanished, Sollux was taken, and now Kanaya is dead. But the worst part is that you recognize the weapon that did it.
Somebody out there took Ahab's Crosshairs, and they used it to shoot your friend through the stomach. You saw enough to know where the blast came from, and you're going to hunt the fuckers responsible down, and take back what's yours.
A human rounds the corner and you swing your gun at his head. The man cries out in shock and hits the ground. You may not be as strong as that sweaty fucker Equius, but you're still high on the hemospectrum, and that means being stronger than average by far. Still, you hate resorting to such crude measures to dispatch these humans. You continue towards the vantage point the sniper shot Kanaya from and spot two humans at the base of the building the shot came from. You gun them down before they realize you're upon them. Much better.
When you reach the inside of the building you see an assortment of guards all arming themselves and smirk to yourself. The word has gone out that you are no longer jailed, but they weren't expecting you to be upon them so quickly. Violet blood speed is not to be underestimated, and you've lived on land for long enough to be far more comfortable than most seadwelling trolls would be.
Your guns ring out loud enough to burst your eardrums, and you're thankful you remembered to take earplugs from your guards. You down three guards before they can move, and dive around a corner, your cape snapping behind you. You're hiding behind a large column now, and those humans that have managed to retrieve their weapons are riddling your cover with gunfire. You snort at their efforts. Ahab's Crosshairs would have reduced the column to rubble with one shot.
Still, you'll need to do something before the humans can surround you. You sigh sadly, and toss your cape in the air to your left, and aim around the right side of the column half a second later. Your cape is riddled with bullets, but you return the favor. Your second volley of bullets has left only two humans in the building alive, but one is choking out from a stomach wound, and the other has taken a stray bullet to the leg, and is crawling away. You take a handgun from a nearby soldier and kill the crawling one. The other human you leave to die.
You reach the top floor where the sniper is hiding with little incident after that. The sniper is a woman, still watching the bunker where your fellow trolls are hiding. She has Ahab's crosshairs up to her face, and you can see her also wearing earplugs to prevent distraction and ear damage. She never sees you coming.
You head to the other windows on the top floor and check through your scope for the others. Sollux is clearly alright, tossing tanks around with what is clearly a psionic overdose. You wonder if Sollux has found the mind honey again, and kill a few of the soldiers trying to gun him down. Hopefully you can use that for some pitch flirting later.
Vriska seems to have noticed Ahab's Crosshairs firing, because she's changed course from Sollux to you. Several buildings behind her you see Doctor Scratch exiting, pulling some sort of sticky bullshit from his suit. Ahab's Crosshairs don't seem to want to focus on him though. As you try to aim at him you find your scope suffering from some sort of static interference, the image becoming blurry. You curse under your breath and leave the tower to find the others and warn them of the news.
Your name is Vriska Serket, and you're pretty sure this is the most fun you've had in ages! As you've tried to find your comrades, you've turned two humans inside out; given one a cat's head, turned the limbs of four men into stumps, and gave one a silly hat (you had to punch him). Then you saw Eridan shooting from a high window, and decided to track him down next. He would likely know where everyone else is.
As you reach the building, a blast of light burns into the sky to your right. You sigh irritably and start running towards Eridan's new signal, but not before a third blast lights up the sky. You rush in the direction of the next signal just in time to see Equius throw a bomb at the outer wall.
The explosion knocks you off of your feet, and can feel yourself bruising as you crash into a pile of tires. You can tell everyone else is still recovering from the blast as well. Equius stands in the middle of the mess unperturbed, Nepeta clinging to him like a big dorky backpack. You find yourself wondering when he found the time to make a bomb that big.
As everyone else starts to pull themselves to their feet, you see Equius grabbing some sort of armored truck and pushing it to block the area between two buildings, effectively blocking the road behind you. He then busies himself by tearing the side off of the thing.
A large flash comes from behind the truck, and Sollux levitates over it, flashing his reds and blues like a policeslayer vehicle. A bullet strikes him in the shoulder, and he falls to the ground with a hiss.
"Equius, you sweaty fucker! You almost got me killed!" He yells angrily, "Were you trying to cut me off or were you just being a colossal dumbass? Oh wait, I forgot, you're always a colossal dumbass."
"Time is of the essence, Captor. We are taking heavy fire, and our party is already down by two. Though I would be lying if I said the thought of double-crossing you wasn't somewhat… appealing to me." Equius has a grim smirk on his face as he continues to strip the wall of the truck. Honestly you thought the double-crossing comment was pretty clever, so you're more or less in the same state.
Feferi has rushed over to tend to Sollux's wound and gives Equius a withering glare, causing him to amend hastily, "I did not intentionally cut off the lowblood, it was an unexpected incident." He grunts as he twists the last bit of the truck off of the vehicle, and holds it in front of him. "I will take point. Follow behind me closely, our window will be short." You realize his plan and rush over to Terezi.
"How are you at running?" You ask her breathlessly, as she whirls to face you in surprise. Not a good sign.
"Vriska, I didn't know you were back!" She looks past you, and the look of confusion on her face says it all. "I can hardly tell where anything is right now, things are too chaotic for me to taste any colors."
You grab her hand and smirk. "Just stick close to me, Redglare. For two girls as badass as we are, one eye is moooooooore than enough!"
Your name is Nepeta Leijon, and you are on the prowl. Back on Alternia everything was considered prey to anything else. But this isn't Alternia. You've killed wild animals with your bare hands, and humans are a lot slower than wild animals. From the way they react to your presence you think it's safe to say they don't have night vision either.
You and Equius are leading the charge tonight, especially now that Kanaya is- nope, not thinking about that right now, can't afford to think about that now. You can only think about your claws, your prey, and covering your moirail's back. When the back you have to cover is as big as Equius', that's no small feat. Distractions cannot be allowed until you're safe.
Equius has built himself a shield out of the truck he got his explosives from, and is about to rush the hole he's blown in the wall. Your job is to make sure the way is clear for the others.
Equius steps around the wall and the spotlight shines on him almost immediately. He holds up his shield and nods to you, and you reattach yourself to his shoulders. Then you're moving. Equius is snarling as he starts to run, which turns into an all out roar as bullets hit his makeshift shield. One skims his fingers, wrapped around the edge of the shield, and he almost fumbles. Your world becomes nothing but light, as your ears ring from gunfire and yelling.
Then suddenly everything slides back into focus, and you realize Equius has reached the wall. He starts to lower the shield, and you climb so that you're standing on his shoulders, and pounce to the top of the wall. A human cries out in shock as you land at his feet, and you open his throat before he can raise his weapon. You grab his knife from his belt and throw it at the next guard. It misses him, but causes him to flinch enough to kill him as well.
You scamper forward and reach the tower where the humans are shining their lights. Now that you're inside, you use the walls to fly at the few humans remaining, bouncing around until you've killed everyone inside. You reach the top floor and slash the spotlight cables, killing their vision. You look to the other side of the gap in the wall, and see Equius throw his shield hard enough to obliterate the other light tower.
A moment later you notice movement at the opening in the wall. Karkat has rushed through the opening and is running into the woods ahead of everyone else. You jump down from the tower and chase him to the woods. He is moving as fast as he can, but you are more used to running through the woods than he ever will be, and you pouncetackle him to the ground before he can get anywhere.
"Karkat, what are you doing!?" You cry out in distress as he screams in rage and shock. "You have to stay with the group!"
"Nepeta, you crazy furry freak, get off of me!" He flails uselessly against the ground, but you let him up anyways. He staggers to his feet and turns to face you.
His face is dead. He is trying to look grumpy and angry and funny like usual, but you can see right through it. His frown is strained, his eyes are bloodshot, his face is streaked with red tears, and he's clawing into his arms. It's taking everything he has not to break down right now, and looking at him like this kills you.
The two of you stare at each other for several minutes, neither saying a word. The sound of gunfire is distant at this point. You hadn't realized you'd moved so far away. Equius must be worried sick. "Karkat, we need to go back."
"You need to go back. I need to leave." Karkat says quietly. He turns his head aside so he's no longer making eye contact. "I can't be around you guys anymore."
"Leave where?"
"Anywhere. As long as I'm away from you guys it will be alright." He's turning away more now, shuffling his feet nervously.
You're crushed. You haven't been able to look Karkat in the eyes for weeks now, ever since he caught you staring at his blood. You can't imagine how he's lived with such a burden for as long as he has, and the guilt you felt when he called himself a freak was suffocating. It still is.
It's obvious what's happening. He hates you. Karkat hates you all for thinking his blood color is weird. And you can't blame him. His blood is unusual. You don't hold the hemospectrum in high regard like Equius, but you know when a blood color doesn't belong on it. The hemospectrum is ingrained in trolls from their days as wigglers, and while many reject the brainwashing, there's no denying that on some level you know that Karkat's mutation is something almost entirely unheard of.
"Karkat, I know I stared at your blood, and I know I shouldn't have done that!" You cry out desperately. "But I also know that it doesn't really matter! Even if you have red blood, you're still Karkat!"
"Exactly," Karkat says somberly as he turns back to face you. His face is nearly devoid of emotion now. "My blood color is unimportant. What's important is I'm Karkat. And that's the real problem."
You can do nothing but stare at him in shock and confusion, and he takes this as a cue to elaborate. "I am a monster. I am not meant to exist. I am a terrible creature, who should have been culled years ago. Not because of my blood color though. I need to be culled because I can't do anything but get other people killed."
Your attempt to protest goes unheard as he starts to rant louder. "Aradia is dead, without so much as a trace that she ever really existed. Kanaya is dead with a hole in her stomach. Tavros had to get his legs amputated in order to ever walk again. Gamzee is losing his mind. Sollux got shot and is living with the guilt for something that was my fault to begin with. Vriska lost her arm and freaky spider eye. Terezi is now blind. And Feferi gave up her shot at becoming the new empress, at changing our fucked up race for the better! All because I wanted to run away, like a coward!"
You're speechless. You try to come up with something to say, but your thoughts are disrupted when you hear Equius calling your name in a panic. You turn to stare back at the base, and hear Karkat starting to run away. You turn back to him and cry out.
"Karkat, wait!" You don't chase him this time. You don't have to; he stops a short distance away. He turns back to face you. You're desperate to keep him with you at this point, but you don't know how to break through to him. Those hollow eyes feel impenetrable, like you'll never break through to him. And you find yourself blurting out a secret you haven't told him even in your wildest dreams. "Please don't leave me Karkat! I love you! I love you so much it hurts!"
Karkat smiles at you, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "Nepeta, I'm not allowed to love anyone. I'm not even meant to exist." You feel yourself freeze up, and he runs for it. When Equius finds you you're crying. You don't stop until he's carried you far away.
It's only then that you realize the two of you are alone.
Notes:
This was originally going to be one big chapter, but as time went on I realized I was only halfway through the damn thing and it was already longer than every chapter yet. This is one of those sequences I've wanted to write since the idea of Blood Pride first came to me though, so I'm glad to get the first part of the escape sequence out. Things have become more complex here as I decided to give each troll their own part in the narration. Those you haven't seen talk yet will get their part soon. Except for the dead ones. They don't get a part because they're dead. Haa haa, hee hee, hoo hoo.