Your name is Eridan Ampora, and you are on high alert. It has been two months since you and your fellow trolls fled the compound the humans were holding you in, and though you have put many miles between your group and Doctor Scratch, you know he won't stop looking for you that easily. The dark is deep here on earth, the moon here being much smaller than either of the two on Alternia, but you have your wits honed to razor sharpness.

Your companions are not as focused as you however. Feferi and Sollux have been letting their guard down more and more as they've moved away from the base. Feferi is doing everything she can to keep her composure, and acting silly and happy is how she does that best. You could never fault her for that. Sollux however…

You've always thought Sollux was supposed to be smart, but he's acting like a fool right now. His intelligence was something you've always respected about him, but now he's become chipper instead. Well, as chipper as Sollux gets, which basically means rather than scowling he smiles. But his happiness means he's not as on guard as he should be, which could very well get you all killed.

You'd like it stated for the record that you are only against Sollux being happy because it means he's not as tactically useful. It is definitely not because he has entered a relationship with your moirail/flushcrush. That is not even remotely the reason.

…

You really wish Karkat was here to give you advice. He may be a red-blooded asshole who abandoned you all the first chance he got, but he was always ready to help you with relationship problems. And if you're being honest, now that you're a traitor to troll-kind and don't have anything to gain from the hemospectrum, you really don't give a shit whether Karkat was a mutant or not.

Suddenly you hear a sound behind you and you freeze, raising Ahab's Crosshairs to your shoulder. You turn behind you and look around, trying to spot the source. You can't see anything at the moment though; you're standing in the middle of a forest clearing at the moment, and the trees are obscuring everything from view.

"Eridan, are you coming?" Feferi calls back to you, having only just noticed that you've stopped following them.

"Oh, leave him FF, he's just jumping at squeakbeasts again." Sollux waves dismissively and continues to float away. You realize something as he hovers along.

"Sollux stop hovering, you stupid fuck. All of your sparking and fizzing is making it impossible to hear anything!" You spit out angrily, peering back into the woods. You don't know what you're hearing, but you know damn well it isn't squeakbeasts.

"Hmm, how about no." Sollux smirks and gives you the middle finger, two of them, of course. "I don't feel like walking through the dirt just because you're being a paranoid dumbass."

Another noise sounds out from the woods, closer this time, and you can almost make it out. Feferi suddenly turns to Sollux. "Beach yourself Sollux, I heard somefin that time." Sollux sighs at that and lands himself as well, the sparks from his psionics fizzling out. The forest is cast into complete silence.

After a short while Sollux loses his patience. "There's no fucking sound, Eridan, now can we go?"

You smirk at this. "I know you don't get outside very much Sollux, so let me make this simple for you. When there's no sounds in a forest it means things are very bad. Especially on a fucked up planet like this where the goddamn chirpbeasts never shut up."

"Alternate theory: they fucking went to sleep." Sollux grumbles under his breath, but you see him take his glasses off, so you deem that good enough.

Suddenly you hear a noise to your right. The slightest shuffle of leaves. Whatever's been following you has caught up. You snarl at this and fire your gun into the forest nearby, a quick shot so that the power doesn't level everything. For a moment the forest is lit up, and you curse this planet for the hundredth time that it's single moon is so terrible at illuminating anything. The light of Ahab's Crosshairs does reveal something though; you glimpse the shortest flash of yellow eyes in the dark.

"Nepeta, is that you?" you call out warily. You think Nepeta would be more likely to just tacklepounce her way into sight rather than sneak around in the shadows, but you can't think of any other trolls that could move so silently. Equius perhaps, but he wears sunglasses. "Nepeta, if that is you get over here before I shoot you."

Then you hear it.

HONK

Feferi brightens up immediately. "Gamzee, I definitely thought you were still trapped! Why the shell are you hiding back there, come on out!"

HONKHONK

Gamzee comes stepping out into the small clearing you've stopped in, and stands beneath the trees. His face is mostly obscured by shadow, though you can see his eyes and relaxed grin. Something seems off about him though, and you keep your gun in hand as you walk around Feferi to keep your line of sight clear. His eyes dart towards you and narrow, ever so briefly, and you wonder if him placing Feferi between the two of you was intentional. Surely not?

"It's good to motherfucking see you, my best fucking friends." Gamzee raises his hands and let's his grin broaden further. "Saw my bro Sollux blinking like a firefly from miles away, followed the light here like a little miracle."

Sollux eases at this. "It's not really a miracle dude, I glow in the fucking dark, big deal." He starts to spark and light up again, and Gamzee is thrown into full view. His body is covered with scars now, his shirt likely long since discarded, and you see little spirals carved into his skin. Some are scarred over, but some are recent enough that they're still oozing.

"Oh my glub, what happened to you?" Feferi's jaw drops in shock, and you hear Sollux curse under his breath. "Did the humans do this? To torture you?"

Gamzee absentmindedly wipes the blood off of one of the marks, and licks it from his fingers. "Nah, this ain't anything you need to be worrying your pretty little head over sis, I did this myself. Just a few little cuts here and there, enough to hurt. The pain is what keeps my motherfucking head clear, you know? Helps me forget things. Like Tavros."

Feferi gasps at this. "Oh shell, Tavros, what happened to him? Is he alright?"

Gamzee frowns at this. "Nah, sis. Tavros ain't motherfuckin all right. Those humans fucked him up. Had to leave without him." His voice softens to a cold murmur.

Feferi lets out a half sob at this, and rushes over to Gamzee. Sollux curses and turns aside, his body flashing like a firecracker. You want to be upset, but when you look at Gamzee, his eyes darting between the three of you, his body shifting slightly again so that Feferi is now perfectly situated between you, you come to a horrible conclusion. And you don't think to act on it until Feferi is right in front of Gamzee, and he's raising his club skyward.

Gamzee Makara has gone Highblood. He's gone highblood and has just bashed Feferi's head in with one of his fucking juggling clubs. Sollux turns back in shock as she slumps to the ground, and you realize you're screaming.

HONK

Gamzee is gone in a blur of motion, and you realize he's next to Sollux before you have a chance to react. His club swings around like a blur, glancing the side of Sollux's head before a blast of energy from his eyes forces Gamzee to retreat. This time you're able to follow him though, and you raise Ahab's Crosshairs to block yet another blow to the head.

HONKHONKHONK

Gamzee is grinning like a maniac, and you see the blood rushing to his head as he swings his clubs at you, turning his yellow eyes a deep purple, his face oozing blood from the various cuts he's inflicted upon himself. Behind him you see Sollux stumble over to Feferi's body. He's clearly too distracted to be of any use.

This proves to be a problem, because Gamzee is not somebody you think you can fight on your own. There's no clear strategy to his attacks. He swings his clubs with a brutal ferocity though, and while your Ahab's Crosshairs can take the clubs easily, your body cannot.

HONKHONK

You block a blow aimed at your head and spin the gun around to stop one coming at your shoulder. By then though he's brought the first club back at you, forcing you to jump back. The blow hammers against your knee and it's all you can do to avoid stumbling. You're barely able to stop the next attack at your head.

Close combat is not your forte. You prefer to attack from a distance and Gamzee clearly knows this. Every step you retreat he matches easily, and his blows come so fast you know you won't be able to fire at him without taking a lot of damage. But this is your only choice. Gamzee's strength is that of the most deadly purple bloods right now, but he's using what are probably the shittiest clubs possible. His blows will hurt, but as long as you're ready for them and don't let him get your skull, you'll survive.

The next time Gamzee swings at you you're ready. You stop the blow with your gun and let yourself fall with the attack. Gamzee is caught off guard, stumbling a little, and you suddenly push back, causing him to rear back several steps. You scramble backwards in the dirt, raising your gun to fire, but Gamzee is on you before the shot can be primed. The blows rain down on your body with blinding speed, battering your gut and definitely cracking at least one of your ribs. The shots aimed at your head you block with your arms. One of them breaks. You hold on anyways.

HONKHONKHONKHONKHONKHONKHONK

Ahab's Crosshairs glows blue, and you turn your gun on Gamzee. It was the longest two seconds of your fucking life, but you survived them. You roar out your challenge as you force your gun on Gamzee, disregarding the hammer blows of his juggling clubs. The shot isn't perfectly aimed, but the radius of your shot is enough to pick Gamzee off of the ground and spin him through the air.

HOOOOOOOOONK

Gamzee hits the ground with a thud and bounces back to his feet, his scarred body smoking, but otherwise appearing unharmed. Purple-blooded tenacity at its finest. Gamzee grins at you, but sees a glaring strobe of red and blue light and you both realize that Sollux is back in the game. Gamzee let's out a scream and charges at him again, leaving you to struggle back to your feet.

HOOOOOOOONKHONKHONKHONK

Before Sollux can fire and before Gamzee can swing his clubs though, Feferi stabs the latter through the stomach with her double trident. You choke out a sob of relief as she spins it smoothly and sticks him again in his left shoulder.

"YOU GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, MAKARA." She roars in anger, and you notice the Pisces symbol glowing faintly on her head. "IF I EVER SEE YOUR FACE AGAIN I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF."

HONK

Gamzee is gone in a flash, and you all look around in confusion. Suddenly his voice rings out from the darkness.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS ARE HARDER TO KILL THAN I FUCKING THOUGHT." His furious roar suddenly stops as his voice shifts to a cold whisper that somehow rings out even more clearly than his yell. "It doesn't fucking matter though. THERE'S PLENTY OF TROLLS THAT WILL BE EASIER TO KILL THAN YOU. Nepeta, Karkat, Terezi… HELL, EQUIUS WOULD PROBABLY MOTHERFUCKING KILL HIMSELF IF I ORDERED HIM TO. So I'm going to go find those sad motherfuckers and kill them. AND WHEN I'VE FINISHED THEM ALL, I'LL COME BACK FOR YOU. I'm going to box up all of your MOTHERFUCKING HEADS, and THEN I'm going to wrap them up in a MOTHERFUCKING RIBBON, AND GIVE THEM TO SCRATCH. Best be ready, motherfuckers. BECAUSE YOU WON'T KNOW WHAT HIT YOU NEXT MOTHERFUCKING TIME." You hear a tumultuous racket as Gamzee runs away, not bothering to be quiet this time as he disappears completely into the night.

HONKHONKHONKHONKHonkHonkhonkhonk…

You sigh in relief as you hear his voice fade into silence, and suddenly realize Feferi is upon you. She's fussing over your wounds, trying to figure out how to help you, and talking so fast you can barely understand her.

"Oh my glub, Eridan, are you okay? I am so sorry for this, I let him knock me out so easily, and you had to take all of those hits, while I only got hit once. That was so glubbing unfair to you and now you're really badly hurt and it's all my fault for letting him hit me! I should have realized Gamzee was off, his cuts and his eyes and the way he was sneaking around were so weird but I was just so happy to see him alive and so guilty for leaving him behind that I just didn't pay any glubbing attention at all. This really is my entire fault, Gamzee went crazy because I made Equius leave him behind, and now he's going to kill everyone because I didn't get everyone out of the base! I just-"

You raise your hand and pap her on the side of her head, silencing her immediately. "Shoosh, Fef. This wasn't your fault. Gamzee was going crazy before we were even leaving the base. This would have happened eventually no matter what. I'm just sorry I couldn't stop him from hurting you."

Feferi blinks at you through her tears, and she chokes out a laugh. "Hurting me? Look at yourself doofish, you clearly got hurt the worst." She's setting your arm in a splint now, and you suddenly regret all those years you've spent telling her that her medical interests were a waste of time. As you ponder this you notice Feferi is blushing.

"You know Eridan…" She starts to trail off, and looks determinedly down at your arm as she continues to talk. "All these years we've been moray-eels, and that was the first time you've ever shooshpapped me."

You blink at this and sit up, wincing as your ribs cry out in protest. "You serious Fef? No way, that can't be right. I must've papped you at least once…" You find yourself unable to think of it happening. All those years you were flushed for her, your moirallegiance roles were left by the wayside. It had always felt painful to you to act pale when you wanted to be red. "Goddamn it I'm such a fuckin' failure as a moirail, you must hate me so much right now." You've always been somewhat aware of it, but it's certainly never bothered you so much before.

Feferi shakes her head vehemently as she bandages your ribs. "It's okay Eridan, I know you still care for me even if you don't show it. Besides…" She blushes again. "That was really… nice. Though I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish you'd done it sooner."

"Yeah…" You think about it for a while in silence as she finishes your ribs. "It was… it was pretty glubbing good for me too." She blushes again and smiles awkwardly at you, and you find yourself wondering briefly why you never gave this moirallegiance thing a chance.

"Holy fucking shit, do you mind not getting so fucking intimate with me standing right here?" Sollux bursts out in irritation, and Feferi's blush deepens as she hastily jumps to her feet and backs away from you. You find yourself scowling again as you tentatively rise to your feet.

"Go fuck yourself Sol, I've put up with you two for weeks, you can give me five fucking minutes." You snap at him angrily, and find yourself growling as he turns aside triumphantly. Feferi grins sheepishly at you as the three of you start moving again though, and you find your anger fading. You trail along behind the two of them as they start to talk between themselves, and start to think about what just happened.

You've never really liked the pale relationship between you and Feferi. It always seemed like an insult, a prize for the runner-up, while the winner had yet to reach the starting gate. All those years you pined after her fruitlessly, letting her play pale with you and hoping she'd see you in a redder fashion. Meanwhile you just kept trying to find a way to climb into the red, while being too scared to take the risk and talk to her.

Papping her though… that felt good. Feeling her face beneath your hand, watching the tears running down her face just stop, and knowing you were responsible. There was a power in that, a fulfillment that you've never really paid mind to before. Feferi's tried calming you before, but her soft papping always felt like a slap in the face. You wonder how you've been so blind.

The soft sounds of birds and small animals fill in the silence gradually as you walk along, Gamzee's spell over the forest seemingly broken. The faintest smell of salty air touches your nose, and you see Feferi jump in excitement and run ahead. Sollux floats lazily after her, and you trudge slowly up in the rear, minding your ribs carefully.

The others have climbed a steep hill, and by the time you catch up the sun is rising behind you. Feferi is standing at the top of the hill, illuminated in the golden orange light, as she jumps up and down and waves at you, pointing out past the hill and chattering excitedly: "The ocean, it's an ocean Eridan, isn't this wonderful?"

You reach the top of the hill and see the narrow gleaming band of distant water far in the distance. It will likely take you another day or two to reach. But you don't mention that for now, choosing to let Feferi revel in the familiar sight.

Her smile has never felt more important to you than it does now. And you feel your resolve strengthen as you look back over the forest, where Gamzee was retreating before. He will be back again. But when he does you'll be ready. You won't let him hurt you again, and you definitely won't let him hurt Feferi.

You'll do whatever it takes to protect her smiling face. Whatever is necessary.

Notes:

I have to say, I always liked Eridan as a character. He's another one who had the chance to become something so much more than what he was in Homestuck. While his darker side runs deeper than Equius', he clearly cares a great deal about his friends, and shows on many occasions that he has the potential to be good. I can't say whether he'll slip up down the line, but if he does this time, I intend to make it a proper tragedy.

Also, if I managed to fake anybody out with Feferi's injury, please let me know. I crave your tears... HONKHONK