Prince of Heart- I might've blown my load a little bit early last chapter. Apparently it wasn't an epilogue that was released? Like there's going to be more? Well I guess that just mean I'll be blowing a whole lot more loads in the future.

The groups stopped in their tracks, including the new fish troll girl, and turned to face Aranea, whom looked on in pure horror. Her eyes twitched with confusion, darting back and forth between the various sparring warriors on the battlefield. Soon though, the fish troll girl sucker punched Dave in the nose, making him stumble back and turning the warriors' attention back to the fish. Karkat was the first to react, running quickly past Kanaya in front of him and clashing with the girl. His sickle made a loud clanking sound as it hit her trident, and the sound was an indicator to Dave to get back in the fray, hitting the other side of the girls trident as Karkat attempted to wrestle with her other side.

Behind Aranea, Eridan noticed while standing up, was another human boy, looking a lot like John. The boy had messy hair, almost as if it was messed from rough adventuring, with a pair of rectangular glasses hiding his dark green eyes. His tanned skin housed some surprisingly revealing clothing, including a pair of khaki short-shorts, a white shirt with a skull the same colour of his eyes, and a dark green jacket with sleeves reaching down to his elbows.

"Stop it, all of you!" Aranea ordered. "You couldn't even wait a few minutes while I retrieved one last guest? I have to come 8ack to THIS?"

By the time she finished, Kanaya had decided to tag in the fight, about to slice the new girl in half as she was distracted by Dave and Karkat. Kanaya jumped up into the air, raised the chainsaw above her head, and fell into her attack. The girl spotted the attack though, wresting her trident from the two knights and rolling backwards as the Sylph sliced down into her former position.

"1 4M SORRY 4R4N34," Terezi told her from the other side of the fight, her hands covering both her glassless eyes. "1 TR13D TO T3LL TH3M 4LL TO B3 COOL. NORM4LLY W3R3 SO MUCH COOL3R TH4N..." Terezi snorted, opening her eyes to watch the group fight. "WHY DO 1 4LW4YS TRY TO T3LL P3OPL3 W3R3 COOL? W3 4R3 SO V3RY UN COOL."

Aranea sighed, waving her arms to signal the group, "Every8ody? Excuse me, are you listening?! I would like to introduce you to someone." She gestured to the boy beside her. "His name is..." Her introduction was cut short by a loud scream as the fish girl roundhouse kicked Karkat in the gut. "HEY!" Her tone raised to a yell. "MEENAH! I SAID CUT IT THE FUCK OUT." The group stopped fighting, and the fish girl, who Eridan guessed was Meenah, turned to Aranea and pointed to herself. "Yes! you!" She pointed at Meenah as well. "The dead miscreant with the goggles waving around the stupid trident. Put it down!"

Meenah looked at her, insulted. "what no way."

"Yes way."

Meenah held her trident out in front of her. "no wanna poke these suckas up."

Aranea approached her, pointing to the ground. "Put it down. I'm serious."

Meenah went from insulted to whiny in a moment, complaining, "come on lemme puncture one of em. just a little." She lightly poked Karkat in the stomach. "how bout this shout ass nubby motherglubber who looks like whats his face"

Aranea crossed her arms. "I said drop it."

"what like on the floor?"

"Yes on the floor!" Meenah sighed, but compliantly dropped her trident in front of her. "Now step away from it." Meenah once again followed orders, taking a couple steps back. "That's right. 8ack. A little further." Meenah attempted to take a step forward, but was stopped in her tracks. "I said further! No, not closer! Further!" Meenah tried snatching the trident, but Aranea slapped her hand away. "Uuuuuuuugh. Guess what! You just lost your poking privileges." She picked up the trident. "I think I'll hang on to this for a little while. How do you like that?"

Meenah shrugged. "s'chool."

Aranea traced her fingers along one of the prongs. "Ooooooooh. It sure is pretty. Is that real gold? Or, pardon me, 'reel.' I 8et I could sell it for a small fortune."

She cheekily smiled at Meenah, and the fish girl groaned, "aw man no dont."

"Watch me!"

"yeah like a fuckin ghost could even sell anyfin." Meenah turned to the rest of the group. "any of you scrubs know where to find the prawn shop in this bitch?"

Terezi cocked her head to the side. "TH3 WH4T?"

She gestured to Aranea. "some ho is angling to sell ma gold pointy jam. look at her pawin up my royal loot with her clammy shitmitts. greedier spectacle i never did sea. water you blind there pyrope lookin dimwit?"

"Y3S."

"then listen up. she wants to hock my swank fuckin carats. got it?"

Terezi smirked. "W3LL MOST OF US H3R3 4R3 1N F4CT R4TH3R W34LTHY. 1 4M NOT SUR3 1F SH3 W1LL F1ND 4N 1NT3R3ST3D BUY3R THOUGH."

Meenah slid a hand down her face. "this sure became a retarded line of talkin."

Aranea sighed, "Ok then! Has everyone settled down? Do I have everyone's attention?"

"attention huh?" Meenah scoffed, "whoda thought you would want any of THAT?"

"Just stop. Please? I know it's only 8een minutes since you died, and you pro8a8ly aren't thrilled to see me for any num8er of reasons. 8ut for me it has 8een millenia! I have 8een waiting a long time to see you again, and orient you to the afterlife."

Meenah chuckled, "being a ghost isnt anyfin you need to be oriented to. were D-EAD who cares"

Aranea looked at Meenah with disappointment. "Excuse me for looking forward to our reunion then! I guess I 8uilt it up in my mind as something special for a whole lot of nothing!"

"yeah probubbly. what elses new though? need to swimmer down girl. you dead, time to act like the fucks you give stopped existin. like they... disaspeared."

She gave Aranea a wink, happy with her pun. "Then you don't care at all, is that it? My waiting here all this time to see you means nothing?"

Eridan felt someone tap his shoulder, finding Dave now grabbing his attention. "yo fish-dude why the hell are you looking so happy with that goofy ass smile on your face?"

Eridan raised an eyebrow, before realising he was ,in fact, smiling, and returning to his resting scowl. "i didnt realise. it wwas nothin."

Dave put a hand on his hip. "really? cause it sure as hell seems like you were smiling at the hot spider girl."

Eridan's breath stopped for a second, and he blushed a deep violet. "no i wwasnt."

"yeah you were. you cant see it, but my eyebrows are off the fucking charts, going up and down like theyre a fish-dude doing chin ups to impress a hot spider girl."

Eridan groaned, turning back to the scene playing back in front of them.

Aranea growled, "That's it. I'm selling off this gaudy trinket."

Meenah gasped, attempting to grab the trident unsuccessfully as Aranea kept her at arm's length, "no fuck you gimme that!"

"I have developed an eye for priceless treasure. Do you have any idea who I grew up to 8e in the new world we made? I'd wager if I put it on the 8lack market, it would fetch a fee to the tuna several 8illion 8oonies."

Meenah stopped in her tracks, and gasped excitedly, "TUNA! tuna tuna tuna tuna. i love you!"

"WOW," Karkat interrupted, "HEY. FUCKING *EXCUSE ME*."

Meenah looked over to him. "what?"

"WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE AND WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT YOU?"

"K4RK4T S3TTL3 DOWN!" Terezi scolded. "1 TOLD YOU TH3Y 4R3 SOM3 OF OUR 4NC3STORS."

"THEY AREN'T OUR ANCESTORS. WE DON'T HAVE ANCESTORS. ANCESTRAL LEGACIES ARE A LOT OF SUPERSTITIOUS, ARISTOCRATIC BULLSHITTERY, INVENTED BY HIGHBLOODS SO THEY GET TO FEEL EVEN MORE SMUG AND SELF SATISFIED THAN THEY ALREADY ARE. EVEN IF WE DO HAVE THEM, WHO CARES? WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THESE PEOPLE?"

"YOUR3 B31NG V3RY RUD3!"

"LISTEN. I DON'T KNOW THEM. I DON'T WANT TO WASTE TIME PASSING THROUGH DREAM BUBBLES IF I'M NOT GOING TO SEE MY DEAD FRIENDS. IF YOU DRAGGED ME ALL THE WAY UP HERE TO MEET, OH SAY, GHOST NEPETA. FUCKING GREAT! I'LL HANG OUT WITH DEAD NEPETA ALL DAY LONG. HELL, EVEN SOME RANDOM NEPETA FROM A DOOMED TIMELINE. THAT WOULD BE ALRIGHT. YOU KNOW WHAT? GIVE ME FIFTY FUCKING NEPETAS! WHY THE HELL NOT. WE'LL CALL OUR JOURNEY THROUGH BLACK ENDLESS DESPAIR "NEPETAQUEST". BUT THESE LOSERS? WHO CARES ABOUT THEM? I DON'T NEED TO BE MAKING ANY NEW FRIENDS. I HAVE ENOUGH "NEW FRIENDS" AS IT IS."

The sleeping girl let out a very loud snore.

"MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY, RANDOM HUMAN! I'M LEAVING."

Karkat turned to leave, and Terezi scrunched up her face at him. "BL4RGH YOU 4R3 SO T3RR1BL3!"

"that guy!" Meenah called out as Karkat walked away. "nubbyshouts! that guy is cool!"

"THANKS, WHOEVER THE FUCK!" Karkat yelled over his shoulder. "BYE."

"aw man hes so much cooler than whats his shit. why couldnt whats his shit be more like nubs mcshouty. our team had no cool buoys at all!"

Another loud snore from the sleeping girl.

"sleepy fishbait is right this is a fuckin drag! can i go hang out with shouty instead?"

"NO!" Both Aranea and Karkat told her in unison, causing Meenah to frown sadly.

"Psst!" Eridan heard the low sound of someone signalling his attention. He looked around the open space, attempting to locate the source. "You! Fish guy with the nice cape and hair!" He located the source, seeing the new John looking human calling him over. Eridan put a hand on his chest, mouthing 'me?' "Yes you! Come on over!" Eridan cautiously walked around the talking group, careful not to distract Aranea from telling what seemed to be a story of his group's ancestors. He was tempted to go and listen as well, but he felt too curious as to what the new human wanted.

He finally came and stood in front of the human, and asked, "wwhat is it?"

"Oh uh yeah. Damn. This is kind of a weird thing to ask." The human stumbled over his words, in a similar accent to Meenah and Eridan. "Like so… right. Get this right? So i have this brain ghost version of my best bro who i guess is also crushing on me? Like im still kind of confused as to his intentions. I mean i guess i wouldnt mind if we did end up going out."

Eridan's mouth gaped open as the boy kept going on about meaningless bullshit; a lot like John, he guessed. "wwhat the fuck are you talking about? did you call me ovver to tell me about wwhatevver bullshit quadrant you and a person i dont evven knoww are in? i dont givve a shit! get to the fuckin point."

The boy chuckled nervously, Eridan finally noticing that they were about the same height. "Righto boyo you got it. So my brain ghost friend and i were wondering why hes sort of flickering in and out of obscurity and we figured that it was kind of your fault. Not to make accusations of course! You cant really see him but hes standing next to me."

Eridan looked beside the boy, confused as to what he was talking about. He could see a boy there, one that looked similarly like Dave, though with hair more slicked back and a pair of pointy shades on his face. He wore simpler and tight fitting clothes; a pair of denim jeans, a t-shirt that clung to his torso with an orange cap on it, and a pair of white sneakers capping off his six foot two figure.

Eridan looked back at the boy and pointed at the alleged brain ghost. "you mean that guy?"

The two boys looked at each other, the shorter one with a shocked expression. "You can see him?!"

Eridan nodded. "wwhy the fuck wwouldnt i?"

Eridan heard Aranea shouting behind him, but was too engrossed in the conversation to pay attention. "Interesting." The taller boy pondered, rubbing his chin with his hand. "So you seem to be the only one able to see me. But how? Jake thought me up, I'm a representation of his real friend but how he views him. Which I got to give you mad credit for bro."

The two shared a fist bump. "Hell yeah bro!" the shorter one said. "Best bros for life! Unless we become boyfriends i guess."

"More like bro-yfriends. Damn, that's going in the old think pan for later when you tell the real Dirk." This taller boy spoke with a more monotone voice, with no sense of emotion coming through despite what he said. "Anyway, do you have any idea how you can see me? And still on that topic, why am I flickering in and out because of you?"

Eridan watched the boy for a few seconds, seeing him finally flicker in and out of his view. "i dont knoww. im a prince of hope if that helps anything?"

"A Prince of Hope? Interesting, is that a part of your troll culture?"

"no the game gavve it to me. they wwere fuckin right as wwell about the royalty part."

"Huh, this rabbit hole just gets deeper. This game seems to assign roles like any RPG would. I think I remember the troll girl from our session saying something similarly for me. A Prince of Heart I believe?"

"howw the fuck can you remember that if youre not evven real?"

"I don't know, magic I guess?" Eridan scoffed at that. "But I'm no royal, so it must be something different. But I've never seen any official texts telling of a Prince being anything other than royalty. I do seem to remember a video game Roxy once sent me a file for, something like King's Goal, or King's Objective, some bullshit I rushed through. There was a line in there though that struck me as odd, where they referred to destroying as 'the nature of a Prince.' Maybe Prince actually means destroyer?"

Eridan scoffed, "bullshit no wway. i dont destroy hope! i simply knoww wwhen there is none and i adjust my plans accordingly."

"Are you sure there was no situation where you destroyed someone else's Hope?"

Eridan was about to pipe up, but he then thought for a second. "i guess there might havve been a few times wwhere i kept people from doing suicidal things. like wwhen someone i kneww didnt agree wwith a flawwless plan i had. i ended up havving to kill her."

"Did you really have to?"

Eridan nodded once. "i believve so."

"Guys!" the shorter human interrupted, pointing to the new troll girl. "Im not sure but i think that might be the batterwitch!"

"So?" the taller one asked.

"Well im going to do something! I have to!"

"Please don't," the tall one pleaded unenthusiastically, but the shorter one was already in a sprint towards the troll fish.

"should wwe do somethin?" Eridan asked.

"No, leave him be. He's just a little bit of an over compensator in confidence. So why the hell do you even think you were in the right?"

"i dont knoww i just felt that i wwas."

"But to kill your friend over it? Was that necessary?"

"she tried to stop me after i killed that loww blooded scum of a boyfriend of hers."

"So it was self-defence? Why'd you kill her boyfriend?"

Eridan crossed his arms. "wwhats wwith all the fuckin questions? i dont ask you wwho you murder."

"I haven't murdered anyone."

"okay wwell howw about you go fuck yourself."

The taller boy sighed, and Eridan finally noticed Terezi sidestep up to them, slyly moving away from the scene over in the main group. She moved past Eridan, and up to the tall human, proceeding to take a deep sniff of him.

"Are you having fun there?" he asked.

"QU1T3 4 LOT 4CTU4LLY." She moved around him, catching a whiff of his other side.

"You're sniffing me."

"NO 1M NOT!"

"Do you have to stand so close?"

"WH4T 4R3 YOU T4LK1NG 4BOUT?" She took a baby step closer.

"That there. You just inched a little closer."

"NO! 1 4M TOT4LLY R3SP3CT1NG YOUR BOUND4R13S."

"Wait," he said, holding up his hands to his face. "Something's happening."

And in an instance, the tall boy let off a flash of light, and was turned into a real version of himself, albeit with a set of baggy Derse pyjamas.

"What just happened?" he asked cautiously.

Eridan was taken aback by the transformation, recoiling back in fear. "wwhat the fuck?! wwhat kind of science is this?"

Terezi took another quick sniff, causing him to knock her back gently with his elbow. "Holy shit you need to step off troll girl."

"NO TH1S 1S F1N3. 3V3RYTH1NGS F1N3!"

"Does this mean you guys can see me now?"

Eridan was too shocked to reply, but Terezi answered casually, "1 C4NT." She then pointed at the rest of the group, who had all turned to stare at him with various expressions of surprise on their faces. "BUT TH3Y C4N."

He sighed, pushing Terezi away. "Alright, uh, hi everyone. So here's the thing. I have to go. Like, right now." He began to make his way over to the sleeping young woman, the groups' eyes following him. "All of my friends are either dead, or lying on the ground unconscious, including me. So I have to try to wake up and fix everything. Sorry I can't hang around your bubble and shoot the breeze for a while. It's not like I don't want to." He took a step into the air and floated towards the girl. "I guess I have to be this huge fucking wet blanket as usual because there's stuff that needs doin'." He grasped the girl by one arm. "Also I'm just gonna steal her if you don't mind. Tell the aquatic punk girl my idiot bro is sorry for beating the shit out of her. Ha ha, who am I kidding? She stone cold does not give a fuck." He waved to them as he flew off into the sky. "See you later."

And like that, he was gone, and silence befell the group. The only one to truly react was Dave, who made an extremely confused face. Eridan shook his head, and proceeded to walk over to the rest of the group, scratching his head. He held out his hand to Aranea, gesturing for the trident, which she gave up to him. And with a single swing, he bonked himself on the head with it to wake himself up from whatever dream he just had.

Prince of Heart- Fuck this was a long one. Do you guys mind these sort of chapters? I try to keep them under 2000 words, but there was just too much shit I had to cover. Half of it is just dialogue ripped straight from the comic. I guess these things were bound to happen: can't change everything, can we?