Caterina's POV

Chapter 3: Grieving

I quickly headed towards my own respite block to change out of Karkat's clothes and back into my own clothes before anyone else could see. I regretted having to give back the shirt, it felt so warm, and... it really did smell like Karkat; it felt like he was there with me when I was wearing it, and for once on this damn asteroid, I felt truly safe. But I reluctantly took it off, and replaced it with my own pale yellow sweater. Leaving his clothes on my bed, I returned to the lab and headed straight towards the troll.

"Hey Karkat, I'm going back to LOSAS (Land of Sound and Shade) to complete more quests. Is that okay?"

"WHAT? BUT WE NEED YOU HERE, WE'RE SHORT ON TROLLS AS IT IS, ARGH, WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but I really need to get these quests done, I'm kinda behind."

"ALRIGHT. JUST.. BE CAREFUL, OKAY?"

I nodded and left for my own planet. I need to get out of here.

In LOSAS, I trained with my sniper, and eventually upgraded it to turn into a sword if I wanted to, and I made myself some pretty good pistols too. My overall skill was long range combat and accuracy, though. Taking out the imps in my area helped to eliminate any fears or worries that I had of the trolls. If any of them came to attack me out of another crazy phase, I would be ready. For Nepeta, I would be ready.

Karkat's POV

"WAIT!" I tried to call out to Caterina before she left, but it was too late, she couldn't hear me. I gave a frustrated sigh and transportalized to the lab myself. Everyone snickered at me when I came into the room.

"EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET YOUR ASSES BACK TO WORK. THE HUMANS ARE GOING TO PERFORM THE SCRATCH SOON."

Where was Caterina? She didn't seem to be in the lab either, but I couldn't dare ask anyone where she had went, not that they'd know or really care where she went either.

As if on cue, she transportlized into the lab again and headed straight for me, asking if she could return to her planet. I wondered what she did to my clothes, now that she was dressed in her own clothes. I really wanted to talk to her, but I let her go. She was a quite a few levels beneath us, anyway. Hours went by, and I tried to keep in contact with Jade and John as they started working toward scratching the game. Soon, we wouldn't be able to see their timelines anymore, and they would meet us. Part of me was admittedly looking forward to meeting the annoyances that I've been forced to deal with, especially John. That damned human infected us all with the "friendship" disease. And that made me wonder, was I really friends with Caterina, or were we in a quadrant somewhere? Could she even understand the fragile concept of a quadrant? Argh, where was she? She seemed like she was in a hurry to leave, and I couldn't blame her. Being around a bunch of murderous trolls can take a toll eventually. She probably hates us now.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling kittyCaterina [KC]

CG: ARE YOU FINISHED WITH YOUR QUESTS YET

CG: REALLY, KITTYCATERINA? YOU LET NEPETA MAKE YOUR TROLLIAN ACCOUNT, DIDN'T YOU

KC: Shut up, Karkat, you have no idea how much she meant to me and she was a lot nicer to me than the rest of you were, especially you in particular!

CG: SHIT, I DIDN'T MEAN TO GET YOU UPSET, BUT I GUESS HUMANS AREN'T AS USED TO DEATH AS WE ARE

KC: I mean, do you even care that your friends are gone at all?

CG: OF COURSE I CARE.

CG: I WAS THEIR LEADER, AND I WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THEM, BUT I FUCKED IT UP BECAUSE PAST ME IS A RETARDED ASSHOLE.

KC: Don't you see that past you IS you?

KC: A dumber version of you, at least.

CG: LOOK, JUST COME BACK TO BASE, OKAY?

CG: WE NEED YOU HERE TO KEEP EVERYONE IN ORDER

KC: I thought that was your job, smartass.

GC: YOU'D BE A BETTER LEADER THAN ME.

KC: What are you saying?

KC: First you're mean to me,

KC: Then you're kind,

KC: (oh, and let's not forget the bathroom incident)

KC: and now you're offering for me to be leader?

KC: What the hell is going on with you?

CG: I DON'T KNOW

CG: BUT WE CAN TALK ABOUT IT WHEN YOU GET BACK

KC: We could talk about it right now.

CG: ARGH, JUST COME BACK TO BASE!

CG: THE HUMANS ARE STARTING THE SCRATCH AND IT'S NOT SAFE

KC: Have you forgotten that I'm a human too?

CG: OH COME ON

CG: DON'T BE LIKE THAT

CG: YOU'VE BEEN WITH STUCK WITH US SHITHEADS FOR A WHILE NOW

CG: YOU'RE KINDA LIKE,

CG: ONE OF US

KC: who are you and what have you done with karkat vantas.

CG: CAN YOU STOP ARGUING WITH ME AND JUST GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE?

KC: Is that an order, leader?

carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased trolling kittyCaterina [KC]

KC: I guess so.

kittyCaterina [KC] ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

I begrudgingly returned to the lab and avoiding Karkat, I walked off to a secluded area in the lab, and looked out at all of space around us. It made no sense how the hell I was able to breathe out here, but video game logic, I guess.

Karkat's POV

I couldn't see their timelines anymore. The scratch had been done, and the humans successfully created a new session while escaping their own. I could only hope that Caterina was safe out there, if she decided not to listen to me and stayed at LORAS. When John and the rest come here, at least Cat wouldn't be alone anymore and she'd have her ancestor with her. Was she really miserable here, alone with us?

carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling kittyCaterina [KC]

CG: WHERE ARE YOU?

CG: ARE YOU BACK AT BASE?

CG: JACK IS OUT THERE

CG: IF HE FINDS YOU, HE WON'T HESITATE TO KILL YOU

CG: HELLO?

CG: CAT COME ON, PLEASE JUST ANSWER

CG: YOU'RE THE ONLY SANE ONE HERE

CG: FUCK.

I growled in frustration and got up from my computer. I went outside to clear my head, and wow, there she was.

"JEGUS CAT, THERE YOU ARE! YOU HAD ME SO WORRIED."

"Wha?" She turned around.

"Karkat? You went looking for me?" She said, a tone of confusion and slight disbelief in her voice.

"NOT NECESSARILY. I JUST WENT OUT TO CLEAR MY HEAD, AND HERE YOU ARE."

"So... what the hell is going on with you?"

I sighed. "I don't know."

"Everything... everything has just.. been so stressful," I confessed softly.

"I guess I just want someone to take off all this pressure on me."

We sat down on the ground together, and she gently sighed too.

"Trust me, I've been feeling the stress too, I've been so scared, lately." she practically whispered, almost as if to herself.

"Scared? Scared of what?" I asked, looking at her.

"...I don't want to die. I'm.." she hesitated. What is she talking about?

"I'm so scared of you, of trolls in general, and of this game, of my future here. What's going to happen? I don't know, and that's what scares me." She looked away, off into the distance.

"Cat, you don't have to be scared of me. Yeah, I'm a troll and I've had my fair share of killing, but we all have. You have to understand that. Don't you think that if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it already and left you to Gamzee?" I said, almost irritated that she couldn't trust me. She was silent for a while.

"Cat?" She had fallen asleep on my shoulder.

"Caterina, wake up." I said, shaking my shoulder.

"Mmm?" She stirred sleepily.

She blinked a few times, before she was brought back to reality and sat up quickly.

"S-sorry," she murmured

"Go to sleep, Cat, you're exhausted," I ordered, regretting the annoyed tone in my voice.

"But didn't you forbid us all to go to sleep?" She asked, smiling.

"Yeah, but it's not like anyone listens to me that much anyway."

I paused as she got up to go to her respite block.

"Caterina... We're friends, right?"

She turned, a challenge on her face. She was her old self again.

"I don't know, are we?" She teased. With that, she left the room and I was left with a sense of déjà vu.

Gog, I hated when she did that.