Heya! So I'm sorry cause I don't know if I like this chapter or not…but I guess we'll find out soon, right? Also, I'd like to give a shout out to aimlessNovelist, XXilikecatsXX, and XxNepetaRainbowAkemixX for your awesome reviews and support right from the beginning! Alright I'm going to stop ranting now, here ya go:
When I woke up again, my entire body ached with pain. I cracked open my eyes and took in my surroundings, swiveling my head from side to side.
The room was dark, but I could faintly make out furniture relative to that of a bedroom. Everything was of grey or black coloring, dull and point-blank of expression. I slowly sat up and groaned as I felt my skin pull tight on bandages and healing wounds. I swung my legs out and around so my feet were planted firmly on the floor and rolled my shoulders in an attempt to relieve the tension there. I rubbed at my eyes, and noticed that my glasses were not upon my nose. They must've fallen off in the fire. The fire. Pain soared guiltily through my gut as I remembered the incident, had I been the only one to survive? And speaking of survival, where the heck was I? I shakily got to my feet and blinked trying to clear my blurry vision in an attempt to better make out my surroundings. Suddenly, blinding light filled the room causing me to shield my eyes with my arms and wait for the light to dim down.
"Oh. You're awake, thank Gog. I thought Karkles was simply going to have a hissy fit if you didn't wake up soon! Hehehe!" a familiar cackle sounded from behind me, and at the source of the blinding light. I quickly turned around, and gasped at what I saw.
The girl with the red sunglasses was standing in an open doorway. But she wasn't just a girl, she was some kind of weird… girl. Her skin was light grey in color, like when the sky is cloudy and overcast but not black, and not blue. When she spoke, she had sharp, pointy white teeth and a turquoise-colored tongue. Her hair was black, and protruding from her head were two, sharp, yellow and orange horns. I gaped at her in astonishment. I rubbed my eyes, for I must have been dreaming and hallucinating and hopped up on drugs or something because nobody had horns and grey skin, or any of those pointy teeth!
"Wh-what are you?!" I asked, mouth still hanging open. The girl frowned.
"Do you really not remember anything, John?" the girl said with her scratchy voice that yielded a touch of sadness. Remember? What was there to remember? I shook my head and finally managed to shut my mouth. I probably looked like a gaping doofus. The girl sighed and rubbed her forehead in exasperation.
"Well then I guess we have a lot of explaining to do, don't we? I'll start by introducing myself. Name's Terezi. Jegus, Karkles is just going to have a conniption fit once he finds out you don't remember him!" the girl, Terezi cackled and ushered me forward.
"Come on, Johnny Boy, time to meet your Knight in Shining armor~" I gulped and followed this strange looking girl out of the grey room I was in and into the brightly-lit hall. Down multiple staircases and through many different rooms with different contraptions and furniture we went through. The whole time, Terezi wouldn't shut up.
"We have a lot to teach you John-Boy. First off, you are currently on a planet called Alternia. Don't go about asking me how you got here, only Karkles seems to know the answer to that question and it is a good damned thing he figured it out, otherwise the rest of us wouldn't have heard the end of his bitching." As the girl babbled on and on about "Alternian culture" and something about justice and the law, I found myself simply becoming more and more confused and frightened. From what I gathered, I had been kidnapped and brought to some kind of alien planet far, far, far away from Earth. I inwardly groaned and seethed with frustration. How did I always manage to make it to worst-case scenarios?
"Alright, here we are! Just go right through that door and dear, old Karkat will be there to your beck and call. Have fun~" the girl cackled again with her scratchy voice and opened the door for me. I gulped and walked through. Who was this "Karkles" person she kept speaking of? Was he another…whatever the hell Terezi was? Did he have grey skin and a turquoise tongue and red sunglasses, to?
No. No he most certainly did not.
I walked into the room alone. The walls, like all the others in this building, were grey and monotonous. The floor was much the same, and the only furniture was a table to the side with a metal chair and a computer-looking device sitting atop it. In the other corner was a large, metal platform with a geometric design engraved in it. The sight looked startlingly familiar, and I realized that this was the same type of device that I had sat on while the flames from the fire had started to eat me up. I shivered and trembled at the thought of those flames eating away and burning my skin. Just the memory of it made me feel uncomfortable.
A movement back where the computer was caught my attention. A boy, with slate-grey skin and wild, jet-black hair whirled around to face me. Protruding from behind his upper lip was a row of tiny, jagged, sharp white teeth. There were visible, dark bags under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in weeks. His shoulders were squared off tensely, like he was expecting some kind of attack; but as soon as he laid eyes on me, his shoulders hunched over into a more relaxed position.
"Well, sleeping fucking beauty or whatever the hell it's called back on that stupid planet you abandoned us to, shit brain- I'm glad to see you finally fucking decided to heal your pathetic pink skin and wake the fuck up from your beauty rest. Meanwhile, I am slaving away in this fucking monotonous lab trying to figure out just how in the living fuck you managed to get here!" The boy seethed in from of me. His voice was rough and angry, and all too familiar. I gulped and furrowed my brows. I did not appreciate his anger. What the hell did I ever do to him and his weird, horned face?
"Well I'm sorry that I was mysteriously transported from a near-death experience; oh excuse me, BEING BURNED ALIVE, to wherever the hell I am now where everybody has grey skin and weird-looking horns and pointy teeth and red sunglasses! I don't know how I got here, I don't know who you are, I don't even know who the hell I am anymore, and I certainly don't expect you to freaking know, and I don't really appreciate you taking out all your anger out on me. And would it ever have killed you to take a nap? You look like you haven't closed your eyes in a month!" I fumed, crossing my arms and huffing at the end of my rant. The boy and I glared at each other, each of us bothered by the unknown of the other. I could feel my cheeks heating up under his critical gaze, and my eyes start to water at the frustration and fear I was feeling in my belly. But I would. Not. Cry. Nope, nope, nope. That's not happening. I won't cry, not in front of these weirdo's! nu-uh. Nope. Oh no, stop it! Stop it stop it stop it! Wasn't going to cry, remember?
But, like the confused, doofus I am, I started bawling my eyes out. I felt my chest constrict and my body tighten as the tears flowed freely down my cheeks. I turned away from the weird, angry guy in front of me and wrapped my arms around my chest in a desperate attempt to pull myself together. I was just scared and confused and frustrated. I thought I was dead. And I had actually been okay with that, until I saw His blood-red eyes peering down at me. What the heck was wrong with me? Where was I? Why wasn't I dead?
I heard shuffling from behind me, and footsteps. I tensed. Was he moving closer to me? Was he going to hurt me? Was he going to kill me? But all I felt was a gentle hand on my shoulder.
"Actually, it's only been about a week since I've slept, and only cause I was looking for you in the dimensions of time and space. And not all of us have pointy red sunglasses. That's just Terezi, because she's blind. Well….Sollux has glasses to. And Equius, and Eridan. But those are for eye-sight problems, which I guess is normal on that planet you were on called "Earth" or whatever." The boy's voice had grown considerably softer. I slowly turned around to face him. I was startled by how close he actually was, and jumped back slightly. The boy took a step back, letting go of my shoulder. I saw that his long, grey fingers were adorned with sharp, black nails. He glared at the ground with a look of stubborn embarrassment. The boy's hair was even messier up close, and he looked a train wreck with those bags under his eyes. He must be dead-tired.
"Why were you looking for me? What could you ever want with this?" I asked in a half-hearted wave at my pale, skinny body. Surely, I was not alien-abducting material? The boy sighed and walked over to the computer and sat on the table, followed by a stern point in my direction and a hand motion to the chair before him. I followed his movements and sat in the cold, metal chair.
"I'll start with my name; it's Karkat." I nodded and held my knees close to my chest, noting for the first time the numerous bandages still covering my body. I wondered vaguely who had patched me up.
"This is kind of a long, bull shit story, especially if your muddled think-pan doesn't remember jack shit. It starts off with this little pink wriggler. It's technically not supposed to be here, on Alternia, but fuck it all, this little shit goes against every Alternian rule. Even manages to pick up a fucking lusus as crazy and wild as an untamed fucking hoof beast. And-" I stopped the boy….Karkat, from talking with a wave of my hands. He looked mildly irritated that I had interrupted his story.
"What?" he growled, rolling his yellow and black eyes. I gulped.
"Uh, what's a think-pan? And a wriggler? And….a…a lusus?" I cocked an eye brow up at Karkat. He gave me a funny look and sighed. I had no idea what this story had anything to do with me, but I knew I wouldn't get a lick of it if I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Your think-pan is what's up here, yanno, where you think." Karkat said irritatingly. I nodded. So. Think-pan equals brain, check!
"And a wriggler is Troll young; the lesser, infant form of my species." I nodded again checking off in my brain, or, uh, think-pan, wriggler equals baby.
"And a lusus is like a custodian. They are a wild species native to Alternia. When the wrigglers come out on their new limbs, they go through a series of tests, and if they make it out alive, a lusus will choose them and raise them. That wriggler would be protected by their lusus while they grew. Get it?" he asked, eyes wide with irritation. I nodded again and set my head back on my knees, waiting for him to continue his story. Lusus equals parent or guardian. Check.
"So, as I was fucking saying, this little freak of troll, without horns or teeth, and this weird fucking pink skin, lands on this crazy lusus, and the lusus actually takes him in. The little wriggler grows into a young troll and manages to make two friends, despite his mutations, with two other young trolls around the same age as him. Then this little troll, of three sweeps old now, randomly disappears. His two friends go to his house to find out what happened. The weird blind one sniffs around and discovers the scent of adult trolls, which is an altogether unheard of scent. Most adult trolls are off in space conquering other planets and stars in the name of Alternia. So, naturally, the two friends were afraid for their little mutant friend. He wasn't in his hive at all, and the whole place was a mess. Finally, the two chums find this young trolls' lusus, all shaken up over the loss of it's' troll and back to being a crazy, wild fiend. The two friends hail tail it the fuck out of there, assuming the little freak show they called moirail was dead and gone, attacked or kidnapped or some other fucking shit." Karkat stopped and took a breath. His eyes were glaring menacingly at the floor again, his gaze refusing to leave its grainy, silver surface. His slate-grey hands were clasped together tightly in his lap as he spoke, his whole body tense as his lips moved to tell me this story.
"Until one of the friends, the non-weird and non-blind one discovered a computer that tracked his friend's timeline. He had no idea why this specific computer tracked his best friend, or how, but he didn't fucking care. He had found him again, and this little shitty computer gave him a false hope in his blood-circulator. For another six sweeps he tried and failed to track down his friend, only ever managing to watch him as he went through life on this weird, alternate universal planet. Everybody there looked like him, what with their pink skin and dull teeth. He looked like he belonged, and this useless, pathetic fucknut of a friend decided it might be best to give up because, what the fuck. How the hell was his measly ass going to manage a cross-universal teleportation? No idea in the fuck how that shit was happening. And then, just as he had managed to let his hopes die down again, this fucking idiot shows up. Somehow, he broke the universal barrier and teleported back to Alternia. But, surprise surprise, he remembered jack-shit about his best friends, was half-burnt up and crying, calling out to deaths fucking door like it was the last fucking thing he'd ever see in his pathetic, animistic life. But then, after he'd blacked out from the stress of it all, he woke up again and was a total derpy shit-brain named John fucking Egbert."
Karkat took another deep breath, and finally broke his staring contest with the floor, to look at me. I gulped. My heart was thudding so fast, I could hear my heart beat in my ears. I quickly squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head back and forth, trying desperately to make sense of everything this…this troll, I suppose, just spewed from his black lips. I opened my eyes again, and found that Karkat was still staring intently at me, waiting for my reaction.
"How the heck do you expect me to believe that?!" I squeaked. I gulped again. Not the most manly, brave voice I had imagined in my mind. Karkat rolled his eyes and reached behind him, pulling out a black picture from. The photo held inside it showed two little boys. One had grey skin, and only slightly wild, jet-black hair. He had tiny, nubby horns popping out of his head and a death glare set upon his face and a bunch of….was that asparagus? Yes. Asparagus all over him. The boy beside him had pale, peachy-colored skin, thick, black-rimmed glasses placed on his nose, and a buck-toothed grin that stretched across his face from ear to ear. I had always despised my buck-teeth. But there was no way in hell the government was going to pay for braces for some random orphan kid.
Sooner than I would have liked, Karkat took the picture out of my field of vision, and turned on the computer. As it whirred to life, I caught him staring at me out of the corner of his eyes. When he caught me, catching him, he quickly looked away and I saw a very slight dusting of pink grow under his cheeks. But his brow was still furrowed under his constant grumpy disposition.
The computer screen came into focus and I watched in amazement as a video log, with dates and times popped up. Karkat navigated to one dated September 15, 2007. I watched, with a growing feeling of wonder and recognition in my stomach, as ten year old me skipped gallantly over to Dave's bed and punched him lightly on the arm. I remembered this moment. This was when Dave got out the monopoly game for the first time and creamed me at it. I wouldn't buy any properties unless they had a blue bar over them, and Dave just put hotels on everything he owned. I felt tears well in my eyes as the memories of Dave flew through my brain. I wondered how he was doing.
"Th-that's my best friend….his name is Dave. He was the only one that liked me when I was in that orphanage, the only one that didn't judge me because I was weird and looked funny." I felt my chest grow tight as the tears spilled down my cheeks.
"I miss him." I whispered quietly. Karkat didn't say anything, he just let the memory play through until it ended, and then turned off the computer. We sat in silence as I tried my very best to work everything out in my brain. It all just seemed too unbelievable, even though it would explain why I had no memory past the age of six. But really. Aliens? It would have been too good to be true, too easy to explain. I turned to Karkat, who was staring at me intently, waiting for me to respond to what he'd shone me.
"So…if the boy in the story is me….that would mean that I was never meant to be on Earth at all?" Karkat rolled his eyes and rubbed his face tiredly.
"Wow. I'm glad you have such bright, sharp thinking skills, half-wit. Yes, it means you were never supposed to fucking be on Earth. I had thought for a while that maybe you were just never supposed to be on Alternia, but there were no records I could find of a ship or any kind of teleportation device bringing a pink wriggler to our planet, and some how you managed to return. This leads my superior thinking skills to conclude that you are a very "special" case, John Egbert. When you were here, you were called Johnny, but obviously, you wouldn't be fucking comfortable with that name any more you have obviously…" Karkat scanned me up and down, from head to toe. "Grown out of it." I nodded my head in agreement, even though I had no idea what he'd meant by that. I caught a glance of the picture again.
"And Karkat…is that you in the picture with me?" the slate-grey skinned boy nodded his head solemnly. It was then that it all began to click in my brain. Karkat had been looking for me for nearly twelve years. He'd lost his best friend at the ripe age of six, and had taken his entire youth just trying to get him back. And to top all of that off, when his best friend finally came back, he didn't remember anything about him. I looked down to the cold, hard ground in shame. How could I have been so dull?
"I'm sorry, Karkat." I whispered lightly. The yellow-eyed boy glared at me.
"What the hell for, shit-brain?" I winced slightly, he was probably still really mad at me.
"For not remembering." Karkat let out a grunt and looked away, back at the computer. An uncomfortable silence fell over us, and I shifted in anxiety. My chances were slipping through my fingers. This boy, this grey-skinned, yellow-eyed boy was the closest thing I had to regaining my memory of the past.
"But, um, I…..I would like to….yanno….remember." I muttered under my breath. Karkat snapped his head back at me, baring his sharp teeth right in my face, angry as ever.
"And why the hell would you want to do that? Here you are, no recollection of ever being here around strange people and things, shouldn't you want to go back home to your pathetic excuse of a planet? Back to all your friends and family that you've acquired over the years? You shouldn't care about us, anymore John. You don't fucking remember!" Karkat seethed in his seat, breath quick and angry. I flinched back as he spoke through gritted teeth and flaring nostrils. I backed away slightly, fearing those jagged teeth in his mouth, but then a though occurred to me. Hadn't there been a time when I wasn't afraid of those teeth, of his quick, angry words and sharp tongue? I furrowed my brow. He totally wasn't being fair at all.
"Karkat. There is no way I could ever go "home" to my planet because I have never had a "home" or a feeling of "home" in my entire life. I don't have family, and the only friend I ever had was Dave, but he more than likely has completely forgotten about me, moved on with his life, and left me dead and gone in the dust. And I know I don't fucking remember Karkat, but you seem a hell of a lot familiar to me, and I know that sounds weird, but you do, and I want to know why, because what the hell? I haven't got anything to lose other than my life, which I have already come pretty fucking close to, haven't I?" I glared back at Karkat as I spoke; there was no way I was going to let him bully me down when there was nowhere else for me to run.
Karkat blinked, wide-eyed at me for a moment before shaking his head and sighing. He started walking towards the door, and when he'd reached it, he looked back over his shoulder.
"Well, fuckass? Are you coming?"
Okay, sorry if I left that on a bit of a cliffhanger, but it felt like a good place to stop. So? Let me know how this was! Good? Bad? Ugly? Leave a review to let me know!