Well, chapter twenty-two is here! I'm so glad you all are enjoying the story thus far. Everything will soon be wrapping up, though. I hope you all will enjoy these last chapters as I post them. Review if you wish! Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Two

He hadn't wanted to do it. It wasn't like he would have if it weren't for what she had on him. How she got into his computer, he'll never know. Not only did no one in his family enjoy her company enough to invite her over, but there was no way should could have gotten through his various traps and robotic guards in his room.

She had not only seen his extensive collection of various My Little Pony merchandise (some of which may not have been appropriate for the target audience) but also his plans for his latest creation: The Aradia Bot. He would admit it was a little creepy to some people, but to him, it was purely justified robotic science. She just happened to be his muse for the project.

Equius Zahhak was in deep shit by now.

It had started when the spider-bitch herself had come up to him, showed her the pictures she had of various items in his room. Then, she said she would leak those pictures if he didn't do her bidding. He knew this had everything to do with Eridan and Sollux, but then her request was just so weird that there was no way it could relate to them. It almost seemed that she was out to ruin more lives, but he couldn't make that seem logical. Why would Vriska want to mess with not only her stepbrother's relationship, but also her partner in crime's?

Nepeta, on the other hand, had no idea that what she did was wrong! Her and Vriska weren't exactly good friends, but Nepeta had a theory that if she was at least nice to her, things would work out. So when Vriska wanted to come over, she said yes. They sat down in Nepeta's room and talked about the various relationship statuses of their friends.

"It's such a shame that Eridan and Sollux broke up," Vriska said.

"I know," Nepeta said, playing with a rubber band she found on the floor. "They seemed really happy, but now Feferi is practically rejoicing. She thinks now that Eridan is single she'll have a chance. Too bad he's gay. I feel bad trying to talk sense into her."

Vriska smirked and messed with her dark auburn locks in Nepeta's vanity mirror, pulling them into a long braid. "That's ridiculous."

"I know. How is Sollux doing?"

"He's more irritated than anything. He's super fucking grumpy."

Nepeta smiled mischievously. "Wasn't he always?"

"More so now ever since Dave kissed Eridan," Vriska practically purred.

Nepeta pulled her rubber band around her wrist and sat up on her bed. "Do you think John and Dave are going to be okay?"

"In all honesty, probably not. John's been spending an awful lot of time with Karkat. I heard from Terezi that they were holding hands!"

"How did Terezi see that? She's blind."

Vriska's eyes widened with realization at the fault in her statement then quickly shrugged it off. "She was with Gamzee, of course. You know those two have some weird kind of thing going on."

"Oh," Nepeta said softly. "Well, at least John is moving on. Dave was kind of toxic for him in my opinion."

"Yeah, I get that," Vriska said. "Dave's kind of toxic to everyone except Rose. Those two must be like, psychic twins or something!"

Nepeta giggled. "Equius says the same thing. Apparently they all have math together, and Dave and Rose basically act like siblings. It's apparently really amusing."

"Speaking of Equius, where is he?"

"Robotics club meeting."

"On a Saturday?"

"They're preparing for competition."

Vriska jumped onto the bed and tried to put on a playful charade. "Want to go through all of his stuff?"

Nepeta perked up and grinned. "Yes!" She jumped up and ran to Equius's room, Vriska following quietly and smirking. It was then that Vriska saw the plans for Aradia bot, and when Nepeta went to go make some food, Vriska hacked into Equius's computer and saw all the weird stuff on his laptop. She took a couple of photographs, and then that was that.

The next step was to show this to Equius and force him into hacking Dave's phone. It wasn't that hard of a task, she thought. Equius bent to Vriska's will, Vriska got the pictures, and then the entire plan was set into action. Easy as one, two, three.