A/N: I'm redoing these initial chapters because they're not my best work. The first chapter is done being redone, but this one is not. I made this before I really delved into the Ancestors' personalities, so any inconsistencies you find between what I describe here and what you find in later chapters is most likely do to this. I'm working on fixing this chapter and the finishing the next chapter, so it's taking a bit longer than expected! I hope you bear with me.

Part 2: Lingering In the Past

Aranea wasn't totally sure why the ancestors had dream bubbles. Before she had discovered the Psiioniic's chamber, she had believed that only certain people, such as doomed timeline characters and the alpha versions themselves, could have their own dream bubble. However, these predecessors could be special exceptions to this rule.

She had two main theories. The first was that since these predecessors were post-scratch versions of herself and her team, they were given bubbles. The stronger of her hypotheses was that the reason was due to some paradoxical fluke they hadn't gotten to yet. Sgrub might be over, but the paradoxes were still popping up left and right like an annoying, recurring headache.

She was far past caring about paradoxes however.

She had met every ancestor personally now. She had watched their lives, safe in her afterlife, yet there was something humbling about meeting them in the flesh. She often compared notes of her old team to these people and usually found little difference. The biggest difference was between she and Mindfang, though she could find bits of herself in that tough shell of a woman, such as the way she rambled and spoke quite nicely. Much nicer than Vriska at least.

(It took a short while after her meeting with the post-scratch trolls to realize she had given them the wrong impression of their ancestors. While there were similiarities between them, the ancestors were actually different versions of the pre-scratch trolls such as Aranea. She supposed she would have to remedy that soon, lest they come to the wrong conclusions.)

As for the other ancestors . . . Most were highly volatile and capricious, such as the Grand Highblood. He was, for the lack of a more suitable definition, a madman, who tinkered with his insanity like it was some sort of plaything. He was the most frightening of the ancestors by far, and Aranea often wondered why she continued to visit him.

The Psiioniic was somewhat similiar to Highblood, although he was merely bipolar and self-loathing. He constantly berated himself for the decisions he made in life and often went into rants about his intense hatred for the Condesce. It was actually sort of funny as long as he didn't catch on to you laughing.

The more companionable of the ancestors included the Summoner, who enjoyed to play any sort of game with her to pass the time. He often told stories about his rebellion and how he had become acquainted with Mindfang. He had some amazing abilities, but when he was praised he shrugged it off and became flustered, even stuttering a little. It was rather adorable and reminded her of Nitram, but she tried to remind herself those thoughts were creepy since the Summoner was older than her (physically at least).

The Disciple was another friendly one, despite her deep-set issues. She drew pictures and joked around and was an all-around gentle and kind troll. Once, she tried to explain why she slipped into the past and pretended that she was not living in a cave alone. She said that when the Sufferer had died and her other friends were torn away from her it was much easier to escape into better times. "I suppose that means I'm crazy, but at least I am not giving up on life, be it the afterlife or not."

The Summoner and Disciple might be kind, but Aranea had to admit that she enjoyed the E%ecutor's company better. Unlike the Psiioniic or the Sufferer who were bitter about their choices in life, Darkleer was instead riddled with indecision and depression. When he not working, he would often just hold his head in his hands murmuring, "Was it worth it? Was it worth it?" On several occasions she was tempted to tell him about Equius and Nepeta to soothe him, but she decided that was something best left for Equius himself to say. She didn't enjoy it when he went into depressions, so like Mindfang before her, she often asked him to build things. When he worked he could focus on the positive and allowed himself to smile and talk endlessly. His soft voice and the gentle way in which he spoke was nearly a melody and it only took a few days with him for Aranea to remember why she had that short infatuation for Zahhak back in the day.

Similiarly, the Handmaid and Dualscar reminded her why she disliked both Megido and Ampora. The Handmaid was cagey and too confident in her vast abilities, although they were as impressive as she boasted. She was too bossy and paranoid and would never give you a straight answer. It was immensely frustrating, and her naturally sour, negative personality did nothing to increase her appeal. Dualscar was slightly different. He was too full of himself, believed he could withstand any threat with ease. He was arrogant and was one of those annoying people who held grudges and exacted revenge. Aranea might be able to put with Meenah and her violent nonsense, but when it came to the Handmaid and the Orphaner, she could barely stand them.

Speaking of Meenah, the Condesce was the hardest of the ancestors to find, because Aranea couldn't use the Alpha Condesce's bubble. When the Condesce had died, she had apparently gone bonkers. When Aranea found the her bubble, she was nearly gutted by her trident. She had attempted to reason with the estranged empress, but all the Condesce saw was a threat to be annihilated. So Aranea had to backtrack through time and doomed timelines to find a more suitable ancestor.

It had taken longer than she would have liked, but she had succeeded. This Condesce was much more amicable in her own fierce way. In this timeline Her Imperial Condescension had no recollection of the post-scratch trolls or any of the humans, though she did comment that there were two pesky humans alive on Earth. In their first conversation, Aranea was struck by how close the Condesce was to Meenah. Their personalities were so utterly similiar, it was as if she was talking to an older version of her friend. It was hard to come to terms with and she could only take solace in the fact that the Condesce was so much crueler than she believed Meenah to be capable of. It wasn't a great comfort, but it was better than nothing.

Besides the negative influences of the Condesce, Dualscar, and others, some of the ancestors were actually quite upbeat. Mindfang was nearly always cheerful, sometimes to the point that it was slightly off-putting. Neophyte Redglare was also bright. She was naturally optimistic, yet completely truthful with what she believed, be it good or bad. Like Terezi and Aranea's Pyrope, Redglare had a strong sense of justice and was a bit eccentric. She was a bit wild and always had time to mock of something. She was blind and saw with the same method Terezi used, except her's was much more sharper and defined. Also, Redglare wasn't quite so ready to lick anyone's face as Terezi was. She was refined in a way with a simple elegance. Despite her open attitude, she seemed to have a slight buffer around herself, keeping her true personality out of everyone's reach, as if she didn't want to be attached to anyone, lest she lose them later on.

The Dolorosa attempted to do the same thing, except her personality was too kind, too motherly, to keep anyone out for long. She was a bit overbearing at points, but she tried her best to keep other's interests before her own. While she was motherly, she was also frustratingly mysterious and secretive, preferring a silent, unbreakable facade of indifference. She cared for many of the people she knew, yet rarely showed the true depth of her feelings. It was a strange, double-edged personality.

And finally, there was the Sufferer. Aranea had attempted to call him the Signless, but he protested this, arguing he was no longer signless. The two circles connected by arching lines was his sign, and his descendant's sign. "I merely a sufferer now, unless you'd prefer to call me the Mutant." When he had said this, he gave her a hatred-filled glare, showing how much contempt he had for that label.

The Sufferer was a very contradicting person. On one hand, he hated every single soul on Alternia, held a deep grudge against them for letting the hemospectrum blind them and violence control their actions. He genuinely wished for them to go fuck themselves for all the vile corruption in their hearts and was bitter about how he had been punished for attempting to help them.

Yet on the other hand, he loved his people and would do anything for them. Despite his deep-set contempt, he had hope that in the future Alternians could turn their lifes around and rid themselves of the corruption on their planet.

It was among the strangest of contradictions, and he admitted to himself it made no sense. Nevertheless, it was how he believed, and "the world better fucking deal with it."

It was actually really funny, how a troll of his occupation and maturity would curse in about every sentence. The Sufferer's entire personality was serious and biting, yet somehow, through all the swearing and negativity, you could find the true nicety beneath. He admitted that when he was alive he was much nicer but had always been a bit of a grump. She spent the most time with the Sufferer. There was something about him, almost mysterious in a way, that made her want to know him, especially when he told her a few of his sermons.

He was strange. He was hopeless yet hopeful. Hating yet caring. Polite yet extremely rude. When she asked him why he continued to hope, he replied, "As long as someone, be it one out of billions, has hope for a better future, then there is a chance my efforts will not be in vain."

It was at that statement that Aranea decided she could never tell him of his planet's destruction, and that all that remained of their race was twelve trolls with no mother grub left to speak of. She was afraid if she told him, he would lose his faith, and without that . . . She doubted he would want to live anymore.

Aranea was nervous as she visited each ancestor. She suddenly found herself wishing she could round them all together in a single place and announce it as she had done for their descendants. Alas, that option was impossible. For some reason, the ancestors could not leave their individual bubbles and on top of that their bubbles could not move at all except when manipulated by an outside force. This was the reason it had taken so long to find them, and why Aranea had needed advice from Aradia. Aranea was an expert at bubble-hopping, but had needed some especially tricky manuevers to get to some of them.

The Psiioniic was the easiest to find. He had been the first of the twelve ancestors she discovered and they had known each other for several months now, nearly half a sweep if she remembered correctly.

With Aradia's assistance it was easier than ever to slip into the Psiioniic's chamber. It was reminiscient of the ship he had been bonded to for thousands of years with thick cables running across the floor. Quite out of place here in a corner was a desk with large amounts of paper and ink. When she questioned him about it, he smirked. "Long thtory. It'th part of my ever eluthive patht that I won't be telling you about."

Sometimes, he was more secretive than the Dolorosa.

When she arrived in his dream bubble, he was sitting on top of a large mound of cables that dominated most of the room. He was amusing himself by using his psionic powers to create pictures and words in the air, manipulating the colored energy to create a detailed scene before him. He did this often as a way to pass the time, telling epic tales he made up or heard about during his life. When Aranea appeared, the cloud of red and blue dissolved and he gave her a sour look. "Hello."

"Hello Psiioniic," she greeted, dropping to sit beside the massive coils of wire. "I have some news."

"Oh do you," he drawled, seeming disinterested. This must be one of his mellow days where he was bad-tempered instead of completely insensitive. It takes a while, but she explains about his descendant and the others and informs him that Sollux will be arriving in a day or two to meet him. He reacts minimally, but having known him for so long, Aranea can catch how he slightly narrows his eyes in disgust.

"What are you thinking?"

The Psiioniic chuckles coldly doesn't answer for a few minutes, and when he does it isn't a reply to her inquiry. "Don't you have to go thomewhere?"

She wants to stay and interrogate him but he's right. The next few are equally uneventful. They are all slightly surprised to hear of their descendants but don't question her. The Disciple started to giggle and immediately began to draw new pictures on her cave walls when Aranea told her, and she was caught in a surprisingly long conversation with the Summoner about if Mindfang and the others had descendants and if he could meet them as well. She didn't rule the possibility out, but by providing this slight ray of hope, the Summoner began to flying off, obviously too happy for words. He had always regretted killing Mindfang, and if he could meet her descendant, perhaps he could make it up to her he explained.

Mindfang herself laughed at the news and said she'd have to prepare her swords and such so she could put this girl to the test. Redglare basically had the same opinion of Terezi, except she promised that they would mostly be exploring and swapping stories. It was surprising, but almost every ancestor was elated to hear of their descendant. Dualscar and the Grand Highblood were eager to pass on their customs and skills. Actually, Aranea almost didn't tell the Highblood about Gamzee, because what if he influenced the young troll into becoming a full blown tyrant? Gamzee was already unstable as it was . . . She had already promised him however, and she had to hope beyond hope that the outcome would be acceptable.

Even the Condesce was happy with the news, because then she had reassurance that her bloodline had not died out and there was someone to rule over the trolls. She was disgruntled that she was not alive to do this herself, but "I guess I won't hold it against her." The Handmaid said much the same and murmured something about teaching this girl things she could never dream of.

The Dolorosa and Darkleer were overjoyed. As far as Aranea could figure, they were extremely happy that there would be someone else, another companion, for them to spend time with, albeit for a short while.

Aranea saved the Sufferer for last, like she did for every visit she made. Unlike everyone else, he . . .

"I don't want to meet him."

She did a double-take, not believing his words. "What?"

"I don't want to fucking meet him," the Sufferer repeated, glaring at her with his arms crossed.

"Why?"

"Because . . .," he faltered and his glare turned into a grimace. "It is useless. Why should I care? He is . . . No. I will not put him nor myself through this. If that is all you wish to tell me, then kindly fuck off."

Dumbfounded, Aranea did as she was told. In her dream bubble a few hours after the encounter, she attempted to puzzle it out. She finally sighed and stared at the ceiling of her hive. "Why does everyone with the last name Vantas have to been such a jerk?"