Ah. Hello. I see you've found this chapter. HONK.

Unfortunately, I have possessed the writer, and have now forced her to finish the story from the LAST chapter. Why? Because I felt like it.

She has apologised profusely and wants me to tell you pairings are Karkat/Gamzee pale, Gamzee/Tavros red (just a small amount), and that everybody is a child, REMEMBER?

HOOOOOOOONK.

"NOOOO!"

A high-pitched scream rang out from the corridor, and Karkat rushed in to start pounding Kurloz with his little fists. "GET OFF MY BROTHER!"

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Kurloz commanded in his mind. His eyes glowed purple, and Karkat had no choice but to stand still, face the bed, and watch his brother die.

"How would you like to kill your brother?" Karkat found himself suddenly holding the knife, and he could NOT let go, could NOT make himself back away. He plunged the knife deep into his brother's chest and howled. The knife went in, in, in, in, there was blood everywhere, Kurloz was laughing, and then the laughs got so loud Honk that they drowned out Kankri's screams HONK and Karkat's cries HOOOOOONK.

He killed his brother, and then he finally passed out.

OooooooooooooooooooooooO

He sat alone at breaktime. He sat alone at home, too, but this was different. At home, there was nobody to watch him suffer at the sudden emptiness. Here? Not so much.

Much like Gamzee, he was an orphan, raised only by his brother. Now he had to go and live with his aunt, who he truly hated. She was never home. She was much too pretty. She spoiled her daughter and stuck her nose up at him.

And none of the kids knew who had killed his brother. Only his brother's classmates. And their mouths were sealed, not literally like his brother's but because he told them they would die if they ever said a word.

"Word," Meenah had said, and she'd gotten punched until all her teeth were knocked out. She woke up the next morning to find she'd shaved her own head. Aranea had then bought her a bandana, and they dressed like pirates every day.

Karkat sighed. He could tell the other kids, but he was sure they wouldn't believe him. Besides, nobody wanted to talk to the boy with the dead brother.

"Hey, Karkat!" a cheerful voice rang out.

Karkat refused to turn and face the boy who had come up to him. "What?"

"You look all motherfucking sad! What's wrong, bro?"

"Nothing," said Karkat, but his voice wobbled halfway through the word and he sighed. "Noth... Noth..." And then he finally broke down and started sobbing.

"Hey, bro," Gamzee smiled as he hugged Karkat close. "It's okay. I'm here."

Karkat cried even louder. He tried to push Gamzee away, but the taller boy wouldn't let go. He eventually gave up and let himself be pap-shooshed.

"Drink some Faygo," Gamzee grinned, and shoved the neck of the bottle nearly halfway down Karkat's throat. He choked, then swallowed, and he blinked. "That wasn't so bad."

"I know, bro!" Gamzee laughed. "By the way, do you know what I do when I feel sad? I bake pie!"

Karkat sniffled and gave him a weird look. "Are you gay or something?"

"Yeah, but that's not the point, you gotta motherfucking bake with me! I got all the ingredients in my bag so I could use the cafeteria kitchen! And then," he whispered to Karkat, "we can throw pies at all the mean kids!"

"Yeah!" Karkat grinned. "That's a great idea!"

They spent the afternoon skipping class and baking, and then they ran into all the classrooms and started pelting the kids.

It was a good day. Karkat just wished he didn't have to go home.

"You don't have to!" Gamzee grinned. "You can come over to my house for a sleepover if you want! Kurloz isn't home at night very often anymore."

Karkat gulped. "Uh, I don't know about that..."

"Why the fuck not?"

"Um, I just..." Karkat didn't know if he was comfortable talking to Gamzee about what had happened. "It doesn't matter."

Gamzee rolled his eyes. "Well, don't forget, the school's taking us all camping for a couple of days. I'll ask the camp idiots if we can share a tent, and then it'll totally be like a sleepover!"

"Why can't you just come to my house?" Karkat said before he knew what he was doing.

"Oh yeah!" Gamzee grinned. "Totally! You're living with the Maryams now, right? Stuck-up bitches!"

They high-fived. "So I'll ask Kanny's mom if you can stay over, okay?"

"Yeah!"

Karkat eventually got permission (but only after a lot of begging), and Gamzee came home with him.

Kanaya sulked a lot when they arrived, but Gamzee just laughed and brought out a huge candy stash.

"CANDY!" Kanaya yelled in a very articulate manner. Gamzee winked at Karkat and threw some candy at him. He threw some back, and then Kanaya threw all her dolls at them, and soon the living room was a total mess.

Later that night, as they dropped off to sleep, Gamzee ruffled Karkat's hair and said, "Best bros, Kay?"

"Why me?" Karkat yawned. "I've only known you for a day!"

"You're the only one who treats me normally. I mean, the others like me, but they think I'm stupid."

"I like you and I don't think you're stupid," Kanaya murmured happily as she chewed on a lollipop. Gamzee papped her on the nose and she giggled happily.

All was well with the world, and Karkat fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.

OooooooooooooooooooooooO

Gamzee's eyes fluttered open at exactly midnight.

It was a habit. His brother and he used to have ice cream as a midnight snack every night.

Used to.

Lately, he wasn't even home that often. Gamzee used to come home to afternoons baking pies and help with homework. Not anymore. Never anymore.

Gamzee sighed and rolled over to look at his new best friend. Mituna was Kurloz's best friend, but now all Mituna did was walk around with glowy purple eyes and steal things from shops. His girlfriend had been in a terrible skating accident the week before and had lost the use of one of her legs, leaving her wheelchair-bound. Just like Tavros.

Sweet, sweet Tavros. Beautiful Tavros. Gamzee had hoped that Kurloz and Rufioh would become friends, just so Kurloz would let him ask Tavros out, but no. Rufioh had been very mean to us, for no good reason, he thought.

A little part of his brain told him Tavros wasn't like that, and Gamzee sighed. There was no point trying to go back to sleep. It wouldn't work without his brother beside him, soothing him, telling him things were going to be okay.

He sighed. But maybe…

"Karkat?" he whispered. "Karkat?"

Karkat rubbed his eyes drearily. "Yeah?"

"I can't sleep. Wanna have a midnight feast?"

"Yeah, okay, I think there's some ice cream in the fridge."

That was an understatement. The fridge was completely stocked with ice cream and cake and sweet things for Kanaya. Karkat drowsily got up and fetched a tub of cookies and cream plus two spoons, and Gamzee grabbed a bottle of Faygo and poured it all over the top.

"What are you doing?" Karkat whisper-yelled, trying not to wake anybody up.

"It tastes better this way. Come on, eat up!"

Karkat took a nervous nibble, and then he pulled a face. "I… I'm not sure…"

"You'd better get used to it then!" Gamzee chuckled.

The two ate their treat in companionable silence. When they were done, Gamzee buried the evidence by throwing everything out the window (the Maryams lived in an apartment) and settled back into bed.

He drifted off to sleep for the first time in a week.

OooooooooooooooooooooooO

Time went by.

Kurloz almost never came home, Gamzee told him. Porrim hadn't been home for almost three days. Karkat was really getting worried. What if something had happened to her? Kanaya had started crying over the last few days, asking her mom where her sister was and whether she'd come back again.

When they called her mobile, she never picked up. The Dolorosa started calling up friends, asking if they'd seen her, and they all said no.

Karkat and Gamzee one day went to talk to Meulin and ask her if Kurloz had anything to do with it.

"Of course not," she said in a monotone, eyes purple, and Gamzee cringed. He'd hoped that Kurloz loved Meulin enough that he wouldn't possess her, but he was wrong.

He wondered how long it would be before he himself would be possessed. He sometimes looked in the mirror just to check.

Whatever the case, soon the day of the camp came, and Karkat planned to tell Gamzee about his brother and Kankri.

The day was filled with long, boring things that the adults had planned, like mini hikes and picnics and animal-watching. Gamzee made rude faces at the grown ups when they weren't looking and introduced Karkat to his boyfriend, Tavros. Karkat was a little put off, but he supposed Tavros was kind and nice and not like Kurloz.

They all shared a tent upon request, and at midnight Gamzee woke up again.

"Let's go for a swim in the lake," he whispered to Tavros and Karkat.

"But I can't swim so well!" Karkat said, a little worried.

"Tavros and I will help you." Everybody knew Tavros was the star athlete in his grade, and Karkat suddenly felt a little less scared.

Tavros gave him a piggyback ride down to the lake, and as the cold water hit their skin they sighed happily before Tavros dragged Gamzee in, squealing.

"I bet you I can hold my breath longer than you!" Gamzee grinned, and the three of hem ducked beneath the water.

Karkat and Gamzee had been practicing their sign language for a while together. I need to tell you something important in private," Karkat signed sloppily.

Okay. Gamzee's own sign language was immaculate, because he and Kurloz used to do it together when he was more little.

Karkat's lungs felt like they were bursting. He popped his head up, followed by Gamzee, and then Tavros came up right afterwards. Karkat knew Tavros could've held his breath for a lot longer, but he wasn't one to show off. He had respect for Tavros.

"Tavbro," Gamzee said while giving his boyfriend a hug, "Would you mind terribly if I asked you to get the chips?"

"Y...you snuck chips, Gamzee?"

"Your favorite flavor," Gamzee winked. Karkat rolled his eyes, so Gamzee splashed his face.

"F-fine, I'll get them. Y-you better not do anything stupid before I get back..."

"Of course not." Gamzee kissed him on the cheek, and then Tavros took off towards their tent.

Gamzee turned to Karkat and whispered, "What did you want to say?"

Karkat explained to him how Kurloz had forced him to murder his own brother. Gamzee turned paler and paler, until finally he growled, "If you're lying, I will kill you."

But inside Gamzee knew it had to be true.

"So if my brother murdered Kankri... Is that... Oh my mirthful messiahs, I'm so sorry. I should have kept an eye on him, I had no idea..."

"Kurloz killed Kankri?"

They whipped around, sending water flying, to see Tavros standing at the water's edge, chips in hand.

Karkat stared at him. Gamzee looked to Karkat with a question in his eyes, and Karkat answered it when he said, "Yes. Yes he did."

Tavros raised his eyes. "But w….why?"

"Your older brother was bullying mine," Gamzee said softly. "A lot. He belonged to a gang of sorts, led by Meenah and Kankri. Kankri bullied him the worst. And I guess my brother thought it was good payback. I don't. I'd never kill somebody."

"M-my b-brother? He'd n-never…"

"He did," Karkat whispered. "I saw him sometimes."

"I think he did it because he just wanted to fit in. It never seemed real," Gamzee added.

"B-but maybe I sh-should talk to him…"

Gamzee got out of the water and put his hand over Tavros's mouth gently. "No. I don't want you to get involved in this. You'll get hurt."

"B-but I'm sure th-that—"

"Do you trust me, Tavros?"

Tavros was silent, and then he said, "I do."

They both stood in silence for a little bit until Karkat pulled Gamzee back into the water. Gamzee tugged Tavros in, and they all landed in the water with a huge splash, laughing madly.

OooooooooooooooooooooooO

A few days later

His father was away. This was good.

Tavros turned to Rufioh. He was watching some random sport on the television. He was so cool…

"Hey Rufioh!" he said, bouncing up and down. "I won first prize in the school's running competition today!"

"That's wonderful!" Rufioh gave him a crushing hug and pulled him onto his lap. "So anything interesting going on today?"

Tavros sighed. He'd wanted to tell Rufioh so badly. And how would Kurloz ever find out?

"Nothing much," he said, "But I wanted to talk to you about… about Kurloz."

Rufioh's face paled. "What about him?"

"Well, he… he kind of k-killed Kankri because he was angry at you g-guys. But you know w-what, I think you should t-talk to him! Because if you tell him that you're sorry I'm s-sure he'll forgive you!"

"Oh… gee, that sounds dangerous… I'm not sure,"

"Come on," Tavros said, voice dripping with excitement. "Do the r-right thing! Be my big brother! I w-wanna be p-proud of you!"

"Well…" Rufioh said, hugging Tavros, "I don't really know. But maybe I could try. I'll call him."

He slowly dialed a number on his phone, and the phone rang a couple of times before Kurloz picked up.

Silence. He'd stitched his lips. This was going to be an interesting conversation.

"Hey Kurloz. Uh, I…"

Tavros gave him a wide-eyed look from the couch.

"…I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime—no, I mean, I just wanted to say I'm really sorry for everything, I'm so sorry, I just… well, you get the idea, don't you?"

And then Rufioh dropped the phone. His eyes were purple, and he screamed, "NONE OF YOU ARE EVER FUCKING SORRY, YOU LIAR!"

Tavros backed away, and then Rufioh began to choke himself.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Tavros cried. "STOP IT!"

Rufioh's face turned blue. Tavros ran towards him, trying to pry his hands away from his throat, and then Rufioh grabbed him by the throat.

"DON'T YOU DARE TRY AND STOP ME," a voice that was not Rufioh's boomed. "YOU THINK YOU'RE SO STRONG? WE SHALL SEE ABOUT THAT."

He dragged Tavros towards the kitchen.

OooooooooooooooooooooooO

When Tavros entered the school the next day, everybody gasped.

His legs had been cut off. He was sitting in a wheelchair. His eyes were bloodshot and his lips were trembling.

"What happened?" Gamzee asked, running over, but before he reached Tavros he realized with a sick jolt that he already knew.

Vriska shot towards Tavros and gave him a crushing hug. "TAVROOOOOOOOS! Are you okay?"

Gamzee gave her a glare and she backed away. Karkat had come up during this time, and he asked Tavros, "Did you tell Rufioh?"

"N-no… m-maybe… I D-DIDN'T M-MEAN T-T-T-T-TO!"

Tavros broke down sobbing, and Gamzee gently hugged him. "Hey, it's okay, it's okay…"

Suddenly, Kanaya ran in screaming, and Karkat turned his attention towards her. "What now?!"

"Porrim was found," she cried. "She just robbed billions of dollars and they put her in jail, and I tried to explain about Kurloz to the police, because I swear she had the purple eyes, but they didn't—they couldn't believe me!"

Karkat's heart sunk. "Oh my God, Kanny… does Mom… does your mom believe you?"

"Of course she does. She said Porrim would never do something like that," Kanaya sniffed.

Gamzee was listening, although he tried not to show it. Oh my God, he just got Porrim to rob a bank… this explains…

The previous night he had sat on the phone with those purple eyes for almost an hour (the first time he'd been home in over a week), and then he had stood up and announced in Gamzee's head, "I'm moving."

"What?" Gamzee had said.

"I don't want to be called any more. I don't want people to find me, either. So I'm moving. Do you want to come with me?"

He held his hand out.

Gamzee was still. "How far away are you going?"

"Not telling unless you come with me."

"Are you leaving the country?"

Kurloz laughed in his mind, and a smile appeared on his face. "No, of course not, my brother. I still have work to do. I just want to be the one to initiate it. And plus, I don't want the others to show up and bother me. Will you come?"

Gamzee said nothing.

"Please, Gamzee?"

"How did you get a house?"

"I bought it."

"Where did you get the money from?"

Kurloz laughed again. "Nosy little bugger! A friend gave the money to me. She's very nice."

Silence.

"Are. You. Coming?"

Gamzee hoped terribly that Kurloz wouldn't control his mind. "No."

He didn't want to grow up with his brother as a role model. He couldn't. He wouldn't.

Kurloz's outstretched arm dropped down to his side. "Will you be alright on your own?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"I'll come check on you. Give you an allowance."

Gamzee shivered.

Kurloz bent down so he was Gamzee's height and took out the stitches. "Don't be afraid of me," he smiled gently, cradling Gamzee's face. "I love you."

"What about Meulin and Mituna?"

Kurloz's face darkened, and his grip on Gamzee tightened. "No."

"Why?"

"They don't deserve love."

"You don't either," Gamzee said in a moment of stupidity.

Kurloz, obviously stung, stepped back and removed his hand. "I can see you're just completely torn apart about me leaving."

Gamzee walked to his room.

"TALK TO ME!" Kurloz screamed, dragging Gamzee back into the living room. Gamzee started crying, and Kurloz hugged him, and Gamzee sobbed and sobbed and sobbed until Kurloz left the house with his bags packed and he'd triple-locked the door.

He'd called Karkat in a panic. "Karkat!"

"What?"

"Can I stay with you?"

"My mom doesn't want anything to do with your family right now, Gamzee. I'm sorry."

The line went dead.

He then called Tavros. It rang and it rang and it rang and he didn't pick up.

Strange.

But he couldn't let Kurloz find him. He just couldn't. He'd kill him in the middle of the night, he was sure.

Gamzee ran into his room and started to pack clothes, a toothbrush, some soap, Faygo, money, whatever he might need. He opened a drawer to get his favourite toy, and—oh my god.

There was a huge wrapped package in there, signed Your brother Curly :O)

His heart began to beat faster. What is this thing? What if it kills me? He slowly unwrapped it, and lo and behold, it was ten packets of his absolute favourite baking mixture.

He started sobbing again, and he fell asleep as a crumpled mess on the floor.

When he woke up, his toy little Cal was between his arms, and he was on the bed. He sat up immediately and checked the door. This time it was quadruple-locked. What kind of idiot quadruple-locks a door? Besides Kurloz?

In a sudden panic, Gamzee shot out of bed. What if—I have to get out.

He opened the door, grabbed his stuff, and ran away as fast as he possibly could.

OooooooooooooooooooooooO

When the reader was done reading the stupid flashback, Gamzee turned to Tavros. "Hey, this might not be the right time, but could I live with you?"

"I'm going to be living in Vriska's house," Tavros shuddered. "She's the only person who volunteered."

"Not even the Maryams?"

"They were afraid you'd follow me."

Gamzee cringed. "This is really not working well. By the way, the four of us need to have a meeting."

"Mom's not going to have you in the house," Karkat sighed. "Maybe we could all stay at the Serkets'?"

Tavros groaned, Vriska threw her dice in the air with joy, and Karkat rung up his mom and told her that him and Kanaya would be staying with Tavros and Vriska that night. He didn't mention Gamzee.

Late at night, once the meeting had begun, Tavros told everybody about what happened.

"A-and i-it w-was t-terrible," he shuddered. "M-my b-brother s-started t-to c-cut h-his th-throat w-with the kn-knife that c-cut off m-my l-legs…"

Gamzee and Karkat each put an arm around him.

"Did he die?" Kanaya said sadly.

Tavros's sudden crying answered the question. Karkat gave her a dirty look, but Gamzee pap-shooshed him.

"What I really don't get is why Gamzee would've used Porrim to rob the bank, of all people," Vriska said. She'd forced her way into the meeting, and nobody could get her to go away.

Gamzee sighed. "I guess she wasn't one of the people who bullied him, so if the police got into it—which they did—they wouldn't suspect him even if they believed the voodoo nonsense. Also, it was another way… another way to hurt Karkat."

Gamzee then told them about the incident he'd had when Kurloz had left before adding, "And something doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't make sense?" Karkat said.

"Damara."

"SHE DOES NOT MAKE SENSE," Vriska nodded.

Karkat rolled his eyes. "I think he means he wonders why nothing's happened to the older Megido yet."

"I overheard my sister gossiping with Meenah about how she was concupiscent enough for him to use her… whatever what all means."

"You think he's cheating on Meulin?" Gamzee whispered. He apparently had a large vocabulary.

Everybody was silent.

"You never know," Karkat sighed. "Let's just move on before something stupid happens. We've called this meeting to keep each other informed on recent events, and also to plan a way to… to stop Kurloz without hurting him." He looked at Gamzee for approval, who gave him a thumbs-up and drank some Faygo.

Kanaya yawned. "I'm tired though. Can we hold another meeting later?"

"A-actually," Tavros said, "Th-that's w-what G-gamzee and K-karkat a-and I were p-planning to d-do… I-if y-you d-don't m-mind…"

"SOUNDS FUN!" Vriska yelled, and everybody told her to shoosh before somebody heard her.

Over the next few days, a couple more people joined the meetings.

"He cheated on my sister! With Damara, too!" Nepeta cried, and everybody looked at each other sadly. "He broke my OTP!"

The next day, Sollux attended the meeting with his eyes missing. "My brother tried to comfort Meulin," he said softly, "And he… he's in intensive care."

Eventually, Aranea, Cronus, and Horuss were the only ones who hadn't been hurt, and Gamzee was starting to wonder why Meenah hadn't had a worse fate than shaving her head.

But sure enough, Eridan and Equius showed up the next day sniffling and crying.

"He turned in his whole stash of drugs to the police and they locked him up," Eridan said with his head down. "I always hoped he'd stop using those, but not like this..."

Nobody moved to comfort him. Then Gamzee went to give him a quick hug, and added, "Don't worry, we'll try to stop this."

Meanwhile, Horuss had apparently chewed Kurloz out for cheating on his girlfriend (and then deafening her!) and punched him in the face.

He was dead.

Equius refused to cry for the first half hour, or even open his mouth beyond how his brother died. But Nepeta had shown up for that meeting to talk about her deaf sister, and when she held his hand later in, he broke down and finally started to cry, just a bit.

"You don't need to be strong," she meowed. "I'm sure Horuss would like to see that you care."

"OF COURSE I CARE!" Equius shouted, and then Mindfang woke up and they had to call off the meeting for that night.

But something troubled Gamzee.

Tavros was beginning to shy away and not talk to him. Karkat was always yelling. The others started thinking the meetings were stupid and that they weren't getting them anywhere.

It wasn't normal. And yes, maybe they just thought it was kind of ridiculous, but he was sure his brother had something to do with it.

"This meeting is getting us NOWHERE," Karkat grumbled loudly. "We're not getting anything done!"

"Tell me about it."

"Look," Gamzee said, obviously irritated, "If you want to stop having the meetings, fine. But I just want to have one more. With Feferi."

Eridan perked up. "I say we have more meetings!"

"W-why w-would you bother w-with Feferi?" Tavros groaned.

"I want to know why Meenah hasn't met some sort of terrible fate yet. And also, does anybody know anything useful about Kurloz's powers?"

Vriska squirmed in her seat but said nothing.

Suddenly, they could hear the front door open. Everyone froze, and then Vriska said, "He's coming for Aranea."

"How do you know?" Gamzee asked before realizing that was a stupid question. He got up to go look, but Karkat grabbed his arm painfully.

"Maybe Aranea needs to die," he nodded. Gamzee stared at him. His eyes were normal.

"Are you mad?!"

"It's probably for the best that everybody's dying," Tavros chipped in.

"And besides, you shouldn't worry, because Kurloz will never hurt you, Gamzee!" Kanaya smiled, taking his hand.

"He'd never hurt you!"

"He loves you!"

"He would KILL for you!"

"STOP IT!" Gamzee yelled, and tried to open the bedroom door. Equius blocked it, so he punched him in the face, and Vriska followed him out the door.

"Don't worry," she said. "I'm not possessed. They're not either, it's the chucklevoodoos."

"The WHAT?"

"The chucklevoodoos, dear brother," Kurloz's voice said in his head.

"What have you done with my friends?" Gamzee yelled. Aranea had woken up by this point, and she had stumbled out of her room in a daze.

Kurloz's voice went into Gamzee's head. "Ask Aranea where Meenah is."

"Ask her yourself!" Gamzee growled, and Vriska smirked.

Aranea regained her composure and went to stand in front of Kurloz. "I'm afraid he can't."

"Why?"

"Cause he's not strong enough. And anyway, it's a long story..." Vriska grinned.

Kurloz lunged at Vriska, who managed to get out of the way just in time. Aranea punched him in the face and pulled him to the floor by his hair.

"Get help," Aranea ordered, and Vriska ran off to the apartment next door. Gamzee, meanwhile, did nothing but watch while Kurloz easily flipped Aranea over so he was on top of her.

"Kurloz!"

"What?" his voice said in Gamzee's mind.

"Please stop hurting Aranea!"

"You don't understand, she has a power similar to mine. I must destroy her before she uses the opportunity to stop me from anything else!"

"Else?" Gamzee wondered out loud, and then Meenah came in, her forehead blue.

Gamzee stared.

Meenah threw her trident at Kurloz and began to punch him in the face. She stabbed and stabbed until he bled all over the-

"GO!" Aranea shouted to Vriska, who had come back. "I'll hold him off!"

Vriska grabbed Gamzee's hand. He winced, and then he said, "No, we have to get the others first!"

He ran back into the bedroom and pulled everybody out the door.

"What are you doing, Gamzee?" Karkat said. "Kurloz would never hurt you! Or us! We should never be afraid of him!"

Gamzee slammed the door behind him and exited the apartment with the others, trying to forget the screams and shouts along the way. "Come on, we have to hide. As long as people are there, it's not going to be safe."

"There's a tiny abandoned house down by the creek," Vriska offered.

"But we won't get there before Kurloz kills them both!"

"He won't kill Aranea," Vriska said with conviction.

"I hope you're right," Gamzee sighed.

Suddenly, a police car drove by, Cronus in the driver's seat.

"Hop in, losers," he said, a cigarette in his mouth. "Best jailbreak ever, don't you think?"

"God no," Gamzee sighed, but plopped everybody in nevertheless. Cronus didn't appear to be possessed, and plus, they could definitely use a ride.

OooooooooooooooooooooooO

"So you want me to drop you off here?"

"Yep, that would be perfect. So Vriska, would you like to explain about the giggle voodoos?"

She rolled her eyes. "CHUCKLEVOODOOS. It's this thing where you can influence people's dreams and make them feel things because of it. All the indigo-bloods have that power. Aranea told me."

"So... I have it too?"

"You're an indigo blood, aren't you, dumbass?"

"Well, yes, I am, it's just I find it hard to believe I could have my own power... And yeah, explain about Meenah and Aranea and whatever's happening there."

Vriska sighed. "Meenah and Aranea... kind of had a relationship at one point."

"I see."

"No you don't. But anyway, her and I... we have mind control powers too. Not the chucklevoodoos, though, which is a shame. Because she had this power, Aranea would keep Meenah under mind control most of the time so that Kurloz couldn't make her kill herself or Feferi or even..."

Vriska trailed off and looked out the window as they approached their destination.

Finally, they reached the house, and convinced Cronus to drive off and forget about the whole endeavor.

"Okay, guys, get out," Gamzee said. "We'll find a way to sleep in here."

"But we have no money!"

"I'll get money tomorrow. I know just wh

where to find some."

Vriska's eyes gleamed. "You're going to steal it?"

"No, Vriska. I'm not my brother."

That night, Gamzee stayed awake trying to put happy thoughts into his friends' dreams.

Gamzee is your friend. Kurloz is evil. Kurloz WILL hurt you. I'll protect you. Have hope. Be strong. Wake up in the morning. Don't die.

In the morning, they seemed to be a little les cranky. Gamzee and Vriska divided up the house to try and stop the squabbles (this is MY COUCH! No it's not! YES IT IS!), and that night Gamzee set off to get money.

He just hoped he wouldn't die.

"Vriska?"

"Yeah?"

"If I don't come back... Will you take care of my friends for me?"

"Sure. But you'd better believe you'll come back, Gamzee."

Gamzee kissed Tavros lightly on the nose, and hugged Karkat tight. "Don't do anything stupid before I get back," he said, reminding them of their night at camp.

"We won't."

Gamzee left then.

Left for his old house.

He hitchhiked his way back into town and picked the lock for his apartment. Sure enough, thousands of thousands of dollars were sitting in his room, waiting for him. The house was silent. Hopefully empty.

Here's your allowance. Spend it well! Love, Curly :O)

There was another message waiting for Gamzee. One that was so much more important, but that he wouldn't see in time.

His phone the last night had rung, rung, rung, rung on the other side of town, where he'd left it at the Serkets'. He had a message from Aranea on voicemail.

He's coming, Gamzee. He's coming. He knows where you are: Cronus showed up in a drunken stupor and spilled the beans. Meenah's dead. He's pretty strong, your brother. I'm alive though. Tell me if you need me to help you.

And although he didn't know it, all his friends at the house would be dead within the hour.

All but one.

(Prob going to have a last chapter, albeit a lot shorter than this one! This is the longest chapter I've written so far by a long shot. Again, sorry!)