I have mead and ice cream and I found out today that the military will still get paid through the government shutdown, so go me. Also, no update on Thursday night since I have duty and no update next Monday through Thursday night (possibly Friday, but that may just be because I'm exhausted) since my ship will be underway at that time. (Updates tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then either next Friday or next Saturday depending on how the week goes.)

One note about this act: I decided on this a few weeks ago or whenever the Hell it was I decided what would happen to Cronus (wherever it says I figured out what would happen to him, that was when I started planning this), so nothing anyone said changed what I'd already planned.

Many thanks to CatastrophicAquarius, tricksternepeta, FanficFinatic2, LinkinPark X, Haruko-Odagari, Bitblondetoday, iDreamBig, SlytherinUnicorns, Wolfen Artist of Hetalia, Kerra-chan, cro, Heki564, and Rand0mAn0nym0u2 for your reviews to the last act!


When they finally arrived at Aradia's place, nearly everyone had already assembled there—her sister Damara, Equius, Nepeta, and John (that was a surprise—Eridan hadn't realized he would be coming) were there, but Feferi hadn't shown up yet. It was still only five-fifteen, though, and by five-thirty, Feferi had arrived with a ninja who was probably Dave behind her.

Aradia made them wait for a few extra minutes since Kanaya and Rose were supposed to be joining them, but they hadn't shown up by six, so they started trick-or-treating without them.

Aradia had completed her ram costume with a very fuzzy zip-up hoodie and leggings with what looked to be gray-colored cotton balls sewn on. Sol remarked that she looked more like a sheep than a ram, so she headbutted him. Damara was dressed in a typical Ghostface from Scream costume that, nonetheless, was slightly ruined with the addition of a scythe. She said she knew Ghostface didn't have a scythe but she'd had it from a few years ago and wanted to use it just for the Hell of it. Equius had changed into brown pants and a brown shirt that matched his skin tone almost perfectly, and someone—Nepeta, Eridan suspected—had brushed his hair out into a very long ponytail to serve as a mane. As for John, well, Eridan couldn't tell what he was supposed to be. He was wearing all blue—hoodie, jeans, and shoes—and the design on his hoodie looked like it might have been wind, but Eridan really had no clue.

For the first few doors, they all tried to look as young as possible, but after it became clear that there weren't a whole lot of kids and teenagers in the building to begin with and that just about everyone trick-or-treating looked to be about their age or older, they started fooling around. Dave had a tendency to hide halfway down the hallway, sprint toward the door they were at, ninja-roll, and snag candy on his way. Aradia thought it was hysterical and, even though she was woefully out-of-character for a ninja-roll, began following his example.

Nepeta soon grew bored of walking and climbed up onto Equius's back. She had to duck down so her lion's ears didn't hit the ceiling, but she said it was much preferable to walking with the rest of the peasants, and Equius didn't really seem to notice anyway (and he was dressed as a horse, so he must have expected Nepeta would pull a stunt like that).

Everywhere they went, Damara followed five feet behind them. She'd somehow mastered the ability to walk without making it look like she was walking—she seemed to glide along behind them, silent as a specter. Sometimes Aradia would give her sister a concerned look, but for the most part, Damara seemed cool, so Eridan mostly ignored her.

She ended up having to leave right around the time they were nearly finished at Feferi's apartment building, though. Her phone rang and she flipped her mask up to check it. "It's my boss," she mumbled, staring at the screen in irritation.

"Just ignore it!" Aradia said. "We're having so much fun!"

"Yeah, but he wouldn't be calling unless it was an emergency. Hang on. Hello?" She waited for a few moments before the annoyance on her face grew more pronounced. "Why? I switched with—" Suddenly, her expression shifted completely to one of stunned horror. "Oh, no, when? Okay, well... yeah, I'll be there as soon as I can. Yeah, give me like a half an hour, okay? I'm out with my sister and her friends, that's why, unless you want me showing up dressed like that Scream guy. Okay, twenty minutes. I'll hurry."

"What happened?" Aradia demanded. "He's not making you come in, is he?"

"I have to. There was a shooting at work. The guy who switched with me got shot, and... I just gotta go, okay? You guys have fun." With that, Damara practically sprinted away, tearing her mask completely off.

No matter what she said, though, the mood was ruined. "A shooting?" Aradia asked softly. "That's awful."

"Halloween brings out the nutters," Eridan said. "Probably a robbery or somethin'. But, hey, good thing it wasn't your sister there, or she might a' gotten shot."

"Yeah, I guess, but still. I'd rather no one got shot at all."

They tried to get back into the swing of trick-or-treating, and they actually succeeded for awhile as they moved along to Equius and Nepeta's neighborhood. Eridan really wanted to hold Sol's hand on the drive over to the next destination, but he was face-first in his bag of candy, already rifling through the booty and sorting out what he wanted and what he didn't.

His complete bee outfit was kind of cute and kind of sad. There were antennae made of bouncy springs with yellow balls of fluff at the ends and the rest of the costume was black leggings and a puffy shell of a thorax in alternating stripes of black and yellow that covered him from shoulders to halfway down his thighs with a set of floppy limbs that Eridan realized were supposed to give him six legs total. For once, Sol's shoes matched—they were both black. He also hadn't followed through on his threat to make himself a stinger.

He parked his car behind Equius's Suburban. He and Sol climbed out just as his phone rang and he groaned.

"Alright, that's it, everyone turns off their phones!" Aradia said.

"That's probably a bad idea. Emergencies happen," Sol pointed out.

"Alright, fine, put them on vibrate or something—they ruin the mood."

Eridan didn't recognize the number, but it had a local area code so he answered it anyway. "Hello?"

"Good evening, is this Eridan Ampora?"

"Uh, yeah, who's this?"

"My name is Phil, and I'm calling from Scripps' Mercy Hospital. We need you to come in immediately."

He felt a cold weight settle in his chest. "Why?"

"We have your brother Cronus here."

He very nearly dropped his phone. "Is he... okay?"

"I can't give any details over the phone, sir. I just need you to come in immediately."

"Yeah, okay, I'll... I'll be right there. Thanks." He hung up, feeling ready to fall over. He was acutely aware of everyone staring at him, but he focused his attention on Aradia. "Hey. Where did you say your sister worked?"

The pieces fell into place. "Circle K at Twelfth and Imperial. Why?"

It might not have been him. It could have been anyone else. They never said he was shot. "That's where my brother works. An'... he was workin' tonight."

"Oh, my God. So he...?"

"They didn't say. He's just in the hospital." He tried to breathe past the pressure in his chest but he couldn't, it was too hard, Cronus was shot, he could be dead, and he couldn't even remember the last thing he said to him. This couldn't be happening.

He headed back to his car and started sliding in the driver's seat before he noticed Sol was getting back in, too. "What are you doin'?"

Sol gave him a genuinely confused look. "Going with you. Unless you don't want me to, I guess. I mean, I can stay if you'd rather do this alone."

Actually, doing this alone sounded like the worst possible idea ever. He did not want to do this alone at all, and even though it might not do any actual good to have Sol with him, at least he wouldn't be by himself if the worst-case scenario was actually happening. He shook his head. "No, you're fine. You can come with me."


Eridan really didn't know what to expect when the nurse led him and Sol to the bed with the curtains drawn all the way around it in a far corner of the emergency room, but when the nurse pulled the curtain back to admit them, there was Cronus with his head bandaged and his eyes closed.

"Jesus," Eridan murmured, feeling like he was about to fall over. He dropped into a chair and just stared at his brother for a few moments until the nurse walked away.

Abruptly, Cronus opened one eye and then the other with a grin crossing his face. "Hey, little monster," he said weakly.

You asshole! Eridan wanted to scream at him, but he never got the chance because he jumped up and threw his arms around Cronus. "You suck," he said instead.

Cronus chuckled, hugging Eridan tightly. "Yeah, I know."

"What happened? Damara said—"

"You talked to Damara?"

"We were hangin' out with her sister an' her, an' a couple hours ago, Damara got a call sayin' there was a shootin' or somethin'."

"That's wild—I had no idea you guys knew her."

"Her sister Aradia is my best friend," Sol said.

"Even weirder."

"But what the fuck happened?" Eridan asked again, finally letting go of his brother.

Cronus let out a sigh as Eridan settled onto the edge of the bed. "These two cats came in an' wandered around the store for a minute without takin' off their masks, so I told them to take 'em off all calm-like, an' the next thing I know, I got two guns pointed at my head, right? They came in for money, obviously, since they gave me this bag an' told me to empty the register, not that there was a whole lot in it to begin with. So I dump all seventy dollars or whatever into the bag, but you know me, I can't keep my fuckin' mouth shut an' I keep makin' all these smart-ass comments an' the one guy—" Cronus let out a hysterical giggle. "The one guy pistol-whips me right upside the head, right?" He indicated his left temple, where the bandage wrapped around. "Twice, actually, but two separate times for two different comments. But like the other guy saw there wasn't a whole lot of money in there so he told me to put my wallet in there, too, an' I'm like, 'Fuck, no, asshole,' except that's not really what I said but it was the basic idea, which is what led to me gettin' pistol-whipped the second time, but that time I had a' idea an' I went down to the floor like he really fuckin' hurt me, an' I got back up an' hit the police call button all subtle-like but the other guy saw it so they got the fuck outta there in a hurry, except..." He sighed. "Man, I had to open my big fuckin' mouth. I was like, 'Hope it was worth it,' all obnoxious-like, an' the guy that was doin' all the pistol-whippin' just shoots at me. I guess he was kinda a bad shot since he was like five feet away an' he only clipped the side of my head or somethin'." He rubbed the right side of his head, biting at his lip for a second. "That or he really just didn't get a good shot lined up. Like he barely stopped movin' as he shot which was good for me, I guess, except I really thought it was lights-out 'cause I passed the fuck out. Next thing I know, I'm layin' here with a nurse stitchin' up the new holes in my head. I hear I'm gonna have a couple a' wicked scars, though," he added, wiggling his eyebrows, or at least seeming to. There appeared to be some movement underneath the bandage in the general area of his forehead.

"Can you feel anythin'?"

"Nah, they got me doped up pretty good." Eridan had noticed that Cronus seemed to be slurring a bit more than normal.

"What about the cops? They are gonna investigate this, right?"

"Oh, yeah, the cops already came an' went. That's why they called you in, little monster," he added, attempting to ruffle Eridan's hair, but with the hat on his head and the gel in his hair, the attempt was an abject failure. "I guess they don't need anythin' else from me an' I should be good to go to take this monstrosity off my fuckin' face tomorrow mornin', so yeah, drive me home, chauffeur. An' if Bumblebee Boyfriend is stayin' the night tonight, I'm playin' the 'just got shot at' card an' demandin' you two keep it in your pants. A cat needs his sleep."

"A cat's high as tits," Eridan mumbled. "Have you told Mom an' Dad?"

Cronus looked a little nervous. "No, an' I might not."

"Cro, they're gonna find out. Shit like this is probably all over the news right now. They know where you work an' they're gonna call, all worried an' shit, an' I'll have to be like, 'Yeah, guys, that's where Cro works, an' funny story but he was the one that got shot' an' let me tell you, they are not gonna like that. You should probably tell them pretty quick."

"I can't call 'em now, I'm high as tits!" he protested.

"Jesus, just send them a text an' tell them you're fine an' you'll call them tomorrow. An' then actually call them tomorrow."

"You can't boss me around—I just got shot."

Eridan pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at Sol. He just got a glimpse of Sol's huge grin before it vanished behind his hand. "Jesus. Okay, Sol, come on, help me get this stoner to the car."

Cronus mercifully fell asleep in the back seat on the way back to the apartment.


Yay, Cronus is actually alive!

(I hope someone caught my very subtle Game of Thrones reference.)