Wow, I was hammered last night... sorry, guys! *sweat drops*

In which nothing but Vriska. (I know some of you are worried about Eridan's worrying about everything, but no need to fear. All he needs is a good fucking and he'll be right as rain. *wonk wonk*)

Many thanks to CatastrophicAquarius, Rand0mAn0nym0u2, Bitblondetoday, BlooKisses, region-discontinued, and Wolfen Artist of Hetalia for your reviews to the last act! (If you want to see the tattoo I got colored in yesterday, it's on my Tumblr!)


J8DE WHERE 8RE YOU? WE NEED TO T8LK NOW!

Vriska was beyond caring about missing her first class. This was at least eight million times as important as anything she could possibly learn on a Friday, anyway. She suspected Jade might be in the cafeteria but she knew that Kanaya and Eridan and even Tavros tended to hang out there and she really didn't feel like seeing any of them right now—confronting her own mistakes was something she couldn't bear, not like this—so she hoped Jade would be somewhere else.

Fortunately for her, she was. I'm at the pool right now. What's up? What happened?

I c8n't expl8n here. I need to tell you in person. It's really b8d.

Okay, no problem. I'll be right here waiting unless you want to go somewhere else.

No it's fine, w8 there. I'm 8lready on my w8y to the pool. Just st8y there. She wasn't sure she could wait any longer than she already had, and deciding on a different place would take too much time. No, she just needed to sprint to the pool as fast as she could, ignoring the stares and shouts of, "Run, Forrest!" that anyone running across campus always elicited. Normally, she would stop and punch out (at least verbally) whoever dared call after her like that (they were only funny the first time), but she was too preoccupied to care today. Those people were lucky. Next time, they might not be so fortunate.

Once she drew up to the locker rooms, she slowed to a walk and texted Jade again. Where by the pool?

Like right next to the pool. Go through the locker rooms. I'm sitting up in the bleachers.

What are you doing up there, anyw8? Vriska was calming down slightly but part of her still wanted to scream.

Well, I was going to swim for a little while with another friend of mine, but this sounds important, so I can w8.

Vriska smiled at both Jade's use of her typing quirk and her being willing to forgo her swimming just to talk to Vriska. It reassured her that Aranea was wrong, and Jade truly wouldn't intentionally hurt her. Not like Aranea had done so many times—Aranea was twisted.

She headed through the locker room as quickly as she could, taking care to avoid meeting anyone's eyes or slip on the water that had been tracked in. Her sneakers threatened to lose traction on the slick tiles, but she made it through without incident (mostly—she skidded once and grabbed at a fuchsia towel hanging from a hook to steady herself) and emerged into the main pool area and open air again. She looked around until she located Jade, but when Vriska saw who she was sitting with, her heart sank.

There was Feferi Peixes. When Vriska had known her in high school, she had been Eridan's best friend. It wouldn't surprise her to find out they were still close and, moreover, that Feferi knew what had happened between Vriska and Eridan. Feferi wouldn't be friendly to her, not with the devastation Vriska had undoubtedly wreaked on Eridan's life.

Still, Vriska squared her shoulders and walked toward them. Feferi might be Jade's friend, but she was Jade's friend, too, and she wasn't going to go away just because Feferi hated her.

Jade saw her before Feferi did, probably because she was looking for her. "Hey, Vriska!" she called, half-standing and waving wildly. "Up here!"

Feferi's head whipped in Vriska's direction and the look she shot her could have only been described as hostile. It was gone in a moment, though, as Feferi turned back to Jade and whispered something Vriska couldn't quite here. Jade's face fell for a second and Feferi stood up, grabbed a fuchsia backpack at her feet (Oh, crap, I hope that wasn't her towel), and stalked down the bleachers to the ground, giving Vriska another murderous glare and hissing, "Bitch," as she passed.

Vriska very nearly punched her, but that would in no way endear her to Jade—besides, she had no idea what Feferi had said to her, so she might make herself look worse. So for once, she held her tongue and climbed up the bleachers, pretending Feferi hadn't said anything to her.

Jade wasn't smiling anymore, not like she was when she first saw Vriska. She tried to tell herself it didn't bother her, but that was a lie—Jade was supposed to be her friend. "What did Feferi say about me?" she asked quietly.

"She told me how you hurt people," Jade answered, just as quietly and not meeting her eyes. "Actually, she told me awhile ago—about Eridan and Kanaya and Tavros and John—and John is one of my friends, too. She just never told me your name. Rose told me, too... She told me you were evil, although she never specified how. I'm beginning to get the idea, though. But, yeah, Feferi just told me it was you who did all of those mean things to my friends."

It sounded so simple when Jade said it like that, but that childlike simplicity made it even worse to hear. Despair twisted like a knife in Vriska's ribs and she felt like crying—in a few words, her only friend had been turned against her just as she'd started to realize how wrong she'd been. Right now, what she needed more than ever was Jade's support, and Jade was now starting to pull away.

Aranea can't be right. This can't be what she meant. Please don't let her be right. If Aranea was right and friends couldn't be trusted, and the only people who could be trusted killed her pets while she slept, she didn't know what she could do. There would be nothing for her.

Everything was starting to fall apart, faster and faster. Her eye burned and she wiped at it, hoping Jade didn't see the tears threatening to spill over.

Would Jade even care anymore? Feferi and Rose might have done so much damage to her reputation in Jade's eyes that maybe she would think Vriska deserved whatever she got. That prospect was almost too much to contemplate. What could she even do anymore?

"I... I know I was a bitch. They're right about who I used to be, but that's not who I am anymore. I'm trying to change, I really am. And that's actually why I wanted to talk to you about, though."

"I don't get you. I thought I did, but I don't. I thought Rose was wrong or something, like you were just misunderstood or something, and I gave you a chance and I thought you were a good person and she was wrong. But you really are just an evil, two-faced person, aren't you?"

"I'm not!" Vriska protested, even though deep down, she suspected Jade was right. "Do you know how many times my sister told me I can't rely on anyone but my family? Do you know how convinced I was for ten years that she was right? You have no idea how much trust I put in you just to even consider you a friend and not someone who would hurt me if I didn't hurt you first. You have no idea what I've been through—only what other people have said about me—and now you're passing judgment on me! Like you've never made mistakes before? You're my only friend, Jade, and now you won't even listen to me."

Jade twisted her fingers together in her lap, finally looking up at Vriska. There was a hint of anger on her face, along with something else Vriska didn't quite recognize. It wasn't until Jade started speaking again that Vriska realized it was guilt. "I guess you're right. But how can you possibly excuse toying with people's emotions like you did?"

"It was the only thing I ever knew. When I was younger, I had friends, and every time we fought, Aranea would tell me that they hated me... and I believed her. So I cut them off because I thought they didn't actually like me, that they were just using me. Or I was jealous and bitter so I shut them out. I lost a lot of close friends that way." She still despaired to think about losing Nepeta and lashing out at Tavros when she was eight, and the way she'd treated Terezi back in middle school. It had been all her fault—she thought she had just been unlucky, that the universe was transpiring against her, but it really had been all her fault. She couldn't even blame Aranea for how she'd treated Nepeta—that was all on her. "But you met Aranea last night. You know what she's like."

Jade nodded haltingly.

"She doesn't like you."

"You think?"

"I know." Vriska pulled out her phone and flipped through her gallery until she found the one picture she'd taken of the Marquise that showed the full horror. "Look at what she did."

Jade let out a squeak and covered her mouth with her hands, staring aghast at the picture. After a few unblinking moments, she looked back at Vriska. "She did that?"

Vriska nodded sadly, putting away her phone. "It was either her or my mom and I really don't think my mom would do that to me. I already know Aranea doesn't like it when I have friends, and I thought she had a reason for it, but now... Jade, she's been controlling me my whole life, and I think she killed my other two tarantulas, too. I can't prove anything since it's hard to do autopsies on ten-year-old tarantula remains, but... the first Marquise died the day my parents' divorce was finalized and our mom told us we were moving, and Aranea blamed me for it and locked herself in our room. Two hours later, when she finally came out, it was only to tell me that my tarantula was dead. The second one died a couple of days after I started dating Tavros. I really liked him," she added quietly. "I'll admit that I did kind of like toying with Eridan. Having that kind of power over someone's emotions is an ego boost, plus he was a dick anyway, so I felt like he had it coming." She sighed. "And Aranea did the same number on Eridan's older brother, so I figured I was doing the right thing by messing with his younger brother. I liked the symmetry of it. But Tavros... I really liked him. I think I was in love with him, too. I just... I didn't know what to do. I was afraid of what that meant for me. Suddenly, I didn't have control anymore since I just wanted to be with him, so I... I hurt him when I started dating Kanaya, except I sort of fell in love with her, too—like I relied so much on both of them that I didn't like how they could hurt me now, so I found John through our mutual love of shitty Nicolas Cage movies, and... well, I guess you know the rest. I bounced around from one to another to another to keep myself from getting too attached to any of them. And in the process, I hurt all of them. And now, I guess they all moved on, huh?"

Jade nodded slowly. "They do seem to be doing better."

"And that's great. I don't know how I'm supposed to have a normal relationship, though. I mean, I haven't had a real friend in years, and none of my romantic relationships could ever remotely be construed as healthy."

"I get what you're saying, but what are you going to do about Aranea?"

Vriska rubbed her knuckle across her eye again, willing herself not to start crying. "I have a plan, but the thing is, I think Aranea means to hurt you somehow."

"I got that impression. I thought she might have dropped a house on me last night if she could have."

Vriska laughed, but it came out as more of a half-chuckle, half-sob, and she wiped at her eye more vigorously, trying to keep her damning tears from spilling over. "Yeah, I thought something like that, too. So... I don't know what she intends to do. She wasn't home when I woke up this morning, but I know this is the first time she's outright, brazenly murdered one of my pets so I know she's not fucking around."

"What did your mom say?"

"She doesn't know. Not yet. I'll let her know later. That's part of my plan, actually. I just need to get more dirt on her."

"What are you going to do?"

"She's basically been psychologically torturing me for ten years and let me think the only way to relate to people is by more psychological fuckery. She killed at least one of my pets. She's twisted and no matter how evil you think I am, she's eight thousand times worse. I'm gonna try to get her committed. She's psychopathic—she needs professional help."

"How are you gonna do that?"

Vriska half-smiled. "She made me a good actor, so I'm going to act like her sick mind games with me are working."

"You think you can pull it off?"

"Yeah, I think I can."

Jade finally smiled. "Good." After a moment, she looked away. "I don't think you're evil," she added. "Not anymore. You were right. I... I didn't know everything. And I think if the others knew you, really knew you, they wouldn't hate me."

Vriska bit her lip. "Maybe. One step at a time, though. I don't want to talk to any of them yet. I already feel bad enough about what I did to them. I mean, I'm gonna apologize to them eventually, just... not right now."

"Alright. I understand." She reached for Vriska's hand and squeezed. "Everything will be okay."

"Even you?"

Jade grinned. "What could Aranea possibly do to me?"


FAMOUS LAST WORDS.

So I have duty tomorrow, meaning no update, but I WILL update on Wednesday!

And I swear to God, I am trying to end this fic but I keep opening up more gaping plot holes and I just *tears out hair* THIS MAY GET TO 100 ACTS I AM CRYING (for the moment, I updated the chapter count to 90 on AO3).