A/N Trigger warning for death and gore. I had been waiting to finish typing up this chapter for forever, school's been kicking my ass and I'm in a musical (Playing Motel in Fiddler on the roof, so fuck yes) and I've had virtually no time on my hands, but I've just been so excited to post this chapter. I hope you all enjoy it. Please review and things because it makes me happy and want to write more things and also I could use some good things because of a not good thing that happened. I would like reviews very much please. Even if it's just a quick "Man, this was pretty cool" I'd absolutely love some sort of feedback. Enjoy!
Her Imperious Mercifulness paced around her block chewing her lips in thought. She'd come to look forwards to the time when Halfsoul would leave her on her own. It was concerning how much she'd begun to dread seeing her matesprit. All they ever seemed to do was argue. They'd worked so well before. Sure they'd butt heads over the cull system sometimes, but all the same they'd gotten on well enough.
She sighed and sat at her desk with her head in her hands. She felt her gut clench as someone turned the handle on her door. She stood up as Halfsoul walked in the door irritably.
"Eridan, we have to talk."
He stopped in his tracks and blinked, "What d'you mean we 'have to talk'?"
She sighed again, "I mean that this," She gestured vaguely between herself and Halfsoul, "Isn't working for me anymore."
"You- What? Not workin'-? We work out fine, don't we?"
She sighed and shook her head averting her eyes and glancing at the floor before looking back up at him, "No. We don't. We argue all the time and it's exhausting. Nothing but argue argue argue every time I see you! It's killing me and I don't want to deal with it anymore."
"We don't just argue, Fef. We do other things."
"It feels like we argue more than anything else and that's not something I want in a relationship."
"Fef, look, The only reason we fight is because you always bring up your work."
She laughed bitterly, "So now it's my fault. It takes two to start a fight, Eridan! If you didn't always argue with me about the system this wouldn't be an issue I can't do this anymore! It's stressing me out so much that I started dreading when you get home!"
Halfsoul blinked at her, "You- What?"
"I always know you're either just going to complain and argue with me over the system or you're going to try and get in my pants! Listen, I'm not always in the mood especially when you're acting like a jerk!"
"Fef, I can-"
"Eridan, I'm done with this relationship. I'm stressed all the time, and you just add to it. I can't do this anymore. We're done."
Halfsoul blinked as he stared at her, "I- you- But I-"
"I said we're over. You can pack your things and move back into the orphaner wing."
"Fef- Fef please."
"Out!" She pointed to the door, "It's over. Now pack up and get out of my block!"
Halfsoul stared again and his face darkened. He turned to start digging through her closet, pulling out his clothes and the rest of his belongings. He threw them into the bag he'd moved in with and he stalked out of the block and into the hall, slamming the door behind him.
Her Imperious Mercifulness collapsed at her desk with a sigh and her shoulders shook as she started crying, wiping her tears off her face as she ran a hand through her hair worried that Halfsoul might do something rash.
She was right to be worried.
Halfsoul kicked at the wall of his block, frustrated. He sat himself down on the floor of his block. He stood up again pacing up and down his block fuming. The only thing stopping him had been his matesprit. He glared at the floor and walked over to where he kept his rifle beside his coon, picking up the weapon and swinging it over his shoulder before walking out the door.
He didn't need this place anymore. He didn't need anyone anymore. He stormed out of the Royal Palace and Barracks down to the stables where he gripped his Custodian's reins and swung up onto his back, riding off towards the nearest and- not so coincidentally- largest Cull Center on the planet.
Halfsoul's face darkened as it came into sight. His conviction only grew as he approached the center. The looming white building rising on the horizon.
The Signless glanced up at the sound of his door opening and he raised his eyebrows as The Countess walked in, opting to ignore her in favor of continuing to sketch on the walls.
"Karkat."
He ignored her, clenching his jaw as he carefully outlined a picture of Sollux. Over the past perigee he'd gotten much better at drawing seeing as he had very little else to do most nights.
"Karkat, would you please look at me?"
"I thought I told you not to bother visiting." He pulled out a marker and began coloring the small drawing.
"Of course I came to visit, how could I not?"
"Oh, I don't know. By not coming to fucking visit me? You're not wanted. Leave me alone."
The Signless set down his markers and leaned against one of the blank spots on the wall.
"Karkat, as your sponsor I do actually have some legal business to discuss with you."
He sighed and closed his eyes tiredly, "Make it quick."
The Countess pulled up the chair from The Signless's desk and sat down, "I have some more paperwork to fill out that I thought I ought to consult you about."
"Just get on with it."
The Countess nodded tightly and pulled a binder out of her bag, "Well firstly there's the prospect of your title. This is your last chance to change it legally."
The Signless rolled his eyes, "I'm not changing my title to 'The Pitiable', Countess. I know you think it's perfect, but actually fuck you."
The Countess sighed, "Alright." She scribbled something down and looked back up at him, "I'm also supposed to ask you what you'd like them to do with your body in the case of your death."
"Just toss me in the woods somewhere. Throw me in a river. I don't give a shit."
The Countess rolled her eyes at him, "Perhaps I should have specified your options here. You can have your body burned, given up for research and medical education, ejected into space, stuffed, or fed to Gl'bgolyb."
The Signless sighed, "Give me to research. Might as well get some use out of my corpse."
The Countess nodded and selected the appropriate option, "I've got one last request for you."
The Signless raised his eyebrows at her as she fidgeted with her skirt, "Unfortunately due to your condition, I'm required to have you sign a contract to restrict your sexual activities."
The Signless blinked at her and stared for a moment, "And when you say 'restrict' you mean…?"
"You aren't permitted to pail another troll to keep your genetics out of the gene pool."
"What!?"
"I'm sorry, but the authorities spent a lot of time debating this point and they decided that because we don't know what the health implications are for your blood color it might be best you not pail anyone."
"I'm not signing that."
"Karkat, you are required by law to sign it."
"How am I even supposed to pail in this place? I only get to see people one hour every night and I'm locked in here the rest of the night and day. There's quite literally no way for me to pail anymore. I'm probably going to die a virgin."
"Then I don't understand your reservations."
"It's the principal. I'm not letting the empire control my sexual life. They've already got me locked up here. I'm not letting them legally bind me so I can't fucking pail who I want."
The Countess frowned and glanced down at the paper in her hands before clearing her throat, "Karkat, I don't think you understand. It's either you sign this agreement or they… well they make it impossible for you to pail."
"They what?"
"They make it so you are physically unable to pail anyone."
"Kanaya, tell me exactly what the fuck they're going to do if I say no."
The Countess shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she glanced down at the form in her hands and began to read, "Refusal to consent to the above listed statements will result in the permanent removal of the Genetic Excretionary gland, the permanent severing of the bonebulge ejaculation shaft and the permanent searing shut of the Genetic opening."
"So they're basically going to A: make it so I can't orgasm, B: Cut off my bulge, and C: Burn my nook closed? Fucking great." He sighed and reached out a hand, "Give me the form."
The Countess handed him the paperwork and pen. He sighed before signing his name at the bottom of the page before handing it back to her.
The Countess sighed as if she'd just performed some difficult task, "And that's all."
The Signless nodded and leaned back against the wall, "You leaving now?"
"If you want me to."
The Signless shrugged, "I don't really give a shit."
The Countess nodded as she filed the papers back in her folder, "So how are you adjusting?"
The Signless shrugged again, "This place sucks just as much as I expected it to. Maybe even more."
He sighed and closed his eyes, "I haven't seen Sollux. Apparently he's in high-security."
The Countess frowned, "I'm sorry to hear that. I know you were looking forwards to seeing him again."
He nodded, "Yeah. They're probably killing him. He can't stay cooped up like that."
"I'm sure he's fine."
The Signless raised his eyebrows, "That's not what I've heard."
"Care to elaborate?"
He laughed bitterly, "Apparently he had a major meltdown a while ago and broke out. Heard he was asking them to kill him and he had this extreme outburst."
The Countess frowned, "It's probably best he stay here then. It sounds like he has some mental issues."
"Yeah, that this place gave him! Literally the only things keeping me from going completely insane in this place is the fact that I've got markers to draw with, and the recreation hour. The rest of the time I just want to claw my face off I'm so bored."
The Countess's frown deepened and she hummed in acknowledgement, 'Karkat, you really shouldn't be thinking like that, no wonder they deemed you eligib-"
"Oh so you're blaming me? I had no issues with this sort of thing until I fucking got here. It's your fault I'm here!"
"Don't raise your voice at me."
"No. You know what? I'm fucking pissed at you. My custodian is dead because of you! I'm stuck in this hellhole right now because you made me apply early! I'm not allowed to pail anyone because of you! I am not going to have my basic rights because you put me in here! I could have been home right now, but you had to fuck up my whole life! If it weren't for you I'd be fucking gone right now. Out the door. Probably living out in the middle of nowhere, but at least I wouldn't be here and at least my custodian would still be alive!"
The Signless had stood up, shouting at The Countess nigh predatorily, towering over her.
"I don't belong in here! No one belongs in here! You have no fucking clue what it's like! I'm treated like a fucking mindless animal and I'm going insane!"
"Karkat, sit down."
"No, fuck you! Get out of my life!"
"Karkat. Sit down."
"Get out!"
The Countess sighed and stood up before knocking on the door and being escorted from the building.
The Signless growled and kicked at his desk before kicking it again and slamming his hands against the desk before falling to the floor and putting his head in his arms.
Halfsoul dismounted his lusus, cape falling to the ground behind him as he pulled his rifle from his back and slowly walked up to the Cull Center.
He was finished with protecting Her Imperious Mercifulness from the truth. He was finished with coddling the people who should have died. It was time to set things straight.
He kicked open the door, an alarm blaring as a couple of teal bloods rushed out from the back to try to force him out of the building.
Ha.
Halfsoul fired a beam of light from the end of his rifle, shooting a hole through one of them and swinging the gun which sliced through the other's abdomen. He trod over their corpses, kicking them out of the way as he strode past.
The Signless sat at the usual table with The Mutineer and The Director, sketching on the paper with some pencils as he had for the past several perigees. He was in the middle of sketching a picture of The Mutineer's face when the explosion sounded and the speakers crackled to life.
"This is an emergency evacuation. Please proceed in a calm orderly fashion to the nearest exit."
The Signless glanced up at The Director and The Mutineer before standing up, "Meet back here in ten minutes tops."
He ran off down the hallway that The Director had instructed him when they'd first started hatching this plan. He followed the signs to the high-security blocks. All sorts of trolls fled down the hallway as he sprinted upstream, frantically looking around and calling out, "Sollux! Sollux! Ψiioniic!"
"KK?"
The Ψiioniic sat curled up in his block, his hands over his ears as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. He kept mumbling to himself until he startled at the sound of an explosion outside and a speaker sounding through the building.
He blinked as the door to his block opened up and he stumbled towards the door, his eyes adjusting to the flashing red lights as he started down the hallway bewilderedly. He found himself lost in the crowd before he heard someone calling his name and title,
He turned to see a familiar short figure of a hot-blooded troll, "KK?"
The Signless glanced up and ran towards The Ψiioniic, taking his hand and dragging him off, "Hey, we're getting out of here. We're getting everyone out of here."
"KK, where the hell are we going?"
"Recreation Center. We need you to blow a hole in the wall, then we're all getting out. We'll have time to catch up later."
The Ψiioniic stared around at everyone wide-eyed as he followed The Signless through the crowds.
"Tho what am I blowing up exthactly and how much?"
"We need a pretty good-sized hole in the wall on the east side of the Recreational Block."
"Got it." He glanced over at The Signless, "It'th good to thee you again, KK."
The Signless quirked a grin and glanced back at him, "It's good to see you too."
The Signless tugged The Ψiioniic along into the Recreational Center where The Mutineer and The Director herded anyone who wanted out. The Ψiioniic looked up at the wall before grinning and letting loose an enormous blast of energy, breaking through the first layer of the wall with ease.
The Signless grinned right alongside him as the wall started to give out and a small hole appeared.
But his blood ran cold at the sound of the door being slammed open and the loud electric buzz of a bolt of light slicing through the crowd.
Halfsoul strode through the hallway, squeezing the trigger over and over again, a bolt of light piercing anything that moved, rainbow staining the walls and to anyone else the smell of death and blood would be enough to leave them nauseated and retching against the wall.
He kicked a set of double-doors open to find a block populated with hundreds of culled trolls, one blasting red and blue lights against the wall.
Halfsoul pulled the trigger again and a beam of light pierced the crowd and he swung the barrel of the gun around slicing clean through the people closest to the door.
The yellow-blooded Psionic whipped around and let forth a blast of energy. Halfsoul barely managed to return fire, sending him skittering back as he kept up the beam of light, keeping him from being completely obliterated in the meeting of white against red and blue.
The Ψiioniic kept blasting against the wall before the sound of a shot of plasma into the crowd broke his concentration. He snarled and his eyes flashed explosively and he grinned. God, it felt good to let this out.
A blast of red and blue exploded against the wall behind him as he tried to break through the wall. The whole had grown large enough for one or two people to fit through.
The Mutineer glanced up as the shooter arrived in the building. He ran off to start herding people out through the hole in the wall as it crumbled open wider and people fled out into the world outside the cull center.
The Mutineer glanced back at The Ψiioniic as he helped people out of the center.
The Director followed along behind The Mutineer, hurrying people out of the building, glancing over her shoulder at The Ψiioniic whose eyes flashed quicker and more violently. She watched as he gripped his head between his hands and a loud pained cry was all the warning she had before a bright flash of red and blue exploded in her face and she was thrown against a wall, intense heat searing across her skin as she heard someone very familiar calling her name before everything went black.
The Mutineer looked over at the sound of a screech from The Ψiioniic just in time to watch The Director be thrown against the wall, her skin burning to a black crisp as he ran to her, "Aradia!"
He watched her fall to the floor and he kneeled next to her, shaking her by the shoulders as her front smoked, "Aradia! Aradia wake up!"
He glanced up at the sound of another loud cry of agony from The Ψiioniic before another blast threw him against the wall and he hit his head as people trampled over each other in a mad dash for the exit. People stepped over and on him as they ran for the hole in the wall and he lay on the floor, his vision starting to blur and all that seemed to register was the intense pain all over his back and head, face down on the floor.
The Ψiioniic's eyes flashed faster and he held his head in his hands. He couldn't hold back at all and he let out a scream as his eyes flashed painfully and a burst of energy exploded in the direct vicinity, throwing everyone near him against the wall, burning many of them alive. He looked up again, explosive red flying towards the shooter. He kept it up, feeling nigh blind in one eye as the flashes of red light exploded again, smaller this time. People were thrown against the walls again as he lost control. He couldn't see. Everything was so loud. He couldn't tell what was screaming in his head and what was people really screaming.
He collapsed to his knees as the shooter came closer, the white plasma fighting against red psionics, blue seeming to have shorted out.
He screamed again as he stopped trying to hold back, the red flaring out of control.
"Everyone get out!" Someone that sounded painfully like The Signless screamed.
The Ψiioniic let out a last explosion and the red flickered away before everything went black and he fell to the floor, his mind going blank.
He couldn't even think anymore.
The Signless watched wide-eyed as The Ψiioniic fell to his knees before passing out, red flaring through the air.
"Everybody get out!"
He sprinted for the hole in the wall as red exploded behind him, throwing him forwards, stumbling as the heat on his back burned away the fabric of his Cull Center jumpsuit and searing his back bright red. He found himself tumbling down a hill with a yelp, his back in scalding pain as he fell down the hill, hitting tree roots, rocks, falling through bushes, and finally coming to a stop at the base of the hill having blacked out halfway down when his head hit a rock.
He lay unconscious. His mutant blood seeped into the dirt, leaving him in a pool of his own shame.
Halfsoul glared as the blue lights exploded and flickered away and he slowly approached as he overpowered the psionic, keeping up the stream of light that sliced through the red. His eyes widened as the scarlet light exploded and he was thrown back several feet and he blacked out briefly before groaning and getting to his feet again, half the trolls in the center now having fled out through the hole in the wall.
He glanced behind him as a number of the Cull Center escorts arrived and he whipped around, the beam of light slicing through them as he fled through the hole in the wall as well, shoving people out of the way, nailing a few in the gut with the butt of his gun.
He sprinted down the hill, managing to keep from tripping and falling as he ran into the forest below.
He wasn't sticking around to be culled or executed.
He panted as he ran through the woods until he felt his breathing grow short and his legs wobbling before giving out, falling to his knees in the middle of the forest as exhaustion caught up with him, the adrenaline fading.
And he welcomed the dark blurring around the edges of his vision, passing out on the forest floor.
A young huntress quirked her head to the side as she found trails of blood all over the hillside leading up to that big building, though she only found one body.
Everyone else seemed to have gotten out of there or taken for medical attention. Only a gray body in a pool of bright red remained.
She approached with eyes like a curious wriggler as she looked down at the boy with bright candied blood.
She pressed an ear to his chest.
He was alive.