A/N Oh look another apology for how long this took. I decided to actually give Gamzee a legit title since "Highblood" seemed like a thing that wouldn't be used in Beforan society so much except maybe as a sort of derogatory term? Idk, but I decided to go with "The Faithful" so that's that. We're up for a wild ride, folks.
The Signless blinked himself awake, vision blurry as he took in his surroundings. He groaned and sat up. He'd apparently been resting on a pile of animal furs in the corner of a darkened cave. He glanced around again before clearing his throat, "Hello? Anybody there?"
After receiving no response he stood up and made his way along the wall, holding to his side and groaning in pain. His head was throbbing and he ached all over. His back hurt everywhere, a burning sensation streaking over his skin every time he moved. He stumbled to the entrance of the cave and blinked out at the darkened land.
He was in the middle of nowhere.
He stared at his surroundings a moment longer before startling as a tiny girl jumped out of the bushes towards him.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing up!?"
The Signless stumbled back and groaned at the pressure on all his bruises and cuts and burns, "I don't know! Where the hell am I?"
The girl rolled her eyes, "Get back inside, dumbbutt, you're hurt and only making it worse."
He gripped his side as he backed up into the cave a bit, "Didn't answer my fucking question." He grunted as he sat back down, slowly remembering the past day's events.
The girl rolled her eyes as she headed out of the cave again, "I'll be right back. Stay put and I'll try to answer some of your questions later. There's another guy outside. Doesn't look too hurt, but he passed out so I'm just gonna bring him in to make sure he's alright. Stay put."
The Signless sighed and leaned back, wincing at the burns and bruises over his back, waiting for the girl to return. His mind drifted through thoughts of the previous night: the bright flashes of blue and red against white, the terrified screams of the culled as they fled, mowed down by streaks of white, The Director and The Mutineer lying motionless on the floor, the sounds of The Ψiioniic's pained cries and the panic as everyone fled out through the hole in the wall, the heat on his back, the pain as he tumbled down that steep rocky hill.
He startled as she returned carrying a frightfully familiar seadweller in over her shoulder. He scrambled backwards, eyes wide and he whimpered as his skin pulled tight over his muscles, shifting and sending sparks of pain through his system.
The girl raised her eyebrows before setting the purple-clad seadweller down in one of the piles of furs.
"Okay, Mr. Red, you're gonna have to stop with this moving around shit."
The Signless curled up against the wall, "Where the fuck did you find that guy and why the hell did you let him in?"
"God, not even a "Hi"? Or maybe a "Thanks for saving my ass"? You should really be resting Mr. Grumpy-pants."
The Signless growled in the back of his throat as he eyed the seadweller over her shoulder.
"So I take it you two know each other?"
The Signless nodded the slightest bit, "You could say that."
The girl flopped the seadweller down on one of the piles before standing up straight and turning back to The Signless, "So you just gonna act like a caged barkbeast or actually introduce yourself?"
The Signless stopped growling, but never took his eyes off the seadweller, "I'm The Signless… Yourself?"
She sat down cross-legged before him with a smile, "The Huntress, you sure got a real beating out there."
He nodded and shifted a little, hissing at the throbbing pain over his whole body. He stared at the seadweller with fire in his eye, "Yeah, I'm one of the lucky ones from what I recall."
He couldn't help but remember the Ψiioniic's screams as he shorted himself out, watching people thrown helplessly against the walls, shot through the torso, burned alive.
He was lucky.
"Sorry to hear that. I tried to fix you up a little, got that big cut on the back of your head taken care of and tried to fix up your back a little, a few cuts here and there. Don't know what is and isn't broken on you."
The Signless nodded as he glanced down at himself. "Thanks. Appreciate it."
"No problem. You were the only one out there anyways. Didn't feel like letting you bleed out on the side of the hill."
He blinked and furrowed his eyebrows, finally turning his attention in full to The Huntress, "What? There wasn't anyone else?"
The Huntress shook her head, "No. It looked like they'd already come through and picked up bodies and the injured."
The Signless growled again, "Those fucking bastards. They just left me to fucking die!"
He startled as the seadweller groaned and sat up, "Where the bloody fuckin' hell?"
The Countess paced up and down the Cull Center lobby as she waited for the head coolblood to come see her.
She glanced up as a wild-haired purpleblood approached her and she stopped pacing, "Sir, I came to inquire as to the whereabouts of-"
"Sister, I know why you're here. Let me escort you to some other place so I can all up an' get my explainin' on to ya."
The Countess nodded, tight-lipped as the coolblood led her off to a separate block, gesturing to a chair on one wall as he seated himself on the other side of the small block.
The Countess sat, lips pursed in anger and worry as she crossed her legs and folded her hands stiffly in her lap.
"Now why don't you all up an' tell me why you're here, sister. Just so's we don't be getting' our misunderstandin' on here."
The Countess nearly cut him off as she launched into questions and angry exclamations, "I want to know why my cullee hasn't been found! There's no details on him anywhere and he's reported as missing. Every single other troll present for the massacre has been found alive or dead, where is The Signless?"
The coolblood put up a hand to stop her speaking, "Look, sister. I'm afraid we all up an' got some motherfuckin' bad news for you. We found him, but reportin' that shit in would mean havin' to all up an' motherfuckin' fix him. We been wantin' to keep him on the down low. While I personally was not in support a' this action, the authorities came to a majority conclusion to leave him. He should be dead now. I can all up an' show you where he is. He's probably still there. Guy was already half dead when we found the poor bastard."
The Countess stared stunned for a moment, "Karkat…"
She continued to stare in shock for a moment, jade springing to her eyes before she finally managed to hone in on the coolblood's face, "But- I don't understand. The system- It's put in place to help people."
"Technically yes. The bullshit motherfuckin' excuse they made for this stunt was that the original mission statement for the Cull System explicitly claimed that "our purpose is to better the species" an' that the mutant kid was a threat to that. Technically that argument oughta be bullshit considerin' that the followin' statement is "An' the individual lives of our people", but a' course that just all up an' got swept under the motherfuckin' rug."
He sighed and reached a hand over to rest on The Countess's shoulder, "I really am sorry, Miss…"
"Maryam."
"Miss Maryam. Truly sorry. All I can offer you is the chance to recover his body.
She nodded a little bit. The last thing he'd said to her had been "get out." Had she left him alone before- not forced him into the cull system early- he'd still be alive right now. He wouldn't have been here for the massacre.
"I would appreciate that, sir."
"No need for that "sir" business, here."
"What would you prefer, then?"
"The Faithful, Miss."
The Countess nodded the slightest bit, head held high in a dignified manner despite the situation. The Faithful stood and offered her a hand which she politely declined as she stood up, eyes downcast. Poor Karkat. Left to die on the side of a hill. He must have been so utterly terrified.
"This way then, Miss."
The Countess followed The Faithful out of the block and out of the building towards a steep hill which they carefully traversed, dodging rocks and bright stains of color painting the grass. She noticed his color before anything else, the bright red that'd seeped into the ground.
She frowned when there was no body in sight. She glanced over to The Faithful with furrowed eyebrows that matched his own.
"That… huh."
She looked up at him, "Well?"
He frowned. There weren't even any marks as if he'd been dragged away by some hungry animal, a few drops of bright red blood here and there, but other than that, no sort of trail or anything like he'd limped away.
"I'm afraid he really is now reported as missin'."
"Pardon?"
"He ain't here no more, sister. Looks like somethin' or someone all up an' picked him up an' carried him off. I'll have to check with the authorities to find out whether they got their move on with a brother's corpse or nothin'."
The Countess clenched her jaw, "I should hope that you do." She glared down at the patch of unnatural bright red with an anger and a sorrow that made her gut twist.
She turned to leave with a soft sigh, "Do contact me when you find out."
With that she walked back up the hill and left the center to return to her hive, lip clenched between sharp teeth in worry. He could be alive. And if no one else would she'd find him herself.
The Mutineer awoke in a sterile white block, not a cull block, more like a hospital. Fuck, what had happened? It took him a moment or two to recall. They'd been getting people out in the middle of an emergency evacuation. The Signless had found the Ψiioniic and they'd made it to the recreational block. Then everything went fuzzy, lots of light flashing and sounds of explosions and screams and a feeling of dread settled in his gut even though his mind drew a blank when he tried to remember past that.
He tried to sit up, having to push himself into a sitting position with his arms. Upon glancing around the room he determined that he appeared to be alone so he scooted to the side of the bed and went to stand up, only to find himself unable to move his legs.
His eyes widened and he tried again with no success. He started to look up around the room as if asking the air for help and he picked one leg up with one of his hands and dragged it over to the side of the recuperation platform when the door opened and he froze mid-movement to put his leg down.
"Tavros Nitram?"
He nodded at the little oliveblood lady who walked into the block, "Where, uh, where am I? What happened?" His head felt a little funny and his words felt slow and heavy as he spoke.
The lady guided him back down to lay on the platform, "You were in a large explosion and suffered severe damage to your spinal cord as well as severe bruising over your back and legs. As you've probably realized right now, the damage has interrupted your nervous system through your legs, you likely won't be able to walk from now on, though there's a slim chance for recovery."
He stared for a moment before blinking, "How slim are, uh, how slim are we talking here?"
She sighed, "Less than a 1% chance I'd say."
"You've got to be kidding me, right?"
She shook her head at him solemnly, "I'm afraid not."
He stared a little longer, "I- well what about The Director, Aradia Megido? Or uh… Or The Ψiioniic, or The Signless?"
"I'm Afraid… Miss Megido is no longer with us. She was… in a rather close proximity to one of the explosions and suffered severe burns that she could not recover from. Mr. Vantas is currently counted as a missing person and Mr. Captor's state is unstable. He has suffered severe head trauma and pan damage. We're making every effort we can."
The Mutineer swallowed back the lump in his throat. Everything was falling apart. His moirail, dead. Their hope for escape, incapacitated. Their third freedom fighter, missing. Hopefully he'd gotten away. Hopefully he'd continue trying to help bring down the Cull System.
"Any chance of, uh, of his full recovery? The Ψiioniic, I mean?"
"Uncertain, we can keep you informed if you'd like."
He nodded a little as he pushed himself farther down the platform.
"I'll leave you to rest, then."
He nodded again and closed his eyes as the door shut behind her and he put a hand over his face, allowing himself to cry, tears welling up in his eyes and pouring down his cheeks. A lifetime's worth of memories flashing through his head. A bright smile and a soft hug that he'd never have the privilege of experiencing again. The sound of her laugh and the way her hair felt when he'd thread his fingers through it. Gone. Forever. Those dark, warm, maroon eyes that crinkled up a little around the edges when she'd smile. The way her hair whipped behind her as they'd run. Her curled ridged horns and her warmth. All gone.
She'd been The Casualty that brought him to the ground.
Halfsoul blinked himself awake and glanced around his surroundings bewilderedly, from the blood-painted walls to the animal furs around the place to the terrified looking troll, bandaged up to hell and back, and the girl watching him intently and he startled backwards before slowly calming down. It looked like he hadn't been caught by the cull center escorts.
"Look who's finally up. Welcome back to the world of the living, fishyface." The girl said looking him over briefly and he glanced around nervously.
"You sure that's where we are."
The bandaged one spoke up, "Wish it wasn't, at least for you, asshole."
Halfsoul frowned, "An' who the hell're you?"
"One of the numerous people you just tried to murder, so you can just shut your fucking mouth or I will strangle you with my bare hands, you hear me? Fucking psychopath."
The girl glanced over at the guy in the corner with furrowed eyebrows, as if this was news to her.
Halfsoul narrowed his eyes at him, "Oh please, like you could manage that in your pathetic state you fuckin' leech."
"Say that again, to my fucking face," The bandaged troll started to stand up, one hand against the wall, piercing Halfsoul with a glare so intense that if looks could kill he'd be spontaneously combusting.
Halfsoul glared at him and reached for the gun on his back only to find it wasn't there and his eyes widened as he started to look himself over, "Where the hell's my damn gun?!"
The girl raised her eyebrows at him, "Somewhere around here, but I'm thinking that giving it to you sounds like a pretty bad idea right about now so sit your ass down before I claw your bulge off."
Halfsoul glared at her before sitting back down very slowly, turning his glare back to meet the injured troll's.
"So what, am I just stuck here, then?"
The troll sitting bandaged in the corner spoke up again, "Basically, unless you wanna get nabbed by escorts, though I'd watch my fucking back if I were you. I'm in favor of not letting you live at all after the bullshit you just pulled. Do you know how fucking many people are dead or injured right now? Take a guess."
"Oh please, you're all just a bunch a' fuckin' leeches on society depletin' valuable resources an' slowin' our species down. Gettin' all fuckin' coddled all night ev'ry night. I did the whole planet a fuckin' favor. I oughta just fuckin' kill your ass right now. Why were you in there, hmn? Was it some mental disorder? Or maybe you're just too fuckin' useless to take care of yo-"
"Enough!" The girl shouted. "The both of you need to shut the fuck up. No one is killing anyone right now and you're both going to sit down and stop arguing or I'm kicking you both out!"
The bandaged guy was turning… an unnatural shade of red as he glared at Halfsoul.
"Fine… But if you expect me to treat this murderous asshole politely I will shove my foot so far up his ass he'll get athlete's foot in his fucking windhole."
"Fine. Now everyone calm down. I have a hunt to finish and I expect everyone to still be alive when I return." She glared at the both of them before slowly making her way to the cave entrance to go complete her hunt.
Halfsoul glared at the mutant sitting across from him and the other stared right back before growling, "You have a title I can remember so I know who to blame for the death of thousands?"
Halfsoul narrowed his eyes a little, "Halfsoul. You got a title I can remember so I know what to call the little abomination sittin' across from me?"
"The Signless." They sat in tense silence, neither refusing to sleep or take their eyes off the other too long.
This was going to be a long stay.