A/N I'm so sorry I've not updated in a while. I just started getting really bad writer's block and had a lot of random shit going on, like I just did two shows and have been trying to fix my body's metabolic issues and stuff, but hey! Here's a chapter. Also I think I'm sort of starting to stray a little from Canon because I know the cueball thing wasn't until the scratched version of universe A but hey, whatcha gonna do? I need plot things. I don't know I'm just having fun with this. I hope you people enjoy it.
The Ψiioniic blinked himself awake in unfamiliar surroundings, shaking his head and trying to clear the haze settling over him. He sat in a white block which (for some reason he couldn't put his finger on) set him on edge and when he tried to speak his tongue felt slow and large in his mouth so he stopped trying to do that because it sucked and was no fucking fun whatsoever. He tried to sit up and he squinted down at the wires and bio-tech hooked up into his arms and legs with a frown. The fuck was that shit doing in here? It wasn't even three minutes before someone walked in the block and he furrowed his eyebrows with a deep frown, narrowing his eyes at them as he tried to sit up farther, only for the action to pull on needles and shit in his arms and he grumbled before resigning to laying back down. He hurt all over, his eyes felt all puffy and hurty and sticky-like and his front felt all sting-y and prickly.
The person who'd just walked in the block blinked upon noticing he was awake and started talking at him all fast and he was pretty sure that whoever that was was asking him some sort of question but he felt like he was moving all slow, as if he were wading through honey or molasses or something. He just stared at them confusedly and blinked a couple times before trying to talk again.
"Uh… Cou- Could you thay that again an' a lil' th- thlower?" It was… difficult to say anything at all let alone put together a whole coherent sentence.
"Of course, Sir. I was saying," They repeated more slowly, "You have been in a coma for about a week and have suffered severe head trauma and pan-damage. How do you feel?"
"Uh... bad?"
"Could you possibly elaborate?"
"Um... I... my h-ead hurth... and... uh... th-thpea- talking ith... really fru- fr- fruth-fruth-tra-ting... Fruthtrating. Wh- What even... happened?"
"I'm afraid you were in a rather bad accident. For now I'm going to have to ask you some questions, alright?"
He nodded a little, preferring to avoid speaking for now.
"Alright, let's begin. Can you tell me your name?"
He blinked and stared at them for a moment, "Uh... I don't know?"
"Nothing? No name?"
He shook his head at them.
"Can you remember anything at all?"
He shook his head and pouted a little bit, crossing his arms and wincing as they pulled on some of the equipment hooked up to him.
"Title? Wrigglerhood friends? Likes? Dislikes? Anything?"
He shook his head again and sank further down into the platform, "No... f- fu-uckin... Fuck shthshit fucking..." He started mumbling poorly pronounced profanity to himself with a grumble.
"Well, Sir. Your name is Sollux Captor."
"That'th a shitty name... too many "eth" thoundth."
"Your title was The Ψiioniic, though it appears that you're now unable to perform that same function."
"What'th a thionic?"
"You really don't' remember anything? Nothing at all?"
He shook his head yet again, "No...?"
They frowned at him and he sighed, leaning back, "My head hurtth..."
"Alright... I'll go fetch the doctor to inform her you're awake."
They headed out the door quickly and the Ѱiioniic... god he hated that title, it sounded wrong and weird. Inaccurate maybe? Too many "S" sounds too. Any "S" sounds were dumb and frustrating. He curled up in the platform and closed his eyes, wincing a little at the way they pulled on aching scabs and burns on them.
He pulled the covers up over him and curled up as best he could without pulling out any of the wires in his arms and he sighed tiredly. He'd almost managed to fall back asleep before an older violet blooded man in a long white coat walked in and he groaned, sitting up again.
"Wh... what d'you want?"
"Sollux Captor or the Ѱiioniic, yes?"
"Probably?"
"I'm The Doctoral Servicer. I'm afraid there is some amount of bad news to share with you."
The Ѱiioniic frowned and nodded before holding his head in his hands, moving it too much gave him a bit of a headache, "Hit me w-ith it, Doc."
"Unfortunately there has been severe damage to the outer layer of your pan and your eyes seem to have shorted out."
"What'th that thu-thupp-thuppothed to mean?"
"As you may have noticed your memory appears to be incomplete and might even be permanently damaged. Your Psionics will also no longer be able to function, you completely shorted yourself out."
"Ith that bad?"
"Technically yes."
"Why tech- te-techni-cally?"
"If you can't remember then at least you get a new start."
"What?"
"You used to be a high-security patient because of your Psionic power, it caused you to accidentally kill one of our employees."
"Oh... I'm thorry..."
"Well, at least you get a fresh start free from that unfortunate disability."
He nodded a little bit again and frowned as he sat back, "Okay... thankth... I think."
The doctor said a few more things that he didn't pay attention to before he tried to go back to sleep, drifting off into vague nightmares he could hardly discern and would forget upon his waking.
The Merciful stood straight and stiff as she looked over the steaming wreckage of what was once the largest most prestigious cull center on the planet. Her bloodpusher ached as she stared over the white crumbling building, "Faithful, how long until we can have this wing of the center up and running again?"
The Faithful gave her a shrug, "I don't know exactly, could all up an' be anywhere between sometime this perigee an' sometime next sweep."
Thankfully only the north eastern corner of the center had been decimated, the rest appeared to be relatively intact and most of it was still up and running.
She nodded in response to his report and carefully circled around from the back corner of the center, bloodpusher pounding in the back of her windpipe as she trod her daintily clothed feet through the grass around to the front again to enter the center through the door and she wanted to vomit at the sight of the bright colors staining the walls of the center and she swallowed the taste of bile rising in the back of her throat. She should check in on some of the survivors maybe. Find out just what happened from eyewitness accounts if she could.
Even away from all the destruction the scent of death permeated the air, stomach churning as she carefully approached the little Tealblood lady running the front desk and she cleared her throat, "Excuse me, Miss. I was hoping you could bring me to a room where I might talk to someone who might know what happened here. Preferably a cullee or survivor."
The little tealblood woman looked up from the papers she was pouring over, "Of course Your Highness. If you'll simply follow me."
The short stout little woman stood up from her desk and led The Merciful down the hall to a block which held a little brownblood who sat in a four-wheel device staring out the window tiredly.
"Sir?" The little woman said quietly, "You have a visitor."
The Merciful walked in the room quietly and solemnly before taking a seat in the chair against one of the walls.
The brownblood troll turned his head over his shoulder, looking far too tired for his relatively young age, even for someone of his caste. For a moment his eyes filled with fire at the sight of her before returning to the tired withdrawn state he'd begun with. He turned back to the window, "What more do you want from me?"
The Merciful furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, "I'm afraid I don't quite understand. I only came to find out what happened here. It's... difficult to get any accounts of the situation. As I understand it there was a shooter in the building, but other than that many of the details are fuzzy... At least give me your title, sir?"
"The Mutineer... You may have heard of me... I may change it soon. It doesn't seem to suit me very well anymore..."
The Merciful's eyes widened a little in sudden understanding. This was one of the people who went about "liberating" cull centers.
"I indeed have heard of you... Sir would you mind answering me a few questions?"
"Alright... It's not like I have anything worth keeping secret anymore..."
She frowned. It was... disheartening to see someone so utterly broken. Surely he needed the cull centers in order to live like this, "Thank you... Would you mind describing what exactly happened?"
The Mutineer stayed silent a moment before nodding a little, "We... My moirail and I as well as a... a friend of ours were planning an escape... To get out of the cull center and to get anyone out who wanted out. We... It all depended on there being an emergency, specifically an evacuation. Our friend, The Signless, he had a friend in high security with immense psionic power and in the case of an evacuation we could get him to blow the walls out... When the seadweller showed up and started gunning people down we had an opportunity, so we got the psionic troll, The Signless, and anyone who wanted out to the recreation center where we started blowing the wall out... the... The seadweller showed up and started killing everyone, this... this psionic tried to fend him off and shorted himself out in the process and... and killed a lot of people, including my moirail. I was trampled as people tried to escape. Apparently The Signless is missing. Hopefully he got out okay... He didn't belong in here."
The Merciful listened with a frown. Apparently she needed to create some new reforms to the cull centers if people were willing to die to escape them.
"I... I see. Thank you, sir... and I'm sorry for your loss."
The Mutineer scoffed a little, "Tell that to The Ψiio- Well I guess he's The Impaired now. He's lost more than I have, though I think he's less upset about it than myself. He lost a friend, his memory, his power... You should try talking to him... I'd imagine he's lonely, not knowing anyone anymore."
The Merciful nodded slowly, "All the same, I appreciate your telling me what happened... I wish you a speedy recovery."
"This is as recovered as I'll ever get, Miss... the irony that now I truly need the centers..."
She frowned deeply as she watched the way his face seemed so disconnected, so empty and tired, eyes glazed over and mouth relaxed and turned down just the smallest bit.
"Well all the same, take care, sir..."
She stood up and turned to leave, her dress trailing along the floor behind her and she spoke briefly with the short little woman again, "Could you possibly show me to The Impaired's block?"
The Countess took a deep breath as she pushed the door open, hands sweating a little as she clutched her hands in her skirt. It was time for her to pay an old friend a visit. She glanced around the musty room and walked up to the door labeled "Mindfang" and she swallowed back her nervousness before knocking on the door four times.
"Double it and I might just let you in."
She huffed and knocked four more times before an all too familiar face greeted her at the door, a pair of reading glasses on a long thin nose and brilliant blue eyes and lips quirked up into an intimidating smirk, "Hey, Kanaya. Been a while since I've seen you around here."
The Countess nodded curtly, avoiding eye contact before standing up a little straighter, "Indeed, but I'm afraid I'm only here on business this time. You see, I know you have access to any and all information, that's what you do. Isn't it, Miss Informer Mindfang? I need some information from you. I don't know how you do it, but I wouldn't have come to you if it weren't dire."
"Awww, you're hurting my feelings, come on in and cough up all the juicy details, darling and maybe you can give me something in return?"
The Countess turned a dark shade of green and closed the door behind her, the walls seeming to crush down and suffocate the block as she sat down on one side of a desk and Mindfang on the other.
"I suppose I could, it depends on what you want."
"Well, darling. What I want depends on what it is you're looking for, so tell me love, what have you lost this time?"
The Countess sighed and leaned forward a little, "A young troll, his name is Karkat Vantas and he goes by The Signless. He has bright r-"
"Say no more, I've got it." Mindfang picked up a little cueball with a hum, playing with it between her fingers for a moment before smiling, "He's in the middle of the forest behind the Cull Center in the Capitol. He's about ten miles in, he's not alone and he's alive if you're wondering. There's two people with him."
The Countess sighed in relief, "Oh thank god."
"And now for payment."
"Oh dear."
"Oh come now, it's not nearly that bad. I'm flexible. All I want is for you to give me one person from the return party."
"I... I beg your pardon."
"You'll go out on a search with a group of people and you'll return with several people. I want one of them."
"But-"
"Or I could just take the payment out of your ass, dearest," Mindfang leaned in a little closer with a predatory grin, licking her lips as she reached out to trail a claw down the side of her face.
"No. I told you before, we are over."
"Then you're going to give me one member of the return party understood? When you return you will give me one person to do as I wish with."
"Understood."
"Then you go off on your quest, love. I expect you back within the next three perigees."
"Yes, Ma'am," The Countess stood up and turned to leave.
"And Kanaya... It was good to see you again."
"I wish I could say the same, Serket."
She hurried out of the block and then out onto the street, brushing herself off and letting out a sigh, relaxing despite the sound of Mindfang's voice whispering her name over and over again in her head.
Halfsoul woke a second time only this time finding a hand around his neck as he startled awake, not having slept more than thirty minutes. He glared at the face staring down at him through angry eyes and he brought a hand up to grip around The Signless's wrist, "Let go, mutant."
He felt his grip tighten and he choked a little bit before digging his nails into his hands, "Let go of me."
The grip tightened and he dug his nails in hard enough to draw the mutant's abnormal blood and the lowblood flinched, pulling away finally. Halfsoul sat up straight, brushing himself off and reaching a hand up to smooth his gills back down where the lowblood's clammy hands had irritated the delicate filaments inside them and he glared at him, "I oughta just fuckin' rip your damn cullee eyes out a' your damn mutant fuckin' head."
"I'd like to see you try, bitch."
Halfsoul glared at him a moment longer before sighing and standing up, heading over to the opening of the cave, "Where the hell even are we?"
"How the fuck should I know? I was passed the fuck out and bleeding at the bottom of a fucking hill when The Huntress dragged me off."
"Well I thought maybe you'd have a little more information than me seein' as you were here first, fuckin' mutant."
"Would you stop calling me that? It makes me want to rip out your munch-noodles through your optical bulb sockets. Also it makes you sound like a hemist fucking ass-pustule."
Halfsoul rolled his eyes at him and sat back down, "I'd fuckin' leave if I knew where the hell we were."
"Well that just sucks for you doesn't it? Looks we're just stuck here indefinitely. Or at least until the catgirl tells us where the hell we are and how to get back."
He ran a hand through his hair, glaring up at the tangled mess with a frown, damn fucking hair getting all fucking fucked. He sighed and leaned back against one of the cave walls, "Well I hope it's soon because I'm about this fuckin' close to just shreddin' you fuckin' alive."
"Likewise."
They sat in uncomfortable silence before The Huntress finally returned, a rather sizeable dead animal hung over her shoulder and the two of them shared a quick glance as she dumped the bloodied thing in the corner.
"Well I'm glad neither of you seem to be trying to kill one another anymore!"
"Barely," The Signless muttered as he glared over at Halfsoul.
The Huntress let out an exasperated sigh and stood up straight before sitting down between the two of them, "Well if you want to go, just fucking go! There's nothing keeping you two here... well," She glanced over at The Signless, "I suppose you have some pretty severe injuries..."
Halfsoul growled and flopped back on the floor in exasperation, "We don't even know how to get back you fuckin' imbecile!"
"Excuse you, manners when speaking to your Hostess."
Halfsoul rolled his eyes again and sat up to lean back against the cave wall, "Couldn't a' just fuckin' managed to kill this little freak while he was in the damn shithole."
The Signless stood up and winced at the pull on his cuts and bruises and burns, but that did little to quell his boiling anger, "How about you shut the fuck up and actually learn what the hell you're talking about, fishface? Do you know how many people just wanted to fucking get out? Do you have any fucking clue what you're even talking about? You're talking about the murder of fucking hundreds of trolls who were essentially fucking imprisoned."
"Well then I suppose I did them all a service, didn't I?"
The Signless growled at him in the back of his throat and lunged at him, The Huntress yelped and let out a huff as she stood up and walked out of the cave, throwing her hands in the air, "I can't even live in my own damn cave!"
The Signless gripped around Halfsoul's neck, growling, eyes turning slightly red around the edges in anger, "My friends were in there! I don't know if any of them are even alive! I don't know whether they died, whether I'll ever see them again! You killed people do you not fucking understand that? You killed innocent fucking people. You separated quadrantmates and friendships and you sit there talking about it like you did something good!? We were fucking miserable there. We wanted fucking freedom and you killed off a good solid hundred or so trolls! Why!? Why the hell would you do that you absolute piece of shit? Why would you-" He started to lose the fire keeping him with his hands gripped tightly around Halfsoul's throat, loosening his hold on him until he was just keeled over him resting with his knees on either side of his stomach, just staring at him, some mix of honest to god curiosity and hurt with anger and frustration and confusion.
Halfsoul just laid there for a moment, still in shock from being jumped like that and from watching The Signless break down like that, "I- It seemed logical. They're miserable, they're sucking resources, they're not contributing to society, kill them."
And then the rage was back, burning under The Signless's skin and threatening to spill over again.
"Logical?" His voice wavered a little in anger, "It seemed logical to kill a bunch of trolls because you deemed it right? What are you? Mediation-overseer, Verdict-Spitters, and Executioner all in one? You had no fucking right."
"I had every right in the world."
The Signless crawled off of him, wincing at the way the movement pulled on his wounds "No. You didn't."
When the yelling and fighting finally died down The Huntress walked back in and glanced between them with a sigh, "If you two fight like that one more time I'll kick you both out, understood?"
The Signless nodded and Halfsoul glared at him, "He's the one pickin' all the fights."
The Huntress sighed and sat down to start skinning the animal she'd dragged back, "He's also the one who just lost contact with people he cared about and doesn't know whether they're dead or alive."
"You're takin' his side!?"
The Huntress looked him over with a light glare before answering, "Yes."