Hey everybody! Finally got this chapter out. It wasn't that much of a struggle, but the new job is finally kicking in and things are going good right now. It's online, though, so hours are random depending on things. However, other than that, there's nothing really new to report!

Anyway, I'll see you all at the end of the chapter.

Trigger warning: Death mention. Nothing graphic, but still a mention.

Karkat didn't exactly see a lot of silver linings after his battle with that Peter Pan wannabe, but there were a couple of things to be happy about. One, Spades was able to legitimately lock the place down after they got testimony from Jonjet about what happened to convince Bronya to do so. The second was that maybe this could get wrapped up faster since this ghost didn't seem so powerful.

The only problem was that now he needed to find out how fight a ghost he couldn't even see.

"Are you the ghost wasn't just using invisibility or something and you couldn't disrupt it?" Aradia was helping him go through some of his dad's equipment while Spades investigated the site. Anything a little higher grade than the usual ghost detector would have to do. "It doesn't make sense how they can just appear to only one person."

"They've been doing it for a while. It's probably a unique ghost power related to them." Karkat shifted put away a prototype carefully. "Somehow they can hide themselves from anyone that isn't a little kid. Which, I'm not going to lie, is a little bit creepy."

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think it's a pedophile ghost. Haven't found anything like that so far." Sollux was put on research duty again, going through some files. "Everyone that's worked at the daycare, past and present, is completely clean. Ursama runs a tight ship."

"Thank fucking god. I'd probably let dad dissect them if that turned out to be the case." Karkat was not even remotely joking when he said this. He put away another box before giving Sollux a curious look. "Maybe look some stuff on that theatre that used to be there. You'll probably find better results."

"Amity Park used to have a theatre?" Aradia looked like the very concept wasn't possible. "Jeez, why'd they tear it down?"

"Give me a minute." Sollux typed in a new Google search, hitting the enter key with a flourish. He stopped to read the first few results before clicking something. "I think I may have something here."

"Lay it on us." Karkat opened another box as he said that, keeping his ear open.

Sollux cleared his throat before reading a part of an article out loud.

Charity Play for Handicapped Children Ends in Tragedy.

A rendition of the classic play Peter Pan by charity Wheeling Around ended with one teenage boy being lost forever.

16-year-old Tavros Nitram, star of the show and organizer of the event, died today after a malfunction occurred during a flying scene at the end of the play. While the owners of the theatre deny any knowledge of faulty equipment, it was found that the equipment used to raise Nitram off the ground had significant wear and tear and resulted in the fall that broke the boys' neck.

It was said Nitram was alive for about three minutes before he died of asphyxiation, unable to breath due to a broken neck and a severe head wound. Charges have not been filed against the owners of the theatre, though an investigation is currently underway.

Nitram allegedly wanted to conduct the play in order to show children like him that even if they couldn't walk, that still didn't mean they couldn't shoot for the moon, the second star to the right, and straight on till morning…

Sollux stopped, sighing deeply. "Why can't we get a happy ghost story for once."

"Ghost don't form after dying a happy death Sollux." Aradia's mood certainly dropped after hearing that story too, but they were talking about ghosts. You don't become one without some form of tragedy following behind you. "At least we have a name now. Died not much younger than us too."

"That kinda explains why he hasn't hurt the kids either, I guess." Karkat sighed, crouching down, and holding onto his head. "Now I feel bad that I might have to kick this guy's ass now. Crippled, died, became a ghost, and then getting shoved into the Ghost Zone is a hell of a lot."

"If it makes you feel any better, he didn't die in front of the kids watching the play." Sollux winced at the groan that came from Karkat. "Maybe we can talk this one down too. He's probably just overreacting to something."

"That's not the usual pattern for us though." Aradia counted on her fingers their usual process. "Usually we find out a problem is happening, find the ghost responsible, fight it twice, and then either defeat them or resolve the misunderstanding. That's how the process goes."

"Dear god, that really is the process. Why the fuck is there a process?" Karkat just wanted to go to bed. Forget about ghost crap for a while and maybe get some rest. "If god actually exists, he must hate us."

"It is pretty episodic." Sollux closed his laptop with a grimace. "So, you gonna call Ampora to help out again? Keep building trust with that guy and his supervillain dad?"

"Maybe. I don't think you've even met each other yet." Karkat sighed. This was a topic he could handle. "You'll get a read off him too. I think he's good, but I wouldn't mind a second opinion."

Karkat dialed up the number before they could change their minds. He put the phone on speaker, holding it up so his friends could hear. It took two rings for Eridan to pick up.

"Hello?" Eridan almost sounded surprised at the call, as if he hadn't expected it. "Who's calling?"

"The queen of England." Karkat rolled his eyes before answering truthfully. "It's me. I'm calling about another ghost thing happening in town."

"Ah, hey Kar." Eridan took a minute to actually think about the other boy said before replying. "Another ghost attack? Jeez, this place really does sound infested."

"Tell me about it." Karkat scoffed. He blamed the portal, but he was starting to wonder if other things were coming at play here. Dualscar perhaps? Or something else? "This one's at least native to here. I don't think he's dangerous and I've got some info on him already, but I think it's about time you met the other hunters working with me."

"You work with other hunters?" Karkat almost facepalmed as he realized he never mentioned the other two before. He could already hear the jeers they'd use on him later. "Oh, right. You said other people were there during your…"

"Yeah." Karkat didn't want to talk about The Accident right now. Not even remotely the time. "I can text you where and when if you want to come along."

"I'd be happy too. It'd be nice to actually exercise my ghost powers some more." It sounded like there was a but to this. "But that might be difficult. I promised to meet up with Fef today and I don't think I can cancel that."

"Shit. Sorry to hear that." Karkat figured that would be a possibility. "Can't really tip her off I guess."

"Actually, maybe we can, I don't know, bring her along?" Eridan threw the suggestion out there, causing Karkat to pause. Eridan must've took it as a no and tried pushing forward. "Look, she's just been asking about you and it seems like she wants to get to know you. Plus, she hasn't made as many friends yet and knowing how to fight a ghost might help her if this keeps happening."

Karkat frowned deeply, considering his options. He didn't exactly want to bring a new person into this, especially if they were wrong about this ghost not being too threatening, or even being Tavros at all. That wasn't even including that he'd have to keep ghost powers to a minimum.

Then again, having another hand would tip a fight into their favor if Tavros got hostile. Not to mention if the ghost problem kept getting worse, it'd be one less person he'd need to worry about being defenseless.

Karkat breathed out of his nose before answering. "Does she know how to fight?"

"She's taken some self-defense classes before. Just as long you give her a weapon, she'd be fine." It sounded like Eridan was trying to convince himself of this as well. "I don't exactly want to bring her to, but she'd start asking questions if I didn't bring her along and follow me anyway. I think the whole ghost stuff has scared her a little."

"Well, call her then. If you can vouch for her, I believe you." Karkat mentally thought over what Feferi could even use, figuring there'd be something. "Just make it on time. I don't want my dad getting suspicious."

"Alright, I'll call her right now. See ya then."

Eridan said his goodbyes and hung up soon after, Karkat typing up the address and sending it. The halfa sighed and turned to his friends, who only gave him questioning looks.

"Alright," Karkat went back to the boxes. "Let's get ready for tonight. Let's look for some heat vision goggles, those might work for this."

The two only nodded, though they did give some questioning glances towards each other before getting back to it.

It took a few good hours for Spades to clear the area and check everything out before leaving, though it gave the three plenty of time to prepare for later. When the man went to bed after an admittedly exhausting day, they set out to get to work.

They were able to sneak out their usual weapons, along with the few extra they'd need for Eridan and Feferi. Again, they weren't sure whether to bring the other girl along until they figured it would look weird to cancel now, especially since they might need the extra manpower.

It didn't take long to get to the daycare, nor was it difficult to find a way in. Karkat's intangibility and the fact Bronya allowed the security system to be turned off until the haunting was over made it a breeze to sneak in. They were only staying outside so they could meet up with the last two.

It wasn't hard to spot them either. Apparently, Feferi drove a pink Volkswagen Beetle that stood out very proudly within the dark night. The only reason they even knew the name of car was that it was that iconic, and it weirdly fit the girl.

Eridan was the first to get out, making his normally dour appearance somehow jarringly funny compared to the Bug. That comparison got even worse when Feferi came out and started heading out with them.

"Alright, you know everything I told you about his situation. Play along." Karkat whispered to the Aradia and Sollux before the other two got into earshot. He turned around, waving them down with a somewhat awkward smile. "Hey, good to see you two made it. Wish it were under better circumstances."

"I'm not going to lie; I didn't think I'd see you for a ghost hunt when meeting up." Feferi waved at Aradia and Sollux with a smile, though made sure to keep her eyes on the building afterward. "Any reason why we're not letting your dad handle this one?"

"Spades really doesn't like ghosts." Sollux shrugged at the confused look sent his way. "You've seen his eye, right? The one that was scratched out?"

"A ghost supposedly scratched it out of something. He claimed that it happened to him when he was a kid." Aradia stopped, staring off into space as she calculated. "Or that actually did happen. He did prove that they exist, so that might be a thing."

"Did some research too. This ghost might not be as hostile as we think it is." Karkat handed the two of them some a paper with some of the stuff they found. It wasn't filled with the happiest stuff, but it was accurate at least. "Plus, even if we're wrong, it's at least not attacking the kids. It's only attacked teenagers or adults so far."

"Jesus, this is actually pretty morbid." Eridan must've got to the part about the guys death. "Are you sure this one is going to be friendly? Dying like that wouldn't exactly create a friendly ghost."

"If they aren't or if we're wrong about who this is, we still have ghost weapons." Karkat gave them the ectoguns next, along with some ghost tasers. "This should be enough as is. We aren't actually going to antagonize him, but that doesn't mean he won't try to antagonize us."

"Are we going in teams then?" Feferi still looked a little weirded out by the entire situation, but the fact she had a literal laser gun in her hand calmed her down slightly. She resisted to turn the piece of equipment on in case she misfired. "How are we dividing it? I mean, it's fine, but I think I want to have at least one person who knows what they're doing with me."

"We draw straws!" Aradia grabbed a small cup from her backpack, waving it around to get people to move to her. "There's two red and three blue straws. Pick yours out and that's what team you're on."

"I thought we vetoed this plan." Sollux still reluctantly picked out his straw, knowing that arguing with Aradia would solve nothing. He had blue. "Alright, who's with me?"

"I am." Eridan waved around his blue straw while Karkat raised his own. "Huh, looks like we're going gender wise. Didn't really expect that."

"Neither did I." Karkat shrugged, pocketing the straw before heading on over to the building. "Alright, let's get this over with. Stay on high alert, people, we're going ghost hunting."

"Yeah!" The other four followed behind, Aradia excited about doing this, while Sollux just looked indifferent. Eridan and Feferi hung back a bit, watching the other three move ahead.

"You picked out some weird friends to hang out." Feferi didn't seem to disapprove. It was more a general observation.

"You can say that again." Eridan kept a tight lip as they went inside, the darkness of the daycare overtaking them.

Aradia didn't exactly hang out with a lot of people outside of her friends. The brief amount of time with the goths was fun, but she didn't really count that since she was in a pretty bad place. She did talk to people outside of Karkat and Sollux, but again, she wasn't that close to other people.

Feferi seemed okay to hang out with. A little quiet as she kept a flashlight trained on every weird noise, as if expecting something to happen. It was a good way of going about this, though she doubted Feferi knew that.

"So," Aradia did her best to summon any social skills she had to actually talk to her. It's been a while thanks to the ghost stuff. "How are you handling the town? Have to admit, must've been a rough move after just deciding to stay here."

It was softball stuff, but it brightened the mood. Feferi thought it over carefully before answering.

"It's been pretty interesting so far, even with all the controversy and stuff." Feferi shrugged. It was honest, as far as Aradia could tell. "Mom's trying to find any leftover property and see what she can invest in this place. She thinks after things die down, there might be a lot of activity around here."

Aradia frowned but nodded along. She would've liked the town to stay the same, but she figured that wouldn't be the case after the presentation decidedly rocked the world's foundation. "Something tells me she'll be right about that. I certainly expect a lot more government guys running around."

"Hopefully not. Military bases and all that are apparently really bad for business." Feferi kept looking around before sighing a little. "Can I ask you something and you'll answer me honestly?"

"Depends on the question." Aradia didn't miss a beat, expecting this. "Fire away, though."

"Is this some kind of hazing ritual?" Aradia barked a laugh at that, causing Feferi to raise an eyebrow. "It's a valid question! I mean, I've only met you guys once, Karkat's apparently hung out with Eridan, so I don't know why you guys brought us here."

"Oh, it's not a hazing ritual. Trust me, you'd know if it was." Aradia moved a few books out of the way with her foot before moving towards a closet. "Karkat just didn't want a possibly misunderstood ghost get on a dissection table. He figured we'd need backup for this just in case and figured you'd two would want to get in on the local "culture." You can blame his dad for thinking like that."

"I guess that's nice of him." Feferi did laugh a little, the explanation just weird enough to be convincing. "Honestly, even if it was some kind of hazing thing, this might be good for Eridan. He hasn't exactly had a lot of friends outside of me."

"Really? I would've thought he had at least a few." Aradia decided to mine this little nugget of information more, see if there was a vein. "I'm guessing he isn't exactly the friendly type."

"Kind of. Don't get me wrong, Eridan's a good guy," Feferi thought over her next words carefully, picking up a blanket and putting it to the side. "But he can be pretty rude. He's kind of always been that way, honestly. I think it's because of…"

Aradia raised an eyebrow as the other girl trailed off. "Because of what?"

Feferi snapped out of it, shaking her head. "Nothing I can say. At least, nothing I can say for him, y'know?"

Aradia only nodded at that, even though she could already take a guess at what she was talking about. Maybe his mom having to be committed probably screwed him up a little. Then again, there's the matter of his dad…

"His dad is a little bit weird, though." Feferi seemingly got over her own funk, getting back to work. "Eridan seems to like him and does whatever he says, but I don't know. I always got a weird vibe from him growing up."

Aradia chuckled, getting back to work too. She mentally catalogued that bit of information to the back of her mind. "You and me both."

"Thank god, I thought I wasn't the only one there." Feferi took a moment listen, as if expecting something. "I don't hear Eridan yelling at anything just yet. Must mean those three are getting along."

"As long as Sollux doesn't annoy him too much, he might have a couple more friends tonight." Aradia stopped before shaking her head. "If he likes Sollux's sense of humor."

Eridan, despite all hopes otherwise, did not like Sollux's sense of humor.

Karkat felt his eye twitch as Sollux kept annoying Eridan with everything he had, despite the fact he'd sent several glares his way to make him stop. Eridan himself wasn't making things much better, trying, and somewhat failing in making comebacks.

Karkat had planned this out to make sure things went smoothly, but he forgot one glaring issue; he was friends with two sarcastic assholes, of which Sollux was king.

"So, what you're saying is that you're a simp." Eridan had made the mistake of accidentally admitting to liking Feferi a bit and Sollux was rolling with it. "Taking a real long time to admit anything, aren't you?"

"I am not a fucking simp. I don't have to pay to hang out with Feferi." Eridan looked ready to strangle Sollux at this point, and honestly, Karkat couldn't blame him. "I'm not an incel either, before you start with that. I mean, I was kind of one when I was thirteen, but I got over it."

"Sollux, for fucks sake, I will open fire if you don't stop." Karkat rubbed his hand down his face, groaning softly. "Besides, you aren't one to talk. Maybe try something first before you start roasting someone else."

"…Just slaughtering me on main, aren't you KK?" Sollux rolled his eyes, checking the sensors again. "Anything from you two yet? I haven't got shit."

"Nothing. You would've smelled smoke by now if you did." Karkat caught Eridan's confused look and simply shrugged. "I breathe smoke out whenever a ghost is nearby. Kinda why I started coughing when you and your dad showed up."

"Oh, okay." Eridan seemed to relax at that, frowning a little. "Mine isn't really that obvious. My dad and I's eyes glow whenever a ghost shows up around us. Mines weaker, but still pretty obvious when you're looking for it."

"So, if you get the anime glasses effect, we'll start shooting?" Sollux joked before a thoughtful look passed over his face. "Wait, you said that your element power is light, right? Is that why your eyes glow like that."

Eridan looked ready to say something sarcastic back, but the question actually made him think for a second. "That isn't far from the truth, actually. I guess that wouldn't be too farfetched."

"So either I might have fire powers or smoke powers. Like that one guy from those Infamous games." Karkat personally didn't want either of those, but he figured fire powers could be cool. He could try to learn some moves from Avatar to match up with them if he could. "At least that's something to look forward too."

"Who says you have to?" Sollux raised an eyebrow at the admission. An uncomfortable look was on his face in seconds. "We don't even know if your powers are permanent yet. Maybe it could be reversed too."

"Dude, it's been over a month. These powers aren't going away on their own." Despite what he'd previously hoped. Karkat sighed deeply at the face his friend his making. "And if there was a way to reverse, we would've found it by now. Nothing can be done about it."

"Why would you want to reverse it?" Eridan sounded confused, looking at the two like they were nuts. "Isn't having powers a good thing? I mean, most people will never know how to fly or go through walls."

"Yeah, but he didn't exactly ask for them." Sollux eyes narrowed at the other boy, growling a little. "Not everyone's born with it. He had to fucking die to get them."

"I get that!" Eridan put his arms into the air before letting them fall flat, stopping in the hallway. "I'm just saying, there's a lot of advantages hear. It's a cool thing and I don't get why anybody would want to give that up."

"Okay, can you please stop talking like I'm not here." Karkat was ready to push the two away from each other if things got ugly but stopped when he felt some smoke pass through his lips again. He sighed deeply before letting his radar guide him. "Besides, the ghosts here. Focus up."

Karkat was able to see Eridan's eyes literally and figuratively light up before he turned to move forward. They actually did do the anime glasses thing, which would've been funny if it wasn't for the timing of it. Sollux texted someone, most likely Aradia to come with them, before joining them.

Karkat found himself standing before the door to the room from earlier that day, cursing under his breath. Of course it was in there, where else would it be? Could've just walked into here first thing and it would've ended a lot faster. He opened it up slowly, grabbing one of the ecto laced knives.

He was graced with the sight of a bunch of toys floating in the air, a set of books propped up into a fake stage. Some of the toys were moving around on said stage, while other hung off to the sides, as if waiting for a cue. The ones that were moving around, though, moved around in little dances, like they were talking.

Karkat gulped to himself, remembering the article from earlier. He had an idea what this was acting out.

"Jesus Christ." The boys almost jumped, not having heard Aradia arrive. "This is just sad."

"What? What's going on?" Feferi asked before being given enough room to see it. She wilted immediately, backing up from the scene. "This just became a little too much."

"Yeah. Maybe we should just head out?" Eridan had been gearing up for a fight, but this was really just morbid. "I'm not saying that because this is scary, but, well, y'know."

"We can't really leave this guy here alone, though. He's attacking the caretakers." Sollux shrugged, as deeply uncomfortable as everyone else, though trying to remain stoic. "It's with toys, sure, but letting him run around isn't an option."

Karkat debated both sides of this, watching as a green action figure rose slowly away from the other people on the makeshift stage. He watched it rise higher and higher before coming to a decision, walking in before anyone could stop him, clearing his throat.

"Excuse me." Karkat breathed out slowly, hands clenched, knives sheathed. "But we need to talk."

The intrusion caused the ghost to lose control of the objects, dropping them onto the floor. There was a pregnant pause before one of them, a plastic firetruck, flew straight at his head.

Karkat cursed under his breath, dodging effortlessly. He motioned for the others to stand back as he did so, though to keep their weapons out.

"I'm going to take a guess and say that I'm talking to Tavros Nitram?" Karkat received a children's book series moving straight at him as a yes, rolling to the side. "Okay, okay, you don't need to be rude. Just need some confirmation."

He didn't bother taking his weapons out or use his powers. Not only was Feferi here, but he had to make a point. Karkat heard the whine of the windowpanes, as if the air in the room was slowly growing in pressure. A wind was flowing around the room, almost causing an outright cyclone.

"Look, I don't necessarily know what you want from this place," Karkat ducked as a horde of action figures tried to tackle him down, jumping over some of Hot Wheels that drove towards him. "But I'm going to need you stop. Attacking people isn't exactly the best way to solve whatever you want done here."

Karkat swore again as a lull in the throwing started, moving to the side as he something move past him. He swiped at it with his leg, causing the ghost to hit the shelf with a loud bang. He moved back before the ghost could think to retaliate.

"As I said. The only reason I'm not shooting you is because you aren't going after the kids. Why is that?" Karkat was assaulted by one of the cubby's this time, barely this time. "I can't help you if you don't say anything, Nitram. That's not how communicating works."

More toys. The harder ones too. Karkat always did wonder why his dad always said that everything was a weapon. Daycares were armed to the teeth if this was any indication.

He heard a some shot from ecto-guns go off, causing him to take a quick look. Some of the others were shooting things down before they could get to him, which made this a little bit easier. He still had to dodge occasionally but was able to take the occasional breather.

"Seriously. Just stop and listen. This'll go a lot easier if you just cooperate." His voice was starting to form in a low growl, and he had a feeling if this kept going, he was going to use his powers. Feferi's sanity be damned, if this ghost aimed to be a threat, he'd make sure to treat it like one. "I'm not going to give you another warning."

There was another lull in the throwing and Karkat took it as a sign. Instead of moving to the side, he let the ghost try and tackle him. As soon he felt contact, he grabbed at the invisible arm, twisting it hard before throwing the ghost into the wall. It was probably too much, but he kept it up, throwing a punch low enough that he was confident he would hit something.

The ghost gave a little at that, though attempted to get out of his grip. Karkat responded to that by sweeping his leg again, knocking the ghost's legs out from under it. Before it could recover, he grabbed one of the knifes, using an elbow to pin the ghost by the neck, and embedded the knife near it.

The ghost stilled instantly at that. The struggling stopped and the wind that had been present followed with it, causing everything to go still.

"You're going to behave now?" Karkat said evenly, hoping dearly that the ghost wouldn't remember how to go intangible. He could feel it nod hesitantly. "Good. Now show yourself. I'd rather talk to something that has a face."

The ghost didn't comply for a few seconds, but Karkat felt a sigh emanate from it. There was a flicker and Karkat could finally see what he'd been fighting this whole time.

It was Tavros Nitram after all. There hadn't been a photo in the article, though the face that couldn't be older than his was a dead giveaway. Short hair cut into a small, reddish mohawk, wide eyes completely colored in chocolate brown, and darkened skin dotted his features. He was wearing the classic tights of a theatre kid, all green and completed by the regular cap Peter Pan was usually seen wearing.

It wasn't much of a surprise. It was depressing, though.

"Good." Karkat only nodded. He jerked his head to indicate the others could get in. He heard them move around, as if to surround the two of them. "I'm going to ask you a few questions. I'm hoping this is just a misunderstanding and maybe we can clear this all up. Understood?"

"Yes." Tavros nodded quickly, trying not to flinch as he heard the ectoguns power up. "Okay. I'll tell you anything you want."

"Why are you haunting this place?" Karkat let off the pressure a bit, but not enough to let the guy go. "I already know you died in the theatre. You don't need to talk about that, but I do want to know why you stuck around."

Tavros actually relaxed after being told that he didn't need to talk about his death. "I didn't really want to leave. I hung out here until the theatre was torn down and kept staying until they built this place."

"Why couldn't see you before?" Aradia winced as the ghost jumped at the sound of her voice. "Ghost can turn invisible, sure, but you can be seen by kids while remaining invisible to adults. Why?"

"I don't know." Tavros certainly had that wide-eyed look that showed honesty. He had a stutter too that continued getting worse. "When they finally started this place up, some of the kids could just see me, even when the workers couldn't. I learned how to turn it off and on, but I didn't really bother since I figured it would make things worse."

So it was just a special power of his. Good to know.

"Why are you attacking the workers here? They haven't done anything that's been recorded." Sollux didn't ease up on aiming his weapon one bit. "Is there something going on here we don't know about?"

"Look, I may have been mixing some signals there." Tavros raised his arms up, only receiving ectoguns pointed at him and tighter hold in response. "Everything's been tense lately and those people seemed pretty mean to the kids, I might have overreacted-"

"Quiet." Eridan cut in harshly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Blubbering ain't getting you anywhere. Calm down."

"Eridan, that's not how you calm someone down." Feferi lightly slapped her friends' shoulder before looking towards Tavros with a nervous, though comforting smile. "Please continue."

The ghost gulped, trying to think straight before letting out a breath he was holding. "Okay. Sorry. Just hard to speak with a knife near my throat. I think you'd understand that."

Karkat hummed before taking the knife away. It was still in his hand and Karkat kept him pinned. Due to his behavior before, he hadn't earned that trust yet.

"Thanks. That really helps." No one was sure if that was sincere or sarcastic. "I really am sorry about all this. I just…"

"Slow down and think." Aradia said it slowly herself, as if to get him into the mindset. "Talk slowly and let it out."

Tavros took a deep breath again. He opened his mouth and then closed it before opening it once more.

"I've worked in places like this before. Before before." They didn't have to ask what that meant. "More in the places that help handicapped kids. Not a lot of them did background checks and when things got tense in the community, bad things happened."

Karkat actually did let of a bit of pressure, as if to let the air out of a balloon. He thought back to the presentation. How protesters lined up outside his house nowadays and he had to go invisible and intangible to get here.

"…And everyone, and I mean everyone here has been acting weird. Even that Bronya lady at the front office is acting weird." Tavros was rambling now, waving his arms a little. "I'm pretty sure that first guy I threw stuff at had alcohol on his breath, and I heard the Daraya girl is doing this because of a legal thing, and that's never a good sign. I just wanted to make sure the kids were safe and-"

"Stop." Karkat sheathed the knife, raising his now empty hand to shut him up. "We get it. I'm going to let you go now and I'm going to ask you not to run."

The halfa didn't wait for a response, moving and letting the ghost have some room. The ghost was relieved to say the least. Karkat pointed at the door.

"Tavros and I are going to negotiate here. If you guys would wait outside." Karkat heard some hesitant footsteps that moved barely from their original position. "Faster please."

They actually did move this time, moving towards the door awkwardly. He could see Eridan give Tavros the universal "I'm watching you" gesture before heading out the door. Sollux just rolled his eyes and followed behind him.

"So, how was that for your first ghost hunt?" Aradia slapped Feferi on the back good naturedly. "Again, it wasn't a hazing ritual. But it was a fun one, right?"

"It was the most terrifying thing I've been a part of. Of course it was fun." Karkat stifled a laugh as Feferi said that. She was the last to leave, giving an awkward look behind her, a small smile towards Karkat. "Looks like you might be fun to hang out with."

That comment kind of mystified him. He decided to categorize that for later.

"I'm going to start by saying this; you have made a terrible first impression." The halfa paid no mind to the wilting of the ghost in front of him. "You've attacked two people out of fear-based reasons, which I can only excuse as being part of your obsession. You've also attacked me, even when I came in here simply asking if you wanted to talk. There's also the matter that you're haunting a place with kids, where your attacks could've seriously hurt them."

Tavros only nodded along, barely looking up at the halfa in front of him. He didn't disagree that he went a little overboard and may have caused too much attention to fall onto himself.

"…however, I am willing to give you another chance here." Karkat raised a hand before Tavros could speak. "It has restrictions. I get why you're concerned, but you can't do this half cocked anymore. You almost got caught by a ghost hunter, so you're going to have to listen to me."

"What do you want me to do?" The ghost looked ready to agree to anything, which was exactly what he wanted. Excellent. "I'll do whatever I can."

"First, you need to answer to me if you think you have suspicions. We'll find out how to work that out later." Karkat raised a finger for that first thing and raised more as he continued. "Two, you're going to do it in a way that doesn't end in injury if you find something legitimate. And three, you're going to need to hide out for a couple of days. My dad's searching this place because of your bullshit."

"A couple of days?" Tavros looked hesitant. He didn't exactly want to leave the kids behind. "Are you sure? I don't want to leave anyone here alone."

"Tough shit. It's either seem them after a few days or never again." Karkat's harsh tone finally got the ghost to nod his head. "Do you agree with my terms? Or do we have to have another talk?"

"I understand." Tavros put his hand out nervously, giving a shaky smile. "It looks like we got a deal."

Karkat snorted, grabbing the boy's hand. "Yeah, I guess we do."

Karkat felt a pain in his hand again, causing the two to rip their hands away. Ectoplasm and bit of blood dropped to the floor as they did, which they could only blink at.

"Does that happen a lot to you?" Tavros asked, genuinely curious. He didn't even look offended at the idea that his hand was bleeding.

"Second time that's happened." Karkat shook his head, grabbing the thermos. "Alright, time to take you out of here."

The halfa didn't have any trouble getting the ghost into the thermos, capping it to take one last look at the floor where the blood and ectoplasm landed. He frowned at it, looking his own hand before sighing. He didn't bother looking back as he finally left he damn daycare.

Karkat would figure that out later. He had some fucking sleep to catch up on.

It does seem to be a quick wrap up, but there is some stuff we need to move on to. I'm implementing some more worldbuilding after this and I'm thinking it would take a lot to explain it. This was a breather compared to the other stuff from earlier chapters.

Alright then, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you all next chapter!