While this may have come out on time for you guys (probably) I actually had this ready on Christmas. I figured this is a late present for some of you who've been reading thus far. Hopefully it's a good present for all of you!

Anyway, hope you all enjoy!

Karkat figured there'd be some kind of ramifications from the fight with Fright Knight. Considering there was a strong possibility of gaining more powers after making a borderline warlock pact, the fact he saw himself die in many possible ways, and the fight had more collateral damage than usual was one part of it.

The more immediate one, though, was the fact that he now had a goddamn tattoo on the back of his neck. Something that Aradia and Sollux now shared with him.

"Jesus Christ, I figured I'd get my first tattoo after one of you pushes me to do it after we turn twenty-one." Sollux griped, poking at the brand. It looked much like the Doom symbol, grayed out compared to the rest of his body. The other two's tattoos were similar in design, each with their own symbol in the same color. "Then again, a cult ritual was my second guess, so I probably shouldn't complain."

"I think it looks nice. Wish it were the same color as the symbol, but I'd say it's at least tasteful." Aradia could only shrug, giving the mirror back to Karkat. "Probably shouldn't say anything to our parents, though. My dad is cool with some things, but I'm pretty sure he'll kill you both if he figures out we have tattoos now."

"Yeah, like how we got them isn't already bad enough." Karkat kinda liked it too, but the fact this was related to the borderline religion of the Ghost Zone did irk him a bit. It was a brand, pure and simple. "If that's the only weird thing to happen because of our pacts though, I think I can stomach it."

"We all know that isn't he only weird thing that's going to happen." Sollux rubbed at his eyes, grumbling to himself. "I'm not the only one who had some weird dreams last night, right? I don't remember them, but they definitely kept waking me up."

"I don't remember having any dreams last night. Which is weird because I usually dream every night." Aradia didn't seem bothered by that fact, but she did spare a pitying glance towards Sollux. "Anything happen to you last night, Karkat?"

The halfa almost wanted to mention that his sleep was either interrupted by nightmares or the Box Ghost appearing in the middle of the night but decided to keep that to himself. The fight with Fright Knight may have been a win by all accounts, though that didn't negate the fact Karkat knew he could die ten different ways on their way to school.

"I slept fine. Box Ghost kept coming out of the Ghost Zone, but it's not like he's hard to deal with." Karkat shrugged, fighting down a shiver. He still needed to make time to research that guy's origin if only to let him get some more sleep. "I'm just hoping that today will be a normal school day."

Karkat realized he said the cursed words once again. Wishing for a normal school day always ended up causing it to be anything but, something he knew by now, but kept engaging in.

And this time, the monotony was broken up with a text on his phone.

With a certain amount of dread, he looked at the screen with a sigh. A text from Eridan, containing a link to a website. One that he was familiar with and run by a someone who he'd had the pleasure of running into in his goddamn ghost form.

"Guys," Karkat sighed tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose with annoyance. "Jude's website made an update."

The halfa would admit that he'd forgotten some very important elements of the fight due to how hectic it truly was. In all fairness, the fact he even remembered everyone's part in it was a miracle. To say the least though, you couldn't really blame him for forgetting about the Claire kids.

That turned out to be a costly mistake as Karkat was now looking at a picture on Jude's blog showing him as Phantom floating a good deal off the ground. It wasn't the best photo in the world, but it was clear enough to show it wasn't something that most people would find late at night during a nice walk.

Goddamn it.

"How the fuck?!" Sollux pointed at the phone with narrowed eyes, looking at Karkat accusingly. "KK, when the fuck did you become the next Bigfoot? I don't remember that Jude kid being around the place when we were fighting Fright Knight."

"That's because you were catatonic while reciting old magic from a religion of the dead." Karkat didn't even feel anger or fear at seeing the photo. All he could feel was exhaustion as to what trouble it was probably going to bring his way. "They were near the factory that night and I may have talked to him and his sister after jughead threw me through a wall. I forgot about them because I was, y'know, trying to stay alive."

"Okay, this isn't great," Aradia ran a hand through her hair, looking through the blog post. Skimming through the ramblings, she couldn't help but feel a bit relieved to see the familiar rants of the eccentric Claire kid. "But Jude isn't exactly considered the most stable kid in the world. Not a lot of people follow his blog, and this looks like something they'd call fake pretty easily."

"That'd be true if Joey hadn't been with him. She saw me too and I doubt she's going to deny it." Karkat shrugged, trying to hold on to a little hope. "Or maybe she'll stick to her guns and try to deny it all the way. Dad has met some pretty big skeptics before, and she does seem like the type to just keep it all on the down low."

"I don't know, man. If she saw you, she might not be a skeptic anymore." Sollux noted the bus heading their way. "Guess we'll just have to see when we get to school."

Karkat groaned softly to himself before moving on to it. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as he thought.

In a rare twist of events, Karkat had been half right. Depending on how you looked at it, the situation may have been a good thing.

On the downside, everyone had read Jude's blog and his ghost self's face was being shown everywhere. However, everyone was treating it like a joke and was memeing the fuck out of it.

Despite the fact Joey was doing her best to help her brother, Tethis had gotten a hold of the blog post and decided to make the damn thing a meme to everyone that looked at it. Karkat couldn't help but feel thankful for that, even if it was literally the worst person he knew that did it.

Of course, this had the unfortunate consequence of Jude nearly ranting in the middle of the cafeteria, his sister trying to stop him from drawing too much attention to himself.

"Why would I, of all people, doctor these photos?!" Jude waved a printout of the picture at the retreating form of another skeptic. "I literally posted it minutes after taking it! How are none of you paying attention to this?!"

Karkat almost felt sorry for him, especially since it reminded him of his dad talking to skeptics himself. He would've done something about it if this literally didn't have everything to do with his secret identity.

At least Jude had got the name right. He would've hated being stuck with some weird, made up name like Inviso-Bill or something.

"So," Eridan moved to sit beside him, a lunch tray hitting the table with a little bit of clatter. "There's been some interesting stuff online lately."

"I'll say. Was that really another ghost or is that Jude guy really into movies?" Feferi moved to sit near Eridan, surprised at the empty table. "Where's Aradia and Sollux?"

"In the library. They need to finish up a project they've been working on." Karkat shrugged, not envying them. It was really them just writing and copying down the notes on ghosts they'd made during the Fright Knight debacle, and he'd been left behind to keep an eye on Jude. "And yeah, I don't know. I heard some stuff happened at that factory he mentioned, though, so he might not be completely off."

This reminded him to thank Feferi at some point for not ratting about the existence of ghosts. Of course, she'd met one while they were on a hunt that none of them were allowed to be on, so that was fair.

"Hm, shame. It would've been nice to hear their thoughts on it." Feferi hummed. Eridan looked ready to disagree with her, causing her to bop him lightly on the head. "Don't say anything stupid. You said you had fun on that ghost hunt."

"Doesn't mean I don't find that Captor guy really annoying." Eridan had the decency to look embarrassed at Karkat for saying that out loud. "No offense to you, of course."

"Don't worry about it. I've been friends with him for years, I know what he's like." Karkat took a sip of the cafeteria milk, frowning as he realized he got the wrong kind this time. "What's up with you two, anyway? Things have been pretty busy on my end, so I'd like to hear something new."

"Mom's been talking to a few businesses in the area and planning on investing into some." Feferi shrugged, not particularly interested in the idea. "She's probing around before deciding on buying up a place or two and keeping the workers. Even looking into real estate, which is new for her."

"My dad's actually been wanting to talk to yours for a while now." Eridan jumped at the new subject with earnest. His eyes seemed to light up at that. "I think he wants to help fund your dad's research. He actually seemed pretty interested in it."

Karkat paused at that, parsing out that some hidden meaning behind it. Eridan most likely believed Oberon wanted to a portal so they could check out the Ghost Zone themselves. Maybe it would also get them to know more about ghosts in general, making sure they got closer to their 'heritage,' or something.

The halfa could only barely guess what he'd actually want it for. A part of him wanted to just say that it wasn't possible since Spades got most of his funding from the government, but a part of him knew that wouldn't fly if Oberon went around him for it.

"Any idea on how he plans on convincing my dad? He can pretty protective over his research." Karkat figured that would throw him off, if only a little bit. Spades was legendarily paranoid about people trying to steal his research. "Hell, you saw him share it out of spite earlier. I don't even know he's going to mention the hover car to anyone yet."

"…I'm sorry, did you say- never mind." Eridan had to pause, the revelation of that taking him off track. "He's heading over later today. Says he has plans for something later this week that might help convince him."

"I think I might call mom too. If he's serious about the hover technology, she might finally decide to invest in vehicle companies." Feferi brought out her phone to text her mom about this, mind abuzz. It seemed like she was taking the last statement as a joke. "She's still weirded out by the portal thing, but maybe that'll get her interested in the place besides money."

Karkat figured he shouldn't have mentioned the hover car, but he thought that he wouldn't believe him. Maybe he shouldn't have said that to the people that were present during his dad's unveiling of the ghost portal.

Shit. Hopefully, they'd put it off.

Both of their parents had decided to come in today. Why did Karkat choose to have hope for anything? Why did the world love proving him wrong?

"…I genuinely thought you were joking about the hover car."

"Who said I was joking?"

Karkat had to watch as his dad excitedly introduce the concept of the flying car to the astounded Feferi and semi-freaked out Crocker. No talk about investments was made yet, Feferi had just joked about the thing and Spades dragged it right out. He even told him they could give them a quick run around with the thing to prove that it worked.

That had happened ten minutes ago, and they still hadn't touched the ground yet.

"Well, I suppose the automotive industry is going to be revolutionized within the next few years." Oberon watched as Feferi whooped with excitement and Crocker was going from cursing to laughing every few minutes. "Probably the air travel industry too. Has he talked about how he's going to use it to get across the oceans yet?"

"He's still trying to figure out the base fuel requirements for that to work." Karkat felt his eye twitch as his dad did a particularly risky spin. "Not to mention how he'd get that past every countries air and space commissions. Much less America's."

"Judging from his driving, they might just disqualify him for that alone." Eridan winced at another round of cursing from Crocker, which only got Spades to laugh a lot more. "You think he's going to stop anytime soon?"

"If he thinks that he has a point to prove, he'll take as much time as he needs." The halfa was relieved to note that it wasn't much longer, as Spades began touching down. "Might want to help them come down from the motion sickness. Car and air sickness might kick their ass as soon as they touch down."

Eridan jumped at that opportunity, most likely to look good in front of Feferi. Oberon stayed back, something Karkat expected. The younger halfa cracked open his soda, waiting for the older one to start whatever spiel he was going with.

"I've been hearing some interesting things online lately. Something about a 'ghostly apparition' wearing a gas mask floating around that ruined factory." It wasn't a question. Oberon had pulled out a flask from somewhere, taking a drink himself. "Anything I should now about?"

"Bit of a problem happened in the Ghost Zone. Spilled out into the human world a little bit." Karkat didn't plan on mentioning much else. He highly doubted Oberon had been a part of it, but he didn't plan on risking it. "Things got a little out of hand there, but it's been dealt with."

"Seems like it was a bit more out of hand than usual. I checked the place out myself and it looks like whatever got out did a number on the place." Oberon's voice was layered with concern, looking over the boy quickly. "I'd be more scared if you'd appeared more hurt from it, though. I guess it wasn't too difficult for you take down?"

"Yeah. Didn't really get in any good hits." The throb of a phantom injury begged to differ, but Karkat pushed the thought down. "I'll need more firepower later on. It was a pretty tough fight."

"One that I think would be good if we decided to go forward on some training." Ah, there was the subject he wanted. Didn't really have to wait long for it, did he? "It seems like you've been hesitant to take me up on it."

"It's not that I'm hesitant or something," Karkat struggled to come up with a good enough lie to take that heat off of him. He probably should've put more thought into this already, but he'd hoped this would come later. "There's just a lot on my plate right now."

It wasn't a lie at all, honestly. School was only getting tougher as time went on, the pressure from the scientific community was breathing down dad's neck. That wasn't even getting into the ghost hunting he was getting into at night.

Oberon seemed to understand that, or at least play along with it. He watched his son closely as he tried keep Feferi from falling, Crocker talking to Spades at length about something.

"I can understand why you're reluctant, you know."

"Huh?" Karkat was surprised at the interjection. "What are you talking about?"

"About me just me, you know, showing up." Oberon didn't seem to mind whatever it was he was thinking, talking about it like he was talking about the weather. "To you, I just apparently showed up out of nowhere, by chance, with no prompting whatsoever. I'd be suspicious about all of this too.

"You know how my accident was. It came all of a sudden, changed me completely, and ended up dictating a good amount of my own life." The older halfa shrugged. "Very much how it happened with you. If I were in your position, this would all seem very fortuitus and unbelievable."

"…it really is." Karkat did know how feeling. He figured if it wasn't for Skulker accidentally blabbing on that radio, he would've felt that suspicion at some point. "I appreciate everything you've talked about, but-but it was all at once and terrifying. Acknowledging that his isn't going away."

"God, I would've given anything to have the whole ghost thing go away, especially at your age." Oberon chuckled, somewhat bitterly. "I suppose I came on strong with the offer to help you. I was just so excited to know there was more of me in the world. And not just what I helped create either."

The older man sighed, putting the flask away. "I'm planning on getting your father up to a local cabin to talk about business over the upcoming three-day weekend. I was hoping that we could talk about some things further there. Start over, perhaps. Would that work?"

Karkat took his time to think about. Oberon didn't know that the other halfa knew of his less than stellar past, so that was a plus for him. That did get in the way of things a little, especially since it made Oberon shady as all hell.

…But then again, maybe he never considered looking at it from his side. Oberon did say how scary of a situation this all was. Karkat had lucked out on having a ghost scientist as a dad and portal in his basement. Not to mention running into friendly ghosts willing to explain some things to him when he needed it.

Maybe the crimes int the Ghost Zone were a way to find out more about himself that he couldn't do normally? That some of the shady business stuff was to help support himself during what was probably very long time in the hospital? He could only imagine the fucking bills he got afterward.

…They'd have to talk about it. Karkat could probably convince him to cut some shit out and they'd start from there. The halfa didn't want to lose the chance to know another person that went through this crap, so some concessions would have to be made.

"I'll go." Karkat shrugged, figuring that he should make the next step too. "Good luck convincing my dad to part with anything willingly, but I'm willing to talk things out. Slowly this time."

"I appreciate it." Oberon did smile this time, nodding along. "It'll be good to finally smooth things over. Once and for all."

Karkat shivered at those words but didn't really understand why.

It turns out, it was completely easy to convince Spades to go up into the forest to spend the weekend at a nice cabin. He hadn't made any promises to let Oberon or Crocker invest into anything, but they got packing the same day to help start things up.

It was weird, honestly. Karkat actually couldn't help but feel giddy about it, in a way. Despite the shit that had been going down, things might actually begin to look up if the things go right on the trip. Of course, they could go wrong too, but that was lower on the spectrum than anything else.

One thing he didn't account for, though, was being stuck in the car with his dad for a good while. Which normally wouldn't be a problem if Karkat didn't know there was a fuck ton of ghost hunting of equipment in the back.

"Still can't believe Oberon of all people still wants to invest into my shit." Spades tapped the steering wheel, deep in thought. "I get that it's all fucking genius, but it isn't like he'd take an interest in it. It's not exactly his forte."

"Maybe he just wants to have a hand in advancing science or something." Karkat shrugged, doing his best to ignore the beeping in the backseat. He thanked the fact he'd picked up that necklace once more, otherwise all of the trackers would be going nuts by now. "It's not like he can't stop it. Might as well join it while he can."

"Not exactly that simple, kid. I'm still surprised that he even came to the ceremony, much less stay here at all." Spades frowned, remembering something unpleasant. "Especially since we might actually have to deal with ghost attacks now. I don't know if that Jude kids' stuff is legit, but it'd be a good idea to look into it."

"Or not. I heard the kid tends to focus on cults, so he might be blaming it on them or something." Karkat really didn't want to venture into that conversation. He figured it would be better to turn it to a different one. "Why are you so surprised Oberon is nice to you, anyway? He doesn't seem like a bad guy."

Spades winced, trying to find the words to say. It looked like he gave up halfway through, slouching in the driver's seat a little bit.

"It's complicated. Some stuff happened in high school that I couldn't really take back and neither could he." The man gave a half-shrug, not sure how to continue this. "There's some things you can't really reverse, no matter how much you want them too. I figured Oberon would still hold some things against me. Not like he wouldn't have the right to."

"You make it sound like you murdered his family in cold blood. What did you do that would get that kind of reaction?" Karkat already did, but that was something that bothered him. Oberon would've definitely gotten help from his dad if he'd told him about the half ghost thing. "Who stopped talking to who first, anyway?"

"…Hard to say." This really wasn't something Spades didn't want to talk about, apparently. Karkat couldn't help but feel disappointed by this. "Anything concerning at school I should know about."

"Not really. People still look at me weirdly, but I think people are getting used to the idea of ghosts now." That wasn't a lie either. The initial panic, at least within the town, was beginning to subside. The both of them were still expecting a letter from the Catholic church saying they were excommunicated any day now, but that was another matter. "If anything, it's better than ever."

"Your generation has been traumatized too much." Spades grumbled. It was a with a chuckle, though. One that got caught short when he noticed a flamboyantly pink car stopped at the trail. "The hell?"

They stopped the car instantly at the sight, Spades already getting out. Karkat dully realized that the two people standing outside of it were Feferi and her mom, looking at something in front of the car. Thankfully, it didn't appear to be serious judging from their expressions.

"Hey, Crocker!" Spades moved ahead, trying to get a good look at what they were looking at. "Something fucking wrong here? Can't imagine you're standing out here for fun."

"There's a tree in the road." Crocker didn't wasn't thrilled with this predicament, holding a cell phone at her side. "I called some one to try and get it out of the way, but I don't know how long it'll take for them to get here."

Karkat instantly relaxed at that, leaning back onto the car. He could actually see the tree right now, realizing that, yeah, it was definitely big enough to block the road. It wasn't huge, but it probably couldn't be taken down by some random schmoes without a car.

Karkat wondered if his ghost half could pick that up no problem. That thought changed to something a little more somber.

Should he tell his dad about his ghost half now? Or at least after this little thing in the woods is over? At some point, he was going to have to mention it, with shit getting more serious as time kept going on. The halfa wasn't really sure is his father could reverse the whole ghost thing, but maybe he could help with the side research. The whole halfa thing provided so many rich opportunities that Spades wouldn't be able to knock off.

He'd gotten lucky so far that his dad didn't suspect anything and that the whole superhero deal hadn't affected his life too much. It was bound to do something to his social life, one way or another, and he couldn't just hide it from everyone forever. For fucks sake, he was breathing smoke out right now and wait a fucking minute.

Karkat quickly clacked his mouth shut, getting off the car swiftly. Eyes sweeping around the tree line, he tried to see whether there was anything glowing in the distance or outwardly threatening to take care of. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, but ghosts weren't ordinary anyway, so that meant nothing.

A tap on his shoulder caused him to whirl around. Feferi just blinked at him with a confused little smile on her face.

"Well, looks like someone has something on their mind." The girl chuckled before tilting her head a little bit. "Mind sharing with me? I think I can keep a secret."

"Nothing much." Karkat bit back the instinctual urge to stutter, swallowing down the caution. "Just thought I saw something in the trees."

"Oh, is a deer nearby! Been a while since I've seen any of those." Feferi tried to look where he had been, squinting into the inherent darkness of Amity Park's forests. "I figured this place would be too cursed to have anything in it."

"You'd be right. Amity Park doesn't really get a lot of forest animals, even during spring." Karkat felt a pull, his ghost sense trying to lead him to a certain direction. He tried to subtly glance towards it without the girl noticing. "That's why I'm concerned. Hopefully it's a deer and not some stray dog pack."

"I'm sure they'd straighten out with a good shelter. I don't know if this place has one yet, though." Feferi clapped, a thought occurring. "Maybe I can try and start one while I'm here! I've been dying to have a project to do and that seems like a good place to start."

"Yeah, sounds perfect." It really did, but Karkat would've been a lot more interested if they weren't possibly in danger right now. "Maybe the mayor would approve that."

Feferi did frown a little at his apparent disinterest, trying again to find what he was looking for. "Are you sure you're okay? You look the kid that cried-"

A loud howl cut her off, echoing in the forest through every tree, piercing every living thing within it. It bounced off, surrounding the four people in the street as it pounded into their ears, causing them all to physically wince.

Worst of all, Karkat could tell that echo was partially ghost like.

"-wolf? Was that wolf?" Feferi did seem alarmed now, keeping her hackles raised. "What would a pack have to do around here?"

"I don't know, but I don't think I want to find out." Karkat instantly moved towards the back of his dad's car, shouting out. "Dad, open the trunk! If that thing has friends, we could scare it off with a lightshow real quick!"

"Fuck, sure! Let me get keys out!" Spades frantically went through his pocket, Crocker pulling out a taser. He wanted to question that before just shrugging and grabbing the key fob. "It's unlocked!"

The halfa felt a surge of hope at that, making it to the trunk easily and grabbing the handle. He swung it open, grabbing at the top suitcase and doing his best to open it, desperately trying to remember the combination.

He was about halfway to opening it before he was tackled by something, a big and furry thing taking him down and making him hit the pavement. The halfa didn't know what hit him, dazed enough for him to close and open his eyes several times to make him focus.

He was met with the wrathful glare of a giant wolf looking down at him, pinning him down with prejudice. It growled at him lowly, the sound echoing in the forest much like the howl did, making Karkat's bones vibrate. Its fur was unstained, black, and coarse, but shining under the lowered sun's gaze.

A scar was over one of its eyes, but that didn't diminish the obviously supernatural glow buried within it. And the absolute hunger and anger within it as well.

"Shit." Karkat mumbled.

This trip had officially gone south before it even began.

Karkat is never allowed to have optimism, ever. Look at where it gets him! Maybe that's why he's such a grumpy little ass, it'll get him killed if he's positive about anything!

Anyway, sorry there's not a lot of action in this chapter, but this is mostly set up for everything that happens next. Hope you enjoy it anyway, even those that sense what's coming next.

I'll see you all next chapter!