Alright, I'm sorry it took this long to get here, but due to the holiday season, I've been busy. I'm also a bit tired, so sorry if updates are slow for a while. I'll admit to feeling iffy about this chapter, but I should be getting to parts I want to write soon enough, so it'll be fine. I'm also running a bit of a game too right now, so I should be able to at least interact with you guys a bit more, so read the note at the end to figure it out.

I'll leave you guys to it. Enjoy the chapter!

For Sollux, it started out as a normal day. That was the problem.

The teen woke up with a start in his room, nearly falling out of his bed as he felt his brain catch up to his body. Breathing hard, he looked over his surroundings before forcing himself to calm down.

"Jesus Christ, was I dreaming there?! That better not have been a dream." Sollux rubbed at his eyes, wiping the sleep from his eyes. His body felt shaky, like he'd been through something traumatic. "KK's right. Maybe I shouldn't videogames before bed."

The teen looked at his nightstand to find that it was only 3 a.m., an ungodly hour if he said so himself. He was wide awake now, which meant he'd definitely suffer through the school day if he couldn't snatch a nap. He scowled, moving to get off the bed.

"Great. Guess I can see if I can get ahead on my homework." Sollux grumbled. He could do with some online gaming if he didn't have anything too, maybe prepare for the next ghost attack, but not much else. "I wonder who's online right now…"

He was interrupted by the sound of a rock hitting his window, the tap nearly sending him out of his skin. He looked at it, offended, before jumping towards it and opening it before another could be sent its way.

Much to his horror, he could see Aradia standing below it, fuming as Kanaya and Feferi awkwardly hung behind. The memories from his "dream" came back to haunt him as he realized what had happened.

Sollux gulped as he looked down at Aradia, feeling her anger from where he was. "I fucked up badly, didn't I?"

"Oh, I don't blame you." Aradia said it sweetly, which only made him not believe her. Or, at the very least, it didn't give him confidence that he wasn't in for a shitstorm later. "I am mad at whoever that lady in a robe did to bring us here like this. Now let us up!"

Sollux sighed, grabbing the usual ladder she used to get in. It was shaping up to be a long night.

The girls didn't take long to get up there, with Sollux thanking the fact his dads were heavy sleepers. He didn't want to know how he'd explain having three people in his room this late at night.

"Alright, can somebody explain what the hell happened back at the fountain? Other than waking up in near there, I don't know what else happened." Kanaya cricked her neck, grunting as an audible crack could be heard. "Other than something about a 'Muse,' I didn't understand a thing about that."

"Thanks for finding us when you could, Aradia." Feferi seemed to get the kinks out of her as well, having realized how rough she felt. "Whatever she did, I feel very messed up from it. I almost feel motion sick."

"It's probably some form of- wait, when did they get involved?" Sollux finally registered that this was Feferi and Kanaya standing there, talking about ghosts with them. "How and why are they even here?"

"They know and they've apparently known for weeks now. Trust me, I'm upset by this too." Aradia didn't want to focus on that. She wanted to see what was going on first. "How much do you remember? You seemed dazed when you were talking to the Muse, and you honestly don't seem much better right now."

Sollux would've argued that was due to the lack of sleep, but everything about the situation had been fuzzy before he woke up. At least from his perspective, everything between sitting down on the fountain and waking up almost felt… unreal.

"I'm not sure what happened. Or, no, I do know what happened, I just don't know how or why." Sollux figured that was the closest to the truth. It wasn't satisfying for himself, so he kept digging through the fuzz in his mind. "I was just moping on the fountain, and I guess she must've heard me. She said that she could grant me a wish as long as I said it out loud."

"…If it wasn't for everything we've heard in the past twenty-four hours, I would consider this absolutely insane." Kanaya mourned whatever normalcy that had left her life when she got to Amity Park right then. She really wished it would come back. "How exactly would a ghost grant wishes? That seems like something out of their forte."

"I'd like to agree with that, but from the looks of things, it might've worked. Take a look at this," Feferi had taken her phone out, having switched to a few news sites. All of them looked pretty normal, but she'd apparently dated back to a few months ago. "Notice anything missing?"

The question sounded innocent at first, but now that they could all look at it clearly, they could see it was dated back to when the portal had been unveiled to the public. Except there wasn't anything related to it mentioned anywhere, despite it being near worldwide news. Feferi made sure to move forward on the dates to see if it showed up later, but it was like it was wiped from the servers.

"That's weird. It's almost like Spades never went public with the portal. That doesn't seem like him." Aradia grumbled, thinking it through. Spades wasn't exactly subtle, and he wouldn't have let something he was so proud about get put under the radar like this. "…Sollux, what did you wish for?"

The boy paused for a few seconds, trying to remember the answer to that question.

And then, with a gasp, he really wished he hadn't.

The Muse, formerly known as Calliope, couldn't help but marvel at the sights of this new, modern world that was spread before her. Humans always had a knack for invention, and since she had been gone for so long (eons, if she was right), it would take a while to catch up with what was currently possible for them.

Hovering invisibly above the large crowds that populated the town, she flew down occasionally to look over the moving screens, seeing various scenes play out. Some of them were very wonderful, showing bright colors and cute critters moving about their daily lives.

Of course, others showed more gruesome images in a more realistic form. Judging from how it was presented, The Muse could only guess it was some form of news, and all of it appeared to be upsetting. Weapons of war and cruelty seemed to have advanced as well, a sad sight to see considering she'd seen plenty before.

"Humans have changed so much but haven't differed much at all." She sighed to herself. Ghosts were much the same, being the aftermath of the cruelty of life. "Still fighting, still getting into trouble."

Her heart ached a familiar ache as she looked down at all of the humans, pity filling her stomach. She remembered her past dealings with ghosts and how she tried to lessen their suffering, but they'd been resistant. She had always wondered why, but maybe it was because she didn't go for the source before.

"Ghosts are born from the tragedy of humans. Of course they'd want to stay that way to keep existing." She mumbled to herself. She could see a miserable human walking towards his car with a box in tow, tears in his eyes. "So why not make humanity's lives better instead? Yes, that should be the right way. They'll accept my help much more readily."

The Muse followed the despondent human, letting him sort through his things as he got into the driver's seat. She tilted her head as he silently picked out a small action figure of a man in a mechanical suit. Was it someone he worshipped?

"You have seen some hard times lately, haven't you?" The Muse whispered into the man's ear. He didn't know it, of course, only feeling it as thoughts poking into his brain, floating through the ether. "Is this not the life you wanted? You always wanted to be something else."

"I always wanted to help people." The man mumbled to himself, answering her question. He moved one of the action figures arms, feeling mournful at the wear and tear it had. "Got stuck at a desk job when I broke my leg badly and couldn't even right anymore."

"That should be very easy to fix." The Muse giggled. She put a hand under his chin, her voice turning into a whisper. "Now repeat after me…"

"I wish…"

Aradia had been angry when she learned what this was all about, but the fact that she understood made it much worse.

Cornering Sollux and getting him to tell her privately had been easy and Aradia couldn't be mad at him for much longer. Getting the accident reversed had been their original goal in the first place had been the plan until things started getting worse, and with things being worse than ever before, it was understandable why he wished it away.

The only problem is that it meant they were now short of superpowers while a reality warping ghost is running around. That meant they really needed to stock up on weapons, especially if Feferi and Kanaya were joining them this time.

"You know, I should probably find it concerning that our first choice is to not tell the ghost hunter a ghost is running about, but to try and take weapons from his son." Kanaya walked closely behind, eyes flittering about. Even if it wasn't likely the ghost would show up at their school, she didn't want to be caught unaware. "But I guess this is my life now. My choices weren't very wise ones."

"Congrats, that means you're part of the club." Sollux had just figured that it would be easier to roll with it and settle things when the situation was over with. That was at least what Aradia asked him to do. "Lots of lies, half-truths, and generally not being paid for it. I wonder if KK can get a payment plan with the mayor or something."

"I think if we're going to continue at all, we'll have to figure out what else is different." Aradia was focusing on getting them all into the school. They were trying to look for Karkat without being seen by any teachers. She was surprised that they hadn't heard from him yet, actually, especially since he'd been the most worried when the attack started. "Anything you can find on the internet, Feferi?"

"Nothing, which is still the problem. I also can't find my own address too." Feferi nervously messed around with her phone. Her mom had sent her a very concerned text and she realized something important after doing some searching. "I don't think I actually live here anymore, and that's probably the same for you Kanaya. Without the portal, we wouldn't have had any reason to stay here."

"Dear lord, I think you're right." Kanaya grabbed her own phone, looking through it. She couldn't find any messages between her, and everyone present, though that discomforting realization was eased after she saw some messages with her mother. "It appears I'm in the clear when it comes to hiding, but that does mean we're both homeless until... well, something happens."

Aradia knew that she meant "fixing" the situation but hadn't wanted to say it. She didn't inform them about how Karkat got his powers, but she figured they must've had a guess. At least they didn't want to push things back into what they were, which was honestly ideal.

She hoped they could keep it this way. For Karkat's sake.

"Look, all we need to do is make sure to get prepared for the fight ahead, then figure out the portal situation later." Aradia had no idea how they'd cover up Kanaya's and Feferi's absence from their daily lives in this timeline (or was it universe?), but she figured it could be fixed if they got the portal open. "Karkat probably has a plan in mind already."

After a little more discussion, they figured it was best to split up and go through the school to find him. They weren't sure if the situation would've caused a change in schedules, so it would be a good idea to find him that way.

Aradia and Feferi and had decided to join together for this, making sure that both of the "new" girls had a guide that could lead them around, no questions asked.

"You're sure that it's a good idea to spring the fact I know on him right now? He's probably disoriented right now." Feferi was actually starting to get really nervous about this. Telling his friends about knowing everything was thing, but telling the half-dead guy himself… "Then again, he did see us at the whole incident at the fountain."

"It'll be fine. Karkat might even take it as a chance to say sorry for the incident with Kitty and Johnny." Aradia figured that would be the case. Besides, this was an ample chance to get more allies just in case things were still going wrong. "Honestly, he'll find it a lot more awkward than you do. Some of the things we've had to fight are a lot closer to home than you think."

Feferi gulped. That was something else she was afraid.

Aradia slowed as they neared the science labs, keeping an eye out for Karkat. He usually had Mr. Lancer for his English class, but maybe if things had changed- ah, there he was.

Aradia started to move forward without thinking, instantly slowing as she noticed a few things wrong. Karkat didn't seem too different to how she last saw them, but he somehow looked a lot more well-rested, but also a lot grumpier. Not to mention he looked a little more ruffled, but maybe he was shaken up about yesterday.

"Hey, Karkat!" Aradia waved at Karkat, seeing him stop dead. He slowly turned around, and he almost looked confused. "You look like a train hit you when you got out of bed this morning. What's going on?"

"Nothing? I mean my dad blew something up again, but that's normal." Karkat said slowly. He seemed to shake his head, face scrunching up. "I'm sorry, what do you want? I'm just planning on heading to the library for some shit, and I'd rather not wait."

Aradia frowned, almost questioning why he was acting weird and why he was pretending yesterday didn't happen. But then she got a look at his eyes and noticed the absolute confusion he was showing, as if he didn't even know why she walked up to him in the first place.

"I wanted to talk to you about what happened in the park yesterday. You know, after the thing at the Nasty Burger?" Aradia saw him get even more confused. "Come on, you can't tell me forgot all about that. The fountain going off, the whole thing with that one lady-"

"Okay, I honestly don't know what the hell you're talking about." Karkat looked tired all of a sudden, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "You're Megido from my English class, right? Yeah, I've seen you hang out with Captor or something. I think you're talking to the wrong guy here."

"Wha- no, that can't be right. I know we were talking with you yesterday." This- this couldn't be right. He was acting like he didn't even know her. "I know we talked yesterday. We had that argument and everything."

"You're gonna need to narrow that down. I get into arguments with people all the time." Karkat rolled his eyes. He frowned deeper, giving her a once over. "I'm sorry, but I don't know you well enough to hang out a burger joint and debate with you about some shit. Like I said, you got the wrong guy."

"Y-Yeah! Aradia, I think you're thinking about Eridan. You know, that friend I tried to introduce you too before he pissed Sollux off?" Feferi was pulling at Aradia's shoulder, not getting any real response. She gave an awkward smile. "Sorry, she kinda hit her head today while she was leading me around. Sorry to bother you…"

"Vantas. And, uh, it's fine." Karkat frowned, hesitating before he turned away. "Welcome to Amity Park, I guess."

Aradia felt herself… shut off when she watched him go. Feferi tried to snap her out of it, but she was too busy reflecting on everything, trying to figure out what went wrong.

She must've been dazed longer than she thought because she had to snap to attention when Sollux snapped his fingers in front of her.

"AA? Are you good right now?" Sollux noted the blank look she was giving him, as if she hadn't noticed he was fully there. "You've been kinda just standing here. You two found KK, right?"

"…Yeah, we did." Aradia stated. The reality set in slowly as she realized what had happened. "I think I know how Muse prevented the accident."

Everyone gave each other strange looks, trying to parse out the meaning behind those words. That was supposed to be a good thing, right?

"What did you find out?" Kanaya asked carefully. She felt something strange settle in her gut.

Aradia was silent for a second or two before she could muster up the courage to answer. "He made sure he never met me and Sollux."

As everyone let the realization settle in, Aradia could only be thankful for one thing about all of this; at least the universe confirmed it was her and Sollux's fault for causing the accident.

Karkat had felt off since this morning, and he couldn't explain to himself why that was.

Sure, his dad had exploded one of his stupid inventions again and disturbed his sleep, but that couldn't have been it. That happened every other week, and he'd learned to live with it, for better or worse. He did have a nightmare of some kind, but he didn't remember a lick of it for some reason.

Of course, that weird conversation didn't help. He never talked to Megido, or her boyfriend Captor before and it was weird that they started now.

"Come on, you can't tell me forgot all about that…"

Karkat felt himself shiver. She sounded weirdly heartbroken when he'd left. He actually almost felt like saying yes so she'd stop looking like that or tell her to just fuck off and make her mad instead. That was how he usually dealt with anyone that he thought was messing with him. It wasn't like anyone actually wanted to talk to him.

Well, except those two apparently. But that was probably a fluke.

…Did he screw over the chance to make some friends for once there?

"Jesus, I could've just said yes and rolled with it." Karkat numbly kicked at a pebble as he moved along to the outside lunch tables. No one ever bothered him there, especially since he accidentally brought in ectoplasm laced meat that one time and it attacked someone. "Didn't give a shit about my dad and everything. Great job, Past Karkat."

His dad's work had never earned him any friends over the years, and while Karkat had been okay with it when he was younger, it was starting to become grating. Shouldn't he, as a high schooler, have some people to hang out with by now? Sure, it was a small town, and it wasn't like everyone didn't know about Spades insane bullshit, but he figured some people would ignore the signs eventually and try to talk to him. He'd certainly tried, but it never worked out for him.

Karkat hated living with a ghost hunter. He really did.

"Whatever. She thought I was someone else anyway." Karkat's pessimism took over again, overtaking any wishful thoughts. "Mr. Lancer's pep talks are getting to me, and I really don't think that's a good thing."

He huffed. He really needed to get to lunch, otherwise his brain was going to overload.

He'd go hungry that day, something he only realized after something blew up where he was headed.

The sound of an explosion caused him to instantly freeze due to instincts and move toward the nearest wall. Whenever Spades blew something up near a populated place, people would always swarm away from it. This was proven true as he saw a bunch of students running inside, which would've run him over.

Karkat still felt the occasional elbow to the gut as plenty of people filled the hallway, but to his relief, they passed him without incident. He could hear another explosion outside, almost convincing him to join them. He didn't want to be involved, especially if it turned out it wasn't his dad getting an experiment too close to the school.

"Has anyone seen Elwurd anywhere?" Karkat stopped, looking over to see some of the kids picking up a student that tripped. They were from some of the punk crowd, he figured. "She was the volunteer for today, right?"

"I don't fucking know! You really think she stuck around for that?" said Punk 2. He kept them moving, forcing their friend up. "If she isn't in here with us, then she's probably run away from the school. She's on her own."

"Elwurd?" Karkat had to think it over before remembering the assistant teacher that had come her for community service. He figured that the punks were right and that she wouldn't have stuck around that much longer.

Another explosion went off, and he was already moving towards it. He couldn't explain why, but the impulse to do so felt familiar.

It didn't take him long to reach the scene, only feeling slightly winded before the rest of his breathe was taken right out of him. While he had intimate knowledge of what explosions would do, the amount of fire and broken picnic tables had been a surprise to see the nonetheless. He couldn't see any other people there, which was good, since he doubted anyone would survive whatever caused this.

Karkat pulled his shirt over his mouth, moving around anything that was on fire, keeping his eyes and ears open. He was cursing himself the farther he went into the chaos, not even sure why he bothered in the first place.

It was another explosion and a shout that finally put him in the right direction, forcing him to move towards it.

Karkat found Elwurd, her leg trapped under a heavy tree branch. She'd apparently tried running into the forest for some reason, with… something having broken tree close by. He moved quickly so he could grab at the branch and help her lift it off.

"Jesus, Elwurd, did you bring some kind of fireworks to your job today?" Karkat sarcastically remarked. It didn't look like she was seriously hurt, but he still felt nervous. "I'm pretty sure that violates your parole and everything."

"Vantas? Didn't expect to see you out here." Elwurd brushed herself off, awkwardly getting onto her feet. She looked terrified, keeping an eye on the sky. "What the fuck are you doing here? Is you're dad doing another test for his inventions or something?"

"I know he's responsible for most of the fires in town, but no. He's keeping it all at home today, thank you." Karkat snorted dismissively. He looked into the sky to figure out what she was looking for. "What are you looking for? I don't think the APPD has any helicopters, so you're covered."

"I'm not looking out for that! There's just something that came out here and it's causing-" Elwurd stopped, freezing before grabbing him. She pulled him into the bushes, forcing them to hide in the greenery. "Shit, just hide with me! I can't let him find me."

Karkat ripped his arm out of her grip but didn't move. He looked over the bushes, keeping an eye on the skies. "What the hell are you talking about?"

The answer came as the sound of rockets could be heard roaring about, causing him to force himself lower into the greenery. The tree line prevented him from seeing it at first, but he slowly saw metal boots fly closer to the ground, an armored body slowly being revealed with it. It could almost be mistaken for an Iron Man suit, except it was style more into of a Judge Dredd type of armor. The thing was oddly colored, teal being the main color with yellow accents, and he could see weapons placed on the thing's hands.

Before he had the time to question what he was seeing, the thing turned and looked him straight in the eyes.

Alright, I hope you're okay with this. Not very exciting, but the angst should be good for you guys. Now, onto the game I mentioned.

I've decided that until I ask you guys to stop that we're going to do a thing called the 5 Headcanons Game. Essentially, you guys pitch an AU of this fanfiction and I give five ideas on the premise following the changes it would create and how the story would go. I had some prepared for my other fic, but you guys can go ham here. I'm interested to see what you bring up.

Thank you and I'll see you all next chapter.