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Chapter Text

Four kids, beaten and weary, stood in front of the large door, shaped in the familiar symbol of Sburb. The heir of breath reached out and took the handle. Static jumped, and a bright light jumped toward him. Suddenly, they were standing on empty space, surrounded by black excluding a lone figure. He seemed simply a white silhouette, but looking closer the form seemed to have more shape to it, and colors flashed through it so fast one couldn't keep their focus on a single flash.

"Congradulations, team Earth. You have successfully won against team Alternia," the voice echoed, seeming to come from everywhere around them.

"Won against? We worked with the trolls!" the Witch of Space argued. There was a menacing laugh.

"But what kind of game is it without some competition? Unless you would like to give up your prize?"

"No," spoke up the Knight of Time suddenly. The Seer looked at her brother. Never had she heard such forcefulness and emotion in his voice. The laugh echoed once more.

"Well, then maybe you would like to see your 'friends' once more before parting ways?" There was a slight breeze, and the Heir looked over to see the trolls. They seemed to be quite distant, in both length and hight. They were all unconscious.

"Karkat?! Sollux?! Are you guys okay?!" he called to them, but there was no response.

"They are unharmed, but will sleep until I release them," Lord English said. "No worries, they are not prisoners. They will be released shortly after you leave."

"What does that mean to us from a being who spans space and time?" the Seer of Light demanded. Once again, there was a frightening laugh.

"Does 'seconds after you in your timeline' sound better?" she nodded. "Now, your prize..." the voice stiffen off to a hiss, and suddenly, everything was gone, covered in a solid blanket of darkness.

Seconds later, the kids found themselves in their own rooms. John looked around, then out the window. The neighborhood, the car, the pogo ride, and everything was back to what it once was. There was the sound of banging downstairs. He flew out of his room and into the kitchen, to find his father looking through the refrigerator.

"Looks like everything spoiled while we were gone," he commented in his fatherly voice.

"Dad!" John yelled, running up and hugging him tightly. He had thought his father was dead for good. Receiving a warm hug back, everything felt right again. The other kids had similar episodes.Rose and her mom, Dave and his bro, and Jade with Bequerel. Everything was back to normal.

But it only lasted about two years.

Chapter Text

John sat at his desk late at night. Two years later and still trying to catch up on school! It was awkward being 17 and having to take your sophomore class while other kids were enjoying the summer. Disappearing for two years had put him behind in everything! Luckily his dad found a new job fairly quickly. It was also lucky they still owned their home. John never realized his father had paid it off entirely.

Suddenly, the door bell rang. John yawned and looked at the clock. Who came to the house at 11:30? Realizing his father was asleep, he went quickly down stairs and flicked on the lights. Opening the door, he saw a sight he never would have expected in a million years.

"Karkat?!" he gasped. Sure enough, the troll stood at his doorstep, shielding his eyes.

"John! Thank gog!" he said. There was a voice behind him.

"Told you I could get us to him!" Sollux appeared next to Karkat. "Tracking an energy signal is easy if you had the DNA."

"Sollux too?!" John exclaimed. "Who else is here?!"

"All of us. And it's a long story," Terezi came up behind the two boys. John's eyes widened. Looking past them, there was a strange metal object in the road, and a cluster of another nine trolls.

"First, you guys have to move that to the back yard. Then get inside!" He ordered loud enough for all twelve to hear. A few trolls moved back to the ship, and the rest moved inside. He adressed the ones now in his sitting in his living room. "I'll, uh, be right back." On his way upstairs, his dad appeared coming down.

"John, who's here?" he asked.

"Well, let's just say some friends. From the game." John made an attempt to get around him, but failed.

"Dave and them?"

"Actually, it's Karkat. And all his friends." His dad was stunned enough that John managed to get around him. "I'm telling the others!"

In his room he sat at his computer and pulled up Pesterchum. Hopefully Jade would be near her computer, and maybe Rose and Dave would hear the message sound. Copy and pasting his message to all three users, he sent out an urgent plea.

EB: Guys, I have a problem, a big one. Remember Karkat and them? They're here. All twelve aliens. Help!

Not waiting for a reply, he grabbed his PDA and rushed downstairs. His dad was making a cake in the kitchen, and the trolls were spread out. Nepeta sat on the couch with Aradia and Feferi, Vriska sat in the corner, Terezi sat on the new coffee table with her cane next to her, Kanaya on sat on her other side, and the guys were leaning against walls.

This was going to be a long night.

Chapter Text

Jade was in her room, tinkering with some gadgets when she heard her computer bing, signalling a message. Weird, it was midnight or close to in her friends' time zones. Who could it be?

Pulling up Pesterchum, she read John's message out loud. Becquerel appeared beside her, and she stroked the dog's head. It was truly a miracle that Lord English let her have back her old pet. Focusing on the screen again, she typed back her reply.

GG: wait, the trolls are at your house? how'd they get there? shouldn't they be on their own planet?
EB: yeah, karkat won't tell me until he's sure he's not going to have to tell it once per person.
GG: wow! i'll be right over!
EB: what?

She didn't even have to give the command when Bec transported them both to the middle of John's living room.

"Jade!" he said happily, hugging his paradox sister. Smiling and hugging him back, she looked around the room. Sure enough, twelve trolls lounged around the room. The scent of a Betty Crocker chocolate cake wafted from the kitchen.

"John! Anything from the other half of our crew?" she asked. Right on cue, the PDA beeped. She read over her brother's shoulder.

TG: woah, shit really?
EB: yeah! karkat wants us all here.
TG: i don't know how fast i'll be.
EB: i'll give you about a second.
TG: what?
EB: jade's here with bec.
TG: oh. the weird dog. when should i expect him?
EB: now.

As John typed, Jade issued the command to Bec to bring Dave here. Two flashes later, Dave was laying across Kanaya's and Terezi's laps.

"Shit. Hey, Terezi," he said, obviously still tired. Terezi greeted him by promptly pushing him to the floor. "Nice to see you too..." he muttered, standing up.

"Just waiting on Rose, now." John told him.

"So why don't you just appearify her?" he asked.

"I couldn't just teleport a sleeping Rose here! I don't want to scare her!" John said like it was some horrible indecent crime. Jade just smiled and rewarded her dog with a pat on the head. A few minutes later, there was another beep.

TT: i would ask if it was an emergency since you contacted me at one in the morning, but i do believe this is. tell the alternian's i say hello.
EB: don't have to! We'll have you here in a second.
TT: what?

With another two flashes, Rose was sitting on Kanaya's lap, who blushed a bright green.

"My apologies," Rose said, standing up. "It appears everyone is here." Karkat looked at the four, then unglued himself from the wall.

"Care to listen instead of making irrelevant small talk?" he growled.

"Ooh! Someone's in a bad mood!" Jade remarked. Karkat simply snorted. All was quiet, so he continued.

"About a sweep ago we got back to our planet, but it was gone. Completely wiped out from the meteors. All of us were together, at least, so we wandered and found some technology and parts. Got us enough fuel to power us across the universe, and shot ourselves here in hopes that we'd find you guys in the same spot. Looks like you got it good, though."

"How the hell did you find John though? A bunch of alien kids wandering around isn't exactly inconspicuous," Dave noted. He also noted to lay off the talks with his sister.

"We didn't wander, stupid!" Karkat retorted. "We traced John's energy signal. I still had an item of yours that you gave me in the game. It had enough of your DNA on it that Sollux was able to tell the ship to follow the energy signal to Earth, then to your house."

"So, you got stuck with a wasted planet, and came to us for help?" John confirmed. Suddenly, Terezi spoke up.

"Yeah, and an explanation!" she ordered. "How come you guys got your planet back and we got squat?!" There were a few nods of agreement. "We both finished the game!" The humans had an uncomfortable silence.

"Well..." Jade began, but Rose took over.

"The game was a set up by Lord English himself," she told them. "He was apparently pitting us against each other the entire time, without telling us. Somehow, based on whatever rules he was playing by, we won. So we were sent back here. He promised to return you guys right after us. I guess our prize was a bit better."

"No, shit?" Eridan rolled his eyes.

"Okay, now that we know what you guys are doing here, I guess we can't just send you back to Alternia. You'll have to stay with us. But first, you guys are a bit obvious. Humans would kind of freak out if they saw you." John thought for a moment. "Okay! We'll just have to get sweatshirts for all of you! And gloves. And you'll all have to wear pants..." he looked at Equius, who looked a bit disapprovingly at the nearest person's pants. "I'll give you what I can of my clothes, but I don't have twelve sweatshirts to go around. Maybe three... And only one pair of mittens. Maybe Bec can transport you guys to your houses again so you can grab some stuff?" Jade shook her head.

"He's tired! Having to transport five different times with people for three of them is a bit strenuous since he was brought back," she explained. Just then, Mr. Egbert walked in with the cake.

"I overheard a bit," he said as he put it down on the coffee table once the two troll girls moved. "I have two sweatshirts to donate. And I keep quite a few pairs of gloves."

"That would be wonderful, Mr. Egbert," Rose said politely. "Could we have some towels to make up for the rest?" Nodding, the lone adult walked upstairs to fetch the supplies. John followed. All was silent for a minute. Suddenly, Dave spoke up.

"We might have a problem, guys," he said.

"What would that be?" Jade asked.

"How much did you guys say on Pesterchum. About the aliens?" Jade grabbed John's PDA and showed it to him.

"Great. We're screwed," he sighed.

"Care to explain?" Sollux demanded from across the room.

"All the Pesterlogs are monitored to a degree. Public safety, right? Well, if we're going and talking about aliens and saying their at John's house, someone's going to think. And when they check our other logs, they're going to realize something's up. We don't exactly role play at random. Feds will do some research, and then we're going to have to hide you guys with more than just sweatshirts and towels."

"Feds?" asked Kanaya.

"Federal agents," Rose replied. "People with the government that would want to keep you guys locked up and hidden, if not try to experiment on you. It wouldn't be very easy to hide from the most technologically advanced humans you can imagine. They have more people than you can count working for them, and all kinds of different ways to track us." There was silence.

"Sounds like we're in some deep shit."

Chapter Text

An employee sat in her small cubicle, staring at the screen. She had the most annoying alerts of all. No wonder she so easily got this dumb job. Scanning Pesterlogs that contained possibly flagged information. Not only did she get the stupid flags that kids put on each other, she had to read through Pesterlogs containing certain key phrases. One of the most pointless was the "alien" word. Apparently it was required by the government as a permanent watch in case of illegals, but most of what came up were role plays. She was scanning these reports when something odd came up. Some kid, John Egbert, to three friends. The aliens were at his house? Scanning previous Pesterlogs, there was nothing to say he was role playing. And she had all the logs.

What was more interesting was his friends responses. She had found something. Something bigger than illegal immigrants to the U.S. Picking up the phone, she called her boss. In a few short hours, the government had been alerted. John Egbert was now being placed as top priority for investigation.

Chapter Text

Not much later, John and his father were distributing human wear. Tavros's horns and robotic legs posed a bit of a problem. Equius nearly ripped his pair of pants just unfastening them. The others were handed sunglasses, towels, sweatshirts, and gloves. Of course a bunch of kids with turbans and an assortment of covering garments were quite an odd sight, but it was better than four kids and a bunch of aliens.

"Okay, research time!" John announced. "What store that carries cheap sweatshirts, opens earliest, and will have the fewest people?" He pulled up the internet browser on his PDA. Rose came up behind him.

"Try Walmart and Target," she suggested. John pulled up one, then the other. It appeared his local Walmart would open first.

"Hold on, check Sam's Club. I have a business membership," Dave said, coming on John's other shoulder. All three other kids gave him an odd look. "Long story. Just try." So John did. Sure enough, they were open an hour earlier.

"Guess we hit Sam's Club tomarrow morning!" John announced.

"That is the weirdest name ever!" Nepeta mewed.

"Nepeta! Respect their culture!" Equius commanded. "We are their guests."

"Oh, sorry..."

Realizing that changing the topic was a good idea, John yawned loudly. "Well, we should probably figure out where everyone is sleeping!" he told them.

"John, are you forgetting that we're nocturnal?" Aradia spoke up.

"Oh... Oh yeah. Well, then us humans need to figure out where to sleep."

"John, it's about midday on my island," Jade noted. Before he coil comment, Kanaya spoke up.

"I'll trade you places. I actually sleep at night."

"Okay! I get it! It's not simple!" he finally spoke up. "Guys who are sleeping, we'll go to my room! Girls get the guest room! If you're not sleeping you can stay out here! Done! I'm tired! I'm going to bed!" All was silent as he marched up stairs. Slowly, Dave, Rose, and Kanaya followed him.

Dave peaked in the rooms, and pointed the guest room to the girls before following John to his room.

As Dave walked in, he paused to observe the posters. Wow, his friend was a dork. As John climbed in bed, Dave caught a flash of light in the window. Who had a light on at 1:00 am local time? Peaking out the window, he was marginally surprised at what he saw. "Dude, you're not gonna sleep for a while," he said to his friend.

"What now?" John groaned.

"The Feds are here. And that flying saucer is looking might suspicious from their helicopters."

John jumped up and ran to the window. Seeing the helicopter, he closed the curtains immediately. "Shit!" he yelled, running out of the room. In the guest bedroom, he found one of his worst case scenarios. Kanaya was peering out the window, head unwrapped. Grabbing the troll girl, he pulled her back and closed the curtains. "Feds are here! You and Rose get downstairs!" he ordered. Why did they have to come so fast?! He was hoping for a day at least to hide the trolls better and disguise the ship. How could it have been so fast?!

"Dad! We've got problems!" he told his dad as he ran into the fatherly bedroom and closed the fatherly curtains. "The Feds are here! We need to get out!" His father got up and looked at his son.

"Why hide? We have a space ship in the back yard and a housefull of aliens! It won't do much good! What's the worst case scenario?" John stared at his father in near disbelief, but seeing the slightly dazed look in his eyes, he put his hands on the older man's shoulders.

"Worst case scenario: We surrender. They take Karkat and everyone, butcher them up, and send you, me, and everyone we know and love to the electric chair for hiding aliens and weapons of mass destruction!" That snapped his father out of it, and John smiled as he went into fatherly hero mode. Trusting his dad to get the windows upstairs, he rushed downstairs to his friends. Dave had closed all the windows, and the trolls were looking around worriedly.

"Guys! We've got to get out!" John said.

"How? What's your plan, John?" Rose said, looking up from her pacing back and forth. "You have two five seat vehicles. That's ten. If you haven't counted, there's seventeen of us!"

"Karkat! Can your guys' ship hold five more?" he asked. Karkat looked at Sollux, who shook his head.

"Not safely. We were already crunched for space. Maybe four? It'd be unsafe and uncomfortable, though." Just then, John's dad appeared and spoke up.

"I'll stay. Worst comes to worst I'll take the sports car and test out that overdrive." John looked extremely concerned for his father's safety, but he knew that he would have to trust him.

"Let's go! Fed's will surround us any minute with loaded guns!" Jade said, releasing Becquerel from a death hug. All sixteen ran out the door, straight for the ship, which wasn't far considering the crunch for space in the yard.

Climbing on board, the trolls took automatic positions at their seats. The kids did their best to squeeze in the remaining room between the smaller trolls. John found himself between Karkat and Vriska. If he wasn't so stressed he might have laughed, both at that, and the worried thought of missing his big test tomarrow.

"Launch ready!" Feferi called out.

"Fuel is low!" Nepeta announced less than a second later.

"We'll make do!" Karkat responding, pressing a few buttons. A giant, 360 view screen came up around them and above them. Around was the houses, slowly moving down as they rose up. Above was a few helicopters, spotlights aimed right for the space craft. John looked at Dave, sitting between Terezi and Sollux. Catching his eye, the cool kid smirked.

"We're doing this man. We're making this happen!" As he finished saying it, the ship took off full speed away from the house.

"Coodinates set! Destination: Jade's island!" Tavros announced. The helicopters had disappeared before the pilots knew what had happened.

And John pondered if he remembered to do his math homework.

Chapter Text

Dave stared uncomfortably at the screen, and it wasn't because of the small space or close proximity to his best troll girl. There was so way the Feds let them off that easy in a suspected alien craft. This thing was fast, but so were F-16 fighter jets. Sure it had crossed lightyears of space in two years, but now they were in the atmosphere where too much friction will set the whole thing on fire. Not to mention their fuel supply was low. In fact, he highly doubted that the ship would be the one to take them off the island. Bec better be resting really well.

"Island in sight!" Tavros called out.

"Landing gear deployed!" Kanaya followed.

"I'm setting her down!" Vriska said, taking a joystick in hand.

"Fuel is almost gone!" Nepeta urgently yelled.

"We'll get her down on fumes if we have to!" Karkat growled back.

The humans watch the slow desent. Rose, between Kanaya and Nepeta, glanced at what she guessed to be the fuel meter. It flashed an urgent red.

"We're entirely out!" Nepeta warned. Vriska gave small grunt, trying to slow their increasingly rapid descent. A few long seconds later, the ship landed. Luckily it wasn't a horrible crash, but it wasn't exactly the trolls' smoothest landing. The door opened and the screens all went dark. Slowly, everone filed out.

"So now we're stuck here until the dog rests enough to move us all at once," Dave commented. There was an angry hiss behind him.

"Your sun is irritating my eyes. Let's get out of the open!" Karkat demanded. So the party made haste to the cover of the forest.

"Oh! I know where we are!" Jade suddenly spoke up.

"I should hope so! It's your stupid island!" Karkat snapped back.

"Well, we should get to my house!" she declared.

"No," Rose said simply. "We are now on the run from one of the most advanced governments in the world. Hiding in your own home would basically be surrender. That's where they go first." All was silent.

"Rose, your mom..." John finally said softly.

"I know. I already contacted her. She can hold her own, I'm sure," she replied strongly, but there was a slight shake in her voice with the final word.

"And Dave! Your..." Jade began only to be cut off.

"He'll be fine," Dave said flatly. "Bro can outwit the Feds. We've done it before." His friends stared at him, but no one asked the obvious question.

"What do we do now?" Eridan broke the silence.

"Well, we sleep, I guess. It's day light here, so if you guys wanna sleep, it should be fine. We'll just have to keep a look out." John looked around them. Obviously this wasn't going to be the most comfortable place they had slept, but at least he could say it was better than the stone bed in the game. Hopefully he wouldn't die here, either.

The trolls each picked out different spots on the ground. Dave and Rose even sat against some trees and shut their eyes. Seeing them all going to sleep so peacefully made John want to do the same, but something wouldn't let him. Probably the gnawing feeling in his stomach, or his on edge senses, maybe even the adrenaline pulsing so hard through his veins he could feel it in his finger tips. Besides him, there were only two other people awake. Jade and Kanaya.

"If you guys are up, maybe we can talk?" John asked hopefully. Jade smiled and sat down, allowing Bec to rest his head on her lap. He and Kanaya followed suite.

"So what do we do?" Jade asked. "The Feds will be here to check my place, and they'll probably search the whole island! Plus that spaceship isn't really hidden well."

"These 'Feds' people, are they more advanced humans?" Kanaya asked.

"You could say that," John answered. "They're a group that works for the government to keep everything 'safe'. They have all the best technology in order to do so."

"If they keep your race safe, why not just tell them we are here in peace?"

"Weeeell, they're kind of corrupt," Jade replied. "Even if you're peaceful, they see you as a threat to be examined. And even if they don't make you into experiments, they'll sell you to the highest bidder who can do whatever they want to you."

"And what about the humans they catch?" Both kids looked down. After a moment of silence, John spoke.

"Our ideal punishment would be a lifetime sentence to jail, the place where they keep criminals. Worst case..." he paused, then looked back up at her. "Worst case they kill us and our families." Everyone was silent. Even the forest seemed entirely still.

"That won't happen." Jade finally said, stroking Bec's head. "They won't get us! Or any of you guys for that matter!"

"Well, I think I have our next move planned," John announce suddenly. "Can Bec transport all of us really far in one trip?"

"Once he's well rested, of course!"

"Good. Because we're going to Alaska."

"What?!" Jade nearly fell backwards, but Bec didn't seem to notice. "Why?! It's cold!"

"Exactly!" John said. "If it's cold, then we have a better explanation to bundle the trolls up so you can't see them! Besides, we can cover more ground since they sun isn't up as much!"

"Not a good idea," Kanaya said. "Trolls don't do well in cold weather. We get sluggish."

"So do humans, to an extent. That's why we have really warm clothes!" Jade explained. "However, there is one problem. When Alaska does get sun, it's really bright, even if cold! And we're close to that time of year!"

"We'll risk it. Can Bec put us outside a town?"

"Sure. Just name a town. I can't guarantee how far outside, though."

"It will work." John told her stubbornly, "For now, just try to rest, even if it is day. We won't be able rest for a while. I can keep watch."

"John..." she began to stop him, but he simply ignored her, standing up and scanning the sky. Sighing, Jade leaned over and rested her head on the sleeping dog's back. Kanaya located a nice, dark spot with a pile of decaying leaves to lay in. Seeing them asleep, John forced a smile, then went back to guard duties, keeping his eyes on the sky.

A few hours later, they all awoke to a scream.

Chapter Text

Rose woke up to a loud screech. At first she thought it was her mother after having one too many margaritas again, but a tingling sensation on her legs and a sore back reminded her of the situation. Looking in the direction of the scream, Feferi was standing, brushing her legs like there were a million ants on her legs. That's when Rose looked down at her own legs, to discover that, while she had slept, giant beetles had nearly covered her legs. Being use to strange bugs from the forest infesting her house, she simply stood up and brushed them off. Most everyone else was waking up and brushing off themselves, excluding Bec, still asleep on Jade's lap, Jade, playing with one on her finger, Nepeta, batting one up in the air like a cat toy, and Vriska, who held up one of them by a leg and seemed to be wondering if it was edible. She was about to lick it when Karkat yelled at her and batted it away.

Looking around, Rose spotted John, still looking extremely tired, and glancing nervously upward, simultaneously brushing off his pants. She walked over to her friend.

"Don't tell me you played hero and told Jade and Kanaya to sleep while you kept watch," she whispered in his ear. Jumping, he faced her with a guilty look.

"Well..." he rubbed the back of his head.

"It doesn't matter much if they stay up since neither was in their normal time of sleeping, but if I'm right you've been up since you woke up in the morning at your place." Rose looked sternly at him. He hung his head.

"I couldn't sleep anyway. Besides, I drifted after a while!" Rolling her eyes, she walked away. Suddenly, she became aware of a slight, unnatural sound like that of an engine in the distance. As she listened, it became more distinct.

"Something's coming overhead!" she yelled. Everything froze, and the noise grew in their silence. All at once, three jets flew over the tree tops. Everyone pressed against the nearest tree, and Rose felt her short hair whip her face. The whirring stayed close, and the sound of engines changed. They were landing.

"Jade! We need to go, now!" Karkat yelled. Jade was bent over the white dog, desperately trying to shake it awake, calling its name. The engines stopped completely, and there was the sound of human voices calling to each other. The humans barely breathed, and the trolls looked around wildly.

"Bec! Becquerel! Wake up! C'mon!" Jade whispered. Suddenly, the dog jumped up and barked. Loudly. There were shouts not far in the distance.

"Bec! We need you to take all sixteen of us just outside of any Alaskan city!" John called to the dog. With a flash, the forest was gone.

John immediately went to hug his arms. Going from the warm island to extreme cold, he felt slightly numb. Looking around, besides the darker shapes of his friends, everything was white. Somehow, he managed to make out a sky line, and something shimmering in the distance. It appeared to be the light from a city.

"It's that way!" John called to his friends. "I saw a light!" Laborously removing one foot from the deep snow, then the other, John found he was already chilled to the bone. His sneakers were soaked, straight through his socks, ice clumped on his once warm pajama pants. A breeze blew up his t-shirt, sending a hard shiver down his spine. Rubbing his arms, he prayed to Gog that the city wasn't as far as it looked.

Behind him, the trolls felt glad for their jackets and long sleeved shirts. Even Equius found the almost too big pants quite useful. Jade husked close to Bec, whose warm fur seemed to heat most of her body. Dave and Rose stayed together, Norge equally thankful they wore long sleeves to bed.

"John! Slow down! Come back with us!" Rose called. Her voice was lost in the increasing wind. As she watched her friend shiver violently, she broke away from Dave and picked up her pace. Vriska joined with Rose, as the troll closest to John in distance.

"John! Wait!" Vriska yelled. Still no reaction. Finally, after a fulll minute of brisk walking, they caught up to their friend.

"Idiot! You'll get yourself sick, walking away in a short sleeved shirt!" Vriska yelled almost in his ear. He barely flinched, continuing to walk, gripping his own arms tightly, teeth chattering loud enough for both girls to hear, and shaking so violently Rose thought his limbs would shake away from his body. His lack of response worried Rose.

"John?!" she yelled. Suddenly, he collapsed, and the girls barely manger to catch him.

"John!"

Chapter Text

"Shit, John!" Vriska screamed. The human kid had totally passed out. "Wake up, dumb ass!" Yanking him away from Rose's hold, she gripped his icy shirt with one hand, she smacked him with the other, quite a few times over, to no avail. Suddenly, someone stopped her hand.

"That won't do any good!" Rose yelled at her. "We need to get him warm!"

"Oh, I'll get him warm, alright!" she snarled back. Equius interupted the argument.

"Stop, you two!" he ordered. "Give John my jacket! My metabolism is the highest here! I'll make do without!" Already he had slipped off the coat and was holding it out for them to take. "I'll carry him, too, if you would like!" Vriska snatched the coat and put it around John's shoulders.

"I'll take him! We don't need you breaking him!" She proceeded to pick him up, bridal fashion, and carry him onward. Rose remained close, not only to stay warm, but to take over if need be.

"Don't exhaust yourself!" Rose called out. "I can help you if you need me!"

"Thanks but no thanks!" the troll replied stubbornly. Her pace did nor falter, and she continued on at her previous speed like John weighed next to nothing. Seeing John so pale did not give her confidence, but she couldn't just reach over and check his pulse. All Rose knew was that her friend needed help, and he needed it fast.

There was a slight blur beside her, then Jade appeared, almost as if she was floating as Bec's durn blended into the background, hair flying wildly behind her. " Vriska! Let John ride Bec!" she ordered. Vriska made a barely audible sound, a mix between a grunt and a "tsk".

"No! I'm fine!" she snarled.

"Please! Bec is warm! His fur will help warm John up!" Jade pleaded. "I trust you, but please trust me!"

Vriska shifted John around, but touching his hand made her realize just how frozen he was. Even through the gloves he felt like an icicle. "Fine! But I stay with him!" she finally yelled. Jade got off her stead, then helped Vriska and Rose to position John face down on her dogs back, with legs dangling off just barely above the snow, and arms wrapped loosely around Becquerel's neck.

Finally, they found themselves on the edge of a small town. John's coat was removed and quickly returned to Equius, and the frozen group trudged quickly to the closest inn.

Chapter Text

John woke up in a warm bed, with a load of fur in his face. Had Jade come to visit again? Suddenly remembering his predicament, he sat straight up and looked around. Next to him, Bec slept soundly, half curled up in typical dog fashion. Around him looked like something out of one of his favorite movies. It was a room with wood paneling on the walls, with an oil lamp as the soul source of light. Extremely plain, there was only one furnishing besides the bed.

"Hey, idiot," Vriska said, standing up from the chair. "Think before you go rushing to your death next time, okay?" Vaguely recollecting what happened before he passed out, he smiled at her.

"I'll consider it," he laughed. "So, where are we?"

"Alaska, dumb ass," came a new voice. Dave walked into the room. "Right where you sent us."

"I meant what city!" John clarified. Dave shook his head.

"Not a city, it's a little village, somewhere in the center of the state. Besides that, why Alaska? Why the hell did you pick this he'll hole and not some other country, like Russia or somewhere?"

"Well, for one thing none of us speak Russian. Plus, how would we get by without green cards or visas or whatever Russia has?" Dave stared at him in silence for a minute. John stirred uncomfortably. "Anyway, did you rent this room? How are we going to pay for it?"

"Lucky us, I keep my wallet on me at all times." Dave replied. "And a bunch of money in it in case of a no-credit-card situation."

"Wow! You're prepared, huh?" John noted.

"I'm going to go talk to the desk. Rest a little more. Vriska, feel free to beat him up." Vriska grinned maliciously. John moved a little closer to Bec.

Downstairs, Dave approached the lady at the desk. She appeared rather destracted, watching the news. As he came closer, four far too familiar pictures appeared on screen. The voice came through a bit fuzzy, but understandable.

"Just in! The FBI are looking for these four kids. John Egbert, Dave Strider. Rose Lalonde, and Jade Harley, for charges to be announced. May be in a company with about a dozen others. Consider them highly dangerous, turn into local authorities, preferably alive, along with any consorts.There are reasonable grounds to believe they are somewhere in Alaska."

Dave watched her hand creep towards the phone, but reaching out, he stopped it. Jumping, she turned and looked at him. About to scream, he put his finger to his lips.

"Sh! I'm dangerous, remember?" he told her, and her mouth silently hung open. "Think about this, what could a bunch of kids do that the FBI wants us so badly? They won't even tell the media. All this? It's a misunderstanding, okay?" she nodded. "Now, it would be bad if the authorities were contacted while my friend is recovering. And it just so happens I have double what you are asking for one room for the night. In cash. Totally real, not stolen cash. If you'll trust me, it's yours." With that, the lady shut her mouth and nodded. He smirked. "Good girl." Then he pulled out his wallet and laid the cash on the counter. Turning, he walked toward the clump of his friends.

"Keep an eye on her," Dave said as he approached. "Make sure she doesn't make any out going calls."

"What? Why?" Jade asked.

"We've made national television."

Chapter Text

Equius stood in the corner of the pitch black room. Whatever Dave had told the desk woman, it must have got her off their case. Somehow, everyone fit in the one room, though the floor was not the most comfortable place to sleep. Of course, everyone still worried they'd be ratted out. That's why he was still awake. Humans didn't always keep there words.

And the approaching light proved it.

Watching it, the light flickered slightly, but revealed the face of the desk lady, looking quite pale, even for a human. She silently crossed the room, and approached the desk. As she drew close to where Equius stood, he remained perfectly still. Just as she reached the desk, he spoke up.

"I do not believe that contacting the Feds in the middle of the night was part of your deal with Dave." The lady jumped and whirled to face him.

"I-I..." she stuttered. Although the sweatshirt hid most of him, she could still make out the rippling muscles as he moved.

"We don't mean harm, and making a scene will not be in our favor. Return to bed, and do not try this again." Nearly dropping the candle, she caught it and ran off back to bed. The rest of the Alaskan "night" was silent, with no repeated incidents.

A few hours later, Dave awoke early, finding everyone else in the rented room still asleep, except for one shape sitting up. A large, furry white shape, to be exact. Getting up quitely, he carefully picked his way over sleeping bodies to Becquerel.

"Hey, can you do me a favor?" he whispered to the dog. It just stared at him. "Good. I need to get to a store really far away. Take me to a Walmart in New Mexico." In a flash, both disappeared. The light woke up Jade, who had been sleeping by the dog's paws.

"Bec?" she muttered. Looking over and not seeing him, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. Scanning the room, she counted only fourteen bodies. Before she fell asleep, she heard Dave ask Equius to keep a look out by the desk, so that counted fifteen, but someone was still missing. Doing a mental role call, she looked around for her friends.

John was on the bed with Karkat, and it looked like some kind of blanket war had happened, and resulted in the two pressed back to back, wrapped like a cacoon. Rose, sitting against a wall, had her head leaning on Kanaya's shoulder, with Kanaya's head resting on hers. Feferi was laying next to Sollux, hugging his arm, with Eridan's arm over her waist. Jade had to supress a giggle at that sight. Nepeta was curled up in a tight ball with her tail just reaching her nose. Gamzee was on his stomach on top of Tavros's robotic legs. Tavros was leaning against the side of the bed, next to Vriska. Aradia sat in the corner, cross-legged. Terezi was on the opposite side of the bed of Tavros and Vriska. That left only one unaccounted for...

"Dave!" Jade whispered loudly. Then she began to wonder, where could he have gone with Bec? She hoped he wasn't being to risky. Why was it always the boys that liked to pull stupid stunts?

There was the small sound of stirring. John had rolled over, now to face Karkat's back. Karkat, due to the shifting of the covers, pulled the blanket in, then proceeded to roll over as well. Now both were facing each other. Jade had the pressing feeling this wouldn't end well with them waking up face to face. No dream cloud had to tell her that.

As it happens, they both woke up seconds later. Karkat, while shifting, had kicked Terezi in the head. Tired, she picked up her cane and slammed it backwards. It landed over both boys' sides, waking up both.

What happened next was like something from a comedy show, with lots of screaming, yelling, and awkward wake up moments. By the end of it, the only one still asleep was Gamzee. Jade awkwardly stood in the middle of it. Finally, she spoke up.

"GUYS!" she screamed. Everyone froze. "You want to wake the whole town?! We're kind of on the run here! Besides that, where the he'll are Dave and Bec?!"

"Right here." There was a flash, and Dave stood by the door with Becquerel, holding a stack of sweat jackets. "Sorry, I had a little cross country shopping trip. I hope these sizes work." Setting them on the bare bed, he separated them by size. As the trolls came over and picked up the shirts, trying them on, Jade approached him.

"Don't act so heroic! Next time, tell someone before you just disappear!" she punched his shoulder. He barely flinched.

"Sorry, but I figured I go before we made a scene of it. Besides, I threw off our trail. If they're tracking my card, then right now they think I'm in New Mexico." Jade just shook her head. How can someone be so brilliant while being so dumb at the same time?

Only Dave, she figured.

Chapter Text

About a half hour after Dave returned, Tavros finally managed to get his hood over his horns. It was tight and extremely awkward, but that's what had to be done, right? Actually, he had taken the largest size Dave had brought, and it was obviously to big for him everywhere else. The sleeves hung well below his hands, and the bottom when almost to his mechanical knees. After pulling his pants back up (he had taken them off to sleep since they were highly uncomfortable), everyone seemed prepared to go. John made to open the door, but after turning the handle half way, it stopped. He rattled it a bit, but it wouldn't turn all the way.

"We're locked in!" he declared. There was a few angry exclamations. "Who knows how long ago they did this. It must have been after Equius came in, which could be from a half hour ago to just a few minutes ago. Did anybody here the lock click?"

"I, uh, might have," Tavros spoke up. "Right after Dave arrived, I, er, was right by the door trying to find a fitting jacket and heard some kind of click. I didn't know what it was, so I decided not to, um, say anything..."

"Shit!" Dave said, "That's enough time to contact the authorities. And local authorities are probably under orders to contact the Feds once they have us. Staying here isn't an option."

"How do we get out then, oh master of brilliant plans?" Terezi growled.

"Pick the lock," Rose spoke up, "And what kind of girl would I be if I didn't keep spare bobby pins on me?" Pulling out the little metal object, she proceeded to stick it in the hole in the door. Tavros didn't see what juggling that little thing around in there would accomplish, until he heard the click. Sure enough, the door opened. "Now, let's continue.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise just above them.

"Feds!" Jade muttered.

"C'mon!" John yelled, already running out the door. The other humans were right on his heels, and the trolls followed behind, pacing themselves so as not to surpass the more experienced humans.

Just outside the lodge, John paused, then took a sharp right. "Stop!" a voice yelled from the direction. "I said freeze!" that must have meant something to the humans, because they stopped in their tacks and turned to look. Four men in dark clothes and sunglasses stood holding a gun pointing straight at them. As Tavros turned to look, something moved in the corner of his eye, and he realized Dave had disappeared. Less than a second later, he reappeared in front of all four agents, holding some kind of long, thin sword. Before anyone could blink, the guns were knocked out of the hands of the agents.

"Go! I'll hold off here!" he called to them. The trolls turned to go, but the humans paused. Finally, they also turned and left.

Dave faced the agents, all looking quite stunned. "Hey guys," he smirked, holding the sword over his shoulders. "I think you're familiar with my bro?"

"No way!" one guy spoke up. "You can't seriously be related to that guy!" Dave wasted no time for arguing, but simply proved them wrong. In about three seconds, all four were laying on the ground.

"I'll admit, our family history is a bit complicated." Dave turned to leave and catch up with his friends. Unlike his bro, moving at invisibly fast speeds tired him out. About half way between the agents and his friends, a sudden loud bang rang out across the snowy road. Ahead, his friends stopped and turned. One of the agents, barely conscious, had found enough strength to reach his fallen gun and get out one shot.

Dave's arm went numb one moment, and the next there was an extreme pain in his shoulder. The last thing he remembered was the feeling of falling, and someone screaming his name.

Chapter Text

Terezi watched, er, smelled the bullet hit Dave's. Jade screamed, but she wasted no time in running over to help. In fact, she was so distracted she didn't notice that her hood slipped. "Dave! Stupid!" she yelled at him. He didn't respond. Picking him up from the snow by his good shoulder, she slung his arm over her shoulders and walked back to the group. Approaching them, Jade offered help, which she refused. Someone came behind her and shoved her hood over her eyes. Turning, Karkat stood there, looking rather solemn.

"Let her help," he said. "We don't need anymore heroes," he growled. Swearing at him in Alternian, she nodded at Jade, who tenderly came under Dave's bad arm.

Up in the window of a house, a lone man looked out the window. Hearing the bang, he had quickly gotten up to see what happened. He saw a kid lying on the ground, bleeding, being attended to by a... What was that?! Humanoid, with grey skin, black lips, pointy teeth, and orange horns. Needless to say he spent no time in getting a picture with his camera and contacting the media. He could already see the headlines! "Man Discovers Aliens Out His Window!" "Aliens Here! Friend or Foe? Picture Says Foe!" This would be his big break! He could escape this icey wasteland once and for all!

What he didn't see was the alien helping the human, or the FBI agents lying face down, or the mixed group of humans and aliens that were all together, and he especially failed to realize the boy was the wanted criminal Dave Strider.

Not that he would have cared anyway.

Chapter Text

Dave woke up with a throbbing pain in his shoulder and a numb arm. Remembering what had happened, he slowly pushed himself up. "He's up!" called a voice next to him. Turning his head, he saw Terezi squatting at his side. Jade appeared on the other side.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"About a day. Now lay back down, you'll just make it worse!" Jade softly pushed on the injured shoulder, and he winced slightly, lowering himself. "Bec got out the bullet shortly after he transported us. We, uh, borrowed some of your money for a reusable bandage and some other stuff. Terezi wrapped you up." Terezi shrugged.

"I seemed to be the only one that finds your cherry blood non-repulsive," she commented blandly. Dave laughed lightly, but quickly stopped when his shoulder throbbed again.

"What kind of 'other stuff'?" he asked. There was a thud on his chest. Looking up, he saw John with his stupid grin holding a box, with another being the thing tossed on his chest earlier. Picking it up with his good hand, he read the label. "John, please tell me you did not seriously get me dark blue hair dye."

"I don't like to lie!" he laughed. "Besides, I got lime green for my hair! Jade got purple and Rose got firetruck red! Oh, and I got contacts, and a pair of cheap-oh safety scissors. We're having a make over party!"

"Gog, this is so not cool," Dave laid his head back down on the concrete. Which made him wonder, "Where the hell are we?"

"Maryland. Baltimore to be specific," John told him. If he could sit up, he would have smacked John.

"Are you kidding?! You stuck us right under the Feds big hairy nose and waited for them to snort us up like drugs?!"

"Well, yeah. We're kind of camped in an alleyway if you haven't noticed."

"John, you are the biggest idiot I know."

"Thanks! You're my best bro too!" Dave was silent for a minute.

"Well, if we have to do this, then might as well get it over with. But I call the blind girl not cutting my hair." Terezi smacked him, but he just smiled, sitting up and leaning heavily on his good arm until he could pull his legs in for better balance. Jade russled inside a plastic bag and pulled out the shitiest looking safety scissors he had ever seen.

"Oh, so the girl with a giant cow lick and weirdo bangs cuts my hair. Joy."

"Hey! I have to cut my own hair on my island! Cutting someone else's hair will be be even easier!" Although that didn't encourage any more hope in him, he prayed for one of Gamzee's miracles and remained perfectly still for about ten minutes. When it was done, he carefully stood up, holding the box of dye.

"Well, I'll go use the nearest gas station bathroom," he said. Before leaving, however, he did one of his least favorite things to do.

He took off his shades.

Putting them on Rose, he patted her head teasingly. "They won't recognize my red eyes since they've never seen 'em, but your eyes stand out like a sore thumb." Then he walked off.

In the restroom, filled with writing, from every type of tool, couples to swears to even a place next to a mirror that said "you're beautiful". But for sure, Dave was not feeling beautiful.

His normal, neatly combed, thick hair and side burns were gone. In their place was messy, thinned hair that hung just above his eyes along as he kept it swept to one side. Although it was a typical guy cut, it wasn't him. Sighing, he opened the dye and read the instructions. Too bad he couldn't speed up time anymore, because this would take a while, especially since he was going for the darkest tone available.

And dark blue wasn't his color.

Chapter Text

Jade had just finished dying her hair. Luckily, they weren't far from two different gas stations, each with insividual gender restrooms. She hadn't realized how long dying hair would take!

Walking out, she met with her friends. They barely looked like themselves anymore! Dave's hair had come out a dark shade of midnight blue, John's hair was choppy looking, and the limiest green she had ever seen! Jade had been forced to cut Rose's already short bob into a very messy boy style, which Rose could barely stand, and the bright red hair plus Dave's glasses gave her quite the punk look. All she needed was a few facial piercings to finish the look. Jade herself had noticeably shorttened her cow licks and cut all but two side pieces to a little past chin length. The purple was only slightly darker than Rose's eyes. The trolls stared at the kids, probably wondering if such strangely colored hair was normal.

For a finishing touch, Jade took off her large, bulky glasses and replaced them with smaller, more average looking ones.

"Shit, this is stupid," Dave sighed.

"But now we don't have to worry as much when we walk into stores!" Jade said happily.

"Yes, but were such obnoxious colors necessary?" Rose asked, running her fingers through her freshly dyed hair.

"Of course!" John answered sternly. "With weird colors, people won't think twice about us. A group of punk teens is nothing new. Plus it makes the trolls less suspicious, and also justifies and glimpses people get of their faces!"

"It's a good point," Dave admitted. "Besides the fact that it's one of the oldest hiding tricks in the book. However, this is so far beyond ironic that I feel stupid."

"Didn't need much help with that!" John teased. The resulting glare could have killed a puppy. "Okay! Sorry! Don't ever do that again! You look a demon!"

"Good. At least I have something against you." Dave retorted. Just then, he felt a low rumble in his stomach. None of them had eaten since the lodge, and even then the trolls hadn't eaten. Dave wasn't sure what they would eat, anyway. He thought he saw Gamzee with a bottle of something green, though. Better not ask.

"We should get moving, probably find somewhere better than here to stay, like a motel or something," John said, but Dave shook his head.

"Money will last for so long. We can't waste it on renting rooms. And paying in cash for things over one hundred bucks gets you on the 'to watch' list. We should probably wander around and find somewhere a bit dryer and more open than this place. Like a park." The others nodded, and the group walked out of the alley, down a quiet street. It was early morning, not even two o' clock yet, and nothing moved. The only place with lights on was a twenty-four hour coffee shop and pub. A little tv in the corner flickered with the news, pictures of four teens shown one by one. The screen changed again to a different screen, and Dave tore his eyes away.

Not far away was a small park with quite a bit of tree cover. John had managed to remember the way after having been teleportalized into a tree here.

"We're sleeping here?" Feferi half whined. John nodded.

"Yep! Up in the trees!" he said.

"In?" Terezi asked happily.

"Yeah, that way if anyone passes by, we won't be noticed immediately!"

"How do we get up?" Jade wondered out loud.

"Easy, we climb," Vriska retorted. She proceeded to dig in her nails and hoist herself up to the first branch.

"Sorry, bur we humans aren't as physically adept for scaling vertical surfaces," Rose sighed. Suddenly, Vriska swung down by her legs, grabbed her under the arms and flipped back up, helping the human girl get onto the branch. "Problem solved."

So the trolls scaled multiple trees in the area, helping the humans up. Most found spots on thick branches near the middle of the tree. Folliage hid them from most passerbies' sights. John snuggled to the tree trunk and hugged the base of the branch, thanking sweet jegus he didn't move much in his sleep.

A few hours later, he awoke to a high pitch scream for the second time in the past few days.

Chapter Text

John nearly fell out of the tree at the sudden noise below him. Looking down, he saw Nepeta sitting there, rubbing her head. She obviously hadn't realized her hood had slipped. The scream had cone from a tall woman, holding the leash to a large doberman dog. The dog growled, then began to bark viciously at the alien. Nepeta glared at it for a moment, then gave a nasty hiss. The dog whined and backed away.

"Alien! The newspaper was right!" she yelled. "Police! Police!" John had barely enough time to comprehend what she said before climbing down. Equius had already reached the ground and had grabbed Nepeta by the back of her jacket, pulling her after him. Dave appeared nearby and flipped up the troll girl's hood. Moments later, John and the others were running after.

Becquerel appeared from a denser grove of trees and ran up beside Jade. Police called after the kids, but no one turned to stop. "Jade! Tell Bec to take us somewhere else!" Dave yelled. The pain in his shoulder was increasing with each arm swing.

"Bec! Take us to Arizona!" There was a flash, and the cold, dreary morning was replaced with a sudden dry heat. The group found themselves standing in front of an old "Welcome to Arizona!" sign, next to a old, barely maintainanced road. The rest of the land scape was small shrubs, dead plants, cacti, and small mesquite trees. Far in the distance were some small mountains or really big hills.

"Jade, are you trying to compete with your brother for the idiot award?" Dave asked sourly.

"I'm sorry!" she pouted. "I meant to go somewhere like Washington, or Minnesota! But I couldn't stop thinking about Area 51!"

"Well, shit, we're here now," John broke in, looking around. "And we're stuck here until Bec rests."

"It may be a bit hot for the trolls to remain in the provided clothes," Rose pointed out.

"We're fine, actually," Kanaya broke in. "We're better suited for exteremely high temperatures than low ones."

"Still, if anyone sees a bunch of kids wandering around in this heat dressed for the cold, what do you think will happen? They'll just call us crazy and drive by?" Dave pointed out. Rose nodded in agreement.

"Uhhh..." Jade thought, looking into the distance, when it finally hit her. "That's it! We'll say it's left over from the night! Desert nights can get cool, and especially if you're use to 110 degree weather!"

"That will work until about noon," John pointed out.

"So it will work," Rose said. Nobody seemed to see her reasoning. "By the afternoon, we're going to want to have found some sort of shelter. Be it a cave or the overhang of a rock, we can't be walking around when it's over 110 in the sun."

"Then we better get moving now!" John said, starting down the road to the mountains in the distance. Karkat came up beside him.

"Your planet is weird," he growled. "How do you go from freezing to hot?"

"It would take a lot of time to go into the science explanation. The basic one is that we moved closer to the sun based on the circular shape and slated axis of rotation, making it warmer."

"Oh," he replied, though he still didn't quite understand, not being the science type.

Several hours later, hot and covered in sweat, the pack reached the base of the mountains. They immediately started to snoop around.

"Damn, doesn't Arizona have animal caves?" John wondered aloud.

"Here's something!" Jade called. A large overhang stood precariously from the side of the mountain. One giant slab of stone was jutting out from the ground, with another balanced from behind over the edge of the first, providing a large portion of shade. Jade sat under it, and Bec stretched out next to her. Although it wasn't very safe, it was what they had. The others sat under it, watching the road.

It took a while for Rose to become conscious of the worry at every sound of a plane overhead. In fact, she saw a few trolls jump a bit at the sudden noises they made. Not that she blamed them. How had it gotten to this? One day she's at home with her mother doing her pain in the ass homeschool work, the next she's jumping around the country with a devil-beast, her three friends, and a giant group of aliens, jumping at every car, every man wearing a suit, every engine sound she heard and saw. And some how, she found herself grateful for her new short hair.

Chapter Text

Karkat sat on the edge of the shade. He couldn't believe the humans thought it was hot! This was a normal day in Alternia, but he had to admit that the jacket, pants, and gloves did add to the edge a bit. Something to his left rattled, and he turned to see a small creature with a long body, coiled up so only it's head and tail stuck out. Staring at it a minute, he reached out and quickly snagged it by just behind the head.

"Hey, Egbert, what's this?" he asked, holding it up to the human's face. And John proceeded to shriek like a little girl.

"Rattle snake!" he screamed. Karkat just stared at it. The only menacing thing was the fangs, but otherwise it looked harmless. It did thrash about quite a bit, making more rattling with it's tail. "That thing in poisonous!"

"Take off the head," Rose said calmly. "Snake is good meat. And John, a snake that can't use it's fangs is harmless." Karkat obliged and pinched off the head, and the thing stopped moving. "If we make a fire, we can cook it. But we will wait until nightfall for that." So Karkat tossed the body of the corpse onto John's lap, who yelped one more time.

"Karkitty! That's gross!" he whined.

"What the hell did you just call me?!" Karkat growled and grabbed the boy's hair.

"Ow! Sorry!" John whimpered. As soon as the troll let him go, he added, "But not really!"

"You little..." Karkat growled something in his native tongue, and John correctly interpretted it as an insult. He just sat there and laughed.

Hours later, the sun had just started to set. "We should get fuel for a fire," Rose said. Jade and a few others had fallen asleep, but now they blinked awake. Even Becquerel began to softly stir.

"It's still bright out!" Nepeta mewed, and Equius gave her his glasses. "Thankies!"

"I'll go," Dave stood up.

"But your shoulder..." Jade started.

"It's fine," he replied. A new voice broke in.

"I'd listen to the girl."

Before anyone knew what was happening, five agents, all holding hand guns, had the cleft surrounded, blocking all exits. Dave instinctly took out his sword.

"Do you really want a fight, Strider? I don't care who your brother is, your still well out numbered." Who ever was the agent speaking reminded Dave creepily of Mr. Smith from the Matrix. Which was no where near as shitty as some of the other movies John made him watch.

"Out numbered and out matched are two different things," Dave said. Less than a second later he disappeared and reappeared behind the agent. Before he could strike, the man whirled around and punched him hard in his bad shoulder. "Where I come from, that's considered a cheap shot," Dave panted.

"Well, you're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy!" the other man smirked.

"Who needs Kansas when you can live in Texas?" Dave disappeared again to appear behind a different agent, only to have a swift chop delivered to the base of his neck, and another to his weak shoulder. Grunting, he fell to the ground. Immediately his arms were seized by two agents. Looking up at his friends with determined eyes, he gave a simple command. "Go."

"Dave! We can't-" Jade spoke up.

"I said go!" In a flash, they were all gone, and Dave was left alone with the agents. A different agent spoke up.

"Sir, we got the energy reading. We are now able to trace the location of the dog." Dave glanced over at the man holding a device the size of a PDA. The man came over and squatted down by Dave's face.

"Thanks, boy. You've played them right into our hands!" Dave glared intensly at the man.

"Area 51 agents," he nearly spat. "You're all so stereotypical. You make a big loop around ironic and land right back into the shit pile of stereotypes."

"Get the red-eyed wonder here to the car. We'll take him in for questioning." With that, the men yanked up on him, causing a tearing sensation in his shoulder, which wasn't a good sign. Then they half dragged, half walked him around the mountain to the base, where a black hummer waited.

This was going to be the worst car ride of his seventeen years of life.

Chapter Text

In the car, Dave had his head bagged with a itchy fabric sack and his hands cuffed together. His sword had also been taken, along with the other weapons he carried. After riding for what seemed like hours on rough roads, the vehicle paused. Hushed voices talked in the front seat, and a buzz came from outside, signaling the the car to move again, more slowly now. A few long minutes and it stopped entirely. The door to his left opened. Someone reached in and forcefully pulled him out, ripping the bag from his head.

"Now, that's no way to treat a guest, is it?" Dave remarked sourly, but the man didn't respond. Looking around, he was in some kind of mix between a jet hanger, parking garage, and set from Star Wars. The agent grabbed his bad arm, making Dave wince, and lead him through confusing and nearly endless hallways. Every so often they would pass someone in a lab coat, who would stare at him as he walked by. Probably trying to figure out if his red eyes made him an alien or albino. He was tempted to hiss at one lady who seemed rather freaked out by him, but he kept his cool. Or what remained of it.

Finally they arrived at your typical picture of an interrogation room. One big window, most likely one sided, with one windowless door and a tv set that viewed the interrior and projected any conversations from inside. Dave was taken inside and forced to sit in the chair, the man taking hard down on his shoulder, creating another small tearing sound. Dave bit his tongue to prevent from emitting any sound of pain, though his shoulder hurt so much it felt like it was on fire. One hand cuff was removed and attached to the underside of the table. The agent then walked briskly out of the room, closing the door behind him. Dave used his free hand to rub his shoulder. The bandage was soaked, and he definitely had a torn muscle. He just hoped it wouldn't rip all the way, or it might be a bit of a problem. And extremely painful.

A moment later the agent from back at the overhang walked in.

"Well Dave, I hope you had a pleasant ride," he said sarcastically.

"You should consider teaching manners to your men," Dave calmly replied. "Like for starters, don't pick on a guy's wound."

"I'll consider the advice."

"Thanks."

"Now that that's out of the way, let's get to business." The man pulled out a badge. "I'm head agent Brent Anderson."

"Funny, you struck me as more of a Mr. Smith than a Neo," Dave commented dryly. The reference was ignored. The guy was probably use to it.

"I need to know a few things from you. First, we recieved word that you claim to be Bro Strider's sibling. Is this true?"

"You already know the answer." Just then, another man walked in.

"Agent Anderson, we uncovered the boy's records. They were well hidden. You'd only find them if you dug really deep, specifically for him. There is no connection we pulled up that tied his files to Bro Strider's." Agent Anderson took the folder from him, and the man left.

"Pretty smart, I'll admit. You two did this alone?"

"Now who else would help us do something like that?"

"There are people." Dave sighed and rubbed his temple with two fingers.

"No, we didn't. Besides, if someone did why would I tell?" Agent Anderson smirked.

"We have ways." he drifted over and patted Dave's shoulder, making him wince again.

"How about we move on to some serious questions? I know I wasn't exactly brought here to do a routine backround check."

"Why? We have no rush."

"Yeah, but boring questions that are barely worth answering bore me." The agent dropped his smug look for a more serious one.

"Fine then. Your first question, what is your link to the aliens?"

"They showed up in my best bro's backyard, so I helped them-"

"Before that, Mr. Strider. Your friend John hinted to knowing them before you ever arrived. Besides that, there is photographic evidence of ties to the female with red glasses. She seems to care quite a bit for you."

"If I went back any further, you'd call me bat shit crazy."

"I've heard strange things before, Mr. Strider. I do work for the government, you know."

"True that, Neo. But this is one tail I barely believe, and I lived it."

"We have all the time in the world."

"Then will you believe it started with a video game called Sburb?"

"I'm not aware of any game by that name."

"Because it doesn't exist in this timeline. Me and my friends? We came from one of your alternate dimensions, got brought into a new dimension through this game, had to destroy that dimension, to create a new Universe, which is this one. Oh, and somewhere in that game me, my friends, and are guardians were made out of Paradox slime. By Egbert himself. The weirdest part was when my paradox sister knocked me out with a yarn ball, then stole the moon to fly a tumor into a green sun. How's that for f*****?" (authors note: yes, I am that lame) Agent Anderson stared at him intensely, and Dave held his gaze.

"That is the worst made up fairy tail I have ever heard."

"Told you that you wouldn't believe me. Hook me up to the truth detector, read my pupils or whatever, cuz I'm not lying." Anderson turned his back to Dave and stared at the wall for a minute, then turned back.

"Let's say I do. How does that link you to these aliens?"

"The aliens played it to, genius. Apparently our session screwed theirs worse than a couple of nerds in a twin bed in his parents' basement. Thus, because their timeline was ahead of ours for a while, they helped us out, tried to screw with us a few times, and were general pains in the ass. Then we met up in the new timeline, worked through the rest of the game, and this big honcho guy declared humans the winner and restored Earth as it should be according to the time we spent in game. Alien kids lost, they get sent back to a wiped out planet and cone to the only creatures they know who will help. Oh look! And here we are today."

"So who's the alien girl?"

"Which one? There's about five of them."

"The one who helped you in Alaska."

"Terezi? My fairy god troll as Jade calls her. The main troll who helped me through the game."

"Troll?"

"The species are called trolls. All twelve of them left."

"So you are quite familiar with them?"

"You could say that." Dave glared through the hair that had fallen into his eyes. He knew what this guy was planning.

"So you know their weaknesses?"

"Maybe. Hell if I tell you though."

"I think you will."

"Don't count on it." The agent walked around behind him, then suddenly slammed his hand down on Dave's bad shoulder, squeezing it around the wound. Dave couldn't help but left a small grunt escape through his teeth.

"Oh, I think I will. Remember, Strider, no one knows what happens in Area 51!" With that, he released Dave's shoulder and walked over to the door, allowing the guards in. "Take him to holding cell 13. He needs time to think." His wrist were cuffed together again, and the two guards marched him down a few walls, and opened a metal door marked "13". Tossing him inside, he hit the ground on his bad shoulder. Another tear, and it was all Dave could do only to grunt loudly through clenched teeth.

So he laid on the ground, staring at the cold, barely lighted cement ceiling.

Today really wasn't his day.

Chapter Text

Jade squatted next to Becquerrel, stroking the pure white dog. Terezi stormed back and forth in a pacing motion.

"Where is he?!" she demanded. "Why didn't he come with us?!"

"Because to bring him Bec would have to bring the guys holding him," Jade replied, voice barely above a whisper.

"So?! Just bring them along! We could handle the two of them!"

"Because Bec couldn't, okay?!" Jade snapped. Everyone was silent. "Bec could barely carry just us, bring another two men couldn't be done..." Rose walked over and attempted to comfort Jade. Terezi turned and paced more, before sitting down at the edge of the group. After a minute or two, John broke the silence.

"So... where are we?"

"Um, I think we're in Washington," Jade answered.

"The state?"

"Yeah." And that ended that conversation.

Another minute later, there was a sudden cool breeze. John rubbed his arms, and Rose stood up, looking around cautiously.

"What's wrong?" Jade asked. Rose didn't answer.

"Dave?" she finally asked into the air. Immediately quite a few ears perked up.

"I wish." The new voice came from right by her ear, and her hair blew slightly. A blink of an eye later, there was a puppet, and closely after that there was a man in his late twenties. All white clothes, white hair, but black shades and hat.

"Bro Strider!" John smiled. The cold look he recieved through the glasses was beyond cool. It was so extreme, John dropped his smile in respect.

"Dave doesn't get left behind," Bro stated. "We go back as soon as possible." There were no questions asked, no doubts, just a sudden passion to rescue their friend within all of them. Bec instantaneously curled up, suddenly sound asleep. "Feds are my specialty. We'll have him out soon." His head turned to Terezi, who gave a pointy toothed, black lipped grin.

Soon, everyone but two people were asleep. Rose stood next to Bro, who leaned on the wall, messing with Lil' Cal at invisible speeds. Finally, he set the puppet down on a trash can lid.

"Mr. Strider?" Rose whispered softly.

"Bro. I know our backround," he replied.

"Okay, Bro. May I ask some questions?" he nodded slowly, in that beyond cool manner.

"How did you know Dave was captured?"

"Message from the Feds, left to me."

"And how did you know where to find us?" Bro was silent. A few seconds later, he shook his head.

"Didn't say I'd answer all of them."

"Fair enough. How did you know the aliens were with us? You didn't seem surprised to see them."

"Hacked Dave's pesterchum, read the message."

"I see. Why do you and Dave seem to have Fed dodging experience?" Silence for a moment.

"Movies."

"If you're going to lie, please make a better attempt."

"Sorry. It's a long story."

"Better. So how are we going to save our brother?"

"Only got part of a plan. The rest we'll figure out as we go."

"I can deal with that." They stood in silence a while longer. There was a slight shuffling sound, then suddenly Bec was next to them. Rose smiled and patted his head. "Good dog." Soon, everyone was up and looking at Bro for what to do.

"Me and up to seven others go," he ordered. "We need to be able to make a fast escape. Whoever goes does exactly what I say, and should have some use."

"Well, hell! That sure limits it!" Karkat spoke up sarcastically. "We just hot through a killer game without learning how to fight!"

"I know what he means," Tavros said, doing his best to sound confident. "I'll stay."

"Me too~" Nepeta mewed. Kanaya nodded as well. It was silent for another moment.

"I guess I'll stay," John decided. Karkat looked at him, then sighed.

"I will too..." he growled in defeat.

"I'll-" Gamzee started.

"No! You go, clown!" Karkat ordered. "Shit, if stuff goes wrong you could level the whole place." Gamzee smiled creepily, sending a shiver down his best friends back.

"That's still eleven." Bro counted.

"As much as I love that douchebag," Vriska started sarcastically, "I'll stay back."

"I'll remain here as well," Rose declared.

"The same for me," Aradia echoed.

"Us too!" Feferi held up Eridan's hand for him.

"He doesn't need to leave that many!" Eridan growled.

"Better, though," Bro said. "Less to have to keep track of. Now if your going, I need to know what I can make with you." So those going held a little meeting. Of course, Jade was the best at handling Bec and amazing with a gun, Sollux could hack any security system, Terezi could smell Dave from a mile away, and Equius's massive strength could be of use. Everyone was set to leave.

And in the blink of an eye, there were just inside the walls of a government compound, standing in the blazing heat.

Chapter Text

Being out in the open sun made Terezi uncomfortable. Luckily, Dave's brother quickly signaled them to take cover in the shadow of a large vehicle. They all as told, pressing up to the tall white side. Bro crept up near the front, and peered around. Quickly returning, he signalled for them to go under the trucker. Doing so, they all found hand and foot holds to cling to, and not much later there was a roar that nearly made Terezi lose her grip. Above her, the truck moved, taking all six inside with it.

That's when Jade realized Becquerrel was gone. The dog would stay out of trouble, she was sure, but for everyone's sake she hoped he would come back when she called him.

Bro crawled along the bottom to the front once they had stopped. Feet appeared at the rear and a clanging was heard as someone opened the rear door. Terezi held her breath. When he turned and gave a thumbs up, everyone made for the front, where they stood in close proximity due to the wall in front of them.

"On signal, one at a time we make for the door," he whispered. A door was open only a few feet to their right, but they saw people going back and forth to the truck. Bro disappeared, and a few seconds later he was at the door, giving the signal to come.Terezi went first, and dived quickly into the room. It was filled with coat racks and little metal boxes on the wall. Long white coats were on the hangers.

A few minutes later, everyone was in. Jade, the last one in, smiled at the room.

"Jackpot!" she whispered. Running over to the coats, she grabbed one for herself, along with a badge someone had left, that read "Intern". Putting on both, she whirled around and modeled it. "How do I look?"

"Like a psychotic human," Terezi retorted. Bro just nodded his approval.

"This might help us avoid trouble if we are seen!" Jade said. "Just make sure your guys' hoods stay up!" So after examining a convenient map on the wall, they exited the room and started slowly down the hallway. Nobody seemed to be in the area, until a foot appeared around a corner, and Bro grabbed them and pulled everyone into the nearest room. As an agent walked by, they watched him disappear around the next corner before cautiously continuing. Bro would disappear and reappear at random times, checking to make sure everything was clear. On one of these trips he returned and motioned for them to stop.

"Sollux," he nodded to the troll. Around the corner was a locked door, a computer consul next to it where a normal password lock would be. "You've got one shot at this."

"Easy." Sollux retorted. Within seconds of pulling up the computer, he had gotten into the recent entry log and gotten all the info he needed to get through. A few seconds after that, the door was open. They were about to continue when Bro stopped them again with a hand. He typed a few keystrokes on the keyboard, and suddenly massive amounts of data and reports pulled up. He pointed to one result:

"Dave Strider secured in cell 13. Condition: Poor."

"Dave..." Jade muttered.

"'Poor' means he's fine." Bro whispered. "Dave's strong." Jade nodded.

"If you could hack, why have me do it?" Sollux muttered.

"Not a hack." Bro closed the window. "A secret short cut." Not asking anymore questions, they continued, now picking up their pace.

Not a minute later, he stopped them again. Looking around, they were half way down an empty hallway, no doors. He nodded to Gamzee, who drew out his clubs, and crept to the corner. Two agents appeared, and hardly a second later, they were all lying on the ground, passed out from a hit to the head. And their flight continued on, no further interruptions hindering them until they reached the door to the cells. Another quick hack and they were all in.

As Jade opened the door, Bro suddenly snagged the trolls back. "Hey! Who gave you clearance?!" An agent stood on the other side.

"Agent Anderson, sir!" she replied, whipping off the only name she remembered from the list of orders Bro had pulled up. "I have some experience as a doctor! I was ordered to make sure the prisoner was in good enough shape for questioning."

"But shouldn't you have some kind of clipboa-" he was cut off suddenly, and crumpled to the ground. Bro stood in his place. Jade rushed over to the cell marked thirteen, peering in the barred window.

"Dave!" she whispered loudly. The large shape in the middle of the room push itself up, and Jade made out red eyes in the darkness.

"Jade? What's up." Jade nearly fell backwards at the casual statement.

"Springing you out, little bro." Bro came up beside her. "It's a key lock with sensors inside. Only the real key will work. Search the guard." Jade didn't find any key on the man's body.

"Bro?" Dave finally while Jade searched. His brother nodded slightly. When Jade finished looking, he motioned to Equius and pointed at the bars on the window. Equius ripped through them with little struggle, then pulled at the solid metal around it to widen the space. Once he was done, Dave managed to slide himself out, feet first.

"Bec!" Jade called, not too loudly, but just above a whisper. Suddenly, with a flash, the dog was in the room with them, panting and looking at its owner. Jade hugged him, while Bro silently got Dave filled in.

"Shouldn't we close the door behind us and cover our tracks for now?" Sollux asked. Bro walked over to the computer and pulled up the window from before. Suddenly, he turned to face them.

"They're tracing Bec's energy."

Chapter Text

Dave was grateful for his friends beyond cool expressions. Having nothing better than to count seconds passing, in about five minutes he was scheduled for another questioning session. The first two had left his shoulder one fiber away from tearing through, and from what he had heard of torn muscles, that would be unpretty and probably require surgery. Unless Bec could use his amazing space powers to fix it. Still, it would be unsightly. Terezi stood next to him, and he could swear she was smelling his internal damage.

"We must get going!" Equius growled.

"But we've only just arrived!" came an all too familiar voice. Agent Anderson appeared in the door. "Bro Strider! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Hey Neo, if you haven't noticed we were just leaving," Dave smirked. The agent looked cooly between the brothers.

"I see the family resemblance. Anyway, I was just thinking, do you really want to leave while we have this?" he held up the handheld from earlier. "It can tell us exactly where your dog last teleported you to. And from. In fact, I believe agents in Washington should be detaining your friends already."

"If you don't mind, may I talk with my friend here?" Dave said cautiously.

"Take your time! No rush!"

"Gamzee, when did you last eat?" he asked calmly, not taking his eyes off the agent, but carefully counting the reinforcements that he could see on the other side of the door.

"Eat or bathe, man?" the troll chuckled.

"Feeling sober?"

"A bit."

"Well, I think you're about to have some fun." Milliseconds later, the two brothers disappeared. Anderson tossed the devise in the air to dodge one hand, only to have to snag it back to keep it from another. Troops filed in, and Gamzee drew his weapons, quickly finishing the first three. Equius drew his broken bow, and Jade grabbed a fallen rifle. Only Sollux held back, too afraid to use his optic blast due to his friends being in the way. The few that made it to him he easily dispatched with short beams. Only a minute later, Gamzee was standing like a king on a pile of bodies, and the only ones still fighting were the Striders and Anderson. Anderson tossed the remote up once more while both were on the ground, and there was a sudden gun shot in the near silence. The device flew, a bullet hole in the dead center of the screen. Jade stood there, smoking gun still aimed, staring fiercely at the target.

"Problem solved. Let's go." Bro said, still fending off the agent. Bec flashed, and they were suddenly back with everyone else.

"Dave!" Suddenly he was half tackled from the side by his paradox sister.

"Tch! Rose, my arm." She quickly released, just now noticing the handcuffs and awkward positioning of one shoulder.

"Oh! My apologies!" Rose examined the cuffs. "Hm, remote unlock? There isn't a key hole..." Something sliced right in front of her face, and the cuffs broke down the middle. Dave turned and nodded at bro, his usual cool kid nod.

"Uh, what happened here?" Jade broke into the moment. That's when Dave cared to notice about twenty bodies scattered around on the ground next to them. Terezi had her nose wrinkled, sniffing one of the bleeding agents.

"A little fight broke out! Not much to worry on!" John smiled, sitting next to Karkat against a wall.

"You call that little?!" his partner said. He just laughed.

"They were kind of strange for humans," Vriska noted.

"No wonder, their blood smells funny," Terezi retorted, standing up.

"Did you ever think that maybe you're just use to sniffing Dave's pardox blood like it's a human drug?" Vriska replied calmly.

"No, because I've smelled other human blood, and it's not much different than Dave's!"

"Woah, let's keep Dave out of this," Dave said from behind Terezi, where he was slowly and painfully unbandaging his shoulder.

"Whatever, Pyrope!"

"You got a problem, Serket?!"

"Okay, girls!" Kanaya stepped between them. "None of us are in the best moods! Let's not start a fight here!" The two turned away from each other.

"Do trolls get cranky?" John whispered to Karkat.

"None of us have slept in a recuperapod for a long time. We've been rationing the sopor, and Gamzee has been eating enough just to keep him high so we don't have to worry about him going psycho and killing us all." His voice did have more of an edge than usual, John noted.

The next half hour was spent searching the fallen agents for supplies and rewrapping Dave's shoulder to hold his arm still. Bro had disappeared shortly after arriving. Once done, they left on foot, the sun just fallen and street lights just turning on. Cars raced by on the street, and the trolls flinched at each one.

Hours of walking got them to the next city, though they continued south east for the next state.

Chapter Text

"Potatoes!" John exclaimed happily. Karkat raised an eyebrow.

"He means we've made it to Idaho," Rose clarified. A large sign greeted them to the new state. "Home of world famous potatoes. A human food."

"Oh," Karkat replied simply, continuing to walk. It had started raining a while ago, so everyone was soaked. Now the skies were grey, but all was dry. The Interstate 90 was quiet, no cars drove past. Anyone driving by at three in the morning must be crazy.

There was farmland on either side. According to the last map they checked, they should be arriving in McGuire shortly. But then again, what was short in a car was long when you were walking. The shabby group was a sight for sore eyes, Tavros's hood was starting to rip, Equius looked like his head had an abnormal growth on one side, Terezi's hood was half off, and not to mention the strange colors of hair on the humans.

About an hour later, they were just on the edge of civilization. On one side of the road was a large space of farmland, the other looked wilder, with large trees and obviously uncared for weeds along the side. Something caught John's eye, though. A small shanty, it looked pretty empty, with plants growing up the sides, windows broken, shingles torn up, and even a softball sized hole in the front wall. "Hey guys! Look at this place!" he ran over to it.

"Gog, we've been walking forever, how can he run..." Dave muttered.

"Says the injured one," Terezi retorted. "Most of us are fine."

"Speak for the trolls. Humans aren't exactly the most physically fit beings in the universe."

"This place must be empty! It'd make the perfect place to stay!" John yelled. He reached for the door.

"Careful! There might be gangs or something!" Jade said, jogging slowly up behind him. Starting to open it slowly, he peeped his head inside, then suddenly slammed it open, making everyone jump.

"Hee hee! Just kidding!" he laughed. Vriska came up and slugged his arm.

"Not funny," she told him, walking in first. Inside it was dark and a bit damp, but roomy. No one could really see around them, but Terezi could smell everything.

"We can sleep the day here," Rose suggested. Everyone muttered agreement, and in minutes they had found places on the floor to sprawl out, asleep even faster than that could find a spot.

~~~

A few hours later, Tavros awoke to someone touching his horns. Blinking his eyes open slowly, expecting Gamzee or Vriska or someone just moving around like usual, a pink face in his own made him scream and jump up against the wall he was leaning on. The human also screamed and jumped back, tripping over Nepeta and crashing onto his butt on the ground. Thus it was the third time on this trip John woke up to screaming.

In an instant, Dave was blocking the door, Rose guarding the window with her needles drawn. The man, probably in his early to mid-50s, had just greying hair, hazel, watery eyes, and a beard similar to that of Dumbledore in Harry Potter. John immediately took on his leader role.

"Who are you?" he demanded. The man stared up at him with pleading eyes.

"I am the one who owns this house! Who are you?!" Before John could come up with a good lie, the man broke in. "Wait a minute, aren't you that kid wanted by the FBI? John Egbert?" John nearly fell backwards with shock at being recognized.

"Wh-what are you talking about?! Of course not!"

"Ah ha! My theory was right! They really are aliens the government is trying to hide!"

"N-no! Th-those are costumes!"

"Don't lie to me boy, I know it's true! Your friend's horns are very much real!" John glanced nervously at Tavros, who still looked a bit disturbed at having his horns touched by some random stranger.

"Shit. Well, what's your name?" John asked.

"John!" Jade yelled at him.

"It's no use lying now," he responded quickly. "But we have to figure out if he's friend or foe."

"I-I'm Joe Miller! Just an independent researcher and conspiracy theorator!"

"Yeah, I figured," Dave said, leaving the door. "Just some guy trying to check out the aliens that the government doesn't was checked out. Area 51, Roswell, all that shit."

"You must be Dave Strider! I did my research on you boy!" Joe said, pointing at him. "Your brother..."

"Yeah yeah, I know my family history more than anyone else. Except maybe John." John smiled to himself at the fond memories. "Now, you probably figured out we're not exactly murderers or thugs. But having the entire country chasing after us isn't in our favor."

"Yes! Yes of course!" He was nearly kissing Dave's feet at that point, and Dave could care less. Realizing his position suddenly, the man struggled to his feet. Looking around at the aliens, who were staring at him like a rotting hoof beast. "This... this is my dream!"

"Whatever," John said, rubbing his temples. "Since we're all awake, I'll go into town and get some food. Maybe some new clothes for us. Dave?"

"I'll come too. The last time you went shopping with my money I ended up with this stupid hair dye," he huffed.

"I wanna come too!" Jade said. "I'm not use to the food you guys like. It's all slippery!"

"It's called grease," Rose corrected. "I better stay here with the trolls."

"That's what they're called?" Joe asked happily. John placed a hand dramatically on her shoulder.

"Good luck. Be strong. Liv Tyler would be proud!" She resisted the urge to smack him and instead just removed his hand. So the three left. And she was alone with a bunch of aliens and a half crazed man. A few minutes after they left, Joe approached her.

"Miss... Lalonde, right?" he asked. She turned to face him with a cold look.

"Correct. Did you need something?"

"I-I was just thinking, you might want to seal the windows, so no one can see in," he offered.

"Well..." she paused.

"I'd do it," Kanaya said, coming behind her. "If we want to hide, being right next to where a lot of humans go by with a cracked window isn't exactly the best way to do so."

"What do you propose we seal it with?" Rose asked cautiously.

"I keep a board here for the window when it rains. It keeps out most of the water besides what leaks in through holes in the walls. Recently I repaired the roof, so that no longer is a problem," he started babbling. Rose sighed, but nodded her head. "Oh, good good!" he immediately proceeded to get a large board leaning against a wall, and pull some hammer and nails out of a drawer near his desk.

"Would you like some help, sir?" Rose offered.

"Yes! Thank you! If you could hold that side up flush with... yes! Just like that!" He hammered in the top two corners. "That's all I need of you! I'll put a few more in to make sure it holds." Joe put nails in the bottom corners and a few around the edges. Rose had left him to finish it and was instead talking to one of the trolls. That was her mistake.

"Julie! You out there?" He whispered quietly. He heard a muffled voice respond. "Good! You know the plan. Send her in." Joe walked calmly back to the desk and replaced the hammer, then pulled out a white mask, closing the drawer. Just then, Rose came back up to him, and he hid the item on his other side.

"You're finished?" she asked. He nodded. "So what do you do in here?"

"Just some... you know... radioing to the space beyond us. Trying to make contact, constructing some small projects of my own, the works, right?" Just then, there was the clink of something small and metal hitting the concrete floor. Rose turned to see a small metal tube lying just below the hole in the wall, now covered from the outside. The trolls were already starting to investigate it as gas started to pour from it. Joe held up the mask to his face as a pale cloud nearly filled the room. Rose fought her way to try to reach the door through the trolls, but already she felt sluggish. She had to hope the gas wouldn't effect the trolls. Unfortunately for her, it worked even better on them, as they quickly fell asleep where the stood. She had just reached the door, when her eyes closed and refused to open. Her hand touched metal, but fell uselessly to her side. Rose passed out against the door.

When he was sure all were asleep, Joe opened the door. Gas rushed out harmlessly into the air. A woman about his age or older stood waiting for him. "It worked!" he said happily. Julie gave him an impatient look.

"Well? Get a lighter one and let's go!" she said. Remembering the second half of their plan, he rand back in and grabbed the first, light looking troll he saw, a skinny boy (assuming they had genders like humans) with red and blue glasses.

And Sollux was carried off to hell knew where.

Chapter Text

"Shit, you've got to be kidding!" Dave said, exhasperated, looking at the scene. Rose was stirring at his feet, and she sat up, holding her head.

"Damn! I can't believe..." she muttered to herself. Jade dropped her bag of groceries and went to help her friend.

"What happened?!" she asked.

"I didn't think about anybody being with him on the outside. He recommended boarding the window so people didn't look in. I stayed close, but someone from the outside gassed us."

"Great! So we have to run again," John sighed. Dave felt something off, though. He looked at the trolls, a few of which just started to move. Doing a quick mental role call, he realized he only counted eleven.

"I think wehave bigger problems than him ratting us out," Dave replied calmly.

"Where the hell is Sollux?!" Karkat asked loudly. Sure enough, the troll was gone. "Where'd the other human go?!"

"That's the problem," Jade said kindly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We think he was taken."

"The human?"

"Sollux, stupid!" Terezi broke in, yawning. "The human took him for gog knows what!" Karkat moved away from Jade's hand.

"Why are we here, then?! We have to go get him!" he growled.

"Hold on, hot head," Dave interrupted. "This guy is about an hour gone to who knows where. We need any lead we can get."

"Well, he said he owned this place," Rose said. "And he did some projects in here, as well as on here. He must be known at a nearby supply shop, right?"

"It's something," John said hopefully. Just then, the nearly forgotten team member bounded in.

"Bec! There you are!" Jade exclaimed, hugging her dog. Becquerrel barked, spun around once, then walked out the door, turning back about ten feet away, as if expecting something.

"What's it doing?" Nepeta peered out the door at it, shielding her already sun glassed eyes.

"He wants us to follow!" Jade said happily, darting after him. "Good dog! Best friend! Show us where Sollux is!" Bec barked at the door where the others stood, and moved away another few feet. "You guys coming?" And so the band started out to save their friend.

~~~

Sollux woke up slowly, forgetting for a second what had happened before he had fallen asleep. When he did remember, he tried to sit up quickly, but something cut sharply into his wrists. Pulling up his shoulders, he looked at what held him down. Some metal strips were over his hands and ankles. Normally it would be easy to use his optic blast to get through easily. Except he didn't want to blast off his own hands in the process. Besides that, he wasn't sure he could summon that much energy, since he hadn't absorbed the proper amount of sopor in a longer than he cared to remember. All he might be able to do is basic telekinesis.

"You're awake!" came a familiar voice. Sollux snarled.

"I thought you weren't going to be happy with just a visit."

"Oh! You speak good English, minus the lisp of course!" Joe was about to collapse and have a seizure with joy.

"No, shit? How would we have stuck with the other humans so long if we didn't speak your language?"

"I guess. Anyway, I realize that you probably want to know what I plan for you?"

"I believe I can guess. No need for details." Sollux did his best to concentrate what power he could into his eyes. Slight bits of electricity sparked. Joe just smiled happily.

"If I could ask a few questions! What do you guys ea-" Sollux let out the blast. Joe ducked just in time to dodge the blast, but it left a hole in the wall. He fell back down, panting, with his eyes watering slightly. It was no where near the usual size of his blast, but with his lack of energy it's all he could do. "Oh! You can do weird things!"

Under normal conditions, the guy would be dead already. The troll didn't take insults well, but considering he could barely lift his head. Things hadn't been normal for a long time though. Gog he hoped the others had a plan by now. Being dissected was not on the top of his of ways to die.

"Excuse me, but does this smell like chloroform to you?" Joe held a cloth to his face. He would have made a snarky comeback, but he was out too fast.

Chapter Text

Dave ran next to Bequerrel. Karkat was on the other side of the white devil beast, looking like he was pacing himself, making rapid glances down at it.

After about fifteen minutes of running, nearly loosing the other three humans, Bec stopped in front of a large house, the outside looking uncared for and almost abandoned.

"You better be right, dog," Dave muttered. Karkat went sprinting up to the door, but Dave was there faster, kicking it down, sword ready. Karkat already had his scythe.

"Sollux?" the troll yelled.

"Stupid! Like that's going to work!" Dave retorted sharply.

"Listen to your friend," came a female voice from the back of the dark room. There was the sound of shots, and both boys dodged with inhuman speed. The bullet made a cracking sound as it hit the stone wall. The woman stepped out, holding a shot gun. "I'm afraid I can't let you in when Joe is just getting to work. You'll have to wait until he's done."

"Not going to happen!" Karkat growled, rushing at her. Dave swore to himself, knowing exactly what was going to happen, and preparing quickly for it.

Sure enough, the woman shot straight at the on coming troll, who couldn't slow his momentum enough to dodge. Dave flew in with his sword and redirected the bullet with the flat end just enough that it skimmed Karkat's shoulder and kept going into a wall.

"Think first, idiot!" Dave said as he continued past the troll, who didn't stop and continued the motion, making a slashing motion with his scythe at the woman. She stepped back to dodge, but the weapon scratched her shoulder. Not stopping the motion, though, she swung her gun around and fired at the extremely close distance. Something hit the back of Karkat's knees just before it fired, and he fell backwards, saving him from the bullet. Pulling out the object from under him, he threw the club back into the air, where Gamzee caught it and brought it down straight onto the woman's head, making a loud crack. Everything seemed to pause for a moment. Blood splattered onto Gamzee face, who smiled creepily, the woman fell, bleeding profusely, onto the floor, and the others stood and watched.

When Gamzee landed, Karkat wasted no time in tossing him a vile of green slime. The troll drank it quickly, belching.

"Thanks dude." The clown gave a thumbs up, and Karkat scowled back.

"Let's go get Sollux," he huffed, standing up.

"How about not being an idiot from now on and thinking before you act?" Dave said, walking past him. There was no response.

They looked in every room of the house. No one else was there. No body hid in the shed outside. Finally, Nepeta found an outside entrance to a cellar while sniffing around the grass.

Equius pulled open the heavy doors. There was a loud squeal from the old metal, and the sounds from below. Karkat was the first to descend to the dark depth, followed closely by Dave and John, then the others just piled in around.

"Julie? If that's you, could you get me another- oh," Joe stopped mid sentence as he looked up at the very angry looking crowd in his cellar. He had been hunched over the alien, and currently held a scalpel and some surgical tool that no one cared to identify. Sollux was still unconscious, and his arm had a large gash down it, spewing yellow blood across the table.

"You'll be seeing Julie in a minute, no worries!" Karkat growled, drawing his scythe. Before anyone could move, Joe had the scalpel to the sleeping troll's throat.

"Stop! Or I'll cut his throat!" Everyone froze in place. Even Karkat didn't dare move, simply stared, scowling at the human. "Hm, so the throats are similar to a human... how peculiar..."

"If you done analyzing our friend we would like him back!" Jade demanded. He looked back up at them.

"Of course I'm not done! But I must thank you for bringing more specimen! It seems you are all a bit different."

"Like hell are we gonna be your science experiments!" Vriska growled. "I like my horns intact, thanks!"

"I can arrange that! Plenty more where that came from!" By now the entire group was ready just to kick the guys butt, but the knife, looming dangerously close to Sollux's throat, made it impossible for even Dave to move without making things worse. "By the way, what ever happened to Julie?"

"Dead, stupid!" Karkat growled. "Courtesy of Gamzee!" Joe's eyes glazed over for a moment, before he returned to his senses.

"You... killed her?!" he asked, astonished.

"It's a kill or be killed we live in, bro," Gamzee laughed.

"You... killed Julie." His eyes hardened. "Well, an eye for an eye I always say!" The knife raised. The trolls stared in horror, Karkat made a move to jump him, when the knife disappeared from the hand. Joe stared at his empty hand in disbelief, looking around the room. Dave stood on the opposite side of his friends.

"That was close. Knife's aren't for playing with, Joey," Dave told him calmly, holding the scalpel between his thumb and forefinger, letting it swing back and forth.

"You?! How?! Aren't you a human?!" Joe looked between Dave and the other group.

"There's some debate on that. We're pretty sure I am, though," Dave tossed the knife away. "Anyway, we'll have Sollux back now."

"N-no! I've waited my life for this! I can't give it up now!" he took a defensive stance, blocking the path to the bleeding troll.

"Too bad." Dave had barely said the words before he disappeared again, appearing briefly behind the man while picking up the troll, then rejoining his friends. Without warning, he tossed Sollux to Karkat, who had barely enough time to put away his weapon and catch his comrade. "Let's leave."

"What?!" Karkat growled. "Aren't we going to cull him?"

"No," John replied, understanding Dave's thinking. "We already did him worse than he did us."

"But he knows our secret!" Terezi hissed through clenched teeth. "We can't leave him to tell the world!"

"We don't," Rose responded. "We keep him here. The only entrance is through the outside. Lock that, and he's stuck here. He'll live for a while with all the supplies he keeps in here." No one else had noticed the refrigerator and small kitchen in the corner. With the wrappers and cans thrown around carelessly and stacks of boxes in the corners, it was obvious anyone could live a while down here with no problems. Karkat stared at the helpless man, then looked at Sollux, still passed out, and finally turned away, readjusting his friend.

"Fine. But if he becomes a problem in the future, I kill him myself." The troll pushed through the crowd, and walked back outside.

"P-please! Don't leave me down here alone!" Joe cried wildly as the others turned to follow. He was ignored.

Outside, they found a large tree limb and stuffed it through the two handles of the door. Even as the doors rattled, the group walked away, back to the temporary dwelling by the road.

~~~

Later that night, as most slept quietly, Karkat felt a hand on his shoulder. He opened one eye to see Dave next to him. With a nod, they both crept out quietly. Once a good distance from the abandoned dwelling, they took off, running down the road.

Reaching the house, the went around back, finding the tree branch just as it was left. Pulling it out, they opened the doors.

"Charlie? Is that you? You got here faster than expected!" came a voice from below.

"Not quite." Dave stepped into the soft light. Joe stared in horror.

"But your friend! She said you would leave me be!" he claimed.

"I said you would live until you became a problem." It was Karkat's turn to enter, holding his scythe. "You were a problem the moment we met you."

"P-please! Spare me!" Joe begged on his hands and knees. The troll wasted no time in eliminating the "problem". Dave walked by the fresh corpse, toward the desk in the corner.

"Talk about a problem. He didn't waste time after we left," Dave tapped something, and a new glow suddenly lit the room. A lap top screen showed a bright white page. Karkat came behind him and watched as Dave searched the emails and blogs that were all still open. "The world will know in at most a few days, at least a few hours."

"Well shit, that's just great," the troll growled, walking back to the lifeless body. "If he was waiting on some one, we should get out of here before they show up." With inhuman speed, both were gone, leaving the doors open and running back to the rest of their pack.

Chapter Text

"You did what?!" Jade's voice shot up a few notches.

"We went back and killed him," Karkat growled in responce.

"You said you would leave him as long as he didn't become a problem!" Rose demanded angrily. The killing of the man was not on her conscious at least, but she could help but feel angry that the two boys didn't listen to her.

"He was a problem the moment we met him!" the troll defended angrily.

"Besides, now he's still a serious threat," Dave back him up cooly.

"How is a dead guy a threat?!" Jade asked, glaring and anger, shock, and disbelief at her friend. She thought she had known him well enough that he wouldn't go back on his words. Now she wondered if she knew him at all.

"Internet." The one word was enough to quiet the room. "Staying here even a second more could get us caught. The Feds will be hear any minute, and now we have every alien-contacting, aluminum-hat freak in the U.S. and elsewhere chasing us wherever we go." Everyone stayed quiet as they took in what Dave said, even if the trolls didn't understand part of it.

"Well then we need to move!" John said stubbornly. "We'll have to run some more!"

"How?" Rose asked calmly. His heroic look faded for a minute, but it quickly returned as he thought.

"We can't use Bec anymore," Jade pointed out.

"Walking is out with Sollux still injured," Karkat also pointed out.

"We need wheels!" John thumped his fist in his hand. "We'll just get a car!"

"I'll go find one," Dave spoke up, "We need something that will fit 16, even if its uncomfortable. And seeing as you get mad when I don't tell you my plans first off..." he glanced at Jade, who already saw where this was going, "I'm not paying what money I have left for a vehicle. My hot wiring skills will have to do."

"We can't steal a car!" Jade demanded.

"No, we steal a van. Not one that anyone owns," he retorted. "Honestly Jade, we're on the run for smuggling, sheltering illegal aliens, and possibly murder now. Car-theft is the least of our crimes."

"He's right," John had to admit, attempting to comfort his sister by putting one arm around her. "We need to keep moving any way we can." Jade, still opposed to the idea, slowly nodded. Looking Dave straight in the eye, she wasn't convinced so easily.

"Fine. But not from a drive way. And... be careful!" She looked at Dave's still injured shoulder. If she inquired, she knew he would brush it off, but her intuition told her it still pained him every so often. Nodding, he was out the door in a flash.

"We need to move out of this house," John decided. "If the Feds come, we're cornered in here. In the woods we'll at least be harder to find." No one said much as they filed out the door and ran quickly into the dense trees. There they waited for about fifteen minutes. About the time John heard a car pull up on the road, he was beginning to hear helicopter blades in the distance. Peeking out from behind the tree, John assertained it was Dave. Signalling the others, they all rushed for the large white van. Dave stood out by the passenger door while the car remained running. John was the first over to him.

"It's only fifteen passenger. Bec will have to take the floor with someone else. Oh, and your driving," Dave said calmly. John's eyes lit up.

"Really?! Awesome!" he rushed over to the driver's door and climbed in. Jade walked up with Bec.

"We'll take the floor," she said. Dave nodded and climbed into the passenger seat. Once everyone had quickly filed in and taken a seat, Jade and Bec sat on the floor between driver and passenger.

"Hold on guys! This might be a bit bumpy!" John called back to him. Before anyone could say anything, John was flooring it, taking off at top speed. Since they were out in the middle of no where with no cars, they were doing perfectly fine. As soon as they hit the city, the van jerked to a harsh stop, and John continued normally. As they came up to the other end of the town, there was a line of black cars forming. They had everything blocked off except one lane going into the city. "I hope your seat belts are on!" John called pleasantly, jerking the wheel and moving to the far left lane on the opposite side of the road. A car was just about to pull into the space when John floored it for the second time. Dave ducked his head, and Jade gripped Becquerel's fur. John had an insane smile on his face as he nearly slammed the front of the other car. It was a minute before the other car decided to give chase, but by then John was nearly out of sight of it.

They managed to get through five different cities before they had to stop for gas and to stay the night.

Chapter Text

The group stopped at a motel in the middle of nowhere. The closest piece of civilization to them (not including the gas station across the road) was about 30 miles away. On the road, when they weren't all freaking out over John's maniacal driving, they had come up with fake names for the humans. Apparently Dave already had one, as well as an ID to go with it. Thus, it was Dave who had to get their rooms.

"You go check in, Damien~" John drew out the name. Shooting him a glare, Dave pulled out his wallet.

"Four rooms," he said simply, laying the money on the counter. The group had decided to avoid suspicion by actually checking into a proper number of rooms. Besides, the place was cheap, most likely due to the fact that almost no one would stop here. Staring at the actual cash for a minute, the attendant quickly took it, locked it in the register, and showed them to four interconnected rooms.

They all grouped into one for the time being. It was uncomfortably small and smelled unnaturally like Febreeze.

"I think we should have some fun tonight," Jade suggested into the silence. "We're all so tense! It be a great break!"

"And what do you suggest we do?" Rose asked, although she could predict the answer.

"Party, of course!" Yep, just as Rose expected. "There's a radio, and we can get soda from the gas station!"

"Shit, let's do it," Dave spoke up. "I can go get the drinks."

Within the next five minutes, the radio was tuned to a party mix station, Dave was walking in with the drinks, and all the furniture was moved to the sides of the room. Rose noticed John standing off to the side, watching everyone move around. His usual smile seemed half-hearted, and his bounce was gone. Drifting over that way, she couldn't help but feel concerned.

"You okay?" she asked him. He jumped at the voice, giving a brighter smile and waving his hands innocently.

"Y-yeah!" he told her. Dropping his hands, a small sigh escaped him. "I guess I'm just tired. All that adrenaline's gone now."

"Maybe you should go rest then. I'll try to keep the group out of trouble." He laughed a bit, and she returned a soft smile.

"I think I'll take that offer. Get me if anything big happens, okay?" With a nod, the two broke off, John heading out the door to his room, and Rose over to where Dave was getting ready to pour drinks. As he was putting out cups, she noticed something odd in the plastic bag. Their eyes met, and they both reached quickly for the bag. Of course, Dave reached it first, followed quickly by his sister. The bag slid around, and Rose saw just as she expected.

"You-!" she was cut off with a finger to her mouth.

"Shh! We need some fun once in a while," he said, continuing on with his preparations.

"So your spiking the drinks with whisky?!" she whispered loudly. He gave her a totally serious look.

"Yes. You don't have to if your opposed." Staring him down for a solid minute, she finally gave in.

"Fine, but this is all on you if we get in trouble."

He had just barely finished pouring (and spiking) the drinks when Jade walked over and picked up a glass.

"Hm, it's not what I'm use to, but it will do!" she declared. The siblings shared a glance, before Rose picked up one for herself and took a small sip. She had to admit it wasn't bad, but deciding to stick to her morals, handed it to Jade.

"You can have mine. I don't like it much."

"Oh, thanks!" the girl smiled, finishing her own before starting Rose's. Before long, the trolls were enjoying the drinks. Dave took his own glass, and secretly took another drink from what was left of the Jack in the bottle.

About an hour into it, the radio cranked up to some mushy love tune, empty cups everywhere, everyone but Rose was as good as drunk. Dave had finished the bottle, and it turned out the trolls (and Jade) had extremely low alcohol capacities.

"R-Rose! I didn't hear you come in!" he explained himself, forcing a smile. She stared at him quietly, and he dropped the smile. His puffy eyes revealed that he had, in fact, been crying. Before he could say anything else, she leaned over and hugged him. Shocked for a second, he returned the hug. They stayed like that for a few minutes before he spoke again.

"I'm sorry, I just-"

"I know." Rose cut him off. It didn't take an expert psychologist to tell what was weighing on him mind. They were a bunch of high schoolers running around with a dozen aliens trying to dodge one of the strongest federal agencies in the world. Not only that, but almost the entire United States population was now going to be on the look out for them. Neither of the two knew what happened to their parents, and likely never would. Either they would run for the rest of their lives, or would be caught and thrown in a federal prison or science lab for the rest of their lives. The future didn't seem to have any happy ending.

"Hey, I ment to tell you, everyone's drunk in the other room," she changed the subject. John's eyes sparkled, and he immediately changed moods.

"Really?! I wanna see!" he stood up suddenly, grabbing her by the hand and dragging her after. At the door, however, he blushed and let go. She just laughed slightly.

Inside, John barely got two steps in the door before being bombarded by Karkat.

"Hey, asshole!" the toll slurred. "Way to miss the party!"

"Erm, sorry Karkles!" John laughed, waving his hands innocently. "How's the party going?"

"Better now that-" he was cut off as someone shoved him out of the way.

"My line, douchebag!" Vriska, declared. Grumbling, Karkat stubbled off. Trying to avoid getting caught in an awkward scene, Rose slid around John, but was soon grabbed by Kanaya, who spun her around the decalared "dance floor".

"Uh, hey Vriska," John smiled.

"That's all?" she demanded.

"What all?" he asked, confused.

"Just a hey to your matesprit?" John took a quick step backwards. From what he knew of troll romance, matesprit was the equivalent of what humans recognized as a boyfriend.

"M-matesprit?!"

"So clueless~" she hissed, a mischievous grin on her face.

"W-when were we-"

"Since I said so!" She took a step closer, and he took another step back, feeling a wall behind him. She stared at him like she was expecting something.

"W-what?" he asked.

"Guys have to kiss the girl first, idiot!" Nearly falling over, he caught himself on the wall.

"K-KISS?!" Vriska twisted her mouth and annoyance.

"If I have to do this the hard way..." She lifted a hand to her head.

"What a-are you-" he cut off as he felt his body act on its own. So this was her freaky mind control power. He took a step closer to her, brushing some hair out of her face. Wrapping one arm around her waist and taking her face in the other hand, he leaned in.

-COMMENCE SLOPPY MAKEOUT SCENE NUMBER 1-

Around the room, they were the only troll couple having a moment. Dave shot John a glare. How could he get the girl first? Terezi sat at his side, and he had one arm around her slender shoulders. Terezi also looked upset that her rival already got her guy.

"Dave, kiss me!" she demanded. Dave gave a lopsided, cool kid smirk.

"Don't have to tell me twice, crazy alien troll girl."

-COMMENCE SLOPPY MAKEOUT SCENE NUMBER 2-

(Author's note: Can she do it?! Can she make the the rare x3 combo?!)

Kanaya suddenly stopped spinning Rose around, who was now feeling quite dizzy. When she could barely keep her balance and for once had a look on her face that suggested that maybe she didn't know everything, Kanaya found the human the most attractive. Suddenly, the green blood leaned in...

3X SLOPPY MAKEOUT COMBO

Chapter Text

Rose stood next to John, surveying the damage. With a deep sigh, she mentally thanked whatever God might be out there that nothing seemed damaged too badly. Everyone had passed out, in chairs, on the floor, and across the bed. Walking over and turning off the radio with a silencing "click", she then turned back to John, who was patting Bec's head. 

"Clean up time for the three of us," she whispered.

"But it's not even our mess!" John whined, but he reached over and started picking up empty glasses. Bec also picked up some cups in his mouth and trotted them over to the trash can. Considering there was only one cup per person or troll, it only took about a minute.

"Now the hard part," John groaned. Obviously they couldn't leaved everyone passed out like that. Rose went around and opened the connecting doors, so they could lug people to bed. Obviously the lightest people got the most distant room, so they started with the girls. John placed Jade on Becquerrel's back, then he and Rose followed behind with Feferi. Next was Nepeta carried by the two humans and Aradia by Bec, even though Aradia was considerably lighter and easier to carry by John and Rose, but Nepeta nearly flipped her shit when Bec got close, without even waking up. That filled the end room. Up next came Terezi, like a toothpick for the two, and Vriska, with her dead weight robotic arm dragging. Finally was Kanaya, who would later shared a bed with Rose. In the party room, they moved the heaviest males first, which was a two person-one super dog job. Luckily Tavros was already half on the bed where he passed out with spider-troll and Gamzee, but the hard part was moving his legs all the way onto the bed. After that, they just left Gamzee to stay in the same bed. Equius was (thankfully) all muscle, but nearly, if not over, 300 pounds of it. With him they moved up Eridan. The last room put John and Dave together, and Sollux with Karkat (both of whom were extremely light) in the final bed. 

When the deed was done, all three were dead tired. Bec lumbered off to sleep next to Jade, and Rose closed the door after the dog. Saying good night in the party room, John and Rose split, closing the doors to their own rooms.

As John let himself fall onto the bed where Dave was already half sprawled out asleep, he couldn't help but smile at the totally cool snoring coming from his friend's open mouth. Just as he was about to fall asleep, a hard kick and a sudden tug on the blanket brought him back to full consciousness. Dave had stretched out across the bed and successfully taken all the covers. Sighing, John sat up and pulled his feet up to his chest. With nothing left to do but think, his concerns quickly reflooded his mind. Where was his father? He doubted that he could have evaded the FBI for so long. They had barely managed it, and they had the help of a magical dog. Then again he was on his own, not with a huge group of wanted aliens. And they knew Bro Strider was safe. Not that it meant much about his dad. His dad didn't have amazing ninja skills or background knowledge on evading the FBI. It still bugged John how the two Strider brothers had come to know so much about it though. And according to Karkat, the trolls' supply of sopor was running low. How much longer could this rag tag group keep it up?

With all these thoughts swirling through his head and all the stress he felt, he began to feel a bit claustrophobic. Like all his walls were suddenly closing in on him and it was all he could do to keep them up. Standing up, he decided fresh air might help him think and get back to sleep.

Opening the front door, he stepped onto the balcony-like walkway adjoining the rooms and peered over the rail. The sun was just starting to light the sky over a patch of trees. Taking a deep breath, the crisp air felt good.

A sharp click echoed just behind his head. Whirling around, he suddenly realized what he'd missed. Three agents had him cornered against the cold bars. All three had guns pointed straight at his head. The one facing him directly had silencing finger over his mouth. The man nodded to his left, motioning him to walk with them down the way.

Once well away from the rooms, the apparently leader of the small squad spoke first. "John Egbert. We have information that says you are the leader of this group." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. "Most admired by the aliens. Trolls, as you call them."

"Not exactly," John attempted a small smile, but the unwavering stares made him quickly drop it.

"But if information is correct, no one in your group would simply abandon you. You are the one that would be the most sought after if we held you." John's eyes widened. That was their plan. Take him hostage, use him as bait to lure in his friends.

"You remember last time you had one of our friends? If I recall, you guys got your asses handed to you on a silver platter," he pointed out, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice.

"Yes, but this time is different. We've been watching you, John." The statement was cliche, like something out of one of his tacky movies, but the way he said it made a chill run down his spine. "We know now the strength of your alien friends, we know the capabilities of your friend Dave and his weaknesses, and we know about Becquerel. We also have another factor: you want to see your father, correct?" That was it. He couldn't hold it in anymore. His walls were about to crush him, but he wouldn't let them go down without a fight.

"NO! You can't have my dad! You're a f-cking liar!" he yelled. The other two men caught him and quickly gagged his mouth. All the while he struggled and twisted, but their iron grip on his arms only increased.

"I'm afraid I didn't want to come down to force, Egbert, but you left us no choice. We will take you with us." Suddenly, a sleepy yell came from the rooms not far away.

"John?!" It was Karkat's voice. A smirk rose to the agent's face.

"A friend? This is the alien you call Karkat, no?" John could do nothing but yell into the binding in his mouth. "It's a good thing we came prepared." John knew Karkat was rash, that he never thought things through first. That never changed about him.

The troll had jumped the rail and was running faster than any normal human toward them, sickle out and ready. John was already being moved away, toward a small, inconspicuous blue car. He kept a look over his shoulder. The third agent stood there, leveled his gun, and took aim. Two shots rang out. John had managed to work enough of the handkerchief out of his mouth to yell.

"Karkat!" he yelled as the troll fell. One shot clean into the shoulder holding the sickle, the other into the leg on the same side.

"Dammit, John!" the yell came back. The agent walked over to the troll, told him something, then stood up and walked back to the car, empty-handed of any troll.

"Your friend is safe for now. He needs to deliver a message for us." With that, John was shoved into the back seat, and a cloth was held to his nose and mouth. Chloroform. In seconds, he was out entirely.

Chapter Text

John blinked awake under a bright light. With all the blur and his dried out contacts, it was almost a movie-worthy scene. With a few blinks, forms started to take shape. He was in an all white room, sitting in a cold metal chair, hands both cuffed to the table. Across from him was the agent from earlier.

"Good morning, John," the man said calmly, but there was a hint of a sneer in his voice. "I hope you enjoyed your nap."

"Could have been better," he muttered.

"You see, as you probably guessed we did not just arrest you to lure in your friends. We need your help to... Educate ourselves on these visitors."

"If you think I'm telling you anything you're sadly mistaken," John lifted his chin, holding firm.

"Really? I think we could change your mind." The agent nodded at the one sided window. The door opened, and a man was pushed in, followed by two agents. John recognized him even without the hat and through the growing stubble.

"Dad!" he drew a sharp breath. He attempted to stand up and help him, but the cuffs held him firmly.

"Hey, son. These men are quite uncivilized. I'm not even permitted to shave." John let out the breath. If his father could talk so casually, he must not be that hurt.

"I'm glad to see you too," he sighed.

"Now, we need you as whole as we can, John. I'm afraid if you don't start talking about your friends, you'll have to watch as your old man gets it!" the warning sounded almost sarcastic, like the guy was talking to a little kid. It only made John angrier. Looking his father in the eye, the usual, unwavering, proud stare met him back, and the simple shake of his head told him what to do. Don't tell, it'll be fine.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you anything," John said steadily.

"Can't, or won't? We know you know much more than we do. Did you not understand that the choice is between a bunch of aliens and your own father? The man you looked up to and admired all these years?" John nodded slowly.

"Those are my friends. To let them down after all we've been through would be a disgrace to my dad," he responded slowly and carefully. The man mocked an understanding nod.

"Okay then, boys! You heard the man! He wants a shave! Give him a good one!" John didn't watch what came next. The sound alone made his stomach twist uncomfortably, to the point he felt extremely nauseous. Knives cutting through blood and skin, scraping hard stubble. The grunts from his father, gritting his teeth to keep from yelling against the pain. The taunting from the agent across the table. When the sound of the knives stopped, John looked up slowly. His father's face was a bloody mess from his ears sloping down around, as high as his cheek bone and low as the bottom of the chin. On the ground was a pull of blood mixed with chunks of skin. Near top of the wound, he was pretty sure some white bone was showing through. 

"Oh, my my, I think we forgot the dangers of shaving! Learn any good lessons, John?" the boy met the agent's gaze unwavering, not opening his mouth because he knew that the moment he did he might break down. "No, I take it? How disappointing! What other lessons can we teach you about your father?"

~~~

Back at the hotel, the sun was bright to Karkat's sensative eyes. Swearing, he was making his way slowly up to the hotel rooms. Everyone else was sound asleep, but he had woken up upon hearing John leave the room. He was a light sleeper, and never slept much to begin with. 

Now with a bad shoulder and a bad leg, he was hobbling back to the staircase. No one had come to his calls up to the room, and he had to keep tugging on his hood with his good hand. Lucky him, there was no elevator. Looking at the stairs, he suddenly knew how Tavros had felt. Slowly, he got started up. About half way, a familiar, annoying voice came from the top of the stairs.

"Karkrab! I smell your deliciously scented blood! What happened?!" Terezi. Of all the trolls, why the blind girl?

"Get me up there and I'll tell you all at once!" he growled back. Quickly moving down to him, cane in hand, she offered him a helping arm under his good shoulder, moving him up only slightly faster than before. Totally useless.

Once they were up, there was much faster progress into the party room. "You get the girls, I'll try to wake up these guys," Karkat ordered. Almost instantly, Dave and Sollux appeared in the door to the other guy room.

"Gog, kk. What did you do to yourself this time?" Sollux spoke with his usual lisp, but there was the sound of a major headache behind it.

"Shut it, Captor," Karkat rolled his eyes. The memories of the night before with pretty much everyone were not something he wanted to think about. They were all idiots.

"Aw, man..." Dave rubbed his head. "Never getting wasted again..." Hobbling over, Karkat shook Tavros awake, followed by Equius and Eridan. Gamzee was shoved off the bed, and still kept on sleeping, giving a small "honk" on impact. Terezi came back with a hoard of sleepy eyed girls.

"We're as all here as it's gonna get," Karkat sighed.

"Woah, Karkat, where's John?" Dave interrupted. The troll couldn't meet anyone's stare.

"They took him," he growled, looking down slightly.

"What do you mean?! Where is-" Jade was cut off by Rose's somber voice.

"The agents were here. They took John and left Karkat to tell us..." The room was quiet. No one knew quite what to say, what to do. They were minus the guy with the ideas, the unifying adhesive.

"Well, why are we just standing here, morons?! Why aren't we trying to get him back?" Vriska broke the silence.

"Because that's what they want!" Dave had sat down and was now rubbing his temples. "If they saw Karkat, then they didn't go for the obvious target. They don't just want one toy to play with, they want the whole f-cking store. They're expecting that because we don't have a leader, we'll crumble right into their grubby hands. They know that if nothing else, John has information they want, and he's the one they think they can squeeze that shit out of like shit into a big, waiting adult diaper." Another long silence.

"They have his dad..." Rose whispered. Dave looked up at his sister.

"You don't know that. He could have-" 

"No. I'm sure. John's dad never had experience running or hiding. And... They probably heard us talking last night. John was really worried about him."

"John wouldn't trade us for his-" Karkat began.

"We definitely don't know that!" Dave stood back up. "John puts his dad in the highest respect. He'd be more likely to spill to save his dad than he would to save me. That's just the kind of guy John is. Of course he'll hold his shit as long as he can, but they have ways of working into your mind and breaking you down. Last resort? Torture John himself, or use him as the next lab rat."

"You humans have a very screwed up legal system!" Terezi huffed. The vast majority of the room was tempted to respond "no shit Sherlock!" or something along those lines.

"Then what do we do? All go and fall right into their trap? Split up and make us even more vulnerable? There's no good choice here!" Eridan complained. "We ain't got much time, and either way we're playin' into their hand! And leavin' John is totally out of the question!" Everyone turned to Dave. He had the experience. He was second in command. He could lead.

"I don't know, okay?!" Dave snapped. "I'm not the leader who can calculate the best options. I have advice and experience, John puts it together!" Silence. Slowly, the trolls looked to one of their own. The leader who had f-cked their entire game over. The leader who didn't even care to sleep and learn about his moon. The leader that had failed them.

Karkat looked up. He didn't know shit about human security, but he thought about it. "We'll all go." He said firmly. "Separated, we have less of a chance. Together we can fight stronger and longer. They want us to split, it's what they expect. So then we just all attack at once and overwhelm them. They always underestimate our strength, anyway." There was a general grumble of agreement. So it was final, they would all go and save their leader, for better or for worse.

Chapter Text

Karkat faced his friends. They had chosen him. Normally, he would argue. Already his leadership had royally screwed over the entire universe. Trusting him to lead them into battle against a swarm of humans might be simpler than creating an entire new universe, but it was still risky. They were expecting this move. They wanted all of them to come. And he knew it too well. The stakes were high, and the lives of his friends hung in the balance. Normally, he wouldn't even consider leading. But the circumstances wouldn't let him step down.

"Fine. But if everything blows up... Just don't blame me," Karkat said solemnly.

"Great. We have our super little leader. But we can't go do our rescue shit if we have no f-cking clue where the hell we're going," Dave spoke up.

"We might," Karkat replied before anyone could follow him up. "The human... He gave me some kind of directions. It will probably make more sense to a human. Then again, they could be walking us into a big trap."

"If it's the only lead we have, we have no choice but to test it," Jade said firmly. "What did he say?"

"'Start where you lay, go about one hundred paces south west, about five hundred south, and it will be right in your line of sight.' I can't remember your human solar based directions, or your units."

"Not hard to follow, but we shouldn't be exact. If we follow it precisely, we have a higher chance of walking into a trap," Rose spoke up. "And we'll have to be on alert for any ambushes. But something tells me that it isn't a trap like that. Of course they want us all together... But it almost feels like they're toting with us. They've started to enjoy this game of cat and mouse. They have us by the tail, but they keep letting us go just enough to scramble a few steps before being thrown back in the air again." The analogy was only interpretable to a few, but it seemed Rose and Nepeta understood it well enough, so everyone played along.

"So why are we waiting? Let's blow some shit already," Dave said impatiently.

"No. If I never learned anything else from that retarded game I know well enough that to rush into this is suicide. Obviously they think they know enough about us to trap us, and beat us into submission. Besides, you're the only human with a real weapon, Strider." Karkat rolled his eyes, glancing at the human girls.

"I can kind of use Bec," Jade offered. "And I'm trained to use most guns, I can pull whatever the agents have off the fallen ones."

"And I have my knitting needles. They did me well enough before," Rose jumped in.

"Are you stupid? That was a video game with retard monsters. A little bit of fuzz and a pair of pointed sticks isn't really going to help you," Karkat put his face in his hand. And this was supposed to be the smart human. "Does anyone have a spare weapon?"

"I have an unbroken bow and some arrows," Equius offered.

"That will work. I took a class on archery for Girl Scouts, and I had the best aim of everyone, even the teacher," Rose nodded. "But what about trolls without a weapon?"

“We all have something,” Karkat replied simply. “There’s no problem there.”

“I can use any type of gun that falls,” Jade offered. The idea of prying a gun out of someone’s dead hands wasn’t exactly appealing, but to save her brother she would do whatever it took.

“Great. Now we plan,” Karkat moved along quickly.

“Awe, we can jump head first into this huge mess of bloody shit?” Dave asked sarcastically, but was ignored.

“Three teams. One makes a commotion on the outside, preferably with some range weapons. They’ll have people in high places, so we need to be able to use their strength to our advantage as well. Then a middle group. Make a commotion inside. In all the racket, a smaller group can slip out and get John. That group can’t have more than four people. I’ll be on that team.” The troll looked around, as if daring someone to challenge him.

“I’m going too,” Jade and Vriska declared at the same time. The girls glanced at each other, both equally determined.

“Fine, anyone else?” Dave and Rose looked at each other. They might only be sibling through ectobiology, but they at least knew each other well enough to know what each was thinking. They both wanted to go, but knew they were more useful elsewhere.

“I’ll tag along for a bit to see you guys off, but I think I’d better stay behind,” Dave finally said.

“Great. Who’s staying outside? Our largest group will be the middle.”

“Outside is fine for me,” Rose shrugged. With a bow and arrow, her distance was better than someone like Nepeta with extremely close range attacks.

“I’ll be stayin’ out too,” Eridan nodded.

“I’d love to help you guys inside hacking, but I think I’d better keep out on this,” Sollux spoke up. “I might be able to provide some help if I stay just outside the door. Give me one computer plugged into a network and I can probably hack any of the computers linked in.”
There was silence after that.

“This will work. Everyone else is making a commotion inside. There will be closer range fighting that way. Now, we can’t waste much time. Get ready, and we’re moving out as soon as possible.”

~~~

Not long after they had skinned his face, John’s father lay on the floor, bloody and broken, unconscious. The emotional stress in John had reached its breaking point. As the agent watched with an antagonizing smile, John’s first line of defense snapped entirely. The chair kicked out from beneath him as he shot up, furiously pulling at the cuffs until they cut into his wrists.

“Bastards! Leave him the f- alone!” John yelled. The agent didn’t flinch, just maintained his cool, tantalizing gaze. A few seconds more of struggling, the other guards glanced at the interrogator, as if asking if they should hold him down. Just then, a door opened and a new man walked in. His white lab coat lended itself to his profession. The eyes glanced around quickly, not as much a nervous movement as a quickly analyzing gaze.

“Sir, I don’t think doing anything more to this man will get you anywhere short of killing him,” he said, voice completely flat and monotone.

“So what is your suggestion? Killing him?” The man never moved his gaze from John, but the tone was more menacing and bored than the previous one. John temporarily paused to listen to the man, breathing heavily. So far, he didn’t like what he heard.

“No, my suggestion is to force the boy to turn over secrets,” the man said as if it was obvious. This was definitely not sounding good. “He has been around the aliens enough, he must have traces of them on his person. DNA analysis can be preformed.” John’s thoughts automatically flashed to the previous night, with Vriska and Karkat, not to mention all the trolls he had helped get into bed. The frantic look in his eyes must have given him away, because the agent’s smile grew.

“Well well, not a bad idea it seems, eh John?” he taunted.

“You’re insane!” he growled. The guy lifted his hands innocently.

“I’m not the one running around with a bunch of potentially dangerous aliens! Nor am I the one with the too-blue eyes. You might want to check those out too, doctor. Doesn’t your friend, Ms. Lalonde, have purple eyes? It seems no one in your group is quite normal.” The scientist seemed to consider this as well, with an analyzing eye running over John. “Well, if you won’t cooperate willingly, we’ll let the doctor take his bit of you.”

The smile on the doctor’s face suggested that he knew something behind that statement that John did not. The guards picked up his father and walked him off, while two more men came in for John. As they grabbed his arms and uncuffed him from the table, he pulled fiercely in attempt at escape. The grip only increased. With his arms cuffed behind his back, he was marched out of the room, through many winding halls and through a set of double doors into a lab. Many more people in white coats were rushing around, preparing equipment. The doctor from before waved the guards over, standing next to almost a stereotypical torture table. It was another one of their ridiculous mental games. John knew he shouldn’t let it get to him, but he still struggled at the sight of it. A woman walked over with a plastic bag.

“Give me his shirt. We’ll take that for some analysis.” John’s hands were uncuffed again and his shirt was nearly ripped off him. Then he was forced onto the table, hands and ankles cuffed down by build in, movable cuffs on the table.

“No, Agent Gilden would want him awake to feel this.” Turning his head, the doctor was preparing a large needle. “Someone hold his head; keep one of his eyes open. Take out those contacts.” A forceful grip held his head back, and his left eyelid was pulled up. All the while, he struggled against the grip and the cuffs, but to no avail. A gloved finger closed in and pulled out his contact. Next thing he saw was the needle approaching, closing in, not quite centered with his vision, aiming for the color of his eye. His attempt to close his eye away from it only squeezed one eye shut, the other could not budge. Next was extreme pain, and a sound to make any normal stomach turn.

He couldn’t hold it in anymore. His last line of defense was caving in on himself.

John screamed.

Chapter Text

“Ugh! Why are you humans so damn heavy!” Eridan whined as Rose hung from his neck while he scaled a rather tall evergreen tree.

“Shh!” Rose hushed him. “Deal with it, we can’t scale trees like you trolls do, and there is no way you reach down to me from that high up!” she whispered furiously. Indeed, the lowest branch that looked like it could support any real weight was at least 30 feet over their heads. So instead, she had to cling to the troll and hope she didn’t choke him in the process. His grumbling and whining seemed to know no limits, and it was really starting to get on her nerves. Luckily, if all went well, she’d be taking her anger out on the men holding one of her best friends hostage in just a few short minutes.

Finally, they reached the point where Rose could stand to climb on her own. Now they both moved quickly up until they were at least a hundred feet in the air, looking down at the fairly distant compound. It was just far enough that Rose could use her bow, but hopefully the thick tree trunk would still be enough to stop the bullets from hitting her. Hopefully.

From below, they saw a flash of red and blue. The signal from Sollux. Rose nocked an arrow in her bow, and Eridan drew Ahab’s Crosshairs, leveling the gun at a distant agent. All at once, the Feds found themselves under fire from three ways. Lasers flew, deadly accurate, cutting through any protection they might have been wearing. Rose sent her first arrow straight into the neck of an unsuspecting agent. On the ground, a huge wave of red and blue consumed several guards all standing fairly close together. Disorientating the guards for only a moment, that was all the time the ground forces had to get to the door. Sollux cleared the way, while Dave used some smoke pellets he’d gotten from who knew where to cover up where they were and just how many were attacking. In the action, Jade scooped a fallen gun along the way, and began helping by shooting anyone who got too close, bullets flying through exposed heads or necks.

Sollux reached the computer by the door first, typing away quickly, only taking a few seconds to get the door open for everyone else to rush in. Locking it behind them and resetting the password to all the doors as they had discussed, Sollux then turned his attention to all the enemies now attempting to corner him. Lifting his glasses once more, the large dual-colored beams took out most of the guards nearest him. He could still see lasers and the occasional arrow flying, and some fire being returned in the direction of Eridan and Rose. Holding his own by the computer, his job was to keep them from using it to sound the alarm for as long as possible. Having all come from one side of the building, the troops were guaranteed to concentrate mainly here, so hopefully nobody would try to trigger it from another terminal.

It was a nice thought for the few seconds it lasted.

~~~

Inside the building, they were hardly in for half a minute before red lights began to flash and alarms sounded. Despite this, all was eerily quiet. Worried, Karkat stopped them and pulled up the nearest computer to them, logging in with the new password. A map showed that high profile prisoners were kept in the very center of the compound, with the only way to that area through one of four huge rooms. They only had the option of one based on the entrance they came in. Studying it for a few more seconds, he logged out and led the group once more through the hallways.

“Karkat, shouldn’t we get out of sight?” Dave asked as he came up along side of the troll.

“No need, they have a nice little trap set for us, and we’re going to need to walk right into it,” he huffed. Dave took the lead and stopped him there.

“Woah, what? Explain!” he demanded, clenching his already drawn sword a little tighter.

“John’s in the very center, and the only way there is to go through a huge room. The reason we haven’t seen anyone is because they want to get us all trapped inside, the room is probably filled with all their men,” he explained, only stopping long enough to get around Dave. “It’ll be right up here.”

A few twists and turns later, Karkat stopped, the rest of the group gathering behind him. Well, he had brought them this far, now what? Walk right into the trap? It was a stupid plan, to be honest.
“Hold on. They wouldn’t really let us…” Dave muttered, looking up. Karkat followed his gaze and found a ventilator shaft

“What? How is that useful?” Karkat growled, annoyed that he didn’t understand.

“It’s the ventilation system, dumbass. Oldest trick in the book. My guess is we can use them to get us into that huge laboratory over there, where the trap is set, but probably not any further,” Dave explained, holding up his sword and squinting to see something small in the corner, before slowly beginning to rotate it.

“Fuck. Why not further?” Karkat swore.

“Like I said, oldest trick in the book. There is no way they would have the central holding area connected to the outer vents.” Three screws later, the grate swung down with a metallic creak, making most of the group jump to the ready for anything that might come to examine the sound. When nothing stirred, Dave waved Equius over. “Hoist everyone up. I’ll grab you at the end.”

And so Equius kneeled and lifted everyone up by a foot to reach and pull themselves into the vents. First Feferi, then Terezi, Gamzee, Nepeta, Kanaya, Aradia, Tavros, and finally the rescue team, Jade, Vriska, Karkat, and Dave. True to his word, Dave reached down and helped Equius up with his good arm, more just trying to get his jump height high enough to grab the edge of the vent.

Feferi led the way, crawling quietly until she was looking down another grate, at a see black helmets and clear shields. Seeing the way still open, though, she kept crawling. The next one looked like they would drop into the middle of things here. Looking back over the crowd of bodies, she tried to find Karkat for confirmation. At the sign of a thumbs up, she smiled and gave the grate the hardest kick she had ever had to use. It crashed open, and she dropped down, drawing her 2x3dent and skewering one enemy on impact. One by one, trolls quickly dropped down. The moment of surprise helped to get most of them out before the gunfire started, some at the ceiling, some at those already on the ground. Gamzee was a main target it seemed, as his clubbing seemed to be responsible for the most damage thus far. Crawling even faster, the rescue group pressed on to the furthest end of the vent system. Most of the firing at the ceiling stopped (luckily) when it seemed no other enemy was dropping down. Before dropping, Vriska drew her dice and landed her best rolls: 8 8s. In her Marquis outfit, she held her sword tightly as she kicked out the grate and dropped straight onto a rather surprised human. Jade fired a few shots down before dropping herself. Karkat and Dave weren’t far behind, and they ended up only a few bodies from the door. Dave made quick work and had them bursting through the doors in seconds. Jade had snatched a fallen shield and was blocking most of the bullets, having to use both hands to hold it up and not get knocked back with the force of the rounds. Karkat imitated, making an effective blockade to protect all four of them. Backing through the door after Dave, Jade threw the door closed once they were all in, jamming it with a spare gun that had been lying in the way after she stole its magazine. As she turned to continue, she froze, along with the rest of her friends.

In front of them, stuffing the hallway, was row after row of agents, guns trained on them. Luckily, Vriska was behind Karkat’s shield, and Jade had her own, but Dave was completely open.

“Dave!” Jade looked at him, scared. There was no way she could get there before they shot. Slowly, he raised his hands, sword held between thumb and forefinger.

“Drop the weapon!” one of them men in front demanded. Glancing at Jade, he shot a small smirk.

Simultaneously, two shouts rang out, one order for each side.

“GO!”

“FIRE!”

Dave disappeared with his amazing speed, and Jade braced for the incoming bullets. Using the ground to help brace the shield, she returned fire with her stolen gun as best she could with only one arm. For whatever reason, these agents didn’t have the shields, only Kevlar. But in close range, the armor was completely useless. Dave reappeared next to her, behind the shield. “Let’s finish this bunch quickly. I don’t know how long the trolls will last in the central area.” He looked over at Karkat and Vriska, and the three seemed to understand each other. All at once, they charged. Jade had to stay back with her ranged weapon, but with quite a bit of fast hacking and slashing, the ranks in the hallway fell. At the other end, they all stood, stained red, and Vriska a little cerulean. Jade ran over the fallen bodies, trying her best to see them as inhuman, like the monsters from in the game. This was the only way to save John, after all.

When Jade caught up, the four moved on without incident to the holding area. Karkat went over to the computer, but felt a rising suspicion. Typing some commands, he determined that the computer wasn’t on the same system hacked by Sollux.

“Shit, guys, the password won’t work for this computer…” Karkat whispered loudly.

“Can you hack it?” Dave asked, holding the shield Karkat had before and facing away from the door.

“Er… maybe. I’m not nearly as good as Sollux.”

“Well, I give you less than a minute. That little handle jam trick won’t hold of those other guys for long.” Without another word, Karkat got to typing. Vriska was looking as best she could through the window. Directly inside there were no visible guards, but doors lined either side of the hallway. They would have to identify which was John’s cell.

A few long seconds later, after a few failed attempts, the door clicked open. Vriska rushed inside, Jade hot on her heals, and both went to either side of the hall to peek through each window.

All the cells looked rather empty to Vriska. Nothing but a load gaper in each. She almost missed the dark lump in one corner that looked like a pile of white blankets, until she saw it shift slightly.

“John? John!” she called. The mound shifted more at the voice, but gave no other response. Maybe it wasn’t him, just someone else. But… no, she could tell it was him. It had to be. “Guys! I found him!”

“Now how do we get him out?” Karkat asked as he ran over with the two others. Dave looked at the card lock, then drew his sword again.

“Hold this.” He ordered, shoving the shield into Karkat. Prying off the plastic with his sword, he cut two wires and reconnected them. A beep and click followed, and the door swung open easily.

“John! It’s us!” Vriska called breathlessly, running to him. Up closer, she clearly made out the back of his head, and his curled up body, shivering ever so slightly. He was wearing some large white gown, like the ones in a human hospital (she had seen some in the Nick Cage movies that he’d sent her). However, even to her voice, John didn’t move. Reaching him, she kneeled down and reached for his shoulder.

At the touch, though, he sprang up, whirling around and pressing further into the corner. Now Vriska had a clear view of him as she stood as well:

One eye was covered in a bandage that looked like it might have been white at one time, but was now soaked red, and the other eye was swollen, red, and glassy, like whatever he was seeing wasn’t really there. Another puff of some material was taped to the side of his face, but it didn’t even cover fully the large wound where it looked like they had removed the skin. His lips were raw and puffy, like they had chapped and then had the skin all peeled off. Patches of skin were missing from his arms, none of these even remotely bandaged. Between the fingers of his clenched fists, blood was flowing out and dripping to the ground.

Vriska heard Jade gasp, but didn’t really comprehend anything around her but her friend, and secretly her love, standing in front of her. Someone had hurt him, hurt him so bad that not only was he scarred physically, she could see in his glassy eye the fear they had replaced him with. She was no Kanaya, but all she wanted to do was hold him, make him feel better. But time was not on their side.

Instead, she reached out a hand and touched his cheek, the unwounded one. When he tried to flinch away, her hand only followed. Calmly. Patiently. Carefully, she leaned in…

~~~

Nothing. That was all he felt. Empty, and alone. Whenever he tried to feel anymore than that, painful memories came back. Digital reconstructions of some of his closest friends. Vriska… Karkat… Even Sollux and Terezi. He couldn’t stop them… It was his fault…

No. Nothing was better than that pain. But he wanted to feel. He had to focus on something happy, like a better time… His thoughts rolled to his father, lying unconscious on the floor, bleed and battered. The pain only worsened. He had to hide it, had to forget it. His brain couldn’t accept it, or handle it.

After the first test on his eye, the scientist had brought him back to his cell to be questioned again, but he hadn’t told anything. So they took him back again, started scraping his skin. They’d take a sample, show him a picture, then send him back to his cell again, to be retrieved later and tested again. At some point, he wasn’t sure when, he had checked out, completely withdrawing from the world around him, hiding deep within himself, trying to do anything but feel. Physical pain was better than the tearing of the soul inside of him.

When the hand touched his shoulder, he was not John. He was instinct, pure fear, trying to flee from the pain that came with someone coming to get him. His eyes did not register friend, because all he knew was foe. The gentle touch was only the preemptive contact before the pain. Withdrawing further, he wanted to feel nothing, not the touch, not the pain, all he wanted was to be empty of everything. Death would have been a welcome friend.

But something glided through, touching the real John hiding deep within. That John would not emerge, there was still too much fear. However, something acknowledge a friend. The gentle touch to the lips was not an action of hate, but love. No longer was he afraid, but simply there. Existence meant nothing but breathing. Something carefully took his wet hand and tried to lead him, but his legs did not comprehend enough to follow. Suddenly, though, arms closed around his knees and waist, lifting him into the air. The unexpected force made him start to thrash, fear taking over again, trying to avoid the pain, doing anything to keep it away. Then the gentle touch returned to his face, and he calmed once more, his neck even straining slightly toward it…

~~~

“Dear gog, Egbert…” Dave muttered under his breath. When Vriska had seemed to calm him down but wasn’t getting any further with him, he had decided to pick up the broken boy bridal style to prepare for departure. And for whatever reason, he started flipping shit and flailing everywhere, several time nailing Dave solidly in the face before Vriska had calmed him down again. “He’s like a giant baby… I was really hoping you wouldn’t be deadweight by the time we got to you.” He huffed.

“He isn’t dead,” Vriska retorted.

“Sorry, bad figure of speech…” Dave huffed and looked over at Jade, who was trying to call Bec. “Any luck?”

“He just won’t come! Should we go back and try to get to the others?” she asked, nervously eyeing John.

“We can try. I don’t how well I can do trying to take care of Mr. Puppet here as well,” Dave sighed, looking at the glassy eye that stared straight ahead. If hadn’t already felt a pulse (and a punch), he would have easily mistaken his friend for dead already.

“Let’s get moving then before we get-“ Karkat started

“Trapped here? I’m afraid you’re just a little too late for that.” From the door ahead of them, Agent Anderson appeared, followed by a crowd of agents with heavy shields and guns trained on the group of kids.
Karkat turned to look the other way, but from there as well stormed in at least a dozen troops. They were surrounded, and there was no way they could protect themselves from all sides. Especially not with an agent in the crowd who apparently could just about match abilities with the Strider duo…

~~~

Outside, Eridan had found himself with no choice but to try to get Rose and himself down somehow. The trees hadn’t provided the protection they had hoped for, and the human girl was spewing quite a bit of red, staining her attire a terrible color. His own royal blood was leaving him at a dangerous pace. Sollux had been completely surrounded, but his power was diminishing, any use of it now causing him to cough yellow blood or lose it out of various orifices of his body. Even then, only enough came out to take down a single enemy.

Grabbing Rose around the waist, the highblood dug his free hand’s nails into the tree and slid down, tearing up his finger tips in the process. On the ground, he could feel his vision tunneling as he carefully laid down the human. Rose appeared awake, but her worst wounds were in her arms where she had to expose them to fire arrows. She couldn’t push herself to a sitting position even, only lay there and look over at her battle partner, who collapsed on the pine needle floor.

It was less than a minute later when the two were surrounded, and she was looking up at masked faces, who picked up her and the trolls without much care and carried them inside the compound.

~~~

At the inside battle, things were going very poorly. Nepeta was bleeding profusely, curled up under a fort of shields Equius had thrown together quickly, while he fought off agents with his fists, through indigo pouring from numerous bullet wounds and fast fading vision. Feferi wasn’t in much better condition and was trying to wield her weapon in one hand, backed into a corner with the shield she had picked up. Aradia had grown weary as well, and found herself pinned at gunpoint on the ground. Terezi couldn’t even smell through her own blood pouring from a head wound around her nose and mouth, and was frantically waving around her staff, until an agent came from behind and grabbed her wrists tightly behind her back. Kanaya’s chain saw was useless on the ground next to her, and the amount of bullet wounds in her abdomen left those around wondering if she was even still alive. Tavros’s robotic legs were full of holes and unfunctional, leaving him helpless on the floor not far from her. Finally, there was Gamzee, who had taken the worst of it all. His entire body was laden with holes, and being alive was a feat that seemed impossible.

And thus, the entire group of trolls was rounded up together, most of them hardly able to even protest. Their battle was lost.

They all had lost. The operation had failed.

Chapter Text

Dave was roughly tossed into a cell, bound but some pretty high tech, fancy handcuffs and more plain, chain cuffs on his ankles that only allowed him enough room to take shuffled steps, no kicking his way out. Lying on the floor now, it was't like he was in any shape to try to make an escape. During their rough handling when he was first taken, his still sensitive deltoid muscle had finally ripped clean through. Ugh, having his muscle contract and curl up under his own skin was the worst feeling in the world. So what had they done when he complained nicely with many choice words? They sliced open his shoulder, stuck a couple pins in the muscle and hardly even reconnect the two halves, then clean up some of the blood before sending him off without even a band-aid.

"Thanks for the fucking QUALITY service, assholes." The dripping sarcasm through gritted teeth earned him a swift kick to his gut. Coughing a small bit of blood, he defiantly held his smirk until the goons left.

When the door closed, he let a hiss of air through his teeth. Shit, his everything hurt like a bitch. For a long while, with no sense of time, he simply laid there, breathing shallowly to reducing the stabbing pain in his shoulder at every small motion. Eventually, he fell into a disturbed slumber.

~~~

There was a noise outside his cell. Suddenly very alert, Dave jolted up, causing fiery pains to narrow his vision and nearly make him fall back. Waiting for it to pass, he carefully lifted himself with his legs and very, very carefully slipped his legs through his arms, trying not to rip out the pins in his shoulder by pulling too hard on his arm.

Quiet as the grave, he krept up to the barred window of his cell door, standing next to it and keeping out of sight, before daring to peak out. Just outside he saw a flash of white, and a grey cap. Bro.

Normally, he would be thankful to see his ecto-brother-dad-dude here bailing him out, but he had a strange sense sweep over him that this was actually a terrible situation. He couldn't quite put your finger on why if he got here without tripping any alaroh shit.

Suddenly there were guards swarming in by the dozens from all sides, even from the cells around you. It had been a trap. They had separated him because they knew Bro would come to save his sorry ass. Again.

"Well, aren't we in luck! Not only do we have one Strider brother now, but the second one has strolled right into our grasp!" Agent Anderson stood, for once not in his suite but in some lighter weight clothes, namely a very casual looking t-shirt and pants. Like this, it was much easier to tell the guy was probably right around Bro's age. His only equipment was a small side arm and a katana not much different from Bro's. "Now, would you like to see if the student has finally surpassed the master? Or will we make this easy?"

Bro only gave a small "tch" in reply, and in a flash almost too fast for even Dave's trained eye to see, the first line of soldiers fell, all bleeding from deep sword wounds through their chests. The only sign of action was Bro wielding his trusty, deadly sharp katana where it hadn't been in his hands before. Anderson's smile was like a kid on a his birthday. But considering the blood splatters deliberately splashed on his face as Bro's form of challenge, it was really just creepy as fuck. It was right up there in creepy factor with Gamzee's sober rage.

The foot soldiers really were hardly a problem, row after row with down and Bro never broke a sweat. When Anderson charged in, though, Dave could immediately tell that the two were rather evenly matched.

However, a previous incident came to mind: when Dave had his ass saved the first time. Of course, the red eyed wonder hadn't exactly been in top shape, but it hadn't inhibited his fighting that much. That starchy suite, on the other hand, had to be one of the worst things to fight in, not to mention all the other equipment Anderson had been wearing at the time. And he had matched both Striders then.

Dave could tell where this dual would go. And he didn't like it.

His thoughts were interrupted by a bang as Anderson was thrown into your door. An opportune moment for him to assist... If Dave actually had some means of doing so. Of course, his bound wrists wouldn't fit any further than part way through the bars, and one of his arms was complete dead weight anyway. If he only had a sword...

But the fight raged without Dave's help. As he watched, his thoughts seemed to drift, and he became completely absorbed in memories.

Back three years ago, shortly after the game ended, the Strider bros were chilling in their Texas apartment when someone knocked on their door. It was really odd because no one ever came to visit the two of them. Not even the building owner. Dave was about to answer, but Bro motioned for him to stay out of sight. So he listened carefully from the bathroom.

"Dirk Strider?" the voice was deep and had a formal air to it.

"Sup." Leave it to Bro to act casually in an odd situation like this.

"The CIA has taken a great notice to your abilities. You are formally requested to take this information and meet an agent at the appointed time and location. You will be expected to be there under any circumstances. Failure to comply may have serious consequences."

"Nice. That all?"

"Indeed. Goodbye."

Dave heard the door close, and slipped out of the bathroom. Bro set the paper on the kitchen counter, and he snuck a sly peak.

"Damn, looks really official."

"Mm."

"You going?"

"...Yeah. They're just trying to recruit me."

"Oh. You gonna join?"

"Maybe."

"Cool."

About two years later, Bro decided to quit. The conversation went similar to all others they'd had. But this one held a lot more implications.

"I'm gonna quit."

"Hm. Why?"

"Don't like teaching idiots. Only one guy has any great potential."

"They actually gonna let you leave?"

"Probably not."

"... What then?"

"We go underground."

"Sounds cool. Life of crime, here we come."

Bro gave his typical "tch". And thus began Dave's days of keeping out of the public eye and learning to become a hardcore fugitive.

When Dave's brain finally returned to the fight, it was already over. The sight made him stumble back, turning his empty stomach. It was... Just like then. In the game. The first time he had found Bro dead. If it had been bad the first time, the second time made Dave feel like puking, if his stomach wasn't empty. Instead, he found himself on his knees, staring at the floor, trying to stop thinking about that image, which only made him think of it more. There was a laugh from outside his door.

"One Strider down. One to go." Anderson's face appeared in the window, still splattered with blood, some of it looking quite fresh. "Or should I say, one to play with."

He forced down the urge to snarl like a feral animal. His cell door opened, and he took off from the ground, trying to burst out before he could be grabbed, but nearly tripped on his ankle chains. A goon caught him by the back of the shirt and choked him while simultaneously holding him on his feet.

"Bastard!" Dave spat at Anderson, before the goon pushed him forward and choked him with his shirt again when he stumbled.

A few minutes later, he was staring through a window at the lab, locked down to a chair that was bolted to the ground. Anderson stood behind him, still covered in blood and holding a walkie talkie.

"Bring the first one in." At the doors inside the lab, you watch as the goons bring in a struggling black and grey form. Her hair was a wild mess, but you catch some cerulean blood, and familiar horns. The hissing voice and annoyed comments about her powers not working help confirm the identity.

They proceed to strap the struggling Vriska to the table. What comes next, you have close your eyes for as sharp instruments and tools were brought forth, and the complaints turned to screams.

Eventually, it went quiet.

"Feeling hopeless yet? You have eleven more of these." Anderson snickered.

For the next few dissections, he felt as if time was dragging on, yet soaring far to quickly as screams were cut off. Nepeta, Aradia, Kanaya, Feferi.

When the next troll was brought in, he inhaled sharply, immediately regretting it and looking at the floor. Her sightless eyes seemed to catch his as she was pushed in the room, maybe she could smell Dave's red eyes even through the one way window. His stomach churned again, causing him to unwittingly gag up nothing but a mouthful of blood.

"I see! You and this one are close!" Anderson's annoying voice rung in his ears. "Take your time with this one! I want a good show!" he spoke into the walkie talkie.

Dave felt a hand grab him by the hair and yank his head back, making his eyes flutter open, and a gasp of pain escaped his lips.

"You won't want to miss this one, Dave! Keep your eyes open or I might be forced to help you!" Anderson's voice hissed in his ear.

Dave had to hand it to Terezi, she was a trooper. He watched as large scalpels were brought to her each of her four limbs, then saws were brought to her horns (which he knew had to fucking hurt, since he'd found out a while ago that those things could be really sensative). Doctors avoided walking between his line of sight and the table, instead reaching over her to work on the other side of her body. Teal blood began to pour and mix with the others on the floor. Yet she bit her tongue and snarled, not letting out a single scream. However, Dave made out drips of clear teal falling from her face. Who could really hold back tears at such torment?

They began on her chest and stomach... And she lost it. Her shout was heart wrenching. Dave's stomach forced up non existent food and instead blood poured out of his mouth, and he leaned over the arm of the chair to avoid getting the deep scarlet on himself. As soon as the flow paused, he received a sharp smack to the head, making him right himself and swallow back the rest.

Slowly, he watched as the rapid rise and fall of Terezi's chest grew shallow, the blood loss finally stealing her away. And he continued to watch at the scientists pulled away to skin on her torso, and took out teal organs that sometimes look fairly like a human's, and others that were completely foreign. As the slimy, bloody organs were taken away one by one, they unstrapped her and rolled her over to face Dave, where he could see the empty cavity of her body, her still open red eyes, still tinged teal with tears. Blood soaked hair fell in her face.

Something inside Dave shattered.

He couldn't take it, he couldn't look at her body as the doctors worked on her. All coherent thoughts left his brain, and desperately he struggled against his bindings. His bad shoulder shot pain through his body, but like a panicked animal he only continued to struggle harder, eventually dislocating the bone. The bindings cut his wrists and ankles until the bled. And he screamed. Screamed like he never knew he could, penetrating every level of his being. His head whipped around, throwing his clear tears that he couldn't even acknowledge everywhere.

Anderson's voice was lost in his raucous, but eventually several large goons came in and held him in place more and preventing his struggle, but any hope that his wild eyes would see the horrific scene in front of him was pointless.

At some point, they released him, and three men struggled taking him out of the room and dragging him down a long hallway, lined with cells, where others shivered and retreated, a sense of hopelessness ensnaring all as they watched the most cool, collected kid among them struggle and scream, wide eyed like a terrified, injured beast. Blood ran down out of his mouth to his chin and throat, his bloody shoulder dangled unnaturally and each step all three men simply had to coral him forward as he tried to stumble slowly away from them.

They came to a room with a metal chair from crime and horror shows, wired and cold in both literal and metaphorical senses. They strapped him down, and he continued to struggle, though exhausted now, his scream ended as his throat couldn't produce any more sound.

A button was pushed.

2000 volts of electricity flowed all at once into the chair.

And Dave woke up to a faint noise outside his cell.

Chapter Text

The lingering dream left Dave shivering where he lay, irritating his shoulder that had puddle blood on the floor beneath him, but the sound outside was eerily familiar. Carefully sitting up, not making himself dizzy this time, he once again brought his hands carefully around his legs and approached the door with caution thrown to the wind. As expected, outside was Bro, attempting to spring his lock.

When Bro noticed Dave’s figure, the younger Strider quickly rolled his head around. It was their signal for a trap from all sides. Bro gave the slightest nod, before Dave mouthed “I need your spare” slowly and carefully. Just as soon as the message was transmitted, there was a banging as soldiers began to appear from all sides. In a flash, a long katana went flying through the bars of the window, and Dave pulled it out of the wall on the other side of his cell with his good hand.

Outside, similar taunts were happening. What was going on? Did he have an alternate timeline vision? But he was the Knight of Time, not the Seer. There was no time for questions, though. When Dave returned to the window, Bro has just cleared all the agents besides Anderson, in his light, casual outfit.

Their battle began. The two move at amazing speeds, neither seeming to gain ground for the most part. Dave gripped the katana tightly, waiting for his moment. Sure enough, Anderson suddenly went flying into his door. The cocky showman made his mistake in lingering there. As fast as his injured body could, Dave had his hands stuffed as far as they could through the bars, and he pressed the lethal sword to the exposed neck. Anderson was stunned.

“This is for all the shit you were about to do,” Dave growled in his ear.

It was all over in the matter of a second, and the decapitated body slumped to the floor, spilling normal, plain human red blood everywhere. Bro even looked surprised at his actions, but he didn’t question and simply got to springing his younger brother. Once he was out, the newly freed human gave silent directions to go check the lab and areas around it for anyone being held nearby there, while he would go spring those in the cells he had seen in his dream on the way to his doom.

As the two split, Dave put away the sword and waited until Bro was out of sight to allow his entire body to start shaking again. The dream… it had to be an alternate timeline. And if there’s he'd learned from the game, it was that those timelines are very real, much more so than any other old dream. In some other existence, they had carved up his friends, and forced him to watch as the one creature that mattered most to him in the entire universe was dissected. It was, to say the least, utterly terrifying. Inside, he could still feel that shattered bit of him, that piece that wanted to just break down and flip the fuck out.

However, he still had shit to do before that could happen. Even if Anderson was dead, he didn’t doubt these scientists would proceed without his orders. People were waiting on him. People that needed to be sprung with his “Get Out of Jail Free” card, and they needed to high tail out without passing Go or collecting 200$. Then he could find a nice secluded corner and go bawl his eyes out in peace.

Collecting himself and clenching the katana, he proceeded to the cells, where he found eyes peering desperately out at him. Quickly, he began springing locks. Jade, Rose, Karkat, Gamzee, Sollux, Eridan, Equius, Tavros, and John, who refused to be touched or move. Right, Vriska was the one who had gotten him to do anything earlier. And none of the troll girls were here, which meant Bro had them. He hoped at least.

Well, there was no way Bro could know to bring the girls here for a reunion, so some magic had to happen here to get the kid out without causing him to flip shit. Dave asked the others to wait outside and stepped into the dark room and squatted next to John, who had curled into the corner and stared at his face without any recognition.

“Look, I know you’re having your little psychotic break down, and I know you’re freaked out as all shit, but I’m on the verge myself here and you’re leaving me with no choice. We need to get our asses out, and I’m about to resort to the one thing I know worked last time to get you to trust someone. So what I’m saying is, snap out now, or deal with what’s about to happen, and never speak of this to anyone.” John didn’t respond, just whimpered.

“Goddamn it, Egbert. Well, here goes nothing.” Dave leaned in, carefully taking John’s face in his hand with a light touch and coaxing it back out when it shrunk away. Their lips met, and a rather passionate kiss ensued.

About a minute later, Dave came out with a shaking John clinging to his good arm like a child to their parent at a crowded party. The others didn’t ask, but Jade could assume what had happened, having been there the first time.

The group proceeded quietly back out the way the group had come in with the initial rescue attempt. None of them were in any shape to fight, they would be screwed if they were found. Luckily, it looked like Bro had cleared a nice path out of the compound. Speaking of which, Bro was waiting just outside the walls of the compound with the troll girls and Bec. Upon seeing Terezi, Dave was simultaneously overwhelmed with relief, and with images with the future that could have been. At this point, he couldn’t tell if it was John shaking on his arm or if he was shaking. Hopefully nobody could tell if it was the latter.

Without a word, the groups merged, and they began a slow trek away from the place that place of nightmares.

Chapter Text

The blind troll girl took a whiff of her surroundings. Sure, she should be taking in the details of the forest floor below her so she didn't trip, but she was more concerned about the light haired human in front of her. Since he had first appeared with John clinging to him like a wriggler to its lusus, Dave had only looked at her once, and he seemed unsettled. Something was wrong, she could smell it. Like a tension, but whatever its source was she really couldn't tell.

Terezi's thoughts drifted to the party they had the other night, before this whole shitfest went down, where she was pretty sure she ingested quite a bit of the human soporific called alcohol. It was all a bit fuzzy, but she remembered Dave. She remembered a lot of Dave. Something had been said, and then came closer together and... They kissed, not exactly in perfect form, but it had been exciting. It was real rush to kiss someone and feel them push back, not like a stupid, cold corpse smooch.

Not thinking much, she brought a hand to her lips and gently brushed them. The scene kept playing over and over... She didn't snap out of it until her foot caught on a tree root and she started to trip. Pulling her arms up to protect her face, she waited for impact, but instead felt a strong arm catch her waist. Sniffing slightly she looked up and faced Dave, who briefly met her gaze before something odd flashed I'm his eyes. As she straightened up with a quiet "Thanks", he stoically turned away and proceeded walking in front with his brother, still quiet.

What had that been in his face? Pain? Was his good arm also injured? It didn't sit right with her, anyway.

Observing him carefully now, though, she could smell his red blood seeping continuously out of his shoulder, and his wobbling steps that weren't quite straight.

"You going to make it?" her sensitive ears heard Bro ask.

"Have to..." was the simple reply. Terezi's thin face wrinkled with mild annoyance. He had to? They were all injured, but he had taken the worst by far. Why couldn't he allow himself a break?! When Bro stayed quiet, Terezi carefully sped up her pace to reach them. Carefully, she put a hand on Dave's good shoulder, and felt his muscles tense slightly at her touch.

"Dave, cut the shit. You need to rest just as much if not more than the rest of us. Think about the others, too. Rose could use it just as much..." she whispered in his ear, but was only met with a shrug to remove her hand.

"I'm alright. We aren't safe yet. If we can make it just a little further..." his voice held back serious pain, but she smelled something... Red in it. Within seconds, he was leaning on a tree, coughing sweet red blood started pouring from his mouth and through his hand as he tried unsuccessfully to hold it in.

"Dave?!" Terezi stood behind him, shocked by the sudden gush. It was like his body broke down all at once. He was shaking violently, just at the effort to hold himself up against the rough tree trunk. When he pulled his hand away, his eyes held the same look as John's: seeing, but not really seeing.

Her first reaction was to try to help. When she tried to put one arm around his waist and help him stand against her instead of the tree, their red eyes locked for a second before he spent the last of his strength to push her away, backing against the tree and coughing more blood. Hurt, she watched him slide down it before turning to Bro, who was already pulling off his shirt.

"He's loosing too much blood," the older human stated simply before ripping the fabric and getting to work on the shoulder. At the sudden pressure, Dave yelped, yet his unseeing eyes never left her. The others had stopped further back to watch, but didn't dare approach. John whimpered somewhere, attached to Vriska who quickly shooshed him.

"C-can I help?" Terezi quietly offered. When she took a step closer, Dave seemed to try to shrink away, his mouth forming soundless words that her smell-o-vision couldn't read. Bro shook his head slightly.

"Whatever he thinks he's seeing, you're making it worse." The blunt words hit her hard, and she took a step back. Was this why he had avoided her? Was it some human disease? Still hurt, but with some hope she turned away, fighting back tears.

The rest of the group could see they weren't going anywhere for a while if they had to wait for Dave to recover enough to walk again, and had begun to find places to sit. All of them were pretty beaten up. Probably among the least injured were Vriska and Jade, but even they looked tired and bruised up. John was still bleeding quite a bit, but otherwise he was the least problematic if it wasn't for his state of mind. Even Terezi started to notice her fairly deep slice across her collar area where a bullet had skimmed past her and nearly lodged in her shoulder if she hadn't moved barely in time to let it pass back out. Thank goodness she had picked up just a little bit of Dave's speed technique, if she could only use it in small amounts.

She sat down reluctantly with her back to a tree, facing away from him to avoid the terrified gaze. His gasping and grunts made her twinge, but she couldn't explain the guilty feeling. She knew she couldn't help, and it wasn't her fault some stupid disease made him afraid of her.

"PTSD." A soft female voice next to her spoke. Terezi looked up at Rose, who was really beat looking and bleeding plenty herself. She had been half heartfelt treated similar to John, since it seemed she was also at risk of loosing a lot of blood. It made her wonder why Dave hadn't been helped at all if he was bleeding just as badly...

"What?" Terezi blinked, questioning quietly back.

"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's when a human experiences some traumatic event that affects them to the point that it has a tendency to come back and haunt them at times. I think that's why Dave is acting quite uncharacteristically. To be quite honest, I'm not sure what could have pushed him over such a precipice, but whatever triggered his flash back or fear seems you or something you did, considering you are clearly the object he fears most at present." The troll blinked, sorting out the info in her head.

"So he's freaking out because they did something to him... And he's remembering it when he looks at me?" Terezi glanced over around the tree at Dave, who was still coughing blood, while his shirtless brother was trying to get some other cuts bandaged.

"Yes, basically." Rose whispered. "I'm not sure what precipitated the hallucination or what he believes he is experiencing, but I believe he put enough strain on his body trying to keep himself together enough to lead us away from here that the accumulation of that plus you and-or your actions induced his mind to relapse to another time."

"Is there a cure?" Terezi didn't even try to understand what Rose was going on about.

"Not really. Psychological trauma can't really be repaired with medicine. It could take some time, and maybe it will improve as his body does as well. We'll have to wait for it to pass for now. Hopefully, he should be getting bet-"

From behind them, there was the sound of a flurry of motion. Terezi turned in time to smell Dave taking off, having shoved Bro away. He was too tired to move full speed, though. In fact, he was too tired to make it far at all. Only a few feet away, he had to steady himself on a tree. When he slipped, he fell to the ground and stopped moving except for the quick, emphatic rise and fall of his chest.

Terezi was back on her feet in an instant, forcing away her weariness and rushing over to him. Bro was ahead of her, moving at a much greater speed. Smelling him, she stopped short at Dave's feet.

"He's asleep." Bro stood up after his analysis. "Bandages are fine, for now. You'll need a lot of gauze, though. Take him, keep moving. I'll meet up with you later." Before Terezi could question him, he was off in a sniff, barely rustling the leaves around them. Behind her, she heard someone stand.

"That's enough break, we need to keep moving." Karkat's usually shouty voice was at a normal level for once. "Pick up the sleeping wonders and let's get going." Looking back at the others, Terezi noticed Vriska picking up an exhausted John by the back and knees (human bridal style), Equius carrying Nepeta rather unceremoniously over his shoulder, Kanaya and Rose balancing on each other, Feferi being supported by Eridan and Sollux on either side, Tavros awkwardly walking on his half functional robotic legs with Jade and Aradia for support, and Karkat carrying a happily snoring Gamzee firetroll manner across his shoulders. Biting her lip nervously, she carefully bent over and attempted awkwardly to pick up Dave by under his arms, which made him give a small yelp in his sleep. Adjusting to get him by the waist, she struggled with how to move him for a bit until she finally ended up piggy backing him, leaning forward to make sure he didn't fall back and using her arms to hold up his legs around her hips. In the process, quite a bit of teal blood smeared on his shirt and temporary shirt cloth bandages.

Like this, the group headed out and made good time getting to the edge of the forest. The gray twilight made it a struggle to pick out all the party members, so they decided to chance stepping into the open. The roads were empty of life, and hardly a creature even moved.

A few minutes later, they made it to a nearby motel where they had paid earlier to make an emergency base after the rescue attempt. Luckily, the key card Karkat had still worked, and the sixteen collapsed in any open space available: on beds, the floor, in the bathroom, and on top of others. The room was going to look like a paint and blood explosion after this, but no one cared at that point. Terezi lowered Dave carefully on one of the queen beds and stood over him, staring for a bit. Vriska had put John down on the same bed, and for the first time in a long while, the Scourge sisters looked at each other with a bond and understanding, without a single sign of hate or revenge plotting. They both cared about someone that they couldn't seem to help. However, neither spoke a word. The spider troll just sat with her back to John's side of the bed, staring into space before drifting off.

Terezi stood over Dave a bit longer. At least John seemed to trust Vriska. The teal blood couldn't even get close to Dave when he was awake. But why her? Even before he had lost it, he seemed to be avoiding her. Was it something she did? How could she have done something wrong, unless... Maybe, he hadn't meant to kiss her? It was the only thing in her head, and she vaguely remembered possibly being a little demanding about it.

Stressed and completely unsure, her thinkpan swimming with thoughts, she didn't notice she was crying until a drop of teal fell on his chest. She went to wipe her eyes, when Dave began to shake and squirm in his sleep. Not really knowing how to handle the problem and fretting waking John, she quickly took his blood covered hand and held it between her own smaller two, her blood running down the cuts on her arm mingling with his. He quieted, and Terezi decided that since it worked, she probably shouldn't let go.

Sitting on the side of the bed, her eyes grew heavy, and without really thinking she curled up in the small space next to him, still hugging his hand to her. Just as she was on the brink of sleep, she felt him shift to partially curl around her. His lips were right by her pointy ear, and she faintly remembered him whisper something that sounded something like "I'm sorry."

~~~

Later, she awoke to light drifting in through the closed window. In front of her face was Dave's shirt, once white, now stained red and teal. His hand was still clasped tightly in her own hands, but his other arm was under her head like a pillow.

Slowly, she removed herself and reluctantly released his hand. On the other side of the bed, Vriska must have woken at some point and turned around, because now she kneeled with her head in her arms, crossed on the bed, while John hung half over the side, one foot behind her back and the other nearly touching her horns on the bed.

Deciding she'd better use the load gapper before others started to wake up, she picked her way around to the human bathroom, shoving Gamzee out of the doorway carefully so as not to disturb the Karkat sleeping with its head on his stomach.

Just as she was returning to Dave, she noticed him shuffle. Rounding the bed, she's just in time to see his eyes blink open. Obviously groggy, he at up carefully and ran his good hand through his hair. As he brought it down though, he began to take in his surroundings.

In his eyes, he saw his hand stained teal, the red hardly a concern. Between his fingers he saw Terezi looking nervously at him, her eyes very vaguely tinged teal (although in reality only because she had just woken up, not from tears), and the dried teal blood at her collar line. The images flashed through his head again, and he stared wide eyes at the hand, which started to tremble violently. She moved quickly toward him, but the frantic look in her eyes translated strangely to the plea in her eyes when he had seen her die. He saw a ghost, haunting him, and fully expected to see her ripped open body if he lowered his hand. When she stepped closer, he flinched away, holding up his good hand in defense, closing his eyes and facing away. He bit his tongue hard to keep from screaming, the fresh blood mingling with the previous lingering taste in his mouth.

"Dave..." she spoke softly, taking his held up hand in both of her's once more and pulling it to her chest. His attempt to jerk away just made her hold tighter. Feeling her warm body, though, and the solidness of her hands and core, he stopped resisting.

"Please, look at me. It's me, it's alright." Carefully, he opened his eyes and gazed at her chest, her shirt still mostly intact and body fine but for the cut in her collar bone. That's right, it was a different time line. This was real, and in reality, ghosts don't exist.

Daring to look her in the face, he felt guilt twist his stomach in knots. She looked hurt, her eyes now truly tinged with tears threatening to spill over. Her dark hair was a mess, and even with her dark clothes he could see his own red blood dried and smeared across her. His little episode yesterday vaguely came back to him, in several parts: The first part of him was completely batshit crazy, and only saw the surgery on her playing over and over, another piece saw her, but only knew what it felt to see her face. Fear, guilt... That wild animal instinct had bubbled up again, knowing only that he wanted away from all sources of discomfort. Finally, he saw the scene as it was, where Bro started tending his wounds when the blood loss made him too dizzy to stand, Terezi trying to help and his pushing her away, and her tortured expression when she realized she could only make it worse.

"Fuuuuuuck..." he drew out the swear word under his breath, closing his eyes and attempting to bring his hand to his eyes. It only resulting in his shoulder throbbing painfully and his arm rising only at the elbow. Clenching his fist, he let it fall slowly and just stared at it for a bit, unable to look at Terezi's face. "Shit, I'm sorry, Terezi... That was-" he began to apologize.

"Shoosh! Everyone is sleeping still..." she interjected. Then all at once, she threw her arms around him. The pressure on his shoulder made him hiss, but he carefully laid his good arm on her back. They stayed like that for a quiet minute before she pulled away.

"I... Really need to talk to you, privately. Could we...?" he whispered, contemplating the words before speaking.

"Yeah, outside." Carefully helping him up, they picked their way over sleeping bodies to the door.

The morning air was a bit chilly, but the growing sunlight helped warm them a bit. Taking a seat on the stairs to the second floor a few paces away, Dave let out a lungful of air and leaned on the stairs behind him, feeling his back pop joyously.

"Look, TZ-" he started, but was cut off.

"PTSD."

"What?"

"Post Trauma Strain Dis-something. It's what Rose said you had. You... They did something really bad to you, and seeing me made you think of it. Why?" the words crashed out of her mouth, leaving Dave slightly stunned, but he smiled slightly.

"Yeah, leave it to Rose to go all shrink and diagnose me with shit like that." He gave a small laugh. There was a pause, and the smile dropped. "But... I guess she's probably not far off. Terezi, look, I'm sorry about what happened, I know that sucked some serious dick."

"The dick it sucked was the gravest one I know," she joked halfheartedly. Dave didn't smile again, but sat up straight and looked at his hands.

"But... You should know what happened. Because I don't know if my flip shit episodes will be a thing I can control." Terezi dropped her smile and stared wordlessly at him, not finding any words appropriate to the atmosphere. So Dave pressed on. "I was in my cell, and right after they threw me in, I passed out pretty hard. When I woke up... Well, at least I thought I woke up, Bro was there, trying to spring me. Suddenly, shit went down, and this huge trap sprung. And I had to watch through the stupid window. He took out the goonies pretty quick like usual, but Anderson showed up. The guy trained under my brother a while ago, and apparently has only gotten better. So next thing I know, Bro is there, face down on the ground, sword out his back just like before. It... It was honestly terrifying. I never thought I'd see him like that ever again. But this time it was in reality. Next thing I know, Anderson is dragging me off somewhere, determined to fuck with my head before he kills me. He sat me down behind a one way window and made me watch as some scientists got to work with their dissections. I can still hear Vriska... Nepeta... Feferi, Kanaya, all of them screamed, and I looked away because I couldn't do anything. And then they brought you in. And they figured out..." he paused, not sure what to say. "Well, they made me watch this time. And you didn't scream at first, because I think you smelled me, even behind the mirror, and somehow you knew I was there and you were trying to be strong. But..." he took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice steady. "They cut you open. Just your limbs at first, then your chest. And you started to scream, but they wouldn't let me look away. They... They opened you up, and I can't fully remember when you stopped... Stopped breathing... But they started to take things out... And I fucking lost it. I couldn't think, couldn't feel jack shit. All I knew what I had to get away. I think they might have made me watch more, but all my vision is black after that, or cloudy at best. It was like... Being a bundle of instincts, and not feeling anything else. And I kind of remember them leading me somewhere. Then... I woke up, and it was just like when I did in the dream, and Bro was there trying to spring me. So I set it up to end differently, took an opportunity I missed the first time. And that's how we ended up here and not dead. I figured that was probably some weird timey thing, and it was a dead Dave trying to warn me we were fucked if I didn't do something different. And that just made it that much more real. Now... Sometimes I feel like I'm still trapped in that time line. Seeing you sends me back to seeing your body dead and emptied of organs. I... I honestly can't even handle the memory. That's why-"

"You need space." Terezi finished for him as his voice choked. It hurt, but she couldn't imagine how she would feel in his place. If she had to watch her Lusus die again... If she had to see Dave, the real Alpha Dave, dead and feeling like she could have prevented it... And on top of that, she was a troll, accustomed to violence and not nearly as shaken by such things. "I understand, kind of. It's better for you if you could take a bit to forget it. Just... Let me know if you ever need me." she fiddled with her fingers on her knees, trying to keep from crying. It felt like her chest was being ripped apart. Was this what it felt like to have a human break up?

A warm hand touched her face, and she turned toward Dave, a bit surprised. His red eyes were softer than she ever thought someone so hardcore could look.

"Thanks, TZ. And... For now, I want to do this right, while your actually sober." Dave leaned in closer and closed his eyes. Following his example, she closed her own as their lips met. Unlike before, this started slower, more innocent. But it quickly grew, sharp teeth meeting omnivorous flat ones, black, rough lips entwining with softer pink ones. Dave's hands drifted from her shoulders to the small of her back, pulling her closer as she loosely dangled her arms over her shoulders. Terezi's world became his taste, his scent. But unlike the colors of the world, these colors were sharp and bright, strange and not really symbolic of anything. The red of the blood and it's salty, metalic taste were like explosions of colors every around her.

It was the best minute of her life, and it came to end far too quickly.