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Chapter 16: The Last Edge of the Frontier

Every day, the humans met in Jade's room, arraigned their chairs in a circle, and sat together to talk.  The meetings had started with the intention of discussing Noir, but the topic almost never came up.  They chatted without focus and looped back and around in their conversations.  Jade and John made it a goal to have Rose and Dave laugh at least once every day; Rose was always made to talk in the hope of recovering more of her voice.

Over the course of two weeks, however, they had grown quieter and quieter.  That day, they sat in a heavy silence; they did not meet each other's eyes.  Jade was ramrod straight, hands folded in her lap; Dave slumped with his legs spread and his hands clutching the chair's arms; John leaned forward with his elbows on his knees; and Rose was curled up with her legs to her chest.  When the silence was broken, the voice that spoke was still quiet and heavy.

"You guys really think we can off Noir?" Dave asked.

The silence resumed immediately, and the others did not look at him.  They fidgeted in their own ways: John flicked his thumbs against his palms; Jade twisted her fingers over each other; and Rose curled up tighter.  Dave twisted the heel of one foot against the floor, swinging his foot back and forth.

"Well?" he said.  "D'you guys really think we can kill him?"

"There's no reason we can't," Rose replied.  "He was badly wounded in our last fight."

"But it don't feel like it," Dave shot back.  "Every day that fish-face asshole comes back with no news about Noir, the more it feels like he's going to heal up and come back just as strong as before.  And he still had enough fight in him at the end to bump off your moll.  Down an arm and an eye, and he still got her."  He shifted, bringing a hand up to scratch at his chin.  "It makes me nervous."

John smiled.  "We'll be okay!  As long as we stick together and stay on our guard, we can kill him!"  He sat up straight, holding his arms up and out.  "Just think about it!  A life without Noir!"

Jade shifted.  Shaking the stiffness from her shoulders, she smiled.  "Won't it be nice to just study alchemy without thinking about how to use it against Noir?"

"I can't wait to help Karkat and Miss Feferi and everyone!" John said, his smile becoming a grin.  "It'll be a great adventure!  Maybe we'll even go into space!  That'd be amazing!"

Dave snorted.  "You just want to be a pirate in space."

"What's wrong with that?" John asked.  "Maybe I'd help stop the slave trade if I get to be an awesome pirate in space!  Everyone would listen to someone who got all the way to the stars, right?"

"The stars ain't gonna help anyone if we don't survive the fight."

"We can't go into the fight thinking we'll lose," Rose said.  "We might hesitate if we don't have the conviction, and hesitating will get us killed."

"You havin' conviction got you possessed by monster gods," Dave muttered.  "You sure going all out is a good idea for you?"

"I haven't had a single nightmare since arriving here," she replied.  "Two entire weeks without them when I used to have them every night.  I don't hear the Gods, brother.  I don't think I will anymore."

He tipped his head forward to let his sunglasses slip down his nose, but paused.  He took the glasses off completely, folding them shut and holding them in one hand.  He sat up to put his elbows on his knees.

"You gotta swear that you're never going to let yourself get stolen again, sister," he said, voice quiet.  "You do it again and I'm the one comin' after you—and I sure as fuck won't be as sweet about it as Kanaya.  You scare me like that—you fuckin' break my heart like that again—and I will drag you back and kick your ass so hard it'll be like fire and brimstone and the Lord's second coming.  You understand?"

She looked at her knees, but murmured, "I understand."

"Good, 'cause I think the Egbert and Harley duo would be right behind me to make sure I get you for your beating."

"We wouldn't beat her, Dave!" John said, chuckling.  "We'd just get her back!"  When his chuckling died down, he turned to look at Rose.  His smile genuine, he said, "You promise, right?  You're not going to do anything stupid involving the Gods."

Arms tucked behind her legs, she put her hands on her forearms and rubbed idly.  "I won't."

Jade, sitting at her right, frowned.  She leaned over and caught Rose's elbow.  When she pulled, she caught sight of where Rose's hands had been: atop the sigils.  She looked up and shook Rose's elbow until her gaze was met.  "What were you thinking?"

"Nothing."

"Rose Lalonde, don't you dare lie to me.  Why were you touching these?"

Silence.  Slowly, she looked down at her arm.  She opened her hand and stared at the mark in her palm.  "I was thinking about what I did."

"And how you're never going to do it again, right?" Dave asked.

Silence.

"Right?"

"Not for the same reason."

Jade let go of Rose's elbow and brought her other hand up to fold both around Rose's.  "You can't ever use that formula again.  You have to promise us."  She tightened her grip.  "Don't try to bring any of us back if we die."

"That's not what I was thinking of," Rose said.  "I was thinking of how I could use it constructively."

"The Gods still want you as their speaker, sis," Dave said.  "You use that formula and you're serving yourself up on a fuckin' platter made of the finest silver."

"It's not me I want to serve to them.  It's Noir."

They all went silent.  For a moment, Jade's grip on Rose's hand faltered and loosened.  Shaking her head, she squeezed Rose's hand even tighter than before.

"Rosie," she said, voice firm, "that'd be suicide.  There's no way."

"Why not?"

Jade frowned, brows furrowing.  "Even if you got him into a place big enough to make a transmutation circle, you'd never have the time to make one—not with everything you need to have.  And then if you did the alchemy, you'd be going back to where the Gods are.  You're not fast enough to do all of that and then escape from them!"

"But Kanaya is."

"What's Miss Kanaya got to do with it?" John asked.

Rose gently pulled her hand free.  Straightening her legs, she undid the first two buttons on her shirt.  As she sat forward, she opened her shirt enough to show the sigil on her chest.  She pushed up her sleeves and held out her hands, palms up.  "The reason I drew these on myself was to circumvent painting the entire formula.  Back then, it was because I didn't want to use up all of Kanaya's blood, and it would have been too much of my own blood to paint it.  But now that these are permanently on me, all I would have to do is make the base transmutation circle in advance and get Noir in it."

"That doesn't explain what Kanaya has to do with it," Jade said.

"Now that she's a rainbow drinker, she's faster than any of us, and she's probably physically strong enough to go up against Noir.  Since she has the same sigils scarred onto her, I have someone who can not only get him into the circle, but also help me perform the alchemy without needing to make any new sigils.  I need someone's help to get him to the Gods.  And because she went to find me, she knows how to escape to the dream bubbles."

"But why do you have to off him that way?" Dave asked.  "Why can't we just stab him through his devil dog skull?"

"We don't actually know if it's possible to kill him completely just through physical means.  Like you said before, he was still able to—to..." She swallowed hard. "—k-kill Kanaya after losing an eye and an arm.  He was created by the leftover traces of the alchemy that brought us here—fallout tainted by the energies of the Elder Gods.  I think the only way to completely undo him is to send him back to the Gods."

"And you want to be the one to do that," Jade said, voice quiet.

"I hope to get Kanaya's help as well."

"Why not ours?" Dave snapped.

Rose turned to look at him.  His gaze was hard; his jaw was set with how fiercely he clenched his teeth.  When he spoke, his voice was sharp and strained.

"Why the fuck wouldn't you ask us to help you with this?" he said.

"I don't want to put you in danger."

"By fuckin' putting yourself in danger?" he shouted.  "How many Goddamn times do we have to tell you that you're not the only one responsible for Noir?  Let us help you!"

"It'll be easier for just two people to escape from the Gods after bringing Noir to them," she said, looking away.

"Fine," he snarled.  "I'll be the one to help you."  He dropped his sunglasses in his lap and shoved his sleeves up his arms.  After undoing the first three buttons on his shirt, he summoned his sword and put it up against his throat.

Rose shot out of her chair and grabbed his hands to try to wrestle the sword away.  "Dave, no—stop!"

He stood up in a rush, pushing her back as he went.  He pulled the sword from her grasp, stabbed it into the floor, and grabbed her shoulders.  "No, Rose!  You swore to me that you wouldn't do this kinda stupid shit just a few minutes ago, and now you're telling me that you're gonna do it anyway!  You know you're gonna get Kanaya's help, and you know you'd get ours!  You want to make sure Noir dies for sure?  Then you fuckin' let all of us help!"

When she only stared at him, eyes wide and lips parted, he sighed.  He lowered his voice and said, "We're doin' this, sister, whether you like it or not."  He gave her a small smile.  "For God's sake, Lalonde, stop bein' noble and let me take care of my little sister for once."

"And my little sister, too!" said John.

"Shut your yapper, Egbert, I'm talkin' about my sis."

"I am, too!"  He took to his feet and went to their side.  Slinging an arm around their shoulders, he said, "Rosie's my sister just as much as Jade!  We're all family so we have to look out for each other!"

Jade got out of her chair and moved to their other side.  Like John, she put her arms around them, hugging them at the waist.  "And that means we're all going to send Noir to the Gods."  She leaned slightly to hug Rose tighter.  "Okay?"

Silence.

"Rosie, say yes or I'll hit you again."

A small chuckle left her mouth.  "All right, fine.  We destroy Noir together."

Laughing, Jade took her arm from Dave to hug Rose as hard as possible.

Dave snorted loudly, but there was a smile on his face.  "Jesus wept, Harley, are you tryin' to bust her ribs by bein' a big baby needin' hugs?"

With her face pressed against Rose's shoulder, Jade's voice was muffled when she sad, "You're more than free to join us, mister cool mobster!"

"It's caporegime, doll face," he chuckled, "but fine."  He stepped in to hug the both of them.  The moment his arms were around them, he was slammed into from behind and the air in his lungs left him in a rush.  "Egbert, for the love of—"

John laughed to cut him off and squeezed them hard.  "This is the first time in years I've been able to get all of you in one big hug!  I can't help it!  And I think Rosie likes being in the middle just fine!"  He squeezed one last time before releasing them and stepping back.  He rolled up his sleeves and undid two buttons on his shirt.  "Okay, Rosie, you'll have to help me with this.  I don't know the sigils as well as you do."

She looked at him when Dave and Jade stepped away, hesitance clear in the hunch of her shoulders.  Anxiety came to her face when Jade pushed up her own sleeves and opened her shirt enough to bare the top of her chest.

"If we do this," she said quietly, "then you'll all have these marks on you forever.  They're too complex to repaint every day—and if I use alchemy to put them into your skin, there's no reversing it."

Dave raised an eyebrow at her.  "So?  It'll be like a tattoo.  You're actin' like I don't have a few of those already."

"It'll hurt."

"Yeah, that's normal for tattoos," he replied.  "Look, we're all ready for this, so get on with it, would ya?"

She opened her mouth to protest, but sighed.  She summoned one of her needles and gestured to the chairs.  When they had sat back down, she went to Dave.  With a murmured apology and a quick flick of the needle, she cut a line on the side of his neck.  He did not react beyond tilting his head; he remained quiet when she coated her fingers in his blood.  As she began to paint the sigil on his chest, he went completely still.

"Are we going to use our own blood or just Dave's?" John asked.

Jade spoke before Rose had a chance.  "Ours.  The sigils will connect best if they're painted using materials from the bodies they're on."

"Correct," Rose said absently.  She returned her hands to the cut on Dave's neck to refresh the blood and moved to his arms.

"Sorry, Egbert," Dave said.  "You still get cut."

"I'm not complaining!" John said.  "I just don't know as much about alchemy involving the body as the girls do!"

Jade giggled.  "You're more about breaking stuff."

"Hey, I make stuff, too!  I just have so much mangrit in me that I'm more skilled as disassembling matter."

"You're fine, John," Rose said.  She finished the last marks in Dave's palms and took her hands away to wipe them clean on her jeans.  Looking at his eyes, she said, "Are you ready?"

"Fry me, sis."

She put her hands flat on his chest, touching her thumb to either edge of the circle.  Sparks shot along the blood, searing his chest before leaping down his arms to the sigils there.  Dave grit his teeth when the lightning touched his palms, but kept his hands open.  The electricity ceased when Rose took her hands away; the sigils steamed faintly.

"Well?" Rose said.

"Well what, sis?" Dave replied.  "It hurt like a bitch, but my heart hasn't stopped if you're worried about it."

She smiled slightly.  "Feel like you can send people into the loving tentacles of the Elder Gods?"

"Can we try it on fish-face?"

She gently punched his shoulder before moving to John.  He sat up straighter on her approach and fidgeted until she sighed and tweaked his nose.  He stilled as she cut his neck, his breathing stuttering to a halt.  He shivered at the warm smear of the blood painted on his chest and winced at the feel of it in his hands.  When she cleaned her hands and looked at him, he swallowed once and nodded.  A choked noise left him at the burn of the lightning, but he did not break away.  Once the electricity vanished, he let out a brief groan.

"You weren't lying about it hurting," he muttered.  He brought his hand to his chest and touched the sigil gingerly.

Rose turned toward Jade.  She did not move; anxiety had come back to her face.  Her mouth barely opened for an attempt at speech before she closed it again.

Jade sighed loudly through her nose.  "Just come here and do it.  You're such a worrywart."

With a begrudging smile on her face, she walked to stand before Jade's chair.  Jade smiled back at her and, pulling aside her hair, tilted her head to present her neck.  She inhaled sharply at the cut but remained still.  She waited through the painting of the sigil on her chest and offered up her arms when Rose needed them.  Her fingers twitched at the touch bringing blood to her palms, but she did not pull away.  She closed her eyes as Rose put her trembling hands to her chest.  She nodded firmly; Rose set off the lightning.  Her face tightened in pain and she let out a whimper, but she remained as still as John and Dave before her.  A heavy sigh left her when Rose pulled back, and she opened her eyes to look at her arms.

"It'll—the pain won't last," Rose said.  "I'm sorry."

Jade looked up to give her a smile.  "It's okay!  We're the ones who told you to do it, after all."

Dave flexed his hands, straightening his fingers to stretch the palms.  "Okay, so we're all set to go kill Noir and send his demon soul back to the monster gods.  Where're we puttin' the transmutation circle?"

"I don't know," Rose said.  "I was hoping to get John's input."

John blinked, sitting back.  He pointed at himself.  "Wha—mine?  Why mine?"

"You're the one with more experience leading others," Rose said.  "You're the one who was first mate on a gamblignant ship, and you know more than us about leading large groups in battle.  I defer to you here."

He blinked again, brows rising, and went quiet.  He looked at the ground and slowly sat forward to put his elbows on his knees.  He lifted a hand to his chin as his brows came together.  "Leading everyone, huh?"  He looked up to her and smiled.  "That's a lot of pressure to dump on a guy, Rosie."

"I trust you," she said, "and I'm sure everyone else does, too."

He drew a deep breath and let it out in a humming sigh.  "Well, if you guys want me to be the leader, I need to start making plans."  He stood up, cracking his knuckles as he went.  "I'm gonna go find Vriska and Karkat.  Vriska's been a captain longer than I've been a first mate, and I think Karkat would be cranky if we didn't let him in on a big plan like this."

Dave pushed himself out of his chair and plucked his sword from the floor.  Banishing it, he said, "Come up with something good.  I want Noir out of our lives once and for all."

John laughed and slapped Dave on the back, knocking the breath out of him.  "Don't worry!  I've got a few good ideas already!"  He turned to Rose and said, "For right now, why don't you head back to your room?  You should rest up as much as you can, since we don't know when Eridan's gonna come back with some important news."

She lifted a brow.  "Are we coddling me now?"

He held his thumb and forefinger close together.  "A little.  Just until we kill Noir for good."

"Then you can go back to being your usual snarky broad self," Dave said.

She sighed, but a smile curled her lips.  "All right, fine.  I'll acquiesce."  She yelped when John grabbed her under the arms and lifted her off the ground.  "Egbert, what in the hell are you doing?"

He grinned as he walked to the door and carried her along.  "Making sure you actually head on back to your room!  You'd probably just stay in here with Jade and talk if we didn't make sure you left!"  He set her down gently and opened the door.  Slipping past her, lifting a hand in parting, he said, "Say hi to Miss Kanaya for me!"

Dave only patted Rose on the shoulder when he left, but Jade gave her a quick hug before pushing her along.  She went in the opposite direction as Dave and John, walking down the long hallway toward the rest of the private rooms with her sock-covered heels padding faintly on the tiled floor.  The hive manor was enormous; the wide, tall hallways made it feel like a deserted castle when it was quiet.  Though it was just as quiet in her room when she opened the door, the glow inside kept the emptiness at bay.

Kanaya was stretched out on the couch, now sized for two, hands draped over the book in her lap.  Her shoulders rose and fell in steady breathing.  Rose closed the door gently and walked over as quietly as she could.  She sat down and worked the book free from Kanaya's hands.  When she remained still with slumber, Rose lifted a hand to comb her fingers through her hair.

With a deep breath and a stretching shift of her body, Kanaya opened her eyes.  She blinked slowly until catching sight of the gray hand near her face.  Upon seeing Rose sitting beside her, she smiled.  She caught hold of Rose's hand and brought it to her lips to kiss her knuckles.

"I think this is the first time I've found you sleeping in the last two weeks," Rose murmured.  "But I guess I wasn't really able to tell if you were sleeping when we first arrived."

"I've been sleeping," Kanaya replied.  "Just not nearly as much as you."  She sat up slightly, shifting to lean against the back of the couch.  She held out her arms and pulled Rose to her when she moved close enough.  Pressing a kiss to Rose's hair, she said, "I'm glad your dreams have been calm since we brought you back."

"So am I."

She let out a long sigh of a breath and settled Rose more firmly against herself.  She began to pet her hair.  "Did you finally tell the others about the plan you were thinking of?"

"I did."

"Are you finally going to tell me what it is?"

Rose drew her legs up and curled around Kanaya.  "Sending Noir to the Elder Gods using the resurrection formula.  Now all of them have the sigils on their bodies like you and I do."

"Ah."

"Kanaya."

"Hmm?"

"Do you realize you've started stroking my neck?"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"That depends."

"On?"

"It depends on if you're doing it because, as your voice suggests, you're still drowsy from your interrupted sleep, or if you're doing it because you're trying to make me relax because you're hungry."

Silence.  Her hand went still.

"That's why you're tired enough for me to catch you sleeping, isn't it?"  She took a deep breath and murmured, "It's all right.  You can take some of my blood."

Kanaya began to draw her hands back.  "I can't ask that of you."

Rose caught her hands and held fast.  "Yes, you can.  I don't want you to be hungry like this."

"When we may be on the verge of fighting Noir?"

"At all."  She brought one of Kanaya's hands back to her neck, laying it over where her pulse could be easily felt.  "You know I was there when Feferi said you'd need blood.  I didn't run away when I heard that.  I just started waiting for you to ask for this."  She smiled gently.  "But I guess I should have known that you wouldn't ask for it, regardless of heightened aggression."

A long pause came before she sighed.  She took her other hand from Rose's grasp and set it on her cheek.  "You're certain this is fine?"

"I'm not going to repeat myself much more, Kanaya.  Go ahead."

Her lips curled in a small, tired smile.  She brought her hand up from Rose's neck to rest it on her other cheek.  "Look at my eyes."

Rose smirked.  "Are you actually going to use vampiric hypnotism on me?"

"I have no idea what 'vampiric' means, but rainbow drinkers are able to relax their—donors through certain methods."

"Cunning word choice."

"Just relax, keep your eyes open, and focus on me."

Rose sighed, but did as she was told.  Kanaya held her gaze steadily, eyes open completely.  She stroked Rose's cheeks gently with her thumbs.  Rose blinked once, head tipping back.  When she blinked again, her head rocked forward on its own.  A faint, deep crooning welled up from Kanaya's chest, and Rose's shoulders slackened at the sound.  She breathed slower and slower; her muscles relaxed bit by bit.  The crooning gained a soft, meandering tune, and Rose's eyelids flickered with the beat of it.  When Kanaya tilted her head to one side, she was nearly limp; when Kanaya pressed her fangs into the flesh of her neck, she barely flinched.

At the first pulse of blood on her tongue, Kanaya began to purr.  She drank carefully; she suckled gingerly.  She let the blood seep into her mouth and swallowed without taking her fangs from Rose's throat.  After three half mouthfuls, she pulled herself away, remaining close enough to lap at the wounds to soothe their sting as they closed.  She sat back, and her tongue flicked out naturally to catch an errant drop of blood from the tip of one fang.

Rose swayed where she sat a moment before slumping over Kanaya's legs.  Kanaya, eyes wide, caught her by the shoulders before she could hit the back of the couch.

"Rose?" she said.  "Rose darling?  Are you all right?  I'm sorry—I took too much, I didn't mean to—"

Rose patted one of her hands and gave her a weary, unfocused smile.  "I'm fine.  But that's a very...strange sensation."

"You're certain you're all right?"

"I'm fine.  I'm just tired now.  I already told you to not worry."  She leaned into Kanaya's hands.  "Just...hold me right now."

"Hardly a difficult request to fulfill."  She moved them about, settling when she sat against the back of the couch with Rose in her lap.  One hand moved to Rose's neck to press fingertips to the wounds, and the other arm wrapped around her.  "I think the tiredness will pass soon.  I did my best to take only a little, but I may have guessed wrong on what 'a little' is for humans."

Rose shushed her with hushes of breath between her teeth.  "It's all right.  Do you feel less hungry now?"

"I do.  Thank you."

She hummed sleepily and let her head rock to one side to rest on Kanaya's shoulder.  For a time, she was silent; even her steady breathing was too soft to be heard.  She brought her legs up to curl around Kanaya as best she could and nuzzled her head against her shoulder.  Her silence broke only when Kanaya's hand left her throat in favor of rubbing her back, and it was with a low sigh.

Voice barely audible, words slurred with exhaustion, she said, "Kanaya?"

"Hmm?"

"I don't want you to die."

Kanaya blinked and looked down.  "I don't intend to."

"I don't want anyone to die."

"Darling, what are you talking about?"

"Noir.  I don't want anyone to die.  I don't want them to get killed."

A long sigh left her.  "I have taken too much.  You're rambling, darling.  Everything's going to be all right.  You don't have to worry about us.  We're not going to die."

She took Kanaya's shirt in hand, holding tight.  "I don't want to die."

She pulled Rose even closer and kissed her hair.  "We won't let him kill you.  I won't let anyone hurt you like that."

"I want to keep living.  I want to be able to wear that dress you're making for me."

A moment passed where she was silent.  Surprised laughter tumbled out of her mouth.  "Have you been watching me work?"

She nodded against her neck.

"Oh, darling," she laughed.  She tilted her head to kiss Rose's forehead.  "You will.  You're the one who's been saying there's no reason we can't kill Noir.  We'll be all right."

"Do you promise?"

She almost chuckled again.  She felt how tightly Rose's hands gripped her shirt and stopped short.  Kissing Rose's head once more, she wrapped her up tighter in her arms.  "I promise."

-------

Maplehoof was restless.  As Rose guided her through the streets, she snorted and tossed her head from side to side.  More than once, Rose was forced to pull back on the reins and make the horse stand still a moment.  Her gray hands were stark against Maplehoof's mane when she stroked it to soothe her.  When she tapped her heels to Maplehoof's sides to urge her forward, she always spoke softly to give her more directions.

Trolls murmured as they went by.  Lowbloods all, dark green at the highest, they never looked her in the eye, but she caught sight of them staring sidelong.  Every so often, she heard someone hiss "ain't that one a them freak brigandrifts?" and fought the urge to reply.  Only once did someone try to stop her, but Rose kicked him on instinct when he went for Maplehoof's reins.  The murmuring grew quieter after that, but the sidelong glances became direct stares.

It was pitch dark above; clouds sat low and thick in the sky.  A lazy, steady rain flowed out of the clouds and droned in the background.  Despite the muttering around her, there was no ambient city buzz to be heard.  Maplehoof's hooves clopped noisily on the pavement; her anxious noises were loud to the point of grating on Rose's already fraying nerves.  When she rounded a corner and saw Eridan standing at his post in the center of a wide, empty avenue, it was something of a relief to see him.  He spun at the sound of hooves, rifle raised immediately.  He held off on firing, though, and jerked his chin in a nod before lowering the rifle.

"No signs of him here?" Rose asked.

"Not a fuckin' whisper," he replied.  "Or is it a woof with this thing?"

"Whisper is accurate, now that he's capable of speech."  She stood up in the saddle slightly, looking about.  "You're sure there's no sign of him anywhere?"

"Hey, did you see any a those stupid signal shots your giant human came up with?  No?  Then there ain't been any fuckin' signs a him."  He snorted.  "Still can't believe him and Vris came up with this stupid plan.  Yeah, stick you freak lowbloods around the city all by yourselves.  That's not askin' for the demon to just come up and kill you all one by one.  Or hunters, for that fuckin' matter."

She sat down and looked at him with a hard eye.  "How much have you told other highbloods about us?"

He sneered at her.  "I'm not betrayin' anyone, if that's what you're thinkin'.  All I did was say the freak brigandrifts are still in the city.  No where or when or about you bein' as much of a monster as the demon."  He smirked and chuckled.  "Not to mention your matesprit."

"Why are you trying to make me angry right now?"

"Vris said you're fuckin' hot when you're pissed."

"Remind me to thank her as violently as I can when we're done with this."  She paused and shook her head.  "On second thought, she'd probably like that.  In any case, I agree with John's plan.  It's better to have everyone spread out.  We can run more freely if we're not trying to defend anyone else."

"You still gotta get back to that circle thing you made in the middle of the city.  You think you can get there from way out here without gettin' your neck cut?"

"Maplehoof may not be a race horse, but she's fast.  I'm confident in her."

He scoffed and said, "You better be.  Fef's got a lot ridin' on your freak ass, and I don't want my moirail gettin' disappointed 'cause a some slow hoofbeast."

"Now is honestly not the time for awkward black flirting," Rose said with a sigh.  "I'll cut you a deal.  If you stop, I'll pretend to entertain these come-ons after Noir is dead."

Eridan considered it with his head faintly tilted and his eyes turned upward.  After a moment, he nodded and said, "Deal."  He hesitated, lips curling in a new sneer.  "I'm not makin' any oaths with you, lowblood."

"Like I would make an actual oath with the idiot who tried—repeatedly—to kill Kanaya.  Just do me one favor right now, Ampora."

"What?"

"Shut up."

"But it's so fucking boring!" he said, voice pitching high with whining.  "You're the only person that comes near me in this whole stupid arrangement, and I've been standin' here for hours waitin' for stuff to start!"

She opened her mouth to fire back a retort, but the intended sentence died on her tongue.  "Wait—'start'?  What do you mean by 'start'?"  Her hands tightened on the reins.  "You said you didn't betray us."

"I didn't, you paranoid freak."  He jerked his chin up, looking into the sky.  "You're tellin' me you don't feel that?"

"Forgive me for not being as connected with nature as you, but feel what?"

"There's murder in the air, Ros," he murmured.  "People are gonna die today."

"I'm sorry if this disappoints you, but I have no intention of letting anyone die any time soon."

A horn honked above them.

Eridan turned his gaze from the sky to the rooftops and found Gamzee standing on a ledge not ten feet overhead.  In his left hand was his horn; he fondled it lovingly.  In his right hand was his club; congealing yellow-green blood oozed and dripped from it.  He grinned widely, head swaying from side to side, and stepped off the rooftop.  He strode toward them, arms swinging.

"Hey there, my fishy brother," he said gently.  "I heard that you've been hangin' around lowbloods the last few days.  It's a motherfuckin' miracle that you're really down here."

"Gam," Eridan replied, crossing his arms.  "What do you want?"

"I want to know what the fuck that little demon witch is still doing alive!" Gamzee screamed, spittle flying from his fangs.

Without turning his head, Eridan looked at Rose.  She sat stock-still in the saddle, eyes wide and lips parted.  Maplehoof chuffed and danced anxiously in place.  Sighing loudly, Eridan moved in and caught hold of the reins.  As he pulled the horse into stillness, he said, "I bought her."

Gamzee's head tilted and his chin lifted.  He looked them up and down, and his voice dropped into a low rumble.  "You bought her?"

"Yeah," he said with a lazy shrug.  "What's it to you?"

"You let me have her before, sea dweller!" Gamzee roared.  "What the fuck are you doing buying a heretic you gave up to my graces?"

"It's not my problem about how she got away from your, ah, 'graces' before, Gam."  He sighed wearily.  "Let's go, little freak.  I have things I want cleaned."  He tugged at the reins, but Rose did not let him pull them away.  He sneered at her and reached up to grab her by the wrist.  "I said, let's go."

The fury in Gamzee's face slithered into sharp glee.  He drew closer to them, feet shuffling slow and quiet over the pavement.  He chuckled and said, "Looks like your pet doesn't want to clean your sea-salt coated shit, brother.  Looks like you're scaring her.  Maybe what she really wants is to see a miracle."

"We don't have any fuckin' time for your miracle shit tonight, Gam," Eridan snapped.  He drew himself up to his full height, throwing back his shoulders, but he was still left looking up toward Gamzee's face and the growing smile there.  "This is my slave now, not one a your heretics, so if you try to take her away—"

"Then motherfucking what, Ampora?" Gamzee shrieked.  He clamped his fingers down over the hand Eridan had around Rose's wrist, the horn honking as his grip tightened, and grabbed hold of his collar with his other hand.  The spikes of the club squealed as they moved against Eridan's glasses.  "Then what?  Here's the end of your story tonight!  The lord highblood Eridan fucking Ampora gets his slave taken away from him and cries like a pathetic, powerless little wriggler!  It's the perfect joke!"

Eridan's gills flared; his lips pulled back to show his neat needle fangs.  "I order you to let me go, land dweller.  You've got no fuckin' right to treat a sea dweller like this, indigo blood or not."

The laugh that left Gamzee was giddy and soft, and he pulled Eridan up onto his toes as he leaned in.  "Why the fuck is that, fish-shit?  It's not like you're really someone special with that magenta blood of yours.  You're just runnin' around playin' badass for the chick who wants to be empress."

A flush of rich magenta flowed into his cheeks as rage twisted his face.  "How dare you!  You take back what you said about Fef!"

"Or motherfucking what, sea dweller?" he howled.  "You'll cull me?  You'll try to cull a servant of the messiahs?  You're already standin' in my fuckin' way by taking my demon witch and not giving her up!  I want her blood, Ampora!  If you don't give her up, you're just another blasphemous bastard!"  He chuckled, and his voice dropped as he murmured, "And you know exactly what I do to blasphemous bastards."

Rose slammed her foot into Gamzee's face; the crunch of his nose breaking was audible over the rain.  He let them go and stumbled back, bringing his hands to his face to catch the blood pouring from his nose.  When he looked up at her, she was staring at him with wide, stunned eyes.  Her foot dropped as her leg went limp.  As the fury returned to his face, worse than before, she began to hyperventilate.  She trembled violently and tried to curl in on herself.

Eridan vaulted onto Maplehoof's back and shoved Rose forward in the saddle to drop behind her.  He snatched hold of the reins and held on through Maplehoof's rearing at the sudden weight on her back.  When she dropped down, he snapped the reins and kicked his heels into her sides.  With a wild whinny, she bolted away from Gamzee and galloped down the road.

"I can't believe you fuckin' kicked him!" Eridan said with a laugh.  "Good job, Ros!"

Rose said nothing, instead curling forward to hide her face in her hands.  With his arms against his shoulders, Eridan could feel her shaking.

"Knock it off!" he barked.  "We ain't got time for you to go off the rails 'cause a Gam!"

Lightning crackled in the clouds, skittering wildly here and there.  At the first strike of the ground and the rolling thunderclap, Maplehoof whinnied again and reared back.  Eridan brought her back down and goaded her on, weaving them through crowds and along streets.  The rain began to fall harder as more lightning struck the city.  The storm grew stronger rapidly, and trolls left the streets with equal speed.  When Rose lifted her head, she started.

"St-stop!" she said.

"Why?"

"You're taking us off John's routes!  Go back!"

"Fuck the routes," he snapped.  "You're losin' your shit 'cause a Gam, and I don't really feel like dealin' with a freak who's freaked.  We're scrubbin' for today."

"You're the one who said there's murder in the air!" she shouted in return.  "If you're right and Noir appears, I'm not going to be the one who's not there!  Take us back to the routes!"

"We don't know how much intel Gam's got on how we're movin'!  The routes are compromised now!  We're scrubbin' today!"

Rose grabbed the reins and pulled them clean out of Eridan's hands.  Maplehoof snorted and tossed her head at the sudden change, and again when Rose bade her stop.  Though Eridan opened his mouth to argue, he caught sight of the sky above and went silent.

The lightning had become a storm in its own right, lashing from cloud to cloud and to city below.  Green was seeping into the white of the electricity, casting a sickly shade on the world.  The Thorns of Oglogoth appeared in Rose's hands, trapped between her palms and the reins.  As they spat sparks of their own up Rose's arms, a massive green bolt struck down in the distance to their left.  Moments later, another bolt of green flew back into the sky.  Upon reaching the clouds, the bolt exploded into bright blue starlight.

"Oh Christ," Rose sad.  "He's by John."

"By John?" said Eridan.  His eyes widened.  "Then he's by Vris?"

As if to answer him, a new flash of blue appeared: a brief tower of blue flames.

"I know that fuckin' fire!" he said.  "He's fightin' Vris!  He's goin' after my kismesis!"  He leaped from Maplehoof and drew his rifle the moment his feet touched the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"Goin' after the demon's that's tryin' to kill Vris!  No one gets to kill her but me!"

"And what about scrubbing the day's plans?"

"Fuck that, Ros!  Get your ass down to the circle thing!"  He cocked the rifle and gave her a sharp grin.  "If the demon's still alive after me and Vris are through with him, you're gonna need to be ready for him."

For a moment, she stared at him.  Despite her shaking, she smirked and adjusted her grip on the needles and the reins.  "Someone likes to play hero."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Not bad, just terribly amusing."  She pulled on the reins to turn Maplehoof to the side.  "Don't get yourself killed."

"Right back at you, lowblood."  With a flick of his hand in parting, he dashed away.  She watched him until he vanished down another street.  Swallowing hard, she looked back.  The rain pounded so hard on the roofs above they were blurry with mist.  The lightning continued to lash out, striking the ground in the distance and jumping from cloud to cloud.  She stared up at the rooftops; her shoulders still trembled.  A bolt struck close enough for the thunderclap to be cacophonous, and Maplehoof whinnied loudly and reared.  Barely managing to keep from falling, Rose brought Maplehoof down and rubbed her neck.

"Can't wait forever," she muttered.  She forced the trembling to leave her hands and patted Maplehoof's neck.  "Ready to go?"  Maplehoof nodded her head and looked back at Rose.  She danced from side to side anxiously, and Rose chuckled.

"Well," she said, "if you're going to put your cowardice aside, I will, too."  She tightened her grip and sat up properly.  Taking a deep breath dispelled the last of her shaking, and she clicked her tongue sharply and kicked her heels into Maplehoof's sides.  As they rushed onward, Rose heard an explosion, muffled though it was by the rain.  Glancing away from the street let her see blue smoke just before the rain battered it to the ground.  It was some distance from where the flames had been, moving toward the center of the city.  She brought her attention back toward driving Maplehoof as fast as the roads would let them pass.

The storm was wicked enough to have driven almost every troll off the streets, and it was only narrow alleys that slowed them greatly.  It was abruptly, then, that Rose forced Maplehoof to stop, and the horse protested with loud huffs and hard shakes of her head.  Rose ignored her; she stood in the stirrups and twisted back and forth to cast her gaze about.  Though the streetlamps were all aglow, she could not see the writing on the posts on the corners.  Flicking a needle sent lightning to the nearest post, and the burst of light was enough to let her read the sign.  The street name was one she only vaguely recalled from the maps John had set before them; she no longer knew where she was.

Rose felt her stomach drop into her feet.  She fell back into the saddle and pulled Maplehoof around.  Another shot lit up the next nearest sign, but the name was no more familiar than the one before it.  Grimacing, she urged Maplehoof down another alleyway and flicked lightning at the first signpost she saw.  Again, it was an unfamiliar name.  She swore aloud and threw another bolt to the next sign.  When she found yet another unknown street, she dismounted and shot lightning into the sidewalk.  A staircase of stone grew from the street, tall enough to reach the lowest rooftop.  She dashed up it and looked about once she was at the top.

A fire of deep crimson was eating at city blocks despite the rain.  She squinted through the downpour and saw that at least one small building at been demolished, straight on from the fire and moving in a steady line inward.  She followed the natural course of that line and spotted the empty space of the great plaza at the city's center.  She traced the streets leading from the plaza over and over until they were all but branded into her mind and ran back down the stone stairs.

The rain continued to torrent down; the lightning still flashed.  She drove Maplehoof hard, winding around corners with fast tugs on the reins.  Straight-aways were galloped down at top speed; the chill of the night and the rain made Maplehoof's breath appear in great steaming clouds.  The streets forced them to move on an angle, veering to the right.  There were almost no trolls left wandering the roads, but the further from Noir's destruction they went, the more noise Rose heard.

Over the rattle of the rain, she heard low rumbling.  Sharp cracks spoke of breaking stone, and she pulled back on the reins to make Maplehoof slow from a gallop to a swift trot.  She looked about, tilted her head as far back as she could without the rain pouring over the brim of her hat.  She could not put a location to any sound; the cracks echoed strangely in the downpour.  Frowning, she pulled on the reins to make Maplehoof stop entirely.  Neither horse nor woman stayed still: Maplehoof's ears twitched as Rose twisted this way and that in her searching for the sound.

The rumbling grew fiercer, hard enough to feel the shaking in the ground.  Rose turned one way, but she yelped when Maplehoof began a new sprint down the street.  She wrapped her arms around the reins and opened her mouth to shout a reprimand, but the roar of shattering stone behind them silenced her.  Letting Maplehoof run free, she looked back.  A massive troll she did not recognize was encased in a purple flickering psionic flame, and his struggling was audible even as Maplehoof fled.  He wrenched himself free of the flame and unfolded from the rubble of the building he had been thrown through.  She saw him look after her and spun back around to face forward and urge Maplehoof on.

Ahead, the street was broken in half.  The road had been narrow for some time already, but it was high over the ground as well.  The rain's cacophony redoubled as it struck the street beneath them and flowed over onto the roads below.  As they sped along, the road sloped downward to return to firm ground.  Over the noise of the rain and Maplehoof's hooves clattering on the pavement, Rose heard two sounds.  The first was the recognizably powerful shouting from the troll behind them; it made her snap the reins to quicken Maplehoof's gallop.  The second was the throaty roar of an engine, even more familiar to her than the sound of her horse's breathing.

Dave shot by on his motorcycle as they came to the end of the high road, casting curtains of mist from his tires.  It seemed as though he was abandoning them with his speed, but the thrum of the engine died down abruptly.  A new crest of water slashed into the rain from his back tire as he spun the bike around.  He revved the engine to make it roar louder than before and came back faster than he had left.  As he drew close, he summoned his sword; lightning snapped along its edge.  He let go of the handlebars entirely and held his sword high.  When he reached Rose, he tipped himself off the bike and slashed it as he fell.

The bike all but soared up the street, covered in lightning and glowing bright red.  It slammed into the troll just as he crested the slope and exploded in a flash of hellish green fire.  Dave pulled himself out of the thick, soft mud he had alchemized in falling and got to his feet.  He took hold of the hand Rose held out and clambered up to sit behind her.

"Get a move on, sis," he groaned.  "Captor'll do his damndest to keep him off our asses, but Zahhak ain't gonna stay down too long.  'Sides, we don't wanna be late to ventilatin' Noir's hellhound heart."

"Are you able to ride after a fall like that?"

He lifted a brow over his cracked and bent sunglasses.  He plucked the glasses off, tossed them aside, and tapped his sides with his sword.  Though he bit down on a curse at the sting of the electricity, he said, "There, no more busted ribs.  Let's get a fuckin' move on already."

She could not argue against him, and so kicked Maplehoof's sides to start their run anew.  "Why are you and Captor here?  He's off his post, and you're supposed to be going to the transmutation circle."

"Sure, bust my chops," he replied.  "Nice to see you, too.  Happy to have helped your ass get away from Zahhak.  No need for thanks, sis.  I won't even mention that you're completely off your route and all over mine."

"How did you know I needed help?  I didn't send up any flares."

"I didn't know.  That whackjob Makara sold Terezi out, and Zahhak came after me and her.  We got some help in bookin' it—that psionic palooka Captor was on Zahhak's tail before he even got to us, and he's been doin' his best to cover my ass."

"That explains the colors before.  Where's Terezi now?"

He took one arm from around her waist and pointed in the distance.  "Swing a left on that street."  When she had done so, he said, "Her and her squeeze are goin' to get her sky monster.  We gotta be ready to haul all our asses outta here once Noir's dead.  Remember to not look at its eyes when it's around."

"Noted."  She paused.  "I'm sorry about your bike."

"Right and a left after two blocks," he said.  "And it doesn't matter.  That was a copy.  I stashed the real deal back at Peixes' place.  Don't get all sentimental on me right now, sis.  I got a feelin' this shit's gonna get rough, and the last thing we need is you worryin' about a wrecked bike."

"Are you accusing me of sentimentality, brother?"

"I don't know.  Is that still our old lady's scarf on you?"

She elbowed him in the ribs a touch too hard to be considered gentle.  He flicked her in the back of the head, but helped when Rose snapped the reins to make Maplehoof surge forward.

"When we dust outta here, I'm tellin' 'Rezi to leave your fuckin' horse behind," he grumbled.

She laughed.  "It's comforting to know your rapier wit is untarnished by nerves."

"Good to see you're still a snarky broad despite that grimdark shit."  He tightened his grip around her a moment.  "You stay like this, y'hear?"

"I promised you already, brother.  Stop fretting."

He chuckled.  "Fine."  He sat up and settled firmly on the saddle.  "Ready to go kill Jack Noir, Rose?"

"I was ready the moment he killed our mother, Dave."

"Good."  He closed his hands over hers to take hold of the reins.  Snapping them, kicking his heels into the horse's sides, he shouted, "All right, Maplehoof!  Show us how much of a bangtail you can be!"