Constants & Variables - Act 3.10
Mar. 16th, 2015 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nobrandheroRead on Dreamwidth under the cut, or over on AO3.
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"We need to reach the deck," Rose shouted over her shoulder as they ran through large metal corridors. "It won't do us any good to create a safe dimension that we can't actually fly into by positioning it somewhere stupid like inside the damn ship."
They hadn't split from Roxy and Jake just yet, and they'd likely find Daveglitch on the deck before Dirk and Jane would take their leave, so she was still leading the whole group minus Dave and Terezi, at least for a few more minutes. She wasn't used to running ahead of full-grown adults and she worried she might have to take to flight before long if she wanted a chance of preserving her energy.
"Okay, so you'd prolly better head that way," Roxy waved her arm to the left, which currently led to nothing except wall but there was an intersection coming up at least, "and feel free to knock down as many fuckin' walls as you need to get there!"
Before Rose could point out that she really would prefer not to break holes in the ship that may well be their home for the next good long while, Jane said with clear exasperation, "I can lead them outside just fine, Roxy!"
Roxy chuckled nervously. "Or follow Janey, that's cool too!" She slid to a halt as they hit the intersection. The path to the left was clear, but a pair of drones wandered the corridor to their right. She smacked Jake on the shoulder. "C'mon, Harley, this is our cue to kick some drone ass!"
Jake nodded. "Right-o." He equipped two pistols, holding them up in preparation.
Roxy hesitated, then yanked Jane into a hug and nuzzled her shoulder. "Don't you or Dirk even fucking think of getting hurt while we're busy, okay?"
Jane nodded, wrapping her arms around Roxy's back. "I'm not afraid of facing that thing now that it's not in you," she said quietly.
Dirk crossed his arms. "And if you can't handle this shit while I'm not watching your back, I am disappoint, bro."
Jake drew himself up and let out a huff. "Don't you worry your fucking noggin about us. We'll give those drones a drubbing they won't forget." He pulled a face and dropped his gaze. "If you go and die, Dirk, I'll kill you," he muttered.
Dirk's mouth twitched into a smirk. "I'll keep that in mind." He raised a fist. Jake gave it a rough bump, the movement awkward with a pistol still in his hand.
Roxy grinned at them before releasing Jane and backing away. "Welp, here goes nothing." She spun around, whipping her rifle out as she charged at the drones, while Jake swore under his breath and darted after her. "Hey, traitorous shithead lackeys!" she shouted, killing her chances of taking the drones by surprise. "We gotta goddamn bone to pick with you!"
Rose waited only long enough to confirm they weren't about to get splattered before she said, "Let's get a move on. We can't waste time."
"Whatever you say, empress," Dirk said, stretching his shoulders and giving Jane a nod.
Rose bit her lower lip to suppress a grin. It wouldn't be very befitting for an empress to giggle at her new title, especially when it was said with a sarcastic edge anyway.
Jane moved ahead of Rose and beckoned them after her. "This way!"
As they ran, Rose heard gunshots and the blast of Roxy's laser rifle fire behind them. It made her shiver on instinct even though the barrel wasn't aimed at her this time. At least she didn't have to worry about Roxy's safety. If their battle had been anything to judge by, Roxy was more than capable of looking after herself in a fight.
For all Jane's experience as the glitch's right-hand man, she moved like someone unused to playing leader. Even at her fast pace, she didn't check over her shoulder to make sure no one had fallen behind. Rose wondered if there had ever been another troll to set hoof on Roxy's ship other than their ancestors.
They only had to detour to avoid drones once. Dirk grumbled about being able to take them, but he shut up quickly when Rose reminded him that he needed to save his energy for Daveglitch.
Jane took them through a shorter path than they'd managed on the reverse side of the journey through the ship. There were far fewer corridors and stairways involved before they stepped outside and onto the deck.
The engines were relatively quieter now that they were in standby mode, only hovering at their current altitude. Wind still whipped at them from such heights, but at least there wasn't any added force from acceleration.
The sky was covered in distant flickering cracks of light. The stars looked to have quadrupled, until Rose realized the sparks of light were just remnants of static. Daveglitch floated maybe twenty feet above the ship, his head stretched back to stare at the corrupted sky. Though his body barely moved, the static around him twisted and spread.
His head snapped towards them, his eyes wide, and Rose threw an arm out to halt the others on instinct. "Stay back."
"I./.." Daveglitch cocked his head. "...kn0W yo^u," he said. "Nn*n0sy b%r0ad? MaYbe." His eyes narrowed. "Y0u tr1eD t0 innNte(rferE bef*0re. A&nd FaiL%ED." His body swayed as if it were hanging limp by strings. "H3y..!." His mouth twisted into a parody of a smile. "D0n'tTt ge&t iN my wa#y th1s ti*me."
"That's my line." Rose gritted her teeth and wrenched out her needles. Their tips already glowed with the start of a spell, but she didn't have the time to so much as aim before he disappeared in a flash. What-
He was behind her.
That was the only thought she had time for before he swung his sword and Jane slammed against him hard enough to send him skidding a good ten yards.
"TG!" Jade shouted as Daveglitch stumbled to his feet. "Please stop it!"
He flashstepped again. Jane let out a snarl and brandished a giant fork, quickly blocking another strike from Daveglitch's broken sword. She charged at him before he could regroup. She wasn't as fast as him, but she read his movements well enough to keep just ahead of him all the same.
Rose's bloodpusher raced and she clenched her fingers tighter around her weapons. Even Dave couldn't flashstep as fast as Daveglitch had, going from twenty feet above and ten feet in front of her to an inch behind her in less than a second. If Jane hadn't been there... If someone who hadn't been working as the glitch's aide for two thousand sweeps hadn't been there, and on her side, she'd be praying that Skaia wouldn't call backstabbing a "heroic" death.
She needed to call orders, to tell Dirk to join in the fray before Daveglitch could overwhelm Jane. To her pride's dismay, he didn't wait for her command. He tore after Jane of his own accord, flashstepping at the last second and almost catching Daveglitch off-guard enough to land a blow. Daveglitch blocked Dirk's katana with an inch to spare.
Even when Daveglitch tried to flashstep out of the fray, Dirk blocked him, giving Jane opportunity to strike from behind. Daveglitch blocked with ease, but they weren't giving him much room to counter their attacks. Maybe the two of them could actually match him in battle long enough to survive, unlike... unlike...
John caught Rose's left wrist while Kanaya slid her fingers over Rose's right knuckles, snapping her out of her thoughts.
It wasn't her duty to match him anyway. Rose straightened and breathed deeply before John could break out the shooshpaps. "Karkat," she said, fighting to keep her voice steady and firm, "this is where we leave you. Keep your distance in case they can't contain him."
Karkat cringed as he watched Jane make a stab at Daveglitch that never connected. "Do you seriously think those two have a fucking chance for more than five minutes?" he said, jerking a thumb at them. "Just let me-"
"Stay out of the way and don't jump into the battle unless it's an emergency, Karkat," Rose snapped and resisted the urge to cringe. Her nerves were still too damn frayed if she was getting snippy. She swallowed to settle her voice. "That's a fucking order."
"I'm the only one who has a chance of calming him down!"
"That's exactly why you're our most valuable asset and we cannot risk losing you this early." She stared him hard in the eyes. "Is that clear?"
John caught Karkat's shoulder and nudged their temples against each other. "C'mon, Karkat, it'd really suck if you died."
Karkat growled. "Fucking whatever!" He threw his hands in the air. "We're all dying anyway! I may as well spend my last moments sitting uselessly on my ass!"
Jade marched forward and pointed a finger in his face. "Nuh-uh! Don't even get your jerky pessimism all over this mission!" She moved in close enough that he took a step back. "You can sit on your ass, whether it's useless or not, so that you're still alive when the rest of us survive this, mister! Got it?"
Karkat looked ready to argue with her, his lip curled in a snarl, but Kanaya spoke first. "We don't need to lose any more friends," she said, her voice quiet but firm.
He stared at her and deflated. "Fine," he muttered, dropping his gaze, "but no one gets to complain that I had the 'easy' job after this is done with."
John kissed his cheek. "We'll put in a footnote that Rose forced you and you only accepted while kicking and screaming."
"Kicking, screaming, and tearing my hair out." Karkat rolled his eyes and caught John's hand. "Don't do anything too brainless, you dumb turd."
"Any brainlessness will be on me, I'm afraid," Rose said, forcing a smirk. "Sorry to cut things short, but the faster we move, the less time we'll have to fuck up."
"Right!" John yanked Karkat into a tight hug so suddenly that Karkat barely scrambled to hug back in time before John released him and darted back to Rose.
"Stay safe, Karkat!" Jade called, waving over her shoulder as they put distance between themselves and the battle.
Karkat slumped against the wall, just by the door they'd exited, to watch Dirk and Jane duke it out with Daveglitch. Neither side had gained the upper hand, but at least neither of the adults had been injured yet or let Daveglitch break away.
Rose held Kanaya's hand as they ran the full length of the ship. Even without active pursuers, the static in the air was enough to encourage urgency.
All it would take was one slip-up on Dirk or Jane's part and they would have the source tearing into them. She wished she could have stayed at the battle to coach them, make sure they didn't break away from the most fortuitous path, but Kanaya needed her more.
She didn't stop until they reached the very front of the ship where they could look down over the bow. Rose could just make out the shadows of ocean waves far, far below them through wisps of clouds.
"Here." She jabbed her finger at the air in front of the ship. "If you open a new dimension right here, we can slip the ship into it."
Jade and John both floated off the ship, turning to look it up and down. "Wow, this is going to be really big!" Jade said with a grin.
Kanaya peeked over the edge and shied back immediately. "Maybe we should let Jade handle this. She has far more experience."
"Sort of?" Jade shrugged as she settled her feet back onto the ship. "You were in the game a long time too, but I guess I'm higher leveled." She frowned and waved a hand. It glowed with a green light that left a trail that faded after a second. "I don't think my witch powers let me do stuff like that, though, so it doesn't matter that I'm God Tier or any of that."
"I only managed it by a fluke last time. I don't even know if I can make something as large as we need. Or safe, for that matter."
Rose caught Kanaya's arm and turned her so they stared eye-to-eye. "If you've accessed these powers before, we know they're unlocked." She leaned in and pressed her lips against Kanaya's, holding them together for a good ten seconds. When she pulled away, Kanaya's cheeks reddened and she stared at Rose with wide eyes. "I wouldn't have asked you to do this if I didn't have faith in your ability," Rose murmured.
"Rose..." Kanaya stepped closer until they could feel each other's breath.
"It's okay, Kanaya!" Jade said. She clapped and grinned while John very deliberately averted his eyes to stare at the sky instead. "You'll do great! And I'll be here to support you whenever you need help!"
"You aren't doing this on your own." Rose squeezed Kanaya's hand before releasing it. "You just have to begin it."
Kanaya took a deep breath, hesitating another moment before she nodded. "All right." She raised her head and turned toward the front of the ship. Jade hopped by her side, beaming at her, and Kanaya managed a small smile back.
Kanaya closed her eyes and raised her hands. A tear in space broke open.
* * *
Dave braced himself for the off-chance that time travel wouldn't work so well outside of Sgrub. How did game-specific powers interact with a non-game environment anyway? Daveglitch had done it, but that asshole broke the rules of the game as if they were iPhone screens on a date with concrete.
The same asshole had also infected the universe to basically act as an extension of Sgrub, so it wasn't that surprising that Dave's timetables worked the same as they always had: their surroundings disappeared in a flash of red as they slipped backwards through the timeline.
"So, we're not stopping him at the source, are we?" Terezi's grip on him tightened, her fingers digging into his shirt, but human nails weren't sharp enough to cause much pain. He'd rather she cling anyway, since his hands were stuck on the timetables and he couldn't grab her if she threatened to fall. "That doesn't feel safe. Like, all Seer signs in my brain are painting that as a really bad idea."
"Nah, time travel doesn't work that way," he said. "That'd just land us in a doomed timeline. You'd know more about that shit if your Time player hadn't jumped ship so fast." Dave fought the urge to twitch his fingers. He'd never scratched so far back in time before and it felt weird to stay in transit for longer than a couple days. "We're going to stumble on him after he's already done all the time traveling he's paradoxically required to do, then make sure he goes linear from there."
"It on me to tell you whether he's far enough into his future that we're allowed to pummel him?" she said, making a face.
"I think Rose handled it when she gave me coordinates." He grit his teeth as he felt their target time approach. Maybe they should have gone for a practice run before he tried to hit an exact date four fucking sweeps ago.
No big deal. Just let instinct take over. Time travel was all about following instincts and trusting shit to fall into place.
He lifted his hands off the timetables and their blurry surroundings sharpened into focus. Their hear ducts were assaulted with the bustle of a city at midnight: shouting, swearing, and traffic. Familiar hivestems towered above them.
Terezi released her grip on him and pressed a hand to her temple. "Is it always that fucking abrupt? Jesus, I think I'm motion sick."
"More or..." He trailed off. That was his fucking past self disappearing through the front doors of their hivestem. The tiny bastard hadn't even looked their way, but even if he had, they looked nothing alike. Two-sweep-old Dave was still wearing a gray anonymous symbol even, too young to have conceived anything as ironically badass as wearing his blood color in plain sight.
The pink alien might have stood out to memory if he'd spotted her though. She was kind of an unusual sight regardless. City folk were used to weird shit and mostly didn't give them a second glance, but a few were starting to stare at the undocumented alien. Hopefully they'd assume she was a troll in weird costume just long enough that they could...
Daveglitch appeared in front of the hivestem at the end of a flashstep and tilted his head all the way back to stare at the top of the building. The fucker had been following him -- younger him -- like a goddamn stalker? What the fuck for? He couldn't harm Dave without dooming the timeline, so why the hell... Dave's insides squirmed. He was making sure his future host survived long enough to get possessed in the future. How fucking considerate.
"Spotted him," Dave said to Terezi, keeping his voice quiet as he equipped his sword.
She tensed. "Block left," she said in the split second before he shot towards Daveglitch. His momentum was too fast to turn back and ask for clarification, so he just kept going.
For a short but amazing moment, Daveglitch didn't notice his oncoming attacker and Dave almost believed that Rose had actually led him to the precise second he could beat Daveglitch. He should be so lucky. Daveglitch's eye snapped his direction at the last second and that was all it took for him to flashstep fast enough to block the attack.
Dave tried to follow up his failed slash with a kick to the knee, but Daveglitch disappeared with another flashstep. He was too fast to follow and there was no damn way of knowing where he'd gone. There was nothing for it. Dave blocked left.
He stumbled as Daveglitch's attack rammed into him and metal clashed against metal. Daveglitch actually looked startled to find his sword hadn't made contact with any flesh.
"Yeah, how do you like that, you fucking parasite?" Dave shoved Daveglitch back and slashed at him, but Daveglitch had already recovered from his surprise and flashstepped out of reach again.
"Another left!" Terezi shouted.
Dave shifted and actually saw the blur of red just before Daveglitch reappeared. Dave switched his sword to a single hand so he could block and throw a punch at the same time. He missed smashing his knuckles against Daveglitch's face by two inches, but on the upside, Daveglitch's slash hadn't hit its mark either.
Daveglitch curled his lip. "Sh0uld hav#E kn0wN th/e Kn1Gh&t 0f T1mE c0p^y i*Ss juSt as miNDle_ssLy stUbB0r)N a]s tHe 0rigina%l." He disappeared.
"Above!"
Dave leapt backwards and couldn't help but smirk when Daveglitch's aerial assault only struck concrete. Bystanders were starting to stop and watch, but so far they were more keen on observing the fight as entertainment rather than interfering.
"Hey, fuck you, bro." Dave stood tall and readied his weapon. "I'm the real Strider here."
"FR0m y0u#r pe[rSpeCct1ve." Daveglitch gave him a disgusted glance as he yanked his sword out of the crack he'd created in the sidewalk. "Y0u'll b*rEak l1ke He d1d ev_entu^ally e1th(er wAy." He flashstepped away.
"Behind you!" Terezi said.
Dave spun around just in time to sidestep Daveglitch's stab. Dave maintained the momentum from the spin to elbow Daveglitch in the bloodpusher cage and heard a satisfying crack for his efforts.
Daveglitch let out a cry of pain and stumbled forward, out of Dave's reach. He hunched over and kept cradling the side of his chest no matter how often he tried to drop his arm.
"Sorry, who's breaking who here?" Dave said with a smirk.
Daveglitch backed away, leveling a steady glare at Dave. His weapon disappeared into his sylladex and Dave tensed. There was no way in hell that was a good sign. What was he about to pull? The glitch would never just fucking give up.
The timetables came out instead of a weapon.
Dave darted forward. Not again, not again, he was not losing this stupid asshole to time travel again. "Don't you fucking dare, you piece of-" He slashed at thin air as Daveglitch disappeared in a flash of red light. Dave lowered his weapon and clenched his teeth. "Fuck."
Terezi leapt on his back so suddenly that Dave almost jumped. "Two hundred and eight years, nine weeks, and three days back!" she shouted, clinging to his shirt.
"What?"
"That's where he went, dumbass!" She shoved her head against his. "You think I can't see our next choice? If we want the good ending, we're going back two hundred and eight years, nine weeks, and three days!"
He groaned and pulled out his time tables again. They needed to make a get-away before any trolls from the gawking crowd approached them anyway. "Fucking bossy."
"Saving your miserable life, you mean."
"Same difference." He put his hands to the timetables again, running his fingers far faster than he'd ever dared before because fuck waiting for his normal speed to get them through more than two hundred fucking... years? What the hell was a year? Why did his fingers seem to know how to count in years on his timetables even though he had no clue how many nights that involved? Well, it wasn't like he knew how many minutes or seconds went into a sweep either, yet that had never hurt his accuracy.
The city was the same and yet completely unfamiliar when they landed two hundred and eight "years" ago. The buildings were right... mostly... Okay, there were a couple missing with some imposters sitting in their place, but more noticeably the signage was all wrong. When the hell had there been a restaurant across the street?
Terezi slipped off his back. "Block right this time."
"Got it," he said, readying his sword.
He'd kind of assumed Daveglitch was hiding somewhere, lurking for a sneak attack, but instead he appeared in a flash of red light thirty seconds after they arrived.
He stared daggers at them.
"You're late, dude," Dave said. "Thought you were gonna stand us up."
Daveglitch snarled and charged. Even the injury didn't slow him down; he just cringed more often as he flashstepped faster than Dave's gander bulbs had a chance in hell of following.
Dave blocked right, then left, then left again, following each of Terezi's instructions before he even had time to process the words. It was the only thing that kept him alive, he was pretty damn sure.
It wasn't long before Daveglitch withdrew from battle and brought out the timetables again. He'd barely even disappeared before Terezi shouted, "One year, one month, two days in the past!"
Dave sighed as he switched his weapon out for the timetables. This shit was going to take a lot longer than expected. Thanks for the fucking warning, Rose.
He soon lost track of how often he had to chase Daveglitch through time, restarting the same damn battle over and over. Sometimes they went a thousand sweeps into the past, other times only three days. Terezi directed him to a few seconds before Daveglitch arrived each time, never allowing the glitchy asshole a moment to regroup.
The worst part was that Dave couldn't actually kill the bastard without breaking the time loop. Not that he even had a chance in hell of landing a lethal blow, but all the damn same, how was it fair that he had to hold back when he was already the weaker party?
At least he avoided injuries, with Terezi acting as tactician. Daveglitch couldn't even reach her the times he targeted her instead of Dave, as she'd predict his moves and dodge him until Dave charged in to make it two-against-one, at which point Daveglitch was quick to retreat.
"Eighty years, fourteen weeks, two days, forward!" she said, grabbing hold of Dave as was the routine as soon as Daveglitch time traveled away.
Humans weighed like nothing. He could carry one on his back as easily as he could bench press a pillow. Yet after... how many fucking hours? After too many fucking hours, she felt heavy and his muscles whined at the chore.
He shuddered. He wasn't even used to traveling forward in time yet, but at least Rose had been right that he'd unlocked it before he needed it. "Let me catch my damn breath first."
She furrowed her brow. "You okay, coolkid?"
Dave's air tunnel was dry and it stung with each heavy breath he took, but the pain was worth refilling his lungs. "I've been fighting with a maniac for how many straight hours now?" His voice came out too damn weak. He swallowed and straightened, pulling out his timetables. "I'll be fine, it's cool. We still got this."
She was quiet a moment, frowning, before she murmured, "Maybe we should stop for now."
"Nah." Dave slid his fingers over the timetables. "He'll slip up soon. We're starting to piss him off."
"Left, up, left, right, left this time," she said as they shot through the timeline.
"Got it," he said, still breathing heavily.
Daveglitch should have been long used to finding them waiting for him at his destination. That didn't stop his hackles from rising when he caught sight of them.
"FU/C&K 0/^FF."
Dave laughed, blocking Daveglitch's first sloppy attack. "Getting nervous, bulgebag?"
Daveglitch bore his fangs, his static fluctuating at a quicker rate. "A[n 1nfer1^or d0%ubLe l1k3 y0U hAaas n0 r1gHt t0 e*x1sT!"
"Not to imitate a Lalonde, but it sounds like someone's got self-esteem issues that they're projecting all over the damn place." Dave shoved him back and stabbed at him, hitting nothing but air. "Like, we're talking projectile vomited self-esteem issues, splattered all over the fucking walls." He stepped back and raised his sword to block Daveglitch's attack when he shot at him from the air. His knees still wanted to buckle from the weight of the blow. "You'd better get a goddamn rag out and start cleaning before the guests arrive, you inhospitable piece of shit."
"Y0^u're ANN&N0Y1NG, mu#taNt." Daveglitch slammed his sword against Dave's again uselessly. His mouth quirked into a sneer as Dave's arms trembled. "A&nd j/uSt a w3ak cr^eaTure an*ywAy."
Daveglitch flashstepped away and Dave immediately turned to block to his left. Nothing.
He lowered his sword after a few seconds. The fuck was Daveglitch playing at? He'd never taken long between attacks. Block left, block left, block left, but he couldn't actually block too soon or it'd be too easy to attack around it. Dave waited, his fingers twitching in anticipation. His sword felt so damn heavy.
"Careful, coolkid," Terezi said, wrinkling her nose and fidgeting with her cane.
"It's unprofessional to act worried, you kn- fuck!"
Daveglitch shot at him from the left and Dave's limbs felt so heavy that his reaction time turned to shit. He raised his sword just fast enough to knock off Daveglitch's aim so that the attack meant for his face went a little higher but not high enough. The hilt of Daveglitch's sword still collided with a target, even if it was a less lethal spot.
Dave heard the crack before he felt any pain. He saw shards of yellow and orange fall to the ground and he lashed his claws out on instinct, slicing four cuts into Daveglitch's cape, but the pain was still too fresh to register.
Daveglitch snarled and leapt back, using Dave's disorientation as an opening to withdraw his timetables and disappear again.
Then the pain hit, shooting down his scalp like an iron making its way through his veins.
"FUCK!" Dave fell to his knees, his head in his hands. Shit, shit, fuck, that had not just happened, he had not fucked up like that. How much damage had he seriously let himself take like a goddamn idiot?
He traced his fingers over the right side of his scalp. The base was still there, he still had a horn, it still- Oh god, it wasn't supposed to end that soon. It was not supposed to feel that jagged at the end -- it was supposed to end in a fucking point -- but there it was. Messily broken off at the halfway point and stinging like hell.
Terezi was by his side in an instant, fumbling for him. "What's wrong? Are you bleeding? Don't you fucking dare be injured and leave me alone on an alien planet!" She found his arm and slid her fingertips up, following it all the way to the damage. Her face hardened as she touched the broken end of his horn. "That son of a bitch."
He let out a noise that was absolutely not under any circumstances a whimper.
"Hey..." She hugged him around his shoulders. "At least all those assholes with vision can tell you two apart now."
"C-call me crazy, T'z, but I don't think that was an actual concern." He moaned, leaning his face against her chest. The pain was starting to subside already, but goddamn.
"Thought you knew to follow my commands!"
"I fucking did. I just..." He cringed. "I'm goddamn tired and it slowed me down, all right?"
She rested her chin between his horns. "We need to take a break before you get killed, Strider," she muttered and sighed. "You know somewhere we can lie low for a few hours before we go chasing the glitchy shithead again?"
"No," he muttered. They couldn't go back to the present without risking the timeline's integrity or, worse, napping through the end of the universe. Where on Alternia was it safe for a mutant and an alien to hide out? The only place he'd ever been "safe" was... He hesitated. "No, I mean... yeah. Two hundred and twelve sweeps from now, the day I got stranded at a friend's hive and couldn't make it back to the hivestem 'til dusk." He shuddered and raised his head. The pain around his horn twinged but he forced himself to ignore it. "Wanna break into my place and pass out?"
She smiled a little and stood with him. "Always." She rubbed his right shoulder and pressed her cheek against the left one as he readied his timetables. "Wait, does this mean I'm meeting your dad?"
Oh. Right. His lusus wasn't going to be dead yet. His lusus was going to see him with a girl and a broken horn. Too late to worry about that when his fingers had already scratched at his timetables. "It means I am so fucking grounded."
* * *
Dire circumstances aside, Jade liked working with Kanaya. She was nice, they had an aspect in common, and Jade had enjoyed guiding her through her planetary quest of breeding a Genesis Frog. And Jade wanted to help in whatever ways she could, so she was pretty happy to play Kanaya's guide again as she stumbled through mastering her Space powers.
It took a couple of false starts. Kanaya could create the tear in dimensions without too much trouble, but it poofed out of existence after a few seconds.
Jade kept smiling. "Just relax and it'll come really natural once you get the hang of it. You're doing great!" she said, trying to be as encouraging as possible because the last thing Kanaya needed was a reminder of their time limit and the consequences if they couldn't escape the infected universe fast enough.
Once Kanaya held open a tear for long enough that they were satisfied it was stable, Jade held up both of her hands and willed the tear to expand. The Space felt foreign, yet just familiar enough that she could lock onto it with her own powers. What started as a black line barely thicker than Jade's arm slowly doubled in size as she encouraged it. It was trickier than resizing normal objects and felt almost like blowing up a balloon: if she wasn't cautious, she was sure it would pop from the strain.
She felt the strain lessen as Kanaya stood up straighter and steadied her arms, spreading her fingers wide and pouring more of her power into the newly created Space.
"See?" Jade beamed. "We've got this!"
Jade grew the tear slowly, making sure they weren't creating too much too quickly for Kanaya to withstand. For every inch that Kanaya fed into her dimension, Jade could safely stretch it at least another foot.
John hovered over them and peered into the slowly forming new dimension. "We're really going to go live in there? It's fucking empty."
Rose chuckled. "That was the point of bringing along a giant battleship for decoration and shelter."
"Yeah, I guess it's better than dying." John still made a face before floating back to the ship.
Jade huffed. Did they have to talk as if Kanaya's hard work was something icky that they were just settling for? Right in front of her too! "I like your dimension, Kanaya!" she said with a grin. "It's got lots and lots of potential!"
Kanaya blushed a bit. "Oh, er, thank you. I'm just relieved it works at all."
They grew the hole to the size of a large hive. They'd need to at least double their efforts if they wanted to make sure it was large enough to comfortably fit the battleship, but Jade didn't see how that would be a problem once she and Kanaya had found their groove. They just needed a little time, that was all!
The ship shuddered with a metallic groan and Jade braced her feet to keep her balance.
"What the hell was that?" John said, then cringed as their hear ducts were barraged with the high-pitched squeal of microphone feedback.
"Uh, hey, guuuys?" The feedback faded as a voice echoed around them, coming from a speaker system somewhere on the outside of the ship. The feminine voice sounded familiar, maybe like Roxy's, but Jade wasn't positive until it continued, "This is Ro-Lal speaking, if you can't tell. Me and Jake got rid of the free-roaming drones and are back on the bridge."
Jade would have clapped for them if her hands weren't very much busy helping Kanaya from keeping their nice new escape route from collapsing on itself. Oh well, it wasn't like they would have been able to tell she'd done it, unless they were checking security footage.
"So," Roxy cleared her throat, "hopefully y'all can hear me and the intercoms aren't fucking up, 'cos this is pretty important shit." She laughed nervously and Jade could have sworn she heard something below them buzzing. "The thing is, we were trying to access drone storage to finish off the ones in stasis. And the goddamn default door for the unlock sequence opens the outer doors instead'a the interior ones. Um, yeah. Did ya know some were bred to fly? Badass, right? Except not."
Jade glanced over at Rose, whose face was a rigid blank.
"Sorry, you've got incoming drones," Roxy said, the words slurred in a rush. "A buncha them. We'll be there to take care of this shit in like two secs, promise! But in the meantime, sorry, we suck." The speakers went quiet.
Rose equipped her needles and said quietly, "John, get your hammer out."
John nodded and did so, taking to the air. The buzzing grew louder as drones hovered up the sides of the ship, their wings beating faster than the eye could follow.
"Should we-" Jade began, but Rose cut her off with a glare.
"Stay on-task. We'll handle this." Rose made a full three-sixty, surveying the ship. Drones were flying up from all the directions, but mostly from starboard, where their exit must have been. There were dozens of drones, maybe even a couple hundred. "Shit," Rose muttered. "John, we can't let these interfere with Dirk and Jane when Daveglitch is already more than they can handle. Go hold them off."
John flew a few yards without a moment's pause, then hesitated, glancing back. "But what about you guys?"
Rose shot a bolt of magic at the nearest drone, taking its head clean off. "I'll kill any that come our way. Do you want Karkat fighting these things on his own?"
John's eyes went wide. "Aw, fuck no!" He shot off towards where they'd left Daveglitch with Jane and Dirk, hitting any nearby drones with a gust of wind as he went.
"Are you sure we'll be all right out in the open?" Kanaya said, keeping her hands up to stabilize the dimensional tear but pausing her work otherwise.
"One, we don't have a choice. Two, yes." Rose flew up to get a better aim as she fired a spell from one needle, then the other at two approaching drones.
They only had a couple of drones at a time coming their way at first, which was barely any effort for Rose to dispatch. Bit by bit, their numbers increased from pairs to threes all the way to fives. They must have caught on to where the intruders were gathered and reorganized their efforts accordingly, as they made bee-lines for either the bow or the area on the deck close to the entrance, where John and the others were fighting.
Rose shot as many drones out of the air as she could, lighting the sky in white streaks, but there were fast more drones than she could hit in time. One flew in close enough that Rose had to duck back to avoid a swipe from its claws. She stabbed it in the hand with one needle before blasting its chest with the other. Eight more drones were following close behind it.
"Hang on, I can help!" Jade said, trying to ease off her influence in Kanaya's work in hopes it would stay put even without her.
"Don't you fucking dare leave your post!" Rose's voice was strained and high-pitched as she shouted, the uncharacteristically desperate tone enough that Jade stayed put.
Kanaya cringed. "How are we supposed to concentrate on this while you're in danger?"
"It's more important for you to finish your task than for me to get out of this uninjured!" Rose shuddered from the effort as she waved her needle and unleashed a strong spell, letting the bolt of magic strike multiple drones like a whip.
"But-"
"No, she's right." Jade swallowed and tore her eyes away from the battle. "This is what we need to do to save everybody. If we fail, Rose is dead for sure." She forced a smile. "Let's make this awesome new dimension big enough that we can get out of here as fast as possible, okay?"
Kanaya's gander bulbs looked wet, but she bit her lower lip and nodded. She furrowed her brow and Jade felt a surge of extra space to play with in their new dimension. Jade manipulated it to its largest size. They only needed a few more minutes at this rate and...
A drone landed four feet from them and Kanaya yelped. It took all of Jade's will not to whip out her rifle and shoot it in the head. She had to keep her hands concentrating on their job. They'd gone too far to start over when there was an uncertain time limit looming over them. Rose blasted its head off half a second later anyway.
Jade wished John would come back to help, but maybe he was just as overwhelmed as Rose was, even with Karkat fighting by his side. She wasn't sure how long Rose could last on her own though, with dozens of drones still flying through the air, and then where would they be?
She heard a gunshot in the distance and her bloodpusher leapt in excitement. There were only two other people with firearms in their strife specibus on board. She would have welcomed either's arrival, but it was even better that they were together. Roxy tore across the deck towards them, her rifle aimed high as she blasted holes in drone after drone. Jake followed closely and sprayed bullets in whatever Roxy missed or failed to finish off in one shot.
"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, and especially you!" Roxy shouted with each shot that she landed. She slowed to turn in a circle, firing steadily to clear out the immediate area.
Jake ran past her and continued all the way to the bow. He shot one of the two drones Rose was holding off while she stabbed the other one.
"You lasses holding up all right?" Jake kept his weapons raised and stood back-to-back with Rose.
"Fucking peachy," Rose said, her voice weak as she caught her breath.
"We really appreciate the reinforcements!" Jade said over her shoulder.
Jake winced. "Yes, sorry about this hullabaloo. Roxy's not used to the controls without a guiding hand and, well, I've never touched any of those doodads to begin with! I'm sure I could get the hang of it with time, but..." He trailed off and shot a drone straight through the head.
"Jade!" Kanaya said suddenly, snapping Jade's attention forward again.
She was terrified that something had gone wrong with the dimensional tear, but it was still in one large piece and growing steadily. A handful of drones had flown around to the front of the ship and were making their way down towards the bow.
"Oh no." Jade took a step back but didn't dare move further without risking the integrity of their work. "Guys!" she shouted.
Jake darted to them, planting himself between Jade and the oncoming drones. He raised his pistols and fired rapidly, riddling the drones with bullets. Most of them dropped from the sky, but one just stumbled and kept flying towards them. Even as its wings went still in death, its momentum was enough that it was going to crash into them.
Jake turned his head away and screwed his eyes shut, but he stayed his ground.
"Jake, watch out!" Jade shouted. He wasn't really trying to shield them, was he? Did he actually think that his body would act as an effective barrier when the object about to crash into them was so big?
She was a moment from teleporting him away before they could both get hurt when a laser shot over Jake's shoulder and hit the drone hard enough that it spun off-course and crashed against the walls of the ship.
Jade let out a sigh of relief, though Jake took another few seconds before he dared to peek.
"C'mon, Jake, we gotta be role models here," Roxy called, planting herself next to Rose as she kept her rifle hoisted. "Show these kids how to kick butt and take names!"
Jake laughed nervously. "Oh, obviously."
"How are John and the others holding up?" Rose said, her voice rough and tired.
Roxy snorted. "He keeps hitting them with wind when they get too close so they gotta go single file-like, at which point the shouty human cuts 'em up."
"Well, thank fuck something's gone okay." Rose readied her weapons with shaking arms.
"Whoa, nuh-uh." Roxy held a palm up. "No, no, no, hon, you've done your share." She pointed from Rose to the deck. "You take a goddamn breather and let the grown-ups be responsible for their dumb shit now."
Rose stepped around Roxy and blasted a drone from the sky. "Sorry, but I'll only do that once I'm sure the dumb shit is over."
Roxy wrinkled her nose. "Fuckin' rude."
"I'll keep watch on this side before they can get near!" Jake said, standing on the edge of the ship and aiming his guns downwards. He squinted and fired, pumping his fist when he landed a hit.
"Jake?" Jade said quietly.
Jake kept his eyes peeled on the clouds below them as he answered, "Yes'm?"
"I'm sorry I got mad and shot your quadrantmate." She frowned. "I wish you'd done things differently, but... it was probably really difficult for you too and I should have been nicer about that."
Jake's shoulders drooped. "You sorted this tommyrot out better in an hour than I managed in two thousand sweeps, my dear." He glanced at her with a small smile. "I'm the one who should apologize. I was unfairly terse with you and I should never have put you in that position to begin with. You and Dirk both deserve better."
"No one does everything right on the first try." Jade smiled back. "I think you're already neater than I was giving you credit for."
He chuckled nervously. "Ah, well, thanks."
Rose kept the drones well at bay now that she had two adults acting as back-up. No matter how many littered the air, a bullet or laser or spell was quick to knock it down long before it could reach them. Kanaya seemed all the more determined to finish her work in the midst of their small victory, giving Jade lots of room to expand the opening.
Not long after the drone numbers had thinned to single digits, the wind picked up. Jade knew without looking that John had returned, even before he said, "Holy shit, Rose, you look awful!"
"Thank you, John." Rose sighed and leaned against his shoulder. "That's exactly what a girl wants to hear after a grueling battle."
"Welp." Roxy wiped at her brow and lowered her weapon as she surveyed the sky. "That was fucking insane. But, uh, on the upside, I am pretty damn sure we got all the drones dead now and we didn't even have to track them down."
Jade thought that sounded more lazy than an upside, but it didn't really matter since everyone was okay in the end.
She grinned at Kanaya. "Ready to finish this?"
Previous Chapter | Chapter Index | Next Chapter
----
"We need to reach the deck," Rose shouted over her shoulder as they ran through large metal corridors. "It won't do us any good to create a safe dimension that we can't actually fly into by positioning it somewhere stupid like inside the damn ship."
They hadn't split from Roxy and Jake just yet, and they'd likely find Daveglitch on the deck before Dirk and Jane would take their leave, so she was still leading the whole group minus Dave and Terezi, at least for a few more minutes. She wasn't used to running ahead of full-grown adults and she worried she might have to take to flight before long if she wanted a chance of preserving her energy.
"Okay, so you'd prolly better head that way," Roxy waved her arm to the left, which currently led to nothing except wall but there was an intersection coming up at least, "and feel free to knock down as many fuckin' walls as you need to get there!"
Before Rose could point out that she really would prefer not to break holes in the ship that may well be their home for the next good long while, Jane said with clear exasperation, "I can lead them outside just fine, Roxy!"
Roxy chuckled nervously. "Or follow Janey, that's cool too!" She slid to a halt as they hit the intersection. The path to the left was clear, but a pair of drones wandered the corridor to their right. She smacked Jake on the shoulder. "C'mon, Harley, this is our cue to kick some drone ass!"
Jake nodded. "Right-o." He equipped two pistols, holding them up in preparation.
Roxy hesitated, then yanked Jane into a hug and nuzzled her shoulder. "Don't you or Dirk even fucking think of getting hurt while we're busy, okay?"
Jane nodded, wrapping her arms around Roxy's back. "I'm not afraid of facing that thing now that it's not in you," she said quietly.
Dirk crossed his arms. "And if you can't handle this shit while I'm not watching your back, I am disappoint, bro."
Jake drew himself up and let out a huff. "Don't you worry your fucking noggin about us. We'll give those drones a drubbing they won't forget." He pulled a face and dropped his gaze. "If you go and die, Dirk, I'll kill you," he muttered.
Dirk's mouth twitched into a smirk. "I'll keep that in mind." He raised a fist. Jake gave it a rough bump, the movement awkward with a pistol still in his hand.
Roxy grinned at them before releasing Jane and backing away. "Welp, here goes nothing." She spun around, whipping her rifle out as she charged at the drones, while Jake swore under his breath and darted after her. "Hey, traitorous shithead lackeys!" she shouted, killing her chances of taking the drones by surprise. "We gotta goddamn bone to pick with you!"
Rose waited only long enough to confirm they weren't about to get splattered before she said, "Let's get a move on. We can't waste time."
"Whatever you say, empress," Dirk said, stretching his shoulders and giving Jane a nod.
Rose bit her lower lip to suppress a grin. It wouldn't be very befitting for an empress to giggle at her new title, especially when it was said with a sarcastic edge anyway.
Jane moved ahead of Rose and beckoned them after her. "This way!"
As they ran, Rose heard gunshots and the blast of Roxy's laser rifle fire behind them. It made her shiver on instinct even though the barrel wasn't aimed at her this time. At least she didn't have to worry about Roxy's safety. If their battle had been anything to judge by, Roxy was more than capable of looking after herself in a fight.
For all Jane's experience as the glitch's right-hand man, she moved like someone unused to playing leader. Even at her fast pace, she didn't check over her shoulder to make sure no one had fallen behind. Rose wondered if there had ever been another troll to set hoof on Roxy's ship other than their ancestors.
They only had to detour to avoid drones once. Dirk grumbled about being able to take them, but he shut up quickly when Rose reminded him that he needed to save his energy for Daveglitch.
Jane took them through a shorter path than they'd managed on the reverse side of the journey through the ship. There were far fewer corridors and stairways involved before they stepped outside and onto the deck.
The engines were relatively quieter now that they were in standby mode, only hovering at their current altitude. Wind still whipped at them from such heights, but at least there wasn't any added force from acceleration.
The sky was covered in distant flickering cracks of light. The stars looked to have quadrupled, until Rose realized the sparks of light were just remnants of static. Daveglitch floated maybe twenty feet above the ship, his head stretched back to stare at the corrupted sky. Though his body barely moved, the static around him twisted and spread.
His head snapped towards them, his eyes wide, and Rose threw an arm out to halt the others on instinct. "Stay back."
"I./.." Daveglitch cocked his head. "...kn0W yo^u," he said. "Nn*n0sy b%r0ad? MaYbe." His eyes narrowed. "Y0u tr1eD t0 innNte(rferE bef*0re. A&nd FaiL%ED." His body swayed as if it were hanging limp by strings. "H3y..!." His mouth twisted into a parody of a smile. "D0n'tTt ge&t iN my wa#y th1s ti*me."
"That's my line." Rose gritted her teeth and wrenched out her needles. Their tips already glowed with the start of a spell, but she didn't have the time to so much as aim before he disappeared in a flash. What-
He was behind her.
That was the only thought she had time for before he swung his sword and Jane slammed against him hard enough to send him skidding a good ten yards.
"TG!" Jade shouted as Daveglitch stumbled to his feet. "Please stop it!"
He flashstepped again. Jane let out a snarl and brandished a giant fork, quickly blocking another strike from Daveglitch's broken sword. She charged at him before he could regroup. She wasn't as fast as him, but she read his movements well enough to keep just ahead of him all the same.
Rose's bloodpusher raced and she clenched her fingers tighter around her weapons. Even Dave couldn't flashstep as fast as Daveglitch had, going from twenty feet above and ten feet in front of her to an inch behind her in less than a second. If Jane hadn't been there... If someone who hadn't been working as the glitch's aide for two thousand sweeps hadn't been there, and on her side, she'd be praying that Skaia wouldn't call backstabbing a "heroic" death.
She needed to call orders, to tell Dirk to join in the fray before Daveglitch could overwhelm Jane. To her pride's dismay, he didn't wait for her command. He tore after Jane of his own accord, flashstepping at the last second and almost catching Daveglitch off-guard enough to land a blow. Daveglitch blocked Dirk's katana with an inch to spare.
Even when Daveglitch tried to flashstep out of the fray, Dirk blocked him, giving Jane opportunity to strike from behind. Daveglitch blocked with ease, but they weren't giving him much room to counter their attacks. Maybe the two of them could actually match him in battle long enough to survive, unlike... unlike...
John caught Rose's left wrist while Kanaya slid her fingers over Rose's right knuckles, snapping her out of her thoughts.
It wasn't her duty to match him anyway. Rose straightened and breathed deeply before John could break out the shooshpaps. "Karkat," she said, fighting to keep her voice steady and firm, "this is where we leave you. Keep your distance in case they can't contain him."
Karkat cringed as he watched Jane make a stab at Daveglitch that never connected. "Do you seriously think those two have a fucking chance for more than five minutes?" he said, jerking a thumb at them. "Just let me-"
"Stay out of the way and don't jump into the battle unless it's an emergency, Karkat," Rose snapped and resisted the urge to cringe. Her nerves were still too damn frayed if she was getting snippy. She swallowed to settle her voice. "That's a fucking order."
"I'm the only one who has a chance of calming him down!"
"That's exactly why you're our most valuable asset and we cannot risk losing you this early." She stared him hard in the eyes. "Is that clear?"
John caught Karkat's shoulder and nudged their temples against each other. "C'mon, Karkat, it'd really suck if you died."
Karkat growled. "Fucking whatever!" He threw his hands in the air. "We're all dying anyway! I may as well spend my last moments sitting uselessly on my ass!"
Jade marched forward and pointed a finger in his face. "Nuh-uh! Don't even get your jerky pessimism all over this mission!" She moved in close enough that he took a step back. "You can sit on your ass, whether it's useless or not, so that you're still alive when the rest of us survive this, mister! Got it?"
Karkat looked ready to argue with her, his lip curled in a snarl, but Kanaya spoke first. "We don't need to lose any more friends," she said, her voice quiet but firm.
He stared at her and deflated. "Fine," he muttered, dropping his gaze, "but no one gets to complain that I had the 'easy' job after this is done with."
John kissed his cheek. "We'll put in a footnote that Rose forced you and you only accepted while kicking and screaming."
"Kicking, screaming, and tearing my hair out." Karkat rolled his eyes and caught John's hand. "Don't do anything too brainless, you dumb turd."
"Any brainlessness will be on me, I'm afraid," Rose said, forcing a smirk. "Sorry to cut things short, but the faster we move, the less time we'll have to fuck up."
"Right!" John yanked Karkat into a tight hug so suddenly that Karkat barely scrambled to hug back in time before John released him and darted back to Rose.
"Stay safe, Karkat!" Jade called, waving over her shoulder as they put distance between themselves and the battle.
Karkat slumped against the wall, just by the door they'd exited, to watch Dirk and Jane duke it out with Daveglitch. Neither side had gained the upper hand, but at least neither of the adults had been injured yet or let Daveglitch break away.
Rose held Kanaya's hand as they ran the full length of the ship. Even without active pursuers, the static in the air was enough to encourage urgency.
All it would take was one slip-up on Dirk or Jane's part and they would have the source tearing into them. She wished she could have stayed at the battle to coach them, make sure they didn't break away from the most fortuitous path, but Kanaya needed her more.
She didn't stop until they reached the very front of the ship where they could look down over the bow. Rose could just make out the shadows of ocean waves far, far below them through wisps of clouds.
"Here." She jabbed her finger at the air in front of the ship. "If you open a new dimension right here, we can slip the ship into it."
Jade and John both floated off the ship, turning to look it up and down. "Wow, this is going to be really big!" Jade said with a grin.
Kanaya peeked over the edge and shied back immediately. "Maybe we should let Jade handle this. She has far more experience."
"Sort of?" Jade shrugged as she settled her feet back onto the ship. "You were in the game a long time too, but I guess I'm higher leveled." She frowned and waved a hand. It glowed with a green light that left a trail that faded after a second. "I don't think my witch powers let me do stuff like that, though, so it doesn't matter that I'm God Tier or any of that."
"I only managed it by a fluke last time. I don't even know if I can make something as large as we need. Or safe, for that matter."
Rose caught Kanaya's arm and turned her so they stared eye-to-eye. "If you've accessed these powers before, we know they're unlocked." She leaned in and pressed her lips against Kanaya's, holding them together for a good ten seconds. When she pulled away, Kanaya's cheeks reddened and she stared at Rose with wide eyes. "I wouldn't have asked you to do this if I didn't have faith in your ability," Rose murmured.
"Rose..." Kanaya stepped closer until they could feel each other's breath.
"It's okay, Kanaya!" Jade said. She clapped and grinned while John very deliberately averted his eyes to stare at the sky instead. "You'll do great! And I'll be here to support you whenever you need help!"
"You aren't doing this on your own." Rose squeezed Kanaya's hand before releasing it. "You just have to begin it."
Kanaya took a deep breath, hesitating another moment before she nodded. "All right." She raised her head and turned toward the front of the ship. Jade hopped by her side, beaming at her, and Kanaya managed a small smile back.
Kanaya closed her eyes and raised her hands. A tear in space broke open.
* * *
Dave braced himself for the off-chance that time travel wouldn't work so well outside of Sgrub. How did game-specific powers interact with a non-game environment anyway? Daveglitch had done it, but that asshole broke the rules of the game as if they were iPhone screens on a date with concrete.
The same asshole had also infected the universe to basically act as an extension of Sgrub, so it wasn't that surprising that Dave's timetables worked the same as they always had: their surroundings disappeared in a flash of red as they slipped backwards through the timeline.
"So, we're not stopping him at the source, are we?" Terezi's grip on him tightened, her fingers digging into his shirt, but human nails weren't sharp enough to cause much pain. He'd rather she cling anyway, since his hands were stuck on the timetables and he couldn't grab her if she threatened to fall. "That doesn't feel safe. Like, all Seer signs in my brain are painting that as a really bad idea."
"Nah, time travel doesn't work that way," he said. "That'd just land us in a doomed timeline. You'd know more about that shit if your Time player hadn't jumped ship so fast." Dave fought the urge to twitch his fingers. He'd never scratched so far back in time before and it felt weird to stay in transit for longer than a couple days. "We're going to stumble on him after he's already done all the time traveling he's paradoxically required to do, then make sure he goes linear from there."
"It on me to tell you whether he's far enough into his future that we're allowed to pummel him?" she said, making a face.
"I think Rose handled it when she gave me coordinates." He grit his teeth as he felt their target time approach. Maybe they should have gone for a practice run before he tried to hit an exact date four fucking sweeps ago.
No big deal. Just let instinct take over. Time travel was all about following instincts and trusting shit to fall into place.
He lifted his hands off the timetables and their blurry surroundings sharpened into focus. Their hear ducts were assaulted with the bustle of a city at midnight: shouting, swearing, and traffic. Familiar hivestems towered above them.
Terezi released her grip on him and pressed a hand to her temple. "Is it always that fucking abrupt? Jesus, I think I'm motion sick."
"More or..." He trailed off. That was his fucking past self disappearing through the front doors of their hivestem. The tiny bastard hadn't even looked their way, but even if he had, they looked nothing alike. Two-sweep-old Dave was still wearing a gray anonymous symbol even, too young to have conceived anything as ironically badass as wearing his blood color in plain sight.
The pink alien might have stood out to memory if he'd spotted her though. She was kind of an unusual sight regardless. City folk were used to weird shit and mostly didn't give them a second glance, but a few were starting to stare at the undocumented alien. Hopefully they'd assume she was a troll in weird costume just long enough that they could...
Daveglitch appeared in front of the hivestem at the end of a flashstep and tilted his head all the way back to stare at the top of the building. The fucker had been following him -- younger him -- like a goddamn stalker? What the fuck for? He couldn't harm Dave without dooming the timeline, so why the hell... Dave's insides squirmed. He was making sure his future host survived long enough to get possessed in the future. How fucking considerate.
"Spotted him," Dave said to Terezi, keeping his voice quiet as he equipped his sword.
She tensed. "Block left," she said in the split second before he shot towards Daveglitch. His momentum was too fast to turn back and ask for clarification, so he just kept going.
For a short but amazing moment, Daveglitch didn't notice his oncoming attacker and Dave almost believed that Rose had actually led him to the precise second he could beat Daveglitch. He should be so lucky. Daveglitch's eye snapped his direction at the last second and that was all it took for him to flashstep fast enough to block the attack.
Dave tried to follow up his failed slash with a kick to the knee, but Daveglitch disappeared with another flashstep. He was too fast to follow and there was no damn way of knowing where he'd gone. There was nothing for it. Dave blocked left.
He stumbled as Daveglitch's attack rammed into him and metal clashed against metal. Daveglitch actually looked startled to find his sword hadn't made contact with any flesh.
"Yeah, how do you like that, you fucking parasite?" Dave shoved Daveglitch back and slashed at him, but Daveglitch had already recovered from his surprise and flashstepped out of reach again.
"Another left!" Terezi shouted.
Dave shifted and actually saw the blur of red just before Daveglitch reappeared. Dave switched his sword to a single hand so he could block and throw a punch at the same time. He missed smashing his knuckles against Daveglitch's face by two inches, but on the upside, Daveglitch's slash hadn't hit its mark either.
Daveglitch curled his lip. "Sh0uld hav#E kn0wN th/e Kn1Gh&t 0f T1mE c0p^y i*Ss juSt as miNDle_ssLy stUbB0r)N a]s tHe 0rigina%l." He disappeared.
"Above!"
Dave leapt backwards and couldn't help but smirk when Daveglitch's aerial assault only struck concrete. Bystanders were starting to stop and watch, but so far they were more keen on observing the fight as entertainment rather than interfering.
"Hey, fuck you, bro." Dave stood tall and readied his weapon. "I'm the real Strider here."
"FR0m y0u#r pe[rSpeCct1ve." Daveglitch gave him a disgusted glance as he yanked his sword out of the crack he'd created in the sidewalk. "Y0u'll b*rEak l1ke He d1d ev_entu^ally e1th(er wAy." He flashstepped away.
"Behind you!" Terezi said.
Dave spun around just in time to sidestep Daveglitch's stab. Dave maintained the momentum from the spin to elbow Daveglitch in the bloodpusher cage and heard a satisfying crack for his efforts.
Daveglitch let out a cry of pain and stumbled forward, out of Dave's reach. He hunched over and kept cradling the side of his chest no matter how often he tried to drop his arm.
"Sorry, who's breaking who here?" Dave said with a smirk.
Daveglitch backed away, leveling a steady glare at Dave. His weapon disappeared into his sylladex and Dave tensed. There was no way in hell that was a good sign. What was he about to pull? The glitch would never just fucking give up.
The timetables came out instead of a weapon.
Dave darted forward. Not again, not again, he was not losing this stupid asshole to time travel again. "Don't you fucking dare, you piece of-" He slashed at thin air as Daveglitch disappeared in a flash of red light. Dave lowered his weapon and clenched his teeth. "Fuck."
Terezi leapt on his back so suddenly that Dave almost jumped. "Two hundred and eight years, nine weeks, and three days back!" she shouted, clinging to his shirt.
"What?"
"That's where he went, dumbass!" She shoved her head against his. "You think I can't see our next choice? If we want the good ending, we're going back two hundred and eight years, nine weeks, and three days!"
He groaned and pulled out his time tables again. They needed to make a get-away before any trolls from the gawking crowd approached them anyway. "Fucking bossy."
"Saving your miserable life, you mean."
"Same difference." He put his hands to the timetables again, running his fingers far faster than he'd ever dared before because fuck waiting for his normal speed to get them through more than two hundred fucking... years? What the hell was a year? Why did his fingers seem to know how to count in years on his timetables even though he had no clue how many nights that involved? Well, it wasn't like he knew how many minutes or seconds went into a sweep either, yet that had never hurt his accuracy.
The city was the same and yet completely unfamiliar when they landed two hundred and eight "years" ago. The buildings were right... mostly... Okay, there were a couple missing with some imposters sitting in their place, but more noticeably the signage was all wrong. When the hell had there been a restaurant across the street?
Terezi slipped off his back. "Block right this time."
"Got it," he said, readying his sword.
He'd kind of assumed Daveglitch was hiding somewhere, lurking for a sneak attack, but instead he appeared in a flash of red light thirty seconds after they arrived.
He stared daggers at them.
"You're late, dude," Dave said. "Thought you were gonna stand us up."
Daveglitch snarled and charged. Even the injury didn't slow him down; he just cringed more often as he flashstepped faster than Dave's gander bulbs had a chance in hell of following.
Dave blocked right, then left, then left again, following each of Terezi's instructions before he even had time to process the words. It was the only thing that kept him alive, he was pretty damn sure.
It wasn't long before Daveglitch withdrew from battle and brought out the timetables again. He'd barely even disappeared before Terezi shouted, "One year, one month, two days in the past!"
Dave sighed as he switched his weapon out for the timetables. This shit was going to take a lot longer than expected. Thanks for the fucking warning, Rose.
He soon lost track of how often he had to chase Daveglitch through time, restarting the same damn battle over and over. Sometimes they went a thousand sweeps into the past, other times only three days. Terezi directed him to a few seconds before Daveglitch arrived each time, never allowing the glitchy asshole a moment to regroup.
The worst part was that Dave couldn't actually kill the bastard without breaking the time loop. Not that he even had a chance in hell of landing a lethal blow, but all the damn same, how was it fair that he had to hold back when he was already the weaker party?
At least he avoided injuries, with Terezi acting as tactician. Daveglitch couldn't even reach her the times he targeted her instead of Dave, as she'd predict his moves and dodge him until Dave charged in to make it two-against-one, at which point Daveglitch was quick to retreat.
"Eighty years, fourteen weeks, two days, forward!" she said, grabbing hold of Dave as was the routine as soon as Daveglitch time traveled away.
Humans weighed like nothing. He could carry one on his back as easily as he could bench press a pillow. Yet after... how many fucking hours? After too many fucking hours, she felt heavy and his muscles whined at the chore.
He shuddered. He wasn't even used to traveling forward in time yet, but at least Rose had been right that he'd unlocked it before he needed it. "Let me catch my damn breath first."
She furrowed her brow. "You okay, coolkid?"
Dave's air tunnel was dry and it stung with each heavy breath he took, but the pain was worth refilling his lungs. "I've been fighting with a maniac for how many straight hours now?" His voice came out too damn weak. He swallowed and straightened, pulling out his timetables. "I'll be fine, it's cool. We still got this."
She was quiet a moment, frowning, before she murmured, "Maybe we should stop for now."
"Nah." Dave slid his fingers over the timetables. "He'll slip up soon. We're starting to piss him off."
"Left, up, left, right, left this time," she said as they shot through the timeline.
"Got it," he said, still breathing heavily.
Daveglitch should have been long used to finding them waiting for him at his destination. That didn't stop his hackles from rising when he caught sight of them.
"FU/C&K 0/^FF."
Dave laughed, blocking Daveglitch's first sloppy attack. "Getting nervous, bulgebag?"
Daveglitch bore his fangs, his static fluctuating at a quicker rate. "A[n 1nfer1^or d0%ubLe l1k3 y0U hAaas n0 r1gHt t0 e*x1sT!"
"Not to imitate a Lalonde, but it sounds like someone's got self-esteem issues that they're projecting all over the damn place." Dave shoved him back and stabbed at him, hitting nothing but air. "Like, we're talking projectile vomited self-esteem issues, splattered all over the fucking walls." He stepped back and raised his sword to block Daveglitch's attack when he shot at him from the air. His knees still wanted to buckle from the weight of the blow. "You'd better get a goddamn rag out and start cleaning before the guests arrive, you inhospitable piece of shit."
"Y0^u're ANN&N0Y1NG, mu#taNt." Daveglitch slammed his sword against Dave's again uselessly. His mouth quirked into a sneer as Dave's arms trembled. "A&nd j/uSt a w3ak cr^eaTure an*ywAy."
Daveglitch flashstepped away and Dave immediately turned to block to his left. Nothing.
He lowered his sword after a few seconds. The fuck was Daveglitch playing at? He'd never taken long between attacks. Block left, block left, block left, but he couldn't actually block too soon or it'd be too easy to attack around it. Dave waited, his fingers twitching in anticipation. His sword felt so damn heavy.
"Careful, coolkid," Terezi said, wrinkling her nose and fidgeting with her cane.
"It's unprofessional to act worried, you kn- fuck!"
Daveglitch shot at him from the left and Dave's limbs felt so heavy that his reaction time turned to shit. He raised his sword just fast enough to knock off Daveglitch's aim so that the attack meant for his face went a little higher but not high enough. The hilt of Daveglitch's sword still collided with a target, even if it was a less lethal spot.
Dave heard the crack before he felt any pain. He saw shards of yellow and orange fall to the ground and he lashed his claws out on instinct, slicing four cuts into Daveglitch's cape, but the pain was still too fresh to register.
Daveglitch snarled and leapt back, using Dave's disorientation as an opening to withdraw his timetables and disappear again.
Then the pain hit, shooting down his scalp like an iron making its way through his veins.
"FUCK!" Dave fell to his knees, his head in his hands. Shit, shit, fuck, that had not just happened, he had not fucked up like that. How much damage had he seriously let himself take like a goddamn idiot?
He traced his fingers over the right side of his scalp. The base was still there, he still had a horn, it still- Oh god, it wasn't supposed to end that soon. It was not supposed to feel that jagged at the end -- it was supposed to end in a fucking point -- but there it was. Messily broken off at the halfway point and stinging like hell.
Terezi was by his side in an instant, fumbling for him. "What's wrong? Are you bleeding? Don't you fucking dare be injured and leave me alone on an alien planet!" She found his arm and slid her fingertips up, following it all the way to the damage. Her face hardened as she touched the broken end of his horn. "That son of a bitch."
He let out a noise that was absolutely not under any circumstances a whimper.
"Hey..." She hugged him around his shoulders. "At least all those assholes with vision can tell you two apart now."
"C-call me crazy, T'z, but I don't think that was an actual concern." He moaned, leaning his face against her chest. The pain was starting to subside already, but goddamn.
"Thought you knew to follow my commands!"
"I fucking did. I just..." He cringed. "I'm goddamn tired and it slowed me down, all right?"
She rested her chin between his horns. "We need to take a break before you get killed, Strider," she muttered and sighed. "You know somewhere we can lie low for a few hours before we go chasing the glitchy shithead again?"
"No," he muttered. They couldn't go back to the present without risking the timeline's integrity or, worse, napping through the end of the universe. Where on Alternia was it safe for a mutant and an alien to hide out? The only place he'd ever been "safe" was... He hesitated. "No, I mean... yeah. Two hundred and twelve sweeps from now, the day I got stranded at a friend's hive and couldn't make it back to the hivestem 'til dusk." He shuddered and raised his head. The pain around his horn twinged but he forced himself to ignore it. "Wanna break into my place and pass out?"
She smiled a little and stood with him. "Always." She rubbed his right shoulder and pressed her cheek against the left one as he readied his timetables. "Wait, does this mean I'm meeting your dad?"
Oh. Right. His lusus wasn't going to be dead yet. His lusus was going to see him with a girl and a broken horn. Too late to worry about that when his fingers had already scratched at his timetables. "It means I am so fucking grounded."
* * *
Dire circumstances aside, Jade liked working with Kanaya. She was nice, they had an aspect in common, and Jade had enjoyed guiding her through her planetary quest of breeding a Genesis Frog. And Jade wanted to help in whatever ways she could, so she was pretty happy to play Kanaya's guide again as she stumbled through mastering her Space powers.
It took a couple of false starts. Kanaya could create the tear in dimensions without too much trouble, but it poofed out of existence after a few seconds.
Jade kept smiling. "Just relax and it'll come really natural once you get the hang of it. You're doing great!" she said, trying to be as encouraging as possible because the last thing Kanaya needed was a reminder of their time limit and the consequences if they couldn't escape the infected universe fast enough.
Once Kanaya held open a tear for long enough that they were satisfied it was stable, Jade held up both of her hands and willed the tear to expand. The Space felt foreign, yet just familiar enough that she could lock onto it with her own powers. What started as a black line barely thicker than Jade's arm slowly doubled in size as she encouraged it. It was trickier than resizing normal objects and felt almost like blowing up a balloon: if she wasn't cautious, she was sure it would pop from the strain.
She felt the strain lessen as Kanaya stood up straighter and steadied her arms, spreading her fingers wide and pouring more of her power into the newly created Space.
"See?" Jade beamed. "We've got this!"
Jade grew the tear slowly, making sure they weren't creating too much too quickly for Kanaya to withstand. For every inch that Kanaya fed into her dimension, Jade could safely stretch it at least another foot.
John hovered over them and peered into the slowly forming new dimension. "We're really going to go live in there? It's fucking empty."
Rose chuckled. "That was the point of bringing along a giant battleship for decoration and shelter."
"Yeah, I guess it's better than dying." John still made a face before floating back to the ship.
Jade huffed. Did they have to talk as if Kanaya's hard work was something icky that they were just settling for? Right in front of her too! "I like your dimension, Kanaya!" she said with a grin. "It's got lots and lots of potential!"
Kanaya blushed a bit. "Oh, er, thank you. I'm just relieved it works at all."
They grew the hole to the size of a large hive. They'd need to at least double their efforts if they wanted to make sure it was large enough to comfortably fit the battleship, but Jade didn't see how that would be a problem once she and Kanaya had found their groove. They just needed a little time, that was all!
The ship shuddered with a metallic groan and Jade braced her feet to keep her balance.
"What the hell was that?" John said, then cringed as their hear ducts were barraged with the high-pitched squeal of microphone feedback.
"Uh, hey, guuuys?" The feedback faded as a voice echoed around them, coming from a speaker system somewhere on the outside of the ship. The feminine voice sounded familiar, maybe like Roxy's, but Jade wasn't positive until it continued, "This is Ro-Lal speaking, if you can't tell. Me and Jake got rid of the free-roaming drones and are back on the bridge."
Jade would have clapped for them if her hands weren't very much busy helping Kanaya from keeping their nice new escape route from collapsing on itself. Oh well, it wasn't like they would have been able to tell she'd done it, unless they were checking security footage.
"So," Roxy cleared her throat, "hopefully y'all can hear me and the intercoms aren't fucking up, 'cos this is pretty important shit." She laughed nervously and Jade could have sworn she heard something below them buzzing. "The thing is, we were trying to access drone storage to finish off the ones in stasis. And the goddamn default door for the unlock sequence opens the outer doors instead'a the interior ones. Um, yeah. Did ya know some were bred to fly? Badass, right? Except not."
Jade glanced over at Rose, whose face was a rigid blank.
"Sorry, you've got incoming drones," Roxy said, the words slurred in a rush. "A buncha them. We'll be there to take care of this shit in like two secs, promise! But in the meantime, sorry, we suck." The speakers went quiet.
Rose equipped her needles and said quietly, "John, get your hammer out."
John nodded and did so, taking to the air. The buzzing grew louder as drones hovered up the sides of the ship, their wings beating faster than the eye could follow.
"Should we-" Jade began, but Rose cut her off with a glare.
"Stay on-task. We'll handle this." Rose made a full three-sixty, surveying the ship. Drones were flying up from all the directions, but mostly from starboard, where their exit must have been. There were dozens of drones, maybe even a couple hundred. "Shit," Rose muttered. "John, we can't let these interfere with Dirk and Jane when Daveglitch is already more than they can handle. Go hold them off."
John flew a few yards without a moment's pause, then hesitated, glancing back. "But what about you guys?"
Rose shot a bolt of magic at the nearest drone, taking its head clean off. "I'll kill any that come our way. Do you want Karkat fighting these things on his own?"
John's eyes went wide. "Aw, fuck no!" He shot off towards where they'd left Daveglitch with Jane and Dirk, hitting any nearby drones with a gust of wind as he went.
"Are you sure we'll be all right out in the open?" Kanaya said, keeping her hands up to stabilize the dimensional tear but pausing her work otherwise.
"One, we don't have a choice. Two, yes." Rose flew up to get a better aim as she fired a spell from one needle, then the other at two approaching drones.
They only had a couple of drones at a time coming their way at first, which was barely any effort for Rose to dispatch. Bit by bit, their numbers increased from pairs to threes all the way to fives. They must have caught on to where the intruders were gathered and reorganized their efforts accordingly, as they made bee-lines for either the bow or the area on the deck close to the entrance, where John and the others were fighting.
Rose shot as many drones out of the air as she could, lighting the sky in white streaks, but there were fast more drones than she could hit in time. One flew in close enough that Rose had to duck back to avoid a swipe from its claws. She stabbed it in the hand with one needle before blasting its chest with the other. Eight more drones were following close behind it.
"Hang on, I can help!" Jade said, trying to ease off her influence in Kanaya's work in hopes it would stay put even without her.
"Don't you fucking dare leave your post!" Rose's voice was strained and high-pitched as she shouted, the uncharacteristically desperate tone enough that Jade stayed put.
Kanaya cringed. "How are we supposed to concentrate on this while you're in danger?"
"It's more important for you to finish your task than for me to get out of this uninjured!" Rose shuddered from the effort as she waved her needle and unleashed a strong spell, letting the bolt of magic strike multiple drones like a whip.
"But-"
"No, she's right." Jade swallowed and tore her eyes away from the battle. "This is what we need to do to save everybody. If we fail, Rose is dead for sure." She forced a smile. "Let's make this awesome new dimension big enough that we can get out of here as fast as possible, okay?"
Kanaya's gander bulbs looked wet, but she bit her lower lip and nodded. She furrowed her brow and Jade felt a surge of extra space to play with in their new dimension. Jade manipulated it to its largest size. They only needed a few more minutes at this rate and...
A drone landed four feet from them and Kanaya yelped. It took all of Jade's will not to whip out her rifle and shoot it in the head. She had to keep her hands concentrating on their job. They'd gone too far to start over when there was an uncertain time limit looming over them. Rose blasted its head off half a second later anyway.
Jade wished John would come back to help, but maybe he was just as overwhelmed as Rose was, even with Karkat fighting by his side. She wasn't sure how long Rose could last on her own though, with dozens of drones still flying through the air, and then where would they be?
She heard a gunshot in the distance and her bloodpusher leapt in excitement. There were only two other people with firearms in their strife specibus on board. She would have welcomed either's arrival, but it was even better that they were together. Roxy tore across the deck towards them, her rifle aimed high as she blasted holes in drone after drone. Jake followed closely and sprayed bullets in whatever Roxy missed or failed to finish off in one shot.
"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, and especially you!" Roxy shouted with each shot that she landed. She slowed to turn in a circle, firing steadily to clear out the immediate area.
Jake ran past her and continued all the way to the bow. He shot one of the two drones Rose was holding off while she stabbed the other one.
"You lasses holding up all right?" Jake kept his weapons raised and stood back-to-back with Rose.
"Fucking peachy," Rose said, her voice weak as she caught her breath.
"We really appreciate the reinforcements!" Jade said over her shoulder.
Jake winced. "Yes, sorry about this hullabaloo. Roxy's not used to the controls without a guiding hand and, well, I've never touched any of those doodads to begin with! I'm sure I could get the hang of it with time, but..." He trailed off and shot a drone straight through the head.
"Jade!" Kanaya said suddenly, snapping Jade's attention forward again.
She was terrified that something had gone wrong with the dimensional tear, but it was still in one large piece and growing steadily. A handful of drones had flown around to the front of the ship and were making their way down towards the bow.
"Oh no." Jade took a step back but didn't dare move further without risking the integrity of their work. "Guys!" she shouted.
Jake darted to them, planting himself between Jade and the oncoming drones. He raised his pistols and fired rapidly, riddling the drones with bullets. Most of them dropped from the sky, but one just stumbled and kept flying towards them. Even as its wings went still in death, its momentum was enough that it was going to crash into them.
Jake turned his head away and screwed his eyes shut, but he stayed his ground.
"Jake, watch out!" Jade shouted. He wasn't really trying to shield them, was he? Did he actually think that his body would act as an effective barrier when the object about to crash into them was so big?
She was a moment from teleporting him away before they could both get hurt when a laser shot over Jake's shoulder and hit the drone hard enough that it spun off-course and crashed against the walls of the ship.
Jade let out a sigh of relief, though Jake took another few seconds before he dared to peek.
"C'mon, Jake, we gotta be role models here," Roxy called, planting herself next to Rose as she kept her rifle hoisted. "Show these kids how to kick butt and take names!"
Jake laughed nervously. "Oh, obviously."
"How are John and the others holding up?" Rose said, her voice rough and tired.
Roxy snorted. "He keeps hitting them with wind when they get too close so they gotta go single file-like, at which point the shouty human cuts 'em up."
"Well, thank fuck something's gone okay." Rose readied her weapons with shaking arms.
"Whoa, nuh-uh." Roxy held a palm up. "No, no, no, hon, you've done your share." She pointed from Rose to the deck. "You take a goddamn breather and let the grown-ups be responsible for their dumb shit now."
Rose stepped around Roxy and blasted a drone from the sky. "Sorry, but I'll only do that once I'm sure the dumb shit is over."
Roxy wrinkled her nose. "Fuckin' rude."
"I'll keep watch on this side before they can get near!" Jake said, standing on the edge of the ship and aiming his guns downwards. He squinted and fired, pumping his fist when he landed a hit.
"Jake?" Jade said quietly.
Jake kept his eyes peeled on the clouds below them as he answered, "Yes'm?"
"I'm sorry I got mad and shot your quadrantmate." She frowned. "I wish you'd done things differently, but... it was probably really difficult for you too and I should have been nicer about that."
Jake's shoulders drooped. "You sorted this tommyrot out better in an hour than I managed in two thousand sweeps, my dear." He glanced at her with a small smile. "I'm the one who should apologize. I was unfairly terse with you and I should never have put you in that position to begin with. You and Dirk both deserve better."
"No one does everything right on the first try." Jade smiled back. "I think you're already neater than I was giving you credit for."
He chuckled nervously. "Ah, well, thanks."
Rose kept the drones well at bay now that she had two adults acting as back-up. No matter how many littered the air, a bullet or laser or spell was quick to knock it down long before it could reach them. Kanaya seemed all the more determined to finish her work in the midst of their small victory, giving Jade lots of room to expand the opening.
Not long after the drone numbers had thinned to single digits, the wind picked up. Jade knew without looking that John had returned, even before he said, "Holy shit, Rose, you look awful!"
"Thank you, John." Rose sighed and leaned against his shoulder. "That's exactly what a girl wants to hear after a grueling battle."
"Welp." Roxy wiped at her brow and lowered her weapon as she surveyed the sky. "That was fucking insane. But, uh, on the upside, I am pretty damn sure we got all the drones dead now and we didn't even have to track them down."
Jade thought that sounded more lazy than an upside, but it didn't really matter since everyone was okay in the end.
She grinned at Kanaya. "Ready to finish this?"
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