Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The fucking pit has finally been dug, and with one final middle-finger at the sun you throw your shovel away from yourself as hard as you can. It doesn’t get very far so unfortunately you just look like a weak-pronged wimp, instead of someone who just spent close to 3 hours digging a 8-foot deep hole. You glance around and get briefly distracted by Dave’s biceps as he struggles and leverages a rock out of the pit. You manage to tear your eyes away from your sweaty matesprit and look over at the other suckers who got dragged into digging with you. 

Nepeta and Jade are pretty much just rolling around in the dirt pile above you, just outside the rim of the pit. They had been pretty helpful in making the first dent in the endeavor, it turns out Jade really can dig like a barkbeast, and even though Nepeta’s claws didn’t help remove any dirt, her slicing had made the ground soft enough for all of you to get through the tough top layer of earth. After about half an hour though, it required more brute force and shovel work, so those two left, besides they had already done their fair share and it isn’t like all 8 of you were going to fit in a roughly troll-sized hole. 

In your opinion they’ve more than earned their right to roll around in mud, and no one seems to disagree with you so far. 

Jake and John have been relatively helpful, though they do keep distracting each other with stupid prankster shit. You wouldn’t have pegged Jake for a prankster type, given that he seems to be more into adventuring and that kind of shit, but he sort of spends a lot of time around Jane and John now that you’re all on this new planet, so he’s unfortunately picked up the fucking habit.  

You’ve gotten enough mud pies thrown your way today to last you for a lifetime. Though to be fair, John did waste a stupidly long time chasing Dave around with a worm, so you guess you can comfort yourself knowing that you weren’t the only target of their bullshit. 

They never tried any of that shit on Equius though, so you don’t know how fair their whole dirt torment thing actually is. 

Nepeta and Jade seemed to enjoy the buckets of dirt that were tossed their way, so John and Jake kind of gave up on messing with them. 

Eridan, as promised, has not helped out with digging, and instead has been lounging around with the rest of your spectators, totally dirt and grime free on a beach reclining device. 

You look over at Equius, who’s also just finished his last heave of dirt out of the hole and gesture to him to come over. 

He has barely broken a sweat, quite a feat considering his almost perpetual moistness. 

He quirks an eyebrow at you as he walks over.

You gesture to the ledge of the hole you unfortunately can’t reach, “Can you give me a hand so I can get out of this fucking hole already?”

He nods and intertwines his prongs, making a lift with his hands for you to step on, and propels you upwards as you step and push off of him. 

You do a totally sick flip mid-air and stick the landing a few feet from the rim of the new grave. 

You can hear grumbling behind you as Equius and Dave set about getting out of the pit, but you don’t acknowledge it as you stride up to Eridan, who is currently lounging on a beach reclining device he must have dragged over from the coast shore on the opposite side of the village. 

“Hey, Fishfuck, you ready for your turn or what?” You have your arms crossed, and your weight shifted onto one leg for maximum sass factor. 

He sighs and lowers his sunglasses a bit, looking at you over the rim, “You can’t actually expect me to touch the body a’ one a’ our dead friends, Kar. That’d be too fucked up, evven for you.” 

Your eye twitches. 

With one hand suddenly grabbing the head support of the chair and the other holding onto the edge by his foot, you flip him over, and onto the ground. He lands with a satisfyingly painful-sounding thump, in a heap of jumbled limbs and a cape twisted around him like a noose. 

You bend low to where you think his ear is being covered by the cape, whispering, “Nothing is too fucked up for me, bulgelicker. I’d suggest you fucking remember that.” You stand back up and make your way over to Jane, who has graciously been providing you all with refreshments while you were digging. 

You snag a lemonade that soothes your dry throat, and watch in mild amusement as it takes Eridan a significant amount of time to untangle himself from his own cape and to escape the chair you had haphazardly strewn across him. Honestly, a newly hatched meowbeast could hunt their way out of a tree-born holding receptacle quicker than this asshole. 

Once he finally manages to get up, he snobbily brushes dirt off his outfit, and shakes it out of his cape. He levels you an unamused look paired with an offensive gesture. 

You smirk, you really had missed him all that time he’d been dead, and it’s times like these where you remember that. 

“Hey, so, we ready to get this show on the road? Cuz I’m pretty sure the clown's only gonna get ranker the longer we hold off on this fun little shindig.” You hadn’t even noticed Dave coming up to you, so you startle slightly at his sudden appearance at your elbow, before nodding. 

He’s right, it’s time to face the goddamn music. 

However much you really, really don’t want to open the fridge again. Shit was pretty scarring last time, and you are so not looking forward to the repeat. Although technically, one could reasonably believe that since you know what to expect now, it won’t be as bad. In theory. But again, the universe hates you and will give you exactly zero of the breaks. Vriska’s got a goddamn monopoly on those things apparently. You’re fairly certain this is gonna fucking suck.

Sollux is sitting, leaning one side against the base of a tree, fucking around on his palmhusk. “Hey, asshole!” You don’t have internet yet or any way to even send messages, so you don’t really know what he’s doing on it, but it’s probably not as important as disposing of this dead body, so you don’t really feel all that bad about interrupting him. 

He looks disgruntled anyway, and flips you off with a “Fuck off KK, I’m doing something right now.” He turns his attention immediately back to whatever it is he’s doing on his palmhusk.

You let out an irritated huff before you stomp over to him and yank it out of his hands. 

“Look nookchafe, we’re working on a fucking schedule here, we finished all the hard manual labor while you got to fart around up here like a goddamn heiress with Jane giving you all the snacks you could possibly want. Now it’s your turn to put some fucking work in. So get off your ass and come help us bury the motherfucker.” He frowns and reaches back for his palmhusk, but you hold it slightly outside of his reach. 

“You can get it back once we’re done with the goddamned burial.” He grimaces at the reminder of just what it is you’re all doing out here, and groans as he stands up. 

“Fine. Where’s the stupid fridge anyway?” You both look around for it for a bit before Sollux facepalms and groans again. 

“We fucking left it back in town.” 

You smirk, “Well, guess you’re gonna have to walk your tragically flat ass back to go get it, aren’t you?” He bares his fangs and lets out a decently threatening growl. 

“Fuck you.”

“No, fuck you!”

“ No , fuck you!”

“Fuck both of you!” You look up from your face-down with Sollux, at Aradia who is levitating the fridge, and herself, a few feet off the ground. 

Oh yeah, for some reason you momentarily forgot she could do that. 

God, past-you is such a fucking idiot. You could have just asked Aradia, she loves corpses and shit anyway. It would have been way easier to get her to go along with it than the fucking sentient stick you were just about to throw down with. 

“Oh, sup AA?” He gives her a small wave and you scoff. Fucker had just been literal seconds from trying to deck you, and one look at the walking dead girl and he calms down. They’re not even fucking quadranted anymore. This is total hoofbeastshit. 

She gives him a large, excited smile in return and jabs a thumb at the fridge floating behind her, “Gamzee’s dead body, for one!” 

You groan and facepalm. “That joke was so fucking stupid, I think all my future descendants will be one braincell stupider than they already would have been.” 

“Yeah man, because of you, Aradia, my son won’t get into an Ivy-league school, now. He’ll be forced to settle for Bowdoin, fucking Bowdoin . However will you live with yourself?” Dave has one hand tragically placed on your arm, the other thrown back against his forehead like a particularly horrified, faint-of-heart damsel in distress. 

Aradia chuckles, even though you know she has no idea what the fuck it was he just said, but doesn’t respond as she focuses on carefully lowering the fridge to the ground a little ways in front of you, closer to the pit. 

You look around, not everyone is here, some got tired of watching you throw your back out and took off for some “fun in the sun”. You don’t really know what that entails since the only fun you would be having in the sun back on Alternia was frying under it, but you assume they are still somewhere within earshot. They all seemed to express a desire to at least be present for the actual burial. 

You cup your fronds around your squawk gaper and make sure to project, “Hey, Fuckers!” You shout as loud as you can, which is pretty fucking loud, all things considered. 

You glance at John, who has just mosied up to lean an elbow on Dave’s shoulder, “Think they heard me, Egbert?”

John guffaws and says, “Dude, I think Lord English heard you all the way from relative nonexistence.” 

You smirk, “Good, then they should be here soon.”

You prove to be right, in a few minutes everyone previously missing from your little gathering comes traipsing over a hill to your left. None of them look dead, or obviously mauled, so you count this as a win. 

Once everyone settles around the fridge you gesture to Sollux to get ready, who grimaces but nods. You turn back around to face your idiots. 

“Okay, guys. We’re gonna dump this nooksucker in the hole now, so if anyone has anything they want to get off their fucking rumblespheres, now’s the goddamn time.” 

You wait for a bit, a few awkward coughs fill the silence before Jake steps forward a bit. 

“Well,we can’t rightly send the lad off without so much as a grumble in his direction, hmm? So I might as well give it a go.” He takes another step forward, looking at the fridge solemnly. He doesn’t speak for a moment but looks increasingly distressed and embarrassed, going by the sheepish smile and increasingly flushed cheeks. 

“Er, what was his name again? He never actually introduced himself to me.” 

You facepalm. “Fucking Christ. Gamzee. His name was Gamzee, English.” Jake nods appreciatively, though the embarrassed blush still colors his cheeks. 

“Right. Uh, Gamzee. I didn’t know you very well, but I suspect there are people here who did, and I’d bet a good sum of change that those people will have a hard time forgetting you. You were a clown, so you probably had some good goofs that I regret never getting to experience. Goodbye, Mr. Clown.” 

You snort and roll your eyes, though English doesn’t see you. All of Gamzee’s jokes were pure shit. 

Quiet fills the air again before Nepeta lets out a growl, breaking the unexpectedly heavy atmosphere. 

“I’ve got something to say, Karkitty.” Your eyebrows raise on their own accord. Everyone knows she's probably going to verbally eviscerate the dead bastard, and that takes some serious globes to do at someone’s funeral. You’re definitely not going to stop her though, you're still considering shitting on him one last time yourself.

You gesture for her to go ahead. 

She gives a firm nod, her hard glare remaining unbroken from the fridge that houses the body of the person who murdered her and her quadrantmate. 

“You were a sick asshole who single handedly tried to destroy the mewniverse, and killed my meowrail and made me watch before doing the same to me. We nefur did anything to mew. We were your furriends and mew killed us.” She takes a stuttered breath, a pause before she goes on, this time her voice is noticeably bereft of the joy that usually undertones her words. “You killed Equius with no provocation. He had done nothing to you, had only ever been a friend to you. And you killed him. While I watched.” Her voice breaks on her last words and she takes a break, leaning into the hand Equius has laid comfortingly on her shoulder. 

She takes a deep breath, with her eyes shut tightly closed, and goes on. “You killed my moirail in front of me, for no reason. And that is something I can never forgive.” Her eyes open, and they are glistening with a wet olive sheen 

“But that’s not all you were. Before that, before all of the shit you put everyone through, you were a good person. I know you were.” She looks up, beseechingly at you and you nod in agreement. Gamzee had been a good person before the game, you don’t think anyone who ever met him would disagree. “You were fun to talk to, and to hang out with, and you never made fun of me for RPing, and you joined in sometimes even though you were pretty bad at it.” The smile she had been wearing at the memory falls. “I don’t know what happened to you. At this point, I’m not sure I care . But you weren’t always bad, and it sucks that it turned out this way.”

She steps back, into the embrace of her moirail, and though she doesn’t actually cry, her breaths are heavy and her shoulders shake. 

You look at the ground. Honestly, you hadn’t expected to feel this much emotion about him. Sure, you freaked out a little bit when you saw his body, but that was probably just because it was incredibly gruesome and traumatizing. But you actually feel like you’re mourning right now, like you’ve lost someone important to you. 

Gamzee died an asshole who devoted himself to the destruction of the universe by his stupid Child God. 

But damn if you don’t miss how he used to be. 

“Uh, I think I’ll go next, if no one else wants to right now.” You look up as Nitram shuffles closer a few steps. He looks incredibly sad, like his lusus just died in front of him, which is slightly unexpected but not totally weird for basically the only troll who actually seems to possess significant amounts of weird human compassion.

“Um, Gamzee was my best friend. Nepeta is right, he was a good person, at least before the game. He played games with me, and we threw down sick fires together, and he never, even once, made fun of my uh, accident.” He glances at you briefly, for what, you don’t know, before biting on his bottom lip nervously. 

“He had a lot he could have been really sad or upset about, but he didn’t let it weigh him down. He cared about everyone, even people who didn’t really care about themselves, or really him either, all that much, and he made sure everyone knew just how important they were to him. He meant a lot to me, and I’m going to miss him, um, quite a bit.” He gives a sort of stuttered, awkward nod, before looking behind himself and walking back to a spot cleared for him. 

Kanaya pats Tavros gently on the back as Aradia takes one of his hands, before clearing her throat elegantly as always. 

“Although I am sure everyone here knows about the disdain I possess for the atrocities Mr. Makara committed against us during the game, and truthfully for Gamzee himself as well, I am not one to speak ill of the dead. And I agree with the former speakers that there were parts of Gamzee that are worth mourning. In particular, I would like to say that prior to his descent into madness, he was a kind troll. My most recent fond memory of him was when we were all on the meteor and he was dancing in the middle of the lab, offering naps on the hornpile. Gamzee Makara was strange and frankly the stupidest single person I suspect I have ever encountered, but I believe those antics lifted our spirits during a time where it was really needed. I did not know him well, but I agree that there are certainly good things he will be remembered for.” She lets her heavy gaze roam across the whole circle of people gathered around the fridge, before settling on you. 

She gives you an expectant look.

Fuck, yeah, you guess it’s your turn now. 

You heave a loud sigh, physically scrub the emotion off your face with one hand, and step forward just slightly into the circle. 

“Yeah, I guess it’s my fucking turn.” You look down at the fridge. 

“I feel really...weird right now. Like none of this shit seems real. It’s like I keep expecting him to just pop up out of the thermal hull with a sopor pie in one hand and a Faygo in the other.” You rake your fingers through your hair. You have no idea what emotion your face is expressing right now, but considering how jumbled up you feel on the inside, you doubt anyone else is really able to tell either. 

“Gamzee died a self-aggrandizing asshole who purposely led us almost to the destruction of our universe by a stupid homicidal maniac he believed was God. In the end he cared more about his stupid fake religion than any of us. And that fucking sucks.” Your throat is constricting painfully, so you cover your face and shrug away Strider’s hand on your shoulder, and take a deep breath before jamming your palms against your eyes. Once the danger of tears has passed, you clear your throat and continue. 

“That’s how Gamzee died. But it’s not how he lived. You all remember, his religion preached about culling lowbloods and all that shit the whole fucking time. But he didn’t like that part, remember? He never gave a single motherfucking shit about any of the stupid hemocaste garbage. He knew I was a mutant, but he didn’t care. It honestly never even crossed his mind to be offended that I fucking existed near him, like most other trolls of his caste would have been.” 

You look around, at the friends both you and him knew, the ones you beat the game and saved the universe for, and you wish with an incredible intensity that he was standing in front of you too. 

“Gamzee was a stupid fucking wriggler whose own lusus didn’t give two shits about him. He was a Highblood who didn’t like the anger he felt all the fucking time and chose to drown himself in fucking sopor instead. He looked forward to getting trolled every day by a sweaty blue asshole who would literally just tell him how much he fucking despised him. Gamzee was a stupid clown-themed bulgelicker who was too panrotted to realize that no one fucking liked him. And he was too dense to really understand how horribly we all treated him. Including me. God- I would say the most vile shit to ever be uttered into existence to him and he'd just sit there with a dumb fucking grin on his maw and spout some shit about miracles and friendship.”

Your eyes lock with Terezi’s. Her expression is a carefully unreadable facade, schooled to be absent of emotion. It reminds you of your matesprit and you idly wonder if she picked that up from him once upon a time.

“In another timeline he became an abusive piece of shit to one of the only people who still managed to feel something for him.” 

You look into the eyes of every single one of your friends, people he loved and fucked over in turn. Everyone is solemn but no one looks like they're about to throw an eating platform at you like you had expected when you opened your big mouth.

“But before that, he was my best friend.” 

You dig your claws into your palm as your scowl turns into a desperate attempt to clench your mouth shut so your lip will stop wobbling. Tears are coming unbidden to your gander bulbs. This time you don’t do anything as your eyes film over with pale red liquid. 

You speak loudly and wetly, fluid coating your squawk blister. 

“Gamzee Makara, my best fucking friend, died a long goddamn time ago. I don’t know who this asshole masquerading around as him was, but my Gamzee, the one who actually gave a shit about us, would have been fucking horrified at all the shit he did.”

You look back down to the fridge. 

“That is who I’m burying. Not the asshole who pledged himself to Lord English, or murdered our friends in cold blood, or, or fucking abused Terezi. But the asshole who used to sit on the beach and wait for his stupid, useless lusus to show up. The stupid panleak goofball who tried his best to make all of us smile and laugh. The one who called me his best motherfucking friend and actually goddamn meant it.” 

You give a firm, decisive nod.

“That is who this grave is going to represent.” 

There are a few sniffles and snorts you hadn’t heard while you were talking, and frankly you’re kind of glad. Gamzee, your Gamzee, deserves to be missed. 

You let everyone sit with what you said for a while, you figured you’d be the last one to say anything, so you’re not expecting anyone else to come forward. 

You take a cursory glance around to make sure and when no one seems like they’re going to step up you catch Sollux’s gaze and gesture towards the fridge. 

He nods and holds his hands out in front of him, blue and red sparks lighting up and down his arms. The fridge is encased in an electric, colorful glow as he slowly, carefully, lifts it off the ground. 

Sollux steps forward with it toward the grave until it is hovering just a few feet off the ground above the hole. 

After a pointed cough from you and a nod toward the fridge, Eridan heaves a sigh and slumps forward, disgust written on his face. 

He stops right in front of it and Sollux lowers it enough for Eridan to be able to reach the handle. He holds his breath, scrunches up his face and turns away from the grisly sight awaiting all of you as soon as he opens that door. 

He reaches out with a shaking hand. 

“Wait!”

“No, stop!”

He freezes at the shouts from Lalonde and Terezi. 

You whip your head back to look at them, they had better have a good fucking reason for disrupting a fucking burial ceremony. 

You thought that at least humans had more couth than that. 

Rose is lunged forward with a hand outstretched toward Eridan, looking pale. Her eyebrows are scrunched in concern and she looks shaken. 

Terezi in comparison is frozen stiff, a white-knuckled grip on her cane, with her mouth hanging wide open probably trying to see what’s happening and to make sure Eridan stopped. She looks angry and confused, but her voice was strong when she shouted for him to stop. 

You look rapidly back and forth between them for a moment. 

“What the fuck, guys?” 

Apparently John is reading your mind. 

You point to him and nod, “Yeah, what the actual fuck Terezi?” 

She scowls at you in response, but Lalonde looks at you, alarmed. 

“Karkat, I have just seen something quite critical to our continued survival.” 

You look at her appraisingly before asking against your better judgement, “Okay, well what the fuck was it?”

She doesn’t respond immediately, instead she looks over at Terezi for a long weighted moment until Terezi gives her a short, minute nod, frowning in distaste. Rose inclines her head in acknowledgement before turning back to face you again. 

“We need him.” She points past your shoulder.

You follow her finger. 

“Uh, Eridan?” 

Eridan looks both scared and offended, “What the glub for? I haven’t done anyfin.” 

Rose grumbles something unkind under her breath and rolls her eyes. 

“No, Eridan, why would I say we need you for something important?” 

Eridan gives an indignant scoff as Sollux chuckles, “Burn.”

She points with more force, “We need him .” This time you can clearly tell she means the fridge and you mentally shoot yourself. 

“I don’t know what the fuck crawled up your nook and invaded your pan, Rose, but we are not, any under goddamn circumstances, keeping Gamzee’s fucking corpse around. I don’t care if we all contract the universe’s worst fucking STD with symptoms of leprosy and spontaneous fucking combustion as a consequence. We are not going to just keep the motherfucking dead, decomposing body of a psychopathic clown around. End of fucking discussion.” 

Honestly, you kind of can’t believe this is a conversation that needs to be had. 

“Ow, Fuck!”

You cradle your hand to your chest as you give Terezi the dirtiest, most platonic hate-filled glare you can. She fucking bit you. 

“If you are all done with your tirade, Mr. Co-Friendleader, Rose and I would like to continue with the business of our ever changing fate.” You wisely stay silent. She gives you a sharp grin that’s all teeth, and that’s all the sign you need, to know that you had better fucking keep your trap shut if you want to keep all your fronds.

“Good, now as the Rose human was saying, we do need the stinky smelly murderer for Important Future Things.” 

“What do you mean Terezi? How could we need Gamzee when he’s already, you know, dead?” Jade’s face tilts to the side in confusion and one of her white ears is straight up while the other is folded down. She looks bizarrely reminiscent of a confused barkbeast. 

Aradia jumps in excitement as her grin doubles in size, “Ooh, are we finally having a corpse party? It’s probably not going to be as fun since there’s only one corpse. But maybe since it’s a really, really nasty one it’ll actually be more fun?” She looks rapidly between Tavros and Dave on either side of her for agreement. 

Tavros looks ill. 

Dave just shrugs and dips his head consideringly. 

Terezi cackles in delight.

“No, unfortunately it has nothing to do with a corpse party, Aradia. Or at least, it is very unlikely.” Rose has a fond grin even as she corrals you idiots back to the issue at hand. “Just as Eridan was about to open the fridge to finally bury our be-clowned traitor/friend, Terezi and myself both received impressions, given to us most likely through our abilities as Seers, that we will need Mr. Makara. Alive.” 

No one says anything for a second. 

You don’t think you’ll get bitten again for asking for some fucking clarification here. 

“What the fuck are you talking about, Lalonde? He’s already dead. If we needed him alive, he would fucking be alive.” Kanaya frowns at you, and you remind yourself that Rose is absolutely the wrong person to yell at. 

You gentle your tone a bit. “Sorry, just, I don’t know why you’re saying we need him all of a sudden, when he’s already really dead, and has been for a while now. He wasn’t even on this planet before, so why would we suddenly need him for anything?” 

Rose nods, “I was wondering the same thing myself. The timing of all of this is highly suspect.” She glances at the fridge. “But nonetheless, that is what we need to do.” 

You feel a sudden burning rage fill your goddamned soul. 

“So what, we’re supposed to resurrect this homicidal asshole so he can fuck us over and torment us even more, just because you had a shitty “ feeling”?”

She scowls frustratedly. 

“No, Karkat. I am telling you we need him for something important in the future. And it wasn’t just a feeling, it was accompanied by a...vision.” 

“A vision.” 

“Yes, a vision.”

You stare at her expectantly. 

She does not come forth with any additional information. 

“Well, what was it fucking about?”

She smiles indulgently, “Why, I never thought you’d ask.” Her eyes flit to the fridge then back at you as her expression falls grimly. “I received a series of, shall we say, snapshots, all of which involved one living, breathing Gamzee.” She frowns, “ His fate is intrinsically linked to ours, tied and interwoven through our lives like a rather unfortunate crocheted blanket. If one string breaks, the rest will fall apart with it.” She speaks with a finality that makes you think she must have seen that exact image in her vision.  

“And how do we know that bringing him back isn’t what makes everything fall apart, Lalonde? Maybe bringing him back is what’s going to fuck everything up.” Vriska looks frustrated and angry, a sentiment you’re fairly certain most everyone present shares. 

Terezi shakes her head, “No, I saw the same thing, and I got the distinct, if unfortunate, impression that we need him.” 

“I can see paths, Miss Serket. I see different offshoots that certain actions or inactions will take us down. This allows me to perceive the path of most fortune, the series of events that we must take in order to succeed.” She stares hard at Vriska. “And his presence is the only thing that ensures we proceed down that path.” 

This is bullshit.

“This is bullshit. Are you telling me that unless Future John, or whatever the fuck it was that led to us having his corpse thrust upon us, unless he left this here,” You thrust a hand demonstratively at the fridge, “We would have kept going down, what, a doomed path?”

Rose returns your glare with a look that seems like it’s attempting to be reassuring but falling short. “Not necessarily. Since prior to this incident Terezi and I were unable to receive any guidance or revelation about the actions we should’ve taken, it is possible we would have stumbled our way to eventual success. But there’s no way of knowing what would have happened if the fridge had never turned up here, since it is an irrefutable fact that, at least in this timeline, it has. And I believe that since this is the first thing our abilities have intervened with, that it is absolutely vital.” 

Sometimes you hate the way she’s able to talk about the fate of all of your lives without so much as a fucking frown. She gives you the cold hard facts without much bias or emotional bullshit which is definitely useful for helping all of you make better decisions, but sometimes you just want her to show some fucking sign that she feels something.

Terezi huffs. “There’s no going back, we can’t pretend that we didn’t find him in the middle of our village. At this point we need to play with the hand we were given. He’s here. There’s no changing that.” She glances at Rose. “And Rose and I have both seen that the best possible outcome for our people involves him.” She groans and covers her face with her hands, “Not that I like it. It’s like even after he’s dead he finds some new way to ruin our lives. I wish he could just fucking be gone and stop messing everything up.” 

John puts a hand on her shoulder, and she slowly uncovers her face, looking immensely grateful for the support. She takes a deep, determined breath. 

“But that is not the case we've been assigned in life, I suppose. So, dear leader, how shall the court proceed?”  She’s looking just to the left of your face, above your shoulder, with a bright, if slightly forced grin. You groan and scrub a hand down your face. 

“Do we have to do anything? What happens if we just pretend you two didn’t See anything and bury him anyway?” 

Terezi’s grin grows wider and somehow looks more devious, “Well, it seems to me that at this juncture, doing nothing would lead to our slow and painful deaths. But,” She jabs her cane at you with a flourish, “it is certainly still an option, Mr. Cherries!” 

The expression on your face apparently amuses her because she cackles with devious glee. 

“Yeah, right, because I definitely want to be the asshole that dooms everyone. Okay, then what did your shitty “visions” tell you that we had to do?” 

Rose looks sheepish all of a sudden, which does nothing to reassure you about your endeavors. “We didn’t see a specific action to take per se, at least I didn’t.” She looks to Terezi for confirmation who shakes her head with a wry grin. She sighs. “Yes, I figured as much. Anyway, what I did see were more like scenes - snapshots taken of our futures, all of which involved Gamzee. And I got the distinct impression that those scenes were important events which lead to our victory.” 

“You want us to bring this asshole back, and you don’t even know what it is we’re supposed to fucking do with him?” For all that Dirk’s face is essentially a blank slate, his tone belies how irritated he actually is. 

Dave frowns from his spot next to John and looks at his ancestor. “Hey man, it’s not Rose’s fault that the Game powers only give shitty half-advice.”

“Yes, and I am certain it isn’t that Rose wants to bring that idiot back, it is just what she has been guided to do by the powers that be, in order to guarantee our success.” For some reason, Kanaya’s reassurance and backup for Rose’s plan makes you feel more confident about it. It’s refreshing to hear a voice of sanity amidst all the inane, pan-rotting bullshit you hear nearly every fucking minute of your putrid, illegal life. 

“O-cray, so if we do de-tide to bring Clamzee back, how would we e-fin do that?” Feferi doesn’t look that upset with the idea, but to be fair she didn’t really get the privilege to see Gamzee’s final descent into chaos and murder like some of you did. 

Rose smiles gently at this, like it’s something she can finally give an actual answer about. “Whale, I would think a good fray-motif involving you, Jane, and a time player ought to do the trick.” Feferi smiles brightly at Rose’s fish puns, even as Jane frowns.

“Who says I want to bring that rapscallion back? He was quite the fiend on my planet, trying to scam me with odd potions and offering to be my guide. And that codpiece! Oh my word, don’t even get me started on the codpiece. What sort of bizarre fellow wears that around a lady?” Jane fans the blush from her face as Roxy leans against her, roaring with laughter. 

“He’s not getting the fucking codpiece back. If we resurrect him or what-the-fuck-ever, I’m yanking it off his shitty, fake god-tier and throwing that horrendous, fucking affront to nature into either the ocean or the firepit before he can even utter a single “honk”. You fucking got that, Lalonde?” You are not about to sit back and just let that jinglehumiping fuck walk around like he’s some sexually aroused mammalian creature if you have anything to fucking say about it. 

She inclines her head solemnly. “I could not agree with you more, Karkat. Though I have to wonder,” She puts a hand against her chin like she’s considering something, though you get the distinct feeling it’s more for show, “Would his godtier still be fake if we were to bring him back?”

“Uh, yeah? He didn’t actually reach godtier, remember Rose?” The look Sollux is giving Rose right now is honestly fucking hilarious, he’s looking at her like she’s the dumbest nookwipe to ever dare to breathe the same air as him.

She clicks her tongue annoyedly and gives him a glare. “Yes, Sollux, I am aware. What I was alluding to, was the fact that we were all brought back godtier. Even you died before you could reach it, and yet here we are, on this planet, with a genuine Mage of Doom.” She glances at the fridge before resuming her deadly eye contact with Sollux. “So, why would it be different for Mr. Makara?” 

“Um, probably because he sucks, Rose.” John’s looking at her like she grew a second head. 

“Objection! We can tell from the prior experience of one Spiderbitch that “sucking” does not prevent one from reaching Godtier-hood. You’ll have to reconsider your case Mr. Blueberry Breeze and present it at another court-appointed time. My deepest condolences.” John rolls his eyes as Terezi slaps him on the back in fake sympathy. 

You snort. 

“So what, are you saying that if we do bring the big, dumb clown back, that there might not be a way for us to get rid of him again?” 

Rose looks at Vriska with thinly-veiled suspicion. 

“Were you supposing that we bring him back to fulfill whatever his necessary role is, and then whack him, Miss Serket?” 

Vriska rolls her eyes. “Well duuuuuuuuh. Why would we keep him around?” 

Rose purses her lips, a nice mix of anger and disgust playing on her face. 

“Vriska, you’ll pardon me for being so blunt. But we would not bring someone back to life with the intent to kill them again. That is murder. Something I believe we have all agreed we would not tolerate under any circumstances.” 

Vriska holds up her hands in defense, looking righteously indignant. “Woah woah woah, Lalonde! Far be it from me to suggest something so heinous as murder, I was just saying, Light player to Light player, that for the good of our community, if Gamzee causes more problems than he's worth, and he does come back godtier, there won’t be a way for us to...dispose of him.” 

“Yeah, right, because Vriska Serket has definitely never fucking axed anyone,” you deadpan. “What an absurd suggestion! You know what Rose, I for one fully fucking believe that she was speaking out of platonic concern for us, and that she had absolutely no intentions to murder Gamzee later, desipte what she may have said not two taintwhiffing minutes ago!”

She groans and shouts, giving up on her little ‘I’m completely innocent’ charade, “Whatever Vantas, we were all thinking it! I’m just the only one with the globes to do the fucking dirty work that needs to get done! Well fuck you then, when that psychopath starts murdering everyone I won’t lift a fucking finger to help you.” 

She flips you off with two hands before twirling angrily around and storming off in the direction of the hive that she shares with Feferi. 

It’s silent for only a moment before Rose continues. “I would like to remind everyone that we are immortal here, and since we exist in a universe separate from the game, there is no such thing as Just or Unjust deaths. We are for all intents and purposes, immortal.” 

She glances around the circle. “That being said, I would like to address some of your concerns with this plan.” She pauses, clearly waiting for someone to bring something up, and when no one does she just nods and soldiers on. 

“First and foremost, in the visions I received, there were no murders. From what I saw, and the feelings that accompanied the images, Gamzee was happy, pleasant, and surprisingly stable. I received absolutely no feelings of terror, fear, or murderous intentions from him. Was there anything you saw, Terezi, that would give us some insight into his mental state?” 

Terezi nods and grins, “That I did, co-counsellor. From what I saw of Grapey the Clown, I would have to concur with your assessment of him. Of course, as a Seer of Mind I was able to take a deeper look.” She pauses, the grin falling a bit as her face quirks in consideration. “He was...different. His mind in these… instants was entirely different to the way I have seen his Mind ever before.” 

That sounds like it could either be a good or a bad thing. His pan was definitely fucked up last you checked, so you guess that being different from that would be a good thing? But why would his mental state change so much just from being brought back from the dead?

“How was it different, Terezi? Was it like, worse or something? ‘Cause if it was worse there’s no goddamn way we’re bringing back that bulgelicker. He was batshit insane before, so I don’t even want to know all the new fucked up things you probably saw in his fetid, useless thinkpan.” He told you some genuinely fucked up shit when you were moirails in your other life, granted it was mostly things he was terrified of doing or becoming, but if it was bad back then, you can’t even imagine how much worse it could be. 

She shakes her head, a small frown on her face. “No, it was just different.” She looks more directly at you. “I was never really able to see into his pan the way I can to everyone else’s, which is why I was never able to uncover his cahoots with Lord English or any of the nasty plans he had. But I was always able to get an impression of some great schism in his mind. Like he was literally made up of different personalities, almost.” She stops there, considering. 

You prompt her. “And now?”

“From what I saw, that no longer seems to be a thing that is happening in his brain. He seems more put together, more...whole. Like he’s one person now, instead of a bunch of distorted thoughts and feelings all jumbled up and pulling in opposite directions. And I couldn’t hear his voices.” 

You feel a startle go throughout the entire group as you all look at her with a mix of concern and unease. 

“Um, what do you mean, exactly, Terezi? His, uh, voices?” Tavros looks genuinely freaked out, which is honestly a pretty fair reaction.

You don’t really feel the same level of weirded out anxiety that you assume everyone else probably does. He had already told you about the voices in his head, you’re mostly surprised that they’re apparently literal instead of a result of some sort of fucked up mental illness like you had always assumed he had. You decide to step in before Terezi can air out Gamzee’s dirty laundry, just you know, out of respect for things he shared with Alternate You in confidence. You’ll let everyone know exactly what they need to, and not a goddamn thing more.

“He used to tell me, well Alternate Timeline Me, that he heard voices in his head telling him to do really messed up shit. I just didn’t know that apparently Alternate you could hear them too?” Terezi shrugs at the look of confusion you’re sending her way. 

“I didn’t hear them that often. Like I said, he was somehow able to keep me out of his head for the most part. It was mostly while he was sleeping that I was able to sneak my way in there.” 

Rose nods, “It most likely had to do with his aspect. From what I can tell Rage can be used to alter feelings and cloud judgement. So it’s not too surprising that he was able to block your abilities with his Rage.”

No one asks Terezi how she, or more accurately alternate timeline her, had access to a sleeping Gamzee. You let it slide unaddressed as well, no point in bringing up bad shit. 

“So wwhat did it sound like?” 

One of Terezi’s eyes squints as she thinks. “I mostly heard two distinct voices: a high-pitched nasally one, and a hoarse, deeper one that really liked to yell. There was a third one that was considerably more calm and collected, but it didn’t appear as frequently. And there was, of course, Gamzee’s voice. Though in his mind, his was the quietest and most sporadic. As time went on, I heard his voice less and less often, until one day it just stopped. That coincided with the time he finally left.” 

Yeah, you have your alternate self’s memories of that happening. They aren’t pleasant ones.

The way she said it is pretty much exactly what happened, except she didn’t say how he became so obnoxiously self-righteous and self-aggrandizing before his sudden departure. He became essentially impossible to hold a conversation with. 

The bastard didn’t even say goodbye.

The level of sadness you feel thinking about it pisses you off because you should be over all that shit by now, so you scowl and force your attention back onto the conversation. 

“That is quite interesting Terezi. I had assumed, like most others I think, that when he spoke of hearing things that it was some sort of delusion. It is quite...compelling to know that these were indeed actual voices that you could hear.” Rose has a look like a scienterrorist about to sink her maw into something particularly perplexing. The intense look on her face makes you marginally uncomfortable and you can’t help but lean away a bit from her. 

Nepeta makes a confused little chirping sound and tilts her head a bit. “Wait but, if mew were in hiss head, wouldn’t mew have just heard what he was hearing? How do mew know if those were catual voices or if they were just what he thought he was hearing in hiss messed up thinkpan?”

Terezi grins like she was waiting for that particular question. She jabs the cane in Nepeta’s direction now. 

“Why thank you for asking, mighty huntress! It’s because of reasons.” At your unamused face, which you see her fucking inhale in, her grin grows. “No but really, it is because of reasons. Those reasons being that the voices felt different.”

She glances at the fridge with a look of mischief dancing across her face. 

“Let it be known in court that Gamzee Makara was not a well man. Anytime I was around him I could quite literally see the crazy in his brain. He always felt jumbled up, like a person made of jigsaw puzzles where none of the pieces actually fit together. That included his thoughts.” She brings the cane back down and leans forward with her hands resting regally on top of it. “Now, again, I couldn’t really get inside his head because he, as I am now assuming, was somehow able to block me. But I could usually still catch a few glimpses, occasionally I could see or hear some of the weird thoughts floating around in that empty pan of his. They were all disjointed, like the rest of him. But they still felt like Gamzee.” 

Rose decides to bite. “And I take it the voices you heard did not feel like him?” 

Terezi shows off all her teeth in her shark-like grin. “Precisely.”

That’s actually a pretty creepy fucking thought. 

“If the voices didn’t feel like him, what the fuck were they?”

“I don’t have the foggiest clue!” She responds to your question with something resembling excitement. She seems oddly amused by the idea of creepy unknown voices playing around inside of someone’s head. Probably, she just likes the mystery. 

That doesn’t really sit well with you, but if these weird voices are gone, it’s probably a good thing? You fucking guess?

“Well, as long as they’re gone, right?” Jade should be more weirded out by this whole fucking conversation that she’s really acting right now, but it strangely makes you feel better. If Jade was freaking out, it would definitely be a bad sign. 

Rose looks at her quizzically for a moment, probably having the same thought you did, before seeming to shrug it off. “I suppose so, Jade. Anyway, the lack of foreign, unidentified voices in Future Gamzee’s head is likely a good omen. That, combined with the happy moments in time we were able to see, as well as Terezi’s guarantee that no ill intentions were sensed or seen, lends to a very inviting situation.” She turns to look directly at you. “So Karkat, how would you have us proceed?”

Oh fuck. 

“Okay that’s it. I’m putting this fucking thing down now. I’m tired of just sitting here like an asshole carrying an entire fridge-coffin with my brain. If he needs to be buried, have AA do it. Shit.” There’s a clunk as Sollux essentially drops the fridge onto the dirt near where the Alpha kids are standing. 

You thank every fake Horrorterror God in existence that the top stayed shut. 

He moves and stands beside Feferi and Eridan on the opposite side of the hole from you. 

This unfortunately brings attention solely back on you. 

You rake a palm through your hair. “Ugh. Look, this is an important decision Lalonde. There’s no way I can just trample over everyone else’s concerns with this, though I am self-aware enough to acknowledge that I do have a tendency to trample with most endeavors of our society. I think this is gonna have to be one of those things where we use that shitty human Democracy ideology. Because look,” You huff a breath through your nose and re-cross your arms in front of your chest, “there are some serious and legitimate fucking concerns here. As much as I despise her, Vriska kinda had a point. What if we bring him back and he’s immortal? And then he goes on another killing spree or tries to devote himself to bringing Lord English back? We would have no way to stop him.” You shift your weight from one leg to the other. 

“And I’m not suggesting we just jump straight to murder as soon as he fulfills whatever stupid, nookfisting objective he’s supposed to. That would be more fucked-up than I think most of us are comfortable with. Besides that, we did make a very strict No Murder rule. And I’m not enough of a jackass to not think that extends to Gamzee as well. That’s why I’m saying that we need to carefully consider this before we just go running off hamfisted. I do not want to have to deal with the moral conundrums that I would be faced with if we had to try to find some way to kill him again.” 

You make sure you look stern as you face your friends. Straight up, if this comes down to you all eventually having to cull Gamzee again, you are not going to be the one to do it. Abso-fucking-lutely not. 

You don’t think your heart could take it. 

For all that the alternate timeline you had gathered up the gumption to do it before, you personally haven’t been pushed that far with Gamzee. You feel and acknowledge Doomed Timeline You’s experiences and emotions, but you are not going to let them override your own. 

You will not become him. 

“So you’re saying that you don’t want to be the one to make this decision, right?” 

You scowl at Dirk for making you sound like a fucking coward. “No, I’m saying we can’t just let one person make this decision for all of us. It’s super fucking important and all of us need to be on board with whatever we decide to do.” 

“That uh, sounds reasonable, I guess? In that anything about this, um situation, could be considered reasonable.” 

You consider Tavros for a second. 

“What do you think, Nitram? What should we do with Gamzee?” It’s unfair of you to put him on the spot like this about something so simultaneously important and controversial. But you know Tavros to be a generally well-intentioned person, and he doesn’t really hold grudges. He’s likely to be one of the more unbiased people concerning Gamzee. 

He worries a lip as he looks at his feet. His eyes dart up to yours every few seconds but he can’t seem to hold your eye contact. 

Everyone’s attention is on him and you can the weight of it slowly pushing him down. 

He hunches in on himself a little bit further, under the intensity of everyone’s stares. “Uh, I’m not, sure, that I’m comfortable being the, the first one to, uh go? Not because I’m uh, unconfident, or anything, but more because I have a feeling that my opinion will be an, unpopular one.” 

You take pity on him. 

“Fine, someone who doesn’t mind being the baabeast to the culling block, volunteer.” 

You don’t even have to look to know that Nepeta’s hand just shot up. 

You look at her and she takes this as the ‘go ahead’ that it is. 

Her face is twisted in an angry scowl, her ears pinned back. “He is a murderer. And no amount of fluffy or purrty words is going to change that. Mew say we need him, but we’ve gotten along just feline without him. I miss the old him, but if we bring him back, we are just opening ourselves up to unnecessary risks.” 

You see Equius glance at Nepeta with naked concern before he also speaks up. 

“I must agree with Nepeta about this. His actions were utterly deplorable, and if we can avoid it, I do not believe he deserves to be brought back. Especially when there is no guarantee that he would not promptly attempt to murder us all.” The distasteful frown on his face reassures you that in the event you did bring Gamzee back, Equius wouldn’t fall back to his old weird hemoist, Gamzee-is-the-best-thing-since-sliced-grubloaf ways. 

Rose makes a small waving gesture in your direction, you nod at her to speak. “I would like to address these particular concerns if I may.” She looks over everyone surrounding her. “How many of you share the concern that Gamzee would attempt to murder everyone again?”

Nearly every hand darts up, with only a few notable exceptions; Tavros, Eridan, Roxy, Jane, and Aradia. You have less than even one idea why, hell even you raised your hand. 

Rose nods. 

“Yes, I thought so. Now then, let me see if I can put some of your fears to rest, again.” She sighs. “While it is true that there is never any guarantee how an individual will react, since we all have our own free wills, it would be highly unlikely that, so long as we continue down the correct path, Gamzee would seek bloody retribution. Terezi and I have seen what will happen provided we continue down the path that has been laid before us. And it does not involve any bloodshed. Besides,” She raises one imperious eyebrow, “we are all immortal are we not? And given that we exist outside of the Game, there is not even a possibility of any of us achieving a Just death. Therefore, there is no way for him to actually murder any of us.” 

“Uh, just because we can’t die doesn’t mean it won’t hurt a lot if he does try to kill us, Rose.” John is looking at Rose with something resembling bewilderment, if bewilderment also simultaneously conveyed a question about a friend’s morality and sanity. 

She inclines her head diplomatically. “Yes, I acknowledge that, John. All I’m saying is that death is not in any of our future fates.” She looks around the circle like she’s searching for something. She finds whatever she was looking for on Eridan’s face. “Eridan, I am curious as to why you did not voice the same concerns as the others about Gamzee’s possibility of a murder spree. Would you care to share why that is?” 

Eridan rolls his eyes. “Shore, wwhatevver. I ain’t really concerned about Gam losin’ it again ‘cuz there ain’t reely a reason why he would.” 

You look at him in confusion. “What the hell do you mean, Eridan?”

He looks at you and the expression of platonic pity covering his fishy mug makes your hideous blood boil. 

“Sorry Kar, I know you probably don’t really want him around so much anymore, but that’s what I think.” 

You bare your teeth at him. “I wasn’t fucking asking about why you feel that way, you goddamned bulge-for-brains idiot. I was goddamn asking what you meant when you said he didn’t have a reason. God! Use some fucking context clues next time before I find some for you and shove them down your gullet until you’ll be able to shit your own. And don’t just fucking assume my stance on this whole bulgebrained situation.” 

He glares at you, fins puffing out threateningly. “I wwas just tryin’ ta be fuckin’ nice, Kar. Anyway,” He shoots a dagger at you with his gander bulbs, “what I fuckin’ meant was that there ain’t a reason for him to flip his shit.” 

Your anger dissipates as your confusion rises. 

“What?”

“Look, I’m pretty sure you all told me he lost his mind ‘cuz he like, got sober or somefin? And that there wwas probably a fuckin’ demon puppet invvolvved, somehoww? So, since we livve in a place where none ‘a that even fuckin’ exists, why would he go crazy again?” He’s looking at you all like you're the weird ones.

 Fucking pompous asshole. 

Damn if you didn’t miss him in the game though. 

“I would like to point out that we do not know for certain whether any of that is actually true. We do not know the extent to which the puppet or Lord English himself can be blamed. All we know is that there is a correlation between the puppet and gruesome, morally reprehensible actions, as shown to us through the examples of Bro Strider and Jack Noir. Correlation does not equal causation.” 

Kanaya always sounds so fucking smart like everytime she opens her mouth. You really admire her for it, since you’re pretty much just able to spew shit and vitriol at everyone until they agree or relent to your demands. She, in comparison, handles things with so much poise and regality, you think if you needed an Empress in this new world, you would just skip Feferi and go with Kanaya.

But you’re gonna insert yourself into the discussion here. 

“That’s true Kanaya, but we do also know that half of Gamzee’s goddamned soul got sucked into that Juju along with Caliborn and the creepy, sweaty sunglasses man. That’s a fact. We saw it happen. So we know at least that the fucking thing was way more powerful and fucked-up than we originally thought. I don’t think it’s in the realm of impossibility that the thing contributed to Gamzee’s quick kick-flip off the fucking deep-end, although granted, I don’t actually know how that would even work.” You flit your eyes over to Terezi. “Terezi, I don’t suppose you know anything more about the puppet’s involvement in this whole shitfest, do you?” 

She frowns and slowly shakes her head. 

You sigh. 

Dave nudges you with an elbow. “Hey babe, I might know some more shit about Lil’ Cal fucking with your Clownboy.” At your skeptical look he waves his hands and leans back a bit to look at you more directly. “Nah, nah man. Hear me out. Picture this: One super hot beach-blonde dude just trying to chill in his own house, slamming some sick fires all by his lonesome, right? Fucking kicking back like goddamn Kangaroo Jack. Anyway, here I am minding my own goddamn business, when all of a sudden some asshole in purple text “trolls”me.” 

His use of hand gestures has become much more expansive, you notice, since becoming your matesprit. 

“And he’s like preaching about clown gods and miracles and Shangri-La or whatever. So I’m like ‘sick, this guy is actually good at trolling me, unlike the rest of the stupid fuckers vying and fighting over themselves for my attention’. I thought this was some asshole pretending to be a goddamn Juggalo to fuck with me. So I sent him this video that hadn’t even been released yet, just ‘cuz I’m fucking awesome that way, to like acknowledge the way he was fucking with me. And he flipped his shit, like straight up said I had destroyed everything he had ever believed in or whatever, and that now the world like, sucked.” 

Literal horror fills your bile sack. Sure, alternate you had already heard about it from Gamzee, but you didn’t think Dave would be fucking stupid enough to admit that he played a hand in making Gamzee literally murderously insane to the people he fucking killed and/or psychologically tortured. Your eyes are uncomfortably wide as you stringently avoid every questioning, angry, disbelieving look you can feel being thrown your way. 

You bump your shoulder into Dave’s. 

“Hey, let’s get to the point of the story, fucktard.” 

He’s quiet for a moment, probably from being in awe of receiving so much hatred all at once from an entire community of people. “Right, uh sure. Anyway, then he trolls me later, later for him, it was my first conversation with the dude because of time bullshit. But yeah he talks to me and starts telling me that L’il Cal is like talking to him and shit? Like he says that Bro’s puppet is telling him to kill everyone and to make them all believe in the Dark Carnival or whatever and straight up says that L’il Cal is making him do all this crazy shit. Like look, I’ve got the goddamned pesterlog archived.” He waves his phone a little bit in front of him as proof. 

No one says anything but you fear for your matesprit’s continued existence. 

“Are you saying, Dave, that you were the one that caused Gamzee to lose his mind?” Kanaya’s face is a terrifyingly blank slate, her words are cold and detached. 

You jump in front of Dave both metaphorically and slightly literally. 

“Hey, no! We don’t know if Dave was the only thing responsible, right? I mean it’s not like Gamzee was exactly a role model student in the school of Sanity and Being Mentally Balanced. Sure, Dave definitely contributed to it, maybe he was even the catalyst, but there’s no way for us to tell, save reviving Gamzee and asking him personally, if Dave was the actual reason Gamzee went insane. Besides, you’re all reading the Pesterlog, Gamzee says himself that the fucking puppet told him to kill everyone.” Nepeta immediately snatches the phone from Jane, where it had been being passed around after Dave’s wonderfully long session of ‘I wonder how deep I can fit this foot into my mouth’. 

Rose rubs her chin thoughtfully, looking conflicted. “This does change things, Karkat. For one, upon revival, if we choose to go through with it, Dave certainly owes Gamzee quite the apology. But more importantly, this makes me wonder if perhaps there were more contributing factors to Gamzee’s descent into madness than we had originally thought. And to what extent those things are responsible for what he did in the Game.” She glances at Nepeta, who is looking at the phone with an odd mixture of concern and rage. “I do believe though, that this indicates that Gamzee’s case is not quite as cut and dry as many of us supposed. Eridan may have a point. If there were other factors that influenced Gamzee’s decisions, and he no longer has access to those influences, like L’il Cal, that may explain the reason why Future Gamzee seems so different. He is not under the same duress he was in the Game. At least, that is a theory worth exploring.”

From the corner of your eye you see Terezi lick a long strip up Dave’s palmhusk, frown, scroll, and lick it again. Once she seems to have ingested the entire conversation she looks...interested. She passes it off to Kanaya.

Terezi’s head snaps up and her eyes lock with yours, and for all that you know she can’t actually see you, her stare is too heavy for you to handle. You look away.

She speaks in a careful, controlled manner more reminiscent of Kanaya than herself. “I concur with the Rose human. This case requires further investigation.” She theatrically leans her weight forward, supporting herself with her cane. “We should bring him back.”

You can’t help but scoff. “What, one shitty thing Dave does, and all of a sudden you’re on his side?” 

She doesn’t deign to even look over at you. 

“We don’t know the full extent of how liable Gamzee is for his crimes, Karkat. We cannot pass judgement based on an assumption. I made that mistake once, and I will not make it again.” 

You...you really don’t have an adequate response for that so you settle for growling a little and grabbing the palmhusk angrily from Rose. 

You scroll through. 

You read the first pesterlog Gamzee had with him first. Honestly, you’re pretty fucking pissed at Dave right now. Throughout the entire conversation he’s just making fun of Gamzee and his admittedly shitty religion. Gamzee’s literally just trying to “troll” Dave like you fucking told him to, and he’s just getting fucking shat on by him. The pesterlog ends pretty abruptly. 

You swipe over to the next one. 

It’s hard for you to read. 

It’s full of rage and hate and fucking despair because his whole religion turned out to be a lie and now he doesn’t know what to fucking believe in. The part of you that has always been, and will probably always be, pale for him throbs with indignity for him. You shove that part deep, deep down and force yourself to finish reading quicker. 

Yeah, there it is. 

He goes on some crazy tangent about the puppet whispering to him, says Bro’s puppet has been telling him crazy shit, Dave asks if L’il Cal is the reason Gamzee’s flipping out, and Gamzee says yes, that L’il Cal is telling him to kill everyone. 

Jegus this is a fucking mess. 

This...doesn’t actually change much, contrary to what Rose says. 

The growing din of people attempting to argue quietly grows louder in your ears as you try to figure out what this shit actually means. Their voices are as deafening as the rising internal guilt besieging your mind. 

“Shut the fuck up!” you roar. The breaths you take in are as heavy as they are useless and your chest heaves in your fury. “This,” you shake Dave’s palmhusk, “doesn’t change fucking shit! Even if the goddamn puppet was telling him what to do, he could have fucking ignored it! He didn’t have to listen!” That’s what makes you the angriest, you think, that he could have chosen not to do any of the horrible shit he did, that he listened to a motherfucking puppet instead of you.

 Your mouth is a snarl, your horns are tilted forward to some invisible threat and the thrum of your rapid heartbeat is in your fucking throat. “He’s the one who fucking betrayed all of us, and whether or not someone else told him to do it does not fucking matter.” You have to force yourself to take a breath that actually fucking does something, instead of just sitting here surviving on the fumes you manage to draw into your aeration sacks. As the air fills your aeration sacs some of the tense lines of anger running through your body  start to ease up. 

You take another deep breath, hold it for a few seconds and let it out in a controlled sigh. You draw your horns back, and you see that the other trolls were unconsciously mirroring you and you are immediately grateful that no one else flipped off the handle. 

“Gamzee made the fucking decision to listen to some stupid thing made of cotton and felt. That was his own choice. And he does not get a free fucking pass just because Dave screwed up or he was hearing voices. Besides, we already knew the puppet was doing something to his head. This doesn’t change anything.” You look at Rose with a glare, daring her to challenge what you said. 

She apparently does dare to challenge you, because her look that had previously been slightly-removed concern hardens. She wears a tight frown. “Karkat, we don’t yet know how L’il Cal even works. We know that he is a Juju, and that he has a history of being owned by morally questionable people. To be fair, Gamzee could have been lying in his chat with Dave, we just don’t know. There are too many unknown factors at work here. We need to investigate further in order to figure out what actually happened.” She glances at Terezi. “And I’m sure that I’m not the only person wanting some insight and perhaps, finally, a fucking reason for his actions.” She levels a steely look at you. “It’s the least we deserve.” 

You frown. 

“Okay, and what if he was lying to Dave? What if the puppet didn’t make him do anything, what if he’s just a fucking asshole that deserves to stay dead?” 

Terezi’s eyes harden and her mouth forms an utterly shark-like snarl. “Then I will see him hang for his crimes, Karkat.” 

“I am certain we could figure out a good way to get rid of him. Perhaps we could finally run an experiment to discover whether there is anything that could kill godtiers that we have not previously considered.” Kanaya’s hand clenches tightly around her tube of lipstick, a dark look in her eyes. 

You shiver. 

John raises his hand, looking increasingly alarmed. “Or I could just use my Retcon powers to stick him back in the Void?”

“Yes, um, that seems like the least, uh, bloody course of action? Which would still comply with our, Community No-Murder rule? Not that in that instance he wouldn’t, uh, deserve a gruesome fate? But I just think, all things considered, that John’s plan, may be the best one?” Tavros looks like he’s worried one of the bloodthirsty girls you all call friends will turn on him, so you sigh and rake your fingers through your hair stressedly, drawing attention away from him.

“Yeah, Nitram’s probably right. Although, we could always let Terezi hang him first, and if he manages to come back to life, then stick him in the Void.” Terezi throws you a sharp grin, you smile back. 

Rose clears her throat. “So I believe we have all been assuaged properly with concern to this matter?” She looks around, and when no one shouts anything or leaps forward to protest, she nods. “Alright, then let’s get this fraymotif going.”

Wait, that’s not all there is to discuss about this right?

“Hold on Lalonde, what about the fucking logistics about this whole goddamned thing? Like, where’s the asshole going to live if we don’t send him back to the Void? Or what will his job be? Or, I don’t know, who is going to fucking watch him and keep him from flipping his shit again? ” You take a haughty, insulted breath in. “Because it’s sure as shit not going to be me. I’ve seen where that fucking road goes, and I am not looking to end up with two holes in my chest like Alternate, Doomed Timeline me. So someone else is going to have to be his fucking jailer. And I’m not so sure that anyone’s willing to do that for him.” 

Your arms are crossed, your right leg holding most of your weight as you lean sassily. They better not just fucking assume you’re going to fucking insert yourself into Gamzee’s pale quadrant just because an Alternate version of you did. 

Sure, you’ll admit that you’ve been pale for that asshole pretty much since you first met him, but you’ve seen how that turned out for another version of you, and you’re pretty fucking confident that if this Gamzee is the same as the one Other You was quadrants with, it won't turn out any different. 

You’re not going to sacrifice the tenuous happiness you have in this new world for an asshole that betrayed you all and tried to destroy your universe. 

“I’ll do it.” 

You snap your head around and stare at Rose in disbelief. 

Kanaya looks incredibly alarmed as well. “Rose, no-”

“Yes, Kanaya. I’m the one that suggested bringing him back in the first place, so I should take responsibility for him. Besides,” She wears a wry grin, and when her eyebrows start to waggle, you mentally groan, “I am quite the expert at interspecies relationships and communication.” Several of the people around you fake gag. 

She chuckles before schooling her expression a bit. “Not to mention that in another Timeline, he and I were actually Ash-mates, so we do have somewhat of a history.” Kanaya’s expression hardens. 

“Yes, and it failed, and arguably just made the situation worse for everyone involved.” 

Instead of getting angry like you probably would have, Rose’s face softens and she brings a hand up to cup Kanaya’s jaw tenderly as she steps closer to her. 

“Kanaya, dear, I understand that you’re concerned for me, but don’t you agree that I am at least partially responsible for what he will get himself up to here? If we bring him back because I said so, and he does something horrible, it will be my fault. So I have to be the one to watch out for him, and make sure that doesn't happen.” You see Kanaya’s face scrunch up, looking for a way to argue with her, before she seems to give up the struggle and just sighs. 

“Yes, darling, I understand. I’ll support you on this endeavor, if it is truly as important to our continued survival as you say it is. But know this,” Her glare returns full-forced and she bares her fangs in an angry grimace, “If he hurts you, in any way, I will slaughter him.” 

Rose smiles and pats her wife’s cheek. 

“Of course, dear. Now then,” She turns to look at you, “Karkat, I suppose I should make sure that this arrangement won’t bother you at all?” 

You scoff. “Not a single fucking bit, Rose. But I agree with Kanaya, if he hurts you, no force in existence will keep us from hunting him down.” She smiles, you think she appreciates how much you all care about each other. “But on another note, are you saying you’ll be moirails with him? ‘Cuz I can tell you, first-fucking-hand, that it’s not going to be easy. He’s so fucking obsessed with his stupid religion that you really can’t hold a conversation with him, and good luck trying to get him to actually fucking care about anything.” 

She has a small frown on her face as she seems to be wondering something. Her mouth opens, but she doesn't say anything for a moment, seeming to consider and choose her words carefully. When she does finally speak, curiosity laces her tone.

“His religion was dedicated to Lord English, was it not? He believed him to be a...Mirthful Messiah? Is that it?” Her question is non-sequitur enough that it throws you for a second. 

You open your mouth to answer, and surprisingly, Tavros beats you to it. 

“Yeah, uh, pretty much. Gamzee said there were uh, two of them though? One that represented, like, Mirth? And one that represented Rage, I think. Uh, do you want me to tell you, everything I know about it? Or were you just asking that, uh, specific question?” 

Rose looks mildly impressed. “Well, Tavros, if you have more information I would certainly welcome it.” 

He gives her a small smile before concentrating on remembering whatever it was that Gamzee told him. 

“So, the way he, uh, explained it to me, was that there is a band of, um, rowdy minstrels, I think? That will come and make a new planet, where everyone will live, and basically have a good time. Uh, and yeah, the gods of his religion, were probably, um, Lord English and someone else? But I know that Gamzee, at least before the game, just really liked, um, miracles and everybody getting along, which was a pretty large component of his religion, I think.” 

Rose ‘hmms’ and nods slowly. 

“I see. The other god then, was likely Calliope. And neither of them exist in this universe, seeing as Lord English is trapped in a black hole for the rest of eternity, and Calliope was unfortunately doomed to living in the Void since she is invariably tied into Lord English’s fate. So the question is then, if your God no longer exists, would you continue to serve him? There is no way for Lord English to escape since he is stuck in a paradoxical loop of always having existed and always ending up in the black hole. He fulfills his own causation loop. For all intents and purposes, Lord English does not, and has never existed. So I wonder what that would mean for Gamzee?”

You … have literally no idea what that would mean for Gamzee. 

“Well, considering Dave telling him his religion was a lie made him lose his shit the first time, I can’t imagine he’s gonna react well.” Sollux looks entirely deadpan, though he sends a mild glare at Dave as he speaks. 

Rose looks at him questioningly. “ Would he react badly though? I mean, he certainly wouldn’t be happy about it. But it’s not that his religion is a lie, in fact the opposite is true, but he just doesn’t have access to his God anymore. Besides,” She looks concerned as she glances at you, “I can’t believe Caliborn was particularly kind to him.” 

“No, he will definitely freak out. But it won’t be bad.” Terezi sounds very sure, and even gives a decisive nod at the end of her statement. 

You consider her for a moment. 

“Yeah, okay. If you’re sure, Terezi, then I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” She just looks at you. 

Rose speaks up. “Therefore Karkat, I do not believe his religion should cause much issue in the future. And as for not caring about things, well, I believe I know the cause of that issue and it is something I am confident I can address.” She looks at you. “Anyhow, he will live with me, and I will be the one to help get him settled in.” 

“No.” You all turn to look at Kanaya, whose expression has darkened significantly. 

“Pardon me, darling?”

Kanaya looks frustrated. “I said no, Rose. I am willing to overlook the obvious dangers associated with you entering a quadrant with him, but he absolutely cannot live in our hive with us. It is far too risky. You are often home alone while I tend to the Mother Grub. He cannot live with us.” 

You feel extremely awkward suddenly finding yourself in the middle of a lovers’ quarrel. They don’t often argue, so when they do it’s incredibly uncomfortable for literally everyone around them. 

Now Rose looks frustrated too. “But then where will he live when we revive him? And besides that, I was under the impression that Palemates often reside with each other?” 

You can’t help but scoff. “Yeah right. I mean, it happens here because we’re all uncomfortably chummy with one another, but trolls traditionally live alone. It is absolutely not required for you to live with him.” You are suddenly very aware that you just inserted yourself into a quadrant fight that was definitely none of your business. “Uh, sorry. Just thought I should clarify that for you. I’m gonna shut my trap now.” 

Rose sends you a mild glare before turning her attention back to Kanaya, her face softening a bit. “Okay, Kanaya, I understand your concerns and I agree that they are valid ones that I don’t think I could do anything to alleviate. But we are going to revive him, so who could he live with?” She immediately begins looking around the circle for volunteers. 

It’s an awkward silence that falls over you, so thank gog that it only lasts a few seconds before Lalonde 2.0 starts waving her hands and making little “ooh” sounds. 

The look you give her is the same one you imagine using if you found someone suddenly emerging from a shrub covered head to toe in mind honey and sticky notes. 

“Um, what exactly the fuck do you want, slightly pinker Lalonde?” You point at her, which the humans told you meant that you were telling her it was her turn to talk, “calling on her” they’d called it. 

She giggles as she slowly lowers her hands and leans slightly into Dirk’s side. “He could like, totally live with me, Eridan, Tavvy, and Jane! It would be super rad! I mean me and Janey already like clowney things, and Tav here seems to also like clowney things, if you catch my drift, nubs.” She wiggles her eyebrows at Tavros and Nitram honest to God flushes and looks away from her. 

Ew. 

Tavros sheepishly covers his face. “I don’t, um, really know what exactly it is, that you’re, um, insinuating there, Roxy. But I do wish you’d, stop, soon please.” 

Yeah fucking right he doesn’t know what she’s getting at. 

Whatever. 

“Yeah no. Absolutely not. Consider that shit fucking vetoed.” 

Roxy frowns a little at Dirk. 

“Uh, hold your metaphorical horses there, Di-Stri. I already offered, plus, like, you don’t live with us, so you totally don’t hold veto powers. Those are some sacred little things, and only me, Janey, Eridan, and Tavros got ‘em. ‘Sides, I got the room for him!” 

You have honestly no idea why she’s fucking offering to have Gamzee live with her, but you’re not going to look a gift hoofbeast in the maw. 

Dirk looks a little exasperated. “But Rox, look okay, I get that you want to be nice and helpful to your Daughter/Mom, but offering to house a known murderer in your house is a bit much, right?”

She grins a little and paps his face. “Dirkey, I already got a couple of those in my house. And I love them like, so fucking much.” 

Dirk raises a single eyebrow at her before sighing and hanging his head.

Her grin brightens and she claps happily. “Awe, thanks babe! It's sweet, you caring ‘bout if I get my dead on or not though!” She looks around at Jane, Tavros, and Eridan in turn. “You guys cool with that, though?”

Jane sighs. “I suppose so. What’s one more person in our house? Besides, I’ve dealt with enough of his tomfoolery that his antics shouldn’t bother me too much. And although he was slightly creepy when we met, if he is as changed as Rose and Terezi predict, it shouldn’t be too bad. So yes, I suppose it's alright.” Jane turns and joins Roxy in staring at Tavros next. 

He blushes under the attention. “Um, yeah, I’m fine with it. So long as uh, he doesn’t try to kill me, or um, kiss my head, I guess? It should be fine though, maybe it’ll even be fun? If he’s back to normal, that is.” You can’t help the disgusted face you make at him saying he doesn’t want Gamzee to kiss his head. Just- what the literal shithumping fuck? That’s a weird goddamn thing to say. 

You kind of figured he’d say yes though, they were pretty much best friends growing up. 

Now all three of them look at Eridan, who is staunchly avoiding their looks, even going so far as to turn his back to them. 

“No. Abso-fucking-lutely not.” 

Roxy pouts. “Awe, but Eri, why not?” 

He gives an exasperated and dramatic sigh before turning around with a flourish, gesturing vaguely at the fridge. “Because Rox, wwe don’t have the goddamn room!” 

You see Jane’s face scrunch in confusion. 

“What on Earth are you talking about, Eridan? We have an entire extra room we don’t even use.”

For some reason when you all landed on this new planet there were already houses here, fully furnished with all the basic necessities. You’d all pretty much just decided who you could tolerate living with, took quadrants into consideration, and ended up wherever you all agreed on. Roxy and co. have one of the biggest houses, since there are so many people living there, and you and Dave have one of the smaller ones. A comfortable three respiteblocks, one for each of you, plus an extra one for guests. 

To be fair, you don’t really have guests since everyone lives within shouting distance, but the thought is there, and the room is ready if there’s ever the occasion to use it. 

Eridan glares at her. “Wwe do too use it. I use it. For keepin’ my stuff.” Jane groans in frustration. 

“Eridan, we have talked about this little hoarding habit of yours. Even Roxy agrees it isn’t healthy. Do you have an actual issue about living with Gamzee?” 

Eridan scrunches his face in displeasure about getting rid of his stuff, but the frown lessens considerably when she asks about Gamzee. He sighs. “No, not reely. I don’t actually mind Gam all that much.” He grumbles to himself. “Guess I’ll have to movve all my shit though.” 

Roxy beams at him. “Aww, thanks dude. That’s super nice of you to do. I’m like, shedding a tear, that’s how proud I am baby.” 

You see a happy smile on Eridan’s face as he turns back to the group’s conversation. 

Rose smiles too. “Yes Eridan, I’m shore he’ll appreciate the gesture.” Feferi giggles. 

Jane cracks her fingers. “So now that that’s all sorted out, are we ready to begin? And remind us, Rose, who will we be needing for this fraymotif?” 

Rose clears her throat. “Ah, yes. We’ll need you, Feferi, and one of the Time players, please.” 

You’re just about to elbow Dave to volunteer when Aradia floats forward, hovering with her cool new fairy wings. 

“I’ll do it! Bringing him back doesn’t morally disgust me like it does with him.” She jabs a thumb back at Dave. “Besides, I kinda like being around dead things!” She’s so fucking chipper about touching the corpse of your dead friend you kind of can’t believe it. 

“Gross AA.” Sollux grimaces. 

You agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly. 

Rose holds a hand up placatingly. “Now hold on then Aradia, before you go around touching dead bodies all willy nilly, here’s what I was thinking. Is there a way for you to rewind time on his body a bit? To make it more freshly dead instead of, well, advanced dead? That might make it more tolerable for everyone to be around and for the Life players to touch.” 

Aradia looks thoughtful for a moment before looking back at Rose with a wide grin. “Yup! I can definitely do that! Is that the only thing you’re going to need from me, Rose?” 

“No actually. This is more of a precursor to make the whole experience less horrible. You’ll join in on the main event as well. I believe we’ll be using you to rewind the body's time, to help restore it to a state before being cut in half, while the Life players work together to build all the necessary blood vessels and bones and whatnot into the “new” tissue you create. Then after those things have been built, and the body is viable, Jane should be able to just revive him.”

You nod. “So it’ll be like hitting the rewind button on Gamzee’s body.” Rose looks at you, pleased. 

“Yes, that’s essentially what the plan is.” 

“But uh, what about his, brain? Should we have a, uh, Mind player, to help with it?” Tavros is looking at the fridge in concern.

 Rose’s eyebrows draw together in consideration. “Well my initial thought was that we still want the mind he had right before death so we can get the most recent iteration of Gamzee, so there are no memory issues to overcome. But perhaps we will need a Mind player to ensure that that is the case?” She looks at Terezi, who returns her look with her own excited one. 

“I can certainly give it a try, Miss pink bubblegum! I don’t mind one bit!” Her grin is needle-sharp, but you can tell she genuinely means it. She really doesn’t mind, although you cannot, for the life of you, imagine why not. 

She’s probably just a better person than you, honestly. 

You clap. “Great! Then let’s get this horrorfest on the fucking road. Aradia, can you do your rewind thing now?” 

She grins at you and lands gently back on the ground. You watch as she walks a few steps towards it, kneels onto the forest floor below, and raises her hands over the thermal hull. 

She closes her eyes as her hands glow a deep red, until eventually there is a vaguely Gamzee-shaped red aura visible above the fridge. She stays like that, locked completely still, with her eyes closed. 

Time seems to pass slowly around the rest of you, though you’re fairly certain it’s not a result of anything Aradia’s doing. 

Eventually the color dies down and she opens her eyes again. She looks up at Rose with a victorious smile. “There we go! We should be fine to go now, Rose.” She stands up and goes to stand beside the other girls gathering in front of the fridge, preparing for the fray-motif. 

Rose looks over Aradia worriedly for a second. “Are you sure you’re alright to continue Aradia? I’m sure that was no small feat.” 

Aradia gives her a double pistol and a wink. “That’s what she said. But yeah, I should be fine.” 

You frown and turn to look at your matesprit. You catch his eye and jerk your head to the fridge, mouthing “help her”. You can see his eyes widen behind his glasses. He gives a small, yet forceful shake of his head. You nod more forcefully. He frowns and mouths ”no way” as he shakes his head. You snarl and jerk your head over at Aradia, mouthing “get over there, Dave”. He considers you for a moment before letting out a sigh. He looks back over at Rose, who had been watching your silent battle in amusement. She quirks an eyebrow at him. 

He groans and slumps over to Aradia, only a few steps in front of you. “Hold up, I can help you, dude.” 

Rose gives you a grateful smile before looking back at the Life players gathered on the other side of the fridge ready to do the fraymotif. 

She throws a look at Eridan. “Eridan, if you could please remove the clown from the fridge now.” 

Eridan looks at her, aghast. “Wwhat the fuck, Rose?” She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb. 

“He’s not gross anymore, Eridan. That’s why Aradia rewound the Time of his body. It’ll be just like he’s sleeping. Besides, it was your punishment, was it not?” 

He glares at her and grumbles something to himself. He stomps over to the fridge before throwing a glare your way. 

“Brace yourself Kar. This might glubbin’ suck.” 

You roll your eyes and make a ‘get on with it’ gesture. 

He growls and throws the door open. 

And there’s...no smell. Thank God. 

You dare to look inside, at the body. 

It really does look just like he’s sleeping. 

This time there are no gross worm-eaten holes, no dead, rotting tissue. Just a shit-ton of purple blood. Thankfully, from this angle you can’t see inside of him, where he was cut open, since the side of the fridge is in the way.

When there are no sudden sounds of disgust or horror, Eridan un-scrunches his face and pops one eye open hesitantly, looking down at Gamzee. 

“Oh, you wwere right. That’s not so bad. Okay, up wwe go, Gam.” He reaches in and grabs Gamzee’s right arm and leg. Well, his only arm and leg. 

He hoists him up with barely a quiver, like Gamzee weighs literally nothing. Even just lifting half of him should still cause some level of exertion. Fucking Highbloods. 

He holds him up for a second as you make a gesture to Sollux, who uses his psionics to pick the thermal hull up and drop it somewhere away from where you are all gathered. 

Then Eridan bends over and pretty gently lowers Gamzee’s body to the ground. 

Once it’s settled, Eridan steps back, rubbing his hands on his pants trying to get the blood off. 

Rose nods appreciatively. 

“Thank you, dear pitch-mate. Your sacrifice is acknowledged and appreciated. Now then, as Karkat said, ‘Let’s get this horrorfest on the fucking road’.” She stands back as Jane and Feferi share a look, before they both kneel and hold their hands above the body. Their hands glow faintly, like they’re tapping into Life rather than actively using it. They’re on the side with the limbs, the side not facing you. You unfortunately get the privilege of having the “open” side facing you. 

You don’t look at it.

You see Dave and Aradia do the same, one parallel to each Life player, kneeling a few feet in front of you, thankfully blocking most of the gore. They lift their hands in sync, both glowing red at the same time. Terezi grins and settles herself at Gamzee’s head, to the side of his one intact horn.

They all seem to settle in, falling into some sort of rhythm or understanding with one another, attuning to each other’s own flavor of Aspect and Class. 

They’re all waiting for something, though you don’t know what it is. 

You see Rose nod from her spot beside you and suddenly the area bursts into an array of color. Seagreen mixing with maroon and teal, intertwining, encasing the body and surrounding all of you in turn. You feel marginally better than a second ago, the beginnings of a forming headache now entirely gone. 

Then with a bright flash, the color dies down until it encases only Gamzee’s body. You see the Time, Life, and Mind symbols stack on top of each other, hovering just a few inches off of Gamzee’s chest. 

You watch as Gamzee’s body seems to get younger, until abruptly the other half of his body returns, like Dirk’s katana never severed him in half. The maroon grows dimmer and the clock decreases in size as the Life symbol and color seem to grow. You see a green light emanating along the line previously bisecting Gamzee. Terezi’s teal Mind symbol maintains its size, and Gamzee’s head is encased in the color, though the intensity of it never changes. She looks deeply focused, her near-permanent grin schooled into a flat line of concentration as she keeps Gamzee’s mind from regressing along with the rest of his body. 

Eventually the green of Life begins to die down as well, and if you look closely, you can see some color returning to Gamzee’s body, like he hadn't lost all of his blood in a fight with a katana a sweep ago.

And all at once, the colors stop and the symbols fade. 

And there, lying at your feet is Gamzee Makara, now whole again. 

The fraymotifers all come to near synchronously, though that probably has to do with being linked together with two Time players. You see Jane and Feferi blink dazedly as they try to regain their bearings. Terezi’s eyes snap open and she takes a large inhale through her teeth. She grins at what she sees. Dave sort of flops back to look up at you, and you try to give him your best supportive smile. He looks happy and turns to look at Aradia, who is clutching her head. 

You instantly worry. 

“Oh shit. Oh no. Fuck. Dammit Aradia, you should’ve just let Dave do it. I knew this was a bad idea, you’ve fucking overexerted yourself and now Tavros, Sollux, and fucking Nepeta are going to string me up to a tree somewhere and take turns repeatedly shitting on my face for all of Eternity since we can’t even fucking die. Jegus . Shit, I’m sorry, I know you’re probably in like a lot of pain right now and I should just fucking shut up, but I need to tell you how fucking sorry I am first, okay? Like really, I’m just the fucking worst leader ever, you should really just-” Kanaya paps you hard between your vestigial wingstruts. It dazes you. 

Aradia looks up at you quizzically. “I just have a slight headache, Karkat. I’m godtier, remember? And I’ve been one for kind of a while, so I’m pretty used to this kind of thing.” She grins as she puts one hand on Dave’s shoulder, leveraging herself up from the ground despite his indigant protest. “But it’s really sweet that you were so worried about me! So thank you!” She looks around for a second before spotting Tavros, who had shifted to stand near Gamzee’s head during the whole thing, and bounds over to him. She jumps and throws her arms around his neck in a hug. 

You politely look away. 

Gamzee looks exactly like he did during the big showdown. It both scares you and reassures you. Like yeah, the last memory you have of him was when you were getting your ass handed to you by Lord Fucking English while this asshole just sat back and watched. But it means the plan worked, and since the Seers aren’t having any big meltdowns, it means you’re theoretically going down the right track. 

That part, at least, is reassuring. 

Rose’s pointed cough breaks the fixated stare you had on Gamzee’s body, and as you look back up at her you realize you had unconsciously moved closer to him. You’re standing pretty much right next to his limp hand, where you had been gazing down at him worriedly. You blush and mumble some sort of defense for yourself as you back up. 

She smiles gently at you before looking at Crocker. “So Jane, if you would.” She gestures at Gamzee’s body with an open-handed motion. Jane sighs a little and nods, kneeling back down. 

She stays there for a second, hands lifted above the body and glowing Life green as her oculars fall closed. 

You all wait. 

“Karkat, you promised you’d remove the codpiece, remember?” 

You blanch a little in disgust. 

Yeah, you had forgotten about that promise. 

You make a very dignified groan as you bend over near Gamzee’s waist. 

The fucking thing is protruding right at you and you can’t help but snarl in disgust as you put your fingers under the waist of the stupid shorts with the stupid, godforsaken thing sewn into them. Logically, you know it’s just fabric and stuffing filling the codpiece, but a very large part of your brain is cringing away, trying to remove yourself from the unreal possibility you might fucking uncover his actual goddamn bulge. 

You swallow hard and give yourself a determined little nod and yank his stupid purple shorts down his legs. You can’t look up as you pull the shorts off all the way, staunchly keeping your eyes glued to the fabric in your hands. 

There are no sounds of horror or disgust though, so eventually you cringe an eye forward, to look at his hips. 

Nothing. 

Nothing is there but his ugly purple leggings and the end of his weird shirt thing. 

Thank the uncharacteristically merciful Mothergrub. 

A relieved sigh escapes you, unbidden. You nod to yourself, reassured, and stand as you captchalogue his shorts. Dave has an eyebrow raised at you and a disgusted grimace on his face. 

You shrug at him, not understanding his issue and he gestures vaguely at your pockets. 

It takes you a second to understand what he's implying, but when you do, you can't suppress the shudder of revulsion that goes through your body.

You blush and splutter. “I’m not FUCKIN KEEPING IT, DAVE! What the fuck would I want to keep it for? As some sort of fucked up memento of the literal sweeps he spent masquerading around acting like he had a constant boner we were all forced to behold no matter how fucking much we all wished we could just gauge our oculars out with a motherfucking spoon? Goddamn,  Dave.” You pause and sideye him, blush still full-force. “I was putting it away so my fucking gander bulbs wouldn't slowly melt out of my goddamn skull from goddamn exposure to it. Fuck. I’m gonna throw it in the forge as soon as we’re done here.” You look at Equius. 

“Get fucking ready horsehumper, that purple monstrosity is gonna be living out the rest of its life as ash in your goddamn place of work. Does that make it a Hostile Work Environment? Yeah it sure as shit does, but maybe you can use it as motivation to work faster so you can be away from its abhorrent, panblistering presence sooner.”

Equius wordlessly grunts in acknowledgement, though you can see him roll his oculars behind his stupid, cracked shades. 

Fucker. 

“Am I good to start, Karkat?” Jane draws your attention back to her and you blink once before giving her the go-ahead. 

“About goddamn time.” You flip off Sollux, his snide little comments are not helpful or fucking necessary. 

Jane repositions herself and soon enough her hands begin to glow green again, and the body is covered in its light. 

She puts her hands to his chest and pushes down once, hard.

The green light flashes in a bright burst of color and you see a flicker of the life symbol appear in the middle of Gamzee’s forehead for only a split second before it, and the green lights fade away. 

She backs up a bit, not looking away from Gamzee’s chest. 

You see it slowly rise once, a stutter of a movement, before falling again. It stays still. 

Your heart drops to your fucking ass and all you can feel is a horrible mix of disappointment and relief. 

Terezi steps forward slowly and leans down towards him like she’s going to whisper something to him. 

Instead she slaps him hard on the face. 

You see his chest jump with the force of breath he takes in as his eyes fly open, heart now apparently working. 

He looks blindly around at you all, he doesn’t seem aware of his surroundings. His eyes are yellow. 

Briefly he flits his gaze up to you, looks you up and down, nods quickly to himself and slurs out “Kar-” before his head promptly falls back down with a thud onto the dirt, once again completely unconscious. 

His chest is still moving though. 

Your jaw drops and you stare incredulously at Jane. She actually fucking did it. Holy shit. 

“Gadzooks! You did it Janey! You’ve brought the jester back to life! How you can accomplish such feats truly astounds me, my friend.” Jake leans a hand down, helping Jane back up as she keeps her eyes fixed on Gamzee laying prone at her feet. 

Slowly she brings her eyes up, looking at Rose. 

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Rose. I have memories of that boy I would sooner forget, as I’m sure you do.” She glances back down to Gamzee before giving Rose a heavy stare. “Be careful, Rose. He is dangerous, no matter how well he hides it.” 

She brushes dirt and grass off her knees idly before fixing Terezi with an almost guilty look. She nods once at her before gently grasping Roxy’s hand, and heading back towards the village. Roxy wiggles her fingers at you to say goodbye, before turning around and mumbling something quietly to her companion.

You look back down at Gamzee. 

Physically, he looks younger than you remember him. But that could have just been the look in his eyes when he saw you. 

He just looked so, so young. 

You haven’t seen that look in his eyes in sweeps, since the start of the game. 

And even though his voice was just a rasp, about as soothing a sound as marbles in a woodchipper, it comforts you for some reason. Makes it more real that he’s back.

You missed it so much. 

There’s a hand resting gently on your upper arm. You glance to your side and see Kanaya there, looking at you with pity on her face. She asks you a silent question with her eyes and you respond with a nod. Yeah, you’re fine. 

“So...what now, Rose?” Dave asks with a lazy drawl, but you can see the way his hand is twitching for his sword. 

Rose is looking at Gamzee’s body calculatingly, seeming to weigh her choices. 

“Well, first things first, will he be alright? Feferi?” 

The Heiress glubs cheerily. “Yup! He’s just unconchious because it takes a lot of energy to produce a new half of your body! Plus being brought back to Life! I would be moray surprised if he weren’t unconchious.” 

“Yes, that’s what I figured. Oh, by the way,” She looks over to Terezi with a small smirk, “nice hit, Terezi. Certainly seems to have done the job.” 

Terezi cackles. “I’m always here with a frond at the ready for the clown anytime you need me, Rose.” 

“Hell yeah, TZ, fuck him up.” Dave pumps a fist in the air and Terezi grins again. 

Rose gives a little sigh before turning to Aradia. “Would you mind carrying him over to my house for me, Aradia?” 

The rustblood pulls herself away from her moirail to lope over to where Rose is standing in front of the unconscious troll you all just fucking resurrected. 

“Sure!” She holds her hands out and a maroon aura encases Gamzee’s body as he hangs limply midair. 

Kanaya lets go of your arm. “Now wait just a second, Rose. I thought we agreed he would stay with Roxy?” 

“Of course, darling. But Eridan said he has stuff in the room Gamzee will be staying in, so he needs to go clean it out before we can put him in there. I’ll just put him on our couch in the meantime. As soon as the room is ready we can move him over there, is that alright?” 

You see Kanaya give a small frown before she eventually relents. “Yes, that’s fine. So long as we put him there as soon as possible. And if he wakes up, I’m getting my lipstick.” 

Rose grins a little before gesturing to Aradia, who walks with her and Kanaya back to the village, towards Rose’s house.