Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/6087247.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Rape/Non-Con,
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Homestuck, MS_Paint_Adventures
  Relationship:
      Gamzee_Makara/Karkat_Vantas, Gamzee_Makara_&_Karkat_Vantas, Kanaya_Maryam
      &_Karkat_Vantas
  Character:
      Karkat_Vantas, Gamzee_Makara, Kanaya_Maryam, Eridan_Ampora, Nepeta
      Leijon, Aradia_Megido, Feferi_Peixes, Sollux_Captor, Equius_Zahhak,
      Terezi_Pyrope, Vriska_Serket, Tavros_Nitram
  Additional Tags:
      Sad, Quadrant_Vacillation, Sober_Gamzee_Makara, sex_later_on, Porn_With
      Plot, Karkat_Needs_a_Hug, Gamzee_Makara_and_Karkat_Vantas_Moirallegiance,
      Angst, Death, a_lot_of_people_die, Nepeta_kicks_ass_though, POV_Karkat
      Vantas, Blood, Dubious_Consent, Extremely_Dubious_Consent
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-02-22 Updated: 2016-02-29 Chapters: 6/? Words: 3974
****** Timeline error: Try again? ******
by FearTheFuckingToaster
Summary
     Karkat gets a chance to restart the timeline, and try again to save
     his friends. But when he screws up and alters the timeline too early,
     things take a turn for the worse. He now has to manage his team and
     keep Gamzee from going on a murderous rampage. With nothing to take
     his aggression out on, Gamzee turns to his moirail as a target.
***** Prolog *****
Karkat sank to his knees. Not only had he fucked up so entirely once, he did it
twice. Karkat had been so sure, when his denizen asked him, that he was
prepared to keep everyone alive, that he could again be the leader and take
control. But not only had he failed again, but he had failed so much worse than
last time. As he sat on his knees, green blood pooling in the material he
wondered if this what was always bond to happen. That he was destined to fail,
and the harder he fought it, the worse it would be for him in the end. Hands in
fists, Karkat gritted his teeth as he tried not to think about how his denizen
warned him about this. He had been warned that if he tried to change things,
all bets were off. He would no longer be able to know and predict what would
happen anymore. Time travel was a tricky thing.
***** Karkat, NO. *****
He had followed the normal timeline fairly close. The game had gone almost
exactly the same. He had been told there was no way to stop Jack from being
formed, and no way for his session to be successful. That had taken a while to
sink in. But, eventually he had understood. The only thing he could change was
the formation of Lord English. If he played his cards right, everyone would
survive! Unfortunately, there was a limit to what “everyone” was. Only the
players that were still alive at the point that Karkat traveled back in time
would survive. He thought he could handle that. After all, he knew that they
were going to die. There would be no stopping it, so he had to keep that in
mind.
But Karkat was never the troll to just sit by and take things. He had been
sitting in the main lab, trying to stop himself from going out and stopping
Gamzee from going on his murderous rampage, or even going to stop Vriska from
turning Tavros into a Tavros-cabob. But he couldn’t. He had to stay right where
he was. Last time that everything went down, Karkat had stood in front of
Eridan as he blinded Sollux and slaughtered Feferi and Kanaya. He would have to
do that again, or chance messing up the timeline. That knowledge didn’t help
his flinch as Eridan teleported in. It didn’t help how wobbly his words were,
and probably didn’t help the pin pricks of tears in his eyes.
The fight was quick, just like last time. The yelling drew in Kanaya’s
attention, just like last time. Eridan raised his wand and blasted Sollux into
the wall, just like last time. But here was the moment of silence. The quiet
second that Karkat had cursed himself for years because he hadn’t acted. He
hadn’t stopped Eridan before he did something really permeant. But here he was
again. And he was trying to force himself NOT to act this time. Red tears
collected in his eyes as he heard Feferi scream. Just like she did last time.
And then Eridan raised his wand... Karkat wanted to look away. He didn’t want
to see this again. He didn’t want to see Eridan’s snarl as he murdered his
once-friend. He didn’t want to hear the sound of Feferi’s body hitting the
ground again. He didn’t want to hear Kanaya’s angry yell. But he couldn’t look
away.
Everything played out just the way it did the time before. The only difference
this time was Karkat. Instead of a shocked, terrified expression, he wore a
grief filled face, with tears trying to force their way out. That was the last
time he would ever see Feferi. And Sollux would soon leave him. They were on
the same track as last time. Karkat’s heart lurched as Eridan turned around. He
raised his wand and Karkat tried not to scream. First the matriorb, then
Kanaya. First the matriorb, then Kanaya. Karkat’s chest tightened as the
matriorb exploded in a flash of holy wand light. Next was Kanaya. Eridan raised
his wand. NO!! There was no way he could watch this again.
Suddenly there was another pause. A pause Karkat didn’t remember happening.
Later he would realize he had screamed when Eridan raised his weapon. Unlike
last time, he had a chance. Not thinking he ran forward, diving into Kanaya.
They both tumbled forward just as Eridan snapped back into his action and sent
a fiery bolt of holy magic above their heads. Karkat felt the white hot buzz on
his shoulders, but the blast missed him and Kanaya entirely. By the time Kanaya
rolled him off of her, Eridan had absconded. All that was left was his purple
cape, discarded on the ground.
“Oh dear…”
Karkat looked at Kanaya, who was now standing, lipstick in hand. Karkat started
to stand, then soon realized he wasn’t as unscratched as he originally thought.
He had managed to escape Eridan’s blast, but he had tackled someone holding a
chainsaw. Thanks to Kanaya’s quick reflexes, his injuries were minor. But
still, bright red leaked from a gash in his shoulder. By instinct he went to
cover it up. But there was really no point. Kanaya already knew his blood
color. After all, while she was a rainbow drinker, she had to get her meals
from some… Wait. This Kanaya wasn’t the one who knew about Karkat’s mutation.
She was yet to discover that about him. Fearful eyes met Kanaya’s concerned
expression.
“Karkat…” She said carefully, “You are…” She paused, taking a breath. Karkat
gulped, trying to stifle the panic rising in his chest. “You are bleeding,
Karkat. I am sorry. I do believe that would be because of me.”
A breath of relief. Of course she didn’t care. She didn’t last time. Why should
things be different now. Karkat’s heart rate increased. Fuck. He had started
changing things too early. Oh god. He had really fucked up this time hadn’t he.
***** Don't forget. *****
Chapter Summary
     There are some things that are important to remember. Karkat will pay
     for forgetting.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
That was the point that Karkat had fucked up the rest of the timeline. Maybe if
Aradia had still been alive, he would have had more of a chance. But he was
fucked. The next two hours were the hardest of Karkat’s life. Not only did he
get to watch all the people he knew would die, die again, people who were never
meant to die got slaughtered.
Eridan went to befriend Jack, and got a stabbed for his peace efforts.
Vriska got stabbed in the back by Terezi, just like she had before. But this
time, mere moments after the spider bitches body hit the ground, Jack showed
up, covered in purple blood, to claim Terezi’s life before she could even
react.
Nepeta and Equius were safe from Gamzee this time. Karkat knew better than to
try and send Zahhak after the clown again. What Karkat hadn’t anticipated, was
the big blue blooded idiot trying to take on Jack and failing. Nepeta had been
looking for survivors at the time, and luckily hadn’t seen what happened to her
moirail.
Kanaya had helped Karkat lug Sollux’s unconscious body until the idiot finally
woke up. Without his optic blast and sight, he was pretty useless though.
It didn’t take long for Jack to hunt the tree down. Kanaya instructed the boys
to run while she held off the demon dog. Karkat had no time to argue because
there was no way for him to help in this fight. He would just get in the way
and he knew it. Holding tight to Sollux’s shirt, he dragged the yellow blood
through the halls at high speeds.
This is where he ran (literally) into Nepeta. The small cat girl ended up
falling as the force of his impact knocked them both to the ground. After a
brief explanation of their situation, Nepeta agreed to go with Karkat and
Sollux but wanted to find Equius before they hid from Jack. Karkat didn’t have
the heart to tell her the truth.
It didn’t take long to get to the roof. Karkat did his best to keep his gaze
away from Terezi’s body. If they could get to Aradia, maybe he could convince
her to change the timeline with her magic time powers.
Sollux was ready to blast them to the green sun, but Karkat wouldn’t let him.
He couldn’t let Sollux die while the timeline was still in flux. At least,
that’s what he told him. In reality, he just couldn’t stand to see another
friend die.
As much as Karkat had been hoping for Kanaya to kill the demon, Jack emerged
only a few minuets later, jade blood splattered up his side. This caused the
three trolls to scatter.
Sollux didn’t get far before he was knifed down. After all, a blind kid can’t
run far.
Karkat ran directly the way he had came. He had to get to Kanaya. He was sure
that if he didn’t corpse-smooch her again, she wouldn’t return as a rainbow
drinker. God, this was so fucked up. The only person who he had “saved” is
Nepeta, and he didn’t even do that on purpose. And who knew. Maybe she was next
on the death list.
As Karkat ran up on Kanaya’s body, he realized one thing. He had forgotten an
important factor. There was one more resident of the meteor.
He sank to his knees as he gazed at Kanaya’s beheaded body. There was no way to
bring her back this time.
He shouldn’t have forgotten about Gamzee.
Chapter End Notes
     Kinda short, but I'm just setting up the background still. Expect
     smut in 3-4 more chapters.
***** He's not the moirail you knew. *****
Chapter Summary
     Karkat needs to abscond, but Gamzee is too interested with his
     shoulder for that to happen.
Jade blood soaked into Karkat’s pants. He didn’t care. There was only three
people left on this meteor, and there would be less soon. Gamzee was surely
going to kill Nepeta, just as he did last round. That is, if Jack didn’t get to
her first.
“honk.”
Or if Gamzee got to HIM first. Karkat whipped his head around, falling on his
ass in a puddle of jade. Gamzee was splattered in almost every color of the
rainbow. The clown had been busy. He had been collecting heads. Why was this
bumbling idiot so obsessed with heads???
“HONK.”
Karkat flinched, but didn’t try to run. Last round of this shit, he had run
away from Gamzee, and that only ended with the purple blood playing with
Karkat’s fear until he was forced to confront him upfront. He gulped and slowly
stood. The only way for him to get out of this was to shooshpap the fuck out of
Gamzee again. Then again, Karkat had no way of knowing if Gamzee would actually
stop this time. There was no one to help Karkat and punish the clown if he
stepped out of line.
Gamzee stepped forward and Karkat had to force himself not to panic. His
instincts told him to run from the highblood who surly wanted to rip his guts
out.
“honk.”
Didn’t this asshole have anything better to say?
“HONK.”
Obviously not.
With each honk, Gamzee took another step. He approached his friend, club in
hand. At some point Karkat started backing up. His panic was overriding his
logic. Every part of him told him to run. He had to run and escape. He had to
get away from this blood thirsty highblood.
“honk. HONK. honk. HONK. honk. HONK.”
Gamzee continued forward as Karkat scrambled back till he hit a wall. No where
to go now. With fear written over his whole expression, he forced his hands
into fists to try to stop his trembling. As Gamzee got closer, Karkat shut his
eyes tightly.
It was quiet for a long time. Karkat could feel Gamzee’s breath, each time the
highblood exhaled, Karkat could feel the strands of hair on his face shift.
“best friend.”
Karkat forced himself to open his eyes when Gamzee spoke. It was the first
thing he heard him say this whole time besides honk. This was a good sign!
Karkat opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off with Gamzee finishing his
sentence.
“you ain’t been checking your MOTHER FUCKING MESSAGES”
Karkat jumped when the highblood screamed. He had gotten used to Gamzee yelling
on the meteor. It was a daily occurrence. The clown hadn’t meant any real harm
by it. The most he had ever done was once throw Karkat into a nearby wall when
he tried to shooshpap him too early. But this Gamzee was different. There was
venom and real rage behind his words. This wasn’t a game anymore, and Karkat
life depended on how violent the highblood was feeling.
“I’m… Sorry Gamzee. Eridan, he-”
“shut up.”
Karkat immediately obliged. Red tears drying on his cheeks, he could do little
about his situation. His only hope was to calm Gamzee down. With a gulp, he
lifted a trembling hand to touch Gamzee’s check. But before the “shoosh” even
exited his mouth, Gamzee’s hand shot up and grabbed Karkat’s wrist with
freakish strength. Karkat cried out, his wrist feeling like it was going to
break.
“I SAID SHUT UP MOTHERFUCKER.”
Karkat fell quiet. A small whimper played in his throat as he tried to keep
silent. Gamzee had never been so intimidating before. Last round of this
bullshit, Gamzee had never managed to get him alone. This time, he was
completely at the mercy of the juggalo. There was no cop out. He couldn’t go
running to Terezi or Kanaya. There was no threat of clown hunting for Gamzee.
He was free to do whatever he wanted, and Karkat was fairly sure he wanted to
see Karkat’s guts on the floor.
Gamzee reached up, and Karkat prepared for his neck to be snapped. Instead, his
head was roughly shoved to the side as his arm was thrown against the wall and
pinned. There was no point in struggling, but he still flinched whenever Gamzee
made sudden movements. The highblood seemed particularly interested in Karkat’s
shoulder… Oh no.
“what’s this bro? you up and got colors a brother ain’t ever even motherfucking
got his gazers on before.”
Karkat’s eyes were clamped shut again. His body was shaking as he tried not to
give Gamzee another reason to gut him here and now. God he’d been so STUPID. He
was so used to everyone on the meteor knowing about his blood color. He was so
used to Gamzee going on about its “pretty bright shine” and how he thought the
color was a “real motherfucking miracle.” This Gamzee wouldn’t see it as a
miracle. He would see it as a reason to end Karkat’s life in the most gruesome
way possible.
The clown released his arm. Opening his eyes, Karkat watched Gamzee’s slack
expression as he reached up to touch the wound on his captives shoulder. But
then suddenly, a high pitched wail filled the air and Karkat’s blood turned to
ice.
“Oh fuck. Nepeta!”
***** Nepeta is a smol badass *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Karkat raced down the hallway. Honks came from around the corner. Gamzee had
released Karkat for barley a second, but the small troll had used this
opportunity to bolt towards Nepeta. If she died, he would be left alone on the
meteor with Gamzee. He could only imagine what the clown would do to him if he
realized this. This inspiration caused him to run faster.
As he hit a corner, he reached Nepeta just in time to see her rip her claws out
of Jack’s throat. Karkat stopped short.
What.
The 5’0 cat girl turned to him, tears streaming down her face. Karkat
immediately ran up to her.
“Nepeta! I heard you scream, what-”
He was cut off as she flew into his chest, almost knocking him over. She was
crying, holding on to the fabric of his sweater and shaking. Without speaking,
she looked over to where Equius’s body lay. Of course, it was headless. But
Nepeta didn’t need to know it was Gamzee, not Jack, that stole her moirail’s
head.
“AC says that…” She paused a moment, trying to recollect herself. “I found
Equius.”
She started crying again, and Karkat did the best he could to comfort her. He
knew she had a weird crush on him, but now was not the time to be awkward about
that. He needed to be there for her, crush or not. Patting her back, he let her
calm down a bit before speaking.
“So, what happened with Jack?”
Nepeta let go of him, standing up to her full height. Karkat was barely an inch
taller than her, but her tried not to notice.
“I found Equius and…” she sniffed, and wiped her nose. “It looked like he
didn’t beat Jack after all.
He told me to stay in the room, that it would be safer that way. I should have
gone with him! And then he wouldn’t be…” Tears started down her cheeks again.
Karkat grimaced. Even if he DID save Nepeta, it was incredibly cruel of paradox
space to leave her alive, but not Equius. Even if the guy was gross, sweaty,
egotistical, and a total asshole, he still made Nepeta happy. (For some
reason.)
“Are… Are we the only ones left?” Nepeta asked.
Karkat shook his head. “Gamzee. And I think… Aradia and Sollux?”
Nepeta turned her head with a puzzled expression.
“Huh?”
“Look, it doesn’t fucking matter. Lets just get to the fucking roof so we’re
ready when the humans get here ok?”
“AC wonders how you know the humans will get here.”
“I just fucking do ok? Don’t worry your bulge about it lets just go.”
He was trying to act normal, to distract Nepeta from the fact that literally
all of her friends just died. But it just felt so forced. He was trying to keep
himself from breaking down, because now was the worst time for that. Gamzee had
disappeared, but who knew when he would show up again. Karkat guided Nepeta up
the stairs, back to the roof to await the arrival of the humans and Aradia and
Sollux.
Last time, Sollux had brought the meteor to the sun while standing on it. But
with Aradia’s help, Karkat was sure they could get the meteor to the sun again.
But it would probably take a lot longer this ti-
“HONK."
Karkat whipped his head around to see none other than Gamzee standing in the
doorway. Nepeta looked too. Oh gog. She would have no idea what Gamzee is
capable of. He had no gashes on his face that would later become scars.
Technically, Gamzee was still innocent. He hadn’t done anything but threaten
Karkat and steal a few heads.
“Gamzee?"
He stared at Karkat before disappearing into the hallway. Oh well. At least he
was keeping a respectful distance. Maybe he was going to go collect all the
bodies again.
Chapter End Notes
     Ok so smut probably in next chapter, or the one after that. So much
     plot happened I wasn't expecting >_>
***** Old friends *****
Chapter Summary
     Sorry it took so long. This is the longest chapter yet. I keep trying
     to get the smut in, BUT PLOT WHY
Karkat sighed as he walked down the hallway alone. The humans, Aradia, and
Sollux had shown up after a long time. It had been a few hours of awkward
conversation and trying to comfort Nepeta (She ended up comforting him instead
but he didn’t want to tall about that.). After meeting everyone (again) Karkat
tried to give a fuck about hanging out with Dave but couldn’t. He just wanted
go sleep. Today had been the worst day of his life, and there was nothing he
could do about it. Hell. He couldn’t even tell people about it. They’d blame
him for not telling them earlier.
Karkat wondered if Aradia suspected him. She was a time player after all. Her
and Sollux agreed to stay on the meteor with the humans, him, Nepeta and
Gamzee. They would stay until there was a game plan. Meeting up with Jade and
John would be harder now because the meteor wasn’t in a place to move.
Aradia and Rose hadn’t shut up about how to maneuver through void, and Karkat
had just stopped paying attention. He excused himself the table early. Maybe if
he just slept on it, he’d feel better.
Suddenly he froze. Karkat wasn’t alone.
He felt a familiar presence coming from the dark hallway to his left. Gamzee
was easy to find when distressed, if you knew what to look for. He gave off a
slight subconscious field of chucklevoodoos. And fuck if Karkat didn’t know
what those felt like. Gamzee couldn’t always control is creepy ass powers, and
Karkat had had them used on him before.
Sighing, he walked to the dark hallway. As scared as he was of Gamzee, he was
still his moirail. It was Karkat’s job to make sure he was ok. But Karkat
wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t about to walk down a dark hallway with a murderous
clown inside.
“Gamzee?” He called out.
There was only silence. Karkat sighed. If Gamzee wasn’t going to respond there
was nothing he could do. Then suddenly, directly next his ear he heard a very
low “honk.”
Karkat jumped, falling backwards into the doorframe.
“FUCK!”
Suddenly, Gamzee right in front of him. The purple blooded troll was easily a
foot taller than Karkat, and he had to angle his head up just to see Gamzee’s
face.
“G-Gamzee. You-”
Gamzee’s cold expression stopped him. This wasn’t the face of his moirail. This
was the face of someone who was mildly interested in this conversation, but
more interested in seeing Karkat bleed.
“HONK.”
Karkat jumped, almost falling backwards. The only thing that stopped him from
falling right out of the dark hallway was a hand holding his arm. He realized
in a panic, that that hand belonged to Gamzee, and the juggalo was the only
thing stopping him from falling backwards.
“Gamz- AHHH!”
Gamzee used his hold on his arm to jerk him forward, throwing his body forward
and to the floor. Karkat stumbled and crashed into the hard lab floor.
Groaning, he sat up just as Gamzee closed the hallway door, engulfing them both
in complete darkness. Karkat quickly moved as he tried to find his way to the
wall. Trolls had much better night vision than humans, but Gamzee would be much
more able to see in the dark than Karkat would. This could be an effect of
being a highblood, or Karkat could just have shit night vision because of his
mutation. Who fucking knew? All that mattered was the fact Karkat was near
blind in a dark hallway with a very pissed off Gamzee.
“honk.”
He only screamed a little bit. It came from right behind Karkat. With a gulp,
he turned around.
“Gamzee?”
There was no response. Karkat waited a few moments before he told himself to
stop acting like a wiggler, and put his fucking big boy panties on.
He reached his hand out slowly, not knowing what his hand would find. When he
brushed something wet, he immediately jerked back his hand. However, before it
was full retracted, the blood drenched clown had a tight grip on his wrist.
Karkat tried to wrench away, but found himself pressed against a hard surface.
“where the motherfuck you think YOURE UP AND MOTHERFUCKING GOING?”
Karkat flinched at the screaming. Of course Gamzee was mad at him. He had ran
away from him once, and was trying to do it again. Damn it. This was him /
moirail/. He had to be more considerate.
“Listen up fuck face, I have had the worst night of my life. So if I’m not
paying as much fucking attention to you as I usually FUCKING DON’T, sorry.”
That was a very considerate thing for Karkat to say given the circumstances. In
fact, apologizing was the nicest thing ever he could of done. Gamzee should
fucking appreciate it.
“dont talk back to me”
Gamzee said it so quietly, Karkat almost didn’t hear him. But the pure violence
beneath the words and tone was enough to shut Karkat up. He didn’t get it. Last
time, Gamzee had been so receptive to their moirailegance. What the fuck was so
different this time??
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