War Makes Beasts of us All
by bakedpotatocat

CHAPTER FIVE: CONFRONTATION

==> Be Karkat Vantas.


You’re nearing the border between the Human and Carapace kingdoms now. It's taken you most of the day as you led Harry down back roads in order to evade the police cordons surrounding the area. You’ve stopped for gas now, and while Vriska is still asleep, Vrissy and Tavros went inside the station to use the restroom and get some snacks, both dressed in different clothes than before. Captchalogues made carrying disguises a lot easier. You’re worried about Vriska. She didn’t even recognize you at first, which means she’s either been gone a lot longer than her teenage form would suggest or that she’s really not well. You missed her. It's been so long since anyone who was in your session other than Kanaya was in your life. While you’re close to Kanaya, moirails in fact, there’s only so many times you can bring up the past. For whatever reason, it doesn’t haunt her the way it haunts you. Then again, she’s brought life into the world. For the past decade, you’ve only taken it, whether personally or by order.

Harry Anderson finishes pumping gas and slides back into the driver’s seat. He turns to face you, a steeled look in his eye that reminds you of Roxy, all those years ago. Your temper flares a little, thinking of her, but you tamp it down. Not the kids fault he has shit parents.

HARRY: we need to talk.

KARKAT: EVIDENTLY.

HARRY: firstly, I don’t think you handled the gam tav situation very well.

KARKAT: NEVER SPEAK THOSE WORDS AGAIN.

HARRY: what words

KARKAT: GAM TAV. NEVER SAY THEM IN THAT ORDER OR THAT FORM.

HARRY: fine. whatever.

HARRY: its fucked up to tell a guy you should have killed his uncle twenty years ago, and that you’d kill his mom now if given the chance.

KARKAT: IT’S THE TRUTH, AND HE NEEDED TO HEAR THE TRUTH.

HARRY: its still fucked up.

KARKAT: WHAT’S FUCKED UP IS IF TAVROS DOESN’T TRUST THAT I’M BEING COMPLETELY HONEST WITH HIM, AND TURNS US IN TO THE AUTHORITIES, BECAUSE THAT GETS US ALL KILLED.

HARRY: FINE, whatever.
HARRY: how are we crossing the border into the consort kingdom?

KARKAT: YOU TELL THE GUARD THAT YOU’RE GOING TO YOUR MOM’S HOUSE, BECAUSE YOU’RE SHAKEN UP BY THE FACT THAT YOUR FRIENDS GOT KIDNAPPED AND A BUNCH OF SOLDIERS GOT KILLED BY A TERRORIST AT YOUR HIGHSCHOOL.

KARKAT: THE REST OF US HIDE IN THE TRUNK AND YOU MAKE SURE THE GUARD DOESN’T LOOK.

KARKAT: USE YOUR CLOUT AS THE SON OF A MAJOR SUPPORTER OF THE REGIME.

HARRY: yeah, i’m not going to do that, because i didn’t want to get caught up in this in the first place.

You can’t help yourself from tearing into him. He looks and sounds too much like the woman, the coward, who has made taking Jane Crocker down so difficult.

KARKAT: CONSIDER THIS, HARRY ANDERSON, BECAUSE YOU CALLED ME IN TO BAIL YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS OUT.

KARKAT: YOU ARE GUILTY TO HELPING PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE, YOURS TRULY, AND ACCESORY TO THE MURDER OF SIX MEN, AS WELL AS SEVERAL SMALLER CRIMES AGAINST THE STATE.

KARKAT: I WON’T TALK, AND VRISKA MIGHT NOT EITHER, BUT ARE YOU SURE THAT LITTLE GIRLFRIEND OF YOURS WON’T CRACK UNDER TORTURE?

KARKAT: THAT YOU WON’T?

KARKAT: YOU WANT TO GO HOME ONCE VRISSY AND TAVROS ARE SOMEWHERE SAFE, FINE.

KARKAT: BE MY GUEST.

KARKAT: BUT DON’T INSULT ME BY BEING AS MUCH OF A COWARD AS YOUR PARENTS ARE, TOO SCARED TO PUT YOUR LIFE ON THE LINE FOR SOMETHING BIGGER THAN YOURSELF.

KARKAT: GROWING UP MEANS CHOOSING THE MAN YOU ARE GOING TO BE. TO DO THE RIGHT THING, YOU SOMETIMES HAVE TO LEAVE THE THINGS YOU CARE ABOUT BEHIND. PARENTS, FAMILY, YOUR HOMELAND.

KARKAT: WHAT WILL IT BE, BIG MAN ON CAMPUS?

HARRY: i’ll get you across the border, and to whatever safe house you have there.

HARRY: i wont rat you out, for vrissy and tavros’s sakes.

HARRY: but that’s as far as i go.

He snarls at you. You aren’t intimidated, though it makes you respect him a little more.

HARRY: until we are free of each other you keep my parent’s fucking names out of your mouth.

HARRY: deal?

KARKAT: I CAN LIVE WITH THAT.

He stares at you, narrowing his eyes, but he breaks first, turning back around when Vrissy and Tavros re-enter the car. Vrissy takes note of the tension, but doesn’t say anything, and Tavros seems too preoccupied to notice. Vriska stirs in her sleep and your attention flips back to worrying about her.

Several hours pass, and you make it across the border. Harry, for all his faults, is a convincing actor, and
you suppose he really is shaken by the day’s events. The guard buys it without question.
You direct him to a farmhouse on the far edge of the Carapace Kingdom, which has a few secret treaties in place for amnesty and asylum for former revolutionaries. Some of the higher ups in the government are sympathetic to the troll’s cause, due to their intense love for the Mayor. It doesn’t hurt that you have pictures of you and Dave hanging out with the guy, from all the way back in the day. The mayor did a pretty damn good job setting all of these kingdoms and treaties up, and then you and your friends (many of them former, or not very close in the first place) had to ruin it.

You, Tavros, and Vrissy get out of the car, and drag out Gamzee’s corpse and Vriska’s still sleeping form with you. Harry drives off with a scowl on his face. You brace yourself, because its early in the night and a bad day to bother the troll you’re asking for help.

You knock on an old comrade’s door.

A porch light flicks on and a scowling and unbelieving jadeblood in a bathrobe opens the door. Her tone is harsh, but surprised.

SWIFER: karkat fucking vantas SWIFER: you come to me SWIFER: on the anniversary of my moirail’s death

KARKAT: I’M SORRY, SWIFER. CLIPER WAS ONE OF THE BEST TROLLS I KNEW. KARKAT: HIS DEATH WEIGHS HEAVIER ON MY CONSCIENCE THAN MOST.

SWIFER: im assuming from the gang of shmucks and the dead enemy of the revolution that this is an emergency

KARKAT: YOU WERE MY ONLY OPTION. MAY WE COME IN?

SWIFER: sure, fine, i don’t get that many visitors anyways SWIFER: lets get sleeping beauty over there some medical attention SWIFER: go on in the kitchen, kids, get some grub, you look famished SWIFER: let the adults talk shop

TAVROS: thank, you,

VRISSY: *yawn* yes thank you im Starving

SWIFER: that’s the matriarch’s kid?

KARKAT: YEAH.

SWIFER: how are the caverns

KARKAT: THEY WERE ATTACKED THIS MORNING, YOU MAY HAVE HEARD, BUT LAST I KNEW BOTH KANAYA AND THE MOTHERGRUB WERE SAFE AND IN THE PROCESS OF RELOCATION, WITH ONLY MINIMAL CASUALTIES ON OUR SIDE.

SWIFER: fighting a jade in her own caverns is a fool’s errand. you’ll get torn to shreds.

KARKAT: FROM WHAT I HEARD, THE HUMANS DID.

SWIFER: why are you here, vantas? SWIFER: not that it isn’t a treat to see the lord commander in person

KARKAT: GOD, DON’T REMIND ME OF THAT STUPID TITLE.

KARKAT: WE WERE YOUNG AND DUMB AND FULL OF OURSELVES.

SWIFER: and you aren’t now?

KARKAT: I’M TIRED, SWIFER. THERE’S AN OPPORTUNITY TO END THIS, NOW THAT MAKARA’S OUT OF THE PICTURE, AND I’M GOING TO TAKE IT. THE EMPIRE’S ON THE BACK FOOT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SWEEPS, AND THAT’S CROCKER’S FUCKING SON NEXT TO MARYAM’S.

SWIFER: no shit?

KARKAT: NO SHIT.

KARKAT: KANAYA AND I MIGHT BE GEARING UP FOR A FINAL ASSAULT SOON, AND WE NEED TO HAVE A REPLACEMENT ON DECK AS THE MATRIARCH IN CASE SHE DIES.

SWIFER: surely there are others available.

KARKAT: THEY KEEP GETTING KILLED. PART OF THE REASON I CAME TO YOU AND NOT ANY OF THE OTHERS IN HIDING IS BECAUSE I CAME TO ASK YOU BACK.

SWIFER: i don’t know. i don’t think i could lose anyone else.

KARKAT: IF I’M GOING TO KILL JANE CROCKER, I NEED KANAYA BY MY SIDE. AND FOR KANAYA TO FIGHT ON THE FRONTLINES LIKE THAT SHE NEEDS TO KNOW THERE’S SOMEONE SHE CAN TRUST WITH THE MOTHERGRUB. YOU’RE THE ONLY OPTION.

SWIFER: when you put it like that, i don’t know that i have much choice.

KARKAT: I’M SORRY.

SWIFER: i know you are. i know you were when cliper died, and when xanfas died, and when restor got captured and came back half the troll they were, and when guevar sacrificed himself so the rest of us could escape. i know you are every time a troll under your command dies for the cause. i know that’s why you let me leave.

SWIFER: its just you, me, peixes and the matriarch left from the early days, isn’t it?

KARKAT: YEAH.

SWIFER: you and the matriarch still seein each other paleways?

KARKAT: YEAH, WE ARE.

SWIFER: you take care of her, you hear me? she’s a better troll than either of us.

KARKAT: SHE IS, ISN’T SHE.

SWIFER: goddamn right.

SWIFER: fuck it.

SWIFER: i’ll do it. what the hell do i got to lose, anyway. not much of a life out here, especially if all you chucklefucks get yourselves killed.

KARKAT: THANK YOU, SWIFER.

SWIFER: i’m doin it for the mothergrub and cause duty calls, alright? not cause of you, or for old times sake or any shit like that. we both lost too much to be the idealists we were back in the day.

SWIFER: now come inside and tell me who the fuck that ceruleanblood bleedin all over my couch is

KARKAT: YES MA’AM.
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