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Your thumbnail snapped under your teeth, watching as your son held your sobbing nephew by his waist, head buried in the younger's shoulder, physically holding him back as your nephew fought him with everything he had.
You'd been in the same situation once,
Derrik's fingers splayed out against your torso, one over your heart, especially as your hand shot to the Hilt of your sword.
He'd caught you by your wrist, because of course he had.
'No, David.' He'd muttered in your ear. 'That's a bad fuckin' idea nd you know it. You know what it'll do to you. Please.'
He was right.
Your hand dropped.
He was always right.
You hadn't, despite how bad you'd wanted to.
You however had been able to remain on your feet.
Your nephew was not fairing near was well.
He had hit his knees, you had heard the sound crack against stone.
He'd screamed too, you'd just broken down.
You couldn't be to obvious about your heartbreak, his wife was standing right next to you.
Dirk was fairing much better than his father had.
His fathers inherent jealousy had made him much harder to deal with after...
But Dirk, doesn't seem to care. Hushing Dave in the way you'd heard him do to Kankri after a nightmare.
Dave's eventually goes limp in his arms, and buries his head in Dirk's chest, and sobs.
The sea dweller your estranged son spends most of his time with, his first mate if you had been listening, sets a hand in between Dave's shoulders, Dave's fingers just curl harder against Dave's jacket.
You can't, no, this is too deja vu.
You whirl, and before your own sea dweller can extend a hand to stop you, Dave's shaky voice cuts both of you off.
"David."
He hisses.
Oh fuck.
You don't turn around.
"David." He says again, stronger this time.
You look over your shoulder.
He's detangling himself from Dirk and his seadweller.
Before you can blink he's flash stepped over you and grabbed you by your shirt collar.
He's spun you around to face him, and he's pulled you down to his height
And you find yourself thinking, that even if he's your spitting image, he's a lot like his father.
You know what he's thinking.
You thought it too.
Because his eyes, he lost his shades in the chaos he caused, are not on you. They're on the hilt of your sword. On the stone tied to it.
Fuck. x2
Suddenly you're standing in front of yourself, red eyes full of fire.
And there's no Derrik to kick his ass and tame it, Dirk could, but will not. You know he won't.
Your son may have ran several years ago, but you will never say you do not know who or how he is.
Captian Dirk Strider, almost laughable, if he wasn't a threat.
Then Dave says something that screams you.
"Give me the stone, David."
Your fingers twitch.
"I don't care what it takes."
You know he doesn't, you never did. He's a lot like you.
"Dave-" To his credit, Dirk does try.
"Shut up, Dirk."
Dirk does shut up, and allow Dave his choice, which Derrik never allowed you.
You should stop comparing them.
Executions make you.... weird. Sue you.
His fingers tighten in your collar. "The stone, David." He says, and you take a deep breath, and grab his wrists.
"Fine." You say. You decide that you will give him, and sort of yourself, this one thing.
His grip loosens, and once you drop him you're allowed to take a step backwards.
Then you reach for your sword.
The stone reacts when you draw near it.
Time's been all you've had for years now.
Maybe it'll do Dave more good than it ever did you.
You pause.
"You know what this means, right?"
"Yeah, and do I look like I give a bifurcated fuck?"
No, you think.
He doesn't.
You weave the cord between your fingers, and hold out the glowing, stupid, thing.
"Take it." You say. "I'm glad to be rid of it." Are you?
He stares at you, like he doesn't actually believe you're serious.
Then, much gentler than you thought his high emotional state would allow, he takes it from you.
And oh shit
It's exactly what you were afraid of.
You feel it shift.
You watch Dave's eyes flash red as that stone, and reach out a hand to steady him. No one ever did it for you, you know it would have helped.
You know his head and every doomed self that actions have ever stopped them from occurring go fucking supernova.
"Breathe." You tell him, and Dave does breathe, and holds a hand against his head.
You feel weaker than you have in the last thirty something years.
"Davve are you insane."
Of course, Dave always had a thing for the little orphaner.
"No, 2eriiou2ly DV, what the fuck."
Dirk pipes up next, as you hold Dave completely steady as he stumbles. He'll be fine though, it'll just take a second.
"Dad, that was the second dumbest thing I've ever seen you do."
Yeah, the kids seen you do a lot of shit.
"Okay, okay hold the fuck on. Ewveryone, fuckin chill. Dawve, are you good?"
It takes him a second. "Yeah, yeah I'm good." He straightens, and you step back. See? Fine. You're not.
Your knees go weak and you didn't realize how dependent on it you were.
It's like drugs, it's just withdrawal, you'll be fine.
Probably.
Dave decides not to pay attention to you, which is good because Everette has to discretely extend an arm behind you.
Dirk's mother has stepped over to examine him, so dear old Ever is your only chance.
Dave examine the stone in his hands for a solid minute, before hooking the cord around his neck. That works to, less chance of losing it if he's gonna do what you think he's going to do.
"So how the fuck does this work, D?"
You take a deep breath. "You're still alive so, Time likes you. It'll listen to you. Trust it and it'll trust you. Most importantly. Do not, I repeat, do NOT, fuck up."
He hums, and then tilts his head.
You can feel Time meld around him, before he's ditched the lot of you.
Maybe breaking the rules is worth it this time.
-
Okay, look, this might be a bad thing you're doing, but like you told D, you don't give a fuck. Your field of fucks is barren, good sir.
You can't go to far backward, there's a weird tugging sensation in the back of your head that tells you that going to far back would cause more problems.
You should be concerned about how much you understand about it already, but you don't really care about that either.
All you care about is the Carmel Apple you take your anger out on, and watching the square.
You're perched on a roof, far above the crowd.
You're tossing a Shuriken up and down in your free hand.
It is ✨execution✨ day!
And boy are you motherfucking excited.
You know there's a you down there waiting for the right time too.
Or well, he was, before you'd tugged him into an ally and told him to chill.
Your identity was of course, disguised, even before the stone helped you are completely ignorant of the space time continuum.
Your in a cloak that only Karkat and yourself would recognize, and you're to busy panicking about aforementioned Karkat to notice the guy in front of him is wearing his clothes but who are you to bitch?
"Meet me at that stage. You'll know when." And then you ditched him, after you'd given him your second set of apples.
Peace wasn't an option, but neither was guns blazing.
And, as much as you hated it, this was not your Karkat. It was his.
After this, yours would be a little bit in the future.
Well, you hope anyway.
Your drawn out of your thoughts by a fanfare, and shift closer to the edge of the roof so you can see.
Oh your poor Karkitty....
That rage you felt when "asking" D for the stone sparks back to life.
Alright, egotistical bastards, it's go time.
You stand from where you'd been sitting, you toss that shuriken up one more time, catch it, and then hurl it with everything you have, straight for her imperial bitchiness.
There's stunned silence when that gaudy piece of shit tiara hits the ground, and she looks up at you, and so does fucking Karkat
Good, you have a speech ready, and despite hating the title, you ARE a prince, and you have the vocal cords of a god.
"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE, LET THEM BREAK YOU. YOU ARE BETTER THAN THAT, BETTER THAN THEM!"
The empress raises a hand, and Karkat goes rigid.
You hear the arrow wizzing, and whirl.
With the stone around your neck's help, you catch that arrow.
"Fuck it." You hear the empress announce. "Cull him."
Feferi doesn't move, and you're almost certain you can see a harpoon behind her, peeking out from a tear in the curtain. Of course you snagged some backup.
You can totally work with that.
"Makara." The empress hisses, Gamzee, her last resort.
You crack your knuckles, and then cup your hands over your mouth. "AND I REALLY HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE TRY TO KILL ME. OBSERVE!" You flourish, whipping your cape behind you.
And of course past you knows his queue when he hears it, and that curtain parts with a blade. "Takes more than a good alibi and a "freak" accident to get rid of me."
It sure as fuck does, go us, you think.
Gamzee faulters, like he's seen a ghost-
In his really stoned mind he probably does.
He did a number on you before he mysteriously disappeared and you deemed it appropriate to show back up.
You snap your fingers and the stone flairs, and you're leaning on a pillar very near Karkat.
"I also really don't like it when people murder my matesprite."
"You-" You point at your past self. "Get outta here with him." You push off your pillar and amble over to the Empress, who stares at you like you're a crazy little thing to be crushed.
Past you gets the fuck to work, good Dave, don't question it.
"You? Oh I am about to fuck you up."
Her head tilts to the side. "Do you really think so, little thing? Alone."
You shrug. "Ah, that's adorable." You're hands shift to your hips. "You think you're a threat."
"uM. YoU'rE hIgHnEsS. ThIs gUy iS gOiNg aGaInSt YoU, aNd hE jUsT lIkE dIsMisSeD hIs HeLp."
"Please, the boys all talk, and he's if he's got the time stone, and accuses me of murdering his matesprite, which means I've broken him and he's not even that anymore."
"Oh cute, are you tying to analzie me like that'll give you a chance." You look around to make sure your past self is using your distraction very wisely.
He is.
"I'll give you the first shot, see how that goes!"
She snorts. "Besides, the anger of a good man is not a problem." She twirls her trident in her hands, "Good men, have to many rules."
So she knows that your line are good people deep down, there's something she didn't account for though.
You meet her trident with her sword. "Good men don't need rules."
You grin, and raise an eyebrow, pushing your shades into your hair so you can look her in the eye. "Today is not the day to find out why we have so many."
"Give me what you've got, kid."
So, fine. You do.
You let time shift around you and you're back on that roof. "So! Tell me! Empress, I have one, itty bitty question for you. About this world you're trying to build."
You tilt your head, as she pushes through the crowd. "When you've killed all the undesirables, when it's all perfect, and high blood centric, when you've got it just the way you want it."
"Get to the glubbin' point."
"What are you going to do with the people like you."
She stops.
"The "Trouble Makers."" You throw your arms back, with a huff. "How are you gonna protect your 'glorious empire' from the next one?"
"I'll win."
You snort. "Oh will you?" You walk along the edge. "Maybe, maybe you will win. But nobody wins for long, the wheel just keeps, turning."
"So come on, break the cycle."
She scowls. "Why are you still talkin'?"
You gesture wildly, you do that, Karkat thinks it's cute, "Because I'm trying to get you to see," You point at her, and raise an eyebrow. "And I'm almost there." You're also trying to give them enough time to get the f u c k out of this town.
"So! Hello Alternia! Who takes the rebels takes the revolution. But bad new everyone!" The space time continuum feels stable enough, so you pull off your hood. "Guess who!"
"Now, the question of the hour is, why am I still talking and where did that mutant go so you can bring him to your empress and get, not killed over it? Who has him and-"
You whirl on your heel and stop. "Oh"
"Answer;" Says your cousin. Damn it Dirk. "We do."
"Next que2tiion!" The three of you whirl, you were right, it was definitely Eridan behind that curtain because there's Captor.
"Wwho's comin' to take him from us?"
You grin. "Just little fuckin' brats, no plan, no back-up-" You know they're still pulling themselves together after getting caught. "No weapons worth a damn!"
"Oh and somethin' else."
You time jump down to met the Empress. "I don't have anything to lose."
"So!" You advance on her. "When you're just sitting up there in your silly little airship with your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on killin' him again tonight."
Your sword appears in your hands. "Just remember who's standing in your way."
"And remember every plan of my dad's I've ever fucked up because they were for you. And remember everything we've ever done to stop you." Hey wait no that's you but you're on a role damnit can't you ever do as your told.
"And then, and then, do the smart thing!" You stop, your sword pointing directly at her. "Let somebody else try first."
All hell breaks lose a second time, they win, because of course they do, but you're a causality, because of fucking course you are.
D warned you, maybe you should have listened.
But you know what, this is fine.