Work Text:
There had been a moment, after the fall of the final boss and the game had been cleared, when they all stood together. They had been restored to life, hugging and laughing and crying, exhausted and ecstatic. It was the last time all of them would be together in one place.
Life on Earth was, at first, fascinating. A newly hatched ball of stone, fire, wind and howling ash, alternately burning itself to a crisp and melting into rivers of lava and floods of obsidian stone. Karkat crafted a sickle from the raw black glassy stone for nostalgia’s sake. For a while, things were peaceful; They’d all gone their separate ways, made their own small clusters of stars in shapes pleasing to them. Water followed fire and the wind and rain brought forth stone. Life followed stone and each of them cultivated their own little areas of the world for a while. Jade was the best at it but given her fondness for gardening that didn’t particularly surprise him. Under her, the earth grew green beneath the water and then above. Jade and Dave were never around much but when they were, things exploded. Sometimes literally.
Time passed. Things changed. Peace couldn’t last; Each of them were forces of nature, violent storms and shattering tectonic quakes. When you have all the time in the world it goes by so fast keeping track of it was difficult. Later, humans would attribute much of their gods activity to things they could comprehend. That’s what they were after all; this new world's gods. A battle between Eridan and Sollux became the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs. Some of them dwindled or faded. Some of them were killed. Some of them flourished however they managed that. Dave stopped by for what felt like three minutes and by the time he’d left, the industrial revolution had come and gone. Jade stopped by and made sure humanity made it into outer space.
Karkat had a few achievements under his belt, too. Some good; Crustaceans, the agricultural sickle, Will Smith. Some… Bad. Genetic mutation. Sickle-cell anemia. Cancer. The atomic bomb. Karkat Vantas had not actually been called Karkat Vantas in quite some time. He’d had so many other names that it was hard to keep track- Mars, Nuada, Marduk. Several Christian ‘demons’.
Today, though, for the first time in a long time, he was… Karkat again. An old, frayed black sweater with his old sigil emblazoned upon it, gray jeans and a nice cup of coffee. Anybody who didn’t look too closely might see an olive-skinned man with messy black hair and freckles sitting in the corner of a coffee shop in downtown New York, calmly observing the street outside. Anybody who knew what to look for might see something a little different. Grey, red-tinted skin, yellow eyes and fingernails, nubby candy-corn horns that looked just a bit longer and just a bit less delightfully comical. He did not, in fact, look up from his coffee until someone dropped into the seat across from him.
“About goddamn time you showed up.” He murmured. “It’s been a long time.”
Dave shrugged, sitting down across from Karkat. His blonde hair was neatly brushed and he wore his aviators, hiding the timepiece that seemed to be inscribed in his red pupils. He wore a red jacket atop a simple white shirt, black skinny jeans on his legs. Something he wore a long time ago as if being nostalgic.
"I know what time it is, I mean to show up when I choose, it's kinda my thing. I chose this moment to come and not a second late or a second sooner."
He had been known as Father Time for a while now. Though others being Janus, Heh in Egypt and Xiuhtecuhtli. But he preferred Father Time, it sounded the least intimidating. Though despite his most recent name, he did not resemble an old man. It felt too uncool for him.
"I was busy with the entire electronic boom thing again...it's crazy how much you can do in 30 or so years."
The god of blood gave a grunt of acquiescence. "It's crazy how much we can do in ten minutes." He reminded the fair man gently. Living for centuries had calmed but not removed his legendary temper. "That was how long it took to figure out Fat Man and Little Boy, after all." Even less time than that to drop the devices. Karkat's lips tightened into a hard line at the memory, not one of his proudest achievements.
"Are you still holding to that ridiculous excuse of yours for being late, Strider? I thought you'd gotten tired of that in 1922." He shrugged a bit, sipping his coffee. "Although it is good to see you, Dave. You and Jade are never around anymore and John has been ethereal for the past century. I think he's getting tired of being corporeal." Reddish irises set to yellow sclera drifted up to smoky black sunglasses. "Do you know how many of us are left?" If anybody knew, it was probably Dave. It was far from a guarantee but hardly an impossibility.
Karkat drained his coffee and set it on the table, miraculously full to the brim once more. "Can I get you anything?" He offered, gesturing around. "It's not up to the quality of Jane's bakeries or one of Roxy's clubs but it's not pisswater." He sipped again from his mug. "I should know. I own the place." Karkat had made sure the blood sweat and tears of the owner had prospered, after all he was the one who inspired the pot-bellied owner to pursue his passion of dark roasted cocoa beans.
To onlookers it would look like two foreign friends speaking a language they didn't know but in reality, they spoke English, a language that for some reason on this world, never developed. They knew every language that came into eventuality on this new world but English? Seemed it was one reserved for the 32 gods.
"Seven alive, five Ethereal and the rest dead." Dave said it calmly, the number written in his mind as clearly as the internal clock he held. They had started with 8 humans and 24 trolls, a total of 32. And only 7 of them were left. It reminded them that while their lifespan was infinite, they could still die. It was why he only showed up on time.
He avoided the depression because he knew it had to happen for the world to jump into the golden era. And he was needed now. But a little coffee break with his old friend wouldn't hurt the balance of the planet, After all, what was a few hours to the world? Well, it could explode in a matter of seconds but Dave would know when that was about to happen. He let out a sigh, looking at his coffee.
"You know how in the last universe..we had that game? I can feel it in my bones Karkat...it's almost time."
"I was going to say the same." Karkat's voice was laden with grim disposition, not at all looking forward to what was about to land squarely up the asshole of the entire universe. "I wish we could keep- Well ourselves but them- from fucking up. That's against the rules, I'm sure." He glanced out at the sky. "A lot of blood is about to be spilled." He swallowed thickly. Across the street a blood vessel in the brain of Charles Doherty, age 42, popped like an overstuffed piñata.
Three people stopped to check on him but Karkat grimaced. "God damn it," He grumbled to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It's getting harder to control my powers. Last week it was nosebleeds in Russia. Yesterday twenty thousand babies were born with sickle-cell. If nothing else that's how I know it's coming." He leaned back in his chair. "Terezi went. Last week." He took a breath, it was a little difficult to even say it out loud. "I don't know when exactly, although I'm sure you do. She whispers to me sometimes but mostly I think she tried to be in too many places at once."
He looked down and sipped more coffee, letting the cup refill once he set it back down on the table. "I had to put Gamzee away. He was putting his roots back down in the middle east. Didn't want a repeat of World War II." He hadn't had the guts to finish the clown off back then. Karkat never made the same mistake twice. "Any word from Jade? I know you two are... Close."
Dave sighed, looking down. He didn't want to admit it but Jade had left Earth weeks ago, to try and prevent what was sure to happen in the next 20 or so years. All their hard work to make the world perfect, for naught. "She said Skaia appeared again. The universe is preparing for the game. She's doing her best to keep it from happening but it's a predetermined fate isn't it? I know something about time Karkat and that certain things have to happen. Bad things, good things. It's all...fate, as cheesy as that sounds." He let out a chuckle, sipping his coffee. Karkat was right, it wasn't pisswater.
"Terezi...it explains all the injustices in the past few years...I knew she was sick but I didn't know she was gone. That makes six of us then."
"Not 'gone', I wouldn't say," Karkat grumbled. "Just... Stretched thin. Jade shouldn't be running around trying to prevent this bullshit, it's gonna happen whether she wants it to or not." He paused. "I suppose she and I rank on opposite ends of the 'Overblown reaction' spectrum. I gave up, she's flipping her shit. Both of us probably feel like we had too big a hand in how badly things got fucked up." Guessing. Not bad guessing but guessing. So much was guesswork.
"So, any reason in particular you took time out of your probably busy schedule for me? Not that I necessarily think there needs to be one beyond. Seeing an old friend." His eyes drifted up to Dave's again. "Is this one of those things, Dave? That has to happen, I mean. Time and blood have always kind of gone hand in hand, haven't they?"
He swirled his coffee with an idle finger held above the dark liquid. He was vaguely aware of someone, very far away, developing something miraculous. He looked up, blinking pleasedly. "Somebody just discovered a cure for cancer." He murmured. "That's our fault, isn't it? We should get together and do this shit more often."
Dave grinned knowingly. More often than not, when Time and Blood got together, things happened. Some for the good, some for the bad. The death of Caesar and consequential fall of Rome, the discovery of vaccines. Time and Blood were tied and they had effects on their world. It was funny how two gods meeting could affect the planet so drastically.
"Time and Blood. We're waiting on Jane, she is the god of life after all. The birth of those destined to play is bound to happen any day now. It's why Skaia appeared, they're waiting too."
"Everything is waiting," Karkat grumbled, sounding a little irritated. "Always fucking waiting. Used to be, nothing could fucking move slow enough. Even stuck on the goddamn ship was moving too fast for us." He grimaced. "We grew up too fucking fast, you know. Of course you know."
He scratched his cheek. He looked around the coffee shop, drinking in the features. "... It's gonna go differently this time." He decided. "I guess there are laws of… Of physics or time or probability or whatever that would say, 'Well, of course, it'll go differently but... We made all those laws, didn't we?" He cracked a grim, wry smile.
"We wound up being pretty /fucking/ smart, Strider." He sighed and rubbed his eyes, then got up. "C'mon. I think it's about to happen, I wanna be there to see it." He offered Dave a hand to help him up. Long since time for Karkat to be squeamish about physical contact. He had a notion that all of them had gotten tail aplenty and had offspring by the fucking bucketload. He suspected that a few children of Dave's had sprung up in California just in time for Hollywood and San Francisco, respectively and Dave had retroactively and by proxy started the ridiculous fashion style that he would so desperately cling to.
Karkat wanted to see it. The whole beginning. Of course, it was going to happen simultaneously but the new Earth beginning its long road to a new world and new gods. He'd witnessed the Alternian one, he'd been there, after all. None of them would be able to ignore that they all knew where to be. Maybe Dave was subconsciously helping them all figure out when to be.
Both gods materialized outside a hospital, taking a step forward and being in the delivery ward. Their prophet to the end had been born and both gods wanted to see. The boy was nothing spectacular really. Karkat could see a bit of Dave in him, his eyes seeing the timepiece in his chest. Invisible to human eyes but Karkat knew just by looking at this child.
"It's just the birth, there's 13 years left..." Dave shifted his weight, leaning his arms against the window as he looked at the rows upon rows of new life. Jane was dressed like a nurse, holding the newborn god of time. Her pale blue eyes glanced up and saw the two others and gave a knowing nod. She could sense it too. Course 13 years for god could go by as fast as a blink of an eye. And...what happened to the gods who had won before them? He didn't know, but he was about to find out. He took Karkat’s hand, feeling his body be pulled up, as the two gods left the hospital.
A blink of an eye and 13 years had passed. To them, it was a second. The two felt the tug of destiny and headed in that direction, just in time to see a meteor racing from the sky. As much as they didn't want the game to happen again, here it was. It was happening and it was going to keep happening.
Karkat turned. Suddenly, they were there- All seven of them, together in the same place for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Karkat grasped hands and shoulders, kissed foreheads, embraced a jade-blooded sister he hadn't seen inDave only knew how long.
Soon enough, though, he found himself at the front of the group, staring into a distressingly familiar room he'd never seen before in his life, looping one arm around Dave's shoulders. He swallowed thickly as the boy within stirred in his bed, stretched, yawned and pulled his glasses on to blink blearily to consciousness. "A young man stands in his bedroom," He started, faintly reddish tears rolling down his cheeks. "It just so happens that today, the 13th of April, is this young man's birthday..."
Once again, the wheels of time were turning. Dave took off his shades and the old gears in his eyes were moving as the moment came ever closer.Only one thing left to do now.
>> Enter name.
Dave held Karkat’s hand, a lump in his throat, watching what felt like Deja Vu. Even with all the power of time, he couldn't keep himself from crying. He held a hand over his mouth, looking at what looked like a redheaded version of John stumble around, trying to not step in a cake, crying in distress when a foot lodged into a 3 tier cake.
"Poophead Mcgee." He laughed at the weak attempt at a joke, as the boys computer pinged. He was glad humans couldn't see them and looked at Karkat. It felt like he suddenly understood the game more. The denizens of both of them were the gods before. He knew they would part ways soon and the game would start anew. He didn't want it...he wanted to stop time, keep it from happening. Blood, Time, Life, Space, Mind, Breath and Void. The 7 of them who were left. And the 7 aspects of the new players...there were 7 this time. He felt it. "There's going to be a lot of dead kids Karkat."
"Zoosmell Pooplord." Karkat amended softly, brushing tears away from his face and then surrendering his free hand to Kanaya. Moments later he discovered that
Kanaya was gone. One by one, they were vanishing. Was it his imagination or was he getting a little translucent himself? "There's always going to be a lot of dead kids, Dave." He murmured. "But they're not going to die. It's hard, being a kid and growing up." He glanced over at Dave, steel in his eyes. "But we managed. And we’ll manage again." Part of him knew that it wasn’t going to be them playing. Their essence was just merging with the players. They needed those powers after all. He took his arm off of Dave's shoulders and a sudden, violent shiver ran up his spine.
He gasped out loud. "Just popped the game disk in," He said hoarsely. "Fuck." He let out a sharp, humorless laugh. He took a deep breath. "Dave, do me a favor," He said urgently as he turned to face the man beside him. "Make sure that when we meet again, you keep your fucking cape out of my face. Make sure that you remember something about all of this. Make sure we wind up friends again." He held out a quickly fading hand for a shake. "Promise me." Karkat felt tears sting his eyes and Dave’s hand left him. He thought for a moment he was gone but no. Those were Dave’s arms around him. They shared one final kiss and Dave was gone. Karkat could hardly choke his sob back. The game was cruel, doing this again and again. Dave pulled Karkat close
before they could disappear entirely and kissed him.
"Remember me too you nookstain..." The word was stupid but it was appropriate. He felt his consciousness fading, as it merged with the players. The boy woke up from his bed, a wild dream playing in his mind and he was...crying. He didn't know why but he was crying and his lips tingled. He reached for the bedside table, his
hand shaking and downed a glass of water. He shook his head tiredly, trying to shake away the dream before putting on his shades and walking to his computer.