The Blood I Spill for You

Childhood Ghosts are Future Friends, Pass It On

Karkat woke up back on Alternia. A grub, in his old hive. Everything was exactly where he had left it, before The Flood. The Flood was what everyone called the first human invasion. Tens of thousands of humans seemed to spill out from the galactic boats and into the Mother Grub's cave, taking grubs of every blood back with them.

Running out of his hive, scuttling around his culled lusus, he almost cried at the memory. Almost every troll was running away, failing to dodge the loud explosions and gunshots. Some trolls tried to fight them off, but it was no use. The humans took everything.

But it still wasn't enough.

Six years later, the humans came back for the grubs that escaped, taking hundreds of four sweep olds, Karkat included, back to the boats and took off once again. Karkat remembered seeing a scrawny girl troll, a rust blood, already dead. She was right beside him, but he couldn't move away because of the thick chain around his neck, connected in a long row to everyone else's necks. Most of the trolls starved, died of thirst, disease or managed to kill themselves. Karkat spent half a sweep on that galacticboat. But when he got off, he wished he had ended his life along with the others.

The scene around him changed, skipping forward to when he had the broken glass inches from his throat. Just one cut and it'll be all over.

"Don't," she said. Karkat wanted to run up and hug her, but he was trapped in his past self's memory body. Out of all the trolls trapped in this human basement, Terezi looked the most beautiful, despite the horrid bruises on her neck, marks that the human had made. Karkat knew his bruises must have looked the same, but that didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

"Why not?," Karkat snapped, shaking. Pain was everywhere, his head, back, ribs. His very soul quaked. Karkat pressed the glass right to his grey skin when Terezi stepped closer. She stopped.

"Because you're not the pathetic, weak mutant blood everyone thinks you are. Now, you just have to prove it," she said carefully.

Past-Karkat scoffed, "prove it to who? Who will listen? There's no point."

"Prove it to me." Karkat let his grip loosen, he glanced up at her young, pleading eyes.

"She's right, you know," another troll said from the corner. She was tall and skinny, but strong and an exceptional fighter. She barely lost a fight, except to Karkat, who she only pretended to loose to. She sometimes acted like his lusus, sometimes like a Moirail. Though the last thing on anyone's mind was filling a quadrant.

"You are strong, Karkat. Stronger than anyone here," she said. Karkat let his hand fall, but still held onto the glass shard.

A sharp scoff tore through the sleeping quarters, "speak for yourself, bitch."

Ah, Gamzee. He was even taller, even skinnier, and he looked like a joke, but don't let that fool you. He was filled with only rage and would cull any troll for his next meal. On drugs, he acted like the most laid back, easy going sucker ever, but everyone knew the truth. He was ruthless and cruel to anything and anyone around him, even the human. It was a miracle he was still here.

"You shouldn't say that to her," piped a monotone voice in the corner. She just arrived a few days ago, and will surely be culled in a few more. Past Karkat didn't learn her name for a few weeks, but Karkat immediately recognized her as Aradia.

"An' who the motherfuck asked you?" Gamzee sneered. Karkat remembered being called 'best friend' by him once, but he was definitely high at the time. No one said anything after he challenged Kanaya, not wanting to get involved in what would one day become the fiercest battle Karkat had ever seen. Gamzee grumbled something and sat back down, still hurting from his latest fight.