The Peacekeeper

Chapter 2

Dave didn't know why Karkat only acted slightly calm when Equius or Sollux were holding his hands or talking to him or just generally near him. He didn't know why Karkat lunged at him. He didn't know what was wrong with Karkat but he knew he wanted to hold him and cry. Though it was obvious that that wasn't an option at the moment.

"Karkat..." The previous Knight of Time tried to sound as confident as possible but that failed. Karkat said nothing so Dave spoke again. "Hey man...long time no see huh?" Again silence. "I missed you dude..." This time Karkat spoke. But not in English. Dave only heard this a handful of times before back in the game, back on the meteor. Whenever Karkat got especially stressed of angry he would angrily mumble to himself in his weird alien language. It sounded like a bunch of cicadas having sex and Dave was always mesmerized by it. Right now though, he wasn't mesmerized. Right now he was sort of...terrified. Karkat's voice was low and hoarse. He was glaring daggers at Dave as he spoke in that odd language of his. When he was done, everyone was silent. Then Equius spoke to the troll. All Dave could do was sit there and watch as the two trolls spoke to each other in their native tongues. He didn't even notice John walk over and sit down next to him.

"You okay?" Dave shrugged and pushed his shades to the top of his head. He wasn't okay in all honesty. This entire thing was fucking him up. Karkat was back after six fucking years and he seemed batshit insane. And the most insane part of all of this was that Dave's heart still swelled with happiness at the sight of the troll. Fuck, he was messed up. "Well...I know this must be pretty fucking hard for you but hang in there buddy." John smiled and showed off his buck teeth. John had been Dave's friend for what felt like a lifetime, and even after that lifetime he couldn't help but slightly smile at his best bro's goofy grin.

"Good news," Sollux turned around to face the group, his hands clasped together, "I figured out what the fuck is wrong with KK." The group practically leaned forward and listened. "He hates you," he pointed at Eridan. "you," Aradia, "you," Vriska, "and you," he pointed at Gamzee. "Also he's terrified of you," he pointed at Gamzee yet again. "you," Vriska. "you," Eridan. "and you." Dave, "There's a couple more people but uh...you guys get the picture." Dave. Sollux pointed at Dave this time. There was confused murmuring and Sollux loudly shushed everyone. Karkat flinched at the sound. "I'm not done jackasses. It also turns out that I and this sweaty sack of garbage are, or I guess were, his quadrant mates. That's really all this blubbering douche has said so far." The confused murmuring resumed but Dave stayed quiet.

Karkat was scared of him. Karkat was scared of Dave. He blinked and pulled his shades back down before forcing himself to relax in his chair. He promised himself that once the game ended he for sure would never use those god forsaken powers again but desperate times call for desperate measures. He closed his eyes and let the familiar sound of rusty gears turning echo through his mind. It was sort of like he was walking through a hallway filled with doors. Each door had a different timeline behind it. When he found the correct one, the only one left with the sound of clocks ticking loudly, he opened the door and took a quick peek inside.

Everything here was in balance. The alpha Dave was there, still protecting the timeline. All the alpha trolls, the beta kids and alpha kids and even the sprites that they had miraculously managed to bring into the new world. Everything was normal. The Karkat that laid before Dave was the exact same one from this timeline. He was the real deal and that somehow made Dave both very happy and immensely sad. The Strider opened his eyes and let out a long sigh. Karkat was clinging onto Sollux's hand, glaring daggers at everyone in the room besides the select few he didn't hate or was scared of. Dave sat there, staring at Karkat through his shades and finally Karkat eye contact with him.

The previous grey iris' of Karkat's adolescent life were gone and replaced with a stunning candy red. They were beautiful and horrifying at the same time. He was beautiful and horrifying. Dave pushed his shades up once more, he remembered how Karkat used to think Dave's eyes were fascinating, and smiled while giving him a tiny wave. He noticed that Karkat's grip on Sollux's hand tightened, his other hand crept over to the blue blood's hand. Dave frowned a little and returned his attention to Sollux who had resumed talking.

"So yeah. I'll just...take care of him I guess? Until he isn't acting like a homicidal wriggler." Karkat mumbled something in his weird alien language but Sollux disregarded it. "Equius will help out too since KK is attached to him as well." The muscular troll gave curt nod, awkwardly and gently holding Karkat's hand back. "And we'll figure out what the fuck to do with the rest of you. For now I guess we'll just...leave." Sollux spoke to Karkat and Karkat looked at Equius for a long moment before letting go of his hand and standing up slowly. The Gemini troll bade farewell to his friends and led Karkat outside.

Dave waited a moment as everyone began trickling out. He spoke when Aradia, Kanaya, Rose, John, and himself were the only ones left. "What happened to him." Kanaya and Aradia looked at one another then at Dave. They shrugged simultaneously.

"We have no clue in all honesty." The Jade blood sighed and rubbed her temples. "He won't talk to any of us other than Sollux and Equius and when he does talk he communicates in Alternian. It's been...a very long time since our home planet was blown to smithereens and I'm questioning whether or not that's our Karkat or some random copy that was somehow flung in here."

"It's our Karkat." Dave and Aradia said simultaneously. The Knight of Time glumly smiled at the two trolls before slowly pulling himself up off his seat.

"Whatever the fuck happened to him, or whatever the fuck is fucking him up I will make sure to un-fuck him up. Mark my words. I, Dave Strider, will make sure that he, Karkat Vantas, is back to his previous grouchy-shouty-romcom-loving self."

"That's very...generous of you to step up and try to get him to come back to his old self but how are you ever going to dream of doing that, Dave?" Rose looked at her brother and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "You saw the way he looked at you. You saw the way he attempted to attack you. He's scared to death of you, so much that he's more than willing to hurt you. This just seems like...it'd be impossible for you to accomplish." Rose had a point and God did Dave hate it when Rose was right.

"Just because it seems like it's impossible doesn't mean that it can't happen. We've done impossible shit before, right John?" Dave elbowed the dark haired boy that was silent up until now.

"Yeah! Like remember when we all went out to try to find clothes that were up to Kanaya's standards? That was pretty fucking impossible but hey, here we are. Fully clothed." Dave smiled, appreciating his best friend's attempt at lightening the mood. Rose however, didn't find John's comment as amusing as Dave did.

"Dave, this is serious. Whatever Karkat went through will have some sort of major impact on him. Something or someone caused him to now act the way he is and something changed his opinion on us. Whatever that is it's really serious and I cannot stress enough that as of now, whatever relationship you two had in the past is gone. You can't just pick up where you left off hoping he'd follow along like a lost puppy and everything would be the same. If you're really going to do this...you have to be prepared for anything to happen. Are you really prepared for this Dave?" Rose was eyeing Dave down, waiting for his answer. Finally Dave sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Honestly Rose, I have no fucking clue what I'm dragging myself into. I don't know if I'm prepped enough to fight this battle. But also, I don't really give a shit. I don't care if Karkat now hates me or whatever. I don't care if I can't pick up where I left off with him now, or any time in the near future. I just want to help him because after six years of not seeing him, he comes back like that? No, fuck that. I'm going to repay what he did for me six years ago. I'm going to help him through this. I'm going to help him get his old self back as best as I can."

"Alright," the previous Seer of Light hesitantly nodded, "if you're going to actually do this then I wish you the best of luck." Dave nodded and thanked her, grabbing his coat and beginning to walk out.

He was going to need luck if he was actually going to have any chance of helping bring Karkat back to his old self.