Chapter Text
Vriska needed the help of a psionic, the stronger the better. But Aradia didn’t have the will to do what she needed, and it had been made clear to her, by everyone, that it was a bad idea for her to contact Sollux. Karkat had been particularly blunt, telling her rather facetiously that she shouldn’t remind Sollux of her existence until ‘AA, AT, AND GC WERE BETTER’. Karkat had gone AWOL twelve months ago, so she couldn’t ask whether contacting Sollux to help fix their maimed friends was acceptable. Hopefully, he’d be reasonable.
arachnidsGrip began trolling twinArmageddons:
AG: Hey, we need to talk.
TA: no we dont.
Vriska reached into Sollux’s mind, and stopped him from hitting the block button. It worked, barely, which meant she had a chance to convince him. Not a big one, she could feel him trying to break free, to fly over and tear her to pieces.
AG: W8! I’m not an idiot, I know you’ve got a 50/50 chance of killing me. I have a plan to fix everything, 8ut I need your help to do it. I’m hoping revenge is less important to you than getting her 8ack.
Then she relinquished control, leaving Sollux’s thinkpan completely. Sollux took a long time to respond. Didn’t he want this? Ever since she found out she could fix her mistake, it was almost all she could think about.
TA: the fiir2t tiime we 2peak iin two 2weep2, and you jump two fuckiing miind control, agaiin.
AG: You were gonna 8lock me!
TA: ….two miinute2, biitch. you better type fa2t.
Vriska smiled, and copy-pasted the explanation she’d spent weeks perfecting. She told him about the violet-blooded tentacleTherapist she’d met months ago, who trafficked with beings above time and space. Beings that were dangerous, but could be harnessed by those of a quick mind and a strong will. If they proved themselves worthy, the Opener of the Way would deliver Aradia, Tavros, and Terezi.
Vriska had written it off as nonsense, at first. Too good to be true. Then TT’s book sort of appeared in her respite block. An ancient tome, with brown blood stains and illegal iconography. TT’s attached note called the appearance ‘little more than a parlor trick’. Vriska’s experimentation with some of the simpler rituals proved the theories sound, even if every time she tried to understand them she had daymares the sopor did nothing for. She sent along a couple pictures as well, some of the more compelling passages of TT’s book. Sollux didn’t respond for a while, taking it all in.
TA: let2 a22ume for the moment that thii2 ii2nt 2ome elaborate joke.
TA: why talk two me? gc or ga miight actually want two help you.
AG: 8ecause a lot of the materials TT used have weird names. Some of them, she could help figure out the modern names for. 8ut others…….. we’ll need to improvise. TT says the less suita8le the materials, the more power we’ll need to compensate.
TA: and iif that2 not enough?
AG: Then we 8oth die horri8ly, 8y turning inside out or something equally gruesome.
AG: If it works, I get to make everything right. If it doesn’t, you get to watch me die.
TA: 2o iit2 a wiin-wiin.
AG: Exactly! Aren’t you glad you had a chance to hear me out?
TA: youre in2ufferable, you know that, right?
TA: touch my thiinkpan agaiin, and ii wiill kiill you.
That was the start of months of grudging cooperation. Progress was slow at first, she had to catch Sollux up on what she’d learned, and he couldn’t go two minutes without throwing a fit over something she said. At least someone was finally giving her shit for it. And not giving a fuck about Vriska, he never pried into why she’d never talked to one of her friends about TT.
The truth was she had spoken to Kanaya, and she flipped out. Apparently TT had messaged her too. They started talking nightly, and grew close. Then, one night, TT broke it off mid-conversation. Kanaya hadn’t been able to reach her since, but just because Kanaya struck out didn’t mean TT couldn’t be trusted.
But because this was extremely illegal, Vriska elected to not to tell anyone else. When she persuaded Eridan to go into the dark depths of the ocean and find a meteor of mottled, trans-uranic metal, when she challenged Equius to make a precisely faceted crystal that would turn a dark room into a star map with nothing more than candle light, she kept the reason secret. And she limited contact with Terezi as much as possible, without arousing suspicion.
Slowly, the altar took shape, the bones, stone ring, and equipment painstakingly arranged, well away from Equius’ hive. Most of the bones were from lowbloods, for their psionic potential. But Vriska made sure to incorporate her own prong bones.
After that, it was a matter of practicing the ritual in bits and pieces, waiting for the second equinox. At some point Karkat, Kanaya, and Terezi all tried meddling, even attempted something TT referred to as an ‘intervention’. Luckily, they were unaware of the specifics, just calling them ‘obsessive’, and ‘spooky’. The others wouldn’t figure it out in time.
On the night of the ritual, the sky was clear, the moons full. Wind cut through the canyon. With crystal placed, gold and blue blood mingling on the altar, they began.
Dust, leaves, even small stones stirred, circling them in a hazy barrier of wind. Red and blue lightning flashed. Power, something ancient, spread through Vriska. Eons played out with every blink, etching themselves into her thinkpan. The Empire, the Condesce herself, faded to insignificance. No longer they tried so hard to dissuade anyone from seeking out this power.
She kept her gapers open, to avoid being overwhelmed. Sollux seemed to reach the same conclusion, gapers wide open even as his eyes watered. Was he floating? Was she?
“Stop this at once!” Equius bellowed, holding a boulder in one prong.
Vriska slowed her gestures for a moment, distracted. The forces flowing through her burned, her prosthetics sparked. The barrier glowed with red and blue light. Vriska returned to the ritual before she burned up. Hopefully, Equius would realize the stupidity of interfering at this juncture.
Sollux’s nugbone jerked, and she felt his distraction, the forces swatting the incoming boulder back into Equius. The affect on Sollux was something akin to a short circuit. He screamed, and started bleeding from every hole in his nugbone. Vriska reached into his mind, forcing him to continue until the energies stabilized and he could continue through muscle memory. Vriska felt no conscious thought from Sollux, only an unfocused hatred.
The sphere of air became almost opaque, the central crystal projected an alien sky. There was a pulling sensation, and Vriska blacked out.