Chapter 2

"-osh… ocean is ve- very bu… beautiful… Did I get it right this time?" you finished, switching from the unfamiliar English-like Alternian to Japanese in your excitement.

"Yes, you did. Very good. You're picking it up very quickly, it's very impressive." Signless praised as he ruffled your hair, giving you one of those smiles you'd come to love so much.

You'd been picking up Alternian quickly even for a child thank to your English lessons in school. It had surpised and impressed the four trolls who were quickly becoming like a second family to you. Seeing Signless' smile of pride in particular when you got the hang of new words and phrases or remembered things that were different about Alternian culture you'd been taught gave you your own jolt of pride at being the reason for that expression, often making you blush shyly.

"It won't be long befur you could almost pass off fur an actual troll." Disciple added, "If you found yourself a lusus after that you wouldn't need us anymore."

"No way! I'll always need all of you!" you protested.

"Don't fret little one, we aren't trying to get rid of you." Dolorosa reassured, "We just want you safe and to grow up well."

"To be fair she says her kind is raised by their actual kin so a lusus probably wouldn't do her much good." Psiioniic pointed out, "Besides even with a cloak or hat her skin and eyes are a dead giveaway. She's safer with us."

"Safer? Do other trolls not like aliens?" you asked.

Psiioniic sighed, "Nothing of the sort dear one. But Alternia is a cruel world and many trolls either don't know what kindness is or blindly follow the direction of trolls of status who more often than not like things as they are. If you are ever mistaken for a mutant without a chance to clear up the misunderstanding like you did with us or had run into anybody else…"

Signless tried to continue a few times, unsure of the best way to explain the threat to his and your lives without scaring you or downplaying it too much for you to understand the danger. But when he finally seemed to have an idea of how to word things he just got choked up. You immediately put a reassuring hand on his cloak- you were too sort to reach high enough to properly imitate how your mother would comfort you when you were upset back on Earth.

"It's okay, Kankri. I think I kind of get what you're trying to say. I might not know quite what you're trying to say would happen but I'm with you guys now so I'm sure everything will be okay." you said.

He knelt down and hugged you, you didn't know it but the topic the others had brought up reminded him of the rougher aspects of his own childhood and his concern for you and his inner conflict of how he hoped he could help you get home but never wanted to let you go. "Thank you Kagome. Never change dear one or stop clinging to those close to your metaphorical blood pumper."

"Well this is interesting." an unfamiliar voice piped up in Alternian, "I can guess who most of these memory figures are but a human is unexpected."

Suddenly your eyes snapped open as you brought to awareness by a simple fact- that had happened before, back when you were a child trapped on a distant planet. And with that realization the figures recreated from your memory were gone and you almost fell forward without Kankri's support, the illusion of what you had looked like back then fading away to reveal the teenager you actually were. Pushing against the ground you stood up and turned around. A troll girl with red fairy-like wings and familiar ram-like horns clad in a red almost pajama-like outfit with a lighter read gear symbol was standing there with a wide smile.

"This is… startlingly similar to deja vu." you said blandly, "I don't suppose your symbol could be understatedly described as a curly y?"

Even though she'd already been smiling she managed to grin. "You're right. The bubbles are full of memories and secrets but this was certainly unexpected… are you one of the ghosts?"

"No, I'm just asleep…" you answered, "My name is Kagome by the way."

"I'm Aradia… are you a player?" she asked.

"No, I'm not." you answered.

"Then maybe this memory is important!" she said, "Any idea why?"

"Important…?" you couldn't think of a reason why that nostalgic moment would be important beyond as subtle example of why Alternia needed to change.

"It's not like the memory left the bubble, maybe you can summon it back." Aradia encouraged, "What happened next?"

"I said 'Come on, Kankri! I want to show you the pretty flowers Meulin found!' and dragged him off to distract him so he would cheer up…" you admitted, "When I came back Mituna ruffled my hair, I think he'd been thanking me for cheering Kankri up…"

As if your words jump started something the memory illusions were back, and judging by Signless' soft, indulgent smile he'd noticed what you were doing and had been touched. "All right, Kagome. I'm coming. Maybe you can teach me how to make one of those flower crowns you mentioned."

"Shit, we really fucked up derailing the subject like that." Psiioniic swore, "Why did we take it in that direction? She'th practically still a pupa, we should be teaching her caution without making her afraid. So fucking stupid…"

"Neither of you are used to dealing with anyone so young, and I myself am out of practice myself." Dolorosa pointed out, "Still even for a child she's so innocent... her old home must have been much more peaceful or else held children in a higher regard than trolls do."

"She really is a sweet kitten, comforting Kankri like that when she must be distressed herself." Meulin agreed.

"Eh, what'th the uthe fussing over it now? It'th already done." Psiioniic said, "I just hope if the time ever comes we'll be able to let her go when we figure out how to get her home for her own good."

This time you noticed the fading start and even though you knew you were helpless to stop the end of the illusion you reached out to them. "No, wait-"

You sighed and took a deep breath, a tear escaping down your cheek.

"How did you meet adult trolls?" Aradia asked to distract you, "Adults haven't been allowed on Alternia since the Summoner's rebellion centuries ago."

"The 'Summoner'?" you prompted.

"History doesn't tell much that isn't altered to make those against the empire look bad and some history books try to paint him as a legend instead of real." Aradia said, "But he was a winged troll with the ability to communicate with and control animals. The Summoner started out normal seeming lowblood in the army until his wings and sympathies for the followers of the Signless Sufferer were discovered but after escaping the highbloods out to punish him he started the worst rebellion remembered by history."

You'd hever heard of a troll like that connected to the sparking rebellion. "Hm… I don't recall… Did you call Signless the Sufferer…? I mean I can guess but-"

And suddenly you were up. You noticed the red tablet-like platform you were on was the same color as Aradia's outfit and had the same lighter red symbol. Hearing the familiar sounds of a fight you looked around… and noticed Dave finishing off one of the black chess-like people you'd seen during your explorations. And not only was the chain connecting the moon to Derse broken said moon seemed to be heading somewere. Rose seemed to be holding something colored like a yin yang symbol. Rose and Dave exchanged a few words, she seemed resigned and both of them determined.

"Fuck, what are you doing here Kagome? Were you kept out of the loop?" Dave asked when he saw you.

"Oh, dear… I had meant to wake her up." Rose said, "Apologies Kagome. I fear you've lost the opportunity to leave…"

You shook your head.

"I don't know if I've been tricked as per expectations but even if that menace leaves key information out and twists words I've never heard of him lying." you said, "Besides… suddenly I have the feeling that this really is where I need to be and I won't face you two to face whatever's happening alone."

They both looked at you in surprise, and suddenly you were positive they were related. And that you would give whatever decided it was a good idea to put children through something like this one hell of a punch. But then again maybe creating a new universe was best left in children's' hands than adults. Didn't mean making it so dangerous and messed up was okay though. You all exchanged determined expressions; and you noticed that Dave was on the platform with you now and that he was holding hands with Rose who was on a similar seeming orange platform with a yellow sun.

Suddenly you were brought out of your thoughts abruptly yet again- this time by seeing… something. It was vague, and you wanted to describe it as a shimmer and yet it was too vague to be sure or describe except for a sensation of green. Then there was an explosion and three beams of light where each of you were standing. Dave was wearing red clothes with the same color scheme and symbol as Aradia now, and Rose had an orange robe with a hood. Both of their hoods were up.

"Whoa, how'd you get godtier?!" Dave exclaimed.

The color scheme was the same for the most part. Just the pants and shoes of the mage godtier with a shorter variation of the sylph dress. She even still had her beloved cloak. Or… so it seemed at first. Onlookers' vision went almost blurry or glitchy and briefly the cloak morphed to match Dave's and the design on Kagome's shirt changed to the same gear symbol Dave's godtier outfit bore. Then her outfit was back almost completely to normal except the design was replaced by vertical green whisps which later proved to be the life symbol and a disjointed stylized pink heart revealed to be that of a heart player.

"Fascinating. Someone must have meddled a great deal with your life, because I have a feeling that this glitch indicates that question of which session aside you were originally destined to also be a player of this game." Rose noted.

"You look like a wardrobifier like Jade's malfunctioned but it's kinda cool." Dave chimed in.

"You guys will have to explain what godtier is and help me figure out what exactly this does." You said.

"Well it looks like the welcome party is complete." a new voice chimes in, signaling the arrival of Aradia and a troll whose horns and symbol are painfully familiar.

"So thith ith the mystery fifth human." the other troll commented.

"My name's Kagome Higurashi Are you… a Captor by any chance…?" Kagome said, noting that even his eyes, though not red and blue- or not anymore at least- were also two different colors.

"Sollux to be exact. How the hell do you know that?" he replied.

"Well Aradia said something about a 'welcome party' right? It's be more sensible to explain to everyone at once if there's going to be more people." you said, "It's a long story and a subject of some pretty complex feelings and strong regret."

"Fair enough." Sollux agreed.

Before long a meteor holding a surprisingly vast complex of buildings came into view. A group of more troll teens- who along with Aradia and Solluxed seemed to be Jade, Dave, and Rose's age- was on the roof of the building at the top of the meteor. There were four of them standing or sitting. Then they came into sight and as they gazed at the quintet you were part of in surprise and relief you were gaping at them in shock yourself. Something was familiar about all four of them. And there seemed to be two bodies with them.

Two of them were girls. One was a casually dressed but still elegant troll with a green symbol that almost resembled an M and was the tallest of the bunch… her horns and face were scarily reminiscient of Porrim's but her skin was literally glowing and at least seemed paper-white instead of gray. The other girl had red shades and the same horns as Latula and a plushie that resembled Latula's dragon lusus. Her outfit seemed to be a cosplay variation of a legilacerator uniform and she had a cane.

There were also two more boys. One had hair which seemed to be somewhere between the wildest curly hair you'd ever seen or the messiest way hair you'd ever seen, he had the same symbol and curvy horns as Kurloz… the way he was almost as tall as the probably Maryam reminded you of how trolls who served or fear the subjugulator you'd known had called him 'Grand Highblood'. The other, though… the messy and slightly spiky hair, the horns, the face… Then you saw the gray symbol on his chest and choked. It was like whoever designed his symbol had either failed to copy or been mocking the broken infinity symbol Kankri had liked using in place of a signature to play up the rumors of how he was supposedly nameless on top of signless. Then you saw one of the corpses' horns and you were completely sure that not only was this probably what the menace was talking about but…

"This… is this… some kind of cosmic joke? I'm surprised whatever decides whatever 'godtiers' didn't make me a time and space player instead of whatever the green and pink symbols are." you said, clutching your cloak in dear life and focusing on using it to ground you so much the glitch stopped and you were just wearing your normal clothes and the cloak from Signless.

"'Captor', 'Maryam', 'Pyrope', 'Makara', 'Vantas'… horns like on the wanted posters of Mindfang… All this fucking time I thought if I could just find competent space travel… but I'd have needed time travel too." you mutter, close to tears or a breakdown, "How long has it been from Alternia's perspective? Centuries? A millennium? More than that? What ever the answer is in sweeps will surely sound even worse in years…"

"How does the extra human know our last names?" the Pyrope asked.

"Excuse me but could you please explain what you're talking about." Maryam added.

"Why the fuck does a stranger who shouldn't know anything about trolls or Alternia look like she's seen a ghost?" Vantas asked.

"Chill out and let a motherfucker talk." Makara interjected, "Chika are you motherfucking okay?"

As if knowing how to deal with freakouts- probably from personal experience and undoubtedly doubly so if he was as close with this Vantas as Signless and Psiioniic had been- Sollux approached you carefully and calmly and put a grounding hand on your shoulder. "Try to thtay calm and take a deep breath before you have a panic attack."

"Shh, it'th okay KG, I know it'th thcary but everything will be okay. It'th okay of it'th too much right now. Just clothe your eyes and take deep breaths." It was almost familiar in that it reminded you of how Psiioniic would help or reassure you when Signless couldn't or you didn't want to worry him, and that was comforting.

"What the fuck is wrong, Kagome? I really think now is the time for the first iteration of that story time you've been promising." Dave all but demanded, "Do I need to kick any of these trolls' asses?"

Once you're sure you'll keep it together you sigh and rub your now we eyes.

"No, Dave… Not one of them have done anything, and the trolls they remind me of didn't either. Well…" your eyes trail to Aradia, "Aradia's ancestor did but the woman barely had a slave's level of leeway to exercise her free will and get away with it."

"Can you be more direct please? I bet blind acrobats are more direct than you." Vantas complained, "How the fuck did you know our names?"

"I know your last names but not your first names aside from Aradia and Sollux." you corrected, "And the reason is tied to why I have this. Look familiar?"

As a prelude to your story you unclasp your cloak and adjust so you can make the bright, candy red broken infinity symbol sewn into the inside of the cloak.

End of Chapter