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Chapter 2: The Nature of Alchemy

A short pause was all that came before Kanaya put her hand to her forehead and sighed loudly.  "I'm afraid you've bested me."

"Pardon?" Rose asked.

"My moirail once assured me I was simply the best at being a flighty broad with a copious amount of snarky horseshit," she replied.  "But I have been bested.  You are the flightiest broad on all of Alternia.  I cannot hope to compete, what with that veritable mountain of snarky horseshit."

Rose chuckled.  "And what part of it, exactly, is snarky horseshit?"

"Every last syllable that came out of your mouth."

"Oh, come now."  She lifted her arms and spread them wide.  "You're looking at a person that cannot possibly be on Alternia but for the grace of some cosmic fuck-up."

"Trolls genetics are not without mutations," Kanaya said.  "My moirail doesn't even exist on the hemospectrum.  You may be an entirely new variant on troll mutation."

Her arms lowered, hands returning to her lap.  "And how will you explain away my transmuting your chainsaw?  Is magic to be a more rational explanation for you?"

She took her hand from her face and gave Rose the most withering stare she could create.  When all that was given in return was another chuckle, she sighed.  "Do you honestly expect me to believe you about any of this?"

"Hardly," she said.  "Most people back on Earth didn't believe we could use alchemy.  We were fortunate enough to live in times that prohibited the burning of so-called 'witches,' though we tended to live a bit removed from normal society."

"So it's not a normal thing for...'humans,' was it?"

"Correct."

"Humans cannot regularly perform alchemy?"

"Many have tried throughout the years.  From what my mother told me, our families were the most successful in recent memory.  Mister Harley, Jade's grandfather, was a particularly skilled alchemist."

"Why is that?"

Rose paused.  The smirk that had gone for explaining came back, and a faint tilt of the head matched it.  "Why, Miss Maryam.  Are you beginning to believe this horribly mutated troll's story?"

She gave nothing, neither in her face nor in her voice, when she said, "I enjoy stories.  Entertain me enough and I won't bring in any enterprising trolls looking for potential bounties."

"Ah.  All right, then."  She did not speak, instead turning her fingers and bringing a needle back into reality.  A tap to the leg of the chair she sat in sent arcs of electricity crackling along the floor.  A new chair was created beside Kanaya, made up of the worn wooden floorboards.  She looked askance at it.

"I haven't booby-trapped it," Rose said as she dismissed the needle.  "I just see no reason to force my audience to stand while I'm seated."

Slowly, she sat.  "All right.  Explain what you said."

"As you wish."  She sat up straighter, hands finding a place on her knee once more.  "The reason Mister Harley was known as a skilled alchemist and the reason my mother was his disciple are one in the same.  Alchemy is not magic.  It requires material and energy.  Before, any sort of successful alchemy required too much energy to be feasibly done.  Mister Harley theorized the existence of a universal constant of power, based on old myths and archeological findings.  He called it the Green Sun Theorem, and he proved its existence by alchemizing—from scratch—a dog imbued with limitless energy and a plethora of abilities.  He named it Becquerel, though we all called him Bec.

"Following that, he created notations that could be followed to tap into the energy of the Green Sun for any formula an alchemist could make.  It's how we created our catalysts.  With them, we don't even have to muck about with formulae—we simply use the Green Sun and alchemize whatever we want.  It's our very own Philosopher's Stone."

"And yet you continue to claim it isn't magic," Kanaya said, brow raised.

"The Green Sun's existence has been incontrovertibly proven through our alchemy.  However absurd its perpetual energy capabilities seem, it is real, and it is how we perform alchemy."  She sat forward, smirking even wider than before.  "Have I entertained you enough?"

"Perform your alchemy without your wand."

"Needles.  The Thorns of Oglogoth, if you'd like the proper title."

"Either way."

"All right."  She rose to her feet.  From within her long coat she took a pencil; her free hand she held out.  "Your lipstick, please."

Kanaya tossed it to her and sat back to watch as Rose crouched.  A practiced hand drew a perfect circle and added in designs and symbols that were meaningless to her.  After a pause, the Virgo symbol was sketched in the center, and the lipstick set atop it.  Rose put the pencil behind one ear before laying her hands on the edge of the circle.  Because she was watching so closely, Kanaya was able to see the green tinge that suffused the electrical arcing that came from the formula lines.  They reached up and fell upon the lipstick, as if to simply unwrap it.  The flash that came suddenly was blinding, and all that remained when she opened her eyes was her chainsaw, unchanged save for a green Virgo symbol on the engine casing.

"I saw the sign on your blouse," Rose said.  As she took to her feet, she picked up the chainsaw with both hands.  "You seem to have a flair for fashion, despite your weapon of choice."  She offered the thing as best one could offer a chainsaw.

Kanaya stared.

Rose managed to not laugh.  "You always look as though you expect me to have booby-trapped everything I alchemize."  She tilted the chainsaw down, pressing forward the handle and starter.  "I haven't done anything beyond adding the symbol."

Slowly, carefully, she took the chainsaw.  Her fingers brushed Rose's hands, and she felt the warm skin on the pads of her fingertips.  She set the chainsaw aside, and kept her eyes fixed on the other woman as she returned to her chair and sat with a sigh.  "What do you intend to do here?"

"Pardon?"

"I want to know what it is you intend to do here.  Why did you come to this town and my hostelry?"

"I'm following a lead about Noir.  This was the first town I came across after riding through the desert, and yours is the only place to stay."  She lifted one hand and shrugged.  "Complete coincidence and opportunity."

"And you intend to leave without causing problems?"

"I've already said as much.  It's quite inhospitable to cause trouble for your host."

A pause of silence.  "How much do you expect me to trust your word in that regard?"

"As much as I would trust you to not take my life in the meantime."

Another pause, longer than before.  She held out her hand.  "I ask that you give your wa—the Thorns to me."

A chuckle.  "You don't trust me that much, then?"

"I have rules about weapons here."

"And so you do," Rose said.  She lifted both hands, turning her fingers to bring both needles out from nothingness.  Once more, she tapped the legs of her chair.  Small flashes spoke of more alchemy, and she brought her hands back up with a pair of wooden needles.  She gave up the Thorns willingly.

"What do you need those for?" Kanaya asked.

"The Thorns really were knitting needles, once upon a time.  I like to knit."

She blinked, brows drawing together as her head rocked back.  "You are a very strange person, Miss Lalonde."

"You may call me Rose, Miss Maryam."

A moment of hesitation came before she stood.  "And so I may."  Without another pause, without another word, she left the room.

-------

Had he been able to get any real sleep, Karkat might not have been so hung-over when he was violently shaken awake.  The punch he threw was caught in a grip he knew well, and he groaned as he rolled his head to one side to let free his eyes from the sopor slime.

"Shit on a rampaging slitherbeast, Maryam," he said.  "What the fuck do you want?"

"We have to talk.  Now.  Get out."

He yelped as she pulled him halfway out of his recuperacoon; he barely managed to grab hold of the edge to stay inside.  "What the fuck?"  He jerked back when she shoved long knitting needles toward his face.

"Look at these," she said.

"You make clothes," he grumbled, "I get it.  You don't need to wake me up to show me some new skirt you made."

"These belong to one of the brigandrifts," she said.  "They belong to an alien creature who is female and she used them to perform alchemy."  She held them closer to him.  "Real alchemy.  It looks like magic, but her explanations and demonstrations assure me it's alchemy."

"For fuck's sake," he said in a drawling groan.  "I'm not going to read any of your stupid shitty novels just to listen to you make shit up."

"Karkat, we have known each other for sweeps, and have been moirails for almost as long.  You know that I am completely incapable of fabricating a story.  I have absolutely no reason to lie to you."

He blinked, eyes narrow then out of thought instead of pained exhaustion.  He looked past her, wincing at the traces of light that managed to slip through the heavy shutters on the window.  "It's the middle of the day?"

"Yes."

After a long-suffering sigh, he pulled himself out of the recuperacoon.  Though he stumbled at first, bare feet and legs and boxer shorts slippery with slime, he took to steadiness quickly.  He blinked again when she held out a towel.  "How the fuck long did you wait until you woke me up?"

"As long as I could," she said.  The moment the towel was out of her hands, she began to pace the room, bringing one hand to her chin and holding the needles in the other.  "Which was not very long, admittedly.  You must understand, Karkat, that despite your drunken statements shortly before daybreak, I have no idea whatsoever to do with this brigandrift here.  I am absolutely befuddled and so intrigued that I'm certain she mistook my awe for terror."

"Intrigued?"  He lifted his head, face clean from the slime to show his toothy sneer.  "What the fuck is there to be intrigued about?  She's a freak brigandrift and you should toss her ass out.  I vote that her ass gets bisected by a good chainsaw swing, but that's just me."

She waved her hand haphazardly.  "No, no.  I'm not entirely sure I can outpace her in a weapons draw, though I must admit that I was caught entirely off guard when she drew a needle to confront me.  She already changed my chainsaw into a tube of lipstick once."

In scrubbing at his right arm, he started so fiercely that he ripped the scabbing on his wrist clean off.  "She did what?"

"Alchemy, Karkat.  I informed you of that at the beginning."

"Whoa, no, you said alchemy and I heard 'bluh bluh shitty story.'  What the fuck do you mean she turned your chainsaw into lipstick?"

"Just that.  She changed it back before I left her in her room and took the needles with me."  Her pacing quickened, and she stared at the things in her hand.  "I want to hesitate to believe her, but the more I think back on it the more foolish it seems to continue to deny what I've seen in front of me."

He reached out when she passed near and snatched the needles out of her hand.  When she tried to retrieve them, he held her back and leaned to keep them out of reach.  "Gog dammit, Maryam, I know that look."

"What?"

"You've got that fucking look on your face that you get every time I tell you about what new shitty thing I've gone through while running around with my mutant blood," he said.  "And you get it when you read those stupid books and when you hear about the crazy fucks running around on the ocean.  You just want to believe her story."

"Karkat, that is ridiculous.  I have witnessed her perform this alchemy.  It's no longer a matter of wanting or not wanting to believe in a story."

"The fuck it's not!  If you're going to fuck around about kicking out a brigandrift because you want to hear a new story, then I'm going to go throw her freak ass out so hard she's going to never come near this town again!"  He shoved her back once more and turned away, but was halted when she grabbed hold of his bleeding wrist.

"No," she hissed.  "You don't understand.  I did come to ask you for advice on how to handle this, but we cannot go rushing in to attack her.  Those needles do not exist with any sense of normality."

He stared at her.

"I am not being facetious.  She can make them disappear, and she can make them come to her hands whenever she wants.  I have no doubt that she can make them disappear out of our hands if we try to attack her.  If we attack, we will be fighting against something we have never seen before, and I have even less desire to inflict that danger upon you than to dare it myself."

"Thanks for the pale thought, but that doesn't make me not want to go cut her hands off."

"Karkat, please.  We must come up with some sort of plan."

He stared until the long nail of pain in his skull made him close his eyes and groan.  He settled and stopped trying to pull his arm from her grasp.  "Okay, fine."  With another groan, he rubbed gingerly at his forehead.  "Let me put some fucking pants on and we'll figure out what to do with the witch-bitch."

She let him shuffle away, chewing at the nail on one thumb while he rummaged in the small rucksack he had tossed in a corner.  He pulled on a pair of scuffed, faded black jeans that were ripped at the heels and shredded at the knees, and she let out a soft sigh at the sight of them.  "I do wish you would let me at least patch those."

"Okay, fucking focus on something other than clothing for a second, idiot."  He forewent a shirt, returning with a needle in each hand.  "Have you tried breaking these things?"

"I was unable to destroy them, even with my chainsaw."

He sighed and sneered at them.  Slowly, he tilted his head to one side and brought them closer for inspection.  Enfolding them in both hands, he tried to snap them in half.  Green electricity arced around his hands, biting at his flesh, and he yelped as he threw them away.  Kanaya caught them, and he strung together a list of curses as he waved his scorched hands in the air to cool them.

"Yes, that was about the sum of my efforts," she said.  "I doubt they can be destroyed without some sort of alchemic intervention, which we have no means to accomplish."

"What the shit does she even want?" he snarled.

"She claims that all she wants is to rest before being on her way."

"What else does she want?"

"From what she said, she's hunting a creature that she and the other brigandrifts inadvertently created with the remnants of the failed alchemy that brought them to Alternia."

He put his hands on his face.  "Oh Gog.  I can't fucking believe you're buying this pile of horseshit."

"It is hardly what I want to purchase."

"All she wants out of you is a place to sleep?"

"Supposedly."

"Okay, fine.  She gets a little day nap like a good wriggler and then you throw her the fuck out.  If she bitches, tell her she's a shitty patron.  Simple."

"I doubt that."

"Then we cut her fucking hands off so she can't do her freaky magic—"

"Alchemy."

"Her freaky magic, and we cut off her head if she keeps bitching.  It's not like you're trying to take down a fucking dragon."

She was silent.

He sighed, rubbing at the back of his pounding head.  At the sight of the blood flowing down his arm, bright red even in the dim room, he paused.  He took his hand away from his head and watched the wound on his wrist bleed freely.  "We get her out of here at nightfall."

She looked at him.

"We swear on it."  He held out his hand.  "You swear that you're going to get her the fuck out of here, and I swear that I'll help you if you need it."

Silence.

"Either you mean it or you don't.  Come on."

She took in a slow, deep breath.  Letting it seep from her mouth, she took her hand away.  After pushing up her sleeve, she cut her right wrist with a long fang.  The jade blood flowed as easily as did the red, and she reached out in time with Karkat.  They took each other's arms, palms coming to rest over the wounds they had made.  With heat on her hand and coolness on his, they shook.

-------

In the earliest hours of the night, when most trolls were just waking for the long dark of the Alternian night, Kanaya found Rose sleeping.  The recuperacoon in the farthest, darkest corner was untouched, though the woman was slumped against the wall nearby.  Her arms were folded over her stomach, one leg turned on its side as though it had fallen from atop its compatriot in the small movement of slumber.

She stepped inside and closed the door silently behind her.  Back to the wood, she watched her sleep.  From a distance, she could not see the rise and fall of her shoulders in breathing, but the soft hissing inhales and exhales told her of the slow, deep pace.  Without the hat, without the fierceness that had forced her to take in the barest details before, Kanaya could see that her blonde hair was bright to the point that the tips of the strands faded into white.  It stood out in the dark, so unlike anything she had seen.

It wasn't a particularly strange thing to see female trolls walking in the world clad in trousers and pants, but standing there in her deep green skirt and white blouse, she found the jeans somehow striking.  The small bare feet that came from the legs, skin perfectly pale, were all the more different and drew her eyes closely.  She wondered if the tone was healthy, if the dusting of some duskier shade on her cheeks was normal.

The rustle of cloth against wood made her start and cease staring into the details.  Rose tilted to one side in jerking angles, farther and farther until she began to slip steadily over.  Her spine seized, and she straightened with a groan muffled by her lips.  Though she shifted her shoulders and settled back against the wall, she blinked open her eyes.  Gaze downcast at first, she saw the polished black shoes at the other end of the room and grabbed at the air.  A needle was caught in her fingers, but she halted when she looked up.

"Is it common for you to enter your patrons' rooms while they sleep?" she asked, voice bleary.

"Only if I think they're going to cause trouble."

She sniffed and rubbed at her eyes.  "Don't trolls usually cause trouble in general?"

"You must admit you're something of a special case."

"All right, granted."  Rose neither stretched nor stood, merely opening her eyes properly to look at Kanaya.  "Is there something you needed from me?"  She blinked, and a tiny smirk came to her sleepy face.  "Are you here to properly run me out?"

Silence.

"Ah."  She stood slowly, dusting off the back of her jeans when she was on her feet.  "I must admit I'm not too surprised."

"Why is that?"

"In the sweeps we've spent here, there were only two trolls who didn't try to kill us in the end, and they were among the lowest on this peculiar hemospectrum of yours."  She gestured at Kanaya's bandaged wrist and the green stain on the cloth.  "Most trolls higher on the spectrum want us gone or dead.  Now that I see you're almost among nobility, I amend my statement.  I'm only surprised you didn't try to kill me in my sleep."

Every muscle in Kanaya's back tightened instantly.  "I beg your pardon?"

"I told you before that I trusted you not to murder me as much as you believed my story.  I did not think for a moment that you believed me."

"You honestly expected me to kill you?"

She went to the corner of the room where she had set her things, waving a hand over one shoulder.  "Absolutely.  You're a troll, after all."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Trolls are extremely violent creatures," Rose said as she picked up her coat.  She pulled it onto her shoulders with a soft exhale.  "Quick to annihilate any sort of major deviation, be it political or physical.  The higher on your hemospectrum, the more ferociously you adhere to the practice of culling.  Given your unique shade of green, I would have estimated the time between my exposure and your attempt to kill me to be much shorter."

"Are you insinuating that I am nothing more than a simpleminded murderer?"

"Only simpleminded insofar as your species' propensity for murdering rather needlessly.  You yourself really are quite articulate."  She lifted her bag on one shoulder, picking up her hat with her free hand.   When it was safely on her head and her bag was settled firmly, she turned her fingers to reclaim the needle's twin.  "I'll have my guns back, and then I'll be on my way."

Kanaya did not move when Rose came near; she looked down her nose to keep their gaze.  Her mouth was set in a frown, fangs bright on her black lips.

"Move," Rose said.

"I am not a mindless murderer."

She scoffed.  "You're a troll."

"That equates to less than nothing.  Would you like me to participate in this assumption by sight game you're playing?  Based on what I've seen of you, I'd have to say humans are soft little creatures that have to rely on magic and sarcasm to scrape by and live their small, cruel lives."

Rose's smirk returned, made dark with the hat tilted over her face.  "Your fangs are showing, Miss Maryam."

"You wish you had fangs to show."

Movement was expected, and every tiny sign of it caught her eye instantly.  The twitching of shoulders up, elbows bending, hands rising; everything was seen, and she knew her reaction as it happened.  She slid one foot forward, pushing hard against one of Rose's to break her balance.  The moving wrists she snatched hold of, and she made Rose turn in her stumbling.  Kanaya slammed her against the door hard enough for the frame to rattle, pining her arms to the side.  Her hat slid off her head and fell quietly to the floor.

Though she struggled, there was not enough strength in her to win out against the troll's grip.  When she made to move her hands and bring the needles to the wall, Kanaya squeezed her wrists painfully tight, and her fingers were seized up in a spasm that made her drop them.  Before she could call them back, Kanaya folded her fingers closed and held them fast.  They stood, captured and restraining, and stared at each other.

"I had wondered if you were truly faster than me," Kanaya said.  "I suppose this means I can add another fact to the rumors about the brigandrifts.  Humans are quite slow."

"Let me go."

"Admit that I am not a mindless killer."

"I will do no such thing.  You have nearly broken my wrists and are holding me captive."

"But I am not killing you."

"I have a hard time believing you're anything but a step away from doing so."

She stared, brows drawn tight together, and did not move.  "And what will you do if I let you go?"

Another scoff.  "You won't."

A pause.  Very slowly, she began to loosen her grip.  The shock that flickered over Rose's face, that shone in her eyes as she looked from hand to hand, was satisfying.  The confusion that settled on her brows when she let go her hands entirely was perfect, and she took a step backward to let it sink in.

"Now," she said quietly, "what are you going to do, oh good and pure rational human?"

Her fingers turned immediately and took back the Thorns.  She did not move beyond that for a long while.  She breathed slowly.  Eventually, she looked away and brought one foot back.  "You've honored our bargain.  I'm going to take my things and leave without causing a ruckus."

It was tiny sparks at the tips of the Thorns that made the both of them react.  Kanaya stared, stepping back as Rose lifted the needles to look at them.  In a heartbeat, the sparks became winding snakes of green lightning, hissing and lashing down to strike at Rose's arms.  The sleeves of her coat and her shirt snapped into flames at the heat of the energy, and she swore aloud as she slapped the needles against her arms.  The flaming cloth vanished in puffs of smoke and ash, leaving charred edges at her elbows.  A wave of her hand made the needles disappear, and she wrenched her coat and bag from her and cast them to the floor.

Outside, a deep rumble preceded the crack-flash of lightning.  The green color that poured through the shutters made Kanaya turn, but the sound of wood rent asunder made her turn back faster.  She caught sight of Rose bolting away, barefoot and clutching the Thorns in her steaming hands.  Her only thought was to follow, and she caught up her skirt to run.  Trolls, wide awake and already carousing in the saloon, jumped up from their chairs at the sight of Rose bursting into the room.  When she charged behind the bar, needles reaching out to fire surges of lightning at the gun cabinet, they cried aloud in confusion and fury.

The rumble outside had been growing, and suddenly became a roar to drown out any shouting.  Rose, armed with her guns, was allowed to pass by virtue of the distraction, dodging between trolls and lusii and tables and slamming her shoulder against the swinging doors, and Kanaya was afforded the same opportunity by running as quickly as she could.  When she reached the outside world, she was forced to plant her feet firmly against the howling wind that threw the dust of the main road high in the air.

The great wind soon ripped all the dust from sight, letting her see Rose pelting up the road.  In the distance, beyond the flapping white of her untucked shirt, there was a thin black form lumbering forward.  The moons above were full, the glow of purple and green blending to make the world bright.  With that light, she could see the form resolving into shapes.  What she had mistaken for long horns were revealed to be upswept ears.  A long muzzle showed against the narrow neck, and claws that could have been made from glistening obsidian capped the fingers.

Rose skid to a halt, lifting the gun she had not stuck hastily in her belt.  The tip of the needle met the end of the barrel, and when she fired the lightning rode with the bullet.  Four shots were cracked off, and each bullet found the face of the creature.  Massive explosions of green starlight made the creature rock back, but only slightly.  When the smoke cleared, its maw had opened.  Long white fangs shone bright.  It lifted its head; its chest swelled; it let out a roar of pure sensation that rattled the buildings and battered Kanaya's chest.

The speed Rose had was just enough to let her drop down and stab the needles into the ground.  With a flash, a thick wall of stone surged up to protect her from the roar, and she flicked the needles again.  Shining metal broke from the ground and formed into bullets that flowed into the gun.  Rising to her feet, bringing both guns to bear, the Thorns spat lightning and let the wall collapse.

The creature was already there.  It backhanded her, throwing her far through the air to crash upon the ground.  With Rose so close then, Kanaya could see the three gashes rent on her face and the bright red blood flowing from them.  There was no hesitation in Rose regaining her footing, and she fired both guns in a flurry of screaming lightning.  When the bullets struck, the lightning expanded and caught every inch of the creature in its grasp.  It shuddered and jerked and seized in the electricity, and when it tilted its head back to roar, a shrieking, echoing howl made its way through the fangs.

It bent in upon itself and wrenched upright, flinging its arms out.  The latticed green broke apart, and it howled as it looked at Rose.  Rose, standing tall with red staining the white shirt and speckling the blue jeans.  Rose, Thorns bringing back ammunition to her guns and letting the lightning wind around the chambers.  And then it looked away from her and began to laugh.

Kanaya turned to follow its gaze and found her eyes looking at the trolls that stood in shock in the street.  They stood by their lusii, multitude of weapons drawn but hanging useless in their hands.  There was no comprehension on their faces.  When she looked back to the creature, she heard it laughing.  She saw it begin its charge.

Rose did not expect it, and so she did not know to chase him until he had ripped the head of the nearest troll off its neck and bitten the face off its lusus.  There was no way to fire accurately while running, and so she did her best to move quickly as she shot round after round.  The Thorns constantly replenished her bullets, and each shot brought with it a new effect.  One would explode, another would bind the creature's legs with expanding metal, and yet another would make electricity dance along its spine.  None of the shots made him stop in his slaughter, and soon trolls began to run screaming into the desert and the forest.  The lusii tried to give them some time, but their blood, the same vast rainbow of their wards, painted the town.

The creature looked at her.  It looked at Kanaya and smiled as widely as its mouth would stretch.  Her chainsaw was still inside.  Her legs pushed her back through the doors without her mind's consent, and she crashed into chairs until her thought caught up with her muscles.  She dove behind the bar and snatched up the weapon and felt the explosion of wood before she heard it.  The creature snarled its wild laughter, throwing aside tables as it drew closer.  The first pull on the starter brought the chainsaw to life, and she scrambled to her feet revving the engine.

A black sword slammed down against the chainsaw, wedging in its teeth and stopping it instantly.  The creature pressed forward, snapping at her face with its long teeth.  She held it back, but her arms could not press forward.  Teeth grit, she made her move.  The creature was allowed to complete its strike as she stepped aside and let the sword drive down the chainsaw.  Carrying the momentum, she began to turn on her heels and swing the chainsaw up and around.

The sound of wings flapping and claws snapping and guns firing deafened her as a weight flew into her chest.  She was knocked from her feet and crashed back against the wall.  Bottles leaped from their shelves and fell around her, shattering loudly while the chainsaw stuttered into an idle rumble.  Though she grabbed hold of it once more, her shoulders were shaken fiercely.

"We're leaving!" Karkat shouted in her ear.  "Right the fuck now!  Out out out!"  He hauled her to her feet, dragging her along as he bolted.  The floor was littered with broken wood, and they had to clamber through the hole that had been ripped in one wall.  A sound reached her ears, and Kanaya looked back.

It was a pair of screams that made her turn.  The shriek of Karkat's lusus, that scratchy squawk that only the crab throat could release, could have been familiar were it not for the note of pain that made something rattle within her ears.  He had been cut from shoulder to legs, and fell in two pieces.  The second scream was one she had never heard before, and it was only because she looked that she understood its source.  Her lusus had been ripped into by the creature's bare hands.  Her jade blood splattered across it, her face twisted in the scream.  Her and Karkat's lusus hit the floor, and Kanaya broke free of Karkat's weakened grasp to charge back with a scream of her own.

The creature caught her by the throat as she tried to saw him in half.  It lifted her from her feet, smearing the blood of her lusus on her neck as she struggled to pry its fingers open.  With a snarl, it turned and threw her away.  She crashed into something that let out a choked cough, and it was some time before they hit the ground.  Rose pushed her off and stumbled forward to stand between her and the creature.  Panting, bleeding then from her side, she had abandoned the guns and held naught but the Thorns in her hands.

When the creature leaped forward and swung the sword down at her head, Rose brought the Thorns up and caught the blade in the cross she made of them.  The green lightning surged then, snapping against both creature and human.  Beneath Rose's feet, the ground cracked.  Her knees trembled.  She let out a wordless shout, spat in the creature's face, and held him where he stood.

Beyond the crackling of the lightning came a sound that only Kanaya seemed to notice.  She turned and saw, clear with the moonlight, a wide cloud of dust drawing closer.  As the sound grew louder, she recognized it: the throaty call of an engine at full power.  The engine drew nearer, and as it did the shape of it became clear.  It was a two-wheeled device powered by an engine, speeding across the desert in sleek black glory.  It carried a rider dressed in an immaculate red suit and black sunglasses.  In one pale hand was a broadsword covered in dancing green lines, and when the rider came close enough, Kanaya could see his white-blonde hair whipping about in the wind.

The creature dodged back when she drove the chainsaw at its stomach, and came directly into the path of the swordsman rider.  Their swords clashed, and the creature was thrown backward by the force of the blow.  The wheels spat up dirt as the rider spun the device in a tight circle and came to a stop.  A kickstand was snapped into place, and the rider dismounted and put the sword on his shoulder.  He adjusted the sunglasses on his nose and looked at Rose with a straight face.

"Spiffy rags you got nowadays, sis," he said.

"A pleasure to see you, brother," she replied.  "Excellent timing, as always."

"Gotta save the blood relatives.  Glad I got my iron through that fuckin' desert all right."  His head tilted down.  "Who's the swanky dame?"

Rose did not look at Kanaya, eyes on the ground.  "She got caught up in this, unfortunately."

He put one hand in his pocket and turned toward the creature.  It stood snarling, white eyes narrow.  "Guess we best get her uncaught."  He reached inside his jacket to draw out a pistol.  "Ain't gonna burn powder?"

"It hasn't been entirely effective."

"How 'bout that."  He returned the gun to its holster and lifted the sword from his shoulder.  "All right.  Let's knock the fucker off the old fashioned way."

She tightened her grip on the Thorns.  "Gladly."

The creature stared at them for a time as they began to advance.  Its snarling ceased and became laughter.  The sword disappeared in a burst of lightning.

Rose and the man both started.

It lifted its arms and began to laugh louder.

They both began to run, weapons rising.

In the end, they struck nothing.  The creature had vanished in a crack of sound and green light.  The man managed to stop himself, but Rose stumbled and hit the ground on hands and knees.

"Son of a bitch dusted on us again," the man said.

She turned over to sit properly, putting a hand on her bloody side.  "He never teleported away before, Dave."  She grimaced.  "Only Bec did that."

He grunted.  "So what's his grift?"

"If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say our little homunculus is evolving."

He made no sound of reply.  He tossed the sword into the air with a spin and it vanished without flourish.  After a moment, he held his hand out to Rose.  When she took it, he pulled her to her feet.  Though he opened his mouth to speak, gray hands grabbed his lapels and shook him furiously.

"What the fuck did you bring here?" Karkat shouted.  "What in Gog's name was that thing?"

Dave lifted a brow over the barrier of his shades.  "Get your fuckin' mitts off me, rag-a-muffin."

"You fucking tell me what the hell just killed my lusus before I smash those stupid glasses into your eyes!"

"That was Jack Noir," Rose said quietly.  "We created him by accident, and we've been tracking him."  She wiped at the blood on her chin and winced at the way her hand pulled at the wounds on her face.  "I didn't expect him to come rampaging through a town like that."

Karkat let go of Dave to grab Rose's shirt and shake her even harder than her brother.  "That grubfucker followed you here, witch-bitch!  You're the reason my lusus is dead and my moirail nearly got her head cut off!"

She frowned and reached out to take hold of his shirt and shake him just as fiercely.  "I did not mean for her to get dragged into this!  I meant to leave without causing any trouble!"

He shoved her away, throwing his hands in the air.  "Well you really fucked that up!  Good job, witch-bitch fake alchemist!  You managed to get most of a whole town slaughtered in ten minutes because you didn't keep your alien ass the fuck out!"

"Do you honestly believe I wanted to call Noir down on your heads?"  She gestured at nothing, blood smeared on her palm.  "I want to kill him!  I have no reason to bring anyone unconnected to the matter into this fight!"

Karkat stared at her, eyes suddenly recognizing the color of the blood flowing from her wounds.  He opened his mouth; he closed it.  He swallowed and jabbed a finger in her face.  "That's too fucking bad, because now you've dragged me into all this.  You tell me how to murder his ass before I get my sickles and go to town on yours."

Dave, taller than any of them, took hold of the back of his shirt, pulling him backward and hoisting him up so he stood awkwardly on his toes.  He leaned close, and Karkat could not see his eyes through the dark lenses.  "I got a better idea, bo.  You break it up with my sis and close your fuckin' head, and I won't start playin' the full orchestra of chin music on you."

"What the shit are you saying?"

He tilted his head forward and let the glasses slide to the end of his nose.  The irises within the pure white were a bright bloody red, and Karkat stopped breathing at the sight of them.  "I'm sayin' you shut that mouth full of saw teeth before I bust your jaw."

"Dave, that's more than enough," Rose said.  "We don't need to exacerbate his condition."

He jerked away from Dave, spinning to look at her.  "My condition?  What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Understand that I mean this with every ounce of sincerity I have," she said.  "I am sorry that your lusus was killed, I truly am.  But Noir cannot be defeated by anything but alchemy, and you are incapable of performing it.  You have to leave him to us."

Karkat spat out laughter.  "Yeah, leave him to you!  I guess you human-alien things just start spontaneously spraying blood everywhere when you're winning a fight!"  He took in a deep breath to continue, but stopped when a hand came down gently on his shoulder.  When he looked back and saw Kanaya, he slowly closed his mouth.

She strode past him, moving to stand between him and the two humans.  Though she met Dave's missing gaze a moment, she looked at Rose.  There were the beginnings of scabs on her face, and she could spot tiny pinpricks of wounds on her feet when she glanced down.  The white shirt was perfectly ruined, the jeans irreversibly stained, and the first honest expression Kanaya had seen on her was settled miserably on her face.  She was utterly contrite.

"I apologize," she said.  She returned her hand to her side, and Kanaya could see the red blood smeared on the Thorns in her fingers.  "If you'll allow me the small time I need to attend to my wounds, I'll be on my way."

Blinking once, Kanaya nodded in silence and tightened her grip on Karkat's shoulder when he made to rain down protests.  Rose walked by them, picking her way through the detritus and pools of slurried rainbow blood to return to the broken building Kanaya had once called hers.  After she had disappeared into the hostelry, Karkat gave a low growl and tried to follow, but Kanaya forced him to stand his ground and went in his stead; Dave did not try to stop her.

The chainsaw had long since died in her hand, and it was with the quiet that death afforded her that she was able to enter without being noticed.  Rose stood with her forehead pressed to that of a hoofbeast.  The white hair of its mane blended perfectly with its pale body, and Rose's hair matched well.  She held the hoofbeast's face in one hand, breathing slowly.

"You are an incredible coward," she said.

The hoofbeast nickered and pushed at her.

"That was meant as a compliment."  She took her head back and reached up to stroke the creature's mane.  "If you didn't run away at the first sign of danger like you do, I'd have been less one horse before Noir even came along."  With a small sigh, she fiddled with one tall ear.  "We have to start moving again.  I'm sorry it's so soon."

"So you do intend to leave."

Rose turned neither swiftly nor slowly, letting her head tilt to rest on the hoofbeast's face when she saw Kanaya standing in the ruined entrance.  "I apologize specifically for your inn, now.  I'll get Maplehoof outside."  She took hold of the reins that hung from the hoofbeast's neck, but grimaced when her grip was pulled against.  Maplehoof bucked slightly and pulled the reins completely from her hand, whinnying loudly.  When gray hands snapped closed over the reins, though, the hoofbeast could not canter away or pull free.

"Calm down," Kanaya murmured.  She held the reins carefully, giving only enough slack to let the creature settle.  "I wouldn't have thought you humans would be under the care of a lusus, though I suppose it makes sense that you're having such a hard time controlling it."

"Maplehoof isn't a lusus," Rose said.  "She's just a horse."

"That's a peculiar name for a hoofbeast."

"It isn't for a horse."

Kanaya sighed, shaking her head slightly.

"Why did you come in here?" Rose asked.  "I've told you more than once that I'm going to leave.  I'm not going to linger."

"How far, exactly, do you believe you'll be able to go?"

"Excuse me?"

"That wound in your side doesn't seem particularly dangerous, but you only managed to survive because the other human arrived."

"That is an assumption.  I can handle this on my own."

"Forgetting for a moment that you are, in fact, an alien who can control science advanced enough to be mistaken for magic, you are bleeding a color that does not exist on the hemospectrum.  My moirail bleeds the same color, and he has been running all his life to keep from being culled.  Mine was the only safe place for him to heal when he's injured.  Now that this monster has destroyed all of that, where do you think you're going to go?"

"I just said that I can handle this on my own."

"And I find myself severely doubting that."

Rose stared at her, eyes narrow, and eventually let out a long sigh.  "What do you want?"

"It's far less about what I want than about what you happen to need, Miss Lalonde."

"And?"

"I will be accompanying you from now on."  She held up her free hand at the sight of Rose's mouth falling open.  "Karkat was correct.  Willingly or not, you have entangled us in this problem of yours and we have a personal stake in the matter.  Your Jack Noir murdered my lusus and destroyed my livelihood.  Either I will see him die, or I will have a part in taking his life."

"That doesn't say anything about what I need."

"You need an ally who can easily obtain information.  One who can help you move about without as much suspicion as you would garner alone.  One who can distract attention from your alien nature and mutant blood."

She smiled by way of a strained grimace.  "Your flattery shines brighter than the stars themselves, Miss Maryam."  She took her hand from her side and turned the Thorns about in her bloody fingers.  A tap to the shredded flesh made lightning arc, and the flash faded to reveal white skin stretched anew across the divide.  She repeated the process with the wounds on her face, wincing at the sparks.  With no sleeves to speak of, she had nothing but her bare arms to try and wipe away the lingering blood.  She coughed, eyes closing tight, and dismissed the needles.

"Well?"

"Seeing as how my alchemy only extends to repairing the immediate damage and cannot regenerate lost blood or wasted energy, I'd say you could very easily kill me where I stand."

"And do you believe I, a troll, will take advantage of that?"

She hummed.  "No.  I suppose I don't."

"Then tell me your answer."

"All right."  She reached out a hand.  "I accept your offer of alliance as begrudgingly as you give it, Miss Maryam."

Pausing, sighing quietly, she took her hand.  Closing her eyes, she lifted Rose's hand and brushed her lips across her knuckles.  When she lifted her head and found her eyes once more, she pressed her hand gently forward.  A pause came paired with blinking violet eyes, and the gesture was hesitantly returned.  She felt warm, warm breath on her hand, and held her gaze calmly when she looked up.

"Accepted.  Rose."

A very small smile.  "Kanaya."