Red Blood (Karkat X Reader)

The Sufferer's Legacy

You stared at the towering computer, listening to the hum of its old parts as it battled to keep the two tiny lights on the keypad on. Your finger slowly and curiously traced the 'on button', before pressing it it quickly. You jumped back, half expecting a hidden bomb inside to detonate on you. Instead, a bright red screen appeared on the monitor. Tiny Alternian text scrolled across the bottom for a moment, before an odd symbol appeared.

♋

Several letters, in what you assumed was Alternian, appear under it. A question mark was placed at the end, and you saw two buttons on the keypad with corresponding symbols in the question. You could assume they meant 'yes' or 'no'... so was it safe to click one? Seeing as you and Karkat were pretty much screwed anyway, and that there was a teleportation pad connected to the machine, you pressed the green button (which probably meant yes, but considering it was Alternia, it's still hard to be sure).

A hand shaped mold lifted out of the wall. It stopped in front of you. You didn't know why you wanted to put your hand in it... but you did. Such a perfect hand mold without a hand in it? Unheard of!

You put your hand in the mold (which was clearly made for someone with much larger hands than you). You waited a moment for something to happen. That's when you felt it. A prick in your finger. Your eyes widened, as you could feel a tiny amount of blood starting to pool around you in the mold

"Testing blood..." An electronic voice hummed. "Mutant blood positive. Access granted."

The screen changed to one of a green background, while you continued to stare in confusion. It said you had mutant blood... clearly it was created by a mutant of some sort. One who definitely had time before getting culled.

You stared at all the options, still in Alternian. "Um... that one looks like an A, I think." You muttered. "Okay, chill, me. One of these has got to activate the transporter, right?" You glanced over at Karkat. You figured he could read that stuff, but he was resting, without sopor on top of that. You didn't want to risk anything going wrong while waking him up.

You glanced back at the screen hesitantly. What if one of these buttons was a drone signal? Or another explode-y button? You had to trust the fact that the maker of this machine had mutant blood and start trying things.

First, you hit one of the buttons to the side. One of the tubes standing next to you started to fill with a purple liquid. Well... that did nothing.

You glanced at the screen again, eyes narrowed. Maybe this was like a game loading screen. It's primary function had to be the first button. You pressed the first option, and the transporter glowed slightly. It was on.

"Substance prepared." The machine hummed, sounding way too happy. "Continue?"

You stared. Continue with what? You assumed this was a verbal response question, so you sighed. "No." You said, shaking your head.

"Administrator detected." The machine hummed, sounding excited. "Execute?"

"Threshecute what?" Karkat growled tiredly as he walked over, clearly this "administrator". "What the hell is this?"

"I don't know..." You muttered. "I found a transporter leading somewhere.

"Execute?" The machine repeated.

"Execute what, you mind boggling dumbass of a machine?" Karkat snapped.

"Execute?"

"Fine! Whatever! Go ahead! I don't have time for your shitty antics!"

"Administrator Override Issued. Initiating stage first Beta test." There was a short pause, before the machine started to ramble on. "Using DNA of K-Kan-k-k-k-k-k-v-n-n-t-" It's sound started to skip.

"So I suppose we can leave soon?" You asked, trying to ignore the skipping.

"No, I don't think so. Gotta figure out what the shitty ass bulgefuck is going on." Karkat felt his forehead. "Plus, my head hurts like hell."

"You should rest real quickly. There is no real rush. Although, I suppose 'rest' isn't exactly a nice thing by itself on Alternia." You ran your hands through your hair.

"I don't need to rest." Karkat twirled his sickle.

"Then can I?" You asked innocently.

Karkat shrugged. "Sure,"

You sighed and laid down on the hard cave floor. "Wake me up when you think it's time to go. Maybe you can screw around with the computer and try to find out where the transporter leads. I can't read your weirdass language."

"It's not as weird as your loonyblock nonsense you call a language." Karkat responded, turning to the computer. You rolled your eyes under your eyelids, slowing your breathing.

Crash!

Your eyes flew open. The first thing you noticed was that the light coming from the entrance was much darker now. The second thing you noticed was the two, giant creatures now in the cave, letting out low, horrifying screams, and fighting someone with what looked to be a sickle...

The realization hit you quickly, and you wobbly stood up. You quickly balled your fists, scanning the room for a potential weapon. Not finding one, you shouted "Karkat, the teleporter!" You attempted to make a break for it when those huge, lumbering bodies were out of the way.

"I'd be there if I co-!" One of the drones attempted to grab him. He quickly dove to the side.

"Combat detected. Initiating defensive measures for 1-23 and 1-24ADMIN. Stand by." The computer hummed, just as you noticed a culling drone coming after you. Great.

You ran immediately towards the machine, attempting to dive for the teleporter.

"Defensive measures prepared." A tiny flare fired towards each of the drones, stopping them momentarily, and a bookbag rolled out of one of the machine openings. You opened it hastily and grabbed the first thing that seemed to have a handle. You pulled it out, to find it was a sword. Or... sort of. Then you remembered the one thing that your history teacher last year said that you actually found remotely interesting.

"Swords actually have somewhat blunted ends. People don't get skewered like they do in movies. They are simply cut, and enabled to bleed out slowly as they fight."

This sword, however, was no where near blunt. It was a giant knife, more like.

You immediately did the stupid thing and charged, aiming to quickly aim a sharpened blow to the drone pursuing you. It didn't leave much of a mark on the drone's armored skin, and it only screamed at you, swinging its heavy arms. You took a quick breath and ran to the other side of the cavern where Karkat was fighting a losing battle. Enraged, the drone ran after you, but ended up running into the other drone and attacking it instead.

"Run!" You screeched, attempting to grab Karkat's arm and drag him if you had to. His cut on his head was still bleeding, and there were a few new blows on his head. He looked dazed, but determined. He shook himself free, and grabbed the bookbag.

"Beta test prepared." A box slid out of the slot. Might as well grab that too.

As you and Karkat stepped on the transporter, the drones seemed to realize what was going on. The one that had been beaten up let out a pitiful groan, and the one who had done the beating up turned and screamed. "Go go go start it!" Either you or Karkat screamed (your memory was foggy), when white light filled your vision.

---

'Now transporting to dwarf planet CRIUS-A1764 ; MESSAGE TO NEXT ADMIN USE FROM 1-2ADMIN.... '(=^・ω・^=)ノHappy anniversary KanKitty~!'

You quickly stepped off the portal. Karkat glanced at you, and tiredly mouthed "run". You nodded and made a break into one of the crop fields. Karkat pulled a red stick out the backpack, lit it, and threw it into the transporter. He ran like hell. The explosion went off, and the blast behind him did knock him a couple feet, but he seemed alright.

He groaned and rolled into his back, spitting out an incomprehensible sentence filled with troll slurs, before feeling his forehead. "God, I'm... I'm resting." He hissed.

You decided to let him. In the meantime, you let your eyes glance over curiously at the small box that had fallen out of the machine. A familiar symbol was once again written on top.

♋