Rebellion (A homestck AU)

Chapter 3

Jemmah Nitram

I wake up to a loud pounding at the door and groan loudly.

"IM NAPPING YOU TWATS."

My matesprite, Sander Megido, laughs from the other room. "I'll get it."

"Thanks. Don't wake me up unless it's important," I smile, sinking back into my recuperacoon.

I hear shuffling and muttering from the hall, leading to footsteps heading my way. I would sink deeper into my recuperacoon, but my horns make that impossible. I might as well see who it is.

Just as I'm hauling my self out, I see the door creak open.

"Jemmah?"

"Carehn?" I ask.

The door opens fully, revealing Carehn, her Maryam companion, and company.

"Carehn!" I walk over and wrap her in a hug. "Dude, it's been like a billion sweeps. Why don't you ever come to see your best moirail anymore?"

"You know how impossible to leave the house it is with Saturn there all the time."

"I understand," I nod, "I recognize Mr. Maryam over here, but no so much your new...friend."

"Oh!" Carehn smiles, "This is Thabre Vantas, she's actually the reason I'm here."

At this point, I'm skeptical. I cross my arms. "Go on."

"Well, Thabre, Marana and I are going to travel all of Alternia in an attempt to spread the idea of equality."

"Tell me the real reason."

"Jemmah. This is serious,"

"But you've never believed in equality! I made the mistake of bringing it up once and you laughed! How the hell am I supposed to believe all this?"

"You're supposed to trust your moirail."

"Well I haven't seen you in so long, I hardly even know who you are at this point!"

Carehn sighs. "Thabre, Marana, can you please join Sander in the other room?"

Marana groans. "Make it quick. We don't have all night."

I show Carehn into my room and we sit parallel to each other.

I speak first. "Carehn, this is an awful idea and you know it."

"You don't understand, I really think we can make a difference."

"What about Saturn, then? He's going to know you're gone at one point, and he's going to hunt you down."

"I can take care of myself."

I sigh. "Carehn, are you breaking up with me?"

"What? No! All I'm saying is that, as stupid and cliche as it sounds, I found a new way to live, a better way to live. My job sucked, the only safe place for me was my hive and even that wasn't really safe, and I couldn't go a day without having to deal with Saturn, but now I get to speak out in what I believe in!"

"I'm just worried! What if Saturn finds you while you're preaching out? You and your friends would be culled!"

"As long as what we're saying is true."

"If Saturn is such a problem, why don't you live with me and Sanders? We both have jobs, and this is a lowblood community, so you'd be safe-"

"Jemmah! Why can't you just accept that I've made up my mind?"

I pause. "I don't want to lose you, Carehn. I hate being away from you so much, and the thought of never seeing you again really scares me."

Carehn blushes and smiles. "Can you give me a minute?"

"...Sure."

She leaves the room and joins the others. I stay on the floor, praying that she abandons this suicide mission while she's still alive.

After a minute, she walks back in and sits in front of me.

"I checked with Thabre."

"Checked what?"

"If you can come with us."

I groan. "Carehn, you know how I feel about rebelling."

"Just take a risk for once in your life!"

I sigh. Am I actually going to consider this?

Yes.

Yes I am.

"What about Sander?"

"He's welcome to come too."

"Let me talk to him."

"Tell me when you're ready."

She sulks out of the room and sends Sander in.

"Did they fill you in?" I ask.

He nods.

"Isn't it crazy?"

"I actually quite like the idea of being equal to everyone else on this planet."

I scowl. "Are you actually agreeing with them? That it's sane to go out and publicly protest against the Hemospectrum?"

"Just because it's not sane doesn't mean it's not a good idea."

I huff, wrapping my arms around his waist and putting my head to his stomach. Sander towers over me, but isn't very strong. If he couldn't commune with the dead, he wouldn't have any feats of strength other than his size.

"What's gonna happen to us?"

He smirks. "We'll still be together."

"I know, but we'll have to leave all of this behind. Once we leave, we might not be able to come back."

He grabs me by my shoulders and looks me I'm the eyes. "Do you want to be equal?"

"Of course."

"Then let's go."

I grab his hand and frown. "I'm going to regret this so badly later."

"So regret it. I wanna go."

"Fine. But if we end up dead, this is your fault."

"Sometimes I feel like we'd make a better kismeises than matesprites."

"Let's bot explore that idea." I let go of his hand. "Go tell the others our decision. I'll stay back and pack what I can."

His face lights up. "Okay!"

Sanders was always a peppy troll, despite his awful background. That's one of the countless reasons we're together, we balance each other out. If we didn't, we couldn't live together.

I check my room, seeing nothing I could take with me. This is probably the stupidest thing I've ever agreed to. But as long as I'm with Sander, I feel like it'll turn out okay. Even though I have a nagging feeling that it won't. And Sander couldn't last a day outside this hive without me.

There is nothing I can take but Sander.

But Sander's all I need.