Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Fef, Fef come on please-"

Eridan stood frozen, softly begging for his friend to put down the gun.

Feferi shook with tears, barely able to keep both hands on the weapon. "Erifin, I- 'm so sorry! I have too, they-" she sobbed loudly, "They said they'd krill, everyone if I didn't!"

"Fef, Fef please, please don't" he started to tear up, lip trembling in fear and sorrow "Feferi, FEFERI PLEASE DON'T!" he threw his arms in front of his face as she tightened her finger on the trigger, screwing up her eyes and whispering an apology.

Just before she pulled the trigger, Eridan heard the quick patter of footsteps running towards him.

He opened his eyes just a moment too late to see the flash of mismatched eyes just before the bang of the gun.

"NO!" a scream tore its way from his throat as Sollux froze in front of him.

Fefer sunk to her knees, sobbing apologies, but Eridan didn't notice her, he just focused on Sollux, who had started to slump forward.

Eridan jumped forward to catch him, barely able to hold him up seeing as he had almost a foot on him. He eased Sollux down, holding his head up with one hand and clutching his hand with the other.

"no, no no no, come on, don't do this" Sollux gave him a crooked smile. "man ED, when I said I'd take a bullet for you, I didn't think it'd be literally" he chuckled and Eridan smiled through sobs.

"Yeah, yeah no, it's okay, come on, stay with me now" He was whispering quickly, maybe if he said it enough, then it would be ok.

Sollux brought his hand to his mouth, kissing his knuckles "yeah, it'll be ok ED..." he started to lose strength, dropping Eridan's hand and his mismatched eyes drooped. He felt exhausted.

"Hey, hey no come on, wake up! no no no, don't you dare do this to me!" he put his forehead to Sollux's and whispered: "don't you dare leave me alone"

Sollux smiled softly "I love you Eridan." he leaned up and kissed him weakly, barely able to keep their lips together. Eridan pushed forward as if he could give him his life-force through this one final kiss.

Eridan moved back to see Sollux's eyes still closed, he wasn't breathing. "hey, no, no Sol, please god no!" he screamed, putting his forehead against his chest, "PLEASE NO DONT LEAVE ME GOD-DAMMIT, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH DON'T DO THIS TO ME!" a sob wracked its way through his body as he lost his strength to grief"Don't leave me alone, please..." he sounded like a broken kid.

He sobbed against the lifeless body for almost a minute before the others finally forced their way through the door. Aradia ran straight to Feferi, who was still sobbing and whispering apologies.

Karkat turned to see Eridan with Sollux on the ground, also sobbing and still muttering "I love you"s.

"oh no..." he ran over to them, crouching down beside him "Eridan, oh my god what happened" he just sobbed in response. Karkat eased himself beside him, putting a hand on his back. He whispered something that Karkat couldn't quite understand.

"what?"

"I never got to tell him I loved him," He said just a hair louder "I never got to tell him how much he meant to me, and now he's gone, and I won't ever get that chance!"

Karkat wrapped his arms around him, resting his head on Eridan's "he knew, I swear it, he knew"

Aradia, after finally getting Feferi to her feet, shouted over to them.

"we need to go, now."

Eridan clutched Sollux's hand "we-we can't leave him here? Not like this!" he looked up at Karkat pleadingly "we can't"

Karkat looked at him sadly "we can't bring him with us Eridan, I'm so sorry but we just can't" Eridan looked back down at Sollux, the love of his life, the boy he was going to stay with through college, his forever, taken away from him for the sick entertainment of the game makers.

He pressed his lips to Sollux's forehead in goodbye before letting Karkat help him up and lead him out of the room.

He got one last look at his cold, dead body before the door slammed just, blocking him from Sollux forever. The remaining friends felt tears fall down their cheeks, Vriska looking away and Karkat burring his face in Dave's shoulder.

He broke down again, sliding down against the door, sobbing and screaming in anguish.

Nepeta padded over to him and slid down beside him, setting a hand on his. She didn't say anything, just sat there as he screamed.

After his voice was to horse for him to continue she looked over at him and said:

"Let's go and get these assholes back for him"

He looked back at her with a tear stained face, then, face hardening, he squeezed her hand "for all of them."

She helped him up and let him lean on her as they walked, as he couldn't quite do it on his own. They were bonded with grief and anger, but most importantly, they were bonded by the fierce desire for revenge, it fueled them both.

And God helps whoever got in their way.