Work Text:
==> Be the Knight of Time
You've reached the new session. Finally. There was only so much Can Town building, dick drawing and unwarranted cape grabbing a sixteen year old boy can handle.
And relationship problems. Oh the relationship problems. When you found out about her kissmessing--kistamiss--hate fling with the juggalo, to say you were pissed would be an understatement. You know that it's socially acceptable, even encouraged, in her culture, but not in yours. You moped a lot with the Mayor, Rose, even Karkat. Eventually, you both talked and agreed to be friends. It was getting really awkward to have to leave the Mayor every time she entered Can Town.
And in that break up, you realized just how much you missed Jade. Her pesterchum is always offline (wifi doesn't cover all of paradox space, apparently). Sometimes while you were sulking over Terezi, you would read over all of your chats and memos with her. You went all the way back to her first "hi! i'm jade! :D"
You didn't cry. No siree, you didn't shed a single tear.
(If we were reading in Rose's POV, she would call Dave an utter liar and remind him of how many times he was reduced to a blubbering mess because of these log readings.)
The five of you (Juggalo is still off in Whoknowswhereville, and the Mayor is in Can Town) stand at the front of the meteor. Which brings you to the present.
The meteor has entered the Incipisphere. In front of you is a purple kingdom.
You haven't seen Derse since before you went God Tier. It's nice to see something familiar. Speaking of familiar... you see a big spark of Green Sun energy in the distance. There's only one person that can be.
You did not just shout "Jade!" and start flying over to her. No way, you're too cool for that shit. You're not going to be the overly excited princess falling into her prince's arms.
Fuck it. You're the princess, it is you.
You're ironically run-flying towards her when you notice something off about her.
She's human, her skin isn't supposed to be gray.
That Green Sun energy shouldn't be that uncontrolled.
Shit Harley, what vitamins have you been taking these past three years?
And she when she turns to look at you, she growls.
What's wrong with her? Can dog-human hybrids get rabies? Or...wait.
In a fit of sorrowful drunkenness, Rose once told you about what happened before she woke up on Derse.
Grimdark.
Oh fuck.
She's growling and barking and there's some weird symbol on her head and shit she's lunging at you think fast Strider.
You flash step out of the way.
"Jade, it's me, Dave!"
She grabs at you again. Flash step.
"Don't you remember me?"
Growl and attack. Flash step and pull out sword.
"Jade listen to me! I don't want to hurt you!"
She bristles and roars.
There's something weird about that. Even among the creepy animalistic scream, you hear something... painfully human?
Jade is still alive in there.
"Jade I know you can hear me!"
She teleports away with a feral look.
You nervously pull up your turntables. You need a plan, and you need one now.
BARK
"Shit!"
Jade comes at you from behind. She rips the end of your cape as you barely get out of the way in time.
Oh that's it Harley. Play time's over.
Spinning your turntables, you go to freeze her in time.
She teleports off. How is she doing this? She's obviously got a lot more practice than you.
She lunges at you. You fly out of the way. As you go to ready your turntables again, she vanishes. The two of you are locked in a deadly dance of avoiding each other.
She yells you hear it again. The real Jade. You cringe and your heart clenches at the sound. She sounds like she's being tortured.
"I don't want to hurt you, let me help you Jade!"
BARK BARK BARK BARK help BARK BARK
If your imagination is playing tricks on you, you will bury it under a pile of smuppets and leave it there for eternity.
BARK help BARK BARK me daBARK BARK ve BARK BARK BARK BARK
Your imagination is holding up its metaphorical hands and shaking its head like "No sir this is the truth I was nowhere near the scene of the crime," and you're nodding in a grim holy shit what are you doing Jade needs help right now.
Your intricate dance comes to a halt for one second. For anyone else it would be there and gone. For a time player, it's all the opening you need to freeze her in a bubble of her own time. You see the meteor coming your way and release a sigh.
She stopped. She managed to overcome her Grimdark enough for you to help her.
You nearly double over when you feel something crack. When you look back at her, the seal is cracking and the symbols are flashing on her forehead again.
(Karkat, Terezi and Kanaya gasp when they see the signs of Tavros and Vriska and immediately tell Rose what it means. But of course, Dave doesn't know this.)
You hurriedly try to patch up the seal, but when you fix it in one place, it breaks in another.
"Dave!"
You give a little bit of your attention to Rose's shout. As a result, the cracks get bigger faster.
"She's under troll hypnosis! Her human self is mostly asleep!"
Asleep huh? Well, you've only got a few more seconds to figure something out before rabid-dog-god-tier Jade comes bursting at you.
Wait. Your dreamselves woke up when...
"You have to kiss her to wake her up!"
Welp. It's not as if you weren't planning on doing that already. You stop trying to fix the seal and get closer to her.
Time to wake up Jade. In 3...2...1...
The time shield shatters and you take a deep breath as she roars back to life.
Let's make it happen.
You grab her and plant a kiss right on her lips.
Her mouth is slightly open and her breath smells slightly like dog treats and you can feel the Green Sun energy crackling and radiating off of her, but it's still one of the best kisses you've ever had.
You feel something wet on your cheeks. This is so cliche it's not even funny anymore. When you pull back, her skin is a normal color, there's no troll symbol on her forehead and her (completely beautiful) eyes are overflowing with tears behind her Harry Potter glasses.
You're too relieved to do anything but hold her close and say, "Don't scare me like that again."
Is that water coming from your eyes. No way, you've just got a tree stuck in them. Call 911 this is the biggest tree in existance, the Redwood Forest has nothing on this shit...
"I missed you so much Dave."
...Fuck it, you give up trying to be stoic and cool.
"I never got to tell you how much I love you, Jade."
"Then let me tell you."
She pulls back and kisses you again.
Cheesy and sappy as fuck. Too cheesy and sappy for your coolkid mask.
You don't mind.