Karkat remembered something from his youth. He was two sweeps old, almost turning three, and he was locked up in his respiteblock, crying his eyes out. He cried because he was done. He was done hiding his blood, he was done running from drones, he was done being someone every troll despised.

He cried in his block, wishing to be any troll else. He would've rather been his recently culled neighbour than a mutant blooded troll. In all honesty, Karkat would've continued crying if his lusus hadn't shown up with a dead featherbeast in one of his claws. The ginormous crab lusus set the dead animal down before scuttling over to the young troll, this only made Karkat cry even more because he realised his lusus could've had a much better troll to take care of, he could've abandoned him. Hell, crabdad could've taken care of Gamzee instead! But no, his lusus stayed with Karkat, and he loved Karkat dearly. He loved him enough to stay with him for hours as Karkat continued bawling, he loved him enough to remind him that he was a good troll. Crabdad loved Karkat enough to give him a necklace with a small and old piece of iron shaped as his sign attatched to it. Crabdad loved him enough to let Karkat know that he would do great things.

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"Oh, no no no no no....." Karkat shook his head, unable to think of anything else to say. Him? The next Signless? "L-Listen Kankri, you MUST have the wrong Mutant blooded fre--"

"Karkat!" Kankri huffed, cutting off Karkat. Of course he would've, Kankri was still very sensitive on the "M" word. Karkat sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Kankri, there's no way in hell that I'm the next Signless. I mean, look at me! Two of my friends got murdered infront of me by one of my best friends, my actual fucking best friend went insane and killed two more of my friends, and I didn't even THINK about Tavros..." Karat looked down as he listed the deaths of his friends that he could've prevented, but didn't. "And...I let JACK into our fucking session! I even fucking housed him for a while on LOPAH. I....I've fucked up way too much to even be remotely close to becoming the next SIgnless."

Kankri listened with a solemn look, he figured Karkat would react this way. The older troll scooted closer to his descendent and laid a gentle hand on his knee, ignoring his "no physical contact" trigger for the sake of comforting Karkat. "Karkat, you are still an excellent leader. You lead your friends to victory in your battle against the Black King. You were thinking on what was best for your friends, that's why you let Jack Noir into your session....although it did backfire on you....but your friends deaths were never your fault. They were bound to kill each other eventually, it's what highbloods do." Kankri smiled softly, hoping this would cheer up the other, and it did, but only a little.

"I...Kankri...how did they even know that The Signless's promise was true? For all they know he could've been some crazy troll spewing a final load of shit before he fucking died."

"Well...they didn't know. But their great leader didn't let them down yet. So, they put their trust in him and prepared for your hatching."

"Prepared for my hatching? What the hell do you mean they 'prepared'?" Karkat questioned, curious on how the ancestors had actually taken time to prepare for his birth of all trolls. Kankri smiled, seeing that he had sparked Karkat's interest and nodded.

"Yes, prepared. Haven't you ever wondered why you had a Lusus and I didn't?" Karkat nodded and sat up straighter, keen on listening to this. "Well, your ancestors took some drastic measures to make sure that you survived after you had hatched. Your blood color would've been a key issue in surviving, seeing as how no lusus would've wanted us. But, before the Dolorosa was taken into slavery, she and Redglare had traveled to caverns to...er..." Kankri thought for a moment, shifting uncomfortably.

"The two of them...set the Signless's slurry and the Disciple's slurry aside for later sweeps, long after they died. They instructed a young troll working in the caverns to give the mothergrub their slurry after a set amount of sweeps so you could be hatched. The Dolorosa, was taken into Slavery by Mindfang and Redlgare continued making sure that you'd be safe. She and some other trolls, it wasn't specified who but I have a sneaking suspicion that it was The Disciple herself and maybe even The Summoner, went to go breed a special kind of lusus, just for you."

"This new breed of Lusus was created to protect you from any and every form of danger. Whether it be drones or whether it be trolls seeking to rid the planet of us."

"I thought you needed a kismesis for that too, not just matesprits? And....i thought drones weren't made back then?" Karkat asked, tilting his head. This was all...very new to him. Very...interesting. It made him see his beloved Lusus in a new light. He knew he was risking everything, he knew being a "special" lusus would pretty much be like signing a death wish.

"They weren't but they were modeled to be near perfect replica's of Dualscar. They made your lusus to be able to fight against Dualscar, so fighting against petty copies of him should've been next to no trouble for him. As for the kismesis....I don't know who's slurry the collected for that. For all we know it could've been The Dolorosa's, or the Psionic's or just a random troll they found and coaxed into donating slurry....or they might not have of even added another amount of slurry to the concoction." Karkat nodded, amazed at all of this. The Ancestors decided to go through all of this trouble just for him...but they were expecting a strong willed leader...they were expecting someone as brave as the Signless. They were expecting a savior, and instead, they got a short angry troll with a surplus amount of knowledge on quadrants and other useless information.

"Another thing, You have a sign and he didn't, hence the name "The Signless" which was later changed to "The Sufferer". Well, once he was dead, and his body was burned down to ashes, the iron shackles that were white hot and burned his wrists became your sign. You see, much like I, the Sufferer replaced the "B's" with sixes and the "O's" with nines. Darkleer made handcuffs with those two numbers to mock him in a way. When he was dead and his body burned, the shackles were left cooling ontop. I'm not sure who thought of it but those cuffs formed in that shape became our symbol, and the actual handcuffs were cut up and made into necklaces of the symbol. Each troll who was part of the Signless's group wore one, especially the Disciple. I believe that your lusus had her necklace and he gave it to you, yes?" Karkat nodded, his hand instantly going to clutch the outline of the cold iron necklace he always wore. He thought it was just some small present his lusus had given him, he never knew it was something that important.

For a moment, the two sat there in silence. Karkat didn't know what to say to all of this. He had to finish off an age old fight for Hemo Equality. He had to become a savior to what seemed to be an entire planet. He had to become something he would've never dreamed to be.

"Ahem...Karkat?" Kankri interrupted the younger's thoughts, causing him to look up. "There's one other thing I should probably mention...as I said earlier, The Signless's final sermon told of a new Signless. And, as I stated, he was quite....angry at the time." Karkat nodded slowly and Kankri continued.

"Well...he said that his descendent would inherit his burdens, such as the blood color. But you also inherited something else....something....unexpected of sorts." Karkat's expression turned from curiosity to confusion.

"What the fuck does that even mean? Something unexpected?" Kankri nodded and cleared his throat.

"Yes....you see, long before you and your friends were hatched and My friends and I died thanks to a certain sea dweller, Areana and I heard of the Signless's tale. We of course believed it, but there was one part of his story that I never quite believed. It was said that since his final moments he was filled with such hatred and rage that it simply couldn't just...die out when he died. It was said that his anger and hatred for others traveled through paradox space to live on in another, along with the truths behind his teachings. I thought it was all just nonsense and brushed it aside, until of course I met you."

"At first you were pretty quiet when I began lecturing you and such, and I rememberd the "myth" of his negative feelings living on in you and believed them to be truly just myths. Then, I observed the way you behaved with others. The way you spoke with the ghosts of your dead friends, with the ghosts of your dead selves. I saw how truly angry you were at everything, and how you truly hated everyone including yourself. Now I know that it wasn't a myth."

Karkat sat there, appalled at what he just heard. This anger, this hatred he's felt all his life, this wasn't his at all? It was just some "leftover" hate from his ancestor? Great. Just fucking perfect. Karkat sighed, rubbing his eyes a bit. He honestly, had nothing to say about this. How do you even respond to something like that?! 'So I was left with a pre-determined fate AND my shitty anger and hate towards the world isn't even mine?! WOW!'

Kankri noticed Karkat's distress over the whole matter, how else was he supposed to take this anyway?

"Karkat...perhaps we should continue our lesson tomorrow yes?" Karkat nodded slowly as he began to stand up. "Alright, same place and same time if that isn't too much of an inconvienence." Kankri said as he stood up. He glanced over the the book and frowned, they'll just have to wait until tomorrow to crack open that book. Karkat walked to the door, deep in thought.

"Yeah...see you tomorrow Kankri." He was about to walk out when Kankri rested a hand on Karkat's shoulder.

"Karkat, I hope you know that....I didn't say this just to scare you or make you feel bad. I said this so you could see how important you are in this big mess..."

"Dude, i just learned that my entire life I've been getting protection because I'm supposed to be the next fucking troll Jesus. Wouldn't you feel a bit scared that you found out there was a fucking cult made to protect you just so you would end up failing them in the end?"

"Well....I technically was 'troll Jesus' Karkat." Kankri offered a small smile, but Karkat returned it with an eye roll. He shrugged Kankri's hand away and walked out, waving a goodbye to his dancestor.

"Yeah, whatever. See you tomorrow Kankri."