Chapter Text
pain.
so much pain.
splintering and cracking of bones, the tear of muscles-
the splat of blood.
endless pain.
and then-
a glow, pure fire coursing through his veins, limbs suddenly remembering where they were supposed to be, nerves and strings reattaching, muscles wrapping around his bones and tightening, skin reforming and retaking its place, and suddenly-
dream was back on his feet, with a pulsing headache and beating heart.
but there wasn’t time- quackity was already yelling, phil was loading a crossbow, and tubbo was screaming into the microphone for dreams recapture.
he balled his fists, forcing them apart and stretching the chain, then slamming it repeatedly against the bars until it broke. he jumped on top of the anvil and leaped out of the tiny prison, starting to sprint. to where, he didn’t know.
suddenly, fundy grabbed dreams arm and steered him away, into a small, deserted looking cabin, letting go once they were inside and checking outside to make sure nobody had seen.
“fundy-“ dream gasped, skidding to a stop. “thank you- so much, for- for the totem and-“
“thank me later.” fundy shoved reins into dreams hands, his expression hard with determination. “go.”
dream blinked. “but- what-? what about you?”
fundy shook his head impatiently. “don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. you need to get out of here- and find tommy.”
a rush of grief. “fundy.. you saw logstedshire. tommy..” dreams throat closed up, and he felt like collapsing all over again.
fundy leaned forward, tapping the communicator on his wrist. ”there wasn’t a death message. seriously, dream. learn to check your facts.”
his mouth opened and closed, and then he grinned, relief flooding through him. “oh, thank god.”
fundy swatted at him. “now go!”
dream looked down at the reins in his hand, then tugged lightly. a horse stepped into view, already saddled.
“spirit!” even more relieved, dream rushed forward, starting to stroke their neck. he turned, smiling slightly. “thank you, fund-“
fundy had already left. that made sense.
dream turned back to spirit, starting to climb onto the saddle, before he heard the sound of a bow pulling back and immediately dropped to the ground, just as an arrow whizzed by and drove itself into the wooden wall. dream turned, straightening.
“I can’t let you go.” quackity slung his bow back onto his back, raising his axe. “you’re dying. right here. right now.”
dream raised his hands slowly. “I don’t want to hurt you, quack.” he said quietly, stepping away from spirit. “this doesn’t have to end in death.”
“but it does, dream.” quackity moved forward, his jaw set. “this is justice. punishment for what you’ve done.”
dream glanced around for something, anything that could be used as a weapon.
he had nothing.
quackity launched forward, swinging his axe down in a heavy strike. dream ducked and rolled out of the way, stumbling to his feet and almost hitting the wall.
quackity turned, and dream gritted his teeth. quackity was clumsy with the axe. he wasn’t agile like techno, or quick like tommy. dream could win this, if he played his cards right.
he dodged another swing, running to the wall spirit was next to and yanking the arrow out of the wall. it wasn’t a proper weapon, but it would have to do.
dream turned back around to quackity, gripping the arrow tightly. quackity wrenched his axe out of the wall where he’d driven it in, stepping over to dream.
“the arrow?” quackity scoffed. “you’ve got to be kidding me, dream. you’re fucked. this isn’t one of your stupid manhunts, where everything’s just for laughs. just accept it, and it won’t hurt as much.”
and as much as dream hated to admit it, quackity was probably right.
maybe he should just let himself get killed. he’d respawn anyways..
then he thought of tommy and ranboo. those kids needed him. tommy didn’t have anyone. dream had to survive this. he needed all his lives.
he leaped forward, slashing in an arc at quackitys chest. quackity stumbled back, his feathers puffing out when he touched his chest and his fingers came away with blood.
quackitys face set into a snarl, raising his axe and swinging it down. it impaled the ground, driving into the cobble where dream would’ve been, if he hadn’t rolled out of the way just in time.
while quackity was struggling to pull the blade of the axe out of the cobble, dream launched himself at him.
and quackity turned, his eyes widening, just as dream drove the point of the arrow down into quackitys right eye.
he immediately let go of the axe handle, letting out a piercing shriek. ”fuck!” his hands came up to yank the arrow out, and dream started.
“wait, quack-“ dream grabbed quackitys wrist, but not before he ripped the arrow out of his head, and collapsed.
quackity was slain by dream.
shouts and yells from outside.
overwhelming guilt and grief.
dream pushed past it and ran to spirit, hoisting himself up onto the saddle, then yanking the reins and urging spirit into a gallop.
tommy was alive. if he wasn’t so guilty over killing one of his old friends, he’d be happy.
that begged the question, though- if there wasn’t a death message that confirmed his death, then why did tubbo blame him for it?
probably just looking for an excuse to finally execute him.
and now, the more looming issue.
where could he go?
he had no one. no allies. logstedshire was gone, tommy was missing, and the badlands- they wouldn’t take him in. they wanted to stay neutral.
but- his head snapped up, and he tugged on the reins, steering spirit into an entirely new direction.
technos cabin. they were more or less allies before- albeit when dream was still an ass- but maybe he’d be willing to take him in, until dream fully healed and his head stopped ringing painfully.
and maybe he could convince techno to help out tommy, too.
•••
he could hear screaming, a commotion outside. he could faintly hear ranboo yelling.
tommys nails dug into his scalp, his chest heaving while he blinked tears out of his vision. he hadn’t managed to duck in time, to look away. he’d seen the blood.
dreams blood.
he let out a choked sob, his head pounding and heart racing. and oh god, the sound of it all.
even though he was indoors, it was as if he was right there, hearing the bones crunching and the dull thud of the anvil as it hit the ground clear as day.
he jerked, then doubled over and threw up on the floor.
dream was dead. how many lives did he have left? two? one? had dream died, permanently? had he lost any lives before that tommy didn’t know about? was dream- gone, forever?
he didn’t register the door opening and closing, and didn’t respond to ranboos panicked vwoops. all he could think about was that anvil and the look of fear on dreams face. he’d always thought dream was untouchable. invincible.
that illusion had been shattered.
just like dreams skull.
his body shook violently, and he suddenly felt feverish.
blood, blood, blood on the ground, the grass, on his hands, blood everywhere-
he felt lightheaded.
then he fell back into ranboos arms, his vision going dark.