Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The mood was somber as the two adults sat down at their table. One absently traced their finger over the scratches in the wood, a soft smile on their face. The other one sat silently, waiting. They hadn’t been here as long, but they cared just as much.

“What do we do Niki?”

“I don’t know, Will.” Niki said helplessly, staring at the brunette.

“Maybe-” Will hesitated, then plowed on. “Maybe we should surrender. I mean, Eret’s betrayed us, Dream’s got a mercenary, and I really don’t want to put the younger ones at risk anymore, but…”

“But you would be giving up,” Niki finished, her gaze burning into the brunette’s head, “And you don’t want this struggle to be in vain.”

“Yeah.”

“Will-” Niki was interrupted by the door slamming open.

“DAD!” A ginger-haired boy stood in the doorway, panting slightly.

“Funds, now isn’t rea-” Will sighed.

“TUBBO AND TOMMY JUST CHALLENGED THE ENTIRE DREAM TEAM!” Fundy exclaimed in panic.

“They what?!” Niki asked sharply, spinning around to face the young fox-hybrid.

“They burned down the community house and put signs saying that if the Dream team didn’t fight them they would destroy the SMP.” Fundy gasped out, leaning against the door slightly.

“Take me to them.” Will ordered as he stood, worry clouding his face.

“Come on!” Fundy said, running off.

“I’m coming with.” Niki announced firmly, grabbing a couple swords from a chest.

“Alright.” Wilbur relented, running out of the small van after his son.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How dare you.” Dream growled at the two teens in front of him.

“You have two choices, Dream.” The one on the right said, a hand resting on the hilt of a sword.

“Give L’manburg independence, or lose a canon life.” The other continued, putting a cigarette in their mouth.

“Why are you guys doing this?” Sapnap pleaded, looking between the two.

“Why is Tommy smoking? He isn’t even the legal age!” George exclaimed, his eyes narrowing at the teen.

“I’m older than you, b---h.” Tommy scoffed, pulling out a fancy golden lighter.

“You’re like, thirteen!” Sapnap scoffed back, folding his arms.

“Wrong.” Tommy said, lighting the cigarette.

“What are you talking about.” Dream snarled, clenching his fists.

“We aren’t getting anywhere with this.” The other teen sighed, pulling their sword from its sheath.

“You’re right on that one, Tubs.” Tommy yawned, tossing the other teen another sword.

“Why aren’t you using your sword?” George asked, drawing his sword out.

“I made a f---ing promise years ago,” Tommy grunted, “I’m never using my hands to fight.”

Dream eyed him warily, grabbing his axe.

“Do you guys see this?” Sapnap muttered in lightly veiled amusement.

“What?” George asked, turning to him.

“Look at Tubbo.” Sapnap giggled, tears starting to gather in his eyes.

Dream glanced over at Tubbo, then did a double take.

“What the f---.” He said blandly, staring at the short teen. Tubbo had put a sword in his mouth, and was holding one in each hand.

“How is that going to help you?” A man in a white hoodie asked, dropping down next to Dream.

“You’ll see.” Tommy responded, stretching his legs.

“TOMMY!” Dream heard Wilbur yell.

“Let’s get this over with before he arrives.” Tommy muttered.

Dream growled. “What do you- AGH!”

Dream stumbled backwards, a hand coming up to touch his now-broken nose.

“Dream!” Sapnap and George yelled, starting towards him.

“F--- off.” Tommy snapped, one of his legs slamming into George’s gut. George flew backward a couple feet, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

“George!” Sapnap exclaimed, running over to his friend.

Tommy tilted his head, feeling Dream’s axe pass over.

“Why aren’t you taking this seriously?” Dream growled, swinging his axe at Tommy’s neck.

Tommy dropped to the ground, then one of his feet came up and slammed into Dream’s chin. Dream grunted, stumbling back as he raised his shield to block another kick from Tommy.

“Who are you?” Dream wondered, noticing the large dent in his shield.

“Now you’re asking the right questions.” Tommy smirked, his leg slamming into Dream’s crotch.

Dream winced, glaring at the blond in front of him. Who is he? Very few people have the strength to dent a shield, especially one with unbreaking, Dream thought, blocking another kick.

“I’ll give you a little hint.” Tommy decided, sending another kick at Dream. “I used to be a pirate.”

A pirate? Dream internally growled. How is that supposed to- wait. Dream’s eyes widened in realization as Tommy’s foot shattered the top half of his shield.

“You’re-” Dream gasped, staring dumbfounded at Tommy. “Vinsmoke Sanji.”

Tommy grinned, raising a foot.

“Good job, you aren’t as big of an idiot as I thought.” He smirked as he kicked Dream into a tree.

Dream grunted loudly, wincing as he felt a stabbing pain in his chest. Ribs are probably broken. What happened with everyone else? Dream raised his head, squinting at where he last saw Punz. He gasped, watching in horror as Tubbo slashed Punz across the chest, forcing him to respawn. A shadow fell over him, and as Dreams' vision faded to black he noticed Wilbur standing close to him in shock.

“L’manburg wins. Congratulations Wilbur, you have now made a new country.” Dream wheezed out before letting the respawn system take him.

Chapter Text

Wilbur stared at where Dream had been, his last words buzzing around his brain. Independence. We have independence.

“Are you okay Will?” Wilbur heard Tommy ask, and Will shook his head. He was here for a reason.

“Tommy-” Will started disapprovingly, turning to the teen and faltering.

“What’s wrong big man?” Tommy asked cheerfully, smushing the cigarette under his heel.

“Were you smoking?!” Wilbur yelled at him, swearing that some of his hair had turned gray.

“No.” Tommy responded, y’know, like a liar.

“Tommy I swear you are going to be the death of me.” Wilbur groaned, his hand slamming into his forehead.

“You’re old, you’re dying soon anyway!” Tubbo chirped from where Niki was fussing over him.

“What was that anyway? We only saw the aftermath, but it looked like the two of you solo-ed the entire Dream Team and Punz!” Niki was practically shaking in anger, and Tommy wilted slightly.

“Tubs-” Tommy turned to the other teen, who just stared back.

“Fine! I’ll explain.” Tommy growled, turning back to the others.

“Simple version, me and Tubs used to be pirates, got hit by an enemy, wound up as babies, and here we are.” Tommy said, clapping his hands together.

“You were pirates?!”

“Are you older than us?!”

Niki shot Wilbur a look.

“They’re literal children!” He protested, ignoring Tommy grumbled, “Not a child.”

“Will, that doesn’t matter. Them being pirates means they might have a bounty on their heads. Do you really think that we could protect them from bounty hunters?” Niki sighed in irritation.

“I-” Will started defensively.

“We can take care of ourselves.” Tubbo yawned, laying down on the grass.

“Yeah, the two of us are basically monsters in our own rights.” Tommy smirked, slipping out another cigarette.

“Tommy.” Niki said sternly, glaring at him.

“Not my actual name but fine.” Tommy responded with a huff, slipping the cigarette into a pocket.

“What do you mean?” Fundy asked shyly, walking over to cling to Wilbur’s leg.

“My actual name, the one I left behind, was Vinsmoke Sanji,” Tommy said, shaking out one of his legs, “Or as the Marine’s called me, Black-Leg Sanji.”

Wilbur sank to his knees, stunned into silence. Niki, however, gasped in surprise.

“Does that mean Tubbo is-?” She started to ask, only to be cut off by the teen in question.

“Roronoa Zoro, former pirate hunter. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a nap.”

“Lazy.” Tommy muttered, leaning over and plucking a blade of grass.

“Huh?” Tubbo grunted angrily, one eye shooting open to glare at Tommy, who just smirked before holding the grass with the front of his lips.

“What’s-” Wilbur asked nervously, trailing off as he watched Tubbo grab a sword and slice downwards towards Tommy.

“TOMMY!” Will yelled, an arm instinctively reaching towards the teen, who just stood there and smiled as a wave of something followed Tubbo’s cut, slicing through the earth and passing through the middle of the blade of grass. Will followed the effect with shocked eyes as it sliced through a few trees before stopping.

“What the f--k.” Will said, staring at the now broken trees.

“Tubbo’s cool.” Tommy shrugged, pulling a toothpick out of seemingly nowhere.

“But how-” Niki asked, staring at the groove in the dirt.

“Doesn’t matter. What matters is me getting sleep.” Tubbo grunted, laying back down and starting to snore.

“Welp,” Tommy groaned, stretching his back, “we better get back to L’manburg.”

“Y-Yeah.” Will agreed, still struggling to wrap his head around everything Tommy told him.

Niki frowned as Tommy started to walk out of the clearing.

“What about Tubbo?” She asked, looking down at the sleeping teen.

“Leave ‘im. He’ll be fine.” Tommy responded dismissively, secretly exchanging the toothpick with a cigarette.

“Tommy.” Niki called sternly, glaring at his back.

“How is she doing that?” Tommy mumbled to himself, swapping back to the toothpick.

“It’s her big sister senses I think.” Someone answered him, causing Tommy to jump. He spun around, raising a leg.

“Woah, there. I’m not here to fight.” A brown haired man partly covered in diamonds said, raising his hands.

“Skeppy, you really should announce that you’re there before talking to someone. I could’ve killed you.” Tommy groaned, placing his foot back on the ground.

“Nah, you can’t kill me.” The prankster bragged, puffing up his chest.

“I really could.” Tommy stated, a smile finding its way onto his face.

“Anyway, sorry about scaring you, just wanted to ask if you had some bread.” Skeppy laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

“I don’t have any on me, why?” Tommy responded in confusion.

“I accidentally missed lunch, and my stomach is hating me.” the man explained with a small smile.

Tommy looked at Skeppy, waiting for him to start sweating before grunting, “Come on, my kitchen isn’t far.”

“Huh?” The man asked dumbly, yelping as Tommy grabbed his arm and started pulling him away.

After a short walk, filled with much complaining and protesting from Skeppy, they arrived at Tommy’s dirt shack.

“Really, it’s not a big deal, I can just buy something, you don’t need to do this.” Skeppy pleaded as Tommy kicked open his door and tugged him inside.

“Sit.” Tommy ordered, pointing to a chair as he walked off.

Skeppy hesitated, looking out the doorway nervously.

“You really don’t need to-” Skeppy tried, turning to where he thought Tommy went.

“Shut.” Tommy commanded, poking his head out of a gap in the wall.

“Alright! I’ll stop.” Skeppy surrendered, sitting in the chair. He looked around curiously, having never really been inside Tommy’s house much. His eyes roved over a few chests before stopping on a staircase leading down somewhere.

“Here.” Tommy said, startling Skeppy out of his observation by placing a small bag in the man's lap.

“What is this?” Skeppy asked, picking it up.

“Food for you and Bad. Don’t waste it.” Tommy grumbled, ushering Skeppy out of his house.

“Thank-” Skeppy started before Tommy slammed the door.

“You.” Skeppy finished, staring at the door for a few seconds before smiling and walking off to Bad’s house to surprise the demon with the really good smelling food.

Chapter Text

Tubbo took a deep breath in, straightening his hat slightly. He knocked on the door in front of him, shifting some folders from one arm to the other.

“Come in!” He heard J. Schlatt, the Warden of the Manburg Vault, call from inside, taking that as his cue to enter.

“Tubbo!” The man exclaimed as Tubbo walked in, his face impassive as ever. Tubbo shivered slightly as he met the older man’s cold eyes.

“What’s going on, I thought I only asked for the documents, not you?” The man asked with a cold smirk.

“There are some things I determined to be too difficult to comprehend on paper.” Tubbo responded, grabbing the folders from where he had tucked them under his left arm. “I decided to come in person to explain these details.”

“What, don’t think Schlatt is smart enough to figure them out?” A raven-haired man with a white headband scoffed from his spot by the wall.

“Enough Sapnap.” The warden snapped, causing the man to shut his mouth.

“Should I start?” Tubbo asked his boss, ignoring Sapnap.

“Go ahead, I’m intrigued.” Schlatt grinned, leaning forward.

Tubbo nodded, flipping open the top folder of the small stack.

“I’ll start with inmate number 32, Phil Watson. The inmate has asked to be referred to as Phil or Philza, refusing to respond to anything else.” Tubbo started, noting that Sapnap had leaned forward in curiosity.

“Has he now…” Schlatt murmured, tapping a finger on his desk.

“He’s British, a former crime boss that was captured purely by chance. During the few weeks that British police had him in custody, they were able to say with confidence that he was ‘The Angel of Death’, a killer that left behind a singular crow feather by every victim.” Tubbo continued, flipping a page. “It only took that long because he would escape from every prison they put him in, and after sending him to different prisons around the world, he’s finally ended up here.”

“Why did he escape?” Sapnap asked, sitting back.

“He hates needles.” Tubbo responded, slight confusion filling him as both Sapnap and Schlatt stared at him.

“He what?” Schlatt asked, raising an eyebrow.

“He says he has bad memories involving needles, but refuses to elaborate. In the past, the day before he was scheduled to get a shot, he would break out, leaving only a crow feather in his place. Fortunately, we’ve been able to get him what medicine he needs via oral medication, which he has said tastes like birdseed.” Tubbo explained, closing the folder and placing it at the bottom of the pile.

“After all that you’d think he has a menagerie of crows at his beck and call.” Sapnap chuckled, pulling out a stick of gum.

“Next up, inmate number 69, Wilbur Soot. Orphaned at a young age, was a small-time musician for a while before turning to crime as ‘Siren’.” Tubbo looked over at Schlatt, noting the strange look in his eyes before continuing, “Inmate 69 is also British, and as a criminal he was rumored to have some connection to inmate 32, although police never found any evidence confirming it. Sent to multiple prisons around the world, he would escape every Wednesday.”

“Why?” Schlatt asked, his eyes boring into Tubbo.

“Apparently, he had a girlfriend, and they met up every Wednesday near a body of water.” Tubbo said, noting with a small bit of pleasure that Sapnap had almost choked on his gum.

“He broke out to meet with a girl?!” Sapnap yelled, his eyes disbelieving.

“That’s his claim,” Tubbo shrugged, “But so far we have been unable to confirm its validity.”

“Alright, so how do you keep him from escaping?” Schlatt questioned, clasping his hands together on his desk.

“Simple,” Tubbo replied with a straight face, “We gave him a guitar.”

Schlatt and Sapnap sat back in stunned silence, staring at Tubbo in disbelief.

“Should I continue?” Tubbo asked, directing his question at Schlatt.

“Might as well.” the man sighed, slumping in his chair.

“Inmate number 23, calls himself Technoblade.” Tubbo said, flipping open the next folder in the stack. “He’s an American, was the reigning champion of Hypixel, the largest known underground fighting ring, under the alias of ‘Blood-God’. Originally sentenced to 3 months in prison, he broke down a wall and escaped after only 4 days.”

“How did he sneak a sledgehammer into the prison?” Sapnap asked, voicing Schlatt’s silent question.

“He didn’t,” Tubbo replied straight-faced, “He used his fists.”

Sapnap and Schlatt sat up in fear and alarm respectively.

“How strong is he?” Schlatt barked, eyes narrowing slightly.

“He’s strong enough to lift all three of his cellmates with ease, but that isn’t the most remarkable thing about him.” Tubbo answered, looking for a signal to continue.

“What is?” Schlatt growled, leaning forward.

“He was sent to a few different prisons before arriving here, and each time he would escape because, and I quote, the food was deplorable.” Tubbo explained calmly, internally sighing when the other two men gave him dumbfounded looks.

“He broke himself out of prison because he hated the food?” Sapnap asked in disbelief, raising an eyebrow. Schlatt simply leaned back against his chair and stared at Tubbo.

“That is correct,” Tubbo answered stiffly, “but here at Manburg Vault, we provide him with food that he enjoys, mostly coming in some form of a potato dish.”

“Potatoes?” Tubbo heard Sapnap mutter to himself as he opened the last file.

“Lastly, inmate 15, Tommy Innit.” Tubbo noted Schlatt’s slight shiver with concern. “Another Brit, he admitted to murdering over 300 people, including his own foster parents.”

“Another orphan then.” Sapnap stated, frowning when Tubbo shook his head.

“No police force or government in the world has managed to get any information on 15 except his name, leading to many different theories. The most widely accepted theory is that he was born off the grid, which explains his lack of records.” Tubbo said.

“But you don’t think that’s the case,” Schlatt murmured, leaning forward with a curious look in his eyes, “why?”

Tubbo hesitated, thinking over his words carefully before speaking. “I tend to lean more towards a theory that says he was born in a lab, which is supported by strange statements from 15 about being created to be the perfect weapon and his behavior around needles, which is eerily similar to inmate 32.”

“Interesting…” Schlatt mused, motioning for Tubbo to continue reading from the file.

“After he admitted to murder, he was sent to a nearby prison on a life-long sentence. He escaped mere hours after he arrived.” Tubbo said grimly, noticing Sapnap had gasped quietly.

“That fast?” Schlatt demanded harshly.

“Yes. This continued to be the case for the next few weeks as he was sent to every other prison in the world, finally ending up here.” Tubbo stated, closing the folder.

“Has he said why he kept escaping?” Schlatt asked, his eyes boring into Tubbo.

“He claims that it’s a hobby, something entertaining, but I don’t believe him.” Tubbo answered, tucking the folders back under his arm.

“What do you think the reason is?” Sapnap asked, standing up.

Tubbo looked at him for a moment before replying, “I believe he’s being chased by someone, and that whoever it is has some connection to his past.”

The room fell silent as the older two men processed the information. A few miles away, locked deep in a ship headed to deliver a few new prisoners to the Vault, someone shifted, their green-gold cloak revealing their monstrous mouth to the light for a few seconds.

“I’m coming for you, T0M-45. Just you wait.” The person laughed quietly, leaning against a wall. And then I’ll get to have my fun. They thought, an evil grin spreading across their face.

Chapter Text

Tommy stared at the crater in front of him, feeling anger blossom within his chest as he mentally evaluated the damage.

“We-we can rebuild, right?” Tubbo asked from beside him, a small remnant of hope on his face.

“Unfortunately not.” Tommy replied, feeling detached from the world. “The damage is too great, and even if we managed to bring this place back, Dream, being the bastard that he is, would just blow it up again.”

Tubbo sighed in defeat, turning to Ranboo and collapsing against him.

“There has to be something we can do, right?” Ranboo asked desperately, looking towards Tommy pleadingly.

“There isn’t. All that’s left is for the green b---h to face justice.” Tommy snarled, raising his head to glare at the figure in a green hoodie sitting on an obsidian grid above the crater.

“Oh, Tommy,” The figure clucked in disappointment, “I thought you knew better.”

“And I thought I told you never to underestimate me.” Tommy snarled back, hands twitching.

“Oh?” Dream asked amusedly, pulling an ender pearl from his inventory and tossing it down towards the teen. “And what do you think you can do against me?” Dream cackled, pulling his axe from his inventory. “I’m a god, Tommy! You can’t kill me!”

“You are no god,” Tommy snarled, snatching a red and white hoodie from inside his inventory, “and if I need to I will prove it.”

Dream laughed, sneering at the boy from behind his mask.

“You? Kill me? You can’t do anything! You’re weak!” Dream hissed, smiling slightly.

“How strong I am doesn’t matter.” Tommy growled, slipping on his hoodie. “I am done watching. I’ve seen how you treat these people, the ones that you were supposed to protect and guide lovingly.”

“Tommy, mate-” Phil said weakly, stopping when Techno placed a hand on his shoulder.

“We can’t intervene. This is Tommy’s fight.” Techno murmured, looking down to where Tommy was facing off with Dream.

“I stood by while you drove Wilbur insane and encouraged Schlatt’s alcohol problem.” Distantly, Tommy heard gasps from behind him, but he kept his attention focused on Dream. “I saw you poke and prod at Techno before the festival, and I know that having Techno come up on stage and execute Tubbo was your idea.” Tommy heard a couple choking sobs from behind him, wincing internally. “I allowed exile and you blowing up the community house because I was hoping that you would learn from it, but apparently you only care for power.”

“What are you talking about?” Dream growled, leveling his axe at Tommy.

“It’s a beautiful day outside.” Tommy murmured, looking up at the sky.

“Don’t ignore me!” Dream yelled, swinging his axe at Tommy’s neck.

“Tommy!” Tubbo cried, reaching towards his best friend.

“Birds are singing, flowers are blooming.” Tommy chuckled from behind Dream.

“How?!” Dream growled, spinning around.

“On days like these, people like you…” Tommy trailed off, facing Dream with a smirk. “Should be burning in hellfire.” Tommy snarled, his eyes starting to glow rose-gold.

Dream took a step back, illogical terror flooding though his body for a split second. He growled, sneering at a disinterested Tommy from behind his mask.

“Oh, that didn’t work. Pity.” Tommy mumbled, shoving his hands into the hoodie’s pockets.

“I’m going to kill you slowly.” Dream threatened, exchanging his axe for a shovel.

“By all means, do try.” Tommy snarked with a grin.

Dream let out a wordless scream of rage and charged at Tommy, raising the shovel high. Tommy sighed in disappointment and cracked his neck. As soon as he could, Dream sliced at Tommy with the shovel, only to meet empty air.

“My turn.” Tommy said from Dream’s left as a column of fire erupted from the ground where he had been.

Dream hissed, leaping away from the flames only to be doused in more from underneath him. Dream hopped forward, wincing when he felt his heart falter slightly. He checked his clothes for damage, anger blossoming in his chest. That anger turned to confusion when he noticed that his clothes had become a greenish gold, and he looked at Tommy warily.

“This your doing?” Dream growled, swapping back to his axe.

Tommy just grinned, shrugging slightly. “Got no f---ing clue what you mean big man.”

Dream growled again, running towards Tommy. The teen just smirked, leaning left and right to dodge Dream’s wild swings.

“Just stay still!” Dream hissed, punctuating every word with a swing of his axe.

“I haven’t moved from this spot, Dream.” Tommy laughed, ducking and leaning away from every swing.

Dream snarled, black horns erupting from his mask and curling towards the sky. To the horror of everyone watching, Dream’s mask quickly stretched all over his body, ending with a long barbed tail riddled with spikes. The mask had also grown leathery wings, and each of its feet fused and twisted to form taloned claws as it grew larger.

“I’m going to tear you apart.” the monster that had taken Dream’s place growled, its hands growing gleaming netherite claws.

Tommy smirked, raising his eyes to meet the creature’s. “You can certainly try.” He cackled as another burst of flame forced the thing back.

“Who are you? No mortal has been able to control those flames since the death of Theseus!” The monster snarled, baring its now dagger-like teeth.

“Name’s Tommy, innit.” Tommy replied, smirking as the cryptid gnashed its teeth together in frustration.

“I will force the answer out of you as I tear you apart.” It snarled, jumping towards Tommy with a demonic screech of anger.

“Only if he can catch me.” Tommy chuckled to Phil, laying an arm on the older blonde’s shoulder.

Phil blinked.

“When did he…” the man trailed off, staring at the empty gap between him and Techno.

“Yeah, he’s already gone.” The other man said, noticing his friend’s face.

While Phil had an existential crisis over Tommy randomly appearing next to him, the teen in question was bouncing around the demon in Dream’s body, staying in one place long enough to taunt it before zipping somewhere else to repeat the process.

“ENOUGH!!” the creature eventually roared, its form twisting and snapping until it looked similar to every nightmare stitched together.

“There you are!” Tommy exclaimed happily, standing in front of it with a smile. “For a second I was worried I’d have to f---ing resort to insulting your mum.”

“Foolish human,” The amalgamation hissed, towering over Tommy, “what makes you believe those tiny flames you have will kill me, a god!”

“I’m not just any human,” Tommy replied, wisps of smoke starting to curl up from his hair and clothes, “I’m Death’s son, her executioner, her beloved phoenix of judgement, son of her Angel, and practically the brother to Technoblade, the Blood God’s Warrior.”

The creature’s eyes widened as Tommy set himself ablaze, the rose-gold flames blazing and growing to form a phoenix.

“And now,” Tommy’s voice echoed from the phoenix, “I get to add Slayer of the Dreamon King to my list.”

“NO!” The Dreamon King yelled as Tommy’s flames jumped over to him, filling the air with the scent of burnt chicken as they raced across the Dreamon King’s body, turning it to ash within seconds. The phoenix’s form shrank, slowly fading to allow Tommy to stand in front of the Dreamon King’s ashes.

“Dream!” Sapnap and George yelled, sprinting over to the pile of ashes. Tommy startled, whipping his head around to stare at the crowd of people.

“WHEN DID YOU GUYS GET HERE?!?!” He screamed, causing many people to chuckle lightly.

“We’ve been here the whole time.” Jack said, glowering slightly.

“Oh.” Tommy mumbled, walking over to the man.

“Oi, what’re you doing?” Jack asked, panicking slightly.

Tommy wrapped the man in a hug, burying his face into Jack’s shoulder.

“Wha-” Jack exclaimed, raising his hands.

“This is a one time thing, because I need to do a couple things.” Tommy grunted.

“What do you mean?” Quackity asked warily from where he was standing near Tubbo.

“I’m sorry for killing you back in exile Jack,” Tommy said, feeling and hearing the sharp intake of breath from the man, then plowed on resolutely, “but I’m going to do everything I can to make it up to you, starting with this."

The two of them erupted in flames, causing many people to shout out in shock and panic as they grabbed their water buckets and threw water on the flames. As soon as the water reached the fire, it evaporated, leaving the flame untouched.

“JACK!” Niki yelled, pushing to the front of the crowd just in time to see the flames die down and vanish, leaving Tommy and Jack standing in front of each other.

“Wh-what?!” Quackity yelled in surprise, rubbing his eyes as the two men separated.

“Tommy, what was that.” Jack demanded, glaring at the teen.

“You didn’t have the smoothest ride back,” the teen muttered, shuffling his feet, “and you didn’t end up right so I fixed it.”

“Fixed what?” Jack asked, clenching a fist.

“You aren’t undead anymore,” Tommy offered with a weak smile, “I made you one of mine, so you don’t have to suffer like that anymore.”

Everyone sat in stunned silence for a moment, tearing their eyes away from Tommy when Sapnap let out a victorious cry.

“Dream!” He lifted the limp body of his friend, tears of joy streaming down his face.

“I freed him,” Tommy called, not looking away from Jack’s stunned face, “but without that exorcism a while back I wouldn’t have been able to properly dispose of the Dreamon controlling him.”

“Thank you.” Sapnap weeped as George collapsed next to him, looking over to Tommy.

“You’re very welcome, Snapnap.” Tommy replied, noticing Jack wince slightly.

“Why does my head hurt?” The man grumbled, rubbing it.

“Well ya see,” Tommy started, sweating nervously, “when I make someone one of mine, it’s a bit of a ‘friends with benefits’ situation.”

“Excuse me?!” Niki yelled, poking her head out from behind Jack.

“Wait-that-no-I meant-he-I.” Tommy stuttered, sending Tubbo a panicked look.

“Am I going to die?” Jack asked abruptly, bringing Tommy’s focus back to him.

“No, definitely not.” Tommy reassured him, wringing his hands.

“Then what’s going to happen?” Jack asked slowly.

“Well, if you’re head is hurting, you might endupbecomingablazehybrid.” Tommy rushed with a nervous smile.

“I’m going to what?”

“He’s going to what?”

“End up becoming a blaze hybrid?” Tommy offered, scratching the back of his neck as everyone stared at him blankly.

“Who is going to what now?” a drowsy voice called in concern from behind Tommy.

Chapter Text

It was dark outside as the old beat up van rumbled up a hill towards a mansion. The occupants of the van were silent as they approached the house, looking around carefully.

“I don’t see anyone.” A brunette reported, turning around.

“Good. We don’t want a repeat of last time.” An almost identical person responded, the only difference between the two being the dyed pink tips of the second one.

“Alright boys, get geared up, I want to get inside fast.” The driver called, opening their door.

“Fine.” The second one sighed, picking up a flashlight and cross and stuffing them in his pockets.

“Already done.” The first one said triumphantly, slipping a flashlight out of his sleeve.

“Then get in there, this one’s gonna take a while.” The driver ordered as he opened the door.

“Cool. What’s the name again?” The first man asked, flicking on his flashlight.

“There’s at least two ghosts here, known ones are Tommy Innit, strange choice for a name but whatever, and Tubbo Underscore-Beloved, who has referenced someone named Ranboo before.” The pink-tipped man read from the files on the wall.

“Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo, got it.” The first man muttered, hopping out of the van and marching towards the house.

“Wilbur.” The driver called, leaning his head out of the open door.

“Yeah?” The brunette responded, pausing and looking back.

“Don’t make this another Chicago.” the driver pleaded, a small wind blowing through his blond hair.

“It wasn’t my fault and I make no promises.” Wilbur replied, spinning back towards the house and walking up to the door.

“He’s going to die one of these days.” The second brunette noted blandly from behind the blond man.

“Holy f---ing sh-- Techno!” The blond exclaimed, his hand flying to his chest.

The other man just chuckled, hopping out of the van and strolling over to the house.

“That wasn’t funny you little sh-t!” The blond yelled, a small smile on his face.

“It was for me, Phil.” Techno called, stepping through the house’s open doorway and noticing a shiver run down his spine.

“Well there’s definitely a ghost in here.” The man mumbled, looking around for his twin.

“TECHNO HELP!” said twin screeched, sprinting at him from down the hall.

“What did you do this time, Will?” Techno sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“He was being a right wrong’un!” A voice shouted angrily from behind Wilbur.

“TECHNO HOLD ME!” Will shrieked, leaping towards the man, whose eyes started to widen.

“Wait-Will-don’t-” Techno stammered, watching helplessly as his twin launched himself into the air.

“Oh stop that.” Someone grumbled irritably as Wilbur froze in mid-air.

“Will.” Techno said, looking at the man.

“Techno.” Will returned, his voice shaking slightly.

“Ranboo.” A voice said from right next to Techno.

“What the f---.” Techno stated, watching Wilbur slowly drifting down to the floor.

“That’s Tubbo, he just woke up.” The voice next to Techno said casually, as if people floating in the air was a natural occurrence.

“Again I say, what the f---.” Techno groaned, massaging his temples.

“What’s wrong mate?” He heard someone ask from behind him.

“Phil help.” He demanded, spinning around to face the man.

“What…” Phil trailed off, staring at Wilbur, who was hovering a few centimeters off of the ground.

“Yeah. That’s the least of my problems.” Techno dismissed, spotting some smoke drifting up from the floor.

“What’s that?” Phil asked, watching as the smoke started to coalesce into a human figure.

“I don’t know.” Techno replied honestly as the figure gained some features.

“Nice to meet you b---hes, now get out.” The smoke person, whose voice Techno recognised as the one that called Wilbur a wrong’un, said with a pleasant smile.

“What’s your name, mate?” Phil asked with a smile.

“It’s Tommy, innit.” The ghost muttered, shuffling his feet slightly.

“That’s a wonderful name, Tommy.” Phil told the ghost, a small smile on his face, that Techno knew all too well.

“Phil, no.” Techno grumbled, glaring at his friend.

“But-” Phil protested.

“You have Wilbur, you don’t need to come home and surprise Kristen with another kid that you adopted on one of your trips.” Techno hissed despite wanting to forcefully adopt the Ranboo kid he’d heard.

“But he’d fit in so well!” Phil complained.

“I have no f---ing clue what’s happening but if you take Tommy you need to take me as well.” The irritated voice from before huffed. Techno jumped, his head jerking back to where the ghost had been to find two more.

“Great, now they’re multiplying.” Techno grumbled, watching the two new additions warily.

“I refuse to spend eternity alone with Ranboo, he may be my platonic husband but after a while of being stuck with just him I will end up nuking the earth.” The shorter of the two new ghosts stated, a crazed grin on their face.

“Tubbo, we’ve been over this, nukes won’t do anything to us.” The tallest ghost sighed, seeming to pinch their nose in exasperation.

“If you say so, sexy.” The shortest ghost flirted.

“I do say so, handsome.” The tallest ghost flirted back, laughing when the other stared at them slack-jawed.

“I got him!” The tallest crowed, high fiving Tommy.

“Um, excuse me? Person floating here?” Wilbur mentioned, sweat dripping off of his nose and falling onto the floor.

The ghosts exchanged glances.

“I’m going to be completely honest here, I forgot you even existed.” The tallest one said with a straight face as the other two started to double over laughing.

“Please let Wilbur go.” Phil sighed, sending a disapproving look towards Tommy.

“Fine, I’ll let B---hbur go.” Tommy groaned, then grinned mischievously. The ghost snapped his fingers, and Will immediately dropped onto the floor with a bang.

“Ow.” The man grunted, laying on the floor.

“So,” Phil said, clapping his hands, “How would you boys like to come live with me and my family?”

Chapter Text

The Dream SMP was a very close-knit group, almost nobody could keep a secret that way for long. TommyInnit was one of the only 3 people that were able to keep a secret, well, secret. That’s not to say nobody tried to find out. Everyone was intrigued by what sort of secrets Tommy was hiding, even if they ended up being dumb ones.

“Tommy!” Tubbo exclaimed, throwing himself into his best friend's arms.

“Hey Tubs.” Tommy responded, laughing at the antics of the older teen.

“Did you hear that there’s a new member joining the server today?!” Tubbo was practically vibrating with excitement.

“I have, and as long as they aren’t a b---h, I might like them.” Tommy snorted, chuckling when Tubbo pouted up at him.

“At least give them a chance?” Tubbo tried, pulling out his puppy dog eyes.

“F---ing of course I’m giving them a chance,” Tommy scoffed, gently pushing Tubbo away, “And those f---ing s--- puppy dog eyes do f---ing nothing to me.”

“Yeah, I know.” Tubbo grumbled, kicking the ground before perking up when his comm dinged.

“They’re here!” Tubbo shouted, turning and sprinting towards spawn.

“Wait for me Tubs!” Tommy yelled, running after his friend.

“Catch me if you can!!” Tubbo cackled, speeding up.

“Oh, you’re on.” Tommy mumbled, starting to sprint.

The two friends ran all the way to spawn, cackling and gasping, disrupting plenty of meetings on their way to meet the new member. When they reached spawn, the two teens collapsed on the grass, panting.

“I beat you.” Tubbo gasped, placing a hand on his chest to feel his racing heart.

“No you didn’t, I won.” Tommy panted, closing his eyes.

“Actually you two tied…” The person trailed off as Tommy and Tubbo scrambled back in alarm.

“Who the f--- are you b---h?!” Tommy yelled, eyes wide.

“I’m Ranboo, I’m new here.” The stranger said nervously. Ranboo had twin horns poking up from somewhere in his hair and a tail flicking back and forth nervously behind him.

“Well you’re a right p---y.” Tommy decided, giving the new arrival the middle finger.

“HEY!” Ranboo objected.

“He’s kinda cute.” Tubbo mused, looking Ranboo up and down appreciatively.

“Tubbo what.” Tommy deadpanned, looking at his best friend.

“What?” Tubbo asked, meeting Tommy’s gaze.

“Tubbo.”

“Tommy.”

“Dream.” Someone added from a nearby tree.

“What the f---!” Tommy yelped, spinning towards the tree to see Dream leaning casually against the trunk.

“Hey Tommy, hey Tubbo.” Dream greeted before turning his head towards Ranboo.

“You must be Ranboo,” Dream said warmly, walking up and sticking out a hand, “I’m the admin, DreamWasTaken, but you can call me Dream.”

“Um, yeah, Ranboo, that’s me, yep.” Ranboo stammered, waving awkwardly.

“You’ll fit right in!” Dream laughed, pushing his mask to the side.

“If you say so…” Ranboo mumbled shyly, twitching slightly.

“OI, RANB---H!” Tommy yelled, enjoying the way Ranboo jumped in surprise.

“That’s not my name.” Ranboo protested weakly.

“Don’t care. I wanna know what f---ing server you were on before you came here.” Tommy grunted, standing up.

“Uh, I don’t know…” Ranboo said nervously, scratching the back of his neck with one hand.

“You don’t know?” Dream asked in concern, his eyes betraying his worry.

“Last thing I remember is waking up in Hypixel looking for a home.” Ranboo offered, shrinking slightly.
“Great, we get to see another adoption battle!” Dream and Tubbo exclaimed, clapping their hands happily.

“Oh no.” Tommy groaned, planting his face in his hands.

“Um, what-what’s an adoption battle?” Ranboo asked nervously, picking at his sleeve.

“The thing that happened after I escaped from the lab I was made in.” Tommy stated blandly, ignoring the concerned look from Dream.

“Wait, you were made in a lab?” Ranboo questioned, tilting his head.

“Well there goes that secret.” Tubbo muttered in annoyance.

“Wait, Tubbo, you knew?” Dream asked, narrowing his eyes.

“I’m his best friend,” Tubbo responded, rolling his eyes before continuing sheepishly, “I may have also been the cause of the adoption battle over Tommy.”

“The first time or the second time?” Someone new asked from behind Ranboo.

“Both.” Tubbo said happily.

“Why am I even surprised?” The stranger groaned.

“I’m not sure Niki, we really should’ve expected this.” Dream sighed, rubbing his forehead.

“You really should’ve.” Tommy and Tubbo said in unison.

“Well, I’m joining the adoption battle.” Niki announced, throwing an arm around Ranboo.

“You can have him as long as he gets to visit me.” A grumpy voice yawned from the trees behind Tommy.

“Alright Techno.” Niki laughed as the owner of the voice stepped out of the trees.

“Who is he?” Ranboo asked Niki nervously, watching as the buff piglin hybrid picked Tommy up.

“Tommy’s adoptive dad’s best friend.” Niki replied, watching in amusement as Tommy started swearing and pounding on Techno’s back.

“Oh.” Ranboo murmured, waving to Tubbo as the teen ran after his best friend.

“Come on, I’ll show you one of my little projects.” Niki giggled, nudging Ranboo.

“Ok…” Ranboo answered, walking after her and leaving Dream standing along by spawn.

“That was fun.” Dream sighed, then yelped as an arrow struck the ground in front of him.

“Oh Dreeeaaaaam~” Dream heard Sapnap call teasingly and smiled before pushing back his mask and disappearing into the trees.

Chapter Text

Karl groaned, lifting a hand to his head. He opened his eyes slowly, placing his hand down on weirdly comfortable grass.

“Where…am I?” Karl asked nobody, his head spinning.

“Another one of Time’s, huh?” Someone chuckled from behind him, wind blowing through the leaves.

“Who-what-” Karl mumbled, wincing.

“Try not to move too much. You’ve got quite a bit of damage.” The person said, concern coating their voice.

“Huh?” Karl wondered, sure that he wasn’t hurt.

“Not all damage is physical, most of your damage is in your brain.” The person walked in front of Karl, letting him get a very blurry view of whoever was talking to him.

“Philza?” Karl asked deliriously, noticing the blond hair.

“Not quite,” the stranger chuckled, sitting down in front of Karl, “But I have been told that people will mistake me for him later on.”

“Who…” Karl trailed off, feeling a spike of pain run through his head.

“Try not to talk, you sustained extreme cranial damage due to your quantum travel, something I have warned Time about multiple times.” The person grumbled, scooting towards Karl.

“Where…?” Karl asked weakly as the blond-haired stranger lifted an arm.

“You’re safe,” the blond reassured him, what Karl assumed was a hand reaching towards his forehead, “I promise.”

“Okay…” Karl muttered, sinking into unconsciousness as the hand touched his forehead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is he going to be okay?” Karl heard a familiar voice ask nervously as he started to emerge from unconsciousness.

“He’ll be fine, Ran,” Someone else replied as a cold towel was placed on Karl’s forehead.

“Are you sure? G-Xelqua seems skeptical.” The one with a familiar name asked with worry.

“I’m positive, Ran. This one will be fine as long as Time doesn’t decide to be rude.” The other person chuckled, a hand placing itself on Karl’s chest.

“He’s already awake, I don’t see why I’m not allowed to just send him back to the people that are worried about him.” A new person complained as Karl’s eyelids started to flutter open.

“TimeDeo, if you send him back to his time right now you will absolutely destroy his mind.” Karl startled at the bluntness of the remark, his eyes shooting open to see the blonde stranger from earlier glaring at a man with sunglasses and a Santa hat while a familiar enderman hybrid stood off to the side glancing between the two nervously.

“What the honk?” Karl asked drowsily.

“Hey Karl!” The enderman hybrid exclaimed happily, waving slightly.

Karl did a double-take.

“RANBOO!?!?” Karl yelled in surprise, staring dumbfoundedly at the dual toned enderman hybrid.

“Yep.” Ranboo replied, scooting behind the blond over to Karl.

“Who are those two?” Karl asked, gesturing towards the two other occupants, both of whom had turned to look at him.

“I’m TimeDeo, God of Time, and the one who gave you the gift of time travel.” The one in the Santa hat said, bowing slightly.

“Gift?” The blonde scoffed, glaring at TimeDeo. “It’s a curse and you know it.”

“HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT SOMEONE LIKE HIM COULDN’T HANDLE THE STRAIN?!” The god protested, gesturing vaguely towards Karl.

“JUST BECAUSE HE’S ONE OF BEAST’S DOESN’T MEAN HE HAS THE MENTAL FORTITUDE TO WITHSTAND ALL OF THE TIMES YOU SENT HIM TO!” The blonde yelled back, a few flowers sprouting from their hair.

“Who is the blonde and why are there flowers coming out of their hair?” Karl whispered to Ranboo as the two others kept arguing.

“He’s got flowers because he’s basically ‘Mother Nature’.” Ranboo replied quietly with a grin.

“I’M NOT MOTHER NATURE! MOTHER NATURE IS A MADE UP PERSON FROM BACK WHEN I WEAVED FLOWERS INTO SOME WOMAN’S HAIR DECADES AGO!” The blonde yelled at Ranboo, spinning around.

“Wait, Mother Nature isn’t real?” Karl asked, his head throbbing slightly.

“No, she is not. I, however, am real, and I’m not a girl!” The blonde huffed, folding their arms.

“Not yet.” TimeDeo mumbled from his position in a corner of the room.

“Excuse me?!” The blonde hissed, turning on the god.

“I am unable to provide further information at this time, in accordance with the rules that Clara decided to impose on me.” Time wisely responded.

“Fine, but I’ll remember that.” The blonde threatened, turning back to Karl.

“Oh, I know.” The Santa hat man mumbled.

“Who are you?” Karl asked the blonde, noticing that their eyes were a shade of blue Karl had never seen before.

“I’m the overworld and the overworld is me.” The blonde replied with a familiar smirk.

“Tommy, don’t torture him.” Ranboo scolded, Karl’s jaw dropping as soon as he heard the name.

“THAT’S TOMMY?!?!” Karl yelled, staring at the blonde in shock.

“Yes, that is Tommy, he is basically the overworld god and is in charge of us players.” Ranboo explained, smiling a little.

“We’re going to get you back to your fiance’s soon, but first you will need to recover.” Tommy told Karl, pushing him down to his back.

“Alright,” Karl accepted reluctantly, “I’ll be happy to see Quack and Sap again.”

“Just sleep for now, I’ll take good care of you.” Tommy assured Karl as he drifted into sleep.

“Thanks…” Karl muttered drowsily before sinking into unconsciousness.

The next morning, Karl woke to what sounded an awful lot like pots and pans being thrown around. Reluctantly, he rolled out of bed and shakily stood up. He took a deep breath in, then slowly shuffled towards the door of the room, grabbing onto the handle for stabilization. He opened the door and was greeted by shouting.

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH MY BOWL!” Karl heard someone yell as he walked into a small hallway.

“ALL OF THE BOWLS LOOK THE EXACT SAME!!” Karl frowned, wondering what the big problem was.

“THAT DOESN’T CHANGE THE FACT THAT YOU TOUCHED MY BOWL!” Karl rubbed his forehead with one hand.

“ME TOUCHING YOUR BOWL SHOULDN’T WARRANT YOU CHUCKING A FREAKING FRYING PAN AT MY HEAD!” Karl sighed in exasperation as he reached the end of the hallway.

“I WILL GET MY REVENGE!” Karl turned the corner and was met with the sight of Ranboo and TimeDeo glaring at each other, each one armed with pots and pans.

“Karl!” Karl heard Tommy call quietly from his right. He turned, spotting Tommy sitting at a small circular table with a dirty blonde, both wearing matching grins.

“Sit down, watch the chaos with us!” Tommy whisper yelled, beckoning to him.

Karl looked over to where Ranboo and TimeDeo were having a staredown before shrugging and taking a seat next to Tommy.

“How long have they been going at it?” Karl asked Tommy curiously.

“Half an hour, it’s absolutely fantastic.” The dirty blonde giggled.

“Who are you?” Karl wondered, absently leaning forward to dodge a plate.

“I’m Xelqua, the one in charge of making sure Tommy doesn’t get caught.” The dirty blonde said as an introduction, a bowl flying over his head.

“You prank people just as much as I do.” Tommy chuckled, tilting his head to dodge a sword.

“Where did that come from?” Karl wondered, yelping as a fork embedded itself in the table.

“Don’t question it.” The other two said in unison, hardly flinching as the table got demolished by a large tree branch.

Karl blinked, watching silently as the tree branch was impaled by a trident.

“You ready to go home?” Tommy asked casually, nudging the tree branch with a foot.

“Um, y-yeah.” Karl stammered, staring at the trident.

“HEY DEO! KARL WANTS TO GO HOME!” Tommy yelled, leaning towards the right to dodge what looked like a glowing piece of obsidian.

“3!” came the response.

“Three what?” Karl asked.

“2!”

“See you when you get home, Karl!” Xelqua said cheerfully, waving a hand.

“1!”

“Huh?” Karl asked as the world disappeared around him, leaving him to fall into a vortex of green and purple.

“Well this is new.” Karl commented as he fell, spinning around. He squinted, looking towards the rapidly approaching image at the end of the vortex.

“Hello?!” He yelled, noticing a few familiar figures facing away from what Karl assumed was the end of the vortex.

“Huh?” The one closest to the portal grunted, turning around just in time for Karl to fly out.

“KARL!?!?!” The person yelled in shock, their bandana rippling in the wind.

“Hey Sapnap, how are you?” Karl replied, pushing himself up into a seat.

“What was that?!” A familiar voice demanded.

“Q!” Karl exclaimed, scrambling to his feet.

“I’m so sorry I forgot you, I’m a time-traveller and was losing my memories, but I met someone who was able to fix it and now I really want to see what you’ve done with that Las Nevadas project you have going, also we should probably do something about the parasite that infected Sap’s dad, soul fire should work, or we could get Phil to ask his wife to get rid of it but I’m really excited to see you again!” Karl bubbled, bouncing up and down.

“Wha-How many Monsters did you drink this morning?” Quackity asked in concern.

“My dad got infected?” Sapnap asked at the same time.

“Welcome back Karl from Everytime!” a familiar chipper voice said from beside Quackity.

“Mr. Cycle?” Karl asked, turning to see what looked like a slime hybrid standing with a smile.

“Quackity from Las Nevadas calls me Slime!” The hybrid answered cheerfully.

“Karl, where were you?” Sapnap asked hesitantly, placing a hand on Karl’s shoulder.

“I was with Mother Nature!” Karl responded cheerily.

“I AM NOT MOTHER NATURE! MOTHER NATURE DOESN’T F---ING EXIST!” An outraged voice screamed from somewhere behind Quackity.

“I-whatever,” Quackity muttered, rubbing his forehead, “Sure, I’ll give you and Sapnap a tour sometime.”

“Now?” Karl asked enthusiastically.

“Only if you promise to get enough sleep.” Quackity sighed.

“Deal!” Karl exclaimed before collapsing into Sapnap’s arms.

Chapter Text

“Everyone ready?” A man with a lime green visor shielding his face asked, looking around at the small team he had assembled for this mission.

“We should be.” One of his team responded, twirling a dagger in their hand almost lazily.

“Sapnap?” The first man asked, looking down at his pyrokinetic friend who was kneeling next to a small trapdoor. The man in question glanced up for a second.

“A couple more seconds.” The pyro muttered, focusing back on his work.

The visored man nodded his acknowledgement, then turned to his team.

“Ant and Velvet, stay with George and tell HQ we’re in. Bad, you’re with me and Sapnap.” He ordered, receiving nods from his teammates.

“We’re in.” Sapnap announced, lifting the trapdoor. The visored man walked over, peering into the darkness.

“After you fearless leader.” The man with the dagger chuckled, motioning towards the opening with a smirk.

“Come back alive, Dream.” Someone yawned.

“I’ve got the arsonist and the demon, I’ll be fine George.” Dream reassured the man with a smile.

“Get going, Dream.” Sapnap grumbled, slipping a small six-shooter out of its sheath.

“See you on the flipside.” Dream said, hopping into the opening. He fell a few feet before slamming into the floor of a dim hallway.

“Something’s not right.” He heard Bad mutter as the man dropped down silently next to him.

“I agree.” Dream murmured, hearing Sapnap drop down to his right.

“That scientist freak is here, right?” Sapnap asked cautiously.

“Should be.” Dream responded, grabbing his rifle and starting down the hallway, Bad and Sapnap following close behind him. They moved cautiously towards the end of the hallway, staying alert.

“Hang on.” Bad said as they reached the intersection at the end of the hallway, his head swiveling to stare down the left hallway.

“What’s wrong?” Dream demanded.

“I smell blood.” Bad responded, his nostrils flaring as he took a deep breath in.

“Human?” Sapnap asked, peering down the hallway.

“And something else…” Bad muttered, eyes narrowing.

Dream frowned, glancing down the hallway. It was strangely empty given the intel they had received, a singular door sitting at the end.

“We need to move.” Dream ordered, motioning for his friends to follow him down the hallway.

“Feels like a horror movie.” Sapnap grumbled, glancing back warily.

Dream chuckled, opening his mouth to respond when the door slammed open, and a scientist stumbled through, limping slightly.

“ON THE GROUND!” Dream yelled, pointing his rifle at the man.

“Please, help.” The man asked weakly, limping towards them.

“Get on your knees and put your hands up.” Sapnap growled, his six-shooter already pointed towards the man.

“Please,” The man groaned, still limping forward, “please, you need to-” The man was cut off by a large black and red fist erupting from his chest, and he coughed up blood, head lolling.

“What the f--k…” Sapnap whispered in horror, his other hand coming up to cover his mouth as the fist slid out of the man’s body with a wet slurp, letting the body collapse onto the ground. Bad sprinted forward, sliding next to the man and shaking him for a moment before placing his ear close to the dying man’s mouth. Dream and Sapnap watched in silence, shock freezing them in place as the scientist died. Bad gently closed the man’s eyes, sighing.

“He’s gone.” Bad said, his voice trembling slightly.

“What did he say?” Sapnap asked hoarsely.

“He wanted us to save someone named Callahan.” Bad replied, standing up slowly.

“We can do that.” Dream whispered, silently walking over to kneel next to the corpse. The trio was somber, Sapnap walking over to join them as they started through the door. Dream’s eyes darted around cautiously, looking for the fist he’d seen. There were stairs leading up and down, both pitch black.

“We need to be more careful, just in case that thing’s still in here.” Dream murmured, switching the flashlights on his visor on as he started down the stairwell.

“Copy that.” Sapnap responded shakily, falling in next to him.

”George notified HQ, how are you guys holding up?” Ant reported over the Radio.

“Fine.” Dream replied shortly, sending Sapnap a warning look.

”Alright, Ant out.” came the reply.

“Why don’t you want them to know?” Sapnap growled.

“They don’t need to.” Dream responded curtly.

“Like h--l they don’t!” Sapnap snarled.

“Hush, you might alert that thing.” Someone hissed from above them, muffling Bad's quiet "language." Instantly, Sapnap and Dream had their guns pointed at the ceiling, where a man with a beanie and a trenchcoat was floating.

“Name.” Dream ordered, pointing his gun at the man.

“Soot.” The man responded, twisting a little before dropping down next to them silently, raising an eyebrow when Dream and Sapnap kept their weapons trained on him.

“What are you doing here?” Bad asked, pulling a couple daggers out of his sleeve.

“Trying to rescue someone.” Soot responded, leaning against a wall.

“And who would that be?” Dream demanded sternly.

“My dad.” Soot stated, his face going still as a statue.

“You’re lying.” Dream snarled, narrowing his eyes at Soot.

“I’m not.” Soot spat, enraged.

“Then you aren’t telling the full truth.” Sapnap scoffed, glaring at the man.

“I-” Soot growled, sucking in a deep breath before continuing in a calmer tone. “I’m not lying, and even if I was I wouldn’t tell random people sneaking around an underground laboratory what I’m doing.”

“He has a point.” Bad admitted reluctantly.

Dream hesitated, glaring at Soot for a few seconds before sighing. “We can’t tell you everything, but we’re also here on a rescue mission.”

Soot flinched, a frown appearing on his face as his eyes widened slightly.

Sapnap snorted. “Guess we really do have things in common.”

“Yeah…I guess we do…” Soot muttered, reaching into his trench coat pocket and pulling out some cigarettes.

“Those aren’t very healthy for you.” Bad scolded the man with a frown.

“F--- off.” Soot grumbled dismissively, lighting one and placing it in his mouth.

“Language you muffin!” Bad whisper yelled, readying a dagger.

“What, don’t like people saying f---.” Soot taunted with a smirk.

“Oh dear.” Dream sighed, lowering his rifle.

“What? It’s not like he caOH F---!” Soot ducked, flinching slightly as the sound of steel being embedded in steel echoed through the stairwell.

“Watch. Your. Language.” Bad snarled, glaring daggers at Soot.

“Yes sir.” Soot replied meekly, twisting to stare in shock at the dagger Bad had embedded in the wall his head had been moments before.

“Oh, did we not mention that Bad spends his spare time throwing daggers?” Sapnap asked in faux innocence.

“Is it bad that I’m now more terrified of him than that creature?” Soot chuckled weakly.

“Nope.” Sapnap said cheerfully.

“I’d be concerned about your mental health if you weren’t.” Dream chuckled.

“I’m not that scary.” Bad protested, pouting slightly.

“Yes you are.” The other three men said blandly.

Chapter Text

“So, how did this happen?”

“You think I know?”

“At least the old man’s with us.”

“F--- you.”

“Language.”

“Okay Bad kinnie.”

“I’m only saying ‘cause he can’t.”

“Whatever.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Wanna go prank them again?”

“F--- yeah.”

“Withers or Dragons?”

“Why not both?”

“Everyone’s going to be so confused.”

“Try not to name all of them this time.”

“F--- you, Dave was cool.”

“That wasn’t even in this universe.”

“Still cool.”

“Whatever nerd.”

“Sure child.”

“Shut up Teletubby.”

“Shut up homeless green man.”

“Technically we’re all homeless-”

“No, the child has a point.”

“I could choke both of you without changing a shade.”

“There’s no way yOW ARE YOU SO STRONG WHAT THE F---?!”

“I really don’t know what you expected, he’s basically a clone of Philza.”

“I DIDN’T REALIZE THAT WOULD INCLUDE UNHOLY AMOUNTS OF STRENGTH!”

“Sucks to be you then.”

“I still have the glitter nukes if we want to use those.”

“We could get Slime to sneak them in!”

“Well then gentlemen, Operation Chaos is active.”

Chapter Text

“TOMMY INNIT!” Dream yelled as he stormed through the portal to Logstedshire.

“What’s the matter, big man?” Tommy asked innocently, feeding Mushroom Henry a bit of wheat.

“DON’T ACT INNOCENT I KNOW IT WAS YOU!” Dream shouted, pulling his axe out of his inventory.

“Dream, we can talk about this right?” Tommy hedged, stepping back nervously.

“Have fun with Schlatt.” Dream hissed, swinging his axe at Tommy’s neck.

“Oh f--- you.” Tommy grunted as Dream’s axe removed his head from his neck.

“Die.” Dream replied shortly, walking towards the Nether portal.

Maybe converting the community house into a forest was a bad idea. Tommy thought as he died. He sighed internally, closing his eyes as he fell into limbo.

“Oh, hey Tommy.” Tommy heard Schlatt bleat.

“Hey J. Schlatt.” Tommy groaned, sitting up and glancing around. “Did you paint the wall?” Tommy wondered, looking at the wall in question.

“Nah, Mexican Dream did that. He said he wanted more variety in here, so I just let him go wild.” Schlatt responded, flipping to a different channel. Limbo was supposed to be just a void, but when you put people with magic like Mexican Dream in there, anything is possible.

“Where’s Wilbur?” Tommy asked, plopping himself down next to Schlatt on the couch.

“Not sure. Last I saw, he was having a mental breakdown over how all of this was possible.” Schlatt muttered, staring at the TV.

“Cool, cool. Mum stop by?”

“Yeah, Kristen’s been coming over daily, something about helping Wilbur with his issues, I didn’t really pay attention.”

Tommy nodded in understanding, feeling a familiar twisting in his gut.

“I’m leaving soon,” Tommy grumbled, standing up with a stretch, “so I guess this is goodbye for now.”

“Go cause chaos.” Schlatt called as Tommy walked out of the house.

“Always!” Tommy replied with a smirk. Then he woke up underwater.

“Pleh!” Tommy spat, swimming up and collapsing on the sand.

“TOMMY!?” A bunch of voices yelled in unison. Tommy scrambled to his feet, spinning around to see almost all of the server standing a few feet away. Dream had his mask on, but Tommy could feel the confusion and frustration emanating from him. Tubbo and Fundy were shocked, Ranboo seemed concerned, and Quackity was dumbfounded. Tommy frowned. I thought they were all in L’manburg, so why… Tommy’s eyes widened as he spotted the familiar building of L’manburg’s White House.

“Oh f---.” Tommy mumbled, glancing nervously at Dream.

“Tommy…” Dream said slowly, one hand twitching.

“Hey, this isn’t my fault!” Tommy defended, putting his hands up.

“HOW IS IT NOT YOUR FAULT!” Dream yelled, storming up to Tommy.

“I DON’T CONTROL ANYTHING! MUM IS THE ONE WHO DECIDES WHERE I GET PUT!” Tommy shouted, sprinting over behind Ranboo.

“C’MERE TOMMY!!” Dream called, tearing his axe out of his inventory.

“RANBOOB SAVE ME!” Tommy screeched, hiding behind the tall enderman hybrid.

“Nah.” Ranboo said, stepping over to Tubbo, giving Dream a clear path to chase after Tommy.

“Why’d you do that!?” Tubbo hissed at Ranboo as Dream and Tommy ran off.

“They’ll be fine.” Ranboo said dismissively, watching as Tommy started to climb onto the White House.

“Are you sure?” Tubbo asked dubiously, watching nervously as Dream replaced his axe with a bow.

“Yeah.” Ranboo replied as Dream started shooting arrows at Tommy.

“GET BACK DOWN HERE YOU DUMB IMMORTAL RACCON!!!” Dream shouted, replacing his bow with a crossbow loaded with fireworks.

“NEVER!” Tommy yelled back defiantly, desperately looking for a way down.

“TOMMY!!!!!” Dream snarled, firing firework after firework at Tommy.

“What’s goin’ on here?” A monotone voice asked from behind Ranboo.

“Tommy irritated Dream again.” Ranboo answered calmly, pulling Tubbo close.

“Ah.” Techno muttered, shuffling forward until he was standing next to Ranboo.

“Technoblade.” Tubbo said stiffly.

“Hey Tubbo. Sorry about the fireworks, Chat was going crazy and demanding blood.” Techno replied, watching as Tommy pulled a few bowls from his inventory and started throwing them down at Dream.

“That doesn’t excuse you from killing me.” Tubbo growled.

“I don’t care if you forgive me or not,” Techno grunted, “just leave me alone. I won’t bother you if you don’t bother me.”

“Fine.” Tubbo snarled, glaring at Techno.

“Oh look, Dream finally brought out the bazooka.” Techno commented blandly.

“I’m sorry, the what now?” Tubbo demanded, quickly looking over at Dream to find…him actually holding a bazooka.

“Where did he get that?! This is a vanilla minecraft server!” Quackity squawked, dumbfounded.

“It’s Dream,” Ranboo chuckled, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he just jumped straight to a tank.”

“That actually might happen soon.” Techno commented, watching as Tommy dodged the rockets.

“I’m so confused.” Tubbo moaned, placing his head in his hands.

“You’re not the only one.” Sapnap muttered from behind him.

“Is anyone going to acknowledge the fact that Dream called Tommy an immortal raccoon?!” Fundy laugh-cried from next to Quackity.

“Wait what?” Quackity asked, looking at Fundy with confusion.

“Oh yeah, Tommy’s immortal, forgot you guys didn’t know that.” Ranboo said with a shrug.

“We’re going to have a long talk after this.” Tubbo promised darkly.

“Oh, no, the horror.” Ranboo sassed, rolling his eyes.

“A very long talk.” Tubbo mused aloud.

“I could literally walk away from it.” Ranboo pointed out.

“Not if I take your kneecaps.” Tubbo cackled, grinning crazily.

“Oh.” Ranboo muttered.

“Oh dear.” Techno said calmly, blinking.

Chapter Text

The three ghosts stared at Phil with a wide range of emotions. Tommy looked shocked, Tubbo was skeptical, and Ranboo seemed interested.

“Not again.” Wilbur groaned from his spot on the floor.

“What do you mean again?” Tubbo asked, narrowing his eyes at Wilbur.

“Dad, Philza, Dadza, why are you doing to them what you did to me?” Wilbur pleaded, lifting his head to stare pleadingly at Phil.

“What are you talking about?” Ranboo asked, tilting his head slightly.

“Oh, Wilbur’s a banshee.” Techno said, lifting a hand to rub at his eye.

“Sorry, the b--ch boy is what?” Tommy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m a siren, not a banshee.” Wilbur grumbled, wincing slightly as he shifted onto his knees.

“Same thing.” Techno dismissed, plopping himself down on the ground.

“They really aren’t.” Tommy and Wilbur protested, glaring at Techno.

“Sorry, can we go back to the part where this old man wanted to adopt us?” Tubbo asked, floating forward until he was right in front of Phil.

“Hold up, Dadza’s trying to adopt another one?” someone called from just outside the door.

“WHO THE F---!?” Tommy and Wilbur screeched.

“Language!” the person scolded, walking into the house. They had dirty blond hair and a slightly stained brownish red knitted sweater. Tommy and WIlbur glared at them before yelling in unison, “WHOMST THE F--- ARE YOU!?”

“Grian. Dad’s oldest kid.” the man said, leaning against the doorway.

“Oh, hey Grian.” Techno said, waving slightly.

“Heya Tech. How’s Steve?” Grian asked nonchalantly.

“Wait, Tommy, how do you not recognize him?” Tubbo asked, glaring at the ghost.

“Should I?” Tommy shot back with a huff.

“HE’S LITERALLY THE MUSTACHE MAN’S BEST FRIEND!” Tubbo yelled, hands clenching into fists.

“Wait, he is?” Tommy asked, wrinkling his nose.

“YES!” Tubbo yelled, glaring at Tommy.

“Oh, you guys know Mumbo?” Grian asked, tilting his head.

“He literally owns this place.” Phil said, shaking his head in disappointment.

“He actually bought it?” Grian asked, perking up slightly.

“I thought he’d have told you, all things considered.” Techno grunted, raising an eyebrow at Grian.

“For the last time, me and Mumbo are not married.” Grian sighed exasperatedly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Are you sure about that? You two seem very close…” Ranboo interjected shyly.

“YES.” Grian growled, glaring at Techno and Ranboo.

“Just checking.” Ranboo surrendered, holding his hands up defensively.

“Well we’re not married or dating, we’re just really good friends.” Grian said, relaxing.

“We still haven’t talked about the old man wanting to adopt us.” Tubbo growled, glaring at Phil.

“Oh, it’s not a discussion,” Grian said, pushing off the doorway and walking over to stand next to Phil, “It’s going to happen whether you like it or not.”

“They have a choice!” Phil protested weakly.

“No they don’t.” Wilbur snorted.

“They really don’t.” Techno grunted at the same time.

“Don’t lie Dadza.” Grian teased, nudging the man with an elbow.

“You chaotic little sh-ts.” Phil sighed in exasperation, a small smile on his face.

“I’m not really opposed to the idea,” Tommy mentioned off-handedly, “but Tubbo and Ranboo can’t really leave the house.”

Everyone in the room stared at him for a few seconds, expressions ranging from disbelief to worry to thoughtful. The entire house was silent for a few minutes while everyone stared at Tommy, who was starting to sweat nervously. Then everything erupted in chaos.

“WHAT THE F--K ARE YOU THINKING!?”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY CAN’T LEAVE!?”

“WHY WOULD YOU TELL THEM THAT!?”

“Bruh, what?”

“Why don’t we just move in with you?”

Tubbo froze while everyone else turned to stare at Phil.

“What?” He asked blankly, meeting their stares with confusion.

“Nothing, I’m just surprised you can actually use your brain that well at your age.” Tommy replied, causing Grian and Wilbur to burst out laughing as Phil’s face went from happy to shocked to offended in a few seconds.

“You little sh-t.” Phil chuckled, absently whacking Grian’s arm to prevent him from laughing too hard.

“We got another one!” Wilbur gasped, falling backwards onto the floor.

“Oh, that’s amazing.” Grian cackled at the same time, almost fainting as he sucked in a deep breath of air.

“Is Grain okay?” Tommy asked in faux concern, an evil smile promising chaos on his face.

“Wha-GRAIN?!” Grain demanded angrily as Wilbur started laughing harder.

“‘S your name innit?” Tommy smirked, playing innocent.

“NO!” Grain yelled defensively, glaring at Tommy.

“I totally thought your name was Grain.” Tubbo chimed in, his eyes glinting.

“WHA-” Grian spluttered, his mouth hanging open.

“You might want to close your mouth, there are quite a few flies and such in here.” Ranboo offered helpfully.

“Whatever.” Grian mumbled, closing his mouth.

“No problem Grain.” Ranboo chirped, smiling at Grian.

Grian stared at him for a few seconds before standing up and walking towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Techno called blandly.

“Somewhere nobody will make fun of me.” Grian shot back, slamming the door behind him as he left.

“Is that possible?” Tommy asked curiously.

“Nope.” Wilbur gasped from the floor.

“Sucks for him then.” Tubbo shrugged, smiling triumphantly.

“You kids are going to be the death of me.” Phil sighed, facepalming.

Chapter Text

Tommy winced slightly as he walked along the street, one hand pressed to his midsection and the other holding one of those hiking sticks people use. He limped forward, careful to avoid putting too much weight on his ankle, which Tommy desperately hoped wasn’t broken. His eyes scanned the almost deserted town, searching for some kind of hospital or shelter. Wincing again at the movement, he limped across the street to avoid some of what people had taken to calling zombies. He preferred to call them what they were, reanimated corpses that were each able to reanimate more corpses, hence the whole killing people thing.

Tommy squinted down the street, eyes roaming around until they fell on a heavily fortified house a few meters away.

“Hope they’ve got supplies.” He muttered, painfully moving towards his destination.

This is boring. Dream decided, stretching out on a lawn chair. He looked around again, eyes sharp as they scanned the surrounding area. There’s a car, a few zombies, a kid with a staff, another zombie-wait. Dream flicked his eyes back to where he thought he saw the kid. Sure enough, there was a kid with ratty shorts and a t-shirt that seemed to have been mauled by a bear roughly 2 yards away and getting closer. Dream eyed the kid warily, noting the way they kept their weight off of one foot, relying heavily on their staff. He squinted, eyes widening when he realized that the kid’s stomach was bleeding heavily despite the hand they had pressing against it.

“I got an injured kid a little ways out, dude’s gonna need a doctor.” Dream muttered into his radio, standing up and grabbing the metal bo-staff that was lying next to the chair.

“You sure he’s alive?” Someone asked over the sound of something sizzling.

“Yes.” Dream replied shortly, jogging over to the chain link fence to open the gate. Dream swung it open, looking back and forth to make sure there weren’t any zombies nearby, then sprinted over to the kid, who had paused in the middle of the road. Giving the kid a quick once-over, Dream realized the kid was worse off than he thought. The kid’s right eye was swollen, and the left eye had a long jagged cut just above the eyebrow. The kid’s foot was either dislocated or broken, and their arms were covered in scratches.

“Who the f— are you?” The kid rasped, swaying slightly.

“Someone who won’t let a kid die.” Dream responded grimly, picking the kid up in a fireman’s carry and almost bolting towards the house.

“‘M Tommy…” The kid mumbled, their head dropping onto their chest as Dream quickly closed the gate with his foot.

“Stay awake kid.” Dream panicked, gently jostling them awake as he sprinted towards the door.

“‘m not a kid.” The kid pouted, head lolling back as Dream rapped on the door with his staff. The door opened, and Dream brushed past the person who opened it and ran towards the designated ‘surgery room’, which was just a repurposed bedroom. Phil was already inside when Dream got there, and the blond man wasted no time, gesturing for Dream to lay the kid down on the table.

“What’ve we got?” Phil asked as Dream laid the kid gently down on the table.

“Stomach wound, possible dislocated ankle, swollen eye, and various scratches.” Dream listed rapidly, grabbing the gloves Phil held out to him and slipping them on.

“I’ll get the stomach, you take the ankle.” Phil ordered, already lifting the kid’s hand to get a better look.

“Got it.” Dream mumbled, moving over to get a better look at the kid’s ankle, breathing a slight sigh of relief. “Ankle’s just dislocated, setting it now.” Dream reported, twisting the kids foot and popping their ankle back into place.

“Good, come help up here.” Phil ordered, a hint of worry behind his stern words.

“On it.” Dream said, moving back to join Phil at the kid’s mid-section. “What’s-oh G–.” Dream yelped, staring in horror at the almost gaping hole in the kid’s stomach.

“Calm down, it didn’t go very far.” Phil snapped, glaring at Dream.

“R-right…” Dream mumbled, absently grabbing a needle and some thread.

“Just like with Sapnap.” Phil said, his hands pinching together the hole.

“Just like Sapnap.” Dream whispered to himself, threading the needle and starting to sew.

“Ow.” The kid muttered as Dream sewed up the hole.

“Well you don’t want to bleed to death do you?” Phil asked, and Dream swore he could hear the blond’s eyebrow raise.

“Not really.” The kid grumbled as Dream finished sewing, folding their arms with a huff and a wince.

“Alright,” Phil said, clapping his hands, “If you,” he pointed to the kid, “want to go anywhere, you’re going to need to ask either me or Dream to help you. Got it?”

The kid scowled at Phil but nodded.

“Good.” Phil announced, removing his gloves and starting towards the door. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to helping Techno with dinner.”

Dream sighed, stripping off the gloves and throwing them into the garbage can by the door before pulling a chair over to the table. He sat down heavily, staring at the kid. They sat in silence for a few moments before the kid finally gumbled.

“What? First time seeing someone almost die?”

“Hardly.” Dream scoffed, meeting the kid’s eyes, “but it is the first time I saw someone who didn’t seem to care about living.”

The kid’s eyes widened slightly before they turned their head away. Dream stared at the back of their head, waiting for a response.

“Why do you say that?” The kid whispered, barely loud enough for Dream to hear. Dream smiled slightly.

“My mom’s a psychiatrist and therapist, I grew up learning how to read people’s emotions.” Dream chuckled, sitting back and staring at the ceiling.

“Oh.” The kid mumbled, shifting slightly.

“Dinner’s ready!” Dream heard Phil call from down the hall.

“Wanna go get dinner?” Dream asked the kid gently. The kid hesitated for a few moments before nodding slowly. Dream smiled softly as he stood up and helped the kid off the table and towards the door.

“This the kid?” Someone asked as they left the room.

“Yeah, this’s the kid.” Dream confirmed, looking the other person dead in the eyes. They were a little taller than Dream, with curly brown hair and a faded blue sweater.

“Who’s this b—h?” The kid grumbled, looking at the person judgmentally. Dream and the other person froze, eyes darting towards the kid.

“One, I’m not a b—h, and Two, my name is Wilbur.” The man said, extending a hand towards the kid.

“Hello Wilb—h, I’m Tommy.” The kid replied cheerfully, shaking Wilbur’s hand.

“Alright, we’ve got to get to dinner.” Dream announced, gently guiding Tommy towards the kitchen area.

Chapter Text

Tommy was mad. He stared at the large crater down to bedrock, rage increasing as he saw just how many resources had been lost in the destruction. He lifted his head and glared at the cause of his anger, the green hooded admin standing a few feet away.

“What’s wrong Tommy? Mad that you didn’t get what you wanted?” Dream mocked, tilting his head to one side, the smile on his mask seeming smug.

“You.” Tommy snarled, getting to his feet and glaring at Dream. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Phil and Techno slowly backing into the trees, the Piglin hybrid giving a small thumbs up as he vanished. Tommy grinned.

“Oh? What’s this about?” Dream said, noticing the crazed grin on Tommy’s face.

“You f—ed with the wrong person, Dream.” Tommy chuckled, sending a quick message on his communicator.

“Really?” Dream’s smug voice was fanning the flames of Tommy’s rage, which only grew as the man dug a small hole. “Everything in the hole, Tommy.” Dream swung his axe lazily in one hand, mask staring at Tommy.

“I’m getting real tired of your f—ing cocky attitude b—h.” Tommy snarled, fingers flashing with a deep red light. “I know you think that you’re the best-”

“I am the best.”

“-but you aren't.” Tommy finished, his smile turning feral. “Let me show you what real power looks like.” With that, Tommy seemed to flash forward, appearing in front of Dream in the time it took the man to blink, and blasted him with a dark scarlet ball of energy, sending Dream flying backwards. The man growled, swapping his axe with a sword and charging at Tommy, who was holding his own blood red sword.

The blades clashed, a flurry of sparks jumping out from the impact. Dream snarled, swinging his sword at Tommy’s head. Tommy ducked, letting the blade whizz over him as he blasted Dream into the air, lunging after the man. Dream parried quickly, only to jerk backwards as Tommy’s sword flashed upwards, cutting his mask in half. They landed on the ground a few feet apart, Dream curling his lip at Tommy as he readied his sword.

“Talk about ugly.” Tommy snarked, twirling his sword. Dream’s face was covered in cracks and scars, the cracks glowing a dark, ugly green. Dream snarled at Tommy, the cracks starting to brighter.

“Dream…” Sapnap whispered, falling to his knees, horrified. Karl and Quackity knelt beside him, wrapping their arms around him as he cried. George stood silently, staring at the man he used to call his friend with melancholy eyes. Tommy ducked as Dream slashed at his neck, sparing a glance full of pity back towards George and Sapnap before using another scarlet ball to blast Dream back a few feet.

“I really didn’t want to fight you Dream, but you left us no choice.” Tommy sighed, a second sword, this time with a vibrant rose-red color.

“Us?” Quackity wondered as Dream and Tommy fought, neither one giving an inch. “What does he mean by us?” Karl shrugged, rubbing circles into Sapnap’s back. George was silent, but his eyes flickered over to something behind Quackity.

“He’s talking about us four.” Someone said from behind Quackity, chuckling as the duck hybrid jumped, golden wings fluttering nervously. He spun around, freezing. Standing there, watching the fight was Tubbo, wearing a leaf-green three piece suit, with a golden tie, a honey colored cape with a grassy fluff draped on his back. “Relax, big Q.” Tubbo laughed, eyes on Tommy, “We aren’t the ones you need to worry about.”

“Where did you get that from?” Karl wondered, speaking aloud Quackity’s question as the man short-circuited. “I don’t remember seeing you wear it.”

“I haven’t,” Tubbo said, then quickly amended, “Well, not on this server anyway.” Karl and Quackity stared at the young president in confusion for a second, Karl opening his mouth, wanting to know more, when suddenly Tubbo’s eyes flashed towards them and he yelled, “Duck!” pulling a sea-green sword out from under his cape. Karl pulled Quackity down, ignoring the hybrid’s offended gasp, just barely avoiding a splash of acid, watching in shock as Tubbo dissipated it with a swing of his sword.

“Tommy!” Karl heard Tubbo call as he rushed past them, “The dreamons are starting to attack!” Karl glanced over at where Tommy was, surprisingly, holding his own against Dream, barely catching the teens nod before Dream exploded with an ugly lime-green light. Karl shielded his eyes with a wince, squinting at where he last saw Dream and Tommy. His eyes widened in shock as he saw the creature that was standing in place of Dream.

“So that’s why I wasn’t able to get a solid read with him!” Was the first thing that popped out of Karl’s mouth, awarding him looks from Tubbo, Quackity, and George. “What?” He asked defensively, “It was bugging me.” Tubbo just sighed, while Quackity and George both pinched the bridge of their nose.

“Karl, Dream literally just turned into a monster, and you’re worried about that?” George sighed, looking at Karl in disappointment.

“To be fair,” The group heard Ranboo call, “Karl is a clairvoyant, so not being able to get a read for someone is very rare.”

“Wait, that wasn’t a joke?” Quackity asked dumbfoundedly. Everyone stared at him in disbelief, Karl letting out an offended gasp.

“Excuse you, my abilities are far superior to any of those fakes.” Karl huffed, folding his arms and glaring at Quackity. The duck-hybrid raised his hands in surrender as Karl continued to grumble about Quackity calling his clairvoyancy a joke. Meanwhile, Tommy was in a bit of a pickle. The monster that was once Dream had immobilized him, one of its black and red tentacles trapping his arms and legs.

“Now, you die!” The monster roared, its mouth gaping open, as the tentacle pulled Tommy towards its amalgamation of a head.

“Not today, SATAN!” Someone screamed as a winged blur cut through the tentacle and a teal colored hat caught Tommy before he could fall.

“Nice of you to fly by b—-es!” Tommy laughed, smirking as the winged figure yelled, “HEY! NO SWEARING!” Tommy cackled, shoving the cut off tentacle and jumping out of the hat. He landed on the ground, muttering “Ayup” to a man in a purple and gold three-piece suit, then turned to face the winged figure as they swooped in next to him.

“I thought we agreed to no swearing, Tom.” The winged person grumbled, dusting off their red jumper.

“There was no contract, G-man.” Tommy shot back, smirking and high fiving the other man, who had returned the hat to his head.

“He’s not wrong.” The other man spoke up, adjusting a monocle. “Seeing as he didn’t sign a contract or any other agreement form, he is not bound. It’s the law.” The man grinned gleefully as his friend’s wings puffed up in anger.

“Scar! You’re supposed to be on MY side!” Grian protested, a small smile trying to force its way onto his face.

“Grian, I’m on my own side.” Scar deadpanned, adjusting his hat slightly.

“Oh yeah.” Grian mumbled, his wings fluttering in embarrassment.

“I don’t know how you keep forgetting this, big man.” Tommy sighed, tilting his head to avoid the creature’s sword.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s just focus on the Dreamon.” Grian grumbled, turning toward it.

“Whatever.” Tommy chuckled, readying his sword as the group launched themselves towards the monster.

Chapter Text

Tommy sighed, sticking his head out of the bars of the cell.

“You’re going to get stuck.” He heard Phil call from his spot in bed, flipping the older man off as he pulled his head back and slumped onto the floor.

“I’m bored.” Tommy complained, picking absently at the bands around his neck.

“Here,” Wilbur grunted, rolling out of bed and handing a brightly colored cube to Tommy, “try this.”

“What is it?” Tommy asked, grabbing and turning it in curiosity.

“It’s called a rubix cube, the goal is to make it so that all the sides are a single color.” Wilbur explained, smirking and turning away as Tommy started to mess with the cube. “It’s pretty difficult, so don’t get too worked up if-”

“Finished.” Tommy interrupted him, holding up the completed cube. Wilbur blinked, then immediately grabbed it and started to check.

“WHAT THE F—!!” Wilbur shrieked, staring in befuddlement at both Tommy and the cube.

“It was f—ing easy.” Tommy grumbled, letting his head lay against the bars.

“Wha-huh?” Wilbur stuttered, his mouth hanging open while a snort came from their last cellmate.

“You should be used to this.” Techno called, not looking up from the book he was reading.

“I-but-he-” Wilbur floundered for words as Tommy and Phil laughed at him.

“Glad to see you’re all in a good mood.” A sharp voice scoffed from behind Tommy, causing him to scramble away from the bars in panic.

“Hey Tubbo!” Phil chirped, waving to the guard. Tubbo gave Phile a deadpanned look while tossing a can of Coke through the bars to Tommy.

“We aren’t friends, Mr. Watson.” Tubbo replied coldly.

“Not yet we aren’t!” Phil smiled as Tubbo’s face grew irritated.

“Whatever. Techno!” Tubbo called, eliciting a grunt of acknowledgement from the man, who was still nose-deep in his book. “You need to interact more. Wilbur!” Tubbo paused, looking at Wilbur, who was still frozen in disbelief and shock. “Innit, stop breaking Inmate 69.”

“F– off.” Tommy responded absently, popping the lid of the Coke can and starting to chug it. Tubbo sighed in annoyance, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“You’re going to be the death of me one day, I swear.” He grumbled, starting to walk away before pausing. “Don’t try to escape again today, or I will not hesitate to break one of your arms.”

“Yes sir.” Phil and Techno called, rolling their eyes.

“He’s not tall enough to reach my arms.” Tommy huffed, standing up and stretching his arms above his head.

“What was that?” Tubbo asked sweetly from right behind Tommy.

“Nothing! Nothing at all!” Tommy squeaked, scampering behind Techno.

“Good.” Tubbo grunted, leaving them alone. As soon as he was safely gone, Tommy turned to his cellmates.

“We’re totally breaking out.”

“Oh definitely.” Techno agreed, snapping his book closed.

“Obviously.” Phil smirked, slapping Wilbur upside the head.

“Huh?” Wilbur mumbled, blinking rapidly.

“We’re escapin’.” Techno told him, glancing over to where Tommy was twirling the key ring he’d stolen from Tubbo.

“What’re we waiting for then? Let’s go!” Wilbur exclaimed, grabbing his glasses as Tommy walked over to the door.

“Got it. Let’s get out of here.” Tommy announced, slipping the key ring onto his wrist. The four of them quickly ran out of the cell and down the hallway, giggling as they heard Tubbo scream in rage from the security cameras.

“We’re going to get in so much trouble for this.” Tommy smirked as they bolted into a large room.

“Stop right there!” Someone yelled, and everyone but Wilbur screeched to a stop. Wilbur, however, kept running, prompting the guards to shoot tranquilizers at him. Unfortunately for them, sleep drugs just turned Wilbur into Ghostbur, a silly child-like version of Wilbur that practically exuded friendliness.

“Oh, are we playing with new friends?” Ghostbur giggled, clapping his hands and smiling brightly while his cellmates all collectively facepalmed. In the security office, Tubbo was banging his head against a wall.

“We went over this yesterday. Inmate 69 isn’t affected by tranquilizer darts. I told them so many times. “ Tubbo muttered, slamming his head into the wall after every sentence.

“Uh, Tubbo?” Tubbo’s assistant, Ranboo, spoke up timidly, pointing to the screens. “They brought out attack dogs.”

“F—-!” Tubbo screamed, smashing his head a good five centimeters into the wall before storming back over to scowl at the screens, where the inmates were currently running down a hallway.

“How long even is this thing?” Tommy complained, turning a corner and almost tripping.

“OH! Hi guys!” The building’s supervisor, a slightly air-headed man with light brown skin and almost golden hair, called, beaming at them. “Are you guys going on a run?”

“Why’s Foolish here?!” Techno hissed, urging them to run faster as Foolish started to jog after them.

“How should we know?!” Tommy snapped back, turning down another hallway. Meanwhile, Tubbo was vibrating with anger, glaring at Foolish through the cameras as the man shrugged, having lost them after the first turn.

“I really wish I could drink.” Tubbo grumbled, storming over to a mini fridge, opening it and staring. “WHO FILLED AN ENTIRE SHELF WITH FANTA!?!?!” He screamed, glaring at the offending shelf.

“Sorry…” Ranboo mumbled, shrinking in on himself. Tubbo looked at him and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. He glanced at the monitors, glowering when he noticed how close they were to leaving.

“I’m going to stop them, and that shelf better be clear when I get back.” Tubbo growled at Ranboo, fixing his hat and taking the shortcut to the entrance. Ranboo nodded quickly, grabbing a few cans of fanta and downing them in a few seconds.

“So,” Wilbur, who was now back, huffed, looking at the large gate in front of them, “how’re we getting past-”

“Got it.” Tommy said triumphantly, only for alarms to go off.

“Self destruct in T-minus 10 seconds.” A robotic voice informed them, the alarms going off for another few seconds before dying out with a whine. Techno glanced towards Tommy, who was sitting by the gate with a tired face.

“That was overkill, right?” Tommy asked weakly, standing up slowly.

“Definitely.”

“Oh absolutely mate.”

“Oh, a hundred percent.”

“Just checking.” Tommy panted, wiping his forehead with a hand.

“But the exit’s open now, right?” Wilbur checked, poking at the gate.

“Yeah.” Tommy confirmed, pushing the gate open and leading them out of the building, stopping when he saw Tubbo standing right outside, waiting for them.

“So.”

“We told you, didn't we?” Techno smirked, “No prison can hold us!” He charged at Tubbo, fist raised, only for Tubbo to deflect it and chop Techno in the back of his neck, hitting a pressure point and knocking him out. Phil was the next person to go, getting kicked in the stomach and collapsing. Then, Tubbo turned and started walking towards Wilbur.

“Hey, we can talk about this, right Tubbo?” Wilbur laughed nervously, backing up a little. Tubbo glared at him, still walking forward. Wilbur let out a small “eep,” crumpling to the ground. Tubbo turned to Tommy, who was staring at him defiantly.

“Well?” Tommy taunted, holding his fists up in a boxer's pose. Tubbo gave him a blank look, then walked up to him and punched him in the jaw. Tommy fell backwards, unconscious, leaving Tubbo as the victor.

“I expected them to be stronger.” Tubbo scoffed, unhooking his radio from his belt and saying, “Foolish, Ranboo, I’ve got them. Come help me put them back in their cells.” He stuffed it in a pocket, then looked at Tommy, eyes darting to where the edge of some writing was peeking out from the boy's right sleeve. “Huh.” Tubbo mumbled, reaching out to push the sleeve up.

Chapter Text

Now, Grian wasn’t the smartest person in his friend group, everyone knew that. But even he, with his two brain cells, knew that getting kidnapped was not supposed to be this nice. A couple days ago, he was taken from his Evolution SMP after defeating the ender dragon. Who took him? Oh, just the most evil creatures to exist, second to Herobrine. Watchers, a secretive group of some kind of void spawn that go around destroying servers for fun.

He glanced over at the small desk tucked into a corner of the decent sized room, decorated in red and green with pictures of his good memories on the walls. He looked down at the tray that one of the Watchers had given him, glancing suspiciously at the contents. It looked like a normal breakfast, sausage and some eggs on a plate with a syrup covered pancake, a small cup of tea sitting just above the utensils that were arranged neatly next to the plate.

Grian just couldn’t understand why they were being so nice. One of them was always checking up on him, stopping by and talking in a language Grian vaguely recognized. Embarrassingly for Grian, he hadn’t figured out what it was until the evening of his second day. They were speaking in the same language from the enchanting tables.

He was broken out of his thoughts at the sound of the door opening, and his head snapped up to see the Watcher that had been stopping by walking through a doorway that Grian knew for a fact would disappear soon.

“What now?” Grian grumbled, reluctantly starting to eat the food on the tray.

“I got you a book.” The Watcher smiled cheerfully, holding the book out to Grian. Grian eyed it warily, grabbing it with one hand and glancing at the cover.

“The Galactic language and how to speak/write it.” Grian read, raising an eyebrow at the Watcher, who just nodded happily. “You want me to read this.” Grian stated bluntly, groaning when the Watcher nodded again.

“It helps!” The Watcher assured him, the eyes floating around it nodding in assent. Grian stared at it, ignoring the extra eyes and staring right into the mask covering its real eyes.

“Right.” Grian drawled, setting it to one side and continuing to eat his breakfast. The Watcher stayed silent while Grian finished, wincing slightly when he gulped down the entire cup of tea in one go. Grian sighed, pushing away the now empty tray and picking up the book, staring at it dubiously. No time like the present, I guess. Grian thought, opening the cover.

In hindsight, probably not the best idea, but Grian wasn’t known for having stellar ideas. “Gah!” Grian shouted, dropping the now glowing book, only to have it float up to eye level. Grian stared at it in mild horror, watching as the pages flipped themselves so fast that he couldn’t catch a single character. Then, it stopped, dropping onto the bed, open to a couple of blank pages in the middle.

“Whta wsa thaht.” Grian slurred, head spinning from watching the pages.

“Magic.” The Watcher laughed, reaching out and grabbing the book off the bed.

“Does it have to hurt so much?” Grian mumbled, head still hurting.

“Usually, no, but you’re a special case.” The Watcher replied, tucking the book into their long robe. Grian huffed at that, then froze. He’d hardly heard the Watcher speak English, and when it did it was broken and slow.

“We’re not speaking English…” Grian realized, slowly turning to stare at the Watcher, who suddenly looked very nervous. “Did you,” Grian snarled, reaching for a sword that wasn’t there, “just give me some weird Watcher curse?”

“What? No!” The Watcher scoffed, folding their arms and pouting.

“Then what happened?” Grian demanded, one hand curling around the fork on his tray.

“Uh…learning shortcut?” The Watcher offered meekly, shrinking in on themself. Grian stared at them in disbelief, his mouth dropping open.

“...Huh?” Grian managed to ask, still struggling to process what the Watcher just said.

“Well, I’m not good at your language, and having to continue the way we were would be inefficient, so I thought that projecting the Galactic language into your head would be the best choice.” The Watcher explained nervously, shifting on his feet as some of the eyes floating around him seemed to shake in disappointment. Grian continued to stare at the Watcher, barely registering a flash of light at the foot of the bed.

“Burr.” Someone grunted, causing Grian to startle and spin towards the foot of the bed, freezing when he saw a bigger Watcher standing there with their arms crossed, the majority of the eyes floating around them glaring at the other Watcher.

“Hey…Alex…” The other Watcher, whose name was apparently Burr, said nervously, a sheepish smile on their face.

“What in the name of Notch and Herobrine were you thinking?!” The larger Watcher, Alex, shouted, seeming fed up with Burr.

“I just thought he’d benefit from it!” Burr protested, twiddling their thumbs.

“Well now he’s gonna die unless he joins us!” Alex exclaimed irritatedly.

“WHAT!?” Burr shouted at the same time as Grian. Alex blinked slowly.

“You…didn’t know that?” He said slowly, one hand twitching.

“I didn’t know he’d die!” Burr exclaimed in horror. All of Alex’s eyes stared at Burr in disappointment.

“I’m…gonna die?” Grian whispered, staring down at his hands.

“You don’t have to.” Alex grumbled, shooting a glare at Burr when they opened their mouth. “You could join us, help keep track of servers and save whoever you can.” Grian looked up sharply with a frown.

“But I thought…” Grian trailed off, ducking his head in embarrassment as Alex tilted their head at him.

“What? That we were heartless creatures that destroyed servers for fun?” Alex sounded almost amused at that. Grian gave a short nod in response, tensing as he waited for them to kill him. Then he heard the laughs. Confused, Grian glanced up to see both Watchers doubled over in cackling laughter, tears rolling down their cheeks from under their masks.

“People actually think we’re all like that?” Burr gasped before collapsing in another fit of laughter as Grian nodded again.

“Very few of us are actually that sadistic.” Alex chuckled, absently swatting at an eye that tried to whack him. “Don’t give me that, you know it’s true.”

“I’m confused.” Grian mumbled, resting his face in his hands.

“Hi confused, I’m Burr.” Burr chirped, devolving into giggles.

“Ignore him, he’s an idiot.” Alex scoffed, smirking when Burr let out an offended, “Hey!”

“Is joining you guys the only way for me to survive?” Grian asked, staring at Alex with determination burning behind his eyes.

“Unfortunately.” Alex confirmed, smiling warmly at Grian.

“I’ll join.” Grian said confidently, his face set.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Why did I agree to join?” Grain groaned, slamming his face on his desk.

“You chose this.” Burr, who Grian found out plays as someone called Wilbur Soot, chuckled cheerfully.

“I didn’t know that having to learn 7th dimensional calculus and physics was part of the job description!” Grian hissed, glaring at Wilbur with one of his new eyes.

“I just don’t understand how you’re struggling with that after having created that NPG kid and summoning the demon.” A younger Watcher, Tommy, snorted from the desk next to Grian.

“Those were easy.” Grian mumbled, scribbling some notes in his notebook.

“You created someone called NPG?” Pearl, who had been found in the void and taken in by the Watchers a year after Grian joined, asked, leaning forward in curiosity.

“He’s a robot.” Grian said off-handedly, writing down an answer.

“YOU created a robot?” Pearl scoffed incredulously, raising an eyebrow.

“He did, I was there.” Wilbur confirmed, tilting his head in confusion when Pearl stared at him in disbelief.

“Grian, the man who has literally chosen to get shoved into a lava pool in the Nether over working on redstone, created a robot.” Pearl said slowly, all of her eyes blinking.

“It does sound unrealistic when you say it like that.” Wilbur admitted, then paused.

“How can you be able to do 6th dimensional calculations, but not understand redstone?” Tommy wondered, staring at Grian in confusion.

“Redstone hates me.” Grian mumbled, his face flushing with embarrassment.

“You’re going to need to learn how to work redstone eventually, Grian,” Pearl sighed, “Especially since you’re going to be on a server with a bunch of redstone experts.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot he was invited to HermitCraft!” Wilbur exclaimed, turning to Grian. “Hey Grian-” he started.

“It’s invite only, and the admin had to deal with the first Watchers.” Grian stated in a deadpan, lifting his head to stare at Wilbur. “I told you this when I got invited.”

“I forgot.” Wilbur said, looking very unapologetic.

“You forget everything, even your son.” Tommy scoffed.

“I don’t have a son?” Wilbur mumbled, frowning to himself.

“Point proven.” Pearl snorted, fist-bumping Tommy as Wilbur started pulling at his hair.

“I don’t have a son. I would remember if I did, wouldn’t I? Of course I would, I couldn’t forget something that important. But what if I do have a son and I forgot about him?” Wilbur mumbled, slumping down on the floor.

“I really hope we don’t end up having to rely on him to help us.” Grian muttered, Pearl and Tommy nodding in agreement.

Chapter Text

[Click]

Tommy:Testing, testing, one two, is this thing working? Cool. My name is Tommy Innit, Head Archivist of the SB Institute. We’ve unfortunately been unable to digitally record anything, so until we figure out how to fix that problem, old tape recorders it is. Nobody seems to know what the SB stands for, and my predecessor, Xelqua, left his desk in such a disorganized mess that I can’t even see my actual desk! I tried to get our archival assistants, Wilbur, Techno, and I guess I should include Fundy as well, to help but…they didn’t. Anyway, I’ve managed to sort most of the mess, so why not relax a bit by reading a statement, right? Let’s see…

[paper rustles]

Tommy:Ah, here we go. Original statement by Dream WasTaken in…June 2019? Xelqua disappeared a month later…strange. This was one of the last statements he archived…I’m going to bring this up with Boss. Statement regards an interaction with a haunted mask. Audio recording by Tommy Innit, Head Archivist of the SB Institute. Statement begins.

Tommy(Dream):I guess I should begin at the beginning, huh? Me and my friends were going shopping, looking for gifts for my aunt. We entered this antiques shop, looking at necklaces and the like. One of them, Sapnap, had found a few rings and a necklace that he thought were cool, and George grabbed a pirate hat. I was paying for all of it, since I’m technically rich. I got her a cool coat to match the hat, and that’s when I saw the mask. It was white porcelain, with a black smiley face, like that emoticon, the colon, end parenthesis. I have ADHD, and Sapnap is writing this for me due to that, saying that if I wrote it it wouldn’t make sense, but…it doesn’t make sense anyway. The mask was an impulse buy from my ADHD, just something I thought would be funny to have. George and Sapnap teased me about it, but we laughed it off as we left with a bag full of gifts and the mask. We gave my aunt the gifts and went back to our street. Our houses are right next to each other, mine sandwiched between theirs. I waved Sapnap and George goodnight, because it was evening, and went into my home. I placed the mask on my kitchen counter and went to bed. The next day, Sapnap and George invited me to go to a park, and I reluctantly agreed. Before we left, I grabbed the mask and placed it over my face, and was somehow still able to see. It seemed to get suctioned onto my face, and stayed on even as I walked outside. I should’ve known that something was wrong, but I just shrugged it off. I only really considered something was off about the mask a few months later, when I woke up with it on my face instead of the counter that I’d left it on the previous evening. I talked with Sapnap and George about it, but George dismissed it as forgetting where I’d placed it. Sapnap looked strangely worried, and I briefly wondered why before moving on. I placed it on the counter that night and went to bed, and somehow that mask was back on my face the next morning. This happened for the next couple of weeks before I made the mistake of going to sleep wearing the mask. I usually dream of running through grassy fields or fighting some epic battle. But this time, I was in a black and empty void. I was sitting at a small table, a strangely colored chessboard in front of me. Instead of the usual black and white, it was lime and forest green. The lime green was in front of me, the forest green on the other side. I immediately glanced around, trying to find some sort of exit or something else in this weird void. When I looked back at the table, something was sitting opposite me. All I could see of them was their large, billowing cloak and a floating white sphere with the letters XD in black on the side facing me. Then they spoke to me. Somehow, that sphere managed to talk, challenging me to a chess match. I’ve never been one to turn down a challenge, and didn’t see a reason to not believe this was just a weird dream. So, I agreed, moving the pawn in front of my king forward two spaces. Then, their cloak shifted, and a sleek, pitch-black, clawed hand emerged from within it, moving one of the pawns in front of their knights forward one. I was creeped out, but thought this was just a dream. Eventually, I won, placing them in checkmate. Then I woke up. I was confused, but as I said, I had no reason to not believe it was just a dream. But then it happened again. And again. And again. Each time, my seemingly imaginary opponent got closer and closer to beating me, but each time I would win. It wasn’t until Christmas that my opponent, who I’d learned was named XD, almost got me into checkmate. I won in the end, and instead of waking up after I won, all that happened was XD snarling in anger at me. Their arm shot out and dug into my shoulder, the pain from that vanquishing any traces of certainty that this was just a dream. I cried out in pain, crumpling to my knees as the creature floated over me. It started monologuing, telling me how one of my ancestors had been responsible for sealing it inside the mask and how it was planning to take over my body. I was…disturbed, to say the least. However, it was then that XD’s robe suddenly caught fire, its arm retracting as it let out a horrible screech, batting at the blue flames that were burning it up. I watched this in horror for a few seconds before waking up, seeing Sapnap standing over me with a hand raised to smack me. Apparently he came over to check up on me when I failed to come over for some hangout we’d organized. I couldn’t remember it, but when I looked to my left I saw the mask laying on the bed next to me, a bit of the same blue fire that was on XD sputtering out on the smile. It took a while for Sapnap to convince me to actually send you guys this. I still have the mask, but it’s in a locked metal box. I gave the only key to it to Sapnap, but I’m still worried about waking up to find that mask sitting on my face.

Tommy:Statement ends. F--k that was a weird one. I’ve gotten Techno to reach out to this Dream about a follow up statement, but he refused. Wilbur managed to find out what shop the mask was bought from and…well. The manager indeed remembers the mask in their collection, claiming that it was given to the store by a man in a multicolored hoodie. Fundy, our intern, somehow found a reference to this…XD, in an old history book. This book, not at all the standard history book that is used in schools, did indeed mention that the dreamon XD was sealed by members of the WasTaken family, notably mentioning a Dream WasTaken and his aunt, a pirate captain named Puffy. Other than that, there is nothing we could find to help corroborate this statement. End recording.

[Click]

Chapter Text

It was a relatively normal day on the season 9 world of Hermitcraft, up until the party of Xisuma’s was interrupted by a large floating being with sandy hair, black wings, and purple robes, a white mask on their face.

“WATCHER!” One X yelled, pulling out a bow as the others turned to look.

“What the f--- did I just walk into?” The Watcher wondered, brushing aside the arrow flying at their face.

“Dad?” A red-armoured X asked, taking off their helmet before blinking up at the Watcher.

“DAD?!?!?” Most of the X’s exclaimed, pulling off the helmets of their costumes. The real Xisuma sighed, placing a hand over their face.

“Grian, we talked about this.” X complained, plopping himself down on the floor as the Watcher started to shrink down to normal height.

“Sorry?” Grian offered, a sheepish grin on his face as the Watcher took off their mask, their robes transitioning to a forest green.

“Hello mates.” The Watcher said cheerfully, their bright blue eyes glimmering.

“Wait, Philza Minecraft is Grian’s dad?!?!?!” Bdubs shouted, eyes darting between the two men in disbelief.

“He’s not my dad.”

“I adopted him.”

Grian paused, giving Philza a scrutinizing glare.

“When did that happen?” Grian asked calmly, tilting his head to one side.

“Couple years ago, mate.” Phil chuckled, wings ruffling.

“I don’t remember that…” Grian mumbled, frowning to himself.

“And you make fun of Wil for forgetting things.” Phil laughed, absently grabbing an arrow that was flying for his head. “Can you stop? It’s rather difficult to hold a conversation when arrows are flying at you.” He glared at the person who had shot at him, annoyance clear in his voice.

“Blood God told me to shoot you, so I shot at you.” False replied simply, lowering her bow with a smirk.

“Wha-Why!?” Phil protested, wings ruffling indignantly.

“Well you are getting on in years Phil. Kri-your wife may have helped extend your life, but it’s up to the rest of us to help you keep up your physical health.” Joe offered, plopping to the ground next to Cleo.

“Philza’s married?” Cleo murmured to him as Phil started protesting that he wasn’t that old.

“Yeah. Goddess of Death.” Joe replied, stretching his arms over his head.

“Excuse me? The Goddess of Death? The one that you said gave you my soul?” Cleo clarified, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Joe confirmed, laying down on the ground and closing his eyes. Meanwhile, Grian was being assaulted by questions from the other hermits.

“Okay, okay! One at a time please!” Grian shouted, wings puffing up in fright and discomfort.

“When did you and Phil become watchers?” Cub shouted from where he’d been pushed to the back of the crowd of people in front of Grian.

“Oh! I don’t know when Phil became one, but I joined after one of them saved me from being kidnapped after I defeated the ender dragon in Evo.” Grian answered, wings relaxing slightly.

“Wait, you were in Evo?” X wondered, glaring at Grian.

“Yeah, he was the admin.” Impulse shrugged, not seeming to see the way Grian stared at him with betrayal on his face.

“Wait, if you’re the Evo admin, that must mean…” X trailed off, staring at Grian in fear and admiration. “You’re Xelqua?” Grian froze, staring at X weirdly.

“...How do you know that name?” Grian trilled, wings slowly extending.

“TFC mentioned you. Are you really him?” X seemed excited as he leaned towards Grian, eyes twinkling.

“Yes…” Grian said slowly, glancing back to where Phil was standing frozen.

“Then you can translate these?!” Xisuma pulled a few purple leather-bound books with glowing letters in Galactic. As soon as Grian saw them, he tensed, giving Xisuma a nervous smile.

“Y-yeah, I could!” Grian chirped nervously, edging away from where Phil was before freezing as the man’s hand landed on his shoulder.

“Xelqua. Mind explaining why your admin is holding the books on redstone I remember giving to you years ago so that you could work on learning how to use redstone?” Phil’s voice was pleasant, but Grian could hear the parental disappointment underneath. Grian felt a trickle of sweat run down the side of his face.

“Um-well-I-uh-” Grian started to stammer before a second Watcher, shorter than Phil, appeared.

“So don’t be mad.” The new Watcher said, shrinking down to a younger, taller version of Phil with a sheepish smile.

“Oh f--k, what did you do this time?” Phil panicked, removing his hand from Grian’s shoulder and turning to the newest arrival.

“It wasn’t just me, Purpled and the Bay was there!” They protested, before adding as an afterthought, “Oh, also Tubs and Ranboo.”

“Tommy.” Phil said sternly, glaring at Tommy in disappointment.

“LISTEN, WE DIDN’T MEAN TO KILL NOTCH, IT JUST HAPPENED!” Tommy shouted, a panicked expression on his face that immediately went white with fear.

“You…what?” Phil’s voice was deathly calm, and the stare he gave Tommy caused shivers to run down the spines of the gathered hermits, other than Joe and Cleo, the latter being a zombie and the former having been on the receiving end of a similar look multiple times in his life.

“Killed Notch?” Tommy mumbled, shrinking in on himself. Phil just stared at him, eyes blank. “Phil?” Tommy chirped nervously, taking a cautious step forward.

“How in thE NAME OF HEROBRINE DID YOU KILL THE NOTCH!?!?” Phil burst out, slamming a hand to his forehead with a loud smack.

“I don’t f---ing know!” Tommy screamed, his face panicked. The gathered hermits, sans Joe, watched in confusion as both Tommy and Phil seemed to have mental breakdowns.

“Will they be okay?” Impulse asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Eventually, yes.” Joe and Grian answered in unison, exchanging a knowing glance.

“HEY!” A familiar voice yelled from above them. “WHAT’S GOING ON HERE!?”

“Oh crap, SCRAM!” Impulse yelled, equipping his elytra and shooting off on a firework.

“I wasn’t part of this!” Bdubs exclaimed in panic as the other hermits started flying off, providing Joe enough cover to drag Phil and Tommy under the vault and into a tunnel that Ren had dug into the wall, smiling as he heard Grian laugh a genuine laugh, loud and full of amusement.

“Well, guess I'll stay here until Ren and Bdubs leave.” Joe mumbled, glancing at Tommy and Phil, smiling at them as they slowly came back from their mental breakdowns.

“Where-” Phil started, confusion on his face.

“Nope. We’re leaving, start building a tunnel.” Joe interrupted, grabbing a couple spare pickaxes from his inventory and handing them to the blonds, glancing back to where the vault was.

“Alright big man Joe.” Tommy shrugged, grabbing a pickaxe and starting to break blocks, Phil following him after a moment of hesitation. Joe took up the rear, filling in the empty space behind them as they made their way away from Ren’s vault.

Chapter Text

Information regarding SCP-[REDACTED]

Class: KETER

Containment measures: SCP-[REDACTED]-1 to 3 are to be kept in a large cell with artificial flora and jungle. The door will be reinforced with [REDACTED], and sealed with a [REDACTED] lock.

Description: SCP-[REDACTED] are three different humanoid figures: the youngest sporting red wings with gold highlights; the middle, gold wings highlighted with red; the oldest, whose wings look like a perfect reflection of the night sky. The first encounter with these SCP’s, filed under SCP-[REDACTED]-A, led to many interrogations, none of which yielded any information. All experiments have been banned due to the [REDACTED] incident during [REDACTED] experiment, which was shortly followed by an attempted termination. The termination was unsuccessful, further detailed in SCP-[REDACTED]-B. Further details on SCP-[REDACTED] have been classified at the highest priority. Security measures for these details are [REDACTED] and permission from O-5 leader [REDACTED].

SCP-[REDACTED]-A: SCP-[REDACTED]-1, the oldest appearing instance of SCP-[REDACTED] appeared in the cell of SCP-096, and was discovered four hours later. Curiously, when Foundation staff arrived, SCP-[REDACTED]-1 had managed to calm SCP-096 and was talking with it calmly. SCP-096 made weak vocal protests when Foundation staff started to remove SCP-[REDACTED]-1, but made no move towards violence, even when one of the staff removed their scrambler goggles. SCP-[REDACTED]-1 was pleasant when dealing with Foundation staff, only acting out when it heard SCP-[REDACTED]-2 was in containment. It calmed down quickly after being reassured no harm had come to SCP-[REDACTED]-2, saying it was worried about its son. SCP-[REDACTED]-2, the youngest, appeared in SCP-049’s cell, being discovered an hour later chatting happily with SCP-049, who showed no hostility towards foundation staff when they came to relocate SCP-[REDACTED]-2. SCP-[REDACTED]-2 asked after the other SCP-[REDACTED] instances, using many expletives while doing so. SCP-[REDACTED]-2 immediately accepted its containment cell, letting out sounds resembling a canary’s chirps as it flapped its wings and flew towards a nearby tree, perching on it and continuing to chirp. SCP-[REDACTED]-1 exhibited similar actions when placed in the containment cell. The last instance, named SCP-[REDACTED]-3, was found in SCP-173’s cell the next day, during the routine cleaning. Initial questions about how SCP-[REDACTED]-3 survived in SCP-173’s cell proved fruitless. Further questioning proved equally fruitless, and SCP-[REDACTED]-3 displayed the same actions as the previous instances of SCP-[REDACTED]. Shortly afterwards, the [REDACTED] incident occured.

[REDACTED] incident: On [REDACTED], Foundation personnel performed experiment [REDACTED], which involved separating all instances of SCP-[REDACTED] for a [REDACTED] amount of time. After a [REDACTED] amount of time passed, all instances of SCP-[REDACTED] grew violent, smashing the doors of their containers as if they had been made of toilet paper. They then proceeded to incapacitate every member of the Foundation staff that attempted to impede their progress, only calming once they reunited. Shortly afterwards, Senior Researcher [REDACTED] requested their termination.

SCP-[REDACTED]-B: The initial attempt at termination was utilizing the gas from SCP-008, which proved to have the opposite effect on SCP-[REDACTED]-2. The next attempt was using various poisons, which also proved ineffective. Finally, members of the Foundation staff decided to shoot each instance of SCP-[REDACTED]. SCP-[REDACTED]-1 chuckled condescendingly when shot, and all ammunition directed at SCP-[REDACTED]-3 seem to have disappeared. SCP-[REDACTED]-2 seemed to have been successfully terminated, turning to ash when shot, only for staff to discover that SCP-[REDACTED]-2 was perfectly fine roughly 10 minutes later. Research staff confronted SCP-049 about it, assuming the result to be of its doing, but only received laughs. Confrontation with the instances of SCP-[REDACTED] revealed that SCP-[REDACTED]-2 is strikingly similar to the mythical phoenix. SCP-[REDACTED]-1 seems to possess an inability to be affected by any means of death, including old age. SCP-[REDACTED]-3 informed Foundation staff that “no mortal means of killing or death can harm that which watches.” Immediately afterwards, SCP-[REDACTED]-1 smacked SCP-[REDACTED]-3’s head, apologizing for it but does not explain its words, even after being prompted by Foundation staff.

File Ends.

Chapter Text

Techno growled in annoyance, ducking as a bullet slammed into the wall above his head. “Wilbur, please tell me we’ve got some sort of backup.” He hissed, firing an arrow in the direction of the shot.

“Sorry, coms were the first thing they disabled.” The robotic voice of Techno’s younger brother, Wilbur, responded. From the corner of his eye, Techno noticed the glowing light of the suit keeping his brother alive speed towards him.

“Trouble?” Techno asked, firing off another arrow as Wilbur came to a stop next to him.

“Yeah, I ran into Dreamon.” Wilbur replied, pulling out his wakizashi and deflecting a bullet. Techno growled again, firing off another arrow in the direction that Wilbur came.

“Well what is our backup plan? Or have you not made one.” Techno snarled, firing off more arrows as Wilbur deflected bullets.

“If I remember correctly, Sensei lives nearby, so we could-” Wilbur started, only for Techno to shoot it down.

“We cannot put her in danger. She deserves her current peace.” Techno fired off another arrow before turning and running towards an overturned car nearby, rolling behind it. Wilbur deflected another bullet before running over and jumping over the car, falling down next to Techno.

“We don’t have much of a choice.” Wilbur urged, not even flinching as a bullet flew past his face after piercing through the car. Techno frowned, internally struggling with himself. I found no problem in getting her help after leaving my family, so why am I refusing now?

“We know you’re there! Come out and face us Overwatch dogs!” Someone shouted, accompanied by the sound of machine gun fire. Techno seethed, notching an arrow. Wilbur put a cautionary hand on Techno’s shoulder, causing the man to pause. Techno clenched his teeth, reluctantly putting the arrow back in his almost empty quiver.

“These are the only times that I wished I had my blades.” Techno hissed, fists clenching.

“You should have kept them in the first place.” Wilbur snorted, freezing as another, more familiar voice called out to them.

“C’mon you two, don’t make this harder than it has to be. If you give up now, we won’t let the Doc have her way with you.” Dreamon’s voice was gravelly as he shouted out to them, and Techno could almost swear that Wilbur knew who Dreamon was under that mask.

“I have a counter offer.” Another, younger voice shouted sternly. “You grab your merry band of a-holes and get the f--k out of my city."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tommy was extremely irritated. He’d been out on a shopping run for his mother when the explosions started, and it just made it worse that said explosions were caused by the yakuza that was trying to make a grab for power in the areas around Kanesaka, where he lived. Then he set out to find out what was happening and found a bunch of weirdly dressed people shooting at a human and an omnic that were hiding behind a car. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he recognised the human as Techno Blade, the older of the Blade siblings.

“Why should we listen to a little kid like you?” The edgy man with a couple shotguns shouted at him condescending. Tommy felt his fists clench as he glared at the man, carefully setting down his grocery bags.

“Boss, that’s Kitsune. Intel says his mom was the one that trained the Blade’s.” One of the edgy man’s minions said nervously, fiddling with their gun.

“Him?” The edgy man scoffed, pointing a shotgun at Tommy, who frowned at the man.

“You’d be wise to point that gun somewhere else. If he dies, nowhere will be safe for you to hide.” The omnic called, tilting their head as the edgy man shot at them. Tommy growled, blinking forward and slamming his palm into the edgy man’s chin before smashing his foot into the man’s stomach, sending him flying. The man flew into the group of people behind him, bowling a few of them over.

“Strike.” Tommy snickered, pulling out a couple kunai and spinning them in his hands. “So, you still want to fight, or are you going to run.”

The group glared at him, but left, dragging the edgy man with them. Tommy turned to where Techno and the omnic were standing, glaring at Techno.

“Tommy-” Techno started, shuffling his feet.

“Save it Blade.” Tommy hissed, walking back to his bags and picking them up, ignoring Techno and his friend as he started walking home.

“Here, let me help you with those.” Tommy glanced over to his left at the omnic, giving it a glare.

“No. Go away.” Tommy tried to speed up, but the omnic matched his pace.

“Why are you so angry with Techno? Did he offend you?” The omnic questioned, their voice strangely familiar.

“I have every right to be mad at that coward, he killed his brother and ran away, leaving me to find both of those out from my sobbing mother.” Tommy seethed, dimly noticing the omnic’s steps falter.

“...What?” The omnic asked, its frustratingly familiar voice sounding broken.

“You would have killed me, Tommy,” Techno called from behind them, “I needed to redeem myself.”

“Yeah? And how has your little redemption journey been working out so far.” Tommy spat, turning the corner towards his mom’s house.

“Well, he found out I was alive, so it didn’t go that badly!” The omnic chuckled, causing Tommy to freeze.

“What?” Tommy whispered, turning to the now frozen omnic, a cold rage burning in his eyes.

“Toms, I need you to listen before you make any rash decisions. I was working with a group called Overwatch and-” the omnic was cut off by Tommy rushing forward and hugging it, squeezing it tight.

“I thought you were dead Wilby.” Tommy mumbled into Wilbur’s synthetic chest, a tear rolling down his face.

“I almost was. And as a result, Techno gave up his swords.” Wilbur muttered, and Tommy paused, pulling back to stare blankly at Techno.

“You…What?” Tommy asked pleasantly, a smile on his face. Obviously it didn’t do a good job at hiding his anger as Techno took a nervous step back.

“Uh…” Techno responded, glancing around before sprinting towards Tommy’s mom’s house.

“GET BACK HERE! WHAT DOES HE MEAN YOU GAVE UP YOUR SWORDS?!” Tommy screamed, sprinting after him.

“Oh, I’ve missed this.” Wilbur chuckled, jogging after his brother and Tommy, smiling beneath his mask.

“Sensei, save me!” Techno pleaded, bursting through the door and scaring Clara, who dropped her vacuum and grabbed her sword, spinning towards the door before relaxing.

“Techno, what’s going on? You haven’t been here for a while.” Clara chuckled warmly, starting to set down her katana.

“HE GAVE UP HIS BLADES!!” Tommy screeched, colliding with Techno and dropping both of them to the ground. Clara paused, katana centimeters away from its resting place.

“Techno Blade,” Techno stared up at Clara nervously, “Did you willingly relinquish the blades that were given to you?”

“...Yes?” Techno admitted sheepishly. “But I have a reason!” He hurriedly added, seeing Clara put her hand on the hilt of her katana.

“Do tell.” Clara said, grabbing the hilt and slightly unsheathing her katana.

“I thought I’d killed Wilbur, I assumed that I was unworthy to wield them so I left them in their place at our family’s castle, please do not kill me Sensei.” Techno rushed through his words, a pleading look on his face. Clara waited a few seconds before sliding her katana back into its sheath.

“You live.” Techno’s shoulders sagged in relief. “For now.” Clara laughed as Techno immediately tensed up, giving her a panicked look.

“Good to see retirement didn’t dull your edge, Sensei.” Wilbur chuckled from the doorway.

“And it seems Overwatch helped you with stealth, Wilbur.” Clara shot back, grinning as Wilbur gasped in offense. Clara cackled. “Dinner is almost ready. Tell me about your new friends in Overwatch while we wait.” Clara invited, gesturing for them to take a seat.

“Well, we’ve got some Junkers from Australia that joined up semi-recently.” Wilbur said as he sat down.

“Grian, Scar, and Pearl.” Techno affirmed.

“Those aren’t their names, right?” Tommy scoffed, raising an eyebrow. Techno and Wilbur exchanged a glance.

“Well…” Wilbur trailed off, lifting a hand and taking off his visor so that Tommy could see his eyes.

“You’re joking.” Tommy denied, seeing the nervous seriousness in Wilbur’s eyes.

“It’s their real names. Their call signs are Junkrat, Roadhog, and Junker Queen.” Techno provided with a shrug.

“Wait, this Scar guy’s call sign is Roadhog? Why?” Tommy asked, eyebrow raising.

“He’s two feet taller than me and has tightly packed muscles that allow him to flip a semi-truck with ease.” Techno deadpanned, watching as Tommy’s mouth dropped.

“Pearl’s a foot shorter and half his strength.” Wilbur offered, smiling at Tommy, who stared at him in horror.

“Is Grian like them?” Tommy wondered in horror.

“Oh no, Grian’s short and weak.” Wilbur said cheerfully, and Tommy sighed in relief.

“But he makes up for it with an impossible knack of turning things into explosives.” Techno huffed, scowling at the floor.

“WHAT THE F---!?!?” Tommy yelled, staring at Techno and Wilbur in horror.

“They aren’t as bad as Karl or uh, what’s that kid’s name, Tubbo? Those two are a struggle.” Wilbur mentioned, shrugging slightly.

“That’s not really a fair comparison, Karl was stuck in time for years and Tubbo’s been a member of Overwatch since he was like eight.” Techno said thoughtfully.

“Oh yeah. What about the cowboy?”

“Who?”

“Sapnap, the cowboy.”

“What about him?”

“Oh right, forgot you haven’t seen it.”

“Seen what?” Techno immediately regrets asking when Wilbur turns to him with a gleam in his eyes.

“Sapnap has this really cool thing that he does where one of his eyes seem to catch fire, and then he fires his gun at least 7 times without stopping.” Wilbur exclaimed, eyes glinting with joy.

“He uses an old six-shot revolver, how does that work?” Techno protested.

“I have no clue!” Wilbur said happily.