Chapter Text
It began with two simple messages in chat.
TommyInnit has made the advancement [Withering Heights]
Tubbo_ has made the advancement [Withering Heights]
George’s head shot up and he immediately locked eyes with Dream across the room. There was a look of horror on his face, easily mirrored by his own.
“Go!” his friend yelled, diving into the chests to equip his armor and mask. “Get them away from the blast radius, I’ll go get Sapnap.”
George nodded and sprinted out the door, his feet carrying him down the wooden path towards L’Manberg. He wracked his head trying to think of where they could possibly summon a Wither. The mines? If it were, then they’d be too late.
To his surprise, he caught sight of an ominous blue glow behind the ruins of Tubbo’s house. Hardly believing his eyes, he veered off the path and onto the stretch of empty land between L’Manberg and the Holy Land. In the grassy plain, a long trench had been dug into the ground. In front of it was the Wither, still small but growing at an alarming rate. As he got closer, he spotted the two teenagers huddled in the trench, but he wasn’t the only one who had seen them.
Approaching from the direction of L’Manberg was Wilbur. His face was pale and his blue coat flapped wildly as he ran.
Of course he knew. He had been an Admin, after all.
George reached them first. “What are you doing?” he skidded to a stop on top of the trench, holding his hands out to help them up, “Quick, we need to leave before-”
“HELLO GEORGENOTFOUND.” Tommy boomed, “HERE TO WITNESS THE GREAT TOMMYINNIT DEFEAT THE WITHER FOR THE GLORY OF CHURCH PRIME?”
He shook his head, “You need to get out of here! Why did you summon the Wither above ground? Don’t you know what it does? There was a reason why Dream-”
“OH DREAM THIS DREAM THAT,” Tommy mocked, “C’MON GEORGE, WE GET THAT YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH HIM BUT DON’T YOU EVER HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO TALK ABOUT?”
George sputtered, “I’m not-”
“SURE, GEORGE OF DREAM.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“MAYBE IF YOU HAD A BIT MORE PERSONALITY OUTSIDE OF HIM I WOULD. I WAS AT YOUR LOVE OR HOST, LOVENOTFOUND.”
“Tommy-” he groaned and turned to Tubbo, who was usually the more reasonable of the two, “Tubbo, why did you let him summon the Wither above ground?”
“Well I usually spawn it under the End Portal bedrock,” Tubbo said, “but since Dream made the End off limits-”
“SHUT UP TUBBO, WE DON’T NEED YOUR COWARD’S METHODS.” Tommy hefted his sword and shield, “REAL MEN FIGHT THE WITHER HEAD ON.”
“Tommy, what did you do!?” an anguished cry interrupted them. Wilbur stopped beside George, panting for breath.
“OH HI WIL!” Tommy grinned brightly, “WE’RE DEFEATING THE WITHER FOR THE GLORY OF CHURCH PRIME! Also Tubbo wanted a beacon.” he added.
“I did not!”
“Yes you did, you said you wanted one so now you’re getting one.”
Wilbur ran an exasperated hand through his hair, “How did you even manage to get so many skulls?”
“Oh it was easy!” Tubbo shouted, “After Dream destroyed all the blaze spawners, the skeletons began spawning like flies! The mob cap’s insane when multiple people are on the server so I’ve got nine more if you want them!”
“Nine more-!” Wilbur exclaimed in disbelief, “Tubbo, I expected better of you, but we’ll talk about that later because we have to go right now.” he held a hand out to help them out.
Tommy smacked his arm away, “OH PISS OFF WILBUR, YOU’RE RUINING MY MOMENT.”
“I’m not!”
“YES YOU ARE, I WAS JUST ABOUT TO FIGHT THE GODDAMN WITHER FOR THE GLORY OF CHURCH PRIME AND L’MANBERG AND YOU JUST COME HERE AND- OHHHHHHHHH….” Tommy trailed off, his attention fixated on something behind them. “Ohhhhhhhh not nowwww…”
George turned around to see Dream running towards them, decked out in Netherite with his mask covering his face. Behind him was Sapnap, equally armored and hefting a diamond axe.
“Well look at who’s here to ruin our fun.” Tommy huffed, putting his hands on his hips as he prepared to unleash his persona again. “HELLO BIG MAN!”
“Tommy, get out of there right now.” Dream commanded. His voice was completely devoid of its usual lighthearted humor.
“OHHHH I SEE HOW IT IS. GEORGE COULDN’T HANDLE ME SO HE WENT TO GET YOU. IT’S OKAY YOU CAN TELL ME BIG D, CAUSE BETWEEN YOU AND ME-” Tommy leaned closer, “he’s really kinda lame you know?”
“Yeah Tommy’s kinda got a point there,” Sapnap chose that moment to pipe up.
“Sapnap-!” George cut himself with a grumble, the situation far too serious for him to complain about such trivial things.
“Tommy, listen.” Dream took a deep breath and dropped the bombshell. “The Wither is the only mob in the game that can kill you forever. It withers your body away until there’s nothing left to respawn from.”
Tommy’s face went pale, “That’s a joke, right?” he laughed, more quietly now, “It’s another one of your stupid plug-ins. A Minecraft but.” he put on his best American accent, “‘This video we coded it so that the Wither perma-kills you but we didn’t tell anyone else on my server because we thought it would be funny-”
“Tommy, it’s true.” Wilbur interrupted, “It’s fine if you don’t believe Dream, but please believe me. Remember SMP Earth? I was the Admin. Trust me, I know how things work.”
“Wait, then-” Tommy finally turned to the Wither with a look of horror. It had grown to full size while they’d been fighting and began to flash-
“EVERYONE GET DOWN!” something slammed into George and then he was falling, green streaking to yellow as his glasses flew off his face. He hit the muddy floor of the trench just as the Wither exploded, blasting out a crater of stone and dirt. His ears rang as the creature rose into the air with a loud hiss, viciously spitting out exploding buds of dark thorns.
George looked up from the safety of the trench. Everyone had made it thankfully, Sapnap having shoved Wilbur in while Dream loomed over him protectively.
“You alright?” he asked. His voice was laced in concern.
“Yeah.” George mumbled, looking around for his glasses. He groaned when he found them crushed underfoot. They were a gift from Dream and-
“I’ll get you another pair.” Dream promised.
Sapnap made a kissing sound with his lips and they pointedly ignored him.
The three of them peeked out of the trench and watched as the Wither began ruthlessly destroying the landscape.
“Wow, it’s doing a better job than me.” Sapnap observed as it razed what was left of Tubbo’s house. “Sucks that we gotta replace the path later.”
“Oh c’mon now-” Dream muttered, before turning around and addressing everyone huddled in the trench. “We should get to L’Manberg. We can shoot at it from the walls.”
“DREAM HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?” Tommy shrieked, the grim reality of the situation having finally hit him. “WE STEP ONE FOOT OUTSIDE AND WE’LL GET BLOWN TO BITS!” his voice shot up on that last syllable.
“Hey at least my trench worked.” Tubbo offered.
“Hush.” Wilbur tried to shush them, but was instantly interrupted by Tommy again.
“YEAH RIGHT! LOOK WHAT GOOD THAT-”
“He didn’t summon the Wither now did he, Tommy?” Sapnap said, crossing his arms.
Tommy gaped like a dying fish before finally clamping his mouth shut. Everyone looked back at Dream for the plan.
“We’ll-we’ll make a distraction.” He said. Everyone pretended they didn’t hear the quaver in his voice. “George,” Dream turned to him, “Can you do the thing?”
“What thing?”
“You know the thing.”
George groaned, “Do I have to?”
“Stop whining.”
“I’m not!”
“Oh come on George!” Sapnap scowled, “Are you really going to sit back here and make me and Dream do all the work again?”
“Okay fine.” he snapped. He didn’t actually hate using his powers, it was just what resulted from them that he didn’t enjoy.
He turned towards the Wither (which was now going after Purpled’s sheep) and reached through the battered world until the blocks unraveled themselves into glowing numbers and letters. He seized the Wither’s entity id, intent on taking control.
Immediately, the alien mind of the Wither slammed against his consciousness, filling his head with blackened screams, burning and clawing at his sanity. He tried to force it to the ground, but his thoughts were instantly devoured by the will of three separate entities. Each head grabbed on and pulled, his vision splitting as they tore at his soul. He hissed and dropped the code as if it were burning hot.
“I can’t.” he gasped, slumping back into his body. “Its mind- it’s too volatile for me to control.”
“Okay well- Plan B.” With no warning, Dream unsheathed his sword and vaulted over the side of the trench. “Sapnap, get them to L’Manberg!”
“GO!” Sapnap yelled, shoving Wilbur out of the trench as Dream charged the Wither head on, “GO GO GO!”
George remained rooted to the spot, his mind not yet fully untangled from the clinging vines of the Wither. He felt it take notice of Dream and shoot its burning projectiles his way-
“MOVE!” Sapnap hauled him over the edge of the trench, breaking him from his trance. Then his feet hit the ground and he was running like a madman, sprinting across the grass to the safety of L’Manberg’s walls. Wilbur was almost there, frantically urging Tommy and Tubbo to run faster.
They were all so horribly exposed.
The Wither seemed to hear that thought and instantly sent an explosive bundle of thorns at him. George frantically cursed himself for not equipping armor. Dream had told him to go, he didn’t have any time-
It exploded on Sapnap’s shield, knocking him backwards but leaving him relatively unharmed.
“NO!” he (or was it the Wither?) heard Dream yell. There was a flash of feathers and the Wither’s attention slid off of him, distracted by a small, green parrot.
George shot into the relative safety of the archway. He locked eyes with Wilbur and the president immediately shoved a bow and quiver into his hands.
“This way!” he pointed, leading a similarly armed Tommy and Tubbo up a flight of stairs.
He threw the quiver over his shoulders and by the time he reached the top, an arrow was nocked on the string. He peeked over the battlements, searching desperately for a spot of yellow.
There. In the blackened and cratered battlefield, Dream danced around the Wither, dodging its blossoming projectiles. In the time between, he had managed to remove one of its heads.
“LOOK OUT!” George called in warning, just as he let his first arrow fly. He missed, but it was enough to distract the Wither from Dream. He watched with trepidation as Dream rolled and ducked into a crater. He wasn’t out of danger just yet, but he was safe enough for the time being.
Snaps of bowstrings rang out in the air as the others joined him in raining arrows down on the Wither.
“YEAH TAKE THAT BITCH!” Tommy yelled when one of his shots hit.
“Let’s gooooo!” Sapnap thrust a fist in the air as the Wither hissed, spitting blackened projectiles in vain.
Another flight of arrows rained down on it and it whirled around, frantically searching of the source of its torment. Despite it missing a head, the pressure against George’s consciousness increased tenfold and the creature finally snapped its remaining heads to their location ontop the wall.
George fell, clutching his head in pain, “Fuck-”
“GET DOWN GET DOWN!” Sapnap roared as the Wither turned and sped towards them.
“Oh no you don’t!” A familiar voice rang out down on the battlefield.
George watched in utter horror as Dream launched himself off the rim of the crater and caught ahold of its bony rib cage. The Wither dipped dangerously in its flight, unbalanced by the extra weight. Dream used its momentary distraction to slash his Netherite sword through the neck of the second head.
The creature thrashed wildly in response, desperately trying to throw him off. With a yelp, Dream lost his grip and tumbled off, allowing the Wither to shoot upwards towards the wall. Its freedom was only temporary, however, no sooner had George's heart shot up into his throat did Dream reappear on the Wither's back, feathers falling as he shifted forms again. George aimed his bow, desperate to get a shot through an eye perhaps, but they were nearly level with the walls of L’Manberg now. Too close for him to shoot without fear of hitting Dream.
Dream continued slashing away at it, trying to catch the final head under his blade. The Wither opened its maw, exposing a bundle of dark petals and biting thorns, just as Dream reared back and drove the blade of his sword through its skull.
The Wither screamed, drowning out Dream’s cry of pain. For a long moment it hung in the air, its body twitching and writhing to stay afloat, before finally exploding into a rain of black dust and xp.
There was an ominous thump at the bottom of the wall.
George didn’t even bother looking over the battlements. He was gone, flying down the stairs and out the door, praying, praying, praying that Dream’s stupid knack for surviving impossible falls had kept him alive this time.
It died on his lips when he reached the plain, where a speck of yellow laid amongst blackened thorns and crushed petals.
“Dream!” he gasped, rushing to his side. Dream laid where he’d fallen, sword just out of reach and mask cracked across the floor. Thin trails of blood were streaked across his face. The Netherite chestplate he wore may have protected him somewhat from the fall, but against the withering poison it was nothing. From between cracks where his clothes had been torn through, dark tendrils snaked across his exposed skin. His body was slowly withering away, crumbling to dark ash. The Wither had hit him at the very last moment, right in the chest.
“Hey George.” he smiled weakly at him. George only cupped his face in his hands and gently pressed their foreheads together. There was nothing to say, not when both of them knew what was about to happen.
Their silence was only broken when everyone else finally caught up to them.
Tommy came first, yelling and shouting while Tubbo clung to him silently, “-DREAM ARE YOU OKAY HOLY FUCK I’M SO SORRY I’M SO SORRY-”
“Tommy, shut up.” Dream snapped, but there was no anger behind his words, “...It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”
“IT’S NOT MY- DREAM YOU’RE DYING AND IT’S-”
“Hush.” Wilbur said, and Tommy finally listened. For a brief moment, Dream and Wilbur’s eyes met before he nodded and gently herded his charges away, “Let him rest.”
“Dream-” now it was Sapnap’s turn to step forward, his eyes large and watery. “Dream you idiot- .” he looked like he wanted to say more, but what else was there to say when all three of them knew that this was the end? “....promise I won’t burn your server down….”
Dream gave a small shake of his head. “It’s your server now.”
A sob finally broke in his throat and Sapnap reached over and hugged his friend, “Dream, buddy-,”
“You’re my best friend, Sapnap. Take care of them for me.”
He nodded and sat back on his knees, trying to smother his sobs.
Dream finally turned back to George
“Here, a gift.” something was pressed into his hands, cool and slick with blood so dark that he could have sworn he saw red. The dropped Nether Star glittered up to him.
“Dream I-” he didn’t want this. Dream may have just given him the most valuable object in the world, but he didnt care. He just wanted Dream.
“I love you George.” Dream smiled, as the skin on his face turned grey and flaked away. George reached out to hug him one last time, but his body crumbled away under his touch.
Lightning struck, and Dream was taken from him.
GeorgeNotFound has made the achievement [The Beginning.]