Archive of Our Own ^beta

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.]

Chapter Text

It had been raining for three days straight.

It was as if the sky itself were mourning Dream’s death. Dark clouds blocked out the sun, plunging the world into shades of melancholy and drenching everyone with tears. Water filled the craters that pocketed in the field of the Wither fight, turning them into so many little pools.

They had held a funeral for Dream, but there had been nothing to bury. His armor, his clothes, his iconic mask, everything had withered away along with his body. All that remained was a small patch of Wither roses that grew, almost mockingly, on the spot where he had fallen. They refused to go away, even when Sapnap took his fire to them.

The rain was finally letting up again, the clouds thinning and the sun peaking through. George sighed and summoned his power.

/weather rain

His fingers ghosted over another command.

/kill @e[type=Wither]

It would have been much simpler that way. Had he been smarter, had he been stronger, then Dream would still be alive. What was the point of having the powers of a god when he couldn’t even save the ones he loved? 

He turned his face to the rain as the skies began to darken again. He knew he was testing the patience of the other members of the SMP, but he found that he couldn’t care. If it hadn’t been for his rain, the forests of L’manberg would have burned down a second time. All that remained of Sapnap’s initial fury were a few blackened patches of trees still smouldering in the rain.

Everyone had been so quiet about it. The L’Manbergians huddled behind their wall, knowing full well that Dream’s final words were the only thing that spared them from a second war. On the other side, Eret had carefully given him their condolences before retreating to the safety of their castle. They was king in name, but the man was smart enough to know where Dream’s power had truly passed to. Everyone gave George a wide breadth, treating him like a ticking time bomb. Sapnap had already erupted in a storm of fire, and they were right to think that George would be next.

There was supposed to be a church sermon today. There was one every day now, held in honor of Dream’s memory. George sat outside the quartz walls of the church, having left when he was overwhelmed with emotion. Everything was still too fresh, still too painful. Muffled through the windows he could hear Tommy’s sermon.

“-he told me to eat my sock one time. I don’t know what he meant by that, but God works in mysterious ways-”

God did work in mysterious ways. He didn’t believe in Church Prime (he didn’t think anyone on the server really did), but he did believe in Dream. Dream had laughed when he told him, despite knowing he’d meant it far more seriously than Tommy and Quackity. Now that Dream was gone, he knew only of one other kind of god.

The blue and yellow deities of the End.

If there was anything in the universe that could be considered a god, they were. He had met them with Dream many times in the Void after defeating the Ender Dragon. They used to speak to them the first few times they came through, but as their triumphs became more and more frequent, they’d fallen silent. Dream claimed it was because they’d ascended beyond that of a normal player and no longer needed gods. They were their own gods.

Another wave of guilt washed over him as he felt the ghostly rush of power at his fingertips. He was just some deluded Developer who enjoyed messing with the universe’s carefully written code a bit too much. The blue and yellow entities were proper gods, they’d be the ones who truly had the power to bring Dream back. All he needed to go was go to the Stronghold, take a dip in the starry cold waters of the End Portal, and-

They never defeated the Ender Dragon.

The realization hit him like a whirlwind, leaving him breathless. They had never defeated the Ender Dragon on this world. Dream had forbade it. Immediately his mind was churning, spilling over with too many thoughts all raging at once. Part of him dreaded the monumental task that lay ahead of him. Without Dream leading the way, it all fell onto him. And everything he’d encounter along the way, from the blazes to throwing the eyes to fighting the dragon, everything would remind him of Dream.

But another part of him, the part that always wanted to pick apart the fabric of the universe and examine its threads, that part of him couldn’t help but wonder.

Why hadn’t Dream let them defeat the Ender Dragon? They’d done it so many times on their other worlds. When asked by disgruntled members of the SMP, he’d only claimed that it’d make the server progress too fast. George didn’t believe him, but then again, he hadn’t had a reason to care.

He knew that Dream planned obsessively. He knew that he was always a step ahead, always fully prepared for every potential possibility. Could he have somehow planned for his death? Did he leave the dragon undefeated so that in case of his untimely death, George would have a way to bring him back?

It all made sense. It all fit together. The clues, the odd reasons, the gods that he knew existed. With a gasp, George shot up and peered through the window of the church. It was empty. Sermon must have ended while he was lost in his head. It tended to happen a lot more these days.

Feeling the most energized he'd been since Dream's death, he pushed his way through the doors and stopped before the altar.

The altar was actually a beacon, one made from the very Nether Star that Dream had died for. He knew Tommy and Tubbo had placed it there out of deepest respect for Dream, but to George it was an acceptance of his death. It was a grave-marker, the stone rolled over a tomb that beamed his soul up to heaven. 

George regarded the beacon with distaste. Before he knew it, there was a pickaxe in his hands and he was swinging it at the glowing point that crowned its peak. In a spectacular roar of glass the walls of the chamber shattered, exposing its beating heart. There was the Nether Star, held suspended between two carefully aligned diamonds.

He took it in his hands. It was unchanged from the last time he’d held it, though someone had taken the time to clean all the blood off. Its surface was cool and smooth, yet it hummed with some unknowable energy. If he hadn’t known any better, he’d have said it was a living creature, the glowing point of a soul trapped in its crystal confines. He could almost feel it breathe against its skin, the gentle light inside of it pulsing slowly.

He didn’t know where souls went after perma-death. Some people claimed they just faded away into the Void, but he’d never believed them because of Conservation of Energy or something. Could this have been where Dream’s soul went?

He clutched it tightly to his chest with that revelation. All at once hope began rushing into his veins, filling him with warmth and joy and the realization that this might not be the end.

George ran to get Sapnap.

He burst into his house just as Sapnap looked up from lighting an enchanted book on fire. Scattered all around him were the blackened remains of books and bits of paper, some sad parody of the forests of L’Manberg. The two of them stared at each other.

“I’m going to get Dream.” George declared.

“He’s dead.”

“He’s not.”

Sapnap threw the book down, not caring that the flames might spread to his wooden floor. “What’re you gonna do? Dig up his body? Oh I’m sorry I forgot there’s no body.” he kicked the flaming book, “There’s nothing we can do, George.”

“The blue and yellow deities in the End, they could bring him back, I know it.” George pressed on, “and here, look at this!” he shoved the Nether Star into Sapnap’s flame-singed hands, “Here, hold it, can’t you feel it?”

Sapnap held onto the Star for a long moment, “I feel nothing.” he said.

George took it back, feeling the small point of energy pulse beneath his fingertips. “It’s his soul, Sapnap, Dream’s in here I know it!”

The arsonist just stared at him. “You’ve lost your mind, George.”

“I haven’t-”

“Grief does a lot of weird things to people,” Sapnap said, turning away. His head dropped to the burning book on the floor, “...I should know.”

George tsked, “Sapnap- ”

He was interrupted when Sapnap set his hands down heavily on his shoulders. “Look, George, I love you very much but you need to stop. It’s not healthy.” he looked him dead in the eye, “I don’t want to be the one telling you this, but they’re right. You need to stop obsessing over Dream. I know his death is still very fresh and painful for you, but sometimes good can come out of tragedy.” his eyes darted down to the floor, “Maybe now you could finally be your own person?”

“I am my own person!” George shouted, knocking Sapnap’s hands off, “Why does everyone keep thinking that?”

“Look buddy, I’ve been Dream’s best friend since childhood and I don’t obsess over him like you do.”

“What we have is different. It’s not just friendship-”

Sapnap huffed and opened his mouth to shoot him his usual retort, but George cut him off.

“-don’t you dare say love.” he snapped, “It’s not just love, it’s something far greater. It’s like I could meet him on the far side of the universe and I would still know him for everything he is.”

Sapnap just rolled his eyes. “Getting a little poetic there, Gogy.”

“Oh, shut up Sapnap.” he groaned, “Look, you don’t have to understand what Dream means to me because I honestly don’t think you can, but think about it this way,” he took a deep breath, “Dream saved us, but now who’ll save him?”

“He doesn’t want us to.” Sapnap said bluntly, mercilessly, “Dream broke the portals in all three of the nearest Strongholds. He really didn’t want anyone going to the End.”

The revelation nearly knocked him off his fragile footing. “He broke end portal frames?”

Sapnap shrugged, “He’s an Admin, he could do stuff like that. You could too, probably. My point is that you’ll have to travel to the second ring of Strongholds. They’re about five thousand blocks out.”

He was helping him. Despite his dismissal, he could tell that Sapnap was still helping him. George scrambled back onto his path and plowed on, “It won’t be an issue, we can go through the Nether.”

“Okay.”

He looked at his friend. “You’re not coming?”

“George-” Sapnap sighed, still clearly exasperated, “Do you want to know what I think? I think you’re on a fool’s errand.” defeat hung heavily on his features, “But if it’s what’ll make you come to terms with things, I won’t stop you. I just hope you won’t do anything to hurt yourself.”

He offered his hand, “Then come with me.”

Sapnap shook his head, “Everyone has their own ways of dealing with things.” he turned back to the burning book, its pages crumbling to ash, “I’ve found mine, now you should go and find yours.”

Chapter Text

George left Sapnap’s house after that. His mood had been greatly dampened, but the gently pulsing soul in Nether Star urged him on. Dream was alive, and if he had to retrieve him from the End and physically drag him to Sapnap’s house to prove it, then he would.

As he made his way down the wooden path he caught sight of a brown-haired figure coming up the other direction. Tubbo. The teenager walked quickly, occasionally glancing up worriedly at the grey sky. Glancing at the path, the grass, the lake. Pointedly not looking at George.

Did the server think he was a fucking enderman or something?

George considered ducking his head and silently passing by, but a thought suddenly occurred to him. He raised an arm in a half-wave and called out to him. 

Tubbo froze in his tracks, seemingly not knowing what to do. His eyes darted to meet his, having left uncovered for days without his glasses, then down to the Nether Star clutched in his hands. Thankfully, he didn’t question it.

“Do you have any blaze rods?” George asked.

“Blaze rods?” Tubbo echoed, “Why would you be needing blaze rods?”

“I’m going to-” Sapnap’s dismissal was still fresh on his mind, “Oh nevermind, just do you have them?”

He shook his head, “No, they got confiscated during the war, remember? And Dream broke all the spawners.” he gave him a sideways look, “...You’re not trying to do drugs now, are you?”

George laughed, for the first time in days, “No, I’m not.”

“Okay because if you were I was going to have to get Big Law.” he put on a mock-serious face, “This is an intervention!”

He laughed again, and for a brief moment Tubbo’s yellow shirt reminded him of Dream. 

The next person he ran into on the path was Purpled. He rarely took part in the server’s conflicts, and George realized that he might not have heard the news.

“Hey, do you like my Walmart?” Purpled called out to him as he passed. He was sitting on the roof of a blue and yellow building labeled, in poorly written letters, “WalMar”.

“You built a Walmart? Dream’s dead and you built a Walmart?” George didn’t mean to rain on his parade, but he felt like the teenager deserved to know.

“What? Dream’s not dead.” Purpled said, completely unfazed, “I saw him die in chat a couple of days ago, but he’ll respawn.”

George opened his mouth to correct him, but decided against it. Here was someone with the right attitude. “Do you have any blaze rods?” he asked instead.

“Nope. Do you like my Walmart?”

He looked at the blue and yellow building. At least he could see the colors properly, “Yes, I like your Walmart.”

“Great, because I like it too.”

Rain started to fall again when he reached the community house, and he briefly stood outside to scrutinize its ugly bricks. Hadn’t Dream intended to fix up the exterior sometime? He quickly pushed the thought away before it could drown him in misery again. He had a plan now, stopping to mourn would only slow him down.

He quickly rifled through the mess of chests in the community house, searching for the odd blaze rod. He’d passed a few more people on the path back home, but he’d stopped asking around for blaze rods. He didn’t want to have to explain himself only to have them doubt him like Sapnap. All it would do is rouse suspicion and the last thing he needed was for others to try and stop him on his “fool’s quest”. 

After finding nothing but a couple of ender pearls, he sighed and went to gather supplies for a trip through the Nether. He’d have to get the blaze rods himself. Since Dream had broken all the spawners in the nearest Nether Fortresses, he decided he’d start traveling towards the second ring of Strongholds first. They were about five thousand blocks out in the Overworld, so roughly six hundred in the Nether. He’d come across plenty of Fortresses to hunt blazes in.

He opened his ender chest and grabbed a stack of ender pearls to add to the ones he’d scavenged earlier. There were also two gapples left over from the war jumbled in with his armor and he took them as well. Finally he took the Nether Star and wrapped some spider string around the four points until it became some sort of necklace. When worn around his neck, it hung right next to his heart, where it belonged. He equipped his Netherite armor over it and grabbed his axe and shield. With his overpowered gear, he should make quick work of the blazes.

George stepped outside and sloshed his way through the rain to the Nether portal. All the water immediately evaporated as he entered the Nether, drying him off but replacing it all with sweat. He jogged past the Bastion, hearing an echo of a wheezing laugh. The corners of his mouth twitched at a memory of a simpler time, when they’d first spawned in the world and he’d yoloed himself to his death within its blackstone walls. It’d hurt like a bitch, but it had made Dream laugh so it was worth it in his eyes.

It was hard to travel in the Nether. Not because of the Basalt Deltas or the Soul Sand Valleys, nor the heavy Netherite on his back, but rather, the memories. It felt like he was speedrunning with Dream again, facing whatever new challenge they’d twisted the world with. Just him and Dream, up against the world. Now it was just him, alone.

Minecraft, but my friend is dead. His forlorn mind oh so helpfully offered. He looked out at the vast hellscape, with its wide caverns and endless lava oceans, and suddenly felt very, very alone. The poignant ache of loneliness weighed on him heavily for the remainder of the journey.

He was almost five hundred blocks out when he finally saw a Fortress. Cursing the new Nether generation mechanics, he hurriedly jumped from basalt pillar to basalt pillar towards its dark bricks, dodging magma cubes as he went. In his haste, his foot slipped against the edge of a pillar and he narrowly missed his jump, slamming against the side of the next as his hands scrambled for purchase on the ringed stone. 

A sharp point of pain exploded in his chest and he cried out at the suddenness of it. It was different from the aching throb of bruises now blooming on his legs. Did something manage to pierce his Netherite chestplate? He pulled himself to safety on top of the pillar, feeling warm blood began to trickle down his shirt as whatever it was gouged deeper into his sternum. He shoved a hand down the neck of his shirt and flinched when his fingers brushed against a fresh puncture wound right over his heart. His hand came out streaked with blood and he hurriedly unequipped his chest plate before taking off his shirt.

The Nether Star pendant swung before his eyes, one glittering and very sharp point dipped in blood. So that’s what happened. It was as if Dream were trying to kill him before-

He cut himself off. It was just a stupid chunk of rock. A rock that may hold Dream’s soul, but it wasn’t something to get worked up about. He retrieved a golden apple and munched on it, feeling the wound on his chest close up. When he was sure it wouldn’t bleed again, he slipped on his shirt, equipped his chestplate, and threw the Nether Star over it so that its sharp points would only bounce against the Netherite as he ran, leaping over pillars and pools of lava before the magma cubes could get him.

FInally he reached the base of a dark brick pillar and broke his way in. When he breached the floor of the Fortress, he was greeted not by the long hallways that he’d expected, but rather the emptiness of a large, square room. Its dark walls were lit only by a single pool of lava bubbling in the center.

The lava well room, he remembered Dream telling him. It split the Nether Fortress in half, with the bridges off to one side, and the rooms with the blaze spawners on the other. He ignored the bright maw of the archway and instead turned down the dark corridors, listening for the fiery bellows of blazes.

After running through the maze-like passageways, he ended up finding a spawner nestled into a netherrack hill that led directly out to a bridge. When he entered the room he was immediately greeted by three blazes, their roars alerting him of the imminent firestorm. 

Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh!

He ducked behind his shield, catching their fireballs on the wood. Before the blazes could reignite themselves, he surged out from behind it, axe raised, landing several crits on a singular blaze before its friends sent him back behind his shield with a wall of fire.

Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh! 

The spawner spun brightly, emitting a storm of burning particles, and suddenly there were six more blazes. 

Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh!

And then there were nine.

Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh!

And then there were twelve. And then there were-

George turned tail and fled the room, throwing up a barrier of cobblestone to stop the blazes from chasing. Tubbo hadn’t been kidding about the mob cap in the Nether when everyone was online. There was no way he could get in, slaughter a blaze, and get out without burning himself or accidently dropping the precious blaze rod into the inferno. He considered just tanking it with his Netherite armor, but he couldn’t run the risk of dying and having Dream’s Nether Star burn in the fire.

George was not a coward, but he did prefer leaving the “rushing in head first” role to Sapnap and Dream. While he didn’t have Sapnap’s strength or Dream’s skill, he was smart. Now it didn’t stop him from foolishly chasing after Dream alone in their mahunts, but he was smart in terms of his knowledge of the universe and how the world worked. His powers hummed silently in the back of his head, and suddenly he had an idea.

Cautiously, he poked the collective consciousness of the blazes. To his surprise they parted like grass under wind and he pushed his way in with very little resistance. They were weak, minds filled with nothing more than smoke and fire. He seized their willpower, engulfing it in his own.

Die. he told them. Just...die. He didn’t care how it worked, he just needed their loot. Power surged in his hands and then-

/kill @e[type=blaze]

In a horrific roar of fire, twenty-odd blazes kneeled over and died, leaving behind a forest of abandoned rods. The universe obediently whispered back to him.

[Killed 23 entities]

“Yes!” he cheered, stumbling as the world spun in dizzying circles around him. He struggled to blink away visions of fire, spinning rods, the sudden darkness of the void, the collective screams of his brothers burning his ears- that he missed the ominous clink of bones behind him.

The point of a stone sword drove through the small gap between his shoulder guard and chestplate and George screamed, finally tearing himself free of the blazes’s dying thoughts. On instinct he turned, shield up and axe raised, only to drop them from trembling hands as he met the empty sockets of a pitch black skull.

George froze.

No amount of Netherite could protect him from the dark poison rapidly burning his blood, and no amount of rational thought could stop the wave of blackened and burning memories from searing themselves onto his mind.

A body on a field of dark petals, golden green marred by ash. His last moments, a trembling forehead pressed against his and blood, oh so much blood flowing black and dark and thick through his fingers. Dream withering away in his arms, gone, gone, gone forever.

He felt the withering poison crawl through his veins, each heartbeat taking him close and closer to a similar fate. The wither skeleton swung its sword down and he just barely threw himself out of the way, driven only by the horrifying realization that if he died, there would be no one left to save Dream.

Somehow he was on his feet, running, stumbling with uneven steps out to the bridge. A clattering of bones alerted him to a second skeleton and he screamed, narrowly dodging its withering blade. Not that it mattered much, he was dead already, the dark tendrils eating him away from the inside. 

No no no no no. One hand clutched the walls of the bridge as he dragged himself along, his pain-dulled and shell-shocked mind frantically searching for a way out. He couldn’t die, he can’t die. Dream’s life depended on him. His legs gave out under him and he collapsed, slumping over the battlements. His eyes fell onto the lava ocean far below, and the thin strip of netherrack beach beside it.

A grisly thought struck him, and for a brief moment, he was astounded by the cruelty of the universe.

Then it was gone, and his mind was set in grim determination. There was simply no other choice, he had to live.

The wither perma-killed by destroying his body.

He didn’t need to survive, he just needed to die in one piece.

His body was slipping. The smooth Netherite armour found little purchase against the dark bricks, and he was slowly but surely toppling over the wall. With what little feeling he had left in his legs, he gave himself a kick-

And then he was airborne.

GeorgeNotFound fell from a high place.

Chapter Text

George gasped and shot up in bed, hands clutching his shoulder where the ghostly breaths of the wither effect still burned his skin. He let out a shuddering breath as the phantom pain began to fade, his heart once more pumping unpoisoned blood through his veins. He was alive, alive, not reduced to motes of dust drifting through the Nether, or another patch of black roses by Dream’s grave.

Dream.

The bed beside him was achingly empty, a hollow reminder of his loss. 

George had survived, yes, but at what cost? The last thing he’d heard before respawning was the hiss of all his items exploding into the lava. Dream’s Nether Star, the vessel for his soul, was gone.

He pulled his legs up to his chest and buried his face in his hands. Pressure built up behind his eyes, but tears refused to fall.

It was as if Dream had died a second time.

Would-bes and could-have-beens bubbled up in his mind only to be dropped like tears. There was no point in thinking what he could have done, the hard truth of reality weighed down on him and he felt his grip on the world slipping. Numbness slowly crept up his limbs and seeped into his heart, filling him to the brim with empty thoughts. 

When it was all over and he felt dead to the world, George stood and wandered aimlessly around the community house. He rifled through the chests, searching for nothing, his fingers twitching in desperation for something to do. At one point he managed to stumble outside and was immediately greeted by bright sunlight. He frowned at its blasphemy.

/weather rain

The skies darkened once more, and that was how the server learned that George had returned in failure.

Sapnap found George sitting in bed, staring at the empty one beside him. The fire of his anger had finally burnt out after he left, leaving him a charred husk slowly being worn away by the wind.

“Hey.” he said quietly, carefully, as if George were to fall apart at any moment. He felt a bit of himself crumble to ash as he sat down on Dream’s side of the bed.

George looked at him. “Hey.”

“Took a little fall?”

George remained staring straight ahead. “Wither skeletons.”

“Oh- uh,” His dreams had been filled with biting black thorns and dark petals. He imagined George didn’t fare much better. Meeting the indirect source of Dream’s death probably wasn’t too great for his mental state. “....at least you’re alive?” he offered pathetically.

“Sapnap.” his friend turned to him, voice sharp, “I lost all my items.”

Ah. Physical loss. He could deal with that.

“Then whatcha you doing sitting here?” Feeling a rush of confidence, Sapnap threw the covers off of George, “Getcho ass up and go!”

“Everything burned!” George seized the covers in his hands and held on stiffly, “Don’t you get it Sapnap? Dream’s dead! Like actually dead this time!” he pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes and went silent.

Oh, it was still an emotional loss. He hadn’t been too great dealing with that, if the new burns on his fingers said anything, but maybe this time he would try again for Dream.

No, he corrected himself, staring at the curled up figure in front of him. For George.

“...are you sure?” he tried again, trying to keep up his energy, “It said you fell from a high place, maybe your stuff’s just scattered all over the floor and-”

“Dream’s Nether Star burned too.”

“Well are you sure-sure?” he said with as much smugness as he could muster. The thing about him and George was that their friendship was built upon annoying the shit out of each other. The only way he could elicit any reaction out of him other than despondency was to really only bother him.

“Why are you all of a sudden believing in everything?” George snapped, taking the bait, “Didn’t you tell me to give up? That I was crazy?”

“Listen, George,” Sapnap clapped his hands down on his shoulders, a familiar action that took him back to yesterday morning when he’d looked George right in the eye and told him he was crazy, “Would you rather give up now and spend the rest of your life agonizing over if you could have actually saved Dream, or to see it through to the very end and know that you can’t?”

He watched his friend’s eyes dart around. He still didn’t believe George’s nonsense about Dream-in-a-star, but he could tell as the fog slowly lifted from his dulled out eyes, that George, George still believed. Sapnap had found his peace, now it was time for him to help George find his.

“...Okay.” George let out a shaky breath, “I’ll go. I’ll go to the Fortress to see if the Star survived, and then I’ll go to the blue and yellow deities even if it was destroyed.” his resolve hardened once more, “I’ll see it through to the End.”

“Now that’s the George I know!” Sapnap stood up and smacked him hard over the shoulder.

George groaned, “But I’ll have to get all those blaze rods again!”

“Stop whining.”

“I’m not!”

“Aww can baby Gogy not handle a couple of blazies?”

“Sapnap, you weren’t there!” he punched his shoulder to make him stop laughing, “There were like, fifty-thousand blazes!”

“Okay okay geez calm down,” Sapnap pulled up his inventory, taking out the very items that’d convinced him to make this trip in the first place, “Here.”

He shoved his hand in front of his face. In his fist were six blaze rods.

George gaped at them in surprise, “Sapnap, where’d you get these?”

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “Weeeeeeell I stole a bunch off of Tommy before the war started and never gave them back.” he smirked, “I’m glad I didn’t, because it looks like you could really use a few of these puppies right now.”

George blinked, before a wry smile pulled at his lips, “Like to get high?”

Sapnap made to smack him and George laughed, blocking his hits with his arms.

“You’re such an idiot George, I didn’t steal these for you to crush ‘em up and stuff ‘em up your nose like some weirdo.” he gave him a shove, unable to stop the smile from breaking across his face, “Go and bring Dream home.”

He looked at him hopefully, “you still not coming?”

“No.” Sapnap shook his head. George had a feeling he’d say no. “This is your journey, not mine. Something tells me you have to complete it alone.”

The Nether really was his personal hell. This time he faced it with only an iron axe and some half-broken armor, all he could scavenge from the already well-looted chests in the community house. George was taking a big risk here, favoring speed over safety. Sweat fell like rain upon the pulsing netherrack as he jogged, every inch of his body fueled by a sense of urgency. He’d spent a good half day wallowing in misery, he didn’t know how much time he had left before whatever items that had miraculously not fallen into lava despawned. 

George nearly cried in relief when he saw the tall arches of the Nether Fortress emerge from the black haze. His lungs burned in the dry air of the Nether but he knew he couldn’t stop just yet. Instead of following his previous path to where he’d broken a hole into the pillar, he continued on the netherrack at the base of the Fortress. He didn’t want to deal with blazes. If he saw another Wither skeleton again, it’d be too soon.

The bridge that he’d fallen from soon towered over him like some dark specter. He carefully skirted the lava ocean at its base, searching for the spot where he’d fallen. Every moment longer that he went without seeing the familiar shimmer of enchanted Netherite only made the pit of worry in his stomach widen. Of all his items, only the Netherite stood a chance of surviving in lava.

His heart sank when he crested the hill overlooking the beach. Nothing.

He almost turned around in defeat. Almost. Sapnap’s words rang in his head. He would see this through to the end.

Carefully, he clambered down the netherrack and onto the beach, holding onto the desperate hope that not everything had burned. There was a distinct lack of Netherite, and that growing pit in his chest widened into a ravine. He’d moped around on the Overworld for too long. All his items had either burned or despawned.

A flicker of movement caught his eye. He almost missed it against the bright glare of the lava.

There, hovering softly over the dark beach, was the Nether Star.

He lunged for it, grabbing it with his hands as if it could despawn any moment. The tiny light of Dream’s soul pulsed gently in its heart. George let out a choked sob, his tears instantly evaporating in the heat.

If there was a god, this was its blessing.

The remainder of the journey to five thousand was made in stunned silence.

In his race against time, George thankfully had had the foresight to bring obsidian and a flint and steel with him. His original goal still remained fresh in his mind. He needed to reenter the Overworld and then find his way to the nearest stronghold.

Dream’s Nether Star bounced against his chest as he placed the obsidian. His movements, though filled with urgency, also hummed with a newfound energy. He would succeed, it was as if the entire world wanted him to succeed.

He lit the frame and stepped into the portal, ready for the yellows of the Overworld after the black of the Nether.

What he didn’t expect was to come through someone else’s portal.

George stepped out, blinking blearily against the bright sun and the rows upons rows of fields that stretched out into the horizon. A solitary figure sat amongst the furrows of earth, tending to his potato plants.

The farmer looked up at the sound of him exiting the portal. “Hulloooo~” he waved, completely unfazed by his sudden appearance.

“You?” George exclaimed, struggling to keep the accusatory tone out of his voice. This was the very man that fought and defeated Dream. Was it just a coincidence that he was on the server now? “What are you doing here? How did you get whitelisted?”

“Well I am’ Whitelisted.” Technoblade deadpanned, “But if ya need to know, Dream whitelisted me.”

“Dream’s dead.”

“Heh?” the farmer seemed genuinely surprised, “Dream up and died before I could kill ‘im myself? What a scammmmm.”

“I’m going to bring him back.” George said determinedly, “I’m going to kill the Ender Dragon and I’m going to ask the blue and yellow deities to bring him back.”

Techno was unimpressed. “Ya know there’s an easier way, right? Sometimes everyone gets so caught up in the whole role-playin’ element that they forget ‘bout the real world. The long dream.” 

When George looked at him with visible confusion he continued with a sigh, “Dream’s not dead. He’s probably just taking a break right now, gettin’ some water’…I might go and get some water myself ‘cause I’ve been farmin’ since…” while his character stood stock-still, it sounded as if he somehow leaned back in a chair to look at a clock behind him, “...eight.” he bent down and started patting the soil as if nothing had happened, “Or he might just be waitin’, hopin’ to stir up some drama’. Seems more like ‘im to me.”

George understood very little of what the farmer was talking about, but he got the general gist that Technoblade somehow knew that Dream was still alive, “So you’re saying I should wait.”

“Up to you.” he shrugged, “You’re powerful, very powerful. Both you and Dream are Developers, I’m jus’ a Player. You could probably bring him back with a single command if ya wanted.”

George shook his head in frustration, clenching his fists, “I don’t know how to do that. If I did, I would have already tried it.”

“Hey, don’t stress it.” came the monotone of his voice again. Techno idly flicked some dirt off a potato, “He’ll be back eventually, though sumthin’s tellin’ me that he wants you to go and find him. Sumthin’ about the storyline and the plot and the likes. The English major inside me’s gettin’ real excited.”

“Great.” George said, pushing past him. There was no point in sticking around when Techno wasn’t going to make any sense. He started down the rows of potatoes, feeling incredibly lost.

“The Stronghold’s under my mine, by the way.” Techno’s deep voice called after him, “Ran into it the other day lookin’ for diamonds.” When George immediately snapped his head back around, he pointed to a one by two hole in the side of a hill, “Down the stairs and to the left.”

“Thanks,” he muttered, passing the potato king.

“Anytime.”

Techno watched George duck into the mine with a small look of amusement on his face. It wasn’t much, just a small upturning of the corners of his lips, right around the tusks. Sometimes he wished he could just slip into the short dream and forget about the world for a while. It always seemed so fun whenever Tommy or Wilbur did it. Maybe if potato farming got a tad too boring, he’d go through the portal that George had so helpfully connected for him and find his way into the main lands of the Dream SMP.

Now just imagine what kind of trouble he could stir up with his brothers then.

Chapter Text

George felt Techno’s red eyes bore into his back as he walked away as quickly as he could. Something about the Blood God always unnerved him, which was all the more reason to get Dream back. He hit the dark coolness of the mine and immediately sprinted down the roughly-hewn stairs. He took a left and just like Techno said, the tunnel opened up to the damp stone halls of the Stronghold.

GeorgeNotFound has made the advancement [Eye Spy]

Finding the portal room was no challenge. He’d done this hundreds of times with Dream, it was almost second nature to him now. But when he entered the room and broke the silverfish spawner, he found the portal frames to be completely empty. Just his luck. He had enough eyes to fill all twelve frames, but that left him without extra pearls in case he needed to pearl immediately upon entering the End. He hadn't brought a bed to set his spawn point, he couldn't risk getting knocked off immediately by the dragon and sent all the way back to spawn. George sighed and resigned himself to search the rest of the Stronghold for ender pearls.

Ten minutes later and still no ender pearls found George trudging sullenly back to the portal room. In his haste he turned the corner without looking, only to meet a pair of angry blue eyes. The enderman screeched at his insolence, its jaw unhinging to reveal a void of stars. George let out an equally loud scream, his powers surging instinctively and-

/kill @e[type=Enderman]

The enderman died with a horrible wail, leaving a pearl in its wake.

[Killed 4 entities] The world whispered to him dutifully. Huh, so there were a few more endermen around than he’d thought.

He quickly scooped up the pearl and returned to the portal room. His heart rate steadily increased again as he began filling in the portal. After the enderman jumpscare, he didn’t know how much more he could take before he simply kneeled over and died. When he got to the End, he would play it safe. He wasn’t here to set a new record, he was here to save Dream. Taking a deep breath, he sunk the last eye into its frame. 

The ominous roar of the End Portal rang out for the world to hear.

<TommyInnit> wtf was that

<Tubbo_> omg the end portel can I has suhlker box

<Sapnap> LETS GO GEORGEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

<TommyInnit> gogy?

<TommyInnit> why the fuck is georgenodream opening the end-

George closed chat, ignoring the notifications popping up as Tommy continued to spam his confusion. He checked his gear, his armor, his axe, the extra ender pearl held firmly in his other hand. He felt the reassuring weight of the Nether Star around his neck.

GeorgeNotFound has made the advancement [The End?]

The moment his feet touched the obsidian platform he pearled, determined to not let the dragon knock him off before the fight could even begin. He reappeared safely on the endstone of the main island, ducking behind an obsidian pillar to avoid the gazes of endermen. It was strangely quiet, the windless void absent of thunderous breaths or the flap of great wings. 

He searched the darkness. Where was the dragon?

Then the sky moved. A wall of midnight scales unfolded itself and a pair of glowing blue eyes peered out at him, radiating malice and fury.

The Ender Dragon.

In their neglect, it had grown to a tremendous size. Its wings seemed to span the entire width of the island and its tail was thicker than the obsidian pillars that held up its lifesource. So this was why Dream could defeat it within a day with nothing more than woolen beds, but it took seasoned survival players enchanted weapons and armor. The longer it took for a player to reach the End, the larger the dragon grew.

He bolted as the massive tail came crashing down upon him, ducking and firing at the nearest end crystal. The dragon roared in fury when the arrow hit its mark, forcing George to slam his hands down over his ears to keep his head from exploding. When he could finally use his hands again he dashed off to the next pillar. He destroyed crystal to crystal, flowing through motions repeated countless times with Dream.

George was a good shot, it was only a matter of time before all that was left was him and the dragon. His arrows bounced uselessly off its hide as if it were made out of Netherite, and his iron axe was of little use when he couldn’t get close enough without getting crushed. He should have forced Sapnap to come along, or at least gotten his Netherite armor and weapons off of him. But those were just hopeless thoughts, Sapnap was not here and George was alone. The dragon’s health bar stretched off into the distance, its glowing blue mocking his efforts.

There was no other choice. He carefully ducked behind an obsidian pillar, hiding himself from view. After making sure no Endermen were after him, he took a deep breath and braced himself.

He hated doing this. His body flickered as he reached out through the fabric of the game, searching through ones and zeros until he found those of the dragon. Quickly he seized them and held on, bending them to his will until the purple vision of the dragon filled his eyes. Immediately, the full force of the dragon’s consciousness slammed into his own, burning and raging as it fought against his control. Through its eyes, he saw it locate a small figure on the endstone and dive towards it, intent on smashing it to bits.

For a brief moment his mind sang in agreement, lost in an ocean of thought. Then as the dragon flew closer and closer he recognized his own blue shirt and his heart leapt into his throat. In his panic he nearly lost his grip on the dragon, allowing the beast to barrel towards his body at an even more alarming rate. Fueled by desperation, he wrenched the dragon out of the way at the last moment, slamming it full force against the obsidian pillars instead. Its body plowed through the hard blocks, then through the endstone, before toppling off the island.

In the dragon’s brief lapse of concentration, George finally seized full control. He dragged it below the island, down into the Void and held it there in the thick fog. As the dragon choked, he felt himself suffocating as well. The smothering darkness poured into his lungs, weighing down his limbs and burning him away from the inside. The dragon thrashed, its mind overtaken by the primal instinct to survive, but George’s grip on it did not waver. His vision went purple, then red, then a myriad of colors he couldn’t perceive, before finally, finally, darkening to black.

GeorgeNotFound has made the advancement [Free the End]

His eyes shot open just as a twinkling of experience rained from the skies. He let out a loud gasp, sucking air into his burning lungs before collapsing onto the rim of the End fountain. The last moments of the Ender Dragon clung to his mind like stubborn cobwebs and he fought to remember himself. George was alive. He was not dead, he did not die.

He resigned himself to lay there unmovingly for a long moment, listening to the melodic chimes of experience as he slowly dragged himself back to the land of the living. Then something cold splashed up against his trailing fingers and he gasped, propping himself up. Within the bedrock fountain, glowing experience orbs floated on dark waves of starry water, twinkling quietly at him. 

The End Portal was filled. 

All his exhaustion was instantly forgotten as he scrambled to his feet. This was it. The final leg of his quest. Checking that the Nether Star was still tied securely around his neck, he jumped off rim of the portal and plunged through the mirror black surface.

It was cold like the void between stars, chilling him to the bone. Streaks of blue and yellow light rushed past him, faster and faster before suddenly-

-he was adrift in the thrall of the Void, small and alone. Yet, he did not feel fear. The darkness was warm, comforting almost, a familiar presence greeting him once more at the bottom of the world.

“Hello?” he called out, “Is anyone there? It’s GeorgeNot- George of Dream.”

The Void was silent for so long that he almost didn’t expect a reply, but after what felt like an eternity of silence the darkness spoke back.

George. The Player. Why are you here?

“Dream,” he said, clutching the Nether Star around his neck, “Please, he was taken from me, can you bring him back?” he held it out, “I have this, I think it has his soul inside of it and-” He yelped when the Star suddenly floated out of his grasp, carried by an unseen force.

A Nether Star. It twinkled silently in the vastness of the Void, A rare object. Good for making beacons, but little much else.

Sapnap's words came back to him full force and George suddenly realized how foolish his quest might have been. “What- what do you mean?” he breathed shakily, praying that this was all a joke. But what gods could he pray to when he was already in their presence?

“It’s the last thing I have of him.” he reasoned desperately. “His soul is inside the star, I can feel it. Maybe it’s enough for him to respawn from.”

The Void did not reply, each moment of silence dragging the inevitable truth closer and closer.

“Dream’s actually gone?” he clutched his head, tearing at his hair, “Then why- why did I think-?”

Sorrow does many strange things to people. The voice helpfully offered.

“There’s got to be some way-”

It is not meant to be by the source code, but code can be rewritten.

“What does that mean?” he grabbed the Star again, pulling it close.

You’re a Developer. Make a Plug-in.

After that, the voice said no more. The Void was silent, even more so than usual, and George finally realized why.

“Where’s the yellow one?” He held onto the wild hope that perhaps the other deity would have something better to say.

The yellow one?

“Yeah, don’t you have a partner?”

Green. the entity corrected. They’ve… gone away.

“Why?” 

If entities of the Void could shrug, this one certainly did.

Why was Dream taken from you? It asked instead, as if that offered some kind of explanation.

“I told you,” he almost cried out loud in frustration, “Dream died.”

If he’s gone, then why do you name yourself after him? George of Dream? The voice asked, seemingly twining around him. That is not your name. You are more than just him.

What kind of questions were these? Why’d he have to get stuck with this stupid blue deity? “I just thought that you’d recognize me better that way. I always come through here with Dream every time he defeats the Dragon.”

We know who Dream was, and we know who you are. The voice said, almost indignant. You are not him, and he is not you.

“At this point we might as well be.” George snapped, “Without him I’m nothing, and without me he’ll stay dead. Let me bring him back.”

Nothing? The world says otherwise. Suddenly, messages began popping up right before his eyes.

GeorgeNotFound has made the achievement [The Beginning.]

[Changing to rainy weather]

[Changing to rainy weather]

[Changing to rainy weather]

[Killed 23 entities]

GeorgeNotFound fell from a high place

[Changing to rainy weather]

GeorgeNotFound has made the advancement [Eye Spy]

[Killed 4 entities]

GeorgeNotFound has made the advancement [The End?]

GeorgeNotFound has made the advancement [Free the End]

As the words scrolled before his eyes, he suddenly began to realize what the entity was getting at. The utter ridiculousness of it hit him and he felt the urge to laugh out loud. “Are you- are you trying to tell me to get a personality?”

The Void declined to comment.

“God, you’re even worse than Sapnap and Tommy.” he slammed a hand against his forehead, feeling a smattering of tears trickle out of the corners of his eyes, “Just because I’m willing to follow Dream to the ends of the universe doesn’t mean he is all that I am. He’s more than just that-” he caught himself, “Well, I’m more than just that. We’re each our own person, but when we come together we’re something greater.” 

George tried again. “It’s like you and the yellow- green one. Everyone knows the blue and green deities of the End. You go together, always, you can’t have one without the other." The words came tumbling out of his mouth, flowing like he was speaking some great universal truth, "It’s not right that there’s only one of you now, just like how it’s not right that it’s just me without Dream. He’s my other half.” The innate power in his veins surged. “So are you going to bring him back now, or do I have to do it myself?”

A thrumming suddenly filled the air, rippling through the darkness and resonating in his bones. There was no source to it, it came from nowhere and everywhere and it was as if the entire Void itself were humming with approval.

The Moon shines with reflected light, but that doesn’t make it any lesser so. It may not outshine the Sun, but it will always rise when it is needed the most.

The voice seemed to turn around, facing out into the deep darkness of the Void.

Look out into the Void, George. What do you see?

He squinted into the darkness, trying to discern whatever the blue entity was talking about. The darkness took on a faint shade of grey. Was it getting brighter?

It was getting brighter. The pitch dark of the Void brightened to grey, then to yellow and then to orange. Quite impossibly, the Sun was rising in the Void while the Moon hung behind him. 

The Nether Star in his hands had disappeared.

I see the Player you mean. 

“They’re back!” 

Yes, they’re back. Blue seemed to have a smile in its voice. You brought him back, George.

Hello George. The Sun laughed, bright and warm.

Take care, the Moon’s tone was light, teasing, he has reached a higher level now.

That doesn’t matter. I like this player, he played well. He did not give up. 

Not even when the world was without a summer, or in the land of the black sun.

He mourned.

He fought.

He dreamed.

What did he dream of?

Of games played under a blocky sun, of worlds to be changed through the interface of ones and zeros on a screen. Of friends, of family, of love. A short dream in the long dream of life.

But that doesn’t make it any less real.

No, sometimes it is more real than the long dream, and sometimes you find yourself clinging to it when the long dream grows wearisome.

We cannot cure you of sorrow, but you can begin a new dream, dream again, dream better.

You are loved, George, for who you are.

Even when those who love you are gone.

You are not alone.

You are the Player. 

The Developer.

The second god.

Wake up.

George opened his eyes. The spruce trees and mismatched walls of spawn swam into view. He felt the sunshine on his face and dirt and grass and-

-the warmth of another hand held tightly in his own.

Chapter Text

“Tubbo.” Tommy said as they sat side-by-side on a pew, “Don’t you think this was maybe our fault?” he stared up at the church’s magnificent windows. The stained glass cast the brilliant sunlight in shades of purple. “If we hadn’t summoned the Wither, Dream would have never died.”

His friend was silent for a long moment, “No, I don’t think so.” he finally said, “We’re kids man, we didn’t know any better.”

“I know that, but-” his eyes fell to the broken beacon. “I still feel like I was responsible.” 

“In a way, yes, but Dream wouldn’t hold it against us.”

Tommy drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, “I thought that after giving all those sermons about the Word of God I’d feel slightly less guilty, but it only made me feel worse.”

“Tommy.” a hand fell onto his shoulder and he looked up into the kind green eyes of his friend, “That’s called grief. It’s never going to go away, you’ll just eventually learn to live a little more with it everyday.”

He sighed, “I think you’re right Tubbo.” he turned to look at his friend again, “How are you so okay about this?”

“Well I was thinking.” Tubbo turned his face up at the sunlight pouring through the windows, “Dream would never hate us for what we did. He gave his life for us, and he would only do so for no other reason than love. He saw us for all our flaws and little annoyances and still chose to save us in the end. He wanted us to live and prosper and do stupid things together because that’s who we are and we should honor his memory by doing so.”

It dulled the pain slightly, knowing that Dream would want them to continue their shenanigans. “But he’s still gone.”

“Not exactly.” Tubbo chirped. He waved a hand at the space around them, “Dream is still here, just in a different form. He’s in the sun, the grass, the strength that flows through you when you protect the ones you love. He’s the voices that whisper to you, always present and omnipotent but only ever heard in the silence of the Void.”

“Does George opening the end portal have to do with that last bit?” Tommy remembered the earthshaking boom that had rang out through the world last night. “Is he trying to hear Dream’s voice again?”

“Maybe,” his friend shrugged.

Tommy couldn’t help himself, “What a simp.”

They shared a quick laugh, but in the solemn halls of the church their mood quickly fell sullen again.

“George and I haven’t talked much, but I know he’s a lot more powerful than everyone thinks.” Tubbo said, “More than he himself thinks. Maybe he’s trying to find that part of himself again.”

“D’you think he’d be back?” Tommy shrunk into himself again, “I know I’ve made fun of him a lot, but George is pretty pog.”

“Dunno.” Tubbo shrugged again, seemingly unbothered.

“Then who’ll be around to take care of the SMP?” Tommy threw his hands up urgently, “I’m just sayin’ Tubbo, I do like me some golden apples and Dream used to /give them like nobody’s business.” he looked at the sunny sky through the windows, “And what about George? We need George to make it rain all dramatically! Or at least to stop Sapnap from burning down L’Mantree!”

Tubbo laughed, “I can always just pull out my hacks again. You know it’s not so different from George’s powers right?”

“I’m being serious, Tubbo." Tommy said, "What if they don’t come back?” He turned to look at Tubbo. His friend stared back.

Two pairs of eyes, one blue and one green

“Then there’ll be us.” Tubbo said, “The Universe is not separate from every other thing, you know. After Dream and George will be us, and after us there’ll be others.”

His words rang out in the still air, falling over Tommy like some comforting blanket. Tubbo was right, the world was a lot larger than they were, but in the end they were still part of it, and would always return to it. Being separate and unique while also being part of something greater was… comforting, oddly. Like he had a place and purpose in the world no matter what.

“Holy shit Tubbo, I never thought about it that way.” Despite his bumbling antics and Tubbo moments, his friend was wise beyond his years. “You should really give a sermon sometime.”

“Ah, I don’t really like-”

He was interrupted by the sound of muffled laughter outside the window. A pair of footsteps came up the path, two voices drawing nearer and nearer.

“Is that-?” Tubbo dared to ask.

Then the door opened and a figure stepped into the church, his head crowned by the blinding morning light.

Tommy leapt to his feet, “HOLY SHIT-!”

“HE LIVES!” Tubbo cheered, “DREAM LIVES!”

“HE’S ACTUALLY JESUS FUCKING CHRIST- ” he seized his friend by the shoulders, shaking him, “TELL ME TUBBO, HAS IT BEEN THREE DAYS? HAS IT BEEN THREE DAYS SINCE HIS DEATH?”

“Actually it’s been about a week but let’s say three.”

Tommy leapt onto the darkened beacon, raising his arms to the ceiling as if praising the heavens above, “ON THE DAWN OF THE THIRD DAY,” he cried, “LOOK TO THE EAST-”

“That’s Lord of the Rings, dude-”

“OH SHUT UP TUBBO,” he glared down at his friend, “YOU’RE RUINING THE MOMENT!”

“Oh who cares about the moment, Dream’s alive!” he grabbed Tommy’s arm and yanked him down, “This is so great, we’ve gotta tell everyone!”

“Yes! Spread the word of God!”

“The Word of God!”

They pushed past Dream and George, their excited cries carrying the news to the rest of the world.

The gods had returned.