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Pain.
Nothing but it.
It spread like wildfire across his bones and muscles and skin, lighting every nerve in a brilliant, bright flame.
His legs were heavy like lead, head hanging and his chin bumping against his upper chest with every long stride his captors made. His shoulders throbbed at the angle they were being pulled at, hands losing sensation in response to the tight grip of the two brothers, corrupted by rage and pain and bloodshed.
Through the ringing and his loud heartbeat in his ears, he could hear muffled voices around him. He focused on them. Maybe a distraction was what he needed right now.
He could only hear snippets of the conversation between beats and when the ringing dulled.
"...- Had enough..."
"Please-"
"-on't hurt him-!"
Then, he met the ground. The movement jostled his injuries and they flared to life, stronger than ever. He could only grit his teeth and squeeze his eyes shut. He waited several long moments before the pain ebbed and he opened his eyes.
"Dream..?" He mumbled, speech slurred and soft. Wide, horrified green eyes met his.
"Sap, you're gonna be okay, alright? You- I'm gonna get you out of here, okay?" His voice was trembling and cracking at the edges, exposing a side of him very few people ever got to see. His eyes darted back up to the two figures standing above the nineteen-year-old.
"Please, Tommy, this is between you and me. This has nothing to do with them," he said in a pitiful attempt to steady his voice.
Them? Sapnap thought distantly before he craned his neck and caught sight of a familiar brown-haired brit. Shit.
"This stopped being between us a long time ago, Dream," Tommy spat, blue eyes once lighthearted and full of childlike wonder now glazed over with pure, unbridled hatred. "You took everything from me. And I think it's fair that I do the same to you, now, isn't it?"
Dream tensed, raising trembling hands in surrender. "Tommy, what- whatever you're gonna do, think about it-"
"You don't get to tell me what to do," Tommy interrupted, voice laced with so much raw emotion it made Dream visibly flinch. "Not anymore."
He didn't know what to do. There was no way out. He thought he'd manage to find some sort of escape, after years of doing so in manhunts, but now that he needed it the most -that his friends needed it the most- he couldn't think of a single thing.
"Tommy- I'm sorry, I'm sorry, okay? I can give you your disks back- is that what you want? Your disks?" He asked, frantic, desperate. Tommy didn't look a bit convinced.
"You are so stupid, Dream," he said. "I will get back my disks, but after I kill them." He drew his sword out of the scabbard in a swift, fluid motion, the enchanted blade glimmering threateningly under the bright moonlight overhead. Dream shot forward.
"WAIT- Wait, wait, Tommy-" he cried. Techno sped forward, holding Dream in his spot. Tommy moved to grab George's shoulder, pulling him up to a sitting position and settling the sword above his adam's apple. Dream's heart was pounding so violently against his ribcage he thought it would've torn itself out of his chest.
Tommy pressed the sword down, Techno grabbing ahold of Dream's jaw to force him to watch as George winced and a single drop of blood trickled down his neck and seeped into his already bloodstained shirt.
"Tommy- Tommy, please, please don't do this- wait-" Dream sobbed, vision blurring. He met George's terror-stricken eyes and that was it.
"Kill me, Tommy, please, please- please, just- don't-"
Tommy slightly pulled his sword back. Dream sunk into Techno's grip, panting as if he'd just had his first deep breath in eons.
"Dream-" He heard George mutter, horrified. More so than when he was seconds away from death. Dream couldn't bring himself to meet his eyes. He was so tired.
"Now that's an offer I could never pass," Tommy said, intrigued. "How many lives do you have left?"
Dream didn't reply. He wasn't about to give Tommy the satisfaction of knowing. No one knew how many lives he had left, not even George or Sapnap. He heard hurried footsteps and suddenly he was being yanked out of Techno's grasp, a new hand on his jaw forcing his head up.
"How many lives, Dream? I'll kill you as many times as I need to anyway, and I'll make sure each time is more painful than the last," Tommy snarled. Dream was horrified. Yet he didn't reply. Tommy scoffed, pulling his sword back up and lining it against Dream's gut.
"Fine. I guess I'll have to find out."
"Dream-!" Sapnap called out from behind the teen, having regained at least some sense of awareness since he'd been dragged into this.
Tommy pushed the blade. The tip sliced effortlessly through his hoodie and shirt underneath, meeting skin and pausing for a moment before Tommy shoved his arm forward.
"DREAM!"
Techno let him go, and he promptly collapsed, sword still embedded in his abdomen. He could see blood rhythmically spurting out in areas where blood vessels had been sliced open. He stayed there, on all fours, one hand grasping onto long blades of grass while the other hovered over the wound. He fell onto his side when the pain finally arrived, and he was laying in a pool of blood in mere seconds.
Then there were hands, gentle and soothing yet shaking and urgent. They were on his back and then on his shoulders and they finally settled on his face, tenderly pulling his head up.
"George," he whispered. "George."
The man in question was crying; big, ugly tears endlessly running down his reddened, bloodied cheeks and his brows pinched together in horror. He sobbed.
"Why did you do that? Why- I would've- Why?" He asked. Dream shook his head wordlessly.
Dream blinked and when he parted his eyelids, Sapnap had managed to crawl over to them, applying unsteady amounts of pressure against the wound around the sword. He was murmuring reassurances, but the words fell on deaf ears.
He was dying and he knew it. He knew by the wave of cold that washed over him, even though it was the middle of Spring, he knew by his blurred vision and the spin in his head and the numbness in his limbs.
He wished he could say something. Anything. An apology, a goodbye, a thank you - but nothing slipped past his lips except more warm, velvet liquid.
Just then, a new voice joined, louder and stronger than George and Sapnap's.
"Tommy?"
The five turned to look at the owner of the familiar voice. Tommy choked on air, staring wide-eyed at the figure sitting atop a brown and white horse.
"...Tubbo?"