Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a lovely night out.

Karl sat atop Eret’s castle, swinging his legs back and forth. He’s whistling a tune, one he’s not sure he recognizes but must have learnt at some point. It’s funny like that: sometimes even when his brain doesn’t remember his body does.

He’s not sure why he’s there. Karl had woken up not too long enough and had suddenly been hit with such an urge to go . Go where he didn’t know, but his home had felt suffocating.

A lot of things lately had felt suffocating. 

Karl had thought the role he’d chosen would be fun. For so long he’d been the center of attention (or at the very least playing the strings with the rest of the ‘big boys’) and this seemed like a nice break. It definitely helped that he’d found himself falling in love with two mortals, Sapnap and Quackity.

Things had been going great for a while until…

Until they weren’t.

The role he’d chosen was of a morally grey, background character. Even though it had slightly pained Karl at first, he grew used to not being in the spotlight. He was free to sit back, relax, and observe. It was the closest he’d had to a normal mortal life in a very, very long time.

So when had that changed? When had he begun to hate the cage he’d placed himself in?

Maybe it was when he realized he was the outsider in his relationship. It was supposed to be the three of them, all together and all equal, but that wasn’t the case. Lately it had been feeling like it was Sapnap & Quackity + Karl. 

He wasn’t dumb. Karl knew Sapnap snuck into Quackity’s room at night to cuddle sometimes ( without him ). He knew they went on dates together ( without him ). He’d catch them giggling in corners together, holding hands and looking so deeply in love that it hurt . Karl never got that look.

He was being left behind.

When he tried to address them about it, they’d brushed him off. They told him he was just being paranoid, insecure, and that of course they loved him. They were all equals.

Lies.

Karl grabbed a stray stone near him and chucked it as far as he could. Powered by his anger, it sped into the distance, soon disappearing into a nearby forest.

Karl thought he heard the sound of a tree cracking and falling down.

He’d never really been much of a people pleaser in the past, never one to bend to pressure, but coming to the Dream SMP… that had changed. Karl had soon found himself being a huge people pleaser, doing his best to try and make sure things ran smoothly and that everyone was happy.

People stepped on him because of it. They took advantage of it, automatically assuming that it was fine and that Karl wouldn’t care. They stole his kindness, twisted it, and then left him with nothing.

He looked at Dream and Technoblade and envied them. Once upon a time he’d been just like them, and he still technically was. They, however, hadn’t strayed from their nature.

He had.

And he was suffering the consequences because of it.

Gods, Karl was sick of it. He was so tired of playing the nice guy. He was tired of being second best. He was tired of being picked last. 

He remembered the Village That Went Mad. How could he not? It was the last time he’d truly felt all powerful, unstoppable . Everything that happened in that town was because of him. No actions were made without his express permission. He’d controlled every little aspect and it had been amazing .

What he wouldn’t do for that again.

“You could have it again you know.”

Karl whirled around, heart beating fast. He’d been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard the sound of footsteps.

“Hello, Dream,” he muttered, staring into that eerie, smiley-faced mask.

How had he known exactly what Karl was thinking?

“I can see it in your eyes,” the other said, ignoring the introduction. He sat down next to Karl, moving his legs so they hung off the edge too. “You’re getting tired of playing the innocent, helpless mortal.”

“And what makes you say that?”

Dream laughs. “I’m not an idiot. I’ve been watching you-”

“That’s a little creepy,” Karl interrupts, but shuts his mouth at the way Dream tilts his head at him. He can’t see the other man’s face, but he’s good with body language and he’s known Dream for a lot longer than most would think. He knows that that action was meant to display the masked man’s irritation.

“As I was saying, I’ve been watching you. I see how you act around everyone else, hiding in the background while they all make their plays. I know that Quackity and Sapnap are leaving you behind. I know that everyone is using you.”

“And what’s to say you wouldn’t do the same? I know you, Dream. I know you better than maybe anyone in the place besides Technoblade. I know what you’re offering.”

“What am I offering then?”

“You want me to join you. You want me to abandon my friends, the two men I love, and all my allegiances to stand by your side. Correct?”

The lack of response is enough of an answer. Dream is studying him and Karl hates it. He’s being picked apart under the other man’s gaze and gods, it’s been so long since he last felt this vulnerable.

“I’d be giving up everything I’ve worked so hard to have. I’d be giving up my home.”

Dream snorted. “This isn’t your home. You and I both know that this, the Dream SMP, it’s temporary. We’ll both exist long after this place eventually tears itself apart. Soon enough it’ll just be an old memory, regardless of whether it’s a good or bad one.”

What did he have to be right? Why did he have to say all the things Karl had been too afraid to think?

“They underestimate you, Karl. They think you’re some innocent bystander with no real power, but I know otherwise. I was there, remember? In the Village That Went Mad. I saw how alive you were towering over them, playing with them. Making them think they were significant or had any control. Don’t you want to feel that again?”

Karl bit down on his lip hard. He did want to feel that again, didn’t he? It wasn’t in his nature to be quiet or submissive. He’d been born to conquer and rule. If he wanted, he could probably tear down L’Manberg and all surrounding countries in an instant (if he wasn’t opposing Dream or Techno that was). 

“But Sapnap and Quackity…” Karl trailed off.

Dream scoffed. Even though he couldn’t see his face Karl guessed he’d rolled his eyes. “They don’t love you in the same way you love them. Quackity will always favour Sapnap and Sapnap will always favour Quackity. Do you really want to constantly be trying to fight to get to their side when they don’t really want you? When you’re nothing more than a pest to them? Love does nothing but prohibit and weaken.”

Karl doesn’t have the ability to get into Dream’s mind, but he knows that images of a small orphan and a blind catboy are passing through his head. 

“So.” Dream stood up. “Are you ready to be a god again?” He holds out his hand and Karl stares at it.

This is it. He has to decide. 

But is it really even a decision at that point? They both already know the answer.

Karl stood up too and brushed off the gravel that had stuck to him. Looking Dream directly in that stupid mask of his, he shook his hand.

And so it began.

Chapter Text

The sound of the Withers is deafening.

The Nether creatures span out across the sky, blocking out most of the sun and barely allowing traces of the golden light to shine down on where the majority of the server is gathered. The constant “whooshing” noises they emit are deafening, and with the added threat of the TNT raining from the sky and Technoblade’s invisible dogs, Sapnap is incredibly overwhelmed.

But he keeps fighting. 

He cuts down dog after dog, feeling no guilt at the whining noises they make when he kills them. Occasionally Sapnap clashes blades with Techno, but the piglin hybrid’s attention isn’t focused fully on him. 

It’s obvious that Techno’s trying to distract everyone from Dream up above. He can’t fully see the masked man because of how high the connected obsidian paths are, but the occasional flashes of lime green tell him that he’s still up there.

Dream, his… brother? Ex-best friend? Enemy? Sapnap doesn’t even know what they are anymore, but at the very least their relationship isn’t what it used to be. They’d been family before, and thinking about their pore-L’Manburg days sends a soft pang of longing through his heart. 

But there’s no point in reminiscing, not now. Those days are long gone and both of them have moved on. Sapnap has gained Quackity and a few others, so he pushes past his feelings, pulls out a max enchanted crossbow, and trains it on the space just above where the obsidian blocks are. 

Sapnap may not be good enough to stop Techno, but he sure as hell can try and stop Dream instead.

Ignoring the way his mouth is starting to taste like gunpowder dust, Sapnap waits patiently for that lime green color to appear again. He’s at just a good enough angle so that if he can see Dream the line of his shot would be perfect enough to badly injure the other man.

Out of the corner of his eye Sapnap sees Quackity, who just respawned, come to stand next to him. It’s all the encouragement he needs, so when Dream does finally appear he begins to slowly pull back the trigger on the crossbow, waiting one, two beats and then- 

And then he gets promptly shot in the side with an arrow.

Sapnap stumbles back, clutching onto his side. The tip of the projectile had managed to hit a part of his skin that wasn’t covered by his armour, so it had buried itself into him instead of just bouncing off his netherite. When he tries to straighten up, Sapnap realises that the arrow isn’t a normal one either- it’s a weakness arrow.

“Sapnap!” Quackity cries. He hurried to his fiance’s side, allowing Sapnap to sling an arm over his shoulder to try and stabilize himself.

The added support of Quackity not only helps strengthen Sapnap’s balance, but also calms his beating heart. It’s an effect Quackity usually has on him ( which is why he chose to marry him ).

In sync the two turn around towards the direction in which the arrow had come from, and Sapnap expects to see Techno or even Phil standing there, but it’s not. It’s-

“Karl?” Sapnap whispers, eyes wide. 

It feels almost like a dream (no pun intended) watching his other fiance hold a crossbow to his and Quackity’s chests. In no universe does it ever feel real that Karl would shoot him. 

And yet here they were.

“Hello Sapnap,” Karl respondes, voice monotone. The kindness that is usually ever present in his eyes is gone, and it’s replacement has come in the form of a cold, hard stare that rattles Sapnap to his core.

“Wha-why? Why did you shoot him, Karl?” Quackity yells, outraged. 

Karl shrugs. “I can’t let you stop Dream.”

He’s looking at us like we’re complete strangers, Sapnap thinks. What happened to you, Karl?

“I- you’re working for him?” Sapnap croaks out instead, still in shock.

“No,” Karl growls, voice suddenly going hard. If his words had been cold before they’re now below freezing, giving Sapnap’s eyes and ears and heart frostbite. “I am not working for him. I am working WITH him. There is a difference.”

“But why?!” Quackity shouts, apparently having taken all the words that Sapnap had lost.”Why would you be on the same side as that evil, green, manipulative bastard?”

“We have the same goals in common.”

“And what goals would that be, huh?”

“Simple. I want to take everything from you. I want to steal all you care about and burn it infront of your eyes. I want to make you feel the pain you’ve made me feel. I want you to know just how utterly alone you’ve made me feel.”

“Karl, we haven’t-” Sapnap begins, but Karl cuts him off with the raising of his hand. 

“Yes, you have!” He half-yells. “You let me believe I mattered to you both! You let me think that I was important! But that’s just not true, is it? I have given my everything to you both, to El Rapids, to the people of this server and I got nothing in return.”

“That’s not true!” Sapnap tries to protest, but it’s obvious his heart isn’t fully in it. The words sound too weak to be convincing, and all three of them can see it. 

“It is. It is and I hate how long it took me to realize it. Not that it matters much now anyways. I’m done being a pawn,” Karl says darkly, the sentence almost being drowned out by the withers.

“But why would Dream want you?!” Quackity shouts before his brain can add on a filter. It catches up pretty quick after the last symbol is spoken though and he steps back, eyes wide, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth.

Even though it’s small, Sapnap still sees the way Karl flinches back as if he’s been slapped. It’s a tiny crack in the invincible facade Karl has been presenting since he’d shot Sapnap, and it gives the other man the slightest spark of hope that maybe, maybe their Karl is still in there. 

But then Karl laughs and it’s so sharp and detached that it makes Sapnap shiver. There is no love in that sound, no anything that would imply that they’re engaged and not enemies or strangers. 

What had happened to their third fiance? What had drained him of all the burning energy he usually carried with him? It wasn’t like it’d been that long since they’d last spoken and he’d been fine then. He’d been his usual puppy-dog self, trailing after Sapnap and Quackity happily. What could have caused such a dramatic shift in such a small period of time?

“Karl, please,” Sapnap whispered, eyes pleading. “Stop this. We love you-“

“No, you don’t!” Karl shouts. Almost perfectly in sync with his words a lightning bolt crashes down from the sky and hits only a few blocks away from where Sapnap and Quackity stand.

Sapnap frowns. Even though the Withers had been acting as clouds, he hadn’t seen any natural spawning grey masses on the horizons.

“We do!” Quackity argues. 

He’s cut off again by Karl.

“Stop lying to me and stop lying to yourself. Maybe you do love me, but not nearly as much as you love each other. And, I guess then, it doesn’t really matter, right? I am nothing but a burden to you both. I am the clingy add-on that only ruins the otherwise perfect relationship.” Karl grins. “Go on. Try and tell me I’m wrong.”

Sapnap opens his mouth to do exactly that, but then shuts it quickly. Quackity stays silent.

He hates that he’s beginning to see truth in Karl’s words. It feels so wrong to admit that what he feels for Quackity might be different than from what he does for Karl because they’re supposed to be a three. That was what the foundation on which they’d built their relationship upon, wasn’t it? It wasn’t supposed to be Sapnap & Quackity, but instead Sapnap & Quackity & Karl. They’d promised to be equals.

A voice in the back of Sapnap’s head tells him that sentiment was doomed from the beginning, but he squishes it down before it can grow into something bigger.  

“Exactly!” Karl says after a moment, letting out a long, slightly crazed laugh. “I told you that I speak nothing but the truth here! So let’s cut the bullshit. I’m done being underestimated, simple as that. Just like you two have your secrets, I’ve had my own, but I’m done hiding and I can’t wait to show every single person on this server what I’m truly capable of.”

Before Sapnap can react, Karl has his crossbow out again with an arrow preloaded. Quackity, armourless and weaponless Quackity, currently defenseless Quackity, is the target of said arrow.

It took only that single weapon and Sapnap is left standing alone.

“Bastard,” Sapnap growls. He reaches for his sword, but somehow Karl already has another arrow loaded. 

“Don’t,” he says, clutching hard onto the bow. “Don’t you dare.”

“What do you want from me?” Sapnap says, voice steadier than he feels. He can see Techno spawning another wither out of the corner of his eye and even though L’Manburg has never been and will never be his home, it stings. 

“I want you to die.” Karl says it so softly that at first the weight of it doesn’t register for a second.

Then it does and Sapnap snorts. “Sure,” he says in disbelief.

 Karl’s only advantage so far had been the element of surprise and the fact that Quackity had no armour. Sapnap was full netherite with a maxed out netherite sword. There was no way that Karl would be able to beat him, even though he has the same armour and the same sword. 

“You don’t think I can?”

“I know you can’t,” Sapnap challenges and with that he charges forward. 

He was done playing these stupid little games.

The fight was over both faster and shorter than he thought it would be. He’d assumed Karl might get at least a few good hits in, but ultimately he knows he’d be the winner. He’s seen Karl fight before, and his abilities were nothing compared to Sapnap’s.

Apparently he’d been holding back. Karl gets those good hits in. Then he gets more good hits in. Sapnap resorts to drinking a strength potion, but Karl matches that with one of his own. They’re neck-and-neck, so it ends up just coming down to just pure skill.

Sapnap goes to block one of Karl’s hits with his shield. The force of it catches him off guard ( because there are no more strength particles floating around them and Karl’s arms were more like twigs than muscle so how was he naturally this strong- ), making his balance falter slightly. He’s so focused on trying not to get a sword to his face that he doesn’t notice the pile of debris behind him until it’s too late. The momentum sends him flailing onto his back and within the next second he has a sword to his neck and a foot to his chest.

“I told you I was done being underestimated,” Karl says, smiling sweetly. 

“How?” Sapnap grits out. “You’re trash at pvp. There is no way you got this good in such a short amount of time.”

“Who's to say I wasn’t holding back? It’s never logical to put all your cards out on the table first round, you know.”

“But we were supposed to trust each other!  We were supposed to tell each other everything!” Sapnap whispers, but he knows that the sentence is flimsy and frail. There is nothing to back it up upon so it crumbles faster than it was built.

“You’re funny,” Karl coos. “It’s almost a shame that I’m going to kill you now. I’d love to keep hearing all these made-up stories about how I’m just being delusional.”

“You wouldn’t,” Sapnap snarled. “You wouldn’t kill me.”

“I? Have you literally not been listening to me this entire time? Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. You’ve never listened to me in the past.” 

Karl bends down slightly, putting more of his weight onto the foot on Sapnap’s chest. It makes his lungs ache as more oxygen forcibly escapes. 

“But maybe me killing you would finally make you realize I am not a toy to be played with and then pushed aside.”

“Karl,” A voice says, interrupting their little moment. Sapnap ‘s eyes snap up to see Dream hovering over them, still standing on the obsidian grid.

“Mhm?” Karl humms, refusing to look away from Sapnap. 

“As much as I hate to ruin your fun, we need to go.”

Dream doesn’t even spare Sapnap a single glance. 

...

It hurts just as much as the foot on his chest. 

“You’re so boring,” Karl mockingly pouts. “But fine.”

His focus turns fully back to Sapnap. “This isn’t over by far and I’m not done with you or Quackity, Sapnap... But for now… for now I’ll happily just take one of your canon lives.”

The last thing Sapnap sees before the world goes black is Karl’s eyes glowing white, crackling with an energy that seems almost godly.