Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“When I put my hands on Wilbur, I’m going to tear his head off.”

“Yes, yes, you’re angry, I get it. Stop threatening someone who isn’t here and keep walking.”

“We’ve been walking for hours!”

“Not really, the sun barely moved, I doubt it’s been a full hour.”

“I hate this.”

“For the first time, I agree with you.”

The forest just won’t reach an end. Dream and I have been walking for what feels like half a day now—at least, if you ask me—and we’re getting nowhere. And it’s all Wilbur’s fault, who had thrown us head first into a mysterious portal, like we’re part of some sort of crappy anime with a forced plot. I mean, really? Force the two of us to go into a different dimension and have to go through some epic adventure so we can get out, have the key to our success dangled in front of us just to be destroyed a few times until, in the end, we find out that all we needed was the power of friendship?

Please, I can feel the headache already.

And out of all people, of course I’m trapped here with Dream, the most infuriating man in all servers. Part of me feels like I should be thankful it is not Tommy or something, but Tommy is surprisingly easy to deal with once you get it right the first time. Dream, however, is a complete wild card that just does whatever he feels like. You tell him to go left and he’ll do a flip to the right and then dash forwards.

Whoever is in charge of this plot, please spare me. I’m begging you.

“Techno, look!”

Dream’s voice takes me out of my thoughts. He turns to me with his big green eyes and I feel the ever so slight need to cover his face with something, anything. I am not a simp, but the guy is way too good looking without his mask, with the shiny eyes and the freckles speckled over his face. His mask got lost during the dimensional trip, though he doesn’t seem too bothered about showing his face around.

“Doesn’t this look familiar?” He says, showing me a poster that is, indeed, familiar.

It is mostly blue, with a smiling man in armor in the middle and the word “Gabriel” written under it. Under that name, is a paragraph about a building competition and how the winner will get to meet the “brave swordsman who killed the Ender Dragon.” For some reason, I can feel dread filling me as my mind works to connect the dots. Then it works a little more to even accept the possibility.

While all that happens, Dream looks at me with amusement, but I can see how he fidgets, moving from one foot to the other, nimble fingers playing with the paper of the poster. He bites his bottom lip and I know that he knows what I just figured.

“... I’m going to end Wilbur.”

Behold! A Meme!

Chapter Text

“So we are inside the world of Minecraft Story Mode…”

“All my nightmares have become true.”

Dream chuckles, still playing with the poster in his hands.

“And, by the look of it, we’re at the very beginning of the story.”

“I didn’t know you played it.”

“I was curious,” he shrugs, and Techno sighs, the usual will to tease the blonde nowhere to be found, “I think I know how to go back. Remember the hallway with all the different portals to different worlds? Maybe we can try that?”

“But we don’t know where the portal to get to the hallway is, only the protagonist and their friends know the exact location… Wait, you’re not thinking of…?” Techno pales at Dream’s sheepish expression. “No, no, no, we are not doing that.”

“C’mon, they’re not that bad! And Reuben will be there, don’t you like Reuben?”

“You know who else will be there? Fucking Lukas, Dream!”

“You and your obsession with Lukas, I really don’t get why you hate the guy so much.”

“He’s useless!”

“He’s a supporting character in a kid’s game, he is supposed to be a little useless.”

“Try ‘a whole lot’.”

“Well, do you have a better idea?” Dream asks, face impassive as he rolls up the poster and hides it in his hoodie pocket, “A single. Better. Idea?”

“... four episodes, Dream.”

“Packed with action, so we won’t get bored.”

“Bet.” Techno closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he opens them again, Dream is smiling at him like he just won something. Which he did and Techno hates him for it. He can feel his ear twitch in irritation. “Bruh… Fine.”

“Good! Now, if we follow the posters, we might find Jesse and their group. As long as the story ends normally, we’re gold.”

With that, they start walking.

Techno really doesn’t want to go through all that again. Playing the game once had been enough, but living it? Sign him the fuck out. The plot of this game is dull, most characters are boring and/or useless, the only who is actually good will die a terrible death and Lukas. Just… Lukas. Techno is going to kill Wilbur for this. Also, the game is so old the server it is in must be outdated by now, nothing like the hyperrealistic servers he’s used to. He can’t wait to pick up mini items instead of the actual thing, sure won’t look stupid.

Dream is also annoyingly cheerful, humming some random song under his breath as his electric green eyes scan the world around him. He chuckles here and there, probably lost in his thoughts, hands buried in his hoodie’s pockets. Now that the pinkette thinks about it, Dream is dressed in a much more casual fashion than usual: the multiple belts and straps around his body with various weapons and items dangling are nowhere to be seen, and the heavy cargo pants were exchanged for a lighter pair of dark jeans that hugged his frame. The combat boots are still there, tho, together with the iconic hoodie, but the much more iconic mask is nowhere to be seen, allowing the world to see his freckles.

As if feeling eyes on him, the blonde turns around, giving him a curious look he answers with a shrug and a faint glare. Dream can skip ahead like a gazelle on three cups of coffee all he wants, Techno is not going to put more effort than “lazy stroll in someone else’s property”. Dream glares back, squinting a little, and Techno is hit with the sudden knowledge that his rival is pretty cute and the mask’s function is to probably hide that. A simp deterrent, if you will, and one absolutely useless at that because the mystery just made people stan the guy harder. Techno pities him a little.

He almost collides with Dream’s back when the blonde comes to a sudden stop, but before he can say anything, he hears voices coming from behind them. Turning around, Techno almost wants to scream some profanities, however it seems his intentions are obvious for Dream immediately grabs his wrist with enough strength to be a warning. They share a look and it’s decided Dream will do the talking.

Jesse and their friends take no time to notice the duo. And what view they must make: A tall guy—as tall as Axel, really—dressed in a white shirt, leather pants, knee high leather boots, with long pink hair and two very obvious pig ears poking out of the sides of his head and a sword on his hip—his crown got lost just like Dream’s mask; and a blonde just a few inches shorter than him with a bright green hoodie, jeans and combat boots, covered in freckles and with eyes that resemble Eyes of Ender. And they look like they’re holding hands.

That last point makes Techno try to wriggle his wrist out of Dream’s grasp, but ends up that the man is much stronger than he looks.

“Hey!” Jesse approaches them first. They—she? He doesn’t want to assume, but he’s pretty sure that is the first female Jesse—have a friendly smile that makes Techno want to turn around and try to find the portal by himself, plan be damned. “I haven’t seen you guys around! Are you here for the building competition?”

“Yeah, we are here to watch!” Dream is quick to answer, giving Techno’s wrist a last squeeze before finally letting go, “I’m Dream, this is Technoblade but you can call him Techno.”

“Those are some weird names,” Axel comments, as if he has any ground to say that when his name is Axel.

“I’m willing to bet they’re better than yours, monobrow.”

“My name is Axel, not monobrow.”

“And I was right.”

“Techno.” Dream glares at him, pursing his lips a little and Techno huffs, looking away. “I’m sorry about him, he’s just a very grumpy idiot.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I’m Olivia and she’s Jesse.” Olivia waves her hand a little. Jesse steps a little closer to her to reveal a dressed up Reuben. “And this is Jesse’s pig, Reuben.”

“Excuse you? Reuben is more than just ‘my pig’, he’s my best friend and my wingman. My second in command.”

“Aaw, he’s dressed as the Ender Dragon!” Dream coos, crouching down to Reuben’s level. “Hi, Reuben. You look awesome!”

Reuben makes pleased noises, agreeing with Dream, and jumps in place a little in his excitement. Definitely the best character, Techno just wants to pet him. Is that weird? As a piglin hybrid, is it weird that he really wants to pet a pig, who is technically a distant relative? Well, he doesn’t care, at the end of this adventure—oh, god, don’t let him start sounding like Ivor—he will have petted Reuben at least once.

“Since we are all going to the same place, why don’t we go together?” Jesse asks, proudly patting Reuben’s masked head.

Dream agrees quickly, getting up with an excited smile, and the piglin hybrid envies him just a little bit for it. Can’t this asshole not look so happy when they’re both stuck in one of the worst games they could possibly be stuck on? Despite his internal monologue, Techno follows the group in silence, making sure to stay closer to Dream. He won’t admit it, but since he and Dream already know each other and have a rivalry thing going on, he feels better walking closer to him than the other three. Even if they aren’t complete strangers.

Besides, Dream can actually talk to people, so it works out.

“So, what are you guys building, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“A firework machine!” Jesse jumps a few times before gasping very loudly. “Guys! I just had an idea! We’re going about this wrong!”

“What do you mean?” Olivia stops to stare back at her friend and the whole group stops.

“We need to build something that gets the attention of the judges!”

“You just figured that now?”

“Techno.” Dream warns, elbowing him lightly.

Thankfully, the trio completely missed their bickering, too occupied in coming up with ideas to make their firework machine something more. Axel suggests they make a creeper, since fear is sure to get a reaction out of the judges—not that he is wrong. Olivia then suggests an Enderman, arguing that they’re scarier than creepers, at least to her. Jesse seems to weigh the two options before offering a third one: zombies. Nothing scarier than something that used to be human except, maybe, an actual human. They finally settle for Jesse’s idea, and said girl proposes that they go grab some more materials.

“We will wait for you guys here, don’t worry,” Dream assures them and they part ways after a failed attempt at a group cheer.

“Aaaaand… Training montage.”

“It won’t take too long, I think.” The blonde sits down under a nearby tree, patting the ground near him as invitation. Techno follows his lead, and together they share the shade of a tree. “We could go ahead, but something tells me you’d rather see Lukas later rather than sooner.”

“Don’t think I’ll start liking you because of this.”

“Oh, c’mon, Pigsy, I already caught you staring, just give in to my charms, will you?” He winks and Techno snorts.

“What charms?”

Dream shows him his tongue before the brilliant smile returns to his face. They spend the next several minutes just like that, in peaceful silence under a tree. It’s a novelty for both of them, since their status as rivals usually puts them on different sides, away from each other, but now that they have no competition to win and nothing else from the Main Server or their homes, being near each other is appreciated.

If only they weren’t in Minecraft Story Mode of all servers.

If only.

Another Meme

Chapter Text

“So, do you guys have a team name?”

Dream’s question brings the group’s cheers after the training session to a sudden stop, and he feels a little bad about it, but he promised himself he’d help them as much as he could without changing the plot too much and this seems like a good start. Of course, Technoblade is not aware of his little side quest, but considering how the piglin hybrid is clearly going to be a grouch and bitch his way through the plot a second time, it’s best he doesn’t know. Knowing Techno, he’ll probably do his best to mess with the group as much as he can.

“Oh my God, we don’t have a team name, we are so not ready for this!” Olivia worries, but Jesse—bless her and her ever so sassy voice—is quick to calm her down.

“How about Dead Enders?” Dream suggests, ignoring Techno’s snort.

“That sounds really cool,” Axel agrees promptly.

“Nah, name it Order of The Pig, in honor of the only cool guy in your team.” Techno points to Reuben, who seems conflicted between being proud of himself and offended on his friend’s behalf.

“Then, how about Ender Pigs?” The blonde answers Techno’s glare with a big smile, knowing it’ll annoy him to no end.

In the end, they pick Dream’s last suggestion, and if the man’s smile got stupidly smug, well, no one but the piggy being teased noticed. The rest of the walk is filled with friendly conversation, with Dream asking all sorts of questions while pretending he doesn’t know everything about these characters after playing and replaying the game every time he got remotely bored and couldn’t go outside. Technoblade walks by his side in silence, posture a little slumped and hands in his pockets, like he’s just strolling in his backyard. The blonde is glad for his proximity, it helps soothe his nerves.

Because no matter how confident he tries to appear, the truth is that Dream’s anxiety is not a happy camper right now. He is in an entirely new universe with practically nothing but his clothes, flint and steel—he has an habit of always keeping those in his Inventory Pocket since he visits the Nether almost regularly—, and his trusty iron axe—not the most powerful weapon he has, considering the materials and the enchantments that focus on making it durable instead of powerful, but it has saved him more times than he cares to count and Dream isn’t ready to let go of it any time soon.

And, of course, his mask is gone. Not having his mask ready to cover his face is… an experience. He knows, of course, that no one in this universe knows who he is—he dearly hopes that’s the case—, but he still can’t help feeling a little uncomfortable without the smooth ceramic armor.

Though he feels a little better after catching Techno staring at him with a hint of awe. Dream isn’t self-conscious about his face, he knows he is good looking by most people’s standards, but he has one fatal flaw: his face, in particular his eyes, are way too expressive. He’s gotten better at keeping a poker face, but it still needs active effort. In a way, he envies how the pinkette can so easily mask whatever he’s thinking and feeling.

And being gawked at by a handsome man is always nice. To this day, Dream firmly believes the piglin hybrid to be the most handsome guy he has ever seen, and Dream has a tendency to attract the hot ones—at least that’s what his friends said, as if they both aren’t also so very hot. He’s lucky he is good at hiding blushes because the intensity of those crimson eyes, even if they try to hide behind a foggy cloud of indifference, would make him blush madly otherwise.

“So, where do you two come from?” Jesse asks.

“We are from a very far away place.”

“And you came all the way here to see a building competition?”

“We are travelling, actually, and just happened to stumble upon it.”

“And do people dress up as pigs often where you come from?”

Dream barely can contain the laughter, but a choked snort does come out even when he covers his mouth with both his hands. Techno turns his gaze to Axel, red eyes blazing in a glare, but Axel is the type of character that won’t get intimidated unless directly attacked, so Technoblade’s legendary Glare of The Blood God is lost on him. A dense fool, one could say, but undeniably powerful. Techno’s glare goes to Dream next, even though both of them know the blonde is more than immune to having all types of eyes on him, and not even the raging hellfire in the pinkette’s eyes can make the blonde cower.

He can see the piglin hybrid’s ear twitch ever so slightly in annoyance.

“It’s a bet!” Dream pipes in before Techno could say something mean, to put it lightly, “We made a bet and I won, so he has to wear that until I tell him to take it off.”

“And why a pig?” Jesse asks, smiling so brightly Dream wants to hug her for being so cute. Needless to say, female Jesse was his favorite character when he played, and it seems he is still very fond of her.

“Everybody likes pigs,” Techno answers with a shrug, “Including me.”

“I had no idea you knew how to like things,” the tallest of the protagonist trio teases, poking Techno on the shoulder fearlessly.

Damn, that is something weird to watch. Technoblade is a well known man in the Main Server, the King of PVP, the Blood God, the one guy no one wants to go against but everyone wants to take down. Of course, it is not empty fame, Techno truly is an amazing fighter with an overpowering presence in the battlefield that trails after him even outside it. But here, the name Technoblade means nothing. Techno is just a nobody here, no one can even dream of what this man is capable of, which makes them treat him like he’s just a normal guy. There is some poetry somewhere in all of that, but Dream is not going to think about it right now. Or ever. He’s not that close to the pinkette, anyways, so it’s not like it matters much.

“Yes, Axel, I’m glad you’re finally noticing how much of an as—Ow! What was that for?!”

Dream glares right back at the taller man, hands ready to jab at his side again.

“Don’t curse near them!”

“What? It’s not like they are children, nor are you their mother.” Dream raises his hand a little and Techno flinches minutely, massaging the attacked flesh. “How old are you guys, anyways?”

“I’ll be eighteen in a few days, Olivia will be eighteen in, like, three months and Axel will turn seventeen at the end of the year. Why?”

Dream can feel the color drain from his face, and even Techno’s mask of indifference breaks a little as the man’s eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. The blonde’s previously raised hand grabs the pinkette’s shirt for support, and it’s proof of how shaken the piglin is when he doesn’t pull away, or react for that matter. They spend a few seconds like that, staring at a very confused group of teenagers—holy fuck, teenagers! Axel is literally Tommy’s age. Tubbo literally turned seventeen the other month. Holy fuck—, until Techno snaps out of it first, looking more concerned than he probably would’ve liked. 

“Oh my God, they are all brats. That makes so much sense. We’re all screwed.”

“Techno!”

Memes, memes, memes

Chapter Text

“Oh, great. There’s Lukas and the Ocelots.”

Technoblade wants to groan, and groan really, really loudly. So he does, because fuck this and fuck them all. He has been dreading this encounter with every inch of his being, and considering how tall he is, that is a lot of inches. Maybe he could have survived the nightmare that is Story Mode, maybe he could have muscled his way through it all, he is Technoblade, after all. Dealing with tiresome things is something he is more than used to. He literally has Tommy as a little brother, for God’s sake. And, even if he were to lose his mind, Dream could bring him back, the blonde balancing Techno’s sturdiness with his characteristic fluidity.

But that would only happen in a universe without fucking Lukas in it. However, there he is, standing with that ugly jacket in the middle of his good-for-nothing friends who think they’re the shit but as soon as they’re left alone to think for themselves, their plans are pathetic and their brain cells are inexistent. Techno hates to admit it, but Lukas is the only one with a somewhat functional brain in the Ocelots. But what is the point if he isn’t going to use it?

Techno’s loud groan gains the attention of said group, and an annoyed glance from Dream. Heh, serves him right, the blonde has been taking too much pleasure in teasing him with the brats on the way here. Revenge, bitch.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Order of the Losers,” the guy who later will get his ass kicked taunts—Techno can’t even be bothered to remember his name, so he shall be called ‘Minion 1’—, sneering at them.

“Very creative, where did you get that one from? Bullying For Dummies? Basic Bastards 101?” Listen, he already is going through a lot right now, he at least gets to be a little mean to stupid bullies. Dream seems to share his sentiment, crossing his arms defiantly.

“Who the heck are you?” The girl, Minion 2, questions with an ugly frown worthy of her face, “Did the losers get scared and called Daddy?”

Gross.

“Grab your daddy issues and go build a castle, won’t you? I’m sure there’s enough material for it.”

“Listen here—!” Minion 3 starts, but Lukas puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Enough, let’s go.” The blonde’s eyes linger on Techno and Dream for a second before he walks away, his minions going after him like a line of monkeys following a string.

“I never understood what got up their butt’s and died for them to be like that,” Dream mutters, throwing a last glare at the Ocelot’s backs before smiling at the trio behind him, “Now go and have fun! You can do this! Oh, and be careful!”

“They’ll be fine, it’s not like they’re fighting a dragon.”

“Still, be careful.”

The three teens—they’re teens, holy shit, he still can’t believe it—smile gratefully at them, Axel even daring to lightly punch him on the shoulder as a silent thanks when he walks past him. They seem much happier than before, posture a little more straight and smiles a little more confident.

… Please, God, don’t let him turn into Philza and adopt children left and right.

“Earth to Technodaddy.” Dream laughs as he dodges Techno’s fist.

“Call me that again, and I will end you.”

“Sure, sure.”

They both stay silent for a few moments, watching as the contestants get ready to start building. Techno leans on the fence boredly, eyes eventually slipping to the figure of the man standing on his side. Dream has a solemn expression on his face, green eyes calculating the steps ahead. The pinkette always thought he is fascinating when he gets like this, when he finally shows that he is deep in thought. One of the rare moments Dream is quiet and his usually average presence turns breathtaking.

Techno has to admit, at least to himself, that he can never be the same as Dream. It’s not that he is weaker than the blonde, far from it, but because of how different they are. Technoblade is a volcano, he is the lava that burns and swallows, his power is a constant flow of raw strength and energy. But Dream, Dream is like the depths of the ocean, no rage, no burning, no rawness. You don’t think about it until it has enveloped you in a tight embrace, and once you’re there all that is left is to let it pull you, let it take you to its arms painlessly. It's gorgeous, it’s peaceful and breathtaking in all meanings.

“What are you thinking so deeply?” He asks, waving away his thoughts before they became too poetic.

“I know that this is the only shot we have at going back home, since we need Ivor to be a relatively good guy so he can lead us to the hallway, but… I wish things were different.” Dream looks at him, green eyes deep and alluring, like a siren’s sorrowful lullaby. “These are not just characters, they are real, living people, and we aren’t just spectators watching from a distance, not anymore. Now we can legitimately interfere with their lives.”

“The Wither Storm has to happen so the Order can get their shit together, but it will make lots of people suffer… and maybe even die, if we fail.”

Because that is the truth. This might be the same story as the game, but this is a real universe, with real people in it. There is no coding behind it forcing the plot to follow the script, the guarantee of winning is no more, as proven by the small and inconsequential, yet very telling, change of the trio of protagonists naming their team before getting in the place of the competition. And it’s hard even to say that it’s because of their arrival, since no matter what the universe, no matter the server, as long as there are people with free will, nothing is set in stone. Even without Techno and Dream here, the chance of Jesse and the others failing already looms like a dark cloud.

And, yet, can they really toy with those possibilities? Is it ok for them to shrug it off because it could happen anyway and pursue their own objectives? Probably not, but staying there is not an option either. They need to leave, they have built entire lives for themselves, they couldn’t just abandon it all, abandon all of theirs, because they fear what might happen. It’s unfair to them to be trapped there, and hard to judge where that fact overlaps with the selfishness of their actions.

Techno likes chaos. Techno doesn’t care for people he’s not close with. Techno enjoys battling and enjoys winning.  But he is not aggressive for no reason. He does not go out of his way to hurt others, specially others that are innocent. But now he has to choose between everything that matters to him, and an entire server. A selfish man contemplating such things, if that doesn’t sound like hypocrisy…

“We will not fail.”

Dream’s voice is firm as his hand grabs Techno’s, squeezing it a little. His hand is trembling when the pinkette returns the gesture. Dream, too, is conflicted, perhaps even more than Techno. But he smiles, something small and a little shaky but still perseverant, and Techno feels himself smile back, something small and a little bitter but still assuring.

They will not fail.

A sudden noise catches their attention. Looking up, they watch as fireworks paint the sky in various colors. It’s pretty, but a waste during the day. When Techno tells Dream that, he gets a laugh and an agreement in return. With one last squeeze, one that is reciprocated almost immediately, the piglin hybrid lets go of the blonde’s hand and jumps over the fence, knowing Dream is following him.

Show time.

Meeeeeeeme~

Chapter Text

“Jesse, come with us, we’ll help you find Reuben! Axel and Olivia, stay here and save the machine!” Dream yells, trying to be heard through all the noise of the firework machine and the loud exclamations coming from the people around. Thankfully, the teens are able to hear him and soon jump down the zombie statue.

Sharing a nod, Jesse separates from her friends, joining Dream and Techno. While the duo works on saving their machine, the trio runs off to look for the missing pig. So they weave their way through the woods for what felt like hours, the girl calling the pig’s name every so often. She eventually suggests they split up, since it would make finding Reuben faster, but both men refuse, arguing that it’s already getting dark and it would be dangerous. Jesse agrees after some convincing, and it pains Dream that he can’t just assure her that Reuben is fine, having to resort to comforting her with a hand on her shoulder.  If the server follows the game’s storyline, then Reuben is fine, if not just a little scared. But if not, then there is a chance he’ll get hurt, maybe even die, and that would crush Jesse. And a heartbroken Jesse is no good.

He exchanges a look with Techno, who nods in understanding, probably sharing the same thoughts.

“Do you think he’s ok?”

“Jesse, I have known Reuben for less than a day, but even I can tell he’s one amazing pig. He is fine and waiting for you.”

“Thanks, Dream.”

And true to his words, soon enough they find Reuben hiding behind tall grass with a terrified look in his eyes, quite far away from the town near a very dark tunnel. The poor thing jumps when he hears them approaching, but calms down considerably when Jesse starts talking, offering him a carrot she picked in the way while petting him. Dream really wants to coo, but noises coming from the tunnel behind them take away the cutesy feeling of the scene.

“Dream.” It’s all Techno says, but the blonde knows what he means when he grabs the sword dangling from his hip, a fierce look taking over the usual emotionlessness.

“Jesse, Reuben, stay back.”

Jesse turns to them, probably to ask why they are suddenly so serious, when she finally notices the situation. It’s already night, and zombies are starting to crawl out to wander in the land of the living. They groan and moan, nothing left but husks of what once were humans with thoughts and feelings. Their skin is green and sickly, weakened by time to the point of almost ripping apart without any external influence, hanging to almost exposed bones like destroyed spiderwebs. Even their clothes are rotten, looking like they melted together with the putrid flesh.

How odd.

This server is outdated, it is nothing like the super realistic servers both Techno and Dream are used with, it almost looks childish in comparison. But then why do the zombies look just like the ones from the recent servers? Were they programmed to be so from the very beginning? Did the Creator truly create such nightmares in such detail from the start, before most what exists now could even dream of existing?

No time to stop and wonder, however. It is night, and zombies will soon be the last of their worries. With no shields, if they get surrounded by skeletons they’ll be in trouble, mostly because of Jesse and Reuben. They need to find Petra quickly and get the Hell out of here, so Dream takes out his trusty iron axe out of his hoodie pocket, ready to kill some mobs. He does smile when Jesse gasps at the view of both his and Techno’s weapons, the pinkette’s diamond blade shining under the pale moonlight.

The fight is a pleasant dance, a trip down memory lane, except this time, instead of facing each other, Dream and Techno are back to back, making a protective circle around the teen and her pig. Zombies, spiders and the odd creeper are nothing to the two growing legends of the Main Server, their blades cutting through the enemies with ease and even elegance. Technoblade is powerful, a heavy presence that can’t be overcomed, while Dream is agile, moving with fluidity that carries everything away. Together, they end the battle victorious.

“That was so cool!” Jesse exclaims as soon as it ends, but before she can say anything, an arrow narrowly misses her face, making her recoil in shock with a squeal.

The skeletons are here, and they’re not looking friendly. Luckily, Petra finally shows up, waving a hand at them while holding an iron pickaxe with the other. She calls out for them, pointing at where her base most likely is. It’s no brainer to Dream, who immediately runs to her; Jesse quickly picks Reuben up—and, damn, that girl is strong— and runs after him, Techno following behind to protect their backs.

They run and they run, until they reach the cave Petra is using as a base. Dream can’t help but smile at the rudimentary structure, with its still cube-like appearance and the quirky lighting. Sure, a tunnel is nothing new for him, and he will never be able to live through the wonder of entering his first dimly lit cave, but the nostalgia that hits him is enough to make him both sad and joyous. There is a word, now that he thinks about it, for that feeling in Portuguese, that longing that lingers in between the limits of sadness and happiness: Saudade. He’s not sure why he’s suddenly remembering it, but it fits.

“Memories?” Techno asks, probably having noticed how out of it the blonde is. There is amusement in his voice, but his eyes are pools of the same feeling swimming in Dream’s.

“It’s funny, this is so outdated it’s bringing back a lot.”

They smile at each other, a shared moment only for them, finally paying attention to the two girls talking in front of them.

“This isn’t my first time in a cave, Petra.” Jesse sasses, putting a hand on her hip as Reuben oinks in agreement. They are so cute.

“Yeah, but have you ever seen a wither skull?” Petra smiles, showing off her prize. If only she knew how many of those both Dream and Techno have collected over the years. “Fresh from the Nether.”

Jesse awes at the item with eyes full of wonder, acting as if going to the Nether is a big deal. Which probably is for the people of this world, since going to other realms isn’t really a necessity, so they probably never set foot in the Nether. It’s a dangerous place for normal people, anyways, with the lava and annoying mobs; one can’t just enter the Nether without some preparation and a good dose of foolish bravery. Of course, both Dream and Techno have been there, Techno probably was born there since he is a piglin hybrid, and the blonde is always running there for one reason or another, most of the time for the Manhunts. Dream is about to warn Techno to keep his mouth shut so the girls can keep their sense of wonder, but he’s a little too late.

“What? Like it’s hard?”

“What do you mean? Have you ever been to the Nether?” The redhead challenges, glaring at him.

“Again, like it’s hard?”

“Techno!” Dream elbows his friend—friend? He guesses they can be labelled as friends. “Stop crushing other people’s fun.”

“What? They want to talk about the Nether! We are the Nether specialists.”

“Wait, wait, pause,” Jesse interrupts their bickering with stars in her eyes, “Dream also went to the Nether?!”

“Yep! Back home, he has made a name for himself with all the crazy stunts he pulls.” The pinkette throws an arm over the blonde’s shoulders, bringing their bodies so close their sides touch. “You have to see him jumping around like he’s walking on clouds.”

As Jesse exclaims how cool it all sounds, and Petra rolls her eyes in annoyance, the blonde speedrunner feels a blush come to his cheeks, not burning but definitely noticeable. Damn it, he suddenly misses his mask more than before; blushing is always embarrassing, makes him look meek and calls attention to his freckles, which supposedly makes him look “cuter” and makes people around him treat him as such. Thankfully, he doesn’t think anyone here is going to call him dollface and try to flirt with him.

He changes the subject anyways, prompting the group to keep walking. Luckily, Techno lets go of him without problem.

“What is that skull for?”

“A guy I’m meeting at EnderCon offered me a diamond for it.”

“And you fell for that?”

“What Techno means is that a diamond might be too little in exchange for a wither skull. I mean, going to the Nether, finding a Fortress, fighting enough wither skeletons for a single head to drop…”

Oh, the memories of the past, when wither skulls were hard to find, instead of hard to get intact. In their “home”, as Technoblade put so kindly earlier, the skeletons’ heads will drop for certain every time, but most of them will be damaged either by something previous to the battle, the battle or the fall when it gets separated from the neck; “glass skulls” they’re called by some. And cracked wither skulls are only good for edgy decoration.

“Well, diamonds are not easy to find, nor am I going to dig around to get them, so…” Petra shrugs like the teenager she also must be.

“Hey, how old are you?”

“I don’t know why that’s relevant, but I’m nineteen. My name is Petra, by the way. Probably should have asked that first, don’t you think?”

“I’m Dream, this is Technoblade but you can call him Techno.”

“Weird names.”

“I’m dressed as a pig, blonde here does parkour above lava pools, what did you expect?”

Dream is seriously going to hit Techno. Can the guy stop antagonizing children for five minutes? Is that too much to ask? He glares up at the man—the bastard is a good two inches taller, to add insult to injury—, getting squinted eyes and a frown as a result. The two girls keep on talking, Petra no doubt inviting Jesse to work with her and then pointing to a crafting table, warning Jesse that it’s better to have a stone sword than a wooden sword. The blonde agrees with her, of course, and offers to take the wooden sword and put it in his inventory so Jesse won’t be carrying too much.

Honestly,  he just wants that sword gone. Who in the world allowed a teenager to walk around with just a wooden sword, and a shabby one at that? No wonder it breaks so easily in the original timeline, it’s practically cracked already, right in the middle. A strong wind would break it in two. As soon as he can, the blonde is so giving Jesse an iron sword. This poor excuse of a weapon is offensive. He’ll burn it when he gets the chance.

“Shut up, Technoblade,” Dream grumbles, pouting at the man who’s clearly holding back his snickers.

“He didn’t say anything?”

“He’s laughing at me.”

Petra looks at them with an odd look for a good minute before turning back to Jesse to guide her through using the crafting table. Thankfully, it seems no matter how outdated or hyper realistic servers may be, the crafting table still works the same, quite like the zombies. One of the constants of Minecraft and its multiverse. There is something poetic about it all, something almost sacred, but he’s not really in the mood for thinking such things. Specially now that they reach a narrow bridge they can see the town from. Fireworks paint the sky.

“Look! Fireworks! That means we won!” Jesse jumps excitedly, grabbing Dream’s arm and shaking him lightly while Reuben celebrates just as loudly. “We finally won against that jerkface and his group!”

“Congratulations, Jesse! I knew you could do it!” The blonde smiles brightly at her, hugging the girl tightly. “I’m proud of you guys!”

“We need to go, Olivia and Axel are waiting for us to celebrate!” She says to Reuben as soon as the man lets go of her, skipping ahead with the pig on her heels.

Or, at least, they would have skipped ahead, if it weren’t for the mobs at the end of the bridge approaching. Jesse stops, wiping out her new sword, but she is not fast enough and one of the creepers begins its explosion. Dream’s body moves without him noticing, and soon his axe is sending the creeper to its demise, condemned to explode in midair. Jesse thanks him, but it barely registers when he hears the noises of more mobs coming from where they came from.

Soon they are surrounded.

“Ok, what do we do?” Petra asks, sword in hands. For someone who supposedly just went to the Nether to get a skull, she seems way too concerned about Overworld mobs.

“Either fight or jump, no other options.” Dream answers.

“Do you have any idea of how bad wet pigs can smell? I am not jumping in the water, smiles, so you better put that nice ass to work.”

“Techno, language! And thanks, it is a lovely backside~”

“Guys, you can flirt later!” Petra yells, exasperated, at the same time as Jesse makes a face while saying “Ew, gross!”

Techno offers him a sly smile, one Dream is very familiar with, a smile he himself always wears when in a battle he will end victorious. These mobs won’t even know what hit them.

MEEEEEEME :3

Chapter Text

As they walk back to the town, the girls walking a few paces in front of them with Reuben, Techno yawns with abandon, not even bothering to cover his mouth. To think Jesse and Petra had struggled so much with that group of mobs in canon when all it took him and Dream was a good minute and some minimal effort. Techno is not a humble person nor is he a hypocrite to fake humbleness; he earned every awed cheer and compliment Jesse had to dish out after the battle.

His companion, Dream, is much the same, the cocky bastard, but instead of full of himself he looks cute because of the blush. To think the proud leader of the Dream Team has such an expressive face. Even now, as he yawns in a reflex, it’s obvious what he is feeling: Dream is tired and a little grumpy. There is a slight furrow to his brows, and his eyelids drop a little every now and then. There is also the beginning of a pout on his lips. As if feeling eyes on him, the blonde looks at Techno with a raised brow, making the pinkette hold back a chuckle. By the glare sent through squinted eyes, Techno knows Dream knows he’s laughing inside, a power he has no idea how the speedrunner got. It took Wilbur years to get that, so it’s really surprising, but it kind of fits Dream and his ever so mysterious self.

Dream sighs a little, walking a little closer to the piglin hybrid, and Techno is reminded of the fact that the blonde is a very tactile person when he grabs the pinkette’s wrist. His grip is weak, letting it clear that Techno can just shake him off if he wants, which he doesn’t. Dream must already be missing his team now that they have the time to relax before another big event starts. Technoblade himself feels the absence of his family.

“Techno, I think we should let Jesse and Petra talk with Ivor alone.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to interfere with the plot too much, and there is nothing we can interfere with to begin with.”

Techno hums, toying with the blonde’s words in his mind. If he is to be honest, he also thought of that. Petra and Jesse getting scammed is the trigger to the biggest part of the plot, since Ivor needs the head and Jesse’s group needs to get inside his hideaway so Axel can steal the potion to stop the command block, causing the Wither Storm to exist. There is no telling what might happen if they interfere with that particular piece of plot. It really would be best to just let it run its course.

“Girls?” Dream calls, probably seeing the agreement in Techno’s eyes or something, and the two girls turn to look at him just before they enter the town, “We’re going to leave you two to it, ok? If you need something, we’ll be around enjoying the EnderCon.”

Petra is quick to agree, of course, since this whole ordeal is supposed to be a secret thing, but there is an odd look in her eyes as she stares at their faces then their hands and back again. Techno stares back, unfazed. Jesse pouts a little, but accepts after Dream reassures her they will be at the EnderCon and promises to meet her later to celebrate the Ender Pigs’ victory. It’s a lie, of course, but the black haired teen doesn’t know that, smiling brightly and cheering with Reuben. If only they knew what’s about to go down.

Their group separates as soon as they enter town, Jesse waving at them before following after the redhead, Reuben right after her. Dream’s grip on Techno’s wrist becomes more certain, and soon the blonde is eagerly guiding them to the food barracks, looking like a man on a mission. It’s a pretty cute look on him. Techno isn’t one for touching, but he’s surprisingly ok with the feeling of the other man’s hand against his skin. To think not bothering to button his sleeves worked just fine. Take that, Philza.

The food is just what they expected: meat, fruits, bread and stew, everything craftable with a table and cookable with a furnace. But the smell is really nice for a pair who hasn’t eaten anything the entire day. Dream wilts a little bit when Techno asks him if he has any money, but perks up again when the pinkette shows off his stack of emeralds for emergencies.

“I’m so used to being self-sufficient that I forget money is, like, a thing,” he explains once the pinkette teases him for carrying flint and steel but not money.

“I’d say ‘same’, but I honestly couldn’t be bothered to make most stuff myself.”

Dream laughs, loud and free, tugging Techno in the direction of a random barrack, the two getting in line behind a weird guy with big yellow glasses that assaults the eyes of whoever looks at it for more than half a second. Techno had forgotten how tacky most of the background characters looked in the game. And some of the relevant characters.

“For the record, I eat pretty much anything, but let’s stay away from the pork chops.”

“Sure, after seeing Reuben, I really don’t feel like eating pig any time soon.”

“About that, we are saving Reuben.”

“You read my mind, Pigsy.”

“Wow, such a new nickname, I’ve never heard that one before,” the pinkette deadpans, feeling his shoulders relax as his companion giggles, “Get some new material, Smiles, for the love of God.”

“Oh, hush, you fake prince.” Dream’s eyes shine and Techno’s ear twitch.

“Don’t you dare.”

“Dare what, Princey?”

“I hate you.”

“Sure you do.”

“I don’t even have my crown on me!”

“Irrelevant.”

Once they get their food, handed to them by a smiling lady with the same look in her eyes as Petra had earlier, they sit down on some nearby steps, enjoying the first moment of peace since the building competition. They eat in comfortable silence, letting the sounds of the festival fill the role of background noise. Techno eats slowly, barely registering the taste as thoughts run inside his mind. Mostly wandering fancies of going back home and kicking the shit out of Wilbur for stranding them in Minecraft Story Mode of all places, but some were worries about getting out of this server and how the people back home are doing.

Their meal ends in the same silence as it started, and the pinkette can only imagine what type of picture they make together, sitting there in silence while staring off at the distance. It’d be even funnier if Techno had his crown—his very much real crown, no matter what Dream says, Techno is royalty, somewhat—and Dream had his mask—the unnerving blank stare and the eerily drawn smile is sure to catch some looks. Thinking about that…

“You seem to be doing ok without your mask,” the piglin remarks, looking down on the man sitting by his side. Dream does the same, his wild mane of a hair shining like gold under the lights of the festival, a few strands stubbornly curling on his cheekbones.

“I am pretty nervous, actually, but it’s not too bad. I use it mostly because my face is very expressive,” as if trying to prove his point, Dream’s bottom lip pokes out a little bit in an unconscious pout, “But there is no reason to hide it right now. And no one has tried to flirt with me yet, so I’m kinda comfortable.”

“So the mask is to keep the simps away.”

“Yes? I guess? It’s to keep the creeps away, otherwise they’ll just flocker to me like chickens.” Dream puffs his chest and deepens his voice comically and pulling a chuckle out of thie pinkette, “‘Don’t you wanna go somewhere else, dollface?’’

“Dollface, really?”

“Yes, I hate it. There are only so many times slimy people can call you that before you snap. So to avoid that headache, I wear the mask.”

Techno hums in understanding and they spend the next few seconds in silence before Dream suddenly grabs his arm with one hand. His green eyes glimmer with mischievous joy, highlighted by the lights surrounding them, making the faint speckles of gold scattered in the pools of forest green visible. The piglin hybrid raises an eyebrow, prompting the man to say whatever just came to him.

“Wait, did you just say I’m good-looking?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did! You said ‘the mask is to keep the simps away’ like it was obvious!” Dream shakes his arm a little. “You are falling for my charms! Is it the eyes? George says my eyes are nice, it’s the eyes, isn’t it?”

“Your eyes are cute,” Techno admits nonchalantly, because it’s an obvious fact anyone would agree with, but he feels like he did something unnecessary the moment the shining green eyes of his companion go dull in disappointment. The talk they just had replays in his mind, and he wants to kick himself. Instead, he keeps on talking. “The more I look, the prettier they seem.”

“Really?” Dream asks, eyes slowly gaining their shine again. A blush rises to his cheeks when the pinkette leans down, their faces so close their noses brush against one another.

“Yeah, they’re beautiful. Definitely the centerpiece of your pretty boy face.”

“P—!” The blonde stammers, his blush worsening as he averts his eyes.

“What, no one ever called you pretty boy, Smiles?”

“... not with such a serious face…”

The almost whispered answer snaps Technoblade of the weird spell he’s under, making him blink owlishly before his own cheeks explode in red. He finally notices the situation they’re in: sitting so close together their knees and shoulders touch, with one of Techno’s hands holding Dream’s chin—he has no memory of ever doing that—, the blonde blushing so strongly his freckles make him look like a ladybug, their faces so close that one little nudge would be enough to bring their lips together.

Holy fuck.

“Ah!” The piglin hybrid lets go of his companion quickly, almost as if the touch burned, scooting away to put some space between them. “Sorry.”

Techno wants to make a hole and hide his head, not daring to look at the other. His heart pounds inside his chest in an unprompted tango, and he would really appreciate it if it would stop. The blonde just told him about the creeps that kept bothering him so much, he had to wear a mask, and yet here is Technoblade, acting like a goddamn creep. Without even thinking or noticing! What a creep.

“N… no, it’s fine… I… don’t mind…”

What the holy Hell is this man saying now?

Techno takes a deep breath, trying to calm his burning face, but before he can even turn to look at Dream again, a loud commotion can be heard, coming directly from where the Wither Storm is supposed to start. The pinkette gets up with a jump, reacting to the loud noise of a frantic crowd running away in fear, face paling. It is easy to make fun of something like the Wither Storm when you’re watching in the comfort of your house, through a screen and with the company of a chatroom, but now this is his reality, and that monster is now a very real threat.

“Techno!” Dream looks at him with alarm. He answers with a nod and soon they are running. No time to talk.

Chapter Text

It is news to absolutely no one that Dream is a thrill seeker. He enjoys the feeling of adrenaline, the rapid beating of his heart, the shortening of his breaths, the cold sweating. He adores more than anything the feeling of exhilarating fear that his heart bumps in his body like blood, and the feeling of satisfaction that comes after he overcomes said fear, the smugness of surviving with all he has.

But this time, when the fear kicks in and the adrenaline pushes him to be faster, there are no good feelings.

Rationally, he knows that Jesse and the others will survive this, they need to, otherwise there won’t be a plot to be followed, but he can’t help but worry. Because no matter how many times he reminds himself that they are inside a game with a script, it all is just so very real. This is reality, and reality does not have the same niceties as a scripted game. And this server is not like the more evolved ones, this one is old, it probably operates as a Hardcore, and that means Death is very much permanent.

So he runs.

A loud rumbling noise can be heard as the building where Ivor awakens the Wither, and the destruction the creature makes is so great even the ground shakes.

The Wither Storm is enormous. A dark and dense black matter, formless with no start or end, with multiple tentacles wriggling out of the main body, bringing down whatever is in their way. And the faces! Three giant faces with glowing teeth and one purple eye with a powerful beam of the same color that brings things to the creature. The monster roars, the sound so deafening Dream can feel it in his heart, curling around his very core. He hasn’t felt something like that since the first time he fought the Ender Dragon years ago.

That last thought brings his frantic sprint to a sudden halt, memories of confronting monsters for the first time are never pleasant, not when what is being remembered is the utter terror that engulfs like the depths of the ocean. The vast emptiness of the End, the fleeting sounds of Endermen, the chilling growlings of the Beast… Never a good memory, no matter how much of a necessary evil.

“Dream!”

Dream startles back to the present when someone grabs him by his waist, bringing him to a solid chest with enough strength to momentarily take away his breath with the impact. A beam passes just where he was standing, much to his unease. Looking back at his savior, he smiles in relief, trying to assure Techno that he is ok and he can let go. The pinkette still looks at him with worry as he does, silently telling him to be more careful, and the blonde can’t help but be happy at his friend’s reliable nature.

“Dream! Techno!” Jesse’s voice reaches them, and soon the girl herself can be seen running to them, her whole group plus Gabriel with her. Something eases inside Dream and he smiles briefly.

“Jesse! Guys!” He pulls the girl in a quick hug as soon as she’s close enough. “What is happening? What is that?!”

Of course, he knows very well what is happening and what that is, but he asks for the sake of keeping everything a secret. He can’t even imagine how the group would react if they knew both Dream and Techno were aware of what would happen, and he definitely doesn’t want to have a demo.

“It’s a long story, we need to run right now!” Gabriel says, eyes rapidly going from the monster to Jesse, and Dream can’t help but resent him a little for involving teenagers in the Order’s bullshit. “We must go to my fortress, we’ll be much safer there!”

No, we won’t, is what’s written all over Techno’s face, but the speedrunner just nudges the piglin a little, telling Jesse they’ll go with them. The girl smiles gratefully, and the whole group starts to run. Dream can do running, he has not stopped running since he first learned how to. If he ignores the screams of terror and the thunderous roars of the creature, he can pretend it’s just another day. Maybe another Manhunt, or another speedrun.

Soon enough, his mind focuses, and he might as well be dead to the outside world. This is one of the peculiarities he has developed over the years after defeating the Ender Dragon and leaving his original server: his laser focus in fast paced situations. It feels like he is surrounded by a bubble, like he’s an expectator watching things in slow motion, a singular existence separated from the reality he is currently. His eyes see better, his ears hear better, his body moves like water. Fluid and free, he is unstoppable. Dodging and even pushing off debris comes with almost supernatural ease, he has to hold back the whooping when he jumps over a tentacle coming directly to his face.

Something tells him his joy in this situation would not be appreciated.

Soon they reach Gabriel’s fortress, the “hero” opening the stone doors after explaining about the inner chamber and its obsidian walls. Dream feels bad for him, knowing it will not work against something like the Wither Storm since obsidian is not unbreakable, but he holds it in, still riding in that focused state. As soon as the door opens, the blonde ushers the teens aside, throwing a look at the piglin hybrid and getting a nod back. Putting as much strength as he can in his legs, Dream runs inside, so fast he manages to even pass Axel, taking the flint and steel out of his Inventory and lighting up the portal.

“Get in!” He yells at the teens, quickly switching the flint and steel for his trusty axe when he hears Gabriel shout as a tentacle sends him flying a few feet. Jesse makes a move to go to him, but Dream is having none of that, shoving her and Petra after the others. “Lukas, make sure they stay there, we’ll go in a second!”

Without staying to see if the other blonde agreed, Dream turns and runs to where a very annoyed Techno is pulling a panicked Gabriel out of a tentacle’s grasp. Thankfully, being a piglin hybrid and specialized in battling means Technoblade is at least ten times stronger than Jesse, and there is barely any struggle as he frees the fake hero. While that happens, Dream distracts the second tendril, trying not to hit it too strongly in case it breaks his axe. Diamond swords don’t work on the Wither Storm, his axe, while trusty, certainly has no chance. 

“So many of them… I can’t save them all…”

“No time for poetry, sword man!” Techno shouts, sheathing his sword and throwing Gabriel over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “You can sing about that later!”

Dream snorts, hitting the tentacle one last time before sprinting back to the porta, knowing Techno is right behind him. He jumps first, the hot air of the Nether hitting him like a ton of bricks. He smiles at the familiar feeling of it, but he doesn’t have much time to enjoy the nostalgia when a certain black haired teenager barrels onto him like a particularly happy dolphin. His arms curl around her without hesitation as his eyes count the people waiting for them on the other side of the portal.

Olivia, Axel, Reuben, Petra, Lukas and, obviously, Jesse. Good, everyone is here.

“God, I forgot how hot this place is,” Techno comments as soon as he steps out of the portal, dropping Gabriel gracelessly on the netherrack floor, “I can see your grin, Smiles and I don’t appreciate it. Not all of us can be Nether dwellers.”

“You mean ‘not all of us have what it takes to go to the Nether’, yes?”

Dream hides his grin in Jesse’s hair, pleased with the playful glare  he gets from the piglin hybrid. Before they can continue their banter, or Petra can say something about them flirting again—she has that look in her eyes again—, the portal whispers again, and out of it comes Ivor, the portal immediately deactivating behind him, probably its other half being broken by the Wither Storm.

“Oh, you again.”

“That’s my line, bitch.”

Chapter Text

Not to sound like a simp, but already simping a little, if Techno has to describe Dream in five words or less, then the words “compelling work of art” will come tumbling out of his mouth with abandon. Ever since Dream first appeared on his radar, Techno has enjoyed watching the fearless blonde and his crazy antics. He had his own stuff to do, of course, so he couldn’t spend much time watching the Dream Team’s leader, but when he could, he’d watch it with fierce attention. Specially the manhunts and speedruns, where Dream seems to awaken some special power that makes it look like time has stopped just for the blonde.

So, of course, the punch Dream delivers to Ivor’s face is also a work of art.

“Agh!” The old man grunts, taking a few steps back before directing a glare at Dream. “More needless violence. I’m sure it’ll help.”

“Be happy I just punched you, old man.” Dream takes his axe out, the iron blade shining crimson in the hellish Nether. “Keep that head of yours useful and I’ll let you keep it in your shoulders.”

See? A work of art.

“Ivor, what were you thinking?!” Gabriel asks, brows furrowed. It’d be scarier if he wasn’t so useless.

“He probably wasn’t,” Techno answers, crossing his arms, “But he better start now because there is a monster wrecking shit who’d love to eat away its creator.”

“Empty threats are really helpful,” Ivor scoffs.

“I don’t make empty threats, asshole.” Ok, Techno really  wants to punch Ivor now. Maybe he can give the man a black eye to go with Dream’s, the man already looks like a racoon, won’t make that big of a difference.

“Ivor, we need to stop that creature!”

“There is no stopping that beast, Gabriel! Reunite the Order as many times as you want, it will be of no use!”

“Well, aren’t you a happy camper?”

“I am tired of being sassed by someone dressed as a pig!” Ivor shouts, making Techno’s ear twitch in irritation, “You better give up and learn to survive in the Nether, there is no hope left for the world up there!”

With that, the man swallows an invisibility potion in one go and disappears, leaving behind only one bottle. Silence reigns for a few moments until Dream suddenly erupts in laughter, loud and wheezy, clutching his stomach with one hand while holding himself up with the help of the axe. The group of teens and Gabriel look at him with confused looks, but Techno can only smile at the blonde’s joy.

“I can’t believe you sassed him away!” Dream exclaims once his laughter subsides.

“My best quality.”

“Oh, I think I can find a few more of those~”

Gabriel clears his throat before the pinkette can answer, looking from him to the blonde awkwardly, like an explorer trying to find out what the new thing they just found is. Petra and Lukas are sharing the same odd look, while Jesse and her friends just look confused. Dream winks at the piglin hybrid, putting away the iron axe with a glowing smile. 

“So, what now?” Jesse asks.

“There is a railroad not far away from here, if we take it, we might find the rest of the Order of the Stone! Together we will be able to defeat that monster!”

Techno really wants to laugh right in Gabriel’s face for his arrogance. As far as he remembers, pretty much every victory the man has under his belt was obtained through cheating using the Command Block. The part that bothers the pinkette the most isn’t even the cheating—he couldn’t care less how they did it—, but how Gabriel still carries himself as if he is a hard working warrior who got to the top with his own skill. This fake hero will never know the bone deep exhaustion of countless training sessions, the painful calluses and blisters after hours of handling weapons, the aching of the muscles  every movement.

Gabriel will never know what a true battle is. He will never experience standing in the middle of that stranded floating island, surrounded by void and certain death, unable to look around freely in fear of attracting the attention of Endermen while your heart trembles with the thunderous roar of the mighty dark beast. He will never get to experience the point of no return, the dread of the simple thought of dying and being forgotten in the End.

Gabriel will never carry that terror in his heart.

A hand grabbing his wrist snaps Techno out of his thoughts, green eyes looking at him with a complicated mix of worry and understanding. He nods minutely, knowing the blonde will understand his silent gratitude. His ears twitch as a sudden noise comes from nearby. No one else reacts, no one else should since he is the one with inhuman ears, but there is a Ghast coming in their direction. Ghasts are not hard to deal with, one hit with a sword to send its fireball back and it’s done, but they are very annoying in their loudness.

“You might want to start walking then, there’s something coming.” He looks at Dream, who nods with a slight smile—this man is always smiling, who would’ve thought that “Smiles” would fit him so well.

“You heard him, people! Chop, chop, Gabriel, show us the way!”

Gabriel looks like he wants to say something for a second, but shows that his brain cells still work somewhat by closing his mouth and pointing to the right direction. They run to the location of the railroad, Dream and Techno at the very back, and they’re almost there when the Ghast makes itself present with a shrill cry. Differently from the zombies, who already have terrifying detail, Ghasts in this server are much simpler with their smooth shape and pale flesh, like a jellyfish with hellish eyes and fire spit.

The piglin turns around just in time to hit the fireball back to the mob with his sword, the fireball hitting the thing square in the face, killing it instantaneously. Without even looking back to look, the pinkette runs back to the group, ignoring their awed looks. Dream quickly snaps them out of their reverie, guiding each of them to a mine cart. The order is Gabriel, Jesse with Reuben, Olivia, Petra, Lukas and Axel, with one empty minecart left.

“I hope you don’t mind sharing, Princy.”

“I’m not sitting on your lap, Smiles.”

Dream laughs as they both push the line of minecarts, running together to give it momentum. Once they’re sure it won’t stop, Techno jumps in, offering a hand to Dream, who grabs it with a thankful smile and jumps inside, falling on his but right in Techno’s lap. It’s a tight fit, the outdated servers only have one person minecarts, and both men are quite tall and big—Techno in particular—, but they manage to squeeze together, though Dream’s legs are dangling from the side. As the cart goes, the others start talking about the Nether, leaving Dream and Techno to talk quietly between themselves.

“I hate the Nether.”

“Really? Weren’t you born in the Nether?”

“Exactly. The server I came from, coming from the Nether is never a good thing, no matter how much you tell people that no, piglins don’t eat humans.”

“Yikes. I feel bad for you, now. My server was mostly just boring. A set routine that would repeat every single day, it would drive me crazy.”

“Really? You preferred to fight the Ender Dragon instead of going through your routine? How old were you, anyways?”

“Twelve, and yes, absolutely. I will fight a thousand dragons if that means I won’t be trapped in that place again. Besides, I still visit from time to time.”

Techno hums, resting his arms on the borders of the cart.

“You can lean back, I won’t mind.”

“I thought you weren’t a fan of touching.”

“I think we can reach a compromise when crammed together like sardines in a can.”

Dream chuckles, leaning his back against the piglin hybrid’s chest. Almost immediately, his shoulders sag, a little satisfied breath leaving his lips, barely audible over the noise of the wheels rolling against the rails. If he concentrates, the pinkette can smell the fruity scent coming from the mess of blonde hair, something citrus like lime.

“Sleepy?”

“A little.”

“Take a nap, I’ll wake you when we get there.”

“Y’know, you’re surprisingly reliable. Are you sure you don’t mind?” And without waiting for an answer, Dream lets his head drop in the junction between Techno’s neck and shoulder, hair tickling his chin.

“Heh, you’re too trusting, I’m going to throw you in a lava pool as soon as you close your eyes.”

Silence greets him, making him smile as he curls one arm around Dream’s body so he won’t be jostled too much during their hellish rollercoaster ride. This man truly is unbelievable, he can even speedrun falling asleep.

Chapter Text

“They are so cute!”

“I can’t believe they fell asleep!”

Jesse giggles, still remarking how cute the two odd travelers are in her mind. She still has some doubts about them, mostly because the level of skill they have shown so far is way past what she knows of the Order of the Stone and she can’t shake the feeling that they have yet to get serious, but they’re almost nothing compared to the quickly building trust.

Technoblade is still a bit thorny, with his almost mean way of speaking and the uninterested look forever plastered on his face no matter what impressive feat he does, but Jesse can see that under all that is someone who genuinely cares. It’s very easy to catch that when he’s with Dream, though, the pinkette softens almost immediately as soon as his eyes fall on the shorter—but still very tall—man. Dream is, in contrast, very open and supportive, always smiling brightly and laughing freely, specially when he’s with Techno. He does have, however, a very peculiar glint in his eyes, something venomous and scary that sends shivers down her spine if she tries to think too much about it.

It’s like Techno never bothers to hide the fact he is very dangerous, while Dream is the master of seeming absolutely harmless.

They complete each other.

Jesse hopes to have a relationship like theirs some day.

The girl approaches their cart cautiously, eyes glued on them. They look so peaceful, no trace of Techno’s permanent intensity and Dream’s constant scheming, she almost doesn’t want to wake them up, but they need to keep moving. The entire world is counting on them. So she gently touches Dream’s shoulder in hopes a gentle shake will be enough to wake him up, but as soon as the tips of her fingers touch him, he immediately opens his eyes, a big hand catching hers in a grip just shy from bruising.

The blonde’s eyes are very green, they almost glow with the supernatural lighting of the Nether, emerald mixed with gold. They’re fixated on her, and Dream’s mouth is in a straight line. He looks like a beast that just got provoked.

Half a second passes before Dream’s eyes go back to their usual shade of awareness, the blonde apologizing for scaring her with a genuine smile as he lets her go. It takes some maneuvering, but he manages to get out of the cart without much trouble, though he does wake up Techno in the process, who gives him a soft glare he answers with a grin. While Dream stretches with a yawn, Techno jumps off the cart as graciously as someone as big and as sleepy as him can.

“Good morning, how the heck did you two fall asleep? It’s, like, a thousand degrees here.” Petra asks, crossing her arms.

“I’m used to the Nether,” Dream replies, walking up the stairs after the others with the pinkette by his side.

“Heat never bothered me anyway.” Techno shrugs, grinning faintly at Dream’s laughter. They look at each other for a moment, looking like a married couple sharing an exciting secret.

They are so cute.

The group make their way up the stairs, and waiting at the end of them is a whole platform made of netherrack, with multiple railways breaching from all sides. One solitary Nether portal sits in the middle of it, whispering gibberish. The floor in front of it is of glass, making it possible to see the gurgling lava under them. Definitely good for one’s anxiety.

Jesse takes a deep breath. In the Nether, it feels even the deepest of breaths can’t fill your lungs with how stale the air feels. The heat nibbles her skin relentlessly, it doesn’t hurt but it sure could. No matter how many times she wipes the sweat off her face, soon she’s soaked again, and she doesn’t even want to think about how sticky her clothes feel. The others are much the same, covered in sweat and blushing with the heat, Gabriel looking the worst of them all with his heavy armor.

Technoblade is utterly unfazed, in fact he looks like he has never been more at ease. Dream looks mostly unbothered, but he does roll up the sleeves of his hoodie.

“No matter how many times I come and how long I stay, the Nether is always annoying,” the blonde man says, as if he’s suffering with the heat and not looking just mildly inconvenienced.

“How long can you last with that hoodie?” Techno questions, ignoring the conversation between Olivia, Petra and Gabriel about the portal. Jesse finds the two adults’ conversations more interesting, anyways, so she doesn’t feel bad about doing the same.

“A day and a half if I’m idle, half a day if I’m running, which I usually am.”

“How do you even survive the Manhunts?”

“I’m too stubborn to die to something like heat, Techno.” Dream smiles, walking up to the portal with a smirk. “Besides, if I were to die for something hot, it wouldn’t be the Nether.”

“... that was terrible.”

Dream only laughs at Techno’s remark, gently pushing Axel aside while declaring he’ll be entering the portal first. As Gabriel tries to stop the blonde, Jesse can’t help but stare at the pinkette, admiring the rare smile that is not so rare when his partner is around. Said pinkette catches her gaze, red eyes going back to their heated indifference, one eyebrow arching in inquiry. She smiles at him and he huffs before approaching Dream and Gabriel with large steps.

“I can’t let you go first, it’d be wrong!” Gabriel insists.

“And letting children go sure isn’t,” Techno drawls, standing in Dream’s left, right in front of the whispering portal.

“We’re not kids!” Petra complains.

“Hush, child, adults talking over here.” Techno smirks at Petra over his shoulder before looking back at Gabriel. “Stay put and protect them, if you’re so desperate to play hero. Whatever is waiting on the other side has no chance against either of us, much less both.”

Dream only smiles kindly at Jesse and her friends, remarking that they should be careful and wait for them to return. Then he grabs Techno’s wrist before the pinkette can crush Gabriel’s spirit some more—both Dream and Techno seem to have some contempt towards Gabriel and the Order, but Jesse feels like it’s not her place to ask—and steps on the portal, the pink haired man following after easily.

One day she hopes they feel comfortable enough around the group to hold hands properly. It must suck to restrain yourself from being affectionate with your lover.

Chapter Text

What greets Dream as soon as he walks through the portal is water.

And a zombie, but it is so irrelevant his axe takes care of it with one swift attack.

What matters is the sweet sigh of relief that leaves him when he jumps on the water, splashing it around. As used as he is to the Nether, and as fun as running around and jumping lava pools is, Dream can’t deny he’d much rather go anywhere else. Specially since after a few hours he really would need to take off the hoodie, and while he isn’t exactly shy… Some things are better left covered by green fabric.

“Enjoying yourself?” Techno asks, eyes shining with amusement as he watches the blonde kick some water.

“I am~”

“I’ll go tell the other children it’s safe.”

“Sure thing, daddy-o.”

“Say that again and I will kill you, Smiles.”

“Hey, you’re the one calling us your kids, Daddy-o.”

“I hate you,” The pinkette growls, but Dream can tell it’s a playful thing, so he smiles.

Techno quickly informs the others that they can come out, and soon the whole group is together under the starry sky. Dream hums a random tune as he ascends nearby stairs, looking around with a skip on his steps. The moon is high. They are in the middle of nowhere. A gentle breeze ruffles his hair like a caress, bringing back memories of nights much like this one, spent with friends and spent alone, always looking for something. No matter how many times he has done that, the starry sky still takes his breath away every single time, no matter what server. He can hear Petra asking Gabriel what direction the temple is, and Lukas suggesting they camp for the night before going anywhere.

“Lukas is right,” the blonde interrupts the discussion, “It’s the middle of the night and none of us has had much of a break the entire day, not to mention the stress of the sudden Nether trip. Right now we should build shelter, light a fire and rest.”

“You heard the man, grab some dirt and let’s make a dirt shack, we need something quick and simple.” Jesse claps her hands, smiling at her friends, probably to encourage them, and getting a few smiles back.

Their group is big and the shack is ready in no time. It is very simple and the only advantage they have is that mobs usually only attack when they see someone, but for one night it is more than enough. Dream has slept in worse conditions. Technoblade quickly makes a fire right in the middle, using Jesse’s pitiful excuse of a wooden sword as fuel—thank God that thing is gone now—, and soon the room is as cozy as a hut made of dirt can get. Everyone sits around the fire, backs to the walls. The speedrunner and the fighter sit a little away from the rest, near the door, in case something happens. It’s doubtful a zombie from this server will be capable of breaking down a door, but since it has some elements of a hardcore server, better safe than sorry.

They watch in silence as Axel offers his cookies to his friends and Petra, absolutely unconcerned about the others. He does give Dream and Techno an apologetic look that soon turns into a relieved one when Techno takes out of his inventory some apples to give to Dream and Reuben. The pink haired piglin hybrid glares at Dream when the blonde gives his apple to Lukas, but doesn’t make a fuss when handing another apple to the speedrunner, who quickly hands it to Gabriel before asking for another.

“I should have left you standing in that forest.”

“But you didn’t~”

The apple is very sweet.

Dream zones out for the rest of the group’s conversation, the exhaustion of the day finally hitting as he eats the apple. The good side about this server being outdated is that he doesn’t have to worry about seeds and other stuff, since the apple is just a ball of fruit, no seeds whatsoever. He’s so out of it that he barely registers Axel and Lukas fighting. Dream has not slept in three days now, and it’s starting to show in his droopy eyes and sluggish movements. That nap on the Nether did barely anything for him. Tiredly, he lowers his head a little and closes his eyes, Techno can take the first turn.

“Shut up already.” He hears Techno command, and he smiles at the pink haired man’s annoyed tone. “Axel, stop you bitching, your voice is annoying and nobody wants to hear it.”

“Language,” Dream mumbles, not bothering to touch on what Techno is saying. He agrees a little, Axel’s bitching was starting to get bothersome.

“And Lukas,” this time Dream can hear the glare and lightly hits his friend on the arm as a warning, knowing how mean Techno can get, “you can’t blame him for not liking you when not once you told your goons to shut up.”

“You’re the leader, you should’ve at least tried,” he mutters, barely audible in his exhaustion.

“Listen to Team Mom.”

“Shut up, Daddy-o.”

He hears Technoblade chuckle, and an arm tentatively rests on his shoulders, bringing him to lean against a warm body that is no doubt the piglin hybrid. His long hair is soft against Dream’s temple, and he is so very warm Dream can’t help but melt against him. Usually he’d be hesitant to touch the other like this, at most grabbing his wrist or hand, but after that nap on his lap, it doesn’t feel weird to just let it happen.

“Now go to sleep, all of you.”

“What about you, Techno?”

“I’ll sleep too, you think I’m a rock?”

That is a lie and they both know it. Dream only huffs in amusement, shaking his head with a grin, feeling the arm around him squeeze him a little in camaraderie.

Techno smells of leather and firewood.

Chapter Text

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s too early for this drama.”

“Techno, shush.”

Techno sighs, watching as Lukas talks with Jesse outside the shack while the others still sleep. He’s pretty sure the blonde brat wanted to be alone with the brunette brat, but he didn’t count on Techno and Dream being already awake and lounging under the rising sun. Or, well, Dream is lounging and Techno is picking on him for sunbathing with a hoodie. The blonde refuses to take it off, though, and Techno doesn’t want to make him uncomfortable, so he’s glad when Lukas and Jesse leave the shack, even if to have some dramatic conversation.

At least Dream seems to be having fun, laying down on his stomach, swinging his legs like a teenager with a crush. Techno leans back to support himself on his hands, feet dangling from the border of the “roof”.

“What for?” Jesse asks, because her brain cells are clearly still waking up.

“Techno and Dream were right, I shouldn’t have just watched as my friends picked on you guys.” Lukas rubs his arm in embarrassment, looking anywhere but the girl, the coward. “I can’t apologize for them, but I can apologize for myself, and I am truly sorry for being a coward and not telling them to stop.”

“... I can’t forgive you for my friends, but know that you’re good in my book.”

“Really, just like that?”

Sadly, that last quip isn’t low enough to be a whisper, and the two teens immediately turn to look at the “roof” of the shack, spotting the two adults. Dream sighs, hitting the pinkette’s thigh playfully, throwing him an amused glare. Techno only huffs back, grinning with a brow raised, prompting a roll of green eyes from his friend. Jesse asks what they’re doing, Dream answers, but Techno is more interested in throwing Lukas a glare. The blonde teen flinches under his gaze. Good. Tremble in fear of the Blood God.

“Stop scaring the poor boy.” Dream gently tugs his hair to get his attention, which he gets, crimson meeting green.

“Jesse is forgiving him too fast.”

“Jesse is the one to decide that.”

“If it was me—”

“Techie, pal, not everyone is a petty as you.”

“Don’t call me pal, what are you, old? And that’s rich coming from you, Smiles.”

The speedrunner only laughs, jumping down from the roof with his usual grace, making Techno’s less than skilled descent look like a toddler falling off one step. At least he falls on his feet, the humiliation of having Lukas see him fail is not something he would ever recover. Dream chuckles as if reading his thoughts, which he probably does, but doesn’t react to the glare directed at him, instead asking the younger blonde to wake up the others.

Soon, their group is whole and moving again.

Yay.

“Stop showing off, you damn monkey.”

“Language!”

Techno huffs as Dream jumps around, doing tricks to get awed sounds from the teens. They should be awed, Dream is a treat to watch when he’s doing what he is the best at, but the piglin is way too groggy to care. No one should be allowed to have that much energy in the morning. Coffee is not even a thing on this server, what is this? Thankfully, they soon find the place they need to go. The episode is finally ending.

“This is it! The Temple of the Order of the Stone,” Gabriel announces.

“That’s a mouthful,” Petra comments, surprising the piglin hybrid who genuinely forgot she was even there. In his defense, she wasn’t there in his gameplay. And he doesn’t care enough to keep tabs. “You sure this is it?”

“Yes, look!” Gabriel takes out of his inventory the amulet of the Order, showing how it matches the structure of the temple.

Suddenly, a hand finds its way to Techno’s wrist, the gesture almost familiar by now. Techno looks at Dream in worry at the tight grip, seeing the eyes of his friend glued to the amulet, and is about to ask what’s the matter when he remembers the hidden purpose behind the amulet: to attract the Wither Storm to its bearer. That’s how the monster can find Jesse wherever they are, Ivor had programmed the command block to follow it because he knew Gabriel carried it left and right, and because of that, without knowing Gabriel gave a teenager the equivalent of a target.

God, Techno wants to punch Ivor too. Many times.

The grip on his wrist relaxes, telling him Dream calmed down, but not enough to let go. It’s fine, considering the damage that little wheel will do, Dream’s reaction to it is not a surprise. He’s probably considering punching Ivor again. Techno will let him get the first punch when they inevitably meet the slimy old man again.

It’s dim inside the temple, but the pressure plates are still very obvious, obvious enough for Techno to walk inside while ignoring Gabriel's warnings about traps. Dream walks behind him, pointing out the traps and explaining, rudimentarily, how the redstone circuits behind them work, probably stuff picked from his friends. Olivia, Jesse and Lukas seem very interested, while the other musclebrains stare like someone just told them their shoelaces are made of chicken.

They follow the corridor until they get to a library, or the “enchantment room” as the blonde brat calls it. The piglin hybrid gives the speedrunner a pleading look, not wanting to waste time waiting for Jesse to finally be the only useful person and find what they need to find, but Dream only shakes his head, mouthing a “not now”. So Techno has to wait until Jesse gets to the end of the library and read Ivor’s diary about how he was totally part of the Order, how shocking. The good part is that Gabriel is with them this time, and Techno gets to watch as Jesse and the others rip the fake hero a new one. Poor guy backs away from the group of teens with a panicked look in his face, probably regretting every decision that led to this moment. Maybe he should’ve thought things through before deciding to be a phony.

“Ivor is part of the Order? And you never told anyone? Any of you?”

“We… we had our reasons, Jesse.”

“Reasons to lie to the whole world?” Petra looks like she’s ready to pull a Dream and punch a member of the Order. Oh, how much Techno misses popcorn.

“Look, I’ll tell you, all of you, the whole story once we get rid of the creature.”

“You’ll tell everyone,” Jesse commands with a glare, “You will tell everyone that you and your friends have been lying to them, got it?”

Gabriel nods quickly in agreement, his survival instincts probably kicking in. After that, Dream conveniently points out the stairs for the top floor, diffusing the tension. They all make their way up, finding more of a crumbling temple and one of the banes of Techno’s existence: the light puzzle. He groans, loud and long, the moment he sees it, and even louder and longer when Gabriel mentions not quite remembering the order of the switches. 

Call him an old man, but he’s going to sit down in this nice rock and have himself some nice time with Reuben, who comes to sit near him for whatever reason. Probably because piglins are not that far away from pigs, so Reuben feels attracted to Techno as if they were related or something. Techno can’t deny, though, the little guy is very cute. He can’t resist the urge to pet his little head, delighted by the happy oinks and huffs he gets in response. So very cute.

He’s snapped out of his happy moment when Dream and Jesse cheer loudly, big smiles on their faces as they celebrate figuring the puzzle out. Techno watches from his rock as the group looks at the moving green and red lights, Gabriel explaining that it’s a tracking system, which, duh, and also, red flag. Now that he thinks about it, it’s never explained how the amulet can find the other members of the order. Maybe each of them has one made specifically for them, and the tracker is actually tracking the amulets and not the people.

That opens some questions about why are they carrying their amulets still and why did Ivor seek revenge against Gabriel and not literally the actual culprit behind their hollow fame but the pinkette finds that he can’t bring himself to care about answering those questions. He might want to punch some people. More than once.

“We should split up,” Gabriel suggests, “We know where Magnus and Ellagaard are, it might take too long to get one by one, and we still need to find Soren.”

“I’ll stay here and fortify the temple, we don’t know how long we’ll have to stay and I’d rather not risk getting eaten,” Lukas offers, Petra agreeing to stay with him.

Guess what Technoblade won’t be doing?

“Olivia, Jesse and I will go get Ellegaard. Gabriel, you go get Magnus with Axel and Techno. Also, I’ll be needing that amulet so we can convince Ellegaard.”

Oh, Hell no.

“Excuse us for a second,” Techno pipes in, approaching the speedrunner with large steps and grabbing his wrist, much how the blonde himself does, to pull him away from the group and back to the rock he had been sitting seconds ago. “Are you out of your mind? Did you hit your head? Are you sick?”

He puts his other hand on Dream’s forehead, noting that he is not feverish. Then he runs his fingers through Dream’s hair—softer than he thought it’d be—, trying to find a bump or a cut. He finds none, but he still tries a second search just in case, being stopped by the blonde grabbing his hands, smiling brightly at him as if he didn’t just put himself in high risk.

“Dream, that thing…” Techno leans down and lowers his voice so none of the others will hear him. “That monster will follow that amulet to the End and back, you know that. You’re putting yourself in danger, in a world that has Hardcore settings. You can die, or get that disease.”

“I’ll be fine, I’m not that easy to kill, y’know? I defeated the Ender Dragon at age 12, remember? Just a tiny human, and I won.” Dream gently guides Techno’s hand down to his cheek and finally lets it rest where his neck meets his shoulder, allowing Techno to feel his rapid heartbeat. “I’ll be careful, but there’s no way Ellagaard will believe us without that amulet.”

“I could go with you instead. The two of us. Maybe Jesse, she’s useful.”

“And let Axel and Gabriel go find Magnus by themselves? Maybe even with Petra and her short fuse? You know they’re going to make a mess.”

“Why do I have to clean it? I’m not their dad.”

“Please? For me? I really don’t like the idea of leaving them to wander outside, Jesse and Petra are the only ones with combat skills, and I don’t really trust Gabriel.”

It’s not like he can deny Dream’s worries, he wouldn’t trust Gabriel with his toenail, much less with a brat or two. And now that they’re living through it, it’s hard to say the plot will save any of them when danger comes; even Jesse who’s the protagonist is at risk of losing her life. Techno doesn’t like any of them, but he cannot in good conscience leave them all to die because of the petty incompetence of a bunch of adults with too much pride and hero-complex. Even Lukas, the most useless to ever useless, doesn’t deserve such fate now that he is more than pixels in his computer.

Technoblade stares long and hard at Dream’s eyes, trying to find something he is not exactly sure of what it is in the deep pools of green, but he doesn’t find it, whatever it is, knowing he’s fighting a losing battle. With a heavy sigh, he lets go of the blonde, stepping back slowly, not really willing to let go of his friend, the only anchor to his life outside the Story Mode server. Dream does the same, his smaller but just as calloused hands slipping out of Techno’s with a feathery touch, before he turns to his group.

“Smiles, if you die, I’m bringing you back and kicking your ass.”

“Language, and same, Daddy-o.”

Techno huffs, answering to Dream’s impish wink with a weak glare. A glare that becomes the real deal when his eyes fall on Gabriel, the Fake Hero, as the man hands the cursed amulet to Dream. The man flinches, looking up briefly at Techno before bolting to the opposite direction of Dream’s team with a cheerful “let’s go” that gets repeated by Axel. Techno rolls his eyes, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

He hopes his eyes don’t fall out of his eye sockets with how much he’s about to roll them.

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you don’t mind going with us?”

“Jesse, for the last time, I don’t mind. I want to go with you guys. Besides, Techno can take care of himself and the others.”

Dream knows that better than anyone, having fought alongside and against the piglin hybrid many times ever since they first met. Sure, he is worried about him, but less about whatever trouble will come his way and more about who’s with him. Techno might appear uninterested and distant, but the fact is that he has quite the short fuse, and once he meets his limit, he’s bound to do something that it’s most likely going to involve destroying whatever is annoying him so much. And between Axel being a little obnoxious and Gabriel being a lot incompetent, the blonde knows for sure the pinkette is going to hit the limit very soon. Add that Magnus in the mix and the Wither Storm might not be the problem in the near future.

He just hopes that exploding stuff makes Techno calm down.

Olivia, none the wiser to Dream and Jesse’s conversation, only marvels at Ellegaard’s automated trails, wondering out loud how long and how much scaffolding it’d take to do something like this, making the blonde chuckle at her excitement. Happy to change subjects, Dream tells her all about the machineries his friend Sam would make, taking pride in his friend’s skills every time the girls’ eyes lighten up in wonder. The minecarts practically fly through the Nether, meaning they won’t have to stay too long in the hellishly hot realm, which he’s thankful for because he really doesn’t want to take off his hoodie. He can already feel the sweat on his forehead thanks the stuffy air of the Nether.

Suddenly, interrupting his rambling about his friend’s accomplishments, a loud cry of a Ghast can be heard, and soon enough said Ghast appears, red eyes falling on them with a glare. The speedrunner stands up, taking his axe out of his inventory. The wind whistles in his ears, and the minecart—the minecart in the very middle, between the girls and Reuben who’s sharing with Jesse—shakes a little, not exactly made for carrying moving beings. The white mob screams again, opening its mouth to shoot a fireball that would hit them for sure.

Would, of course, if Dream wasn’t there to parry it back, killing it effortlessly.

“Man, I should try doing this in a Manhunt. It’d be awesome.” With that he sits down back again, about to ask the girls if they’re ok only to be met with disbelief. “What?”

“That… was… AWESOME!” Jesse yells, throwing her hands up, “How did you do that? How did you know it would do that?”

“Ghasts are not that strong, they just are annoying because they keep their distance. Send their fireball back to them with enough strength and you’ll get a one hit kill.”

Olivia whistles and Jesse claps her hands, making Dream puff up his chest with pride. What can he say, he loves some compliments. Who doesn’t, anyways? The rest of the trip goes smoothly, and soon they’re at the portal to Redstonia. Honestly, Dream still remembers how much Techno complained about the name of the city and he has to agree. Redstonia of all things? Specially considering it’s the home of someone called Ellegaard. What’s next, Wireland? Pistontopia? Sure, he won’t be saying those thoughts out loud, he’s not going to rain on the girl’s parade, but Dream is complaining in his mind.

He wonders how Techno is faring in Boom Town.

Dream snickers to himself quietly, winking at Reuben when the pig gives him a look. The three jump out of the minecarts and inside the portal, the girls talking animatedly about the machinery of the great builders in Redstonia. Dream himself is impressed, as he always is, seeing all the machines and builds working once they make their way through the bridge and the town to where the only female member of the Order is giving a speech. He wishes Sam was here, just to see him crush the building tournament and make Ellegaard doubt her entire existence.

What? Dream can be petty too.

Soon enough, Ellegaard finishes her speech and hides away in her… Dome of Concentration… There is a joke there but Dream is not sure if he wants to make it. Neither is the author. Moving on. Olivia warns Jesse to not let the inventor lock herself in as soon as the assistant , and they rush to the steps without noticing Dream and Reuben standing in the same place, refusing to move. And they are right, of course, as the two girls end up falling harshly on the floor after the steps of the stairs retract back on the walls. Sticky pistons, most likely.

“What now?” Olivia asks, still massaging her behind as the two return to where Dream is.

“Wait, I’ll talk with her assistant,” Jesse answers, quickly making her way to an older man with a bushy beard and square glasses. He looks like a History teacher. “Hello, mr… Calvin, yes? We really, really need to talk with Ellegaard, it’s urgent.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, but that’ll be quite impossible right now, she’s in lockdown until her next invention is done,” Calvin apologises, “But lucky for you, I’m here! How can I help you?”

“Can you give her a message?” Dream pipes in, saving a man who’s clearly only doing his job from Jesse’s suspicious stare, “We are here to deliver a message from Gabriel. Y’know, from the Order of the Stone? He even gave us his amulet, I’m sure if you show Ellegaard this, she’ll recognize it.”

With that, he hands the amulet in his inventory to Calvin, smiling as the man’s eyes lighten up with the shiny odd thing. Calvin ponders for a bit, looking at all four of them—props to him for including Reuben—before agreeing with a sigh, telling them he’ll do his best to deliver their message. As they watch the man walk away with the amulet in hands, Jesse asks if that was a good idea, to which Dream’s only response is to keep quiet, waiting for Calvin to do the Calvin thing and take away the repeater connecting the stairs to the lever.

As if that would do anything.

Repeaters have a neat little function where they repeat the signal of a redstone wiring. Redstone can only go so far, and once the signal—or energy—reaches its limit, no matter how much redstone you put on the next block, it’ll never go through. But add a repeater and BAM! The wiring will take that signal forwads until the next repeater is needed. It has other functions too, of course, but that’s the most basic one and it is exactly how the repeater is being used in this system, which means as long as they find a way to send a signal through the rest of the wiring—for example, using a lever—, the stairs should work.

Honestly, you’d think that a “great inventor” like Ellegaard would know all of that and avoid leaving the wiring in the open like that. And you’d think the “great minds of Redstonia” would’ve thought of putting a simple button at the end of the wiring or breaking the wiring while someone was at the stairs as a prank.

… Oh, God, Dream’s starting to sound like Techno.

“So… we need another repeater?”

“Olivia, hon, you’re a smart girl, don’t do me like this.” The girl looks at him quizzically and he gives her a small smile. He can’t blame her, for all he knows she never had anyone teach her the ropes. “Olivia, what do repeaters do?”

“They repeat signals from a source…” Olivia brightens up and Dream’s smile gets bigger. “There’s no need for a repeater if the signal can reach its destination directly from the source!”

“Atta girl!” Dream laughs, patting Olivia on the head. “Jesse, can you get the middle lever Calvin used earlier and flip the one to the right?”

“Sure can!”

The lever flipped makes the door open. Once that’s done, Jesse brings the other level and, being the bright girl, puts it where before was the repeater, bringing back the stairs for them to climb. On the way up, Dream explains how he knew the door switch would work because while complex, redstone wiring still has terrible limitations. One single line cannot respond to three different levels with three different functions, so there must be more wiring systems underground, at least two.

Getting inside the place, Dream can appreciate the building and how cool it looks, the sandstone and the… orange brick thing—ok, Dream is not big on building, he’s usually more worried about not dying while being hunted. But the redstone wiring gives him a headache. The door of the foyer makes absolutely no sense if you look at the wiring near the walls. Said wiring makes absolutely no sense by itself! Why are there so many repeaters? Why are there levers that seemingly have no function when the door opens by itself? And how does the door open by itself without pressure plates?

And don’t get him started with that golden door and its stupid repeater.

Sam would burn this place down and Dream would light his torch.

“Wow, I wonder what Ellegaard is trying to create with so many ingredients?” Olivia asks, looking at the many pipes of water carrying items to where Ellegaard is. “She did say something about a Command Block, maybe it has something to do with that.”

That makes Dream stop midstep. Now he knows why the whole Command Block situation always bothered him, even when this server was just a fictional game for him. There is a Command Block in this server, and not only that, but it can be made. Sure, Ellegaard fails, but the blonde can remember that she gets quite close.

It should be impossible.

Command Blocks cannot exist in Survival servers.

Chapter Text

“Woooooohooooooo!”

“Ellegaard’s redstone work is incredible, isn’t it?” Gabriel smiles, watching as Axel waves his hands in the air like the child he is. “Took her days to get this working.”

“She must be terrible at redstone, then.”

Technoblade has to hold back the grin—actually, no, he doesn’t. Dream is not here to poke him and tell him to behave, it’s free real estate. So he grins, he smirks, showing off his slightly pointy teeth and all of his smugness when the fake hero glares at him. Oh, sweet, sweet freedom, a small mercy considering what he’s about to go through. He wonders if Dream thought about that when he suggested they separate.

“What? Redstone rails are the easiest thing: put down two or three every few normal rails, add a constant redstone source near them and there you have it. Anyone with a single working brain cell can work that out.”

“Are you always this… joyful?” Gabriel frowns, as if Techno didn’t just call out his bullshit.

It’s pretty obvious that most, if not all, of the Order doesn’t know what the Hell they’re talking about, as shown by Gabriel being useless with the glowy stick he calls a sword—well, the sword is actually a pretty good one, but in the hands of incompetence in person, it is nothing but a glowy stick—and Ellegaard’s overestimated redstone work. If he remembers correctly, her house is actually full of weird and definitely useless redstone wiring. Dream must be having fun with that, considering he’s a bit of a redstone nerd himself, and being good friends with Sam, who probably would have a syncope if he saw it.

Axel whoops again, reminding Techno that he is, in fact, the most infuriating kid to ever exist in this server after Lukas.

“What?” He asks when Techno openly glares at his happiness. “I know the world is ending, but you can’t always look at the negative in things!”

Oh, God, that sounds like something Dream would say, with a teasing grin and a wink, and Techno’s foul mood gets a little worse with the sting brought by the lack of one blonde speedrunner. As if him worrying about Dream being followed by the Wither Storm thanks to that stupid amulet wasn’t enough, now he misses the blonde’s presence dearly.

Techno needs to hit something.

Thankfully, a Ghast appears.

“Don’t panic!” Gabriel yells, “Does anyone have a bow?!”

“Are you kidding me?” Techno grumbles, getting up inside his cart at the very end of their line.

It shakes a little, still small and certainly not made for full grown piglin hybrids, but Techno has fought in steep ground multiple times, being born and raised in the Nether and going through multiple battles in Hypixel and other servers. Unsheathing his sword takes no time, the diamond blade shining beautifully with the light of the ocean of lava underneath them. The Ghast screams, opening its eyes and spitting a ball of fire. With the ease of someone who has done that a thousand times, which he has, Techno strikes the fireball with his blade, sending it back to the Ghast, ending it. Maybe he hit it with a little too much force, and maybe he’s gripping the sword a little too tightly, but give him a break, he’s stressed, ok?

Because now it finally dawned on him why the Ghasts in Story Mode always felt off. Ghasts are hostile only when the player is in their view, and they tend to stay far away and stop attacking once their target is far enough. Yet the Ghasts of this server actively chase people around, almost as if their programming was messed with.

The more he thinks about this, the more weird the Story Mode server gets. Hardcore settings, Ghasts acting out of their nature, the Command Block… the Command Block in a Survival server.

“Technoblade?”

The piglin’s eyes snap to Gabriel’s face, meeting his warm brown irises. For the first time, Techno doesn’t feel contempt when looking at Gabriel. Instead, he allows his troubled mind to take comfort in the older man’s worried stare. Out of everyone in the Order, Gabriel is the least terrible. Still a liar and still too prideful for a farce—and daft, considering the whole “asking teenaggers for help” situation—but genuinely caring for the people. If only he wasn’t a charlatan.

“That was so cool, Techno! With you here, Boom Town will be easy peasy!” Axel exclaims, bouncing in this cart in the very front, making it shake a little.

Wait.

“Boom Town?”

“Yeah, man, that’s where Magnus lives. No rules, utter chaos, just how I like it.”

“In fucking Boom Town?! Are you kidding me?”

And he thought Redstonia was fucking bad, but Boom Town? Is this a joke? It has to be a joke, but considering the plaques on the way—which, by the way, terribly designed, and hurt his eyes—and the serious looks on his companions’ faces, it is not a joke. Technoblade, the Blood God, the PvP King, is going to motherfucking Boom goddamn Town. His sudden appreciation for Gabriel, who is friends with Magnus and let him name his town Boom Town, goes down the drain so fast he almost gets a whiplash. Did Dream know about this? Is that why he sent Techno here and went to slightly better named Redstonia? Oh, he definitely did, that sly fox. The Wither Storm will be the last of the speedrunner’s problems when Techno gets his hands on him.

With those thoughts, Techno jumps out of the cart and in the portal, not even waiting for Gabriel and Axel. What greets him is a free fall directly to the ground, but thankfully he’s trained enough to be able to fall on his feet. Looking up, his immediate reaction to Boom Town—no, he will not stop saying that, because goddamn Boom Town— is disgust. If there was a post-apocalyptic server—which he’s sure there is—, it would look better than this… this leftover of a city.

Noises above him catch his attention and he moves by instinct, avoiding being crushed by Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Shoving his hands in his pockets, Techno ignores their grunting and moves ahead, not even paying attention to Gabriel’s warnings to walk closer to the walls.

He sees by a line that is definitely connected to some TNT, walking over it with his long legs, wondering who would fall for something so painfully obvious when the line isn’t even in a light colored block. Gabriel and Axel, is the answer. Techno chuckles when he sees them running from an explosion caused by them not looking at the ground, his ears twitching with the loud sounds. The two separate when that explosion triggers another explosion, the pinkette watching as they scatter like little ants. He keeps walking nonchalantly, avoiding traps and waiting for the other two to stop their spectacle, but lowkey wishing it didn’t end.

Dream is forgiven, Techno is loving this.

Gabriel and Axel finally reunite with the Piglin, out of breath and with some sand and ashes glued to their skin and clothes. Techno only nods at them, walking with his hands still in his pockets, back hunched, sharp eyes taking in how ugly Boom Town looks and how crazy the people who live there are. Though he is not surprised, one would need to be truly mad to live in a place called Boom Town.

“How are we going to find Magnus?” Axel asks, looking at the banners scattered around a wall like they’re written in Enchanting Table.

“It’d be easier if we had the amulet,” Gabriel uselessly answers, “But a good guess would be… that spire!”

The older man points to a really tall tower, the type of obnoxious building only Tommy would be able to make. Magnus is definitely there. Which makes Techno look at the random girl that just approached them saying everyone wants to find Magnus like she is mad. Which, again, she most likely is. No, wait, she just smirked after seeing Techno’s diamond sword dangling from his hip, probably trying to steal their stuff. So she’s crazy and a thief. And now a bunch of thieves are circling them like a group of zombies. Wonderful.

Techno is looking around when the girl, Nohr, goes for his sword, and even before her grubby little fingers can touch the hilt, he grabs her arm, his big hand wrapping around her wrist like it isn’t more than a stick he grabbed along the way. She yelps when he squeezes it, eyes opening like saucers when he almost lifts her up by the arm. Techno smirks, wide and predatory, tilting his head a little like someone fondly watching a particularly rambunctious child get scolded for their cheekiness.

“Nice try, little girl, but I’m afraid that’s not how we do where I came from.”

Techno quite likes Boom Town.

Chapter Text

“Dream, you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah, you girls go first, I’m right behind you.”

Dream can’t stop thinking about it as he follows behind the two girls in silence. He, more than most, would know that Command Blocks cannot be crafted by normal means and, the most pressing matter, exist in Survival servers. But Soren and Ivor are not only able to use one, Ellegaard gets uncomfortably close to crafting one. That would require a great change in the code of this server… and this server to be a Fabricated Server, instead of a Fixed Server. But that would mean that this entire server was made by someone, and that would take an Admin, much like Dream himself, with an intense knowledge of how the Universal Code works to be able not only to create a Command Block in a Hardcore Server, but to have Humans generated in it instead of just Mobs.

If that’s the case, then it makes sense why the portal to this server was hidden inside a different server, and why Jesse and her friends never find their way to the Main Server despite being able to access so many “worlds”. Fabricated Servers can only be opened to the Main Server by their Admins. Defeating the Ender Dragon does nothing in those servers. And based on all of that, maybe those servers Jesse visits are also all creations of this server Admin…

Admins.

“Dream, there’s a zipper,” Jesse points out, taking Dream out of his thoughts.

“Ah, thanks.” He pats her head, entering the zipper with a slight jump.

They jump out of it to see Ellegaard walking around and muttering to herself.

Shivers run down Dream’s spine as he thinks about what sacrilege is about to happen. The Universal Code is the very foundation of the Universe, changing it requires an extremely high level of skill. What many do is build upon it, the so called Mods, that change only the surface of it. The Command Block is something in its very core, only being able to exist with the intervention of an Admin and only in specific conditions, for Ellegaard to be able to craft even a ghost of it in a Fabricated World with Hardcore settings using normal materials is almost profane.

“Oh my God, it’s her! It’s Ellegaard! I feel like I’m in a dream,” Olivia whispers, grabbing the sleeve of Dream’s hoodie, “You think she’d accept me as her apprentice? It’s always been my dream, to change the world with Ellegaard!”

“We need to save the world first, Olivia,” Jesse answers, smiling at her friend as she walks to the inventor.

Dream follows behind, ready to hold Olivia when she faints from so much excitement. It doesn’t take long, honestly. Ellegaard sounds every bit as prideful as she sounded in the game, and Dream dearly misses Techno’s quips. She barely greets them, bragging about how everything in her place is “genius”—which is, of course, a lie, and everything in her place is a waste of time and effort that only looks cool for the untrained eye—, but she gets some points by recognizing that Reuben is adorable. Then she asks Olivia to pull a lever and Olivia faints in Dream’s arms, who chuckles.

“Oh, is she…?”

“She’s fine, Ellegaard. She’s just a big fan of yours.” For whatever reason, he doesn’t say, but Jesse’s little grin lets him know it was heard. “We aren’t your assistants, though, we’re here because we need your help.”

“My help?”

Dream nods at Jesse, who starts explaining to Ellegaard the situation. Meanwhile, Dream shakes Olivia lightly, trying to wake her up, which she thankfully does, flailing a little as the situation returns to her mind and she figures out that she passed out in front of her hero. Reuben snorts and the blonde winks at him before assuring the girl that no one thinks badly of her, and Ellegaard wouldn’t even dare to do that. Not with him there.

“Look, you three seem like very pleasant people, who might faint sometimes, but I’m in the middle of a very important invention!” Ellegaard proclaims once Jesse finishes explaining about the Wither Storm and Gabriel’s request. “I don’t have the brain-power to do anything else, I’m about to create a powerful block that can alter reality itself!”

“If you don’t answer Gabriel’s call, you won’t be needing that block,” Dream interferes, patting Olivia once on the shoulder before turning to look directly at the redstone engineer. He will admit to taking pride in how she flinches once their eyes meet. “You must’ve received Gabriel’s amulet, right? Then you know we are not lying, nor we’re here for no reason. Ivor created a monster with his own Command Block, and it is destroying everything in its path as we speak.”

“Ivor has the Command Block?” Ellegaard asks, pursing her lips. She takes out Gabriel’s amulet, it shining slightly red. “So this really came to me for a reason…”

“We’re reassembling the Order of the Stone! Right now, Gabriel and our other friends are trying to find Magnus!” Jesse pipes in, “Ellegaard, please, we need to save the world! We need your help!”

Actually, they don’t, but Dream is not about to say that. He, sadly, has a filter.

“I see…” Ellegaard murmurs, fiddling with the amulet before returning it to Dream with a hurt look in her eyes. Dream accepts it quietly, wondering if Ellegaard is aware of her own status as a charlatan. It seems she is, as the next thing she says is: “That’s more reason to finish my Command Block.”

She is at least aware that she cannot do much without the Command Block.

“Won’t you guys help me?”

Both girls look at Dream as soon as the question leaves the woman’s lips, eyes wondering what their next step will be. While Dream can’t deny how honored he feels that they’re looking at him for help, he can’t let go of his unease. The Wither Storm is getting closer and closer each second that goes by, forever bound to Gabriel’s amulet in Dream’s hands. This is not just a game, this is a real server, this is real life. Any and all of them could die if they’re not careful.

But here’s a chance to better grasp whatever is going on in this server.

And Dream is a dead cat.

“Fine, but when I say we have to go, we have to go. That monster will not wait for us to prepare, it’ll keep consuming until there is nothing left.”

Olivia squeals and Jesse smiles, Ellegaard showing a bit of respect by thanking him. Little does she know, he’s using her for his own gain, to satiate his own curiosity. As soon as they start their experiments, placing items on crafting tables and pushing the tables together, Dream finds a comfortable place to lean on. Gabriel’s amulet goes right back to his inventory as he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

When he opens them again, all he sees are symbols, put together to create everything. They float in the void, the all written on the nothing. He can see Jesse and Reuben and Olivia and Ellegaard and the very components of their beings. They are artificial, fabricated much like mobs, but they’re humans. Jesse, in particular, is a Player, which makes no sense since she never fought the Ender Dragon, she never opened a Fixed Server.

An artificial Player.

Before he can dwell on what that means, the unfinished Command Block shines again, glowing with an eerie yellow light and then an off putting blue light, the code fluctuating like nothing he has seen before. A shiver runs down Dream’s spine, this time strong enough to jolt him out of his daze. Danger is coming, a voice tells him, and he can only hope it means the Wither Storm and not whatever he felt looking at him when the Command Block oscillated.

“We need to go!” He yells, startling his companions. The Command Block fades in a weak beam of light. “Now!”

“But we are so close!” Ellegaard protests, looking ready to start a fight when an ear splitting roar shakes the entire place.

“And so is that.”

Chapter Text

Getting to the entrance of that obnoxiously tall and destroyed building is a piece of cake when you have a bunch of volunteers helping you. The girl, Noar or whatever, is pretty good with directions, and she only tried to run twice before Techno grabbed her arm again and twisted it until it almost broke before threatening to get her a leash. And the people they saw along the way voluntarily moved out of their way with lovely expressions of terrified rage, the type of look that would start a revolution.

Sadly for them, rage and revolution are the two things Technoblade knows best, so they better not even try.

Once they reach the doors of the Obnoxiously Tall Building—one has to wonder what Magnus is compensating for—the piglin hybrid is quick to dismiss their absolutely willing guide, shooing her with the wave of a hand. It's clear she wants to protest, the whole “we've been looking for Magnus all this time despite being obvious where he is” speech probably at the tip of her tongue, however she's apparently not as stupid as she was when they first met, backing off and running back to her little thief friends after throwing him a weak glare.

“Don't you think you were too rough with her?” Gabriel asks as they try to avoid getting arrows on their shins. Honestly, what kind of moron set up those traps? Even Skeppy would do better. Maybe even Ellegaard, if he's being generous.

“I've done worse, that was me being nice.” Techno rolls his shoulders, reading himself to kick the doors open.

“I see now that separating you and Dream was a mistake.”

Hearing the blonde’s name from Gabriel sends a pang of worry through Techno, it settling down heavily in the bottom of his stomach. While he's here, having a blast, Dream is carrying that cursed amulet, in danger of being caught and maybe even killed by the Wither Storm. Techno knows what Dream is capable of, he knows that the blonde can deal with it and take care of himself and the others, but he still worries.

Trying not to think about it, Techno raises his foot and delivers a swift kick to the heavy doors, smiling when the metal opens with a loud cry. Before they can even enter, he can see the trap doors on the floor, clearly waiting for some unsuspecting fool to step on them. And, of course, Technoblade is surrounded by those, as both Gabriel and Axel step forward and stand there, as if the laws of the universe decided to give them the comedic timing. The pinkette really, really just wants to leave them there and go do literally anything else, but he figures that those two would either mess everything up, or tattle on him to Dream. And the speedrunner would give him a scolding Techno really doesn’t have the patience to go through. 

In the end, he jumps after the two idiots, falling down in a room made of sandstone, obsidian and lava. There’s a noise near his feet and he chuckles when he looks down, getting a glare from Gabriel, whose head would’ve been crushed by the piglin hybrid’s foot if it were just a few inches to the left. The “warrior” gets up with Axel’s help and Techno shoves his hands in his pockets, going forwards while looking around. This is all new to him, but a run down city and an obnoxious tower is nothing he hasn’t seen.

“You’re completely surrounded by hundreds of hidden death traps.” Comes the voice of Magnus from near the lava waterfall. And there’s the man himself, in his bald glory and ugly mask, ready to flip a switch of doom. Or something. “One step closer and… KABOOM!”

Many things happened at that second. Gabriel’s shout of Magnus’ name, Axel's sudden sound of surprise, the sound of the lever making a piston move, a dynamite appearing in front of Techno… and finally, Techno kicking that damn TNT block with all his strength. A swift, clean kick that is strong enough to shatter someone’s bones if it hits. It sends the TNT hurling to the obsidian wall, and Magnus should be grateful to obsidian’s resistance because any other block would not have survived the impact and the explosion it triggered.

“Y’know, traps work best when you don’t reveal they exist.” Techno smirks at Magnus’ surprised expression.

“Haha! I like your style, griefer!”

“Not a griefer, just babysitting these two.” Techno points behind him, stepping aside when Gabriel steps up.

“Oh, my God, it’s Magnus himself!” Axel jumps a little in place, looking at Techno in awe. “I can’t believe you just exploded a TNT Magnus set up himself!”

Techno only stares judgingly at him for a few moments before focusing on the other two’s conversation.

“Magnus! It has been a while, old friend!” He smiles, as if the end of the world wasn’t near. “We came here to ask for help! There’s a monster destroying everything and we need the Order of the Stone to end it, to save the world!”

Gabriel walks forward, only to get pulled back by Techno as a new trap comes up. Honestly, those traps are ineffective. Without flint and steel or a strong impact, those TNT will not explode. Sure, they are good to delay an enemy that’s chasing you since they are two blocks tall, but you don’t need TNT for that, you don’t know if they’ll activate them or, even worse, use them against you. Anyways, that trap gets the same treatment as the first one before Techno pushes Gabriel forwards again.

He is not talking to Magnus. Gabriel’s idea, Gabriel’s old team, Gabriel’s problem.

“Help? Why should I?” Magnus questions, bringing up a new trap. “I’m the ruler of this place, the keeper of the disorder!”

“There will be no order to disorder if that beast isn’t killed,” Techno pipes in, kicking the TNT once more but this time sideways so it’ll explode near where the man in green stands, relishing in the fear settling in Magnus’ eyes, “Listen, baldie, I don’t have time for your cool guy theatrics, there’s someone I need to go back to, so you either come with us or we’ll take you with us.”

“...” Magnus and Gabriel exchange Meaningful Looks™ before the bald man nods his head, giving up on his last trap. “Fine, I’m sold.”

Thank God.

“But there’s a little problem.”

Techno was never religious.

“You know how there are a lot of griefers in this town? Well, they have a thing where they challenge the king for his crown… and I’m the king. I can’t just leave town like that.”

“Then choose a new king!” Gabriel suggests, as if it would be that easy.

“I can’t! I’ve already beaten everyone here a thousand times, if I just let someone win, they’ll find out in a heartbeat,” Magnus replies, to make life harder. He crosses his arms and looks down, probably thinking, and Techno dreads whatever comes out of his mouth next. “But you three, you’re newcomers! There must be rumours about you already! If we do this right, we can convince them that one of you won and is the new king, and then I can leave!”

“That’s a very roundabout way to pick a fight, old man, but I like the way you think.”

Magnus smiles right back at him, oblivious as he is obnoxious, not noticing the glint in Techno’s eyes as he explains the plan and tells them to follow him to the Death Bowl. But Gabriel sure does, asking not once, not twice, but thrice if Magnus was sure about it, each time getting brushed off by a fool’s overconfidence. He even got a comment about how much he’s worrying compared to the usually paranoid one in the Order of Stone, to which he answered with the expression of a man who bit a particularly sour lemon covered in vinegar. Techno could only barely hold back his laughter.

Ok, he will admit, Gabriel might be the best member of the Order, which is like being the tallest dwarf, but, hey, at least his increasingly Done™ expressions are funny.

The “Death Bowl” ends up just being some random decadent space in the middle of a randomly decaying town, nothing much impressive, but it’s enough for what Techno has in mind. He pays no attention to the many people surrounding them, or the guy who suddenly started announcing Magnus’ arrival and his title. His mind has started to focus on one thing and one thing only: how to defeat his opponent and make a show out of it. Because while he has all the intention to kick the absolute shit out of Magnus, he’s still aware that this is a performance to get the guy out of town.

Also, Techno likes to show off from time to time, bite him.

“So, how do you plan on faking it? Better tell me now, patience is not a virtue here,” Magnus whispers to him. Ah, the sweet summer child.

“Fake it?” Techno mocks, unsheathing his sword and pointing it to Magnus’ neck. “I’ll make sure to pretend to struggle.”

Before Magnus can say anything, the announcer walks up to them, asking Techno, in his booming voice, what name he goes by. Technoblade grins, something pointy and something mean, as he growls out the name he has made for himself once, the name that he’s been carrying since the early days of his freedom.

“Technoblade The Blood God.”

The crowd goes silent for a moment before becoming deafening, the announcer’s hyping barely audible and wholly unnecessary in the middle of it all. Once they calm down, as Techno and Magnus face each other, the announcer then explains the rules: the two griefers will craft their own griefing towers and use them to grief each other, no eye poking allowed. Techno quickly grabs some items from some chests, including the pink wool, and makes a tower which no one would call a proper tower, but it’s in a town no one would call a proper town so it’s fine. The tower is thin and the platform isn’t that big, just enough for the piglin to move freely.

Honestly, this is dumb. They should just go down, grab some swords and duel. Techno had been hoping for a good fight, instead he gets this? Lame. Not even Skeppy is this lame.

“This griefing thing is so lame, like… what nerd came up with this?” Techno complains, ignoring the booing coming from the crowd. Magnus opens his mouth to taunt him back and is immediately hit in the face with an egg Techno had gotten from the chests. “Ok, that was funny.”

The “battle” that happens after is just Magnus throwing stuff at Techno and Techno using his sword to either cut it in half or send it back. Until Magnus decides to take things seriously—or maybe he just forgot it was supposed to be just a show—and builds a canon to launch the TNT. Magnus might be better at redstone than the supposed redstone expert inventor, considering that thing is big, bulky and pretty cool. Though the skull shape around it is cringe, what a nerd. But it throws TNT and it is exactly what Techno needs. TNT always takes a little while to explode after launching, so a good parry and he’s gold. One good hit back where Magnus and his hundred TNT blocks are and that’s the end of it.

And that is exactly what happens. Anticlimactic as the entirety of Story Mode.

The piglin hybrid jumps down his tower with a yawn, and Magnus gets up from where he had fallen with a defeated grunt, massaging his back like the old man he is. Silence fills the Death Bowl, except for Axel’s excited jumping and Gabriel’s tired sighing. Soundtrack of Techno’s life.

“And the winner is Technoblade the Blood God!” The announcer pipes in once the shock wears off, and with them every other extra as they start yelling whatever extra bullshit they have. “Won’t you say something, champ?”

“Don’t call me champ. And, honestly? What a waste of time and effort.” Techno turns to the people. “Blood for the Blood God!”

They yell it back at him as loud as they can, as if they genuinely like him and support his victory. The announcer says some more random shit, and then Gabriel talks with Magnus about how they need to keep going. Neither notices how the crowd stops cheering and starts leering, looking like a pack of hungry wolves surrounding a helpless little piglet. Jokes on them, though, as Techno unsheathes his sword, ready to have the battle that whole griefing fiasco stole from him. If there really aren’t rules against killing, then he can’t be blamed by the blood spilled, now can he?

With that, even Dream would agree.

Chapter Text

A few hours later, when the sun is lowering in the sky, Lukas sees Technoblade’s group arrive. They look horrible. Sand, ashes and dirt cling to their sweaty skins and messy clothes. Even worse is the haunted look in their eyes. Gabriel has the appearance of a man who has seen terrors no man should have, Axel is uncharacteristically taciturn and even Magnus, the King of Griefers, looks a little green in the face.

But the worst of them all is Technoblade, eerily clean and calm, as if he had just gone for a little stroll and now returns as peacefully as he had been when departing. But his red eyes are much more alive than before, shining the same color as the liquid that drips down the man’s diamond sword. His smirk is cruel as he looks up at Lukas, keeping eye contact as he grabs the approaching creeper by the head and crushes it with one hand, making it disappear in a puff of smoke.

“You’re back!” Lukas says with false cheer, trying not to make obvious how intimidating he finds the pinkette. Technoblade is way scarier than a man with pig costume is allowed to be. “Give me a second, I’ll open the doors!”

For a second, he considers not opening it, but then not only he’ll have an angry beast outside that certainly can break in as easily as he crushed that creeper’s head, but he’ll be under the scrutiny of Dream, and if he fears Techno’s smirk, then he’s terrified of Dream’s eyes, eyes that look at him as if seeing something beyond his understanding, as if he’s a page in a book written in a peculiar language the blonde curiously rereads and translates. No one else notices it, how could they when Jesse’s group arrived only an hour prior?, but there is no doubt that the man is always observing, always watching. Like a demon or perhaps a god hiding in the shadows, entertaining itself with the novela that is people’s lives.

All the way up to where the others waited was filled with small talk, updates of what happened while they were away. Lukas and Petra watched over the stronghold, making traps and scouring the place for anything useful or interesting. Then Jesse’s group arrived, unhurt and out of breath, except for the blonde man, who, now that Lukas thinks about it, carries himself in the same eerily effortless grace as the pinkette, perhaps even more. The girls talk over each other, trying to introduce Ellegaard and tell what happened all at once while Dream sits quietly on a rock and pets Reuben who sits on his lap. Magnus recovers some of his composure, complaining a bit about the redstone inventor being there, and he bickers with the good-natured Gabriel for a moment before they reach their destination.

Before anyone can say anything, Technoblade rushes past all of them, making a beeline to Dream, who’s still petting Reuben and mouthing stuff no one understands to himself. Technoblade kneels in front of him, practically throws himself on the floor, and takes his face between his hands, snapping the green eyed man from his thoughts. The inspection looks almost tender, Technoblade’s fingers touching Dream’s skin like it is made of the most fragile glass, as if the lightest breeze would crack it. As if they didn’t crush a mob’s head in half a second with half an intent.

Meanwhile, Magnus and Ellegaard bicker while Gabriel tries to stop them.

“Just kiss already and shut up,” Technoblade orders from where he kneels, now inspecting Dream’s hands, “Save your quarrels for after we stopped the Wither Storm from eating everything and everyone.”

“Techno is right,” Jesse pipes in, smiling lightly at the two men, “Right now we need to get enough firepower to destroy that monster.”

“Well, it’ll take a mountain of TNT to kill that thing.”

“Great observation, baldie. What’s next, math?”

“Techno, please.” Dream taps him on the shoulder, smiling soothingly before getting up and approaching, Reuben in his arms and Technoblade at his back like a shadow. “We don’t need to kill it right off the bat, we might not even be able to since the outer layer of it is made of obsidian. What we need to do is open a path to the Command Block.”

“The Command Block?”

“Ivor has it,” Jesse answers Magnus’ questioning look, “Or, well, had it. He used it to make the Wither Storm, but it broke free from his control and is now devouring everything.”

“Well, we don’t have that type of firepower here, we can’t go back to Redstonia with the Wither Storm there… Maybe we can go to Boom Town and get enough TNT?” Ellegaard paces a little before asking Magnus.

“Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, no. Boom Town is out of limits right now.” Magnus answers, scratching the back of his head while giving Techno a glance.

“What do you mean it’s out of limits?”

“It looked like a ghost town, so I made it into a ghost town.” Technoblade shrugs with the same cruel smirk, a smirk that turns into a mischievous grin when Dream looks back at him. “Any other questions?”

“Where is Soren?” The inventor smartly changes subjects. “He might have something that could help.”

“Oh, Ellie, again with your and Soren’s little brainy club?”

What would have certainly been another bickering fest born out of the need to not dwell in Technoblade’s grim words ends with Jesse exasperatedly asking them what Sorin might have. The members of the Order then explain that Soren the Builder has a “Super TNT”, a modified TNT that was much stronger than any other explosive. They call it the “Formidi-Bomb” or the “F-Bomb” for short, which pulls a snort from both Dream and Technoblade. Sadly, no one knows where Soren is, and he won’t show in the map if he’s in the Nether or the End. Dream whispers to Technoblade, his lips almost touching the other man’s cheek. No wonder Petra thinks they’re a couple, when they disguise their suspicious actions like that.

“Yeah, but doesn’t he have a base in the Overworld?”

“Well, he does, but I’ve never been there.”

“Me neither, it has always seemed… a little weird.”

“I have visited him once or twice, but not enough to remember the way,” Gabriel admits.

“The Order of the Stone, everyone.”

“Techno.”

“There must be a way…” Jesse mumbles, putting the amulet on the pedestal. Conveniently, all the lights on it light up, from Gabriel’s light blue to what must be Ivor’s dark blue. “One problem solved, another had arrived. We need to get there before Ivor can mess things up!”

“I agree, but right now none of us is in condition to walk all that way. We’ll take an one hour break and then go,” Dream decides, his voice holding so much conviction that everyone simply agrees. He puts Reuben down, the pig running to his owner with a happy oink.

It feels odd. Like this entire convo shouldn’t be happening the way it is. Like it was rewritten to accommodate extra characters. Gabriel, Axel and Magnus go clean up on the stronghold’s water supply, chatting with Petra who’s full of questions. Olivia, Jesse and Ellegaard are busy in their own world, talking about how the mechanics of the light puzzle that activates the amulet work. Technoblade and Dream sit down together, the pink haired man taking a piece of cloth out of his inventory and cleaning his tainted blade. And Lukas stays there, unmoving, far away from the duo just enough for it not to be obvious he’s straining to hear their conversation. He dares not to turn and look at them after sitting down to pretend to rest.

“Techno, when we first came here, you thought it was a Fixed Server too, didn’t you?”

“Of course, there are humans here and it has hardcore settings, isn’t it the obvious conclusion?”

“What if I were to tell you it was wrong?”

“Dream, I don’t understand as much of servers as you do, but even I know that humans can’t originate in Fabricated Servers.”

“Not humans, but artificial humans. Listen, you have noticed too, haven’t you? The odd server settings, the existence of a Command Block, the altered mob’s behavior… This entire server was fabricated by someone with a deep knowledge of Universal Code and an absolute disregard for its rules.”

Lukas isn’t sure what they’re talking about, but he has a terrible feeling about it. He has no idea what a server is, what is the difference between a Fixed and a Fabricated server, and he feels like he won’t like the answer. Also, artificial humans, are you kidding? He has read many, many books about odd adventures that involved creepy scientific and even magical feats, from modifications to cloning, and sometimes even body snatchers, but artificial people is an idea too outlandish even for his novels. By artificial humans, does Dream mean Lukas and the others? Are they somehow fake? Crafted by a being they have never met?

Then, are Dream and Techno real?

And the “fabricated servers”, what does that mean? Is the world what the duo call a “server”? Does that mean there are more? Does that mean the entire world was created by someone, like a terrible tale created by an author when given pen and paper? None of this exists? Not the Overworld, not the Nether, not the End, not Jesse or Lukas?

Nothing? No one?

Lukas feels like throwing up and fainting, the conversation of the two adults coming to his ears as a soft buzzing, as if their words didn’t just stab his heart with a thousand stingers. Until it stops, Technoblade’s low voice and Dream’s smooth tone vanish all of sudden. Silence follows, and Lukas berates himself for not listening to it until the end.

He finally gives in the temptation after a few moments of silence and turns his head.

What he sees is the end of Technoblade’s very much real diamond sword.

Chapter Text

“What is the meaning of this?!” Ellegaard’s shrill exclamation does very little to break the chains of fear that clasp around Lukas’ neck.

He can see himself on the blue ocean of Technoblade’s diamond sword. He can see his eyes widen, pupils so big they almost swallow the blue of his eyes completely. He can see his fear looming over him like a shadow, hugging him as an omen. He can see Death hovering behind him, serene and expectant, no rush or doubt in its features, knowing he has finally found his end. He refuses to look up, he refuses to stare back at the executioner. He knows what type of hell awaits in crimson eyes.

“Techno, put the sword down, you lunatic!” Dream scolds and Lukas takes a shaky breath as the sword lowers. He looks up at the blonde, only to wish he didn’t. Dream’s eyes glow an eerie green as he looks down at him despite his words being directed to Ellegaard and the others. “Techno was showing me a move and he moved so much, this happened. I’m sorry, Lukas.”

“I’m not,” Technoblade grumbles, and Lukas does not doubt it was purposefully only loud enough for him to hear. Not when Technoblade’s red eyes flash dangerously for a second before going back to disinterest. “Oops.”

“Your friend should calm down before an accident happens,” Ellegaard scolds, and Lukas envies the ignorance of someone who can look Technoblade and Dream in the eyes and not crumble under their intensity.

“You’re right, of course. Techno and I will take a walk around the stronghold to calm our minds.” Dream is smiling, something kind and nice and sweet and fake. “Let’s go, Techno.”

The blonde grabs Technoblade’s arm, and Lukas can see how his hand strains not to grab the pinkette a little too forcibly. Technoblade looks at him, their eyes meet for a brief conversation only they can understand, before nodding, sheathing his sword once more. They leave with unconcerned steps, like a couple strolling in the middle of a garden, and Ellegaard lets them be quickly enough. She doesn’t see the look Technoblade gives Lukas. She doesn’t see the way Dream pats Lukas on the shoulder, his hand gentle but heavy.

She doesn’t see when Lukas makes the stupidest decision.

“You ok, Lukas?”

“Yeah, Jesse, I’m good. Just a little startled, I think I’ll go take a walk too, clear my mind.”

“Want me to go with you?”

“No, no, it’s fine. You girls can stay here, I’ll be good.”

God, Lukas already doesn’t have a very good self-esteem, but he might start hating himself as he walks away from the safety of Jesse’s company and into the impending doom of the two adults’ presence. Lo and behold, they are waiting for him in the darkened hallway, glowing eyes full of cursed knowledge the boy doesn’t know he still wants… and that would be a lie. Cursed with curiosity, he wants nothing more than to know.

Dream smiles at him, trying to be reassuring, but Lukas can’t relax.

“Come with us, Lukas? I think we should talk.”

Without waiting for an answer, Dream starts walking, Technoblade by his side. They guide Lukas to an empty little room near the library, it’s filled to the ceiling with bookshelves, and those are filled with many odd books Lukas will hesitate to open no more if he survives this encounter. Technoblade leans against one of the book-covered walls with his arms crossed, while Dream sits down on the floor near him, pointing to the place right in front of him so Lukas will follow his example. Lukas has a half-mind to disobey, but not only he feels it would make the pinkette hate him even more, but he has the feeling that what he is about to find out might be too much for him to take standing. Soon he is sitting right across Dream, eyes trained on the freckled face.

“You heard our conversation.” It isn’t a question.

“Only to the part where you mention artificial humans.” Lukas answers nonetheless, knowing that out of the two, his chances of survival rely on Dream and praying that honesty is the way to go. “Zoned out after.”

“I can imagine, learning The Truth is life changing. I’ve met a lot of people that still refuse to accept it.” Lukas’ curiosity must show on his face for Dream to smile knowingly. “It’s quite rare for someone to be born knowing The Truth. Those are what we call ‘natural Players’, and they tend to leave their servers very early in life.”

“... what is a server?” Lukas dare to ask despite feeling a low buzzing at the back of his mind.

“Are you familiar with the notion of different realities or worlds?” Lukas nods, remembering his adventure books “It’s more or less like that. A server is what we call a world. There are two types of servers: ones that exist by themselves, or Fixed Servers, and servers created by players, the Fabricated Servers. They’re all connected to the Main Server”

“And you think this… server is fabricated?”

“There is no other explanation.”

“Why?”

“Fixed Servers cannot be changed by any type of Player. That would require changing the Universal Code, the very foundation of the Universe. That’s not only sacrilege, but one simple error in the Code and the entire Universe could collapse.”

The buzzing at the back of Lukas’ head gets louder, almost painful, almost deafening. His eyes fight to stay focused. Chills shake his body. His fingers go cold, his palms are sweaty, his breathing is too quick, too shallow, too desperate. He feels like crying, like vomiting, like fainting, like screaming, like, like, like— 

Warm hands cup his cheeks, a distant voice calling him back to the moment. Slowly, the buzzing calms down until there’s nothing left but the vague acknowledgement that it once existed. He blinks away hot tears and takes a few deep breaths. The first thing he sees when he’s able to focus again are Dream’s eyes. Green, with a speckle of gold near the pupils. Deep, knowing, empathetic.

“You back with us?”

Lukas nods weakly, eyes glued to Dream’s face as he returns from… whatever that was.

“Sorry, I forget how much the Universe hates people knowing The Truth.”

“His reaction wasn’t very normal, though?” Technoblade pipes in, and Lukas briefly wonders why he isn’t leaning on the wall anymore.

“It’s to be expected considering what he is.”

“What am I?” Lukas interrupts, wanting to know more than ever now that his head cleared, “You said we were artificial humans. Does that mean you’re real humans? Are we fake? Do we not actually exist?”

“Why would you not exist?” Dream furrows his eyebrows, turning the boy’s head left and right as if checking for injury. “No, of course you exist. Your existence is unlikely and borderline impossible, but doesn’t mean it isn’t.”

“What he means is that you were ‘spawned’ artificially like a mob,” Techno says before Dream can start another confusing speech, “Humans, and even human hybrids like me, are born. They don’t just spawn out of nowhere, that is what makes humans different from mobs. You and your merry gang of idiots seemingly just spawned the way you are now. You will never change, no matter how old or young you perceive yourselves. You’re technically a mob with the face of a human.”

“But… I was born…!”

“... Lukas, I don’t want to make you sad, but…” Dream gently caresses his cheeks, as if trying to comfort him “... do you have any memories of your family?”

“Well… No.”

“Of your parents?”

“No… I don’t.”

“Of your childhood?”

Lukas does not.

“I’m… I’m a mob? Like those creepers and— and zombies?”

“Well, there are some technicalities regarding zombies and the undead in general—”

“Dream, not the point.”

“Right. Right, is Lukas a mob? Technically yes. It’s impossible to make a human, but it is significantly easier to program one. Does that make Lukas a mindless mob that follows a script? No, and the proof is this moment right here. Mobs are not able to understand The Truth, it’s too much for their minds, it would kill them. Also, y’know, the fact you actively went looking for us and all that.”

“... I don’t know what to feel.”

“Another proof you’re in fact very much human. There is the theory that ‘humanity’ is actually just what we call the act of being aware of our existence. That awareness is what makes us humans, and therefore any living being that has it is, in fact, human.”

“I think… I think I need some time.”

“Sure, take your time processing it all, and come to me if you have any questions. Now that you already know, there is no reason to hide it from you.” Dream pats both his shoulders before getting up, Technoblade hovering behind him. “Just, please, don’t tell the others.”

“What? Why?”

“You know why. Deep down, you know why.”

And with those vague words, Lukas is left alone with his thoughts and feelings.

Yes, he knows why. It is the very same reason why he wishes he was still ignorant.

Awareness of one’s existence is a very heavy burden to carry.

Chapter Text

The walk to Soren’s place is mostly silent, no one wanting to talk and bring the mob’s attention to their group. And when they talk, it is done quietly. Jesse and Olivia are still talking to Ellegaard about redstone, it seems the older woman has taken a shine to them once she stopped acting all high and mighty. Magnus is trying really hard not to talk too loud when telling Axel and Petra about his cool traps and adventures. Gabriel is guiding the group, as the one who has ever visited Soren, smack dab in the front, turning around ever so often to see if everyone is following, hand gripping the hilt of his sword despite not really having a need to have it out of his inventory. Reuben walks by Lukas’ side, as if sensing the boy is too lost in his thoughts to be left alone. Lukas himself walks with his eyes on the ground, head low, walking just fast enough to keep himself in front of Dream and Techno, who are at the very back.

Lukas is an interesting boy. You’d think that after hearing everything he did, he’d want to stay as far away from the two as he could. They shattered his original understanding of the Universe, it would be understandable. Yet he walks close to them, as if he is still curious, as if he can’t leave them alone just yet. It’s probably done unconsciously, making it even more interesting.

“You’re staring, Smiles.”

Dream blinks, looking away from the back of Lukas’ head to stare at Techno instead. Techno chuckles, shaking his head minutely.

“You’re staring.” He repeats, huffing as Dream shrugs.

“He is interesting, bite me.”

“Please don’t fall in love with the terrible child.”

“He’s not my type. Nor is he terrible... or a child, technically speaking. How old is he, anyways?”

“Never asked, don’t care.”

“Of course. You’re a terrible daddy.”

“Son of a—!” Techno aims a kick on Dream’s shins, but all he gets is a dodge followed by wheezing laughter. “Someday, Smiles, someday I’m going to kill you.”

“You keep saying that, you keep not killing me~”

Before Techno can answer Dream's teasing, they all hear a loud growling. Then some hissing and some rattling. The mobs have finally woken up enough to be a threat, which could put the group in danger if they stayed for too long in the middle of the woods. Thankfully, Gabriel listens to Dream when he tells him not to stop and just walk fast. Mobs are dangerous in numbers, but they’re all pretty slow. Still, Dream advises everyone to grab a weapon and walk with it in hands, just in case. They run and they run until they finally get where they must.

Soren’s place is pretty on the inside, the type of pretty Dream could never replicate. He’s a speedrunner, not a builder, having the patience to craft materials and place them with no other intention other than making it pretty is something that doesn’t really come to him easily. But he’s gotta give it to Soren, the mix of white and blue is really, really nice. Though the golden doors are a little too much, they look like a pink pig’s nose depending on how light hits them and the granite on the ground, and he took immense pleasure in giving Techno a teasing look the pinkette answered with a playful glare.

The next room is still quite pretty, but definitely not as friendly as the first one. Dream would swear the room is a parkour course with the columns and the gaps full of Endermen. They’re not easy to see thanks to the room’s poor lighting, but they are there. Dream can feel them the same way he can feel the End Portal somewhere in this place. The tingling sensation, the alluring singing of The End, the place he can never truly escape.

He hates it.

He loves it.

He hates loving it.

The touch of a warm hand on his snaps him back to the present just in time to see Jesse jump the first gap after commenting how deep it is, Reuben right on her heels. The piglin looks at the blonde curiously but doesn’t ask when he only shakes his head and looks forwards. To Dream’s surprise, Techno doesn’t let go of his hand as they run up and jump.

First gap.

Second gap.

Jesse slips and falls in the third, and both men follow. Reuben falls a second later, being caught by Techno as Dream helps Jesse get up and dust herself.

“Keep your eyes low, there’s a haunting of Endermen.” He tells her, doing so himself.

There’s a noise and soon they’re joined by Lukas.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Techno growls in annoyance, but it’s hard to be afraid of him when he’s holding Reuben like a plushie while covering the pig’s eyes with a hand.

“I heard your voices and came to check,” Lukas answers with a shrug, but the distrust in his eyes is obvious. He just doesn’t want to leave Jesse alone with the two people who just shattered his reality.

That protective side of him would be cute if he wasn’t endangering himself.

“Fine, just keep your eyes on the ground and walk slowly. No matter what you hear, don’t look up. There’s a haunting of Endermen and fighting Endermen is a hassle.”

Lukas nods at Dream’s words and they slowly start walking through the dark corridors full of Endermen. It really shouldn’t be surprising, considering where they are, but the Endermen of this server really act odd. It’s like they want to be looked at, hissing and vwooping while standing near them. An Enderman would never go that close to a human willingly, much less Players. Humans are just not that interesting and Players tend to be a threat to them.

Damn, Dream really wants to take a look at their code now, but he can’t with Jesse here.

At least the song of the End Portal is still the same.

Slowly they make their way out, and in no time they find the others thanks to Ellegaard and Magnus fighting loudly. Again. The place is really, really nice to look at, but makes Dream wonder how much free time Soren has because damn. Just damn. Even for someone who isn’t really aging, that’s a lot of time and effort put in this building. The blonde is so busy looking around he only starts paying attention to what's happening with the group once silence reigns.

Looking away from the interesting patterns of the walls, he sees everyone looking between him, Techno and Gabriel. Takes a second, but he remembers this scene from the game and clears his throat.

“Right. That happened.” He gives Techno a look when the pinkette huffs in amusement. “We should split, this place must be huge and we’ll cover more ground if we do.”

“Can I go with you and Techno?” Lukas pipes in before anyone else can say anything. “Just us three? I have something I want to talk about, if that’s ok?”

“Fine with me, but…” Dream looks at Techno, who glares at Lukas before sighing and giving Reuben back to Jesse.

“If something happens and you get in trouble, I’m not saving you,” the piglin grumbles, taking Dream’s hand and charging ahead in a random direction, “The rest of you idiots figure it out. Jesse and Gabriel are in command. Bye.”

Dream waves to the rest of the group, skipping to match with Techno’s large steps as Lukas goes after them. After a few minutes, the blonde sets the pace from a power walk to a stroll, allowing the younger blonde to reach them. The pinkette huffs but doesn’t try to change the pacing. A few more minutes of silence go by before Lukas finally opens his mouth, and makes Techno’s ears twitch with his question.

“What is Technoblade?”

“Rude.”

“I’m sorry, I just— your ears move.”

“Wind.”

“They’re moving right now and there’s not even a slight breeze.”

“He is something that doesn’t exist on this server.” Dream pokes one of Techno’s ears gently, making with twitch. “It’s kinda personal, so I can’t tell you more without his permission.”

“And he’ll never give you permission because he hates me.”

“Rude but smart.”

“Techno.”

“Well, then what are you, Dream? Are you a Player?”

“Yes, so is Techno. And Jesse, somehow.”

“Jesse?”

“Players are humans that are able to survive learning the Truth and leave their servers. You can become a Player if you want to, now that you know it.”

“Then, does Jesse know?”

“Nope. Her existence is even more unlikely than yours, actually. She has the coding of a Player, but she doesn’t know the Truth. It’s in her code, but it’s inactive. Useless.” Dream bites his lips before sighing. “Artificial Players are not totally unheard of, but… it’s the first time I’ve ever seen one succeed in existing. They’re stupidly hard to stabilize.”

“You can see our… our ‘coding’?”

“I’m a special type of Player.”

“A natural Player?”

“Well, yeah, but that’s not what makes me special. I’m an Admin. Remember when I said some servers can be created? Any Player can create a server, but Admins are Players that can create big Fabricated Servers and maintain them. We get special education and training, and once we’re ready, we get our coding changed by the Universe itself.”

“That’s exactly why I never want to be an Admin, spending so much time learning how to take care of servers is a bother,” Techno adds, “Before you ask, I’m just a normal Player… well, I’m a hybrid, but that’s where my uniqueness ends. I mostly just battle, destroy and plant potatoes on other people’s servers. Server hopping, some call it.”

“... one of those is not like the others.”

Techno just shrugs while Deam giggles. Lukas himself offers a little, tentative smile. For someone who just found out everything he knows is a fabrication of someone he never met, the young blonde is taking it all very well. Or maybe he’s just pushing it all aside for now and will have a breakdown later. The speedrunner makes a note to himself to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t go through that alone. Few more moments of silence pass, as much silence as Dream can have with the End Portal singing its soft lullaby.

“Say, Lukas, don’t you think Jesse is pretty cute?” Dream asks with a grin, watching as the question finally processes and the boy squeaks, cheeks reddening.

“Oh, my God, Smiles,” Techno groans and gets promptly elbowed.

“Shush, Piggy, blondies talking. Well, Lukas?”

“I… I guess?”

“You guess? Weak. You’re never going to charm her if you keep going like that.”

“C-charm her?!” Lukas’ voice rises with his embarrassment. “I can’t- I’m not- She wouldn’t—!”

“Dear God, kid, at least pick one,” Techo grumbles, looking away when Dream smiles smugly at him. He can play the ‘grumpy bad boy’ all he wants, Dream can tell he’s starting to get invested in the conversation.

“I… I already messed up,” Lukas confesses, “Jesse is so cool and selfless, she’s so forgiving and accepting… and I just let my friends ridicule her and her friends time and time again. Even if she says it’s fine, it really isn’t. I should’ve done something before, but I was… I was afraid.”

“What were you afraid of?”

“If I asked the ‘loser’ out, my friends would probably leave me, and if I got rejected, I’d have no one.”

“That’s stupid,” Techno grunts before Dream can respond, “I’m not a relationship nerd, but if your friends leave you just because of that, they’re not friends.”

“Tech is right. Also, you know that Jesse is a kind girl, she wouldn’t just abandon you because she doesn’t like you back.”

“I… how did the conversation go from shattering my reality to how bad my love life is?”

Before Dream can call out Lukas deflecting, they hear sounds of battling. They can hear Jesse and Petra struggling and glass breaking, followed by Ivor’s yelling about how he’s the only one who can stop the Wither Storm. Dream doesn’t even blink, letting go of Techno’s hand and running, axe materializing in his hand. It’s a shame that he can’t stop to admire the library, he always thought it is the prettiest part of Soren’s stronghold. But the well being of the two girls comes first.

He arrives at the open doors just in time to see Ivor aim a potion at Petra.

The axe light in his hand.

Chapter Text

The bottle shatters in mid air, and the axe is barely stopped by it, flying directly to Ivor.

Ivor has never had a near death experience. Even with the Wither Storm out of control, never once the older man thought he was in life ending danger. Even when fighting the Ender Dragon in that hellscape called End, he never faltered. Nothing had scared him enough to make his life flash before his eyes. There was always a plan, an escape route, a counterattack. And an immense resolve to keep himself alive by any means.

But when that axe flies in his direction, when it misses the flesh of his shoulder for a hair, when it whistles its owner’s intentions, Ivor feels fear.

His entire life doesn’t flash before his eyes when he falls back on his bum, no. Instead all the possibilities of death whisper in his ears as he watches the blonde man approach him with large steps, green eyes dark with unadulterated rage, a brilliant gold near the nearly slitted pupils. Like a mask, his expression is neutral and unchanging. Blonde hair flutters around his head like a halo, as if his wrath is making a strong wind that only affects him.

Terrifying.

Breathtaking.

As a scholar, a man of knowledge, Ivor can’t help but feel the need to understand.

He can feel it crawl under his skin together with the fear as he stares.

The freckled man doesn’t stop until he’s near enough that any movement from Ivor’s part can be promptly answered. The man grabs his axe and Ivor can hear the promises of the sharp blade as it ghosts his neck. The blonde looks more of a monster, an unimaginable demon, than a man. Even the pink haired behemoth standing behind him pales in comparison.

“What do you think you’re doing?” The man snarls.

Ivor stares at him silently for a few seconds, images of grotesque otherworldly nightmares. fly through his mind. He had the feeling something wasn’t right with the blonde and his pig companion back in their first encounter, but back then he was more worried about running away from the Wither Storm and nursing a black eye. But now he can confirm that his feelings are very much real.

There’s something about them, a feeling of displacement he can’t quite put his finger on.

“What am I doing? I’m trying to stop that beast!”

“By entering and breaking Soren’s place and fighting children?”

Ivor doesn’t really have an answer for that. How can he tell this angered beast that his real reason for being in Soren’s place is to get Soren to see the Wither Storm and despair in the face of the Order’s lies? Ivor is a planner, he has a way to stop the mighty Storm, of course he has. But to just do it without getting his original objective, without crushing Soren—the biggest offender—under his fake heroism? Then everything would be in vain. And so would be dying right now by the hands of the odd blonde.

Excuses it is.

“I’m looking for a bomb. Soren once created an extremely potent yet quite unstable mega bomb, and I want to use it to destroy the Wither Storm.” Ivor is not surprised by the unimpressed glare he got from both the pinkette and the blonde. “There, I told you. Can you please put down your weapon?”

The blonde man gives him a last glare with his alien eyes before putting his weapon away. Ivor rises, dusting himself, not daring to try to make any sudden movements. He might be prideful, but he knows when he’s out of his league. The two… the two outsiders clearly could stop any attempt to fight or run. In that time, the rest of the brats appear, their squeaky brat voices grating his ears as they ask what is happening.

“We found Ivor, and Dream stopped him,” answered the black haired girl with a gold hair clip. Her name might be Jesse?

“What is Ivor doing here?” Asked the blonde brat with the leather jacket.

“Apparently, looking for the f-bomb like us,” the pinkette answers with a sneer, vibrant red eyes clearly mocking Ivor with the superiority of someone who knows more than you, “Or so he says.”

“I’m not lying,” he says, like a liar.

“Sure you aren’t, old man.”

“That doesn’t matter right now.” The blonde outsider— Dream interrupts whatever argument Ivor had in mind. “We need to find Soren. Jesse, anything from the amulet?”

Said girl, Jesse, takes out Gabriel’s amulet from her inventory and Ivor’s heart stutters in his chest. He gasps, stepping forwards despite the outsiders, pointing at the amulet, the bringer of doom.

“Why do you have that?!”

“Gabriel gave it to Dream, who gave it to me.” Jesse shrugs, looking at him with furrowed brows “Why?”

“Throw that thing away! Right now! The Wither Storm is programmed to chase it to the ends of the world!”

“And I wonder why?” The pink haired outsider snarls, ears twitching.

“Yeah, yeah, I did that, I programmed the Command Block to follow Gabriel’s amulet. Blaming me now won’t make the beast stop and take a nap! Just throw it away, now!”

“It’s our only way to find Soren.” Dream glares at him, pointing at the glowing white light of the amulet. “So shut it, old man. You’ll get your scolding when the world isn’t about to end. Jesse?”

Jesse takes a look at Ivor, a long look of someone who’s thinking profoundly of something, before looking down at the amulet. She nods, walking around a bit, trying to see where the signal is stronger. Once she finds it, they start to dig down. Red Haired and Monobrow are enthusiastically punching the stone blocks away, Leather Jacket and Goggles aren’t too happy about the situation, while Jesse just keeps the determined face on. Dream, meanwhile, stares at them with an indecipherable look in his eyes, as if he’s looking through them, at the core of their very being, green eyes glowing. Pigman, not to be confused with Piggy—who’s watching the brats dig—, plays with the hilt of the sword dangling from his waist, and would be the perfect example of relaxed if it weren't for his sharp eyes. There is no doubt in Ivor’s mind that he’s fidgeting with the sword as a warning.

“There’s a hole!” Comes Jesse’s voice after much digging. “Should I just jump in?”

Pigman puts a hand on Dream’s shoulder, bringing him back to whatever thoughts the outsider was lost in. The blonde stares right back at him, and they seemingly have a silent conversation, agreeing to something as they silently nod. Dream tells Jesse to wait and jumps in the hole, while Pigman glares at Ivor.

“I’m giving you a choice: come willingly or come unwillingly.”

“What type of choice is that?”

“The one that guarantees you’re alive. Don’t get me wrong, if it was for me, I’d be feeding you to your little pet myself, however, I know you like yourself too much to risk not having a plan B in case the Wither Storm gets out of control.”

Ivor has to hold back all the rude words ever thought, knowing a disadvantage when he sees one. Pigman might be different from Dream, but he is still an otherworldly threat. He’s scarier than a man dressed—dressed? His ears still move on their own, though—like a pig and with pink hair should be.

“Fine.”

“Smart. Feel free to also tell us how to defeat that thing before I make you tell it. Spare me the effort, yes?”

Ivor never thought he’d hate someone more than he’d hate Soren.

“... Very well.”

Until he found an even mightier enemy.

Chapter Text

After a riveting running and fighting sequence involving mobs and water and more mobs and more water, so riveting, in fact, that Technoblade won’t even think about it so its compelling nature won’t ever lose its essence, they finally arrive at the End Portal. While the brats oooh and aaah over it, Techno looks at Dream, fighting down a grin.

Dream’s eyes are glowing beautifully, like Eyes of Ender, like two jewels.

Techno isn’t a nerd about the Universal Code like Dream, but he knows enough. He knows that natural Players all have a strong connection with The End. After all, it is the very end of a server, what connects it to the Main Server, where the mightiest beast lays, the place all natural Players are wired to go. Techno has seen others react like Dream before, but Dream will always be the most interesting.

Looking away from him, Techno can see both Lukas and Ivor stealing glances at the blonde. Lukas is no news, the boy had learned all about Players and servers already, but Ivor is unexpected. In a way, if one is willing to reach a bit, it makes sense, Ivor was the scholar of the Order, and he’s the one the game bothers to keep around after everything. Probably the most intelligent of the five, which, yes, makes him the tallest dwarf in that aspect.

Still deserving of a few punches.

“Enough staring, go in.” Techno pushes the brat closest to him inside the portal, which happens to be Lukas.

“Techno!” Dream scolds, frowning when Techno shrugs.

“Absolutely by accident, of course.”

Shaking his head at the pinkette’s answer, the blonde jumps in. Jesse follows right after, holding Reuben in her arms. Olivia and Axel grab each other’s hands and jump. Petra gives the portal another look before going in. Finally, Ivor and Techno are the only ones left, the old man eyes the portal with a faraway look.

Is he having a flashback?

Oh, God, he’s having a flashback, isn’t he?

“No time for this, old man. In you go!”

Ivor yells like a little girl when he falls. Not to judge, but already judging, Techno finds it both expected and hilarious.

Finally, Techno himself jumps. Sadly, he doesn’t fall on anyone, but he comes very close to stomping on Ivor, and the scared look on the old man’s face is also priceless. Maybe he’s being mean, but the guy literally triggered the apocalypse to get back at Soren for making them legends. And, if Techno remembers correctly, Ivor has the means to end his creation in his base, which means he came to Soren’s place for no reason. The hybrid bets he came just to show off his Neopet to Soren.

And let’s not even think about how Ivor went after Gabriel and not Soren, who’s literally the one at fault, even though he knows where Soren lives.

Maybe it wasn’t the writing that was bad, maybe everyone in this server is just that fucking stupid. It’s like the Admin only knew the codes for “bastard”, “dumbass” and “annoying” and mashed them together to make these people.

Anyways, The End is exactly as Techno remembers. Dark and gloomy. And cold as all hell. As much as he doesn’t like the heat of the Nether, he has to admit the cold of The End is no better. Even Dream, who’s connected to here, shivers a little, stepping closer to the pinkette, probably in the hopes of stealing his body warmth.

“Cold, Smiles?”

“Shut it.”

Techno chuckles, throwing an arm around him and pulling him close, to which Dream goes willingly. Movement on the corner of his eye catches his attention, and he snarls at Ivor until he walks back to the group with a grumble. Slimy old bastard, thinking he can just escape like that after the mess he made.

“How are we going to find Soren now?” Jesse shows the amulet, now dim. “I don’t think this works in the end.”

“Many things don’t work in The End.”

“Not ominous at all, Dream.”

Dream shrugs, staring pointedly at Ivor. The old man stares back, and Techno has to recognize the valiant effort at being stubborn, as futile as it is. Dream has faced things Ivor would never dream of, the old man has no chance even with all potions in the world. It seems Ivor didn’t get as many lines of “dumbass”, for he backs off soon enough, a hand massaging the still fading black eye Dream gave him some time ago. With a defeated sigh, he points at a big structure, a tall stairway. Conveniently, as any story without a good plot needs, they’re able to see Soren himself going up the stairs.

Endermen murmur around them.

“Everyone, keep close and avoid looking up as much as you can, The End is full of hauntings of Endermen and we can’t afford to fight them,” Dream warns.

Of course him and Techno would be enough to fight off a few Endermen, but time is precious and Techno really doesn’t want to stop his fight to save the brats—or, Heaven forbid, Ivor— when they inevitably get their asses kicked. Everyone nod, quickly looking down as they start making their way to the stairway Soren was climbing. Their group formation is much like the previous one.

Ivor, Jesse and Petra at the front, the two girls more than happy to keep an eye on the one who started this mess, stole from them and then fought them. Reuben walks near Jesse, the loyal little thing. In the middle is Axel and Olivia still holding hands like two scared toddlers, and maybe Axel is trembling a little as he tries to prove to his friend he’s not afraid. At the back are Lukas, Dream and Techno, overseeing the group… Well, Techno and Dream are, Lukas is just being useless.

“Wait, is that how groups of Endermen are called? Hauntings?” Lukas asks in a low voice, stealing a glance at Dream.

“Yep. Though, the Endermen themselves say an End of Endermen,” Dream replies, the absolute nerd.

“How do you know that? Do you speak Enderman? Can Endermen even speak?” Lukas looks at the older blonde with wide eyes, grunting when Techno forces his head down.

“Keep looking down, nerd.”

“I know someone who can speak their language, in a way.” Ah, Techno knows very well who the speedrunner is talking about. Memories of black and white hair flash in his mind. “Endermen can’t speak our language, but they can reproduce sounds.”

“Isn’t there a legend that Players that fail to defeat the Ender Dragon become Endermen?” The pinkette smirks as Lukas tries to move in  his grasp to send him a horrified look, but the smirk goes away when the little greaser brat calms down and turns to Dream.

“Wouldn’t it appear in their coding, though?”

“Yes, it would.” Dream smiles proudly, lightly slapping Techno’s hand away so he can pat Lukas’ head. “Very observant. There are theories that they’re closely related to humans, but as of now, it’s impossible to prove them, as no Admin has seen anything to suggest so. They still share some codes with humans, since they’re humanoid mobs, but not to the level theorists think.”

“Nerd.”

“I take my job as an Admin real serious, Your Highness.”

“Still a nerd.”

“Shut up, potato bastard.”

It takes no time for them to reach the stairway. Sadly, it is not a stairway to Heaven, which means it’s as torturous as the rest of the game. Thinking about the game, how did this become a game? Technoblade has kept this question in the back of his mind for a long time, but he has no idea how to answer it. This is clearly an actual, real server. Fabricated or not, odd settings or not, it’s impossible to deny that it is filled with life. Artificial, crafted life, but life nonetheless. However, Techno has the—terrible, horrible, no good—very clear memory of playing this game. He even streamed it. If he had connection with the Main Server, he could probably just load in the video—

Does he have connection with the Main Server? Has he even tested it?

His fingers twitch in anticipation, wanting to bring up the usual holographic window that connects him to pretty much everything in the Main Server, and everything he owns digitally. But he can’t, it’d be too suspicious.

He needs to talk to Dream.

“I hope someday I love something as much as Soren seems to love stairs.”

Ok, Axel got one line of “funny.” Only one, though.

Chapter Text

At the very end of the stairway is Heaven.

Or the closest thing to Heaven they will find in the End.

“What do you see?”

“Fake wool Heaven.”

“What?”

Dream giggles at the bewilderment in Lukas’ voice, looking around the fake paradise Soren created. He will admit, it’s very pretty, and definitely prettier in person. And very smart, not many things can survive the End, nor can Endermen take wool. The fond memory of Techno’s gameplay, his unenthusiastic cheer, makes him grin, looking at said man in the hopes of a repeat.

Instead, crimson.

Dream’s breath catches as Technoblade’s eyes glow that gentle red of a thinking beast. Carefully considering the situation and trying to read is every twitch. It sends a shiver down his spine, and a light blush up his cheeks. For the first time—is it?—he feels exposed standing in front of Techno without his mask. Naked. The blush revealed due to his surprise doesn’t help any as he stares back at the man.

“Technoblade?”

“We need to talk.”

Before the speedrunner can say anything, the others finally come over, and Techno looks away, making his way down. Dream stands there for a good minute, trying to think what he could possibly have done to get that, before Lukas comes into his view with a questioning and worried face. The older blonde shakes his head, smiling, something a little fake and a lot unnerved, and points at the ground.

“Did you try jumping on it? It’s wool.”

“Yeah, I can tell. Are… are you ok?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”

The younger just stares at him for a second before shrugging, thankfully noticing that Dream doesn’t want to talk about it. He will talk with Techno first and then panic, no need to waste energy thinking about it. The rest of the group goes down where Techno is, Ivor giving Dream a curious look as he walks by. Only when the old man goes past the two blondes start walking. Far ahead is Techno, who’s pretending to search for anything exactly where he will find something.

It would be cute if Dream’s heart wasn’t agonizing inside his chest.

“Soooo… what’s your relationship with Techno?” Lukas asks as they walk.

Dream does find the question a little odd, but it’s not like he has never heard it. It’s not uncommon to hear people asking about his relationships, and they seem to enjoy his dynamic with Techno a lot, no matter how little they have interacted compared to the others. So he has no problem telling Lukas the truth. Still odd to be asked about it. Probably Lukas’ way to get revenge for poking at his crush on Jesse, but he’d be disappointed.

“We’re something like both friends and rivals at the same time? Frenemies, maybe? Friendly rivals?”

“Wait, for real?”

“Yeah.”

“... you’re not dating?”

That startles Dream so bad he trips on wool and almost falls down. He sputters, looking at Lukas with wide eyes. He can feel his cheeks burn and he can hear his heart doing a samba in his ribcage. It’s not the first time someone has implied he’s dating a friend, there’s literally an entire mob of fans that think he’s dating George—they tend to be uncomfortably vocal too—, but the thought of people thinking he has that sort of relationship with Techno…

Makes him strangely happy.

“I— We’re not dating, no, no, just friends.” Dream stutters, hiding his cheeks with his hands much how his mom does when dad makes her flustered.

“We all thought you two were dating.”

“What? What?” Dream looks at Lukas, baffled. His mind registers the sound of a secret door opening and conversation as they all walk inside Soren’s hideout, but it all feels like a distant memory.

“What? You two look like a couple, talk like a couple and act like a couple. Jesse thinks you’re hiding your relationship because you think we’d have a problem with two men dating, which we don’t. Petra is seriously starting to theorize that you’re either my real parents or Jesse's real parents, and no, I don’t know how that works either, Petra just comes with the oddest theories sometimes. Even I thought you two were dating, just not the type of couple to show off or make it a big deal.”

“We don’t act like a couple!”

“Yes, you do. Specially Techno, he kinda acts like you hung the moon and stars sometimes.”

“... does he?”

Lukas gives him a withering look before chuckling with a nod, grinning smugly and patting his back, as if comforting him of troubles the younger blonde is going through. Dream isn’t an idiot, he knows what Lukas is implying, and he isn’t sure how to feel about it. His relationship with Techno is platonic, he has a lot of admiration for Techno, enough to be called a simp, and he’s happy they can be good friends, but he will be lying if he says he never imagined what a romantic relationship with Technoblade would be like. It never developed into a full on crush, but he’s very aware that they could work, and knowing other people agree kinda makes him happy.

Maybe he’s just happy about being right.

“So, when are you confessing to him?” Lukas asks with a shit eating grin, only to groan when Dream slaps the back of his head.

“When you confess to Jesse.”

“We’ll both die alone, then.” Lukas huffs crossing his arms.

They make their way through what Dream can only describe as a mall’s food court. He wonders how Soren can be so alone when he could be building malls and other buildings somewhere. His guess is that the plot needed it. It does raise the question of how much influence the plot of the game has on the server. It’s not impossible to make a game into a server, many games are available in “real life”, or as real as Fabricated Servers can get, but the artificial humans, the sentient artificial humans… Dream has never seen that happen before. NPCs that look human? Yes, possible, but actual living humans? Not a chance.

Either the game was made before the server and the server is a simulation of the game… or the game is a simulation of this server.

Maybe this entire server loops back to the beginning once the story ends, like a game you replay after reaching the end.

That thought is a little sinister, and Dream is more than happy to lock it away for now, deciding to share his theories with Techno once they’re alone. So he sits on the border of one of the fountains, trusting Techno will let the story go smoothly in his quest to get Soren with Jesse. Lukas sits right by his side, staring at him with bright blue eyes. He kinda reminds Dream of Tommy, if Tommy had a good taste for clothes—what? Greaser fashion is great—and wasn’t a brat. But the boy had his cute moments, and Lukas was full of them.

“Y’know, I think there’s some stuff you’re not telling me.”

Dream blinks a few times, coming back from his thoughts of his friends with a furrowed brown.

“You’re way too observant.”

“So it’s true? There’s more that I don’t know?”

“Lukas, ever heard that too much knowledge can be a curse?”

“Maybe. But no knowledge is too.”

Dream stares at the boy for a bit before throwing his head back and laughing, a wheeze running past his lips as his arms support him so he doesn’t fall on the water. It takes a while for his laughing fit to stop, but when it does he can’t resist messing with Lukas’ blonde locks, giggling at the other’s protests.

“One day,” he promises, letting go of the boy, “I will tell you about it. Only when I’m certain of it, though.”

“I don’t think I want to know anymore. If you aren’t certain, I’ll probably die if I hear that one.”

“I doubt, but if I think it might kill you, I won’t tell you.”

“Ah, thanks, that’s very comforting.”

Dream chuckles again, shaking his head. He can hear people talking, and he can hear Endermen whispering their way outside their “room”. At least the story is going faster than the game, probably thanks to Techno’s non-existent patience. Soon a big haunting of Endermen fills the room, and the two blondes break the fountain borders so the water protects them. Dream’s idea. He hates how the Endermen in this server act, they’re far too aggressive, and most for no reason, for none have been looked in the eyes.

Right after, the whole group comes out of a door, in varying levels of dishevel, except for Techno, who looks the pinnacle of bored pig. Dream can relate.

They’re on the final stages of the game and it all feels so tedious, he’s cogitating fighting the Wither Storm right now. Just him, his trusty axe, and his impatience.

God, he is starting to sound like Techno.

Chapter Text

What happens between Techno telling Dream they need to talk after his epiphany about the server chat and connection—and he does feel a little bad after Dream’s face morphs into an uncharacteristic and quite cute deer caught in the headlights expression—and their merry group of fools and half-wits getting out of Soren’s base is a blank.

Techno cannot for the life of him remember anything of it.

You know when you live through something so unbelievably boring that your mind literally doesn’t register it and you’re left with a blank and the vague knowledge that since time passed, something must have happened? But you’re never sure why? That’s the feeling. So let’s skip all that for the sake of Technoblade’s already low sanity (and mine too) and go to the part that matters: Techno splattered on the floor like some breakfast bacon with an armful of blonde speedrunner.

“Techno?”

“Hold on, I think I’m having an Experience™, but, like, with a capital ‘e’ and a trademark.”

Dream laughs at his remark, getting off of him and up before offering a hand. Techno has the sudden realization that if he wanted, he could just pull Dream back to him and they’d be back at their previous position, with Dream’s golden locks tickling his nose and Dream’s hands clutching his shirt. Dream is warm. And surprisingly soft, considering how lean he looks. But instead of confirming his thoughts, he takes the hand offered and rises as mobs run past.

The first thing he sees once he’s back on his feet is a running creeper. He tenses, ready to unsheathe his sword, but the creeper runs past him without even a pause. In a way, he feels like he just got snubbed, like the creeper just decided him, Technoblade the Blood God, isn’t enough of a threat. Techno guesses it’s the whole “villain complex” Phil sometimes says he has, but what does Philza Mine-Craft knows, other than everything?

“Look! It’s the rest of the Order!”

“Hooray.”

Techno looks at Dream, expecting to be scolded by his lack of enthusiasm, but instead he’s met with glowing green eyes looking at the sky. Ah, right. The Wither Storm. That’s a thing. As an Admin, the existence of a Command Block must be the equivalent to heresy, it’s probably making Dream’s blood boil. Good, angry Dream means shit is going to hit the fan, and Techno is here for it.

“It’s Formidi-Bomb time!” Jesse cheers, looking at the group expectantly. “Who’s going? Can I go?”

“Absolutely not!” Dream exclaims, looking at her like she grew a second head. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“It’s just a bomb, how bad can it be?”

“The Formidi-Bomb is highly unstable, it’ll explode a few seconds after it is crafted.”

“Not helping, Soren.”

“He is right,” Olivia interrupts, eyes going from the flying beast to her friend, “it’s too dangerous, and you don’t even have proper armor!”

“Then who will go?”

Everyone looks at the so called Order of the Stone.

“I got a bad back and an… inner ear thing.”

“My joints are not what they used to be…”

Techno did not expect great changes from what happens in the game, Magnus and Ellegaard are trashy people like that. Still, it does sting a little that the so-called heroes are so quick to give up and backtrack, while the alleged teens that had nothing to do with their soap opera are so willing to try. Gives him a bad taste, and he’s admitelly always ready to not take responsibility for his actions. At least he’s not shameless enough to seriously pretend to be some sort of savior.

“I’ll do it.”

Ok, he wasn’t expecting that.

He didn’t even remember Gabriel was with them.

And, by the way, where is Ivor? Oh, well.

“Gabriel, are you sure?” Ellegaard asks with a frown. “It’ll be dangerous.”

“And yet, not one member of the Order has stepped up,” Gabriel answers, glaring at the two. “People that have nothing to do with this have been doing their best to help, and look at us! You two have holed yourselves in your towns, self-proclaimed little sovereigns. Ivor ran away as soon as he could when he’s the one to blame for everything. And don’t try to pretend you’re any different, Soren.”

“Well… well, you too! You’re just as much of a farce as we are!” Magnus points, only to yelp when Gabriel grabs his finger and twists. “Ow, ow, ow! Let go!”

“I am, and I am tired of it. What right do I have to call myself a hero after agreeing to lie to everyone. Look at where we are, look at what we have become! I needed a great disaster to finally come to my senses, what more do all of you need to do the same?”

Gabriel shoves Magnus, eyes fierce as he turns to the rest of the group.

“I will go. I’m thankful for your help, and I’m sorry for everything. This might never make up to what I’ve done, but it’s the least I should do.”

“You’re the tallest dwarf in the middle of garden gnomes.”

“Techno.”

Techno shrugs, being able to see Dream’s poorly concealed smile. Gabriel looks between them before chuckling, and for the first time, Techno considers him half-decent. Still has a long way to go, but this first step is certainly the right one. Soren gives him a long look before handing him the super TNT and some gunpowder, telling him the recipe to the Formidi-Bomb. Jesse suggests they play hot potato with the amulet to distract the beast, and everyone accepts promptly.

Finally, the end is near.

Who the fuck thought any of this was a good idea? Poor bastard.

Anyway, plan discussed, it’s time to put it to work. They separate like a group of rats when one opens the back door. Jesse throws the amulet to the closest person to her, which is Axel, who then throws it to Olivia. Just as she catches it, the Wither Storm seems to take notice of its target, its roar deafening as it moves towards them. There is an unexplainable feeling clinging to Techno’s chest when he sees the giant mass of blocks the monster has become. It crawls under his skin unpleasantly, as if trying to assimilate his entire being.

The reality of his situation hits one last time, and he is rendered imobile for a moment.

It’s easy to make fun of this server and pretend everything is just a game, detached from his reality, but the truth is that this server is much like any other Hardcore server. He could die. All of them could die. And they’d do so without even knowing what’s beyond the script. Techno himself doesn’t know what would happen. Usually when entering a Hardcore server, players will bind themselves to the  Main Server, like a safety rope that will pull them out of that server before they can die and then erase the Hardcore settings of said server. But Dream and Techno found this server by accident, none of them knew they would be exploring a Hardcore server. They do not have the bindings. They can seriously die, even if the others end up respawning like characters of a game once the game is opened.

Look at him, fearing for his life. Pathetic.

“Techno!” He hears Deram call, and only barely manages to grab the amulet that’s thrown to him.

Well, it is the ending anyway. No use to mull about useless things right now. The Wither Storm is wailing above their heads, and the world is ending around them, if there is a moment to act, it is now. So he runs, avoiding the purple beams of light and throwing the amulet to the others. If this was an anime, now would be the moment to monologue about teamwork and friendship.

Time to throw the amulet onto Lukas’ face with a little more force than necessary, lest he starts coddling the brats like Dream.

Chapter Text

How did he get there?

Well, Gabriel knows how he got there. He followed Magnus, since he was closer to him than Ellegaard, and God knows ten times more impulsive than the inventor. Magnus had wandered so far, he managed to get back to the entrance of Soren’s building. There they found Ellegaard, who was more than happy to bicker with the bald man until their tongues fell off.

They’re still bickering, and Gabriel is wondering how he got here.

He misses the old days of fun, when they were friends first and foremost. Like when they went to get Ghast tears in their first official mission, fighting the crying beasts for hours. Or when they went to the underwater temple to get the Prismarine Crystals, all quite literally short of breath, Ellegaard using the bucket almost desperately. They had used it to make the Sea Lantern, only one though, it was all they could make. Right after, they went to the Ice Plains Spikes biome, a place as hostile towards life as it was cold, but Magnus’ butt took the worst damage from that place, much to their amusement. And, of course, one can’t forget their battle against the mighty Ender Dragon.

It was not a battle, it was a lie, but they still went as a team, and took a decision as a team.

He can understand Ivor’s frustration, though.

Because Gabriel too hated faking his success. It felt cheap and bitter. He, who once wanted to be a great adventurer and warrior, can’t help but hate the fact he’s nothing more than a farce. No wonder his ego is so big, he needs something to cover his shame. And if he’s being completely honest, Command Block or not, he isn’t all that anyway. He has little to no memory of actually training to get the skill level he likes to boast. He can barely fight a mob, he can barely hold a sword properly.

He envies Technoblade so much. Gabriel can tell that the man carries his sword with the pride of a man that has spent hours upon hours honing that skill. The sword is an extension of him, dangling from his hip like a resting beast, trusting its owner to bring it out when necessary.

He wishes he had been better.

He wishes he had at least one memory of training to continue his little “warrior” charade.

… he wishes he had any memories, now that he thinks about it.

Actually, now that he thinks about it, the earliest memory he has is… the Order’s first mission. And even then, it’s fuzzy at best. He just can’t seem to recall anything that happened before that, even though he knows that logically, they should be there. Stuff like him growing up and wanting to be a swordsman, him grabbing the sword for the first time and training, him going out in the world with a dream, him meeting the others and creating the Order of the Stone… he knows those things happened, those things must have happened, but he doesn’t remember any of them.

“Magnus, Ellegaard, do… do either of you remember how we met?”

“What?” Magnus looks at him like he has lost his head and grown two legs where it used to be. “Who remembers something like that? We probably met while looking for trouble, the good old times.”

“We probably met saving you from trouble,” Ellegaard pipes in.

“What are you implying?”

“What’s there to imply?”

And they’re back at bickering, and Gabriel is back at questioning his entire life.

He could just let it go, just go with the flow and forget about it, the same way he seems to have forgotten most of his life, but there’s something deep down within him that’s slithering around and squeezing his insides. Something that’s hissing about how wrong it all feels. Something that’s revolting against… against something he doesn’t know what.

Why can’t he remember such important memories?

Why can’t he tell if said memories even existed in the first place?

How fake is the warrior Gabriel?

Before he can spiral down more, a loud roar makes the ground shake. The result of his facade looms over the land, loud and deadly, eyes looking for the ones who disgraced its creator. Mobs run around them, some even avoiding them like they’re the problem, and Gabriel takes his sword together with his friends.

The sword is heavy in his hand as he fully understands that he doesn’t know what to do with it. DOes he just swing it and hope for the best? He doesn’t know. He can’t remember. He doesn’t have a memory to recall. It might as well be the first time he holds one.

No. There’s no time for a personal crisis when a worldwide crisis is going on.

Gabriel grips the sword and swings it how he thinks it should go. His consolation is that Ellegaard and Magnus seem to know even less how to use it. So he swings it for his dear life, hitting mobs left and right. He feels like a child playing with a heavy stick. Not him as a child, just a child. Gabriel isn’t sure if he ever was a child.

He’s also not sure how much time passes before the rest of their odd group comes out of Soren’s hiding hole. The man himself looks just how Gabriel remembers, and the knowledge that he remembers something feels exhilarating.

“Look! It’s the rest of the Order!”

“Hooray.”

Technoblade drawls, and Gabriel has to put effort into not staring at him in jealousy. The sword dangles from his hip beautifully, still asleep since its owner sees no need for it. How strong must he be for his first instinct not to be to draw it? How many hours of strict training he must’ve gone through? How many enemies has he slayed? How many limits has he surpassed? Gabriel remembers—by God, he remembers— watching the pinkette fight back in Boom Town, and his accuracy in parrying TNT. What any of those swings would do to a person or a mob, he can only imagine.

For now, he just quietly listens to Soren’s plan.

“It’s Formidi-Bomb time!” Jesse cheers, looking at the group expectantly. “Who’s going? Can I go?”

“Absolutely not!” Dream intervenes, looking at her like she grew a second head. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“It’s just a bomb, how bad can it be?”

“The Formidi-Bomb is highly unstable, it’ll explode a few seconds after it is crafted.”

“Not helping, Soren.”

“He is right,” Olivia interrupts, eyes going from the flying beast to her friend, “it’s too dangerous, and you don’t even have proper armor!”

“Then who will go?”

Everyone looks at the so-called Order of the Stone. By the looks on his comrades' faces, Gabriel can tell what they’re thinking. For the first time in… however much time he knows them, he finally understands the burning hate Ivor has cultivated. Magnus and Ellegaard just never wanted to go beyond anything but fame. They just wanted a little hole for themselves where they could be adored, and now that they have it, they have no desire to risk everything, even if to save the world.

People are suffering. Innocent people that didn’t deserve to be involved in the Order’s mess. And more innocent people are trying to deal with it. Meanwhile, the Order is cowering like the bad farce they are, trying to push their responsibility onto others. And, of course, even Ivor, the one who started this phase of their doom, is nowhere to be seen.

“I got a bad back and an… inner ear thing.”

“My joints are not what they used to be…”

Gabriel sighs, looking at Soren to see if at least he would want to volunteer, even though he knows the redhead won’t. Because if the Order is full of cowards, Soren is their leader. And lo and behold, Soren quietly watches, probably thinking someone will volunteer before he needs to speak up.

Alright, then.

“I’ll do it.”

“Gabriel, are you sure?” Ellegaard asks with a frown, and he can’t tell if she’s genuinely worried about him, or the consequences of his failure. God, when did he start doubting every single twitch of mouth from the people around him? “It’ll be dangerous.”

“And yet, not one member of the Order has stepped up,” he answers, glaring at his two ‘friends’, feeling some odd happiness in watching them flinch. “People that have nothing to do with this have been doing their best to help, and look at us! You two have holed yourselves in your towns, self-proclaimed little sovereigns. Ivor ran away as soon as he could when he’s the one to blame for everything. And don’t try to pretend you’re any different, Soren.”

“Well… well, you too! You’re just as much of a farce as we are!” Magnus points, only to yelp when Gabriel grabs his finger and twists. Oh, so that’s how Technoblade feels when he threatens people who annoy him? “Ow, ow, ow! Let go!”

“I am, and I am tired of it. What right do I have to call myself a hero after agreeing to lie to everyone. Look at where we are, look at what we have become! I needed a great disaster to finally come to my senses, what more do all of you need to do the same?” Gabriel shoves Magnus, eyes fierce as he turns to the rest of the group. “I will go. I’m thankful for your help, and I’m sorry for everything. This might never make up to what I’ve done, but it’s the least I should do.”

“You’re the tallest dwarf in the middle of garden gnomes.”

“Techno.”

Gabriel looks between Technoblade and Dream before chuckling, wishing he had someone to stand by his side like they had each other. But for now, he has to make up for his lies and the disaster it all triggered. Still has a long way to go, but this first step is certainly the right one. Soren gives him a long look before handing him the super TNT and some gunpowder, telling him the recipe to the Formidi-Bomb. His heart beats loudly in his chest as the others come up with a plan to distract the beast.

He’ll have a personal crisis later, for now he needs to correct some of his mistakes.

Even if he dies in the process.

Chapter Text

All things considered, everything is going very smoothly. Maybe… too smoothly. But Dream is not about to look at a gift horse’s teeth, or however that goes. Not when everyone is running for their lives, playing hot potato with a one way ticket to death.

Well… Techno and Dream could die, he isn’t so sure about the others.

But hold that thought for later.

“Dream!” Lukas calls, throwing the amulet at him, and the speedrunner doesn’t need to wonder why there’s a red mark on his forehead.

“Techno!”

“Ooops!”

Dream glares at Techno, who looks away in fake innocence, and catches the amulet easily, throwing it to Jesse, who then throws it to Magnus. In front of them all, Gabriel faces the beast, looking for a crafting table amidst the chaos. Dream has to admit, he didn’t expect Gabriel to come through like that, but he is glad he did. Gabriel is the best member of the Order, and if he keeps that up, nothing beyond the stars will be out of his reach. Maybe even nothing beyond this server.

One can speculate.

Once Gabriel finds, a table, he starts crafting, and Dream doesn’t even need to look at him—eyes on the amulet, the tentacles and the light beams, all the time, he doesn’t want to die in the least interesting part of the game—to know his hands are shaking. Dream’s would too. But the warrior stands there, hunched over the desk, pressing the gunpowder on the markings around the TNT. Just as he ends it, a light beam hits him, picking him up from the ground as if he weighs nothing, as if he is just a doll in a diorama. In a way, he is, but there’s no time for deep thinking right now. Not at the climax of this epic.

Jesse takes out a fishing rod from her inventory, probably switching it with the amulet, and with an incredible movement, she manages to throw the hook in Gabriel’s direction, getting the hook stuck on his armor. The others are quick to grab on whatever part of the rod they can, and if they can’t, they grab each other. Now he faces the beast on eye level.

The F-Bomb glows and vibrates in Gabriel’s hands, ready to cause some destruction.

The Wither Storm roars, three heads fixed on the man holding its doom.

“Here! Have it!” Gabriel shouts, pushing the bomb towards the creature.

As soon as the glowing TNT leaves his hands, the group pulls him back. The closer to the beast the dynamite, the more urgent is their tugging, as there is no guarantee Gabriel will be able to withstand the explosion. Or, well, there is, because Jesse survives it, but there’s no guarantee whatever plot armor protected Jesse will protect Gabriel.

There’s still a chapter of exposition in the drafts, but anyways.

The dynamite glows once.

Techno grabs the line of the rod and pulls with all his might.

Gabriel falls on the ground with the sound of the Formidi-bomb exploding. The noise is so loud, Dream can feel it in his bones, and the impact of the behemoth falling on the floor, now in pieces, makes his heart rattle in his ribcage.

The Wither Storm is no more.

A sigh of relief goes through Dream’s lips. Less one problem.

“It’s not the time to relax yet,” Jesse breaks the silence, helping Gabriel up since Techno won’t, “we need to help the survivors.”

“Correction: you need to help the survivors. I’m going to look for the Command Block with Smiles before anyone else has the bright idea to unleash it. Again.”

Techno nods at Dream, who nods back with a smile. Yes, they need to find that Command Block. Even without knowing the plot, Dream is very aware of what an active Command Block can do after a command has been issued. Without looking back, he runs. The good part of the dead beast’s body is the nice parkour park it makes. The speedrunner climbs a “wall” and jumps from “pillar” to “pillar”. The consistency is odd, some parts are harder, some parts softer, probably to facilitate movement, like cartilage. It really is a corpse, and for a moment the blonde thinks he can see organs. He can’t, but how cool would that be?

He finds the Command Block sitting obediently on top of another… “flesh” mountain, right at the middle of the beast. It doesn’t shine, but he can tell it’s active and ready for round two.

Now, he could, technically, just turn it off, but he’s a cat person and curiosity is tempting. This right here is his chance to go even deeper in the code of this server anf figure things out. So  he shoves his finger in the holes on the sides and closes his eyes.

“What are you doing?” Technoblade’s voice startles him, head whipping to look at the piglin hybrid. “What are you doing, Dream?”

“... satiating my curiosity.”

The pinkette looks at him, then at the Command Block, then back at him, brows furrowing as understanding fills his eyes. Dream smiles, a little guilty, but does not stop.

“Watch them for me?”

“I’m going to kick your ass after this, Smiles.”

Dream offers him a grin before closing his eyes and concentrating. The last thought he has is an apology for leaving everybody alone with Technoblade.

Chapter Text

The relief of a victory is short lived.

Jesse honestly can’t tell how tired she feels. They’ve been in this “adventure” for only three days, but it feels like an eternity. She had expected to win the building competition and go home after shoving it on the Oncelots’ faces for a little bit, then go back to their tree house and have a little party; nowhere in her plans was “save the world from a formidable beast”.

Though it is undeniable that she feels like she must do it. In fact, she feels like everything that is happening should be happening. Which is odd when she doesn’t remember anything else. Jesse always has this weird feeling of knowing stuff, but when she actually stops to think about it, she can’t find anything. She knows she’s eighteen, but she has no memory of her past birthdays. She knows her name is Jesse, but she doesn’t know who named her. She knows she’s friends with Olivia and Axel, but she doesn’t remember even meeting them. She knows she exists, but she can’t tell for the life of her how.

It’s like everything only exists for this moment, for this epic adventure, and then it just… stops. Doesn’t even have a beginning. Like it all doesn’t exist.

The only ones that feel real are Dream and Techno, even though she also has no idea where they come from and how they are there, but they feel like they genuinely exist outside their journey. Like they have life outside whatever is happening right at the moment, somewhere to belong, somewhere to belong. Somewhere beyond.

Which makes watching the Wither Storm come back to life with Dream in the epicenter, glued to what she can only guess is the Command Block, then times as soul shattering.

None of their efforts worked. In the end, it was all in vain. All of it. And now they’re losing someone so important, someone so alive.

And Technoblade doesn’t care, walking away from the beast with his hands in his pockets, back turned to the hurricane and the blonde in its eye. How dare he? How dare he? How dare he let that happen? How dare he not care? His own partner. His own lover. Now swallowed by the great dark mass looming over them yet again, until not even a strand of blonde hair can be seen.

“Get the horses,” Techno says once he’s close enough, voice neutral as if he’s talking about  weather changes and not the revival of their worst nightmare or the loss of his other half, “we need to leave before it finishes rebuilding.”

“... don’t you care? Dream is there. Dream is there, Techno,” Jesse answers, feeling a deep anger boil inside her, like she just swallowed a bucket of lava.

“Get the horses,” he repeats, walking past her, head high and back straight, like he’s determined to not look back at the one he is leaving behind.

“Techno! Dream is there! How can you just leave him behind?!” Jesse screeches, grabbing his arm. “How can you just leave him to die?”

That gets him to stop walking and turn around. When he does, Jesse feels her knees weaken. His eyes, usually a bright red, look almost black with how thick the red is. He has thin red veins crawling up his temples, his ears twitching insistently even without wind, and tusks poke out of his lips. Suddenly, something clicks inside Jesse, and she finally understands the nature of the man standing in front of her. A beast stands in front of her, a beast cornered and so very angry. So very worried.

“Do you think I want to leave him there?” his voice is guttural and low, but loud, like silence is delivering it by his order. He pulls his arm out of her grip, and she can see his muscles tensing, his hands clenching. “Do you think I have no soul? Do you think I’m incapable of emotions?”

No, if anything, he’s the one feeling the most of them.

“Grab a fucking horse so we can leave. The faster we get on with this shitty plot, the faster I can kick that asshole’s ass.”

This time, Jesse follows his orders, quickly making her way to the others so they can grab the horses nearby. She looks behind her once and only once, just in time to see Techno look up at the mighty beast with the wrath of a thousand timelines. She should’ve known he is the one who cares the most.

All questions the group has about the missing blonde die down when he joins the group, and while unintentional, giving him his own horse feels very appropriate. None of them is the one Techno would like to have sitting behind him on the horse. With that in mind, they run, just in time for the Wither to gather itself, this time in an even mightier form, and roar loud enough to make the ground shake. Thankfully, by the time the behemoth of many heads throws its beams to try catching them, their group is far away enough to escape.

It takes them hours of the longest night of their lives, but they finally reach a cave a safe distance away from the beast. Or as safe as they can get. Unsurprisingly, they all leave Technoblade alone, huddling together to discuss what went wrong and what to do while Soren tries to sneak out. Jesse kinda wants to stop him before he can run away, but her attention keeps going back to the pink haired man.

Techno looks defeated.

His eyes are still bloody, and his back is still straight, and his head is still head high, but he looks like a grieving monarch. Like the world will crumble if his shoulders sag. She’s about to talk to him when he finally moves, pointing at her and then outside. Much to her surprise, he also points to Lukas, who now Jesse knows has been watching the man just as closely as her. They both nod, watching as the man leaves without a word, obviously not caring about the others.

“I’ll go talk with Techno,” Jesse tells the group when they look at her, “see if he’s ok, y’know?”

“I’ll go with you.”

Both her and Lukas leave before anyone can answer, and thankfully no one follows them. They find Techno sitting on a pile of dirt. Weren’t for the gentle rise of his chest and the intensity of his eyes, Jesse would be convinced he’s but a very detailed statue, what with the clear moonlight hitting his pale skin and pink hair, painting him in ethereality. Jesse has the impression he’s supposed to have a crown on top of his head, but she can’t be sure why.

“Listen,” his voice breaks the stale silence, a deep growling that seems to come from the deepest core of his being, “this is a Fabricated Server. All of you are mobs, except for you, Jesse, who was crafted as a Player.”

Jesse blinks. Once, then twice, then thrice. When she opens her eyes the third time, a shiver runs down her spine, a shiver so strong she feels her entire body tremble. Her ears ring and her heart squeezes. She gasps, as if all air had been punched out of her lungs, and amidst her sickness, something finally clicks. It tastes like bile and burns her throat, it feels like tears and burns her eyes, it sounds like thunder and burns burns burns.

She is complete.

She feels a hand touch her arm, and Lukas’ blue eyes stare at her with worry, but what she sees the most is understanding. Lukas too is complete. From his perch, Technoblade watches them impassively, eyes burning. He is complete, even more than she could ever be.

Dream must be too.

“Dream stayed with the Command Block so he could look into this server’s code. This server is highly unusual, and as an Admin, and a curious cat, he is compelled to look into it. Moreover, while not Law, it is considered an Admin’s role to help deal with unusual servers.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“It’s not something Admins go telling everyone, specially because they tend to be very prideful and having a different Admin poking around their server can make them angry.”

“Then why are you telling us?” Jesse asks, glossing over the part of her mind that says she shouldn’t be understanding anything the pig—pigman—piglin hybrid is saying.

“Because I am tired of following the plot of this game, and I’d like to have Dream back as soon as possible. So listen to me, and listen well: this world is the world of a game. We don’t know if this was created for the game, or if it was created to simulate the game, but we know how it starts and ends. The last three days? It was all part of the narrative. We’re in episode four, the one where you’re going to finally end the Wither Storm.”

“Wait, so that’s why you and Dream always seem to be ready for whatever happens? you guys literally know what’s happening? To you guys, this is, like, the world of a novel or a story or something?”

“You were programmed with working braincells, Lukas, I’ll give you that.”

“... thanks.”

Techno’s lips quirk into a slight mocking smile before dropping back into a frown. Jesse feels her thoughts spin, nothing and everything making sense. She leans against Lukas, who wordlessly supports her weight, looking just as surprised as she is. The hybrid sighs, hand rubbing his face while the other plays with the hilt of his sword.

“What happens now is: Lukas will go find the Ocelots; Ivor will reappear to talk with Soren and conveniently reveal he has a super enchanted weapon that can destroy the Command Block; then a long journey to his evil lair at the server limits, the Far Lands, if you will; then Ivor reveals that Soren has used the Command Block to make things easier for the Order—”

“Soren did what?”

“Sorry for the spoiler,” Techno grumbles, clearly not feeling sorry, “but they didn’t kill the Ender Dragon, they used the Command Block to erase its existence. He also seemingly used it for other adventures, but I can’t be bothered to know how. After that, Ivor gives Jesse armor and the weapon; Jesse goes inside the Wither Storm with Reuben and strikes the Command Block, bringing down the Wither Storm at the cost of Reuben’s life. The end.”

“Reuben is going to die?!”

No, no, no no no no! Not Reuben. Not him, not Jesse’s best friend. Not the one that she loves the most, not the one who has been by her side through thick and thin—but, then again, has he? Has he really, when both Reuben and  Jesse have only existed for three days and nights now? Does a programmed friendship even count as real?

As if reading her mind, Techno gives her a stern look.

“He would die, but he won’t, we won’t allow it.”

“... thank you, Techno.”

“Whatever, I like the pig more than all of you, I’d exchange you all for him in a heartbeat.”

The cold night breeze doesn’t feel so cold now.

“So, what’s the plan?” Lukas asks, hand still holding Jesse’s elbow comfortingly.

“Well, you can either stay with us or go look for the Ocelots, but the rest of us has to follow the plot as closely as possible. Dream and I changed some things already, but they were all small things that didn’t really matter much in the grand scheme of things, like saving the Ocelots; this, however, this is the end game, the climax of the story.”

“... you’re telling me we’ll have to travel with only you? No Dream?”

Techno raises an eyebrow and nods, to which Lukas sighs so heavily he almost goes limp. It’s just extra enough to make Jesse giggle.

“God have mercy. I think I’ll just go get my friends.”

Chapter Text

Much as Techno said, soon after Lukas announces his decision to go look for the Ocelots—and leaves with Petra, who volunteered to help him—, Soren and Ivor are found talking outside. Jesse isn’t sure how Soren slipped out of the crowded cave, but she’s not really worried about it. If Technoblade is telling the truth, and something in her believes he is, then Soren is the root of all this mess. His cowardice made Ivor bitter, and Ivor’s bitterness took him to stupid decisions. Seeing them together is a headache.

“Stop bickering!” Jesse glares at them, though she has the feeling the reason for their sudden silence is the man standing behind her. “The world has already gone to Hell, can you guys give it a break? This is all your fault to begin with!”

She feels Techno’s hand on her shoulder, heavy and certain.

“Ivor, I’ll give you ten seconds to tell us how to deal with your Neopet before I feed your bones to it myself.”

Ivor looks like he wants to give a retort worthy of his sour lemon color palette, but he gulps it down after one look into Techno’s expression. Jesse doesn’t blame him, Techno looks terrifying now more than ever, like a dangerous beast just waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. The perfect reason to pounce. So Ivor answers, a little petulantly, that he has a failsafe, an enchanting book with the power of the Command Block itself that could be used to enchant a weapon, a weapon that could destroy said block.

“And where is it?”

“In my secret lab.”

“Great,” Techno drawls, running a hand through his hair. It’s hard to notice with his stony face, but he’s agitated. Probably worrying about Dream. “Here’s the plan, old man: we’ll go to your lab, get your book, and destroy your son.”

“How will you get to the Command Block?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

With that, he grabs the two men by the back of their shirts, and Jesse is reminded yet again that the half-piglin is a giant compared to most of them. Techno unceremoniously throws them both on the ground below, where the others are looking for them, jumping right after, almost stomping them flat under his boots, probably to scare them into submission. Without Dream, he’s really just running wild, isn’t he?

By the time Jesse gets to go down, he’s back to holding them up by their clothes, explaining the plan to the others. Ellegaard and Magnus look at the verge of laughter, while Gabriel’s eyes go back and forth between Ivor and Soren, a deep frown on his face. Techno says they need to separate, a group with the amulet to distract the beast and a group to go to Ivor’s secret lab.

“Soren, Ivor and Jesse will be going with me. Obviously, Reuben will go too. That’s three horses, so you guys better figure something fast if you want to live,” Techno finishes his explanation with a look that dares anyone to reject his ‘proposal’, but no one says anything.

Jesse now understands how much Dream’s mere presence softens the man.

While the Order gets the horses ready for their journey, she hands the amulet to Olivia and Axel, she smiles apologetically to them, who only grin warmly back. She’s forever grateful for her friends. Even though she has no memories of their life together, since it never existed to begin with, she knows deep down that it doesn’t change anything. Her friends are her friends, and now they can have a future together, a proper friendship to keep in their hearts. Reuben oinks happily as she lifts him up, squeezing him strong enough to make sure he is real. Her bestest friend, a little pig that guards her heart.

“If you start crying, I’ll leave you behind.”

“Shut up, Blade.”

The girl looks at him with wide eyes, thinking he’ll be angry. She didn’t really mean to say that, it was just a reflex. Instead she gets a raised eyebrow and a smirk before he walks to a horse and gets on it effortlessly, like he’s been born riding one. Now more than ever Jesse thinks he should have a cape and a crown, a proper Prince on a White Horse on the way to save his most beloved. With one last look at her friends, Jesse sits Reuben on the horse and then jumps on herself, patting the horse gently. Soren and Ivor share a horse, much to their distaste, but any potential bickering stops with one glare from Techno

Jesse has the feeling this will be a long journey.

And she’s proven right when by the sixteenth day of travel, Ivor has yet to say if they’re close or not.

Though, then again, he’s probably trying to be as quiet as possible, considering the angry aura that surrounds Techno, an aura that gets bigger and denser every second that goes by. It’s interesting how wrathful is the closest to frazzled the pinkette can get, but considering what he is… Jesse is not sure how she knows what Techno is all of sudden, and she has the sneaking suspicion that he won’t tell her even in a good mood, so she’s counting on Dream telling her later, after he’s safe and sound and within Techno’s reach. Her best guess is that since she’s a Player, the information just… exists? Like, in her code? Though it makes no sense considering they don’t have piglins in this server. Don’t ask how she knows that.

She really needs to sit down and talk with the couple, but first she needs them to be together again, or Techno’s murderous murder will become a mob by itself.

Despite the silence, she does enjoy the travel, seeing many different biomes she’d never ever see living in the tree house. Maybe she can convince Axel and Olivia to go search for adventure with her after this whole thing is done? Nothing too big or great, they don’t need another Order of the Stone, just some exploring with friends, expanding their horizons, seeing the world at their own pace. Maybe she can invite Lukas and Petra too.

Thinking about Lukas, she kinda wishes he was here. After he apologized for his and his friends’ actions, they started talking more, and he’s a pretty nice guy. No wonder he’s friends with Petra. He’s pretty smart and funny, a complete dork once he drops the cool guy facade. He’d be good company on this long trip. She hopes he’s doing ok on his quest to save his friends.

“How long, old man?” Techno finally breaks his sixteen days of silence, and his voice is rougher than ever, sending shivers down Jesse’s spine and making her consider turning her horse around and booking it with Reuben for a second.

“We’re close.”

“We should stop while we can,” Soren pipes in, pointedly not looking at Techno but at the tree branches behind him, “the Far Lands are at the very edge of everything, where logic gives way to chaos, it’s far too dangerous.”

“Are you going to say that looking at my face?” Techno rumbles back, eyes almost glowing, and Soren closes his mouth and looks down. “Figures. I don’t listen to cowards.”

“You don’t listen to anyone” is what Soren’s frown says, but he’s so very wrong. And he’s doubly wrong because the Far Lands are—are not supposed to be a thing? At least, it’s what Jesse’s mind is telling her, but she can’t be sure why. Yet another thing to ask Dream, she figures.

A low growl can suddenly be heard. Maybe a wolf or a zombie?

No, wait, it’s her stomach.

“There must be a witch house in this swamp, let’s stop there and eat,” Techno says, looking at the muddy water, and the girl understands what he means: there is a witch house. It’s so convenient that he already knows everything because of the game. Jesse makes a note to ask more about it when everything ends.

Not more than ten minutes later, they find the witch house, which is more of a hut, really. There’s a delicious cake sitting at the windowsill, and an ominous black cat watches them from the roof, tail swinging back and forth, eyes green like Dream’s. Both Ivor and Soren voice their distaste, saying that nothing good comes from getting involved with a witch, but Techno ultimately ignores them, jumping off his horse and tying it to a tree. He then turns around and silently glares at the two men until they do the same, making Jesse giggle and Reuben snort. For someone who hates people, Techno sure likes to lead.

Or maybe this is a one time thing, just until he can get his lover back and leave the lead to him, since Dream is clearly better with people.

They approach the house, the cat watching them. A few steps from the door, Techno freezes in place. Following his line of sight, Jesse finds a witch looking at them from a small distance. They’re staring at their group impassively, cloudy purple eyes deep with nothingness. They’re dressed in purple and a black pointy hat that sits atop their head. Their hands are hidden in their long sleeves, probably ready to pull out a potion and do some damage to them. Too bad the closest target is the most dangerous.

With a speed no man his size should have, Technoblade dashes towards the witch, the speed so great he leaves marks on the ground where he used to stand. One big hand grabs the witch’s head, who grunts as the potion slips from their hands, and raises it. They barely have any time to do anything else as, with one loud and gruesome crunch, Technoblade destroys their head single handedly. The witch’s body goes limp, falling like a rock on the floor before poofing out of existence. Techno then turns, just enough so she can see him look disappointedly at his hand, as if he was dissatisfied with how quick and clean that victory was. As if he was expecting something more.

Jesse is glad witches are mobs. She doesn’t want to imagine how the whole scene would be if Techno crushed someone’s skull like he’s been wanting for some time now.

A soft thud takes her attention away from the pinkette, and she looks at their companions. Soren is on the floor, his legs probably gave out after seeing how ruthless the piglin hybrid can be. Ivor looks green on the face, leaning on the hut’s wall to keep himself up. To think what brought them together is their shared fear of Technoblade. And with good reason, his shoulders are still tense and his eyes are finally losing the thin layer of calm he’s been trying to maintain. The previous wrathful aura goes from heavy to hellish, suffocating like the Nether’s heat.

They need to get Dream back and fast, before Techno goes berserk.

Chapter Text

What is the fastest way out of a maze?

A straight line.

Whatever a piglin is, certainly they are very strong, because Technoblade just destroyed a stone wall with a pickaxe.

Granted, diamond pickaxe he stole from the witch he killed earlier, but still. He didn’t just mine that wall, he hit one of the stones right in the middle, making a loud noise that Jesse felt in her bones. Then there were cracks, crawling all over the walls like a fire eating away at wood. Then a good chunk of the wall crumbled, and now it lays pitifully at Technoblade’s feet, being glared at by said man. Jesse can hear Ivor and Soren loudly gasp in the background, and the third gasp is probably hers.

Ivor was really smart when he decided to stick with them instead of running like he clearly wanted to earlier. If Techno could do that with one hit and half an intent, imagine what he’d do to Ivor if he tried to run away.

Techno steps through the hole he just made and readies another attack, and Jesse thinks that if walls talked, that wall would be praying right about now. Just as that thought crosses her mind, something else jumps at her consciousness, something she figures is thanks to her Player coding: the way the wall crumbled is odd. Blocks tend to just break and drop in this server, but that wall crumbled. She is walking over pieces of rock, not drops of rock. No floating mini block, just… rocks. As if they were programmed to behave differently.

Her first thought is that it is thanks to where they are, the Far Lands where logic gives way to chaos, as Soren said. But the more she stares at the rocks, the more she can see things. Things she would never believe existed if her true nature hadn’t been awakened. Things like the flashing green numbers appearing on the surface of the rocks. Things like the odd… the odd glitching of the rocks.

Things like a tall silhouette clinging to Techno’s back, translucent and glowing, staring at her with eerie green eyes.

“What are you looking at?”

Techno’s voice brings Jesse back from her trance. She takes a deep breath, not knowing when she stopped breathing. One quick blink is enough for everything she was seeing to disappear. The rocks are back to being just rocks, and no freaky apparition looms over Techno. She wonders if it was all a hallucination, but the look in Techno’s eyes tells her it was not. Whatever she saw was—is real. Perhaps even the truth.

“No… nothing.”

With a shrug, he goes back to the wall massacre, and no words are exchanged while they make their way through the maze. Reuben sniffs here and there, and Jesse thinks she sees some mobs disappear around corners, probably running away from the maniac guiding their group. Smart. Ivor and Soren walk close together behind them, so scared Techno doesn’t seem worried about them doing the same as the mobs.

In no time they find the flying machine, and in even less time Ivor and Soren fix it, both working so well together that any outsider would think they’ve been doing so for a long long time. Ivor’s house is… surprisingly pretty. The building is big and looks like a nice cottage, if you ignore the bedrock that makes part of it. Jesse wonders how Ivor managed to get those there, or maybe if they were there already and he just built the house around them. Before she could ask, Techno whirls around—and thank God he’s not with a sword or that move would’ve cut all four of them—and says:

“Go first. Unless you want me to treat your place like that maze.”

Definitely enough convincing for Ivor, who quickly takes the lead, opening the door and guiding them inside. Another maze of bookshelves awaits them inside, a simple one but very annoying. The old man scurries forwards nervously, probably cursing his past self for building something that would get on Techno’s nerves. At the end of the maze, a fireplace with lava. The scientist quickly takes a lever out of his inventory and turns on a mechanism that takes away the lava and lowers the steps.

Dream would probably like how that works.

They all walk down the stairway, hearing the door close behind them. At the end of the stairway is a room mostly empty except for pedestals with items and some paintings.

“Those are…!” Soren gasps, walking past all of them to look at the items. “The relics of our adventures… I thought for sure you had destroyed them.”

“... I may hate what the Order has become, but I loved the old Order fiercely. It’s part of a story I’m unwilling to let go,” Ivor looks away, looking conflicted between sadness and anger, with a great deal of betrayal, prompting Soren to give him a guilty look, stepping closer as if to comfort him.

“... No wonder you were so hurt when that happened…”

“Yeah, wow, lore. Kiss and make up later,” Techno interromps the moment, and Jesse feels tempted to hit his arm. The two men glare at him, but he doesn’t care one bit, instead grabbing the closest item to him. “Ghast tear. Quite hard to get.”

“Have you ever got some?”

“Of course. I lived most of my life in the Nether, hunting Ghasts was a sport.”

“Why would you spend so much time in the Nether?”

Techno pauses his inspection, looking at Ivor, whose eyes shine with curiosity despite not wanting to show. The piglin grins, throwing the tear at the man.

“Hold it for me. And to answer your question, my family lived there,” is the answer he gives, probably not wanting to tell them about a mob they’ve never seen.

“Why?”

“Why not? It’s not that bad if you’re good at fighting,” with that, he walks up to the big, dark egg. “Ender Dragon’s, yes?”

“... yes, the only thing left from our last adventure.” Ivor glares at Soren, who shrinks.

“And the portal back to the Overworld opened without problem?”

“Yes?”

“Huh…” he hums, running a hand through his hair before throwing the egg to Ivor. “Pay attention, old man, put those in your inventory so you can open that door.”

“Wait, how—”

“Please, I’m not stupid. This room has only these things, of course they’re som  to the door,” Technoblade interrupts Ivor before he can ask. Jesse figures it’s a lie and he just remembers all this from the game, considering how he didn’t even check the iron doors at the end of the room like Dream probably would. “Sea Lantern. Pretty, but useless.”

“Kinda reminds me of Dream,” Jesse pipes in, looking at the soft glow.

“Why?”

“The green, I think. It’s, like… mysterious and pretty.”

“Huh… I guess I can see it. Though gold reminds me more of him than this. And I bet it was made with this prismarine?” Techno grabs a shard of prismarine, the Sea Lantern now in the hands of Soren. “Also a hassle to get, and also pretty useless.”

“I think it’s pretty. And I like the name. Prizzzzzmarine.”

“Nerd,” the hybrid huffs, but the girl can tell he’s holding back a smile as he throws the item at Soren, a little of the more relaxed Technoblade from the beginning of their adventure shining through. “By the way, you guys, I’m sure it is riveting to watch us, but maybe you could use your hands and help? Just a thought.”

If Jesse didn’t know better, she’d guess Ivor and Soren were twins with how similar their glare is. Grumbling, Ivor picks up the last item, a block of packed ice, pointedly ignoring Techno’s mocking him about thinking that ice is a relic interesting enough to keep in a museum. A wall opens after he takes the block, showing hoppers with numbers on them. Without wasting time, the two men proceed to place each item in order, an order only they know, though Jesse has the feeling she should know too.

“What’s the pattern with the items?”

“The order of our adventures,” Ivor answers, not looking away.

It’s chilling how Jesse can remember being a mega fan of the Order of the Stone, but not remember one tale about their adventures. It’s like how she remembers having a rivalry with Lukas and the Ocelots, but not how it started or any instances of it. Or how she remembers that Olivia and Axel are her best friends and they’ve all been living together in the tree house, but she has no idea how they met and how they started living together.

It’s like she was made to exist only for that one relevant moment.

She decides to put those thoughts away for now, she’ll talk about them to Dream later.

The puzzle opens the iron doors, and further inside the lab they go. The next room is really pretty, full of obsidian and shining… multicolored redstone lanterns? Is that even possible? As if answering her question, the lantern she’s been looking at flickers a bright green, and a shiver goes down her spine. A heavy hand suddenly resting on her shoulder almost makes her yelp, but the strong grip tells her who it is.

Techno stares at the lantern with a frown, eyes burning red, glowing almost as eerily as the green entity hugging his shoulders.

“What are you two looking at? We’re almost there!” Ivor breaks them from their moment, none the wiser of what is happening around him.

Techno lingers a bit more before going in the direction of the doors, Jesse following right after him. They go inside a smaller room with nothing but a book and four Ender Crystals—wait.

“Four Ender Crystals? But… don’t you need to break them to defeat the Ender Dragon?” Yet another proof that Techno told her the truth when he said this server was part of a game,

“Yes, Soren, don’t you need to break the crystals to defeat the dragon?” Ivor mocks, poking Soren on the shoulder like a child. “Why don’t you tell her, Soren, about our grand adventure in The End, fighting the Ender Dragon?”

“... fine. But remember that not only you agreed to it, but you were so unbothered you waited literal years to do something about it,” Soren responds, deflating with a long sigh of defeat. “The Ender Dragon was defeated, just not in the… natural way.”

Soren then explains how they used the Command Block to defeat the dragon. And how they used it many times before. Or, well, how he used it many times before. How it helped them, improved them, made them stronger and faster. Made them a legend. The more he used it, the more they depended on it, and the more they depended on it, the less Soren felt like telling them. Because it would crush them. It would crush them so badly to know all their wins were gained through cheating.

But there was no way to pretend when he blinked the Ender Dragon out of existence.

Silence falls on the room as Jesse pretends to absorb what she just heard.

And then, in true Technoblade fashion:

“How is this a betrayal? That’s the same thing as killing it. Less steps, but still.”

“Techno! Some people want to reach their dreams by their own effort!” Jesse scolds in the lack of a speedrunner.

“That I know, but if they fought the Ender Dragon the way they were, they’d die. They should be grateful that Soren used the Command Block.”

“Grateful? Grateful?!” Ivor shrieks, marching forwards, all the fear he had before now replaced by anger. “Grateful that he stole all our hopes and dreams? Grateful that he lied to us while spouting bullcrap about friendship? Grateful that he put us in danger in the first place?! I’d rather have died back in The End!”

The man takes deep breaths after his spiel, but soon his breathing becomes gagging as Technoblade’s hand closes around his neck. Effortlessly, he lifts Ivor until his legs dangle at least half a meter from the ground. Ivor claws at his hand and kicks his legs, but Techno remains unbothered. He glares at Ivor with the fury of a thousand beasts, and if his eyes seemed to glow before, now they definitely are. The same agitated Technoblade from the witch’s hut is back—no, he’s worse.

“Die? You don’t know what death is. If you needed a Command Block, then you were weak. Weak enough that you didn’t even notice. Weak enough that you thought you were strong. Tell me, o great Ivor, what preparations did your precious Order make to fight the Mighty Beast? You don’t know what your recklessness costs. But I can teach you.”

Ivor’s lips tremble as his skin slowly becomes blue. His arms fall limp to his sides, and his legs hang like strings. Jesse wants to move, wants to stop Techno, wants to do something, anything, but the sheer pressure of Techno’s presence keeps her glued in place. Her heart beats like crazy in her chest, so much so it almost hurts, and she feels like her lungs are being squeezed together with Ivor’s throat. She’s lightheaded with how little air actually manages to enter her body, and her knees buckle under her. Tears build up in her eyes but she has no strength to stop them.

Not when Technoblade growls the words of a raging god.

And then, green.

Flashing green.

Technoblade gasps, dropping Ivor on the floor and turning around. The End Crystals that once glowed a calm magenta, now flicker between the impossible magenta and a poisonous green. The same green Jesse has seen in the apparition following Techno. They flicker and flicker and flicker. Then they settle in that shade of green, drowning the room in color, so bright the crystals seem to not be able to handle, crying out with terrible sounds of glass shattering and the lament of Ghasts.

And as quick as the spectacle starts, it ends, leaving behind a passed out Soren, a barely awake Ivor, a baffled Jesse and a very exuberant Technoblade, who murmurs one word, and one word only.

“Dream.”

Chapter Text

The last thing Dream sees is Techno looking at him with red eyes full of worry.

Entering the code of a server can be done in many ways, but the most immersive way is connecting your consciousness to it. It also happens to be the most dangerous, since one can lose themselves in the middle of the code. Usually, an anchor would be present, someone who’ll pull the Admin out if they start going too deep, but Dream doesn’t have that luxury right now. The best he can do is attach some of him to Techno before the man is gone, so they can find the way to each other easier.

That done, he allows himself to enter the deepest part of the server. Consciousness has no real form, but to ground oneself, it’s always better to shape it into what one’s body looks like. It takes more energy, but without an anchor, it’s the safest way Dream has to avoid having his mind scattered.

As always, the inside of a server is beautiful. He knows it is because he saw it back in Redstonia, but it’s even more beautiful up close. He dives in, lines and lines of numbers and letters and commands and some odd connective wires. He can feel every part of it, and while it sings beautifully as it should, there is a deep note of sadness that makes his heart clench.

Focus. Focus.

He finds a thread that looks interesting and follows it. It takes him to the code of the Wither Storm, and it is putrid. The stench is unbelievable. The stench of the unbelievable. The impossible, the absurd, the not supposed to exist. The Wither Storm isn’t a raging beast because of the Command Block, it was made to be a raging beast, a frankenstein of codes put together. The Command Block is just holding it all together like glue. It’s disgusting, really. If that’s how the first problem they face is, Dream shudders at how bad the rest must be.

He keeps digging, away from the Wither Storm, reaching even beyond this realm.

He briefly sees Lukas and the Ocelots and Olivia and the others. He can feel sudden surges of power that definitely come from Technoblade. He reaches into The End and finds nothing but Soren’s inventions and the portal, functional but incomplete… no. Broken. The portal that should’ve taken the Order to the Main Server is broken. Dream can see as clear as day the severed ties. And the more he looks into them, the more of them he sees.

The Admin of this server disconnected it from the Main Server, and he did a terrible job just like his face. All the ties look like someone took a dull saw and went crazy with it. And judging by how recent some of those look, the ties need to be cut again and again, for they’ll certainly heal and reconnect if left alone.

Once Dream finds one of them, he starts finding more and more, until he gets to the character’s ties. It’s obvious that the Admin of this world moved them there so they’d be easier to manage, and he’s doing his job like his nose. Jesse’s ties are completely healed, Lukas’ are almost a 100%, and surprisingly, Gabriel’s are very close to getting mended. All it took was one small interference and the Admin’s hard work is crumbling down. No matter how much skill he has for creating things, he clearly lacks skill to maintain everything he creates, like a child who works for instant gratification instead of long term success.

And just as the thought brings out a wheeze, something slams onto his back, sending him flying.

There he is.

The one behind everything.

The Admin.

His entire form is red, but not the beautiful crimson that swims inside Technoblade, a bright, writhing red. His eyes are gold as he glares at Dream, shoulders tense, hands fisted, wrath flaring like a thorn trying to poke at a beautiful flower. His intentions can’t be more clear: he wants Dream out of his server, and he is willing to do anything to get what he wants.

He came slower than Dream thought he would, considering how obvious he made his actions.

The name comes out of his lips like a taunting whisper, and he grins in delight when he sees the red from waver.

“Romeo.”

“Who are you?” Romeo demands, voice trembling in what Dream can only guess is hate and fear.

Chuckling, Dream breathes out, air making an eerie whistling noise, and allows himself to dissolve in a more flowy state. Romeo tries to attack him again, but Dream’s new form slithers out of the way like a moving shadow. Romeo then tries to retreat, probably to gain some time and manipulate some of the pliant coding around them, but Dream’s new form doesn’t allow him to, surrounding him like a devouring shadow. There’s nowhere to run, his entire existence isolated in between the wall that is Dream’s.

But Romeo didn’t get where he is by giving up. No, like an enraged beast, he raves, from shifting from one thing to another. He tries everything. Big claws to dig a way out. Sharp teeth to bite a hole. Super strength to break it all. Fire to burn his way to freedom. TNT to blow up his prison. He tries. He tries. And he tries. And he tries. Again again again again. In a last attempt, he concentrates a great amount of power in his hands, power red and pulsating with life stolen from mobs in the server, enough to burn through his own form when he, in his blinding rage, slips his fingers inside. He lets it burst with a haunting screech, the energy burning ten times stronger than the Ender Dragon’s fire.

It tickles.

“What are you?” Romeo asks, voice trembling in what can only be fear.

If Dream still had a face, he would smile.

“I’m what you’ll never be.”

With one swift move, he completely snuffs out the light show. Romeo thrashes and screams, trying to break free, but he cannot, and the shadows only let go when he falls into a deep sleep, his coding taking a spectral look as his consciousness goes back to his body, wherever that is.

Once that’s done, Dream returns to his original form, still chuckling.

“How long are you going to watch silently?” he turns to the ghostly blue figure that has been watching since he entered. The being just blinks at him, bowing its head in respect before vanishing, and Dream remembers that one of the Admins of this server is supposedly dead.

Romeo can’t even kill someone properly.

Time to leave. Dream takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, only opening them again when he feels himself, all of himself, go back to his body.

The first thing he sees is Techno raising an enchanted weapon with red eyes full of rage.

Chapter Text

The waiting is killing Techno.

Dream has been asleep for five days now, weakened due to a fever, only waking up long enough to eat some soup that Lukas makes, soup that Techno needs to feed him. It's to be expected, since he spent sixteen days without eating and exhausting his mind terrorizing whatever lurks in the code of this hellhole, but it still worries Techno.

At least he is close to the blonde now, and can make sure he's okay any time his anxiety gets the best of him. If only he could cut the fever with his sword

He wishes he remembered what Wilbur told him about Admins and what symptoms they could have after entering the code of a server. At the time, Techno had scoffed, saying he didn't need to know something like that, but now his stupidity is biting his ass. He shouldn't be surprised. He's not. Stupid past him. He'll make sure to ask Dream to teach him once he wakes up properly.

Until then, Techno will treat him like one treats an injured warrior. Dream has no injuries, so Techno's work is already cut in half. Instead, he focuses on helping the blonde's body and mind heal itself, like keeping the temperature stable, not too hot and not too cold; Jesse's tree house is a bit on the colder side, but the cotton blankets are very warm, and the lava fireplace Soren made for them does wonders for the room.

Techno also cleans Dream with a clean rag and some lukewarm water, gently wiping away the sweat. Every time he does so, he remembers the day he got Dream out of the Wither Storm, his face covered in the odd wither dust and sweat. The blonde had opened his eyes long enough for Techno to know he was alive and safely disconnected from the server code before promptly passing out just as Techno brought the enchanted weapon down onto the Command Block.

“I brought some more cold water,” Jesse’s soft voice brings him out of his thoughts as he finishes cleaning Dream’s face. “Any, uh, progress?”

“... the fever is gone, and he can eat a full bowl without problem. I’m not a doctor, but I say he’ll fully recover in a few days.”

“That’s good! I miss him, it’s weird to see you alone.”

Techno grunts, throwing the cloth he used to wipe Dream’s face in the water bucket. It’s weird to not have Dream by his side, and it’s even weirder he feels like that. Their friendship has always been an odd one, it’s clear they fit together well, but there was always some distance between them, like they were of different worlds. And yes, Techno is aware of how cliche it sounds now that he thinks about it, but it is what it is. He’s not sure why they were distant, but he guesses it comes from both of them being really guarded people. It’s less obvious with Dream, since he’s friendly and kind, but the speedrunner’s walls might be even thicker than Techno’s, and that together with Techno’s own walls probably caused the odd distance.

But here, without crowns and masks, they could finally become closer.

And they did so in such an odd but natural way. They just… clicked.

Odd feeling. Good, though. Too good, in fact. Like he has never felt before.

“Fuck.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Shut up,” Techno huffs, trying to shake off the sudden realization that maybe his feelings for Dream are different from friendship. It’s not the time, and certainly not the place. Talking about places… “How’s the rebuilding going?”

“Oh, it’s going pretty well! We just finished leveling the ground and the first houses are being built, probably to be finished the day after tomorrow. I thought it’d take more time, but with all of the town together plus the people Magnus and Ellegaard brought from their own towns, it’s going very fast. The Order is helping too.”

“You don’t look very happy about it.”

“I am, but…” Jesse sighs, wriggling a clean piece of cloth after dipping it in the cold water, then placing it on Dream’s forehead. “It’s weird. Back then, I’d be so thrilled to have them around, but now not only were they a farce, I was a farce. All my feelings for them were programmed into me, and they don’t even know.”

“I think Gabriel does.”

“Lukas.”

The boy pokes his head in the room, looking at Dream for a fleeting moment before focusing on the other two people in the room, offering a sheepish smile. His eyes shine brightly, and he’s not sorry about interrupting despite what leaves his mouth after, in fact he looks very excited. He kinda looks like Dream, if Techno squints.

“Hi, sorry for interrupting, but we need your opinion on something.”

“On what?”

“Something really important that you need to see for yourself. It won’t be long, and you’ll be with Dream in no time.”

Jesse suddenly smiles, just as brightly as Lukas, and Techno would need to be a complete idiot to not know they’re in cahoots. It’s probably another of their schemes to get him to take better care of himself. Ever since Dream fell asleep, Techno has barely left his side, which means he hasn’t seen the light of the sun in some time, nor has he trained with his sword, despite it sitting loyally on his hip. The most exercise he did was pacing, and he only ever left the room to use the bathroom or to bathe.

So, of course, the town’s Romeo and Juliet duo felt like they needed to do something about it. All their plans failed, of course, but at least they served as entertainment.

Today, however, Techno feels like actually playing along. Maybe it’s because Dream’s fever went away and he’s visibly much better than before, but the hybrid finds himself in a better mood today. And, well, he just knows the two will tattle on him and he’ll have to sit through Dream scolding him about taking care of his health, which, the hypocrisy of that blonde.

“Fine, brat, you have five minutes.”

“Ten. And I will bring you some gold.”

“I fucking hate you. Fine, ten minutes. It better be an entire block of gold.”

Ever since Techno told them what piglins are, Lukas has been bribing him with gold. To think that that would be his biggest weakness, gold. Damn piglin genes, he can’t help it, it’s instinct born out of using gold since their creation. It’s such a strong impulse, that all piglins in all servers have it. Techno is privileged by being a hybrid, which means he has an easier time holding that back than his full piglin peers, but it’s still very hard.

And maybe he’s just amusing them a little.

Oh, fuck, he remembers Philza doing the same with him and Wilbur.

“Let’s go before you talk so much Dream wakes up to tell you to shut up,” he says, getting up from the chair and stretching before slapping Lukas’ head out of the room. “Stay with him.”

“Yessir!” Jesse salutes, taking his place, eyes going soft as she looks at Dream.

Techno pats her head clumsily and quickly steps out of the room, not even daring to look at her as he closes the door behind him. He gives Lukas a look, who only smiles at him. The blonde guides him outside the tree house and towards the makeshift base the Order has made to organize the rebuilding of the town. On the way, many people stop to greet them, more specifically greet him, some even slip a short thanks. Those who don’t approach, still look at him, and smile if their eyes meet.

Technoblade is used to being gawked at, but having people look at him like he’s some sort of hero is a very new sensation, one he’d exchange for another fight with the Wither Storm any time.

Finally, they arrive where the Order and the rest of Jesse’s group is, all looking intently at something on top of the “planning table”, as Soren had called it. Once he gets closer, Olivia and Axel make room for him and Lukas to stand between them. He can see what’s on the table clearly now, and he’s not surprised to see a house plan. It’s a good house, he won’t lie, spacious but not too big it becomes wasteful. It has two bedrooms, a kitchen with dining room, a living room and a bathroom.

“I don’t know which of you grew enough brain cells for this, but this is good.”

“Thank you!” Olivia smiles at him proudly. “Jesse helped me, I’ll tell her you complimented our work.”

“Tallest dwarf.”

“Tall enough, I think.”

Olivia is slowly becoming more confident. Almost dying trying to kill a mighty beast will do that to you. Techno would be lying if he said he isn’t a bit curious as to how that will end, or if he said his usual sass didn’t rub off on her. Dream is going to scold him so bad for teaching the children bad stuff.

“Ok, but why do you need me here?”

“Weeeeeeell…” and here we go back at the sheepish Olivia as she plays with her hands for a bit before taking a deep breath. “It’s yours.”

“... heh?”

“It’s your house. Yours. And Dream’s. We—uh, assumed that you two would stay? At… at least until Dream is fully recovered, y’know? And the tree house is crowded and cold and overall not the best place someone who’s recovering should be, so we are thinking of building you guys a house. Not— not that you need to stay in it or anything, and if you don’t want it we can just not build it, it’s not built already, so it’s not it’ll be much problem, or we can build for someone else—”

“Olivia, shut your trap, you’re giving me a headache,” Techno grunts, rubbing his temples. “People will be more inclined to accept stuff if you’re confident in what you’re offering. Build the house, Dream and I will need it since we’re staying for an undetermined time.”

“Really? Yay!”

“No crazy redstone contraptions.”

“I wasn’t!”

“Sure, I’ll believe that.”

They probably think he doesn’t see, but the piglin can tell they’re all relieved with the news. He’s not sure how or when they got so attached. If only they knew the selfish reasons that keep Techno and Dream here. Dream has not been awake for long enough to talk about what he saw in the coding, and even when he gets there, there’s no saying how long it’ll take them to get out of the server, so staying around the main characters is a great choice.

He looks up from the drawing, eyes meeting with Gabriel’s. The warrior of the Order looks at him with an eerie look of knowing, as if he’s figured out something Techno knows, and knows that Techno won’t tell him. Lukas might be right and Gabriel knows the Truth.

Well, none of Techno’s business.

Just as he is to excuse himself to go back to Dream, a loud scream comes from the tree house. Jesse's voice echoes through the forest and the half built town, shril like a nightmare, sending a jolt of fear down Techno’s spine. Good mood forgotten, he runs back to the tree house as fast as his legs can take him, sword in hand like the extension of his being that it is. His distress is so smoldering, he doesn’t even climb the ladder, choosing to jump directly inside, scaring an already scared Reuben. He’ll apologize later.

Almost tripping on his own legs, he reaches the room and throws the door open ready for any physical threat, dreading anything but.

What greets him is the sight of Jesse hugging a very awake Dream, who’s desperately trying to keep himself upright while trying to hug her.

The sword falls from Technoblade’s hand with a loud sound, making the two look at him.

“I should’ve killed you when I had the chance, Smiles.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

And the smiling bastard is right.

Chapter Text

Jesse’s scream makes his ears ring even after an hour. He doesn’t blame her for her happiness, but, God, it almost deafened him.

Though, at least it let him see a flustered Techno curse them out for scaring him. It’s cute how the piglin clearly ran all the way to the room, worried about Dream’s wellbeing. It makes Dream’s heart skip a beat or two.

Jesse had gone out to tell the others the good news, and Dream requested she tell them to not come see him for another hour or two, since he still feels too weak to deal with the whole group. Once she left, Techno closed the door and placed his sword against the wall, sitting on the chair near the bed. In a low voice, he now tells Dream a summarized version of what happened while he was in the server’s code and then recuperating. It’s very clear that he wants to say something more, but doesn’t know how, though Dream can guess what it is.

“So you cleaned me and changed my clothes?”

“I did. I… have no idea how to take care of Admins when stuff like that happens, sorry.”

Dream blinks at the surprisingly earnest apology, no matter how grumbled, that Techno offers him. He can’t help but laugh softly, assuring the man that he did way better than expected, and that there wasn't much more he could do. When an Admin passes out from staying too long in a code, the best treatment is to let them sleep it off, and be with as little as stimulus as possible, so their perception can readjust to the world.

“...” Technoblade doesn’t say it, but his beautiful red eyes shine with relief. “I’ll tell the others to only visit you in small groups and not be obnoxious. I can’t promise they’ll be able to do so, however, so I’ll stay here during visits.”

“Aye, aye, Nursenoblade~”

“Shut it.”

Dream laughs again, a bit too rough for his liking. Before he can even ask, Techno grabs the jar on the bedside table and fills him a cup. The blonde smiles in thanks, drinking it all almost in one go. Despite being able to wake up to eat and drink every now and then, he feels like his stomach is empty and his mouth is dry. He catches Techno looking at his torso, and sighs, placing the cup back on the table.

“Pervert.”

“Heh?”

“Where were you looking when you changed my clothes?”

His voice is light and playful, but his words hold double meaning, and Technoblade knows it well. The pinkette gives him a careful look, nodding slightly as if wanting to let him know that he knows. With a last sigh, Dream takes off his shirt, hand immediately going to the unnatural purple scar that covers almost all of his right side, a last gift from the Ender Dragon. As if leaving behind a branching tree-like scar—Lichtenberg figure, the doctors later called—and three weeks of the most excruciating pain wasn’t enough, the mighty beast gave him a reminder of its horrors, carving under his skin its memory.

Dream isn’t ashamed of his scar, but he’d rather not think about that fight even after all these years, and people asking him about the “cool scar he got fighting the Ender Dragon” doesn’t help with that goal. So he hides it in public. He never thought he’d be showing it to Technoblade of all people.

Technoblade who… also takes off his shirt.

“What are you doing?”

“What? You think you’re special? I’ve got my fair share of scars too, y’know?”

Dream blinks as he looks at the scars littered over Techno’s chest. There’s a big one on the left side of his chest, a burn that certainly was extremely painful. The second big one is a slash across his belly, done with a sword, most likely. The others aren’t as big, and many are fading, they crawl all the way to his arms and disappear under his pants.

“... were you a problem child?”

“Why does everyone ask that? My childhood scars are all gone, I’ll have you know,” the hybrid huffs, moving seats to the bed and raising a hand. “Can I?”

Can he? Dream takes a bit to understand what he wants, until it clicks.

“... be very careful, it’s not sensitive, but, uh, still feels weird to have anything touch it.”

“Is that why you wear a cropped turtleneck under your hoodie?”

The blonde speedrunner groans, hiding his face in his hands at the thought that not only Techno saw his scar, but saw the tight turtleneck he usually wears. That is something Dream is a bit embarrassed about. Thank God he didn’t get the belly button piercing his drunk self once wished for. There’s no deniability in a golden crown with encrusted red stones.

He’s so deep in his embarrassment, he almost yelps when he feels Techno’s warm hand finally touch his side. His touch is gentle, almost reverent, fingers ghosting over the branch-like and giving the speedrunner goosebumps. It almost feels good, definitely better than the doctor’s hand when he tries to remind Dream that the faint burning pain he sometimes feels on bad days is in his mind.

He does yelp when Techno suddenly pulls him close, hands flying to the other’s sturdy chest.

“Techno?!”

“I’m glad you survived that,” Techno mumbles against his forehead, hands gently rubbing his waist, and Dream can feel each word forming on his mouth and Techno presses his lips to his skin. “I’m glad you came back.”

To me, Dream hears, and he isn’t sure if Techno wants him to hear that or not, but since the other didn’t say it out loud, Dream brushes it off. Trying to dissipate his awkwardness, he shyly runs his fingers across Techno’s chest and shoulders, taking note of the scars he can feel, until his arms are loosely around the piglin’s neck.

It’s significantly harder to ignore when Techno suddenly kisses his forehead.

“Techno—!”

“Once you’re better, we’ll talk about it. Just let me stay like this for a bit more.”

Met with the unmistakable vulnerability in Technoblade’s voice, Dream can’t find in himself to deny that request. They still have a good hour before the others can’t take it anymore and send Jesse to interrogate him. So he just allows his eyes to close and his heart to synchronize with Techno’s.

Chapter Text

“Good news! There is a way out of this server.”

“Bad news?”

“We need to follow the storyline.”

“Of course we do,” Techno groans loudly, rubbing his face with his hands. Why would the Universe make it easy for them to leave this nightmare?

“So… this is really a game?” Jesse asks in a small voice, and Techno almost feels bad for telling her the truth. Luckily, he doesn’t need to, because Lukas is sitting right by her side on the end of the bed, and readily bumps her shoulder with his in comfort.

“No, this server is not the game. But, it is made to be.”

“Spare us your Admin riddles, Smiles.”

Dream pouts a bit, leaning back on the pillow. His hoodie was back, now clean and floofy, as green as his eyes, and his hair had finally been introduced to a brush earlier thanks to Jesse, so now he looks much more like the speedrunner Techno knows. Good, that weak, feverish little human is not a memory he wants to keep. Dream looks at Techno, then at Jesse, then at Lukas, expression turning serious and eyes shining, taking a deep breath in preparation for what will obviously be a long explanation.

If this was a written story, the chapter should be named “Convenient Exposition”.

“To start from the beginning: back when the Main Server was first discovered, there were no laws. People would play around with coding left and right, without any sort of overseeing or rules, anything and everything was game. Of course, that eventually led to some… disastrous consequences, to say the least. No one should have that much power.”

“What disastrous consequences?” Lukas asks, writing every word down on his little notebook. He has taken to doing that lately, and Techno swears the blonde has a special notebook for everyone. His guess is that after being exposed to the emptiness of, well, his non-existence before the game, Lukas is hellbent on clinging to any sort of memento that proves he exists outside the game storyline.

“I won’t—”

“He can’t—”

“Ugh, fine, yes, I can’t tell you, they’re secrets only Admins are allowed to know. How do you even know that, Pigsy?”

“Wilbur.”

“Of course,” Dream sighs, rolling his eyes with a shake of his head. “Anyway, I can’t tell you what exactly happened, but I can tell you this: the Universal Code will repair itself, forcefully if necessary, and with no regards to anything else.”

There’s a slight tremble to Lukas’ handwriting when he writes that down.

“Because of those consequences, laws were made, and the Academy was established to teach and guide people through the knowledge of coding. Everyone goes through it when they reach the Main Server, but to be an Admin, you need more than just the basic course. After that, as I’ve already told Lukas’, we have our code changed by the Universe.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s kinda like… a ritual. Basically, the Universe gives us the permission to mess with code beyond the basics. After all that, we get a license that needs renovation every month. When renovating a license, you need to present a report on all your servers and activities in those servers, and then evidence that proves, y’know, that you’re actually doing what you say you’re doing. Not renovating your license will get inspectors to come find you, and if they find out you’re doing something illegal, you get your Admin license revoked and, depending on how big the crime is, you can go to jail.”

“... the Admin of this server is doing something illegal, is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes, Lukas. Romeo—that’s his name, by the way—is doing something illegal. His crimes include: hiding a Fabricated Server within a Fabricated Server and passing it off as a Realm; creating artificial life without proper oversight; controlling human coding; twisting the timeline coding of this server; murder of a fellow Player—”

“Murder?!”

“Spoilers,” say both Techno and Dream at the same time.

“Don’t worry about that for now. What matters to us right now is that this server is not recognized as a server, but as a Realm. A Realm is a world inside a server, like the Nether or The End.”

“... the portal that threw us here was on another server, a server… created by Romeo…” things finally start to click in Technoblade’s mind, and he feels a bit dizzy when Dream nods. “But he’d need to prove that this is a Realm.”

“And he is. Nowadays, it’s easier to prove your server is legit, ever since looking into another Admin’s server code is considered an invasion of privacy and only done under suspicion of crime. Some footage of people roleplaying, or playing games, or building, and there you have it.”

The hybrid feels ice pump through his veins. If memory doesn’t fail him, one thing this server would not have shortage of is people. A little lie there about a roleplay, a little vague answer about a game here, some half-truth about building… and since everyone was artificially made, the coldblooded Romeo could just replace them with different people to make new footage, or even just make an entirely different footage with more artificial people, producing many different plays in the same stage so long he can prove the footage was taken there. The time in between the game’s timeline would be perfect.

Oh, Techno is going to punch him so hard.

“But, Romeo is smart enough to be a fool. Ultimately, he needs to leave every now and then, and he’s gotten so confident over the years that he simply leaves many, many openings.”

“The portal Wilbur found.”

“Yep. Romeo closed that one after we got in, but there are some he cannot close without risking trapping himself here.”

“That can happen?!” Jesse gasps, looking between them with wide eyes. “How dangerous is coding?!”

“Oh, you have no idea. Anyway, he hid that portal very well, but it’ll reveal itself at the end of the first game’s storyline thanks to the period of dormancy before the second game starts.”

“But you said this isn’t a game.”

“It isn’t. But it is programmed to follow the game.”

“Then… Romeo is setting up his own defeat?”

“Romeo is defeated?”

“Spoilers.”

Jesse huffs, leaning on Lukas completely, crossing her arms like a petulant child. Dream chuckles at her display, definitely pleased with the levity of the situation. It’s almost as if he doesn’t immediately throw the biggest plot twist at their faces right after.

“The Romeo who administers this server is also artificial.”

Chapter Text

“That sounds like you pulled a plot twist out of your ass.”

“Believe me, I did not.”

I did.

“To make things simpler, Romeo did do all his little crimes, but he knows that he can’t just stay in his server forever and risk people finding out not only that he messed with the Universal Code, but also the literal skeleton in his closet. But, he also couldn’t afford to just leave his server, specially since he is a big part of the storyline this server follows.”

“So he made an artificial version of himself?”

“Yep. The real one comes and goes, leaving behind openings like that portal that brought us here. Meanwhile, the fake one takes care of the server and keeps things running.”

“And because he is artificial, he forgets everything when the storyline loops, so he has no idea that ultimately, he will lose,” Techno finishes, and the sigh he lets out is so relatable Dream follows it with one of his own. “Way to make himself the victim.”

“Mhm. That’s all I know. The rest are theories, like, for example, how the game was made first, probably by Romeo with his friends, and then they decided to make a server that follows it. Or how the three probably made this all together, but Romeo was the main programmer. I can only guess, really.”

Techno may not know the intricacies of code, but he knows enough to feel horror build in his stomach. Many people have called him cold, and even cruel at times, but he has never been evil. Romeo is just true evil, to the point of being a caricature of the very concept. To make a doll of himself to take the fall for him, forcing it to relive its defeat over and over and over again…

In the end, that’s what this server is, isn’t it? A big dollhouse in the hands of the worst brat.

“So… what now?” Jesse questions, looking from one man to the other. It’s clear as day how sick she fews at the knowledge of what Romeo is doing, but there’s also that unending determination shining in her eyes.

“Techno and I will finish the first storyline, find the portal and leave. I’ve gathered enough credibility with the Academy that they’ll definitely listen to me and investigate if I bring it up. Romeo got away because the oversight is done by one or two people, but investigations take at least five of the best Admins there are, and with me guiding them, they’ll find his crimes in no time.”

“Won’t that endanger the server?” the hybrid wonders, remembering past cases of Admins getting caught, and how most of them ended with the server being deleted.

“Nope. Not when they find out there’s sentience here, since their primary objective is to preserve life. I’m sure they’ll fix the looping problem and connect this server to the Main Server properly.”

“So… this will become a Fixed Server?” Lukas wonders, finally looking up from his little notebook.

“That… I don’t know. This is very clearly a Fabricated Server, but has elements of Fixed Servers. It might become something entirely new.”

Dream smiles reassuringly at the two teens, and Techno knows by the burning resolve in his eyes that the blonde will go to the end of the world and beyond to make sure this server survives. And Techno will follow him.

What? This server isn’t so bad, bite him.

“Ok! That’s enough for today, you still need to rest,” Jesse claps her hands, getting up with a jump. “I’ll make you something to eat and then you should take a nap. I told the others to give you space, so don’t worry.”

“Get better soon, ok?” Lukas adds with a gentle smile, taking Dream’s hand and squeezing. “No need to rush.”

Techno watches as they leave, huffing when Jesse takes Lukas’ hand and makes him blush. How this went from a horror story to a romcom is beyond him, but some part of him feels a bit relieved that they’re doing all right. Past the time he admitted that he understands how Phil feels a bit more than before, he guesses. Just a bit.

They are not his kids.

As if hearing his thoughts, Dream laughs, something wheezy and something tired. But it is still a laugh, and it is still genuine. Techno smiles at it. He loves that laugh. He loves its owner. He’s getting sappy about it too, but he guesses he’s just a bit drunk on the knowledge that he’s capable of such feelings, and that his stupid heart chose the most annoying smiling fool to ever exist. Shaking his thoughts away, he’ll have time to dwell on it later, he gets up from his chair and makes his way to the bed.

And if his heart skips a beat when Dream almost instantly scoots over and raises the sheets, it’s only his business.

The piglin makes himself comfortable after taking off his boots, an arm finding its way around the blonde’s shoulders. Said blonde’s head rests on his shoulder, one of his hands playing with Techno’s free one.

“... how should I read this, Techno?”

“However you want.”

“Don’t blame me if I read this wrong.”

“I don’t think you are.”

“... this is lame, I want a better confession.”

“Fucking go to sleep, Smiles.”

Dream giggles, mumbling about having to wait until Jesse is done with the food, though his closed eyes and relaxed muscles make it clear any attempts on that will be half-hearted at best.

Whatever Romeo is doing can be dealt with later. For now, Techno guards Dream’s sleep.

Chapter Text

The days that followed were filled with… well, just life.

Dream slowly but surely got stronger. In no time, he was able to eat an entire plate of food, made by Jesse, leave the bed and walk around the room, with Techno there to make sure he didn’t fall and hurt himself, of course. During that time, Dream learned two things: Jesse is a really good cook, and Techno is a worrywart.

That last one makes him giggle every time he thinks about it, now sitting on a tree branch outside. For someone who presents himself in such a laid back fashion, Techno worries and he worries a lot. It’s never overbearing, nor restricting, but it’s there, always present in his eyes as he watches over Dream, in his hands as he holds Dream’s, in his voice as he rudely tells him to get some rest.

It’s a warm feeling, loving and being loved.

“Smiles.”

Talking about the devil…

Dream looks down from where his legs dangle from the tree branch. It’s a bit of a game he came up with the teens, both to keep himself active and to entertain them: he parkours his way through the woods and hides, and they have to find him before he returns to the tree house. So far, he has won all matches, except the ones Techno was playing too. It’s almost like Techno has a radar only for Dream or something.

The pigling hybrid standing right under the tree and looking up directly at him proves it.

“Come down, the kids gave up and it’s almost lunch time.”

The blonde speedrunner doesn’t answer, instead standing up on the branch and calmly walking onto another one. His calm actions contradict the giddiness he feels when crimson eyes follow him despite the leaves covering him like a blanket.

Sure, he can tell where Dream is, but can he tell what he’s planning?

Dream jumps.

And the answer is yes.

Techno catches him with little to no effort, strong arms holding his thighs, hands warm against the fabric of his dark pants. Hr grumbles a little, readjusting the blonde so he won’t fall, and Dream giggles in excitement, hiding his face in Techno’s neck while his arms hug the pinkette’s shoulders, his legs holding his torso tightly. Techno’s ease when picking him up has the incredible power to make him feel weightless, something he usually only feels when doing complicated jumps from high places.

“Must you?”

“Yep.”

The hybrid sighs, however there’s an undeniable fondness even there. After a few heartbeats in that position, Deram leans back to look at the one holding him. He looks at the pinkish skin, the faded scars on the jawline, the tusk-like teeth poking out of his lower lip, the arched eyebrow, the intense red of his sharp eyes.

He looks at the warrior that fought a thousand battles.

He looks at the farmer that harvested a thousand crops.

He looks at the smith that forged a thousand weapons.

He looks at the man who gave him his only heart.

Before he can stop them, his hands cup Techno’s face, and his lips meet Techno’s lips. He feels Techno’s breath catch and he hears his heart speed. And despite his closed eyes, Dream can still clearly see the man who gave him the sweetest kiss he has ever had.

Hopefully the first kiss of a thousand more.

Chapter Text

Hello! Since this isn't an actual chapter, I won't keep it up for too long. I just wanna say some things after... the last Technoblade video.

If you don't know what's going on, I suggest you go watch it. But, for the sake of this notice, the summary: Techno passed. The last video in his channel is his last message, delieverd to us by his family. I'll not be talking about that, or his personal life, because I'm sure all of you know of that more than I do (since I haven't accompanied MCYT in a considerable time), what I want to discuss is how this will impact our little shipping Fandom, and how it will impact my corner of the Fandom. Be aware that comments need to be approved, so if you try to pull some hater shit, you might as well scream at a wall.

First things first, what I want to address is: will the shipping go on? The answer is: it'll depend on the shipper. If you feel bad (be it you feel disrespectful, be it you feel icky, etc) for shipping Techno with ANYONE, not just Dream but anyone, that's valid. You're valid, it's your decision to make, and it's other people's job to respect that. That said, if you still want to ship, that's valid too, and is a decision that needs to be respected too. It's important to recognise that there's no right answer here, because while Techno was a real person, the "Techno" this community writes about is but a character we've created, and characters are not real people (no matter what Twitter says). Take any fic with Techno and change the name to anything else, and you've got an OC. So I hope all of you will act accordingly to your feelings and principles, and will RESPECT EACH OTHER'S FEELINGS AND PRINCIPLES. (If you justify harassing someone as "acting accordingly to your feelings and principles", I hope you get an ingrown nail, because you're shitty)

Following that, please keep in mind that people cope with things differently, and making fanworks might be one of those coping mechanisms. Let them go through it their own way, your grief is no parameter. Again, don't harass people just because you don't agree to what they're doing. We are not in the Dark Ages, and we are not going to grab pitchforks to hunt witches.

Techno's death should not be an excuse for us to fight. Nor would he have wanted that.

Now, onto me, myself and I: Will I keep writing for Dreamnoblade? Yes. I want to at the least finish Dreamnoblade Story Mode. I can separate real Techno from "Techno" well enough, so I don't have a problem with writing. In a way, I even feel that writing about him, even if it's him in a ridiculous situation with a corny romance plot, is a way to honor his memory, keep it going. Technoblade never dies, even if it is a version of him I've created in my mind. Who knows, maybe he's laughing about it somewhere? I... want to keep both versions of him in my memory. So I will. And I want you guys to know that this story will always welcome you when you want to meet this version of him.

I will, however, delay the next chapter, instead of posting it today like I had planned. As much as I say it's fine... it's not all that fine. I want to give it some days, maybe some weeks. Not only for me, but for all of you. And for him.

So I'll see you guys when I see you guys.

Stay safe and take care, nerds.

Blood for the Blood God.

Chapter Text

“What are you thinking so deeply about, Smiles?”

Techno feels more than he hears the amused huff that answers him. It sends a pleasant shiver down his spine, and he reflexively squeezes the warm body on top of his.

Weeks ago, he would laugh his eyes out if someone told him he’d be lazing in bed with his partner laying half on top of him way past midday in their shared house. Now, this exact moment, he can feel only satisfaction as Dream nuzzles his neck, running his hand down his chest. For a being of war, Techno has never loved peace so much.

“I’m thinking… do you think we meet each other in different universes?”

“Like, parallel universes?”

“Parallel, alternate, whatever.”

“Hm… maybe we do.”

“Yeah?” Dream moves just enough so they can see eye-to-eye.

“Why not?” Techno shrugs lightly, allowing himself to sink more into the pillows. “I mean, we kinda fit together, I guess?”

“We do. I like to think we’d find each other. I don’t—I don’t see me being like this with someone else…”

“Well, aren’t you a romantic?”

A chuckle is his  answer to the blonde’s light slap to his stomach.

“Who knows? Maybe in some worlds, you’re dating… ah, what’s the name of that bland four eyes?”

“Bland- don’t call George bland!”

“Yeah, no, he’s too boring for you. Maybe that blaze hybrid, WapWap—”

“Oh my God, shut up! I can’t believe you don’t remember the names of my best friends!”

Techno laughs and laughs at the speedrunner’s indignant expressions. He remembers their names, of course he does,— how could he not after hours listening to his partner narrate his adventures with his team?—, but sometimes Dream makes it just so easy to tease him, the piglin hybrid just can’t help it. He gently rakes his nails through Dream’s hair, scratching a little here and there, a small grunt of happiness leaving his lips as said man calms down and goes back to laying his head on his chest.

“Maybe we’re enemies in some worlds,” the blonde says after a moment of silence. “Or maybe we’re total strangers about to meet. And maybe we aren’t us!”

“What does that even mean?”

“Like, maybe we have totally different faces… and names,” Dream looks at him again with a concentrated face. “You look like a Dave.”

“Dave? Really?”

“What? It’s not a bad name! Or maybe you’d like, uh… Alex?”

“Alex? Short for what, Alexandrino?”

It is Dream’s turn to laugh loudly, wheezing so strongly Techno can feel the bed shake a little.

“What about you, what would your name be?” he asks once the laughing fit ends.

“Uh… Clay.”

“Clay?”

“Clay.”

“Clay. ‘Dave’ really was your best, huh?”

Dream laughs again and Techno can feel their legs tangling under the covers. He kisses the top of a messy mop of golden hair, feeling his heart slow to a fulfilled lullaby. They have lots to do and many more to worry about, so many oddities to figure out, so many chances to meet their end, so many things to consider as they go forwards with their plans, but he can’t bring himself to think about any of that.

No, instead he thinks of golden hair and green eyes.