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He woke up in a dark place, a chill in his bones and an ache he hadn’t felt in a long time. His right shoulder aches, reminding him of his last mission. He was, of course, tied to a chair - all of his limbs bound.
Of course, they tied him up - you can’t capture one of the top agents of the SMP and not take precautions.
Even with the room dark, he can make out a camera a few feet in front of him. He tries to assess the room he’s in to look for a way out - nothing. There are no windows, no tools or equipment besides the camera and his limbs are bound so tight that he’s starting to get rope burn. There’s a door at the very end of the room, the wall farthest to him
A few moments pass by and the door’s yanked open, his eyes straining against the light that filters in. A switch is flipped and the room’s bathed in bright light.
“Ah, I see the infamous Dream is awake,” A voice said, mocking evident in his voice. “We’ve captured him, boys!” The group behind the leaders’ laugh, glee evident in their laughs
Dream rolls his eyes, “You guys didn’t do shit, you kidnapped me as I was drunk and drugged, fucking idiots.”
“Big talk for someone who has no way out of this room,” The leader sneers and stalks forward. “Tell me, Dream, do you remember a couple by the names of Mia and Lucas?”
“Can’t say I do,” He says with a blank look.
“I’ll make it clearer for you then - 1996, London - Bullet straight through their heads,” The other spits and Dream’s eyes widen a fraction. It was one of his first missions, he had come with Sam that day. They were ordered to kill the parents, but as they were leaving - he locked eyes with a boy, a bit older than him - hiding under the couch.
“Those were your parents?” He questions, shocked before crying out, more surprise than pain, as a hand meets his cheek. “What the fuck?”
“You killed my parents, you motherfucker,” The other seethes. “You don’t even remember their names - but you’ll remember mine ,” He smiles, sick and wicked as he motions one of his men forward. “My name’s Reece,”
A knife appears in his hand.
“Reece- I was fucking 16! You would do it to anyone else!” He defends himself as he watches Reece come closer. “Your parents were some of the biggest child sex traffickers in the world! You were 18 then, surely you would’ve known how horrible that would be!” He shouts.
“ My Parents,” Reece sneers. “were good people, you fucking liar.” he breathes. “Turn it on,” He orders one of his men and Dream watches as the camera’s turned on - the red light mocking him.
“I had to watch my family get murdered, and your family will watch you die as well,” Dream has to stop noise from escaping him - he’s been in hostage situations but none like this. “Don’t worry, ever minute of your slow and painful torture will be shown in 4k to them,” Reece strokes his cheek almost lovingly before striking him again.
A knife is shoved in his stomach and he bites back a moan of pain.
“Fuck you,” he wheezes through the pain. “Die in hell, you bitch,” He spits to Reece’s shoes.
“Oh, it’ll be fun breaking you,” Reece chuckles before retracting the knife and shoving it back in - into his left leg this time.
“You think I haven’t been tortured before?” He questions. “What you’re doing to me? It’s nothing,” Dream heaves.
“You’re really gonna regret that,” Reece smiles and the torture goes on.
It’s an hour and a half later when Dream allows himself to moan in pain. The door’s shut, and there’s no one else in the room. His multiple stab wounds ache throughout his body. How nice of them to the stabs wounds up, he thinks bitterly because he knows the real reason is so that he doesn’t die of blood loss.
The camera’s still blinking red, and he takes a moment to himself to compose himself.
“I don’t know where I am,” He breathes out but continues on despite the pain. “But they stole my communicator - if you manually turn it on, you can get my GPS and that’s where I’ll be, hopefully,” He glances at the door as he hears footsteps coming.
“I-I know you guys are mad at me right now, but hurry, please,” he pleads. “This guy isn’t fucking around,”
(“Dream’s pleading,” George whispers from the front of the group as he watches the big screen that showcases his best friend.
“Dream never pleads, he’s too much of a stubborn motherfucker to plead,” Sapnap elaborates to those who hadn’t known.
“Sam, can you turn his communicator on?” Wilbur questions the green-haired man who nods and immediately starts typing on his laptop.
“Hang in there Dream,”)
“Oh Dream!” Reece’s bright voice cuts through the pain. “I’m back!”
“Yay,” He deadpans.
“Oh, don’t act so happy to see me you ray of sunshine you!” It’s then that Dream sees the metal bat that Reece is holding. He looks at it warily, well aware of his beating heart.
“You trying out for the baseball team?” He snarks and smirks as Reece’s expression darkens. The swing is so fast that he doesn’t see it coming - he can’t hold back the scream that escapes him as the bat makes contact with his knee. “Oh, you son of a bitch,” he grits out.
“Here, let’s play a game, okay?” Reece asks but continues on as Dream breathes through the pain, avoiding looking at his knee. “I’ll ask you a question, you answer and if you don’t I hit you with this bat! Maybe I’ll switch up the form of torture Capiche?” Dream makes no move to agree or disagree so he moves on.
“Okay! I’ll start easy, who’s the boss of the SMP?” He demands.
“Like I’d ever fucking tell you,” Dream scoffs and immediately bites his tongue as his other knee is hit. “Are you trying to make sure I don’t walk ever again? Holy fuck,” He breathes.
Reece shrugs, “It would be a bonus if it happened,” He says innocently.
“Now, next question, tell us the names of your youngest members,”
His heart sinks.
He can’t give out names. Especially not to those who he considered little brothers.
“Fuck you,” He spits at Reece’s shoes.
If he had his way, Purpled, Ranboo, Tommy and Tubbo won’t be in the spotlight for years.
His head’s yanked up, the grip on his hair tight and unforgiving. He stares into steel grey eyes, defiance clear in his eyes.
“My loyalty’s to my family, not to you,” he sneers and immediately, his head snaps to the other side - his jaw aching. Reece stands over him, fist raised.
“What. Are. Their. Names?” He demands, punctuating each word with another punch to Dream’s face.
“As… As I said before: Go- go fuck off,” Dream wheezes through the pain. “I’m- I’m never going to tell you shit ,”
The comment grants him a kick in the ribs and he groans in pain.
Reece is wearing steel caps, he realises with a grimace.
( “Where the fuck are you four going?” Wilbur questions the four minors.
They freeze, before turning and facing the group of adults staring at them. Ranboo and Tubbo have the decency to look ashamed but Wilbur guesses it’s because they got caught and couldn’t sneak past them.
“We’re going to look for Dream!” Purpled announces, mouth set in a tight line.
“Yeah! Big D’s in trouble and I’m not gonna sit around and watch him get tortured!” Tommy declares, fists tightening.
“Tommy, it’s dangerous-”
“Shut the fuck up! Nearly all of you are half the reason he’s in this situation!” Tommy seethes. “If we can’t fucking go, we’re staying in my room then,” He declares, tugging his friends along. )
Dream remembers the argument like it was a yesterday - it probably was to be fair. They - him, George, Sapnap and Wilbur - usually never fought, having grown up together and taught to value each other.
This was a messy fight.
They had gone on a mission together, and long story short, Technoblade had gotten shot and Dream had been blamed for it. Now, normally he was okay with being a scapegoat - these people were his family, he knew they didn't mean it. But hurtful words coming at him in every direction coupled with a bullet hole in his shoulder? It escalated too quickly and he ended up asking Bad for another mission.
The man had protested of course, but Dream pleaded and pleaded until he finally gave in.
“You always do this! You dive into things headfirst and you don’t consider anyone else around you!”
“George, they were about to blow the place up! If I hadn’t tackled him, we all would’ve died!”
“What you did was selfish, Dream. You got Technoblade shot and for what? Your pride? So you could say that we finished the mission successfully?”
“Wilbur, you know it isn’t like that, come on!”
“Sometimes, you’re too much Dream.”
“Sapnap…”
He shuts his eyes tearfully and pretends like his heart isn't aching. Instead, he chooses to focus on reality.
After successfully beating the shit out of him (no, really, he was sure that his ribs were either bruised or broken - it hurt to fucking breathe), choking him to the point he passed out, Reece had left. That had been a few hours ago and he was stuck in the darkness of the room, alone. Most of that time, he was asleep, stuck in a dreamless sleep.
“You’re awake!” Reece’s voice called out as he opened the door again. This time he held what looked like a hair straightener in his hand.
I’m gonna get burned , he thought dazedly. His mind was still clouded with pain, his head seemingly filled with cotton.
“Here, we’re gonna switch it up but the game still stands okay? You still have to answer the questions, or else you’ll get hurt, alright?” Reece smiles sweetly before continuing on.
“Now, why is it that we found you in that dingy old bar yesterday?” Reece asks.
“For a mission,” he rasped.
“Oh? Have I finally broken you I wonder?”
“Never, you dickhead,” Dream smirks cockily. “I can just disclose this information,”
The other’s eye twitches, “Alright, well a little birdy of mine told me that you were injured before that, weren’t you?” Reece stalks to him, unlike a predator to his prey. “Somewhere around...here? Wasn’t it?” He questions with a sick grin as he pokes his right shoulder.
Dream can’t help the cry that falls out of his lips, a pained sound coming out.
His shirt is pushed to the side, the bullet wound even more exposed. It’s infected - of course it is, he had left it for more than a day.
It’s excruciating and he can’t stop the tears springing up to his eyes as Reece digs a finger into it. The tears drip at Reece’s cruel actions and he trashes as best as he can with the littleamount of strength he still has left.
He considers begging, pleading - anything for Reece to stop as the wound’s aggravated even further, the finger pushing the bullet in even further.
He won’t though.
Maybe it’s because of his pride or his stubbornness but he doesn’t resort to begging, he’s satisfied with the pained cries that leave him. His legs thrash out as well, a particular cruel action as his knees are still fucked up from the metal bat.
He’s on the verge of begging half an hour later, Reece’s finger bloody, when the door bursts open. Reece whips around, anger clear on his face. He quickly gets tackled down by four figures that Dream recognises as the four youngest in the agency. He wants to be ashamed that they have to see him like this, weak and vulnerable, but all he feels is the relief that always comes with being rescued.
And pain.
Yeah - a lot of pain actually.
He’s fading in and out of consciousness as he gets untied fromthat god awful chair. His knees give out, and he’s prepared to hit the ground when arms catch him. Looking up, he catches sight of Wilbur, George and Sapnap above him.
“Hey,” he mumbles sleepily.
“Dream- Dream, fuck why didn’t you tell us you got shot too?” George whispers frantically.
“Didn’t...didn’t w’n’a w’rry you,” He says, eyes blinking slowly.
“We had to find out that you were injured through that sick motherfucker,” Wilbur hisses, looking over at the figure that was pinned by four extremely pissed teens.
“‘m sorry… d’d’nt think you cared,” Dream slurs, his head lolling to the right.
“We’ll always care, you idiot,” Sapnap whisper as he takes Dream’s hand in his.
George is frantically calling for a medic, for Bad, for anyone , over his shoulder.
“Thank you for coming… Was’nt sure if you were,” Dream breathes out, weakly squeezing Sapnap’s hand.
“Always- Wait, Dream? Dream, stay awake, can you do that?”
Dream closes his eyes, too exhausted to stay awake.
Thank you for being there