Chapter Text
George couldn’t move. He was collapsed on the floor, unable to do anything but grip the porcelain mask on his hands tighter as if it might slip right through his fingers and be taken along with the rest of Dream. Dream. Dream was gone .
Dream was de-
He held the mask tighter.
The world around him continued to move. Something was screaming. For a second, George wondered if it was himself before he realized that the sound wasn’t even something close to human. George’s head snapped up. The egg.
Fuck . He’d forgotten all about that.
DreamXD seemed to have figured it out though. He was doing...something to it. George really couldn’t tell through the tears but the egg was shriveling up into itself, turning from a muddy yellow (though he had been told it was actually red) into a light blue. Gradually, it withered away into nothing but an empty broken shell.
And just like that, the egg that had terrorized the server for years was finally gone.
George tried to feel some sense of joy but he couldn't. Dream was gone. The server was free but Dream was gone . George pulled the mask impossibly closer. He tried to speak, maybe to thank DreamXD or maybe to yell at him for taking Dream but he couldn’t get a word out.
“It worked. That mad bastard actually did it,” Tommy broke the silence, disbelief evident in his voice. Another pause and then, in a much smaller voice. “He..he can’t really be gone right?” A sob broke through George before he could stop it. “He can’t! He’s Dream. Dream can’t. He can’t die. That green bitch wouldn’t die if we dragged him to hell itself and locked him there.” Tommy was rambling now but George found himself nodding along to every word.
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” Sapnap agreed, voice cracking as he spoke. “He’s not dead. He just respawned. Probably laughing his ass off at us in the prison right now.”
Hope swelled in George’s chest and finally, his voice began working again. “We’re going to go in there and hear his stupid wheezing from a mile away and he’s going to call us idiots for believing that and it’s going to be okay.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Sapnap repeated.
George felt like an idiot for believing anything else. Of course Dream wasn’t dead. Dream was Dream. Dream wouldn’t go down like that. Not without a fight and some dramatic monologue. He wouldn't let himself die by essentially a suicide mission. No, he was too self-centered for that.
‘Or was he? ’ a traitorous part of his brain whispered ‘How many times has Dream taken a hit for you? Protected you with his life? Gave you more resources than he could afford to just because you asked?’. George chose to ignore it.
Yeah, Dream was simply too much of an egotistical prick to do anything like that. He must still be alive. He had to be.
A shout from outside broke through his thoughts. George listened harder, there seemed to be multiple of them yelling and...laughing? Then, it clicked. The rest of the server must have been freed.
A grin made its way onto George’s face as he stuffed the mask into his satchel and stood up. Things were fine. The egg was gone, the server was free, and Dream was okay. Dream was okay he had to be okay what would George do if he wasn’t okay? How would he survive?
Soon enough, people were crowding into the now empty egg room, still laughing and shouting. George even spotted a few already crying. Many of them hadn’t properly spoken to each other in months and they’d all missed each other.
At first, even those most attached to the egg had plenty of time free from it until they were called. They could spend entire days (mostly) free from its influence if the egg wasn't calling them. But, eventually, it took more and more of their time up until a couple of months ago where they had been completely under the control of the egg at all times. It had hit Sapnap the hardest. Both of his fiances had gotten infected and now spent their time actively hunting them down. He went quiet nearly all the time, only really speaking to George and even then, his answers were clipped and left no room for proper conversation.
So, when he locked eyes with Karl and Quackity, he ran at them faster than George had ever seen Sapnap run and immediately tackled them both. George smiled at the sight and promised himself he would do the same with Dream next time he saw him. After yelling at him for faking a canon death of course.
But it wasn't faked. Dream was dead and everyone was celebrating. How could they be celebrating when Dream was dead. Dream was dead.
George pushed the thought away and pulled Bad in for another hug. Dream was fine. Probably moping that he was back in the prison or something. Everything was fine. It had to be.
-----
After hours of tearful reunions and apologies, someone looked around and curiously asked, “How did you even get rid of the egg?”
Sam, who had been talking with Ponk immediately stiffened and whipped his head around the room. His face paled as he found nothing.
“Where the hell is Dream?”
Instantly, the happiness from the room was drained and everyone pulled out a weapon, ready to strike the second they saw the blonde. Arguments broke out immediately.
“You guys took Dream out of the prison? Seriously?”
“And then lost him!”
“Godammit. I thought we agreed to leave that bastard in there.”
George opened his mouth to speak and reassure them that Dream was back in prison when another voice spoke instead.
“He is gone.” It was DreamXD. George looked around for the voice in confusion. Hadn't he left? But then George spotted him walking out of a dark corner that he must have been in this whole time.
“What do you mean ‘gone’?” Bad asked hesitantly.
“He gave his last canon life to save the server. He’s dead”. And at those words, George’s false reality began to fall apart.
“George? Sapnap? Is he saying the truth?” Sam asked. After receiving no answer, he tried again. ”Guys? Tommy?”
“N-No Well, we saw him die but it couldn’t have been canon. It was practically a suicide. Not very Dream-esque if you know what I mean.” Tommy let out an awkward laugh as he spoke.
The room was silent for only a moment before everyone started arguing again.
“So is he dead or not?”
“Are you sure this isn’t another trick?”
“What do you mean a suicide?”
“CAN SOMEONE JUST EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED FOR THE LOVE OF GOD?” The room fell silent once more and all eyes turned to Sapnap and George.
“It’s...complicated.” George took a deep breath before the explanation tumbled out of him. “We just brought him out to take care of the egg. And I mean, he was a mess. Looked like he hadn’t eaten in weeks and was covered in these- in these scars. Then he started talking in this weird language and DreamXD joined the surver. They started talking about risks or something and it turns out that Dream used part of DreamXD or something. And to get enough power to get rid of the egg XD had to-” George’s breath caught in his throat as he tried to force the words out but they refused. “He- He's- He can’t be dead.” His voice broke and he looked up at the raven-haired man a couple of steps away from him. “Sapnap, he can’t be dead. He has to have respawned.”
Sapnap opened his mouth to respond but DreamXD cut him off. “He hasn’t.” George was almost taken aback at the anger that was in his voice. “It’s a bit too late to care about him now isn’t it? Only after he’s gone do you decide to worry. And even then, you won’t even accept it.” The god shook his head and stood up. “Here, let me show you how he was living for these past years considering you never even tried to visit.” DreamXD stretched a hand out to him.
George hesitated for only a moment before he took the offered hand. DreamXD nodded at him and that was all the warning George got before he found himself standing in the middle of an obsidian room.
The first thing that George processed was just how hot it was. He tried to use the wall for support after being literally teleported by a god only to pull it away immediately. The obsidian burned. Well, not actually but it was certainly enough to hurt.
Then, the smell hit him. A mixture of rotting food which George immediately linked to the concerningly large pile of rotting potatoes and...burnt flesh.
George’s eyes widened as he identified the second one. Dream couldn't have...No, that would be ridiculous.
But the smell, the scars, and..oh god the notifications too. His heart sank as he began to click the pieces together.
( Dream tried to swim in lava
Concern shot through George the first time he got the message.
‘Are you okay?’ was typed out on his communicator before he even processed it. It was a habit he had formed years ago, even before they had started dating. Then, right before hitting send, he hesitated. Dream was in the prison now. Dream had left him. Dream deserved anything that was happening to him. He deleted the message.
-----
Dream tried to swim in lava
Dream tried to swim in lava
Dream tried to swim in lava
The next time it was a week later and three messages came, only a couple minutes in between each. ‘Good,’ George thought, ignoring the worry gnawing at every part of him, ‘it’s what he deserves.
It continued on like that for the months following. Every day without fail, he would get multiple pings with the same death message every time. And every time, he ignored them even as his concern grew.
-----
Dream whispers to you: sam is letting me use my communicator for an hour since im on good behavior
George sat there stunned as he stared at the message before him. Should he answer? Did Dream even deserve an answer from him? Part of him begged to type out something- anything. Just wanting to talk to his beloved once again. But, still, he sat there doing nothing.
Dream whispers to you: love, please. let me explain. im sorry
Dream was...apologizing? No. No, Dream wouldn’t apologize. His ego was too big for that, it always was. This was probably a trick. It had to be.
Dream whispers to you: please i havnt spoken to somene in so long. george i love you im sorry
He made his mind up. No response. Dream was just lying- trying to manipulate him or something. George put his communicator away and muted it, intent on ignoring it for the next hour. He went to find Sapnap who was unsurprisingly in the same situation, staring at his communicator as the messages came through. They stayed together for that entire hour, neither mentioning Dream nor the messages. Though the second the hour was up, excuses were immediately made for both parties to leave so they could check their communicators.
Dream whispers to you: george?
Dream whispers to you: imsorry. im so sorryim sorryimsorryimsorysorry sorrysosorry
Dream whispers to you: i dont blame you for ignoring me. i deserve it. i did so many terrible things, trust me i know. im trying to be better. just know that i love you always.
Dream tried to swim in lava
Dream tried to swim in lava
Dream tried to swim in lava
Dream tried to swim in lava
And to George’s horror, the death messages kept coming. Again and again for the rest of day. No one on the server mentioned them but the effect was obvious. The air was filled with tension and all conversation was awkward. George didn’t even know how it was possible for a person to do that to themselves that many times. The kind of pain that many deaths must entail was frankly terrifying.
After it became increasingly obvious he wasn’t stopping, George just muted him permanently.
‘It’s for attention he repeated to himself. ‘he wouldn’t do this for any other reason. George tried not to think about it anymore after that.)
‘Dream must have never stopped,’ George thought, feeling sick. ‘He probably threw himself into that lava for days after. Probably kept doing it daily after that, knowing him. ’ George wanted to scream. Dream had spent the last couple of years throwing himself into lava regularly and no one had cared. George hadn't cared. And just as a fresh round of tears began falling down his face, he noticed something else.
The cell was empty.
Not a single person other than him and DreamXD were in there. There was no familiar wheezing or bright green hoodie. Dream wasn’t here. Panic began to claw at him as George began to desperately search every inch of the cell. He even went as far as to search the pile of potatoes and throw everything out of the chest like Dream might have been able to hide in there but there was nothing.
Finally, George’s shaking legs gave out under him as he slowly began to accept it.
That was a canon death.
Dream was really gone.