Work Text:
One misstep, you're mine
And you better stay clever if you wanna survive
Once you cross the line
You'll be wishing you would listen when you meet your demise
Your heart hits like a drum
The hunt has just begun
Somedays you wake up with the taste of ash on your tongue, and you can almost smell the familiar scent of smoke. Without even opening your eyes, your muscles move on instinct pulling you to your feet. You reach for your sword and raise it, ready to defend yourself.
On these days it’s difficult to focus, and you constantly pinch yourself as a reminder that this is real. Your bones creak and you wish for nothing more than to simply sleep the day away. But when you close your eyes, images from the past haunt you and keep you awake.
It’s been so long since those terrible years, but the memories still burn fresh. You try to pretend that you’ve moved on from it all, that it doesn’t bother you anymore. However, you still get nervous when entering the nether alone.
No one knows what you’ve done. Not even Phil. Of course, they all know that you’re a monster, a killer, a warrior, whatever it is they call you. You don’t die and you fight as if you’ve been fighting since the day you were born.
That’s the secret. You have a past beyond the overworld, a legacy of death that you left behind in the nether. Even after all these years, your name still invokes fear in the minds of nether beings. It’s not something that you’re necessarily proud of.
They have no idea what you’ve been through, what you’ve done just to survive. Every day was a war, and you were determined to win. You never had mercy, you killed anything that got in your way. You were only a child.
On days like today, you wake up reaching for your sword. For the first few minutes of being awake, you remain grounded in your room. You try to calm yourself, remind yourself that there is no battle.
But today is different. Because today, there will be a battle. A few days ago, when Quackity approached you, you knew that there was going to be a fight. He was lying to you, he was trying to trap you.
So you played along, acting clueless and agreeing to do what he asked of you. Apparently, Dream had finally called in his favour and was using Quackity as a messenger. That in itself gave it all away. Dream wouldn’t waste his favour on this, and he wouldn’t send Quackity of all people.
But a monster rattled against your ribcage, and it felt like your lungs were filled with smoke. You recognized the anger pulsing through your veins, and on a better day, you would’ve tried to contain it.
However, for the first time in a while, you were furious. Every time that you tried to settle down, move past violence, someone came in the way and ruined it all. You’ve had your fair share of violence, you didn’t want anymore. But people were always trying to ruin your retirement.
Unfortunately, Quackity was the one who had ruined it this time. And because of this, he had painted a big red target on his back. The voices wanted blood, his blood. You weren’t going to fail to deliver.
You didn’t want to alert Quackity to your plans, so you agreed to go meet Dream today. You had seen the look in Quackity’s eyes when you agreed with his plan. He was happy, he thought he had you fooled. That was his first mistake.
His second mistake was assuming that you wouldn’t tell anyone. Unlike when you were a child, you actually had people to rely on now. And you didn’t waste any time telling the Syndicate of Quackity’s proposal.
However, you kept it a secret that you were after Quackity. You had been working with Phil to overcome the voices, to control the violence. He’d be mad if he found out that you were going on a headhunt. But you still told them where you were exactly going.
And so, although you had woken up that morning with the memories burning behind your eyelids, you trudged off to the prison. It was long overdue for you to kill someone anyway. Soon the voices would grow unbearable.
You made a special effort to pass through the nether quickly, even though today you felt like you were back at home. If you stayed in the nether too long, you might return to your old self and never be able to come back.
When you arrived at the community house portal, it finally set in that this was happening. Your blood pumped and the voices seemed to grow louder. It had been a while since you last fought, they were eager to get back into the swing of things.
A part of you felt guilty. You had tried so hard to leave violence behind, but here you were returning to it. All you had wanted was to be more than a weapon, more than just a blade. But they keep backing you into a corner, the only option out is to fight.
Recently, you had been thinking of returning to the nether for a bit. As many bad memories that you have of the place, it was a good place to train. It forced you to be resourceful, to think strategically instead of impulsively.
The ugly prison was in your sights quick enough, and you passed through Bad & Skeppy's house as a shortcut. Perhaps Bad would like to visit the nether with you, after all, he was a nether child too. He could even bring Skeppy, although Golems typically struggled in the nether.
How those two could stand having this disgusting prison in their backyard was beyond you. If you had to bet, Skeppy probably didn't even know that it was going to be built. And Bad was probably too polite to tell them to build it somewhere else.
Now the question was, how do you get inside? It's not like there's just a front door to walk in. Hesitantly, you called out for Sam. It would be really embarrassing if he couldn't hear you and you were just standing here yelling.
Just as you were about to get self-conscious, Sam popped through the nether portal. He looked the same as the last time you saw him, maybe a bit more depressed. You'd be depressed if you had to work this kind of job too.
There was a pause before Sam guided you into the prison. You could tell just by the look in his eyes, he was out to hurt you. He clearly thought he had the high ground, probably because he's the warden.
He should know that you have little to no regard for authority. You won't simply follow his orders just because he runs this place.
He handed you two different contracts, you didn't even read them before signing them. While signing, you made sure to use different signatures both times. Obviously, the contract wouldn't mean much to you, it's just a piece of paper with a messy signature on it.
He turned to press a button, it was supposed to open a locker or something. His mistake. You shouldn't turn your back to a wild animal.
You moved swiftly, all your previous experience gave you the upper hand. You were used to moving silently and killing quickly. The Orphan Obliterator ripped through his armour quickly, despite the fact that it was netherite.
He was stunned and didn't react quick enough, your sword pierced through his stomach. It was a satisfying kill, quick and mostly painless. He shouldn't have tried to trick you.
Picking up all his stuff, you headed off further into the prison. You had brought a bunch of tnt and you were prepared to blast down the walls. You were getting Dream out.
Truthfully, you weren't helping Dream escape because you liked him. Although you did have much in common, he was not someone you would consider your friend. You had considered people your friends before, and bad things happened to all of them.
No, you were breaking him out of here because of pure spite. Had Quackity not tried to kill you, then you probably would’ve just come to visit Dream. You originally had no plans to free the demi-god, but that’s clearly changed now.
You didn’t even try to keep quiet while blasting your way through the prison. You wanted Sam to hear you, and to come running back to you. Of course, he wouldn’t be here for a while, respawning takes some time.
By the time that you had made it to Dream’s prison cell, you could sense that Sam was on his way. You used Sam’s key to lower the wall of lava, although it was taking much longer than what you had expected.
Gripping your sword, you smiled. This time would not be like the last. The voices wanted a mess, dismembered limbs, ripped out intestines, and brain mush. For the first time in a while, you were going to give the voices what they wanted.
Sam approached quickly, you could hear his laboured breaths from all the way across the room. Good, he was tired out. This would be an easy fight. And you were going to make it as painful as possible. It’s what he deserves.
He didn’t hesitate, throwing himself at you, he swung his sword like a madman. The panic to catch you was not helping him. Normally, you’d consider him a fairly decent fighter, but this was like fighting a child.
It reminded you of the days in the nether.
Soon enough, his head was detached and stuck in the tip of your sword. You flicked it off and watched it fall to the floor. Turning around, you checked to see if the lava was low enough now. It was.
Activating the platform, you walked with it all the way to Dream’s cell. Dream stood there watching you. He had this look in his eyes. He was afraid. Probably because he had just watched you decapitate Sam. It brought you great joy to know that you were scary to a demi-god.
Tossing him a few fire resistance potions and the armour you had picked up from Sam, you motioned for him to follow you. Neither of you spoke a word. You weren’t sure if you could form a sentence, your mouth was frozen in a smile.
Unfortunately, you’d have to swim back to the other side, as you couldn’t activate the platform anymore. It was a good thing that you had decided to bring extra potions with you. Almost like you had expected this whole thing.
When you arrived back at the other side, Dream’s eyes lingered on Sam’s torn body. It was disappearing, which signalled that he was now respawning. Sam only had one life left, it would be wise for him to not approach you.
Of course, even smart people do dumb things. Just as you were about to finally exit the prison with Dream, Sam popped around the corner. This time, you let Dream kill him. It was quick, Sam had already seemed to accept death before the fight even started.
Sam’s body disappeared, but his head remained on the ground. Signalling that he would no longer be respawning. You took his head as a trophy.
Exiting the prison, you took a few deep breaths. There was no stopping you now, your sights had already been set. You were out for blood. You planned on gaining another head tonight.
It was time to go pay Quackity a visit.