Chapter Text
Cornelius hated waiting to make his fiancé and soon-to-be-son immortal, but knows it wouldn’t be a good to rush these things right now – of course he had already explained what he was and what he wanted to do to the pair. Robin had been eager to be immortal, not necessarily because he wanted to become immortal but because it meant that he would never lose his family ever again.
Catt had been nervous at the thought of making such a big commitment though since he knew there would be no going back, so Cornelius had given his fiancé time to think it over – and although Cornelius had been worried Catt would turn him down, eventually his blind fiancé had accepted this chance.
Of course they were waiting until Robin’s fourteenth birthday to complete the ceremony, since they didn’t want Robin to be too young – little did they know that day would never come.
A stranger had soon arrived at ‘Not A Very Good Town’, asking if they would like to play a game for a chance to win a prize – claiming that it would allow the winners to fix up the town. But he wouldn’t tell them what it was unless all agreed to play. Cornelius didn’t trust the stranger who wore well cared for brightly coloured clothes, telling Catt and Robin about this since he never wanted them to be alone with ‘Karl’.
Catt knew they needed to take this chance though, since it would mean allowing Robin to have his own bed instead of sharing with them during winter times – on top of having enough food to last the entire village years to come. Cornelius didn’t want to accept but knew Catt was right about the town needing such life changing things, so even though he felt nervous with the ‘Gamemaster’s’ eyes on him – as the only person denying it, when he accepted to play the game was set in motion.
All of the villagers were horrified to find out that the game they would be ‘playing’ is of discovery and murder, that people would actually die in this game – and that if they revealed their roles when they shouldn’t have or didn’t play their roles correctly they would be punished. Cornelius curses the ‘Gamemaster’ before he tries to leave town to clear his mind, only to run into a barrier much to the immortal’s despair at his family being trapped inside with soon-to-be-murderers.
The ‘Gamemaster’ claimed that Cornelius looked like someone he knew, a villain of a man who destroyed the homes and lives of others – prompting Cornelius to become uncomfortable. Cornelius would never hurt a single soul as long as they never attempted to make an attempt to cause pain to his loved ones, but he knew that given motivation like that he would very well become a villain and a tyrant.
Cornelius’ determination to protect his family was unable to stand against ‘Karl’ however, as he was murdered on the first night. Cornelius’ regeneration took a while due to the weapons that damaged his body, but once his body was restored he’d rushed back to town – only to find out that all innocents had been taken out and the murderers had committed suicide.
Cornelius falls to his knees sobbing beside the well that held the corpses of his loved ones, clutching the stone so tightly he bled – wondering what they’d done to deserve the cruelty of the ‘Gamemaster’. But Cornelius swore if he ever saw ‘Karl’ again he would make the male pay, however, he knew he had to find a way to bring his loved ones back – knowing it was possible but not knowing how to do so.
Of course he didn’t begin travelling right away though since his mind was in a dark place at the time, taking time to grieve and find other ways to reunite first - however he could. Although he knows they wouldn’t like it, he couldn’t imagine a world without them.
Cornelius began to travel the world in search of any scrap of information he could find on resurrection, no matter how ludicrous or minimal it may seem – determined to bring back those he loves with all of his heart even though they are dead. Of course every ten to twenty years he changes his identity, so that no one discovers him or makes a correlation to one of his previous persona’s – one of his most memorable lives that he’d led was as a butler named Hubert for Sir Billiam the 3rd.
He’d gone there hearing rumours that resurrection was possible and discovered the familiar red egg, it tried to whisper to him that it could give him his hearts desires – and the thought of having Catt and Robin back right now was so tempting. But Cornelius knew that he couldn’t risk whatever it would ask in return, so instead under the cover of darkness he’d fled – he misses Ranbutler sometimes as the other butler had become like a brother to him.
But decades passed by and soon Cornelius found himself losing hope as his sanity hung by a thread, tearing himself apart by spending so much time searching for something solid only to come up empty handed – and he knew he needed a lifetime length break from it when he started contemplated murdering those who had failed to be helpful in his quest. He knew Robin would be so disappointed if he saw Cornelius murder for no reason, which is why he’d held off as long as he could – at least for the first two hundred years anyway.
So for now he returned back to his hometown of ‘Not A Very Good Town’, where everyone he first loved had been buried by his hands – making what had once been his home with Catt his base of operations. Of course he’d spent time rebuilding every single building himself by hand since he didn’t want anyone to destroy something by accident, already coming up with rules since it would help keep him sane – no griefing, no going to the end and no stealing.
The end was so no body would die permanently since deaths from Dragons take two of your three lives, the no stealing was so you didn’t create enemies – and the no griefing was because these were the homes and land of his loved ones who still mean the world to him despite their deaths being well over four hundred years ago.
Of course before he brought people to his home he wanted to scout them out, so he took time crafting an identity that would allow him to blend in and choosing the name Dream due to Catt once saying he was the man of his dreams – he knows it’s corny but he was feeling bittersweet this lifetime. He practiced some rusty skills of manoeuvring odd fields and working with weapons, until he could do every single movement as easy as breathing every single time without fail.
Once prepared he traveled to a distant land where he met a man with a penchant for pet murder and arson, who went by the name of Sapnap – of course Dream had said spelt backwards and flipping the second p it could be spelled as pandas. Shortly after that the duo came across a colour-blind male named George who was a decent tracker but a penchant for missing out on drama – Dream jokingly flirted once with George who became flustered since he wasn’t expecting that, which of course only made the other two do it more.
Eventually the trio entered into events together and became known as ‘The Dream Team’ due to Dream’s most noticeable skills, although the trio sometimes became a quartet when they ran into a demon - who despite his name being ‘Badboyhalo’ on top of being a demon, was actually rather sweet when he didn’t get mad at them for cursing by shouting ‘Language”.
Dream found himself trusting these people and allowed them onto his home, introducing them to his land of one – them amazed that he’d ‘stumbled’ across such an empty but well cared for place. Dream of course had lied about stumbling across it a month before meeting Sapnap, since he didn’t want any questions about his home – figuring he can pass off any oddities by simply saying he didn’t know.
Sapnap, George and Bad eventually started trying to convince the immortal blonde to allow more people to come to his land, talking about how it’d be nice to have a peaceful hang out for all their friends to meet up with – wanting to introduce Dream to them properly.
It took a good five months to do so but they eventually managed to convince Dream to allow people on, and at first Dream didn’t mind the people who came – but then Wilbur started up a drug van with Tubbo and Tommy on top of griefing the land and homes of others. Dream had become furious that these strangers were desecrating the graves and homes of his loved ones, removing and altering the land as they see fit - causing him to retaliate violently.
Dream’s rage of course wasn’t sated even after he took the lives of one of the teens, since his fury was only growing at the fact Wilbur brought teens who were scarcely older then Robin. His anger was one of the reasons why he agreed to the duel despite knowing it was not a good idea at all, but he still wasn’t happy even after he won the duel.
It was only when Dream set his sights on Tubbo that he came to a stop, unable to help seeing the similarities between the bee obsessed teen and his own almost son – causing his heart to break as he realises what he’s done to these boys. If he had a breakdown in his bedroom as he cried himself to sleep, while clutching a damaged picture of his almost family - well no one else had to know but him.
When Wilbur tried to negotiate once again with Tommy offering up his discs, Dream glanced at Tubbo before taking him up on the deal – not wanting to take something from the teen but knowing it could be considered suspicious if he refused. Dream was relieved once it was over and didn’t care what they were doing after that, escaping to visit the graves of Catt and Robin to try and clear his mind.
Dream eventually heard about the election and didn’t care all that much, until he heard a rumour that one of the competitors had a resurrection book – and even though he knows he shouldn’t get his hopes up he couldn’t help it. Dream first decided to check if the rumours were real before proceeding any further, completely shocked when Schlatt revealed that it was real and even showed the blonde the book.
Dream was desperate to get his hands on that book though and tried to make a deal with Schlatt, but Schlatt refused to make a deal with Dream – sending the blonde who was hanging by a thread spiralling. Of course Dream made short work of the ram hybrid by slaughtering him real quick, scowling as he pick up that book but begins channeling some of his powers – teleporting to the graves of his loved ones.
Dream doesn’t care how anyone else is feeling about him murdering Schlatt without second thought, especially after he tried to hurt Ro-Tubbo. But the immortal begins the ritual of resurrecting his most important loved ones, praying to Prime this works – because if this doesn’t work he has no clue what he’ll do next.
He grimaces after he finishes the ritual and is prepared to be disappointed, his eyes widening when there’s a flash of light before Catt and Robin are staring at him – tearing up before rushing forward to wrap his arms around them. Cornelius sobs as he holds his fiancé and almost son tightly to his chest, not caring who would come across them now that he had his family in his arms once again - especially after waiting for so long.
“We’re here Cornelius, and I swear to you we won’t leave you ever again.” Both Catt and Robin had been watching Cornelius from beyond the grave once their lives were taken because of the ‘Gamemaster’, and so both had settled to watch Cornelius – since they knew he would eventually come back from the dead due to being immortal as he’d explained.
“I can’t lose you guys again! My heart won’t take it. Please don’t leave me!” Cornelius knows if anything were to happen to them his last fraying thread of sanity would snap instantly, he would no longer hold back against everyone – no matter who they are as long as they’re not Tubbo, and if they got in his way they would be dead.
Catt tries to soothe his fiancé since he hated hearing Cornelius so upset for something he could never quite control, feeling awful that he’d managed to convince Cornelius into playing the deadly game of life and death – especially even after hearing that Cornelius didn’t really like the suspicious ‘Gamemaster’.
“It’s okay papa, I’m not upset with you. I know you weren’t in your right mind.” Robin is doing his best to cheer up one of his fathers, since both Catt and Cornelius are practically his parents due to the males caring for him – both in their own ways. “I forgive you, and I’m so proud you did what you could.”
Cornelius is so relieved to hear Robin say that since he was so afraid that Robin would be upset and never forgive him for the choices he made, knowing that it would be low due to Robin loving him and being so kind and forgiving – but still afraid since he didn’t want to lose Robin in any way, shape or form after just getting him back to the land of the living.