Chapter Text
In retrospect, George thinks, maybe he should have questioned some things.
Escaping to the word of dreams was an easy way out, he wasn't fooling himself. But at least there he still had his friends and Dream. Or at least DreamXD. Who might be Dream? Or were they connected to Dream? George never got a straight answer to that question.
He remembers the rare, quick moments, when he could hear Dream talking through DreamXD. At some point they became something he started to fear rather than look forward to. They started being interrupted by Dream’s voice, not laughing or joking but instead pleading, begging, and finally screaming. That was the first thing he should have questioned. DreamXD’s pained silence afterwards, denying George any explanation, saying that’s how things have to go — that should have been the second.
Falling asleep just to wake up in a dark, hot prison cell should be the third. There’s nothing there, only dark obsidian blocks and a wall made out of lava. For a few moments it’s so quiet he can almost hear his racing thoughts. Why is he here? What is this place? Why is he alone? And then he is interrupted by Dream’s scream — loud, piercing, high. He looks around desperately. He has to help him, he has to stop this, he has to-
George wakes up gasping and looks around. He’s in his bed, alone. The sun is just setting over the horizon, leaving the server in orange and pink shades.
There were more things he should have questioned: What was that dream? Why now? Why is looking at the prison suddenly not overwhelming? Why does he know where Dream’s cell is? Why is breaking blocks suddenly so easy? Why doesn’t the alarm start?
But all thoughts leave Geroge’s mind when he finally gets inside the cell. It looks and feels worse than in his dream. It stinks, it's dirty and hot, and bloody. Dream sits in the corner next to the sink, curled up against it. He looks up at George but his eyes don't show any recognition. His head drops down suddenly and Dream loses consciousness. George feels like he can’t breathe and his hands start shaking. He can’t even see Dream properly, but there is no doubt in his mind that the man in front of him is half-dead.
When George grabs Dream and escapes, that’s the only thing he knows he won’t question.
***
When they are finally safe, deep in the woods, he works fast.
Safe-ish, George thinks, I have just broken the most wanted person out of prison.
He makes a little house out of dirt, hidden in a hill, big enough for a bed, to prepare food and potions if needed — he hopes they won’t be, but his bloody hands and clothes say otherwise. He puts two torches next to the bed and lies unconscious Dream down in it. He takes a deep breath. And for the first time allows himself to look at his friend.
Dream is covered in blood. He had to have tried to stop the bleeding in a few places but his dirty prison clothing clearly wasn’t too helpful. Some of the blood is dry, some injuries are clearly old. In a few different places George can see clothing stuck to the dried blood. Dream's face is covered with shallow and deep cuts, just like the rest of his body. Other parts of his skin look like burnt scars. George watches Dream’s chest rise and fall and feels burning in his eyes. How did they end up here?
“He looks straight from the t—”, he breathes out but he stops himself. It’s not possible. Sam is the warden, he would never allow anyone to hurt another person like that, even Dream. Sam was better than that. He was a friend, they were all friends. Besides, who would do such a thing? They had their differences, but no one on the server is that cruel. Right?
He shakes his head, trying to focus again. He has to make sure Dream will live till the morning and then he can plan his next step . Taking the blonde’s clothes off is particularly difficult, because George is forced to open many wounds again, dried blood and fabric stuck together. With the little supplies he put into his inventory before leaving Kinoko Kingdom, he goes back to the times when he and his friend lived from a manhunt to manhunt, dressing injuries with what they found around them and tries his best. It’s not ideal — between cleaning the lifeless body from blood and finding new injuries to take care of and brewing healing potions, after a few hours he is exhausted, but the other man is not bleeding anymore. Finally, he gives Dream the newly prepared liquid, checks his pulse one last time and sits next to the bed, trying to wrap his head around the last few hours. He rests his head on soft bedding and feels how exhausted he is.
I’ll close my eyes, he thinks, just for a moment .
***
His communicator is what wakes him up.
He sits up straight, immediately feeling pain in his back after the weird sleeping position, and looks around. The previous day's events rush through his head and he feels nauseated.
His communicator makes a noise again and he quickly opens it.
awesamdude: THE PRISONER ESCAPED
awesamdude: I EXPECT EVERYONE TO SHOW UP AT THE COMMUNITY HOUSE IMMEDIATELY
awesamdude: NO EXCUSES
After that chat was mostly a mess with people screaming at each other and blaming one another. No one seemed to notice George's abstinence till-
Sapnap whispers to you: george?
Sapnap whispers to you: george we might need you
Sapnap whispers to you: are you sleeping again?
Sapnap whispers to you: man you have to stop
Sapnap whispers to you: be at the community house as soon as possible
George stands up and stretches. He doesn’t like the look of Sapnap messages, feeling unsure, almost hesitant. George looks at Dream but the blonde still lies in bed unconscious and doesn't look better at all.
George receives another message.
Quackity whispers to you: wake up George this is not a joke. We need you. Don’t disappoint me again
Something in Quackity’s messages strikes George deep down but he pushes the feeling aside. He looks at sleeping Dream once more, sighs and writes on the main chat.
George: sorry guys just woke up. I’ll be there in 15
He gives Dream the prepared earlier healing potion, changes his own clothes and covers the door of their hideout as well as possible and leaves. He has 15 minutes to come up with a plan. And it better be a good one.
***
He arrives 20 minutes later with no plan at all. Not even a general idea for a plan. George enters the Community House trying to keep his emotions out of his face — it’s better for them to assume he is bored and tired than ready to jump out of his skin. When the door closes behind his back, all eyes turn to him. There are not a lot of people left: Sam, Bad and Ant. He spots Sapnap and Karl in one corner and Quackity in the other.
That’s weird, he thinks but before he can comment on this unusual observation, Sam starts.
“Finally! Do you know what happened?”
“I do,” George answers, unsure, but no one pays any attention to his voice. There’s a heavy pause. Still looking at Sam, he continues. “So… How did he escape?”
“We don’t know,” Quackity answers instead. “It shouldn’t be possible. Everyone knows that the Vault is inescapable.”
“Someone helped him for sure,” adds Sam.
“Why do you think that?” George asks quickly. Does Sam know in what state Dream was in that cell?
“Because it is inescapable,” Quackity repeats. “Are you still dreaming?”
“Wow, someone’s angry,” George says with a little irritation.
“Of course we are fucking angry, George,” Sapnaps interrupts while taking one step forward. George looks at his friend and feels that little tightness in the stomach again. “Dream is dangerous! And he escaped! Prime knows how long ago and how far away!”
George wants to argue. Dream is not dangerous. He is half-dead, unconscious and hurt. He can’t say it though, he can’t say anything. He has to go with the bit and hope for a way out.
“So what’s the plan?” he asks instead, looking at Sam again. “Should we examine the cell?”
“That’s a good idea, actually,” Sapnap looks at Sam. “Why haven’t we done it by now?”
“There’s nothing in the cell,” Sam answers. “I have already checked. No trails whatsoever.”
Except for the dirty bloody walls and floor, Geogre thinks. That would answer his basic question — Sam knew. Did Sam take part in it?
George wants to scream. He looks at the people crowded in the room, thinking about his choices. If he says he knows where Dream is and that something terrible happened to him, how many people would be willing to hear him out? Would they be able to take Sam down? George doesn’t even have his full netherite armour anymore. Who would support him? Bad, maybe. Sapnap? What happened to Sapnap?
He sighs.
“So, what’s the plan?” he asks.
“You were the first hunter, right?”
George’s heart sinks. Are they going to suggest what he thinks they are?
“A long time ago,” he answers.
“You better refresh those skills. We are going on a manhunt.”
***
The first minutes George is scared — the idea of hunting Dream down, when he knows where he is, when he is the one who broke him out, is terrifying. The group leaves Karl behind with a quick smooch from Sapnap and cold silence from Quackity and George takes note of the weird tension between fiancés. They decide where to start and now are looking through the area near the prison for any leads. George, knowing he didn’t escape this way, has a moment to think about his situation and come up with a plan.
The rest of the hunters trust him and his judgement. If they ever notice any kind of unease or distress, they write it off with a simple “sorry we woke you up but this is important”. So George looks through the grass floor and thinks about a plan. He is a good hunter. He could have helped them find Dream even without knowing where he was. But that means that he can also cover all potential leads they left behind while escaping and convince them they should go look somewhere else. Maybe even waste some of their time.
When he hears movement behind him, he turns around and sees Sapnap. His friend smiles weakly and stands still for a moment. George abandons his activity and stares back.
“Like the good old days, huh?” Sapnap starts.
“Yeah,” George answers quietly. “Are you going to kill him when we find him?”
“If I get to him first. Probably.”
“Just like the good old days,” sarcasm in George's voice is unmistakable. “Will you at least ask him why he escaped? Or how?”
“Will you?” Sapnap asks back and while George says nothing he continues. “Man, look, does it matter? He escaped. He knows what he did. He almost destroyed this server — our home! He hasn’t cared for us in a long time, why should we?”
“I’m just saying...“ George hesitates. “Maybe there’s more in this story.”
Maybe we shouldn’t have given up on him so quickly, he thinks. Maybe we should have tried to reason with him more.
Sapnap sighs next to him, breaking his trail of thoughts. George looks at his friend for a while.
“Are you okay?” he asks. “You haven’t talked with Quackity like, at all. Did something happen?”
“Things got complicated. He has a new country now.”
“Hmmm. Wasn’t he supposed to join Kinoko Kingdom?”
“I don’t know. Apparently Karl has never told him.”
“Can’t he join now?”
“He seems to care about that… Nevada place… a lot. I don’t know, man. I don’t really have time to think about it right now.”
“Right. Deadly manhunt.” Sapnap chuckles humourlessly at George's remark.
“It’s good to have you back. You should be awake more often,” he says.
“I feel like we are going to spend some time together now anyway,” George goes back to examining the grass around him, knowing perfectly well that he will find nothing useful. “Looking for Dream and whoever helped him escape.”
“Nah, man, we are good hunters, we will— George! You’re a genius!”
“Wha—” George looks up but Sapnap is already turning around.
“Sam! Sam!” Sapnap runs in the creeper hybrid’s direction.
“What? Have you found something?” Sam asks, looking at him.
“No, but me and George just have a brilliant idea! We know that someone helped Dream escape. And who is the one person who worked with him before? Who helped him before?”
George can hear Quackity’s dark laugh echo through the area. When he stops, he says just two words.
“Fucking Technoblade.”
***
Their visit to Techno’s cabin is, if not uneventful, then for sure anticlimactic. Phil is the one to greet them, being outside when they arrive. When Sam demands to see Technoblade immediately, he shrugs.
“Sure, mate. Give me a second.”
George waits anxiously, looking around. He has never been here, but he visited similar places in his dreams. But then again, aren’t all snow biomes kinda similar? In the corner of his eye he spots a figure. Looking in that direction, he can see Ranboo standing in front of his house and looking at them, his tail swinging back and forth anxiously. George stares back. He didn’t know that the enderman lived with Techno and Phil.
“Hello,” Techno greets them casually, even if nothing about him presents a friendly image. He is in full armor and he takes a long look at each of the unexpected visitors. He and Phil stayed up on a little bridge between two houses, clearly showing who has the upper hand there. “What are you doing here?”
Maybe framing one powerful person into supposedly helping the other powerful person escape a high security prison wasn’t that smart, George thinks. But it’s not exactly my fault, is it?
“The prisoner escaped—” Sam started.
“Oh, yeah, I read the chat” Techno interrupts him. “But that doesn’t answer my question.”
“Listen Techno, you and I” says Quackity. “We know each other. Dream helped you escape justice—”
“Public execution without a trail.”
“—once. It’s only logical for you to help him do the same.”
“Hand the prisoner over, Techno, and we won’t disturb you more.” Sam adds. “I can even forget that you and your friends didn’t show up in the Community House at my request.”
There’s a moment of silence. George feels rising tension, feels hunters getting ready to grab their weapons and attack Technoblade and he feels the need to grab his own axe, if not for an attack, then at least for protection.
“Dream is not here.” Techno says, finally. “I haven’t seen him in months. But—”
“Cut the bullshit.” Quackity demands. Somewhere, in George’s tense, tired mind, quick thought occurs — why is Quackity acting like a leader of their operation? Shouldn't Sam be the one discussing the issue? He was the Warden and Dream has been his responsibility.
“—But. It’s very interesting. Six men fully armed looking for one? Are you guys going to catch him? Or kill him where he stands?”
“Why is this a concern of yours?” Sam asks and George can almost imagine how his friend — are they still friends? Should they, after everything? — narrows his eyes.
“I think,” Phil answers instead. “That The Syndicate will take a closer look at the prison system on this server.”
“We don’t need anarchists supervision.”
“Are we done for now?” Techno asks. “I’m quite busy.”
“That’s not suspicious at all,” Quackity says and in his hand an axe appears. George can see it’s well-used.
“Should I remind you, Quackity,” Techno’s voice is cold and sharp, whatever amusement he held there earlier — gone. “What happened last time when you brought your army to my home?” When Quackity stays silent, he continues. “I’ll repeat myself only once. Dream is not here.”
“Okay, okay,” Sapnap speaks for the first time. “Let’s assume Dream is not here. Do you have any idea where he might be? Has he ever mentioned anything?”
Techno laughs humourlessly.
“You guys were Dream’s friends, and yet you assumed I’m the one who helped him or has any information. Are you sure none of you freed him?”
George tenses.
“Dream is everyone’s enemy,” states Quackity. “Except yours.”
Techno shrugs and looks at all of them. George thinks that the pigling hybrid rests his stare on him for a few moments longer than on anyone else.
“I think it’s your time to leave,” is the last thing Techno says before he goes back inside. Quackity tries to go after him, but is stopped by Sapnap. Their eyes meet and after a few seconds Quackity breaks the contact — by turning his eyes away and pushing away his fiancé’s hand. He turns around and leaves at a quick pace. Sapnap goes after him. Phil looks at them for a moment longer and retreats to his home after Techno.
“Well, that was a waste of time,” Ant comments and George is forced to focus again. He is no longer only a part of the audience, he has to act again. They start walking away from the winter cabin.
“I don’t understand,” Sam rubs his eyes. “It was a good lead. If not Techno, then who? Who would do this?”
“Maybe Technoblade lied?” Bad says.
“He doesn’t do that often, though.“ Ant reasons. “And if he had a problem with the prison system, this would have been a great opportunity to confront us about it. But it looks like he has one now .”
George spots Sapnap and Quackity arguing in the distance. Group stands still, awkwardly, not sure what they should do now.
“Trouble in paradise?” George tries to joke. When he doesn't get a reaction, he looks back at the hunters. Sam is staring at him with an unpleasant facial expression. “What?”
“It’s not like you know anything about it,” he answers sharply. “Right, George?”
“Sam!” Bad scream, standing between them. “That wasn’t really nice of you.”
“No, no,” George says with a hard voice. “Let him continue.”
“All I meant,” Sam goes on, ignoring Bad’s protest. “Is that you’re not in a position to make comments like that. You don’t know what it’s like.”
“Unlike you and your love life, huh?”
“Okay,” Ant interrupts them. “We are all tired and stressed. We should regroup, take some rest and start looking again tomorrow. Server is big but it’s not endless. He can’t escape forever.”
“Right,” George answers bitterly. “I’m sleepy anyway. Don’t bother, I’ll find my way back to Kinoko.”
He leaves, feeling anger, desperation, uneasiness, tiredness and relief all mix in him, sitting heavily in his stomach.
***
George stops in Kinoko Kingdon only for a moment. He seeks Karl, but the place is abandoned as always. He empties his inventory by throwing away all the rotten flesh and other useless things and puts there everything he can think of. Dream needs food and more healing potions and bandages. They could use some protection as well.
When he leaves, he is still alone. With Karl gone and Sapnap with Quackity, George suddenly feels tired. He rubs his eyes, looks at his supposed home once again and disappears in the woods.
He arrives in their hideout after a few minutes of searching for it. Part of him is irritated with himself for wasting time but he knows it means he did a good job hiding the entrance. They are, technically, runaways, and they can’t move till Dream feels better. They are stuck here so the harder they are to find, the better.
He opens the door carefully, trying not to disturb his earlier work and goes inside. Nothing has really changed inside. His dirty clothes are still in a corner and two torches light the room. George checks on Dream and groans. Dream is still in bed but his position has changed. The brunette wonders for a moment if his friend has woken up while he was gone, and if so, has he decided to stay? Only then does George realize that the whole time away he has been afraid that he will come back to an empty bed with no sign of Dream.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he says under his breath.
He takes a better look at Dream and sees that whatever movement he has made before, it has messed up some of the bandages. George rubs his forehead. He was hoping to go home and go back to sleep but looking at Dream’s state, it’s not an option for at least the next hour.
Suddenly he feels irritation. Wasn’t he supposed to be the King? To do nothing? Wasn’t his pretty privilege supposed to do things for him? Wasn’t he supposed to be the one being protected, not the one doing the protecting? That’s what others always tell him, laugh at him and how he doesn’t have to do anything. So he believed them. It was supposed to be an easy, fun, happy life and suddenly someone’s life is his responsibility. He didn’t sign up for it.
He looks at Dream again. He may not have signed up for it, but he is not going to lose more of Dream. He lost enough. So he starts working on preparing new bandages in silence.
***
He is woken up by a scream. George looks around frantically but sees no one. Only a hole made of dirt, lightened by two torches, with one bed. He is sitting on the floor, with his arms and head on the bed. He signs. He has to stop sleeping like this.
He stands up and looks around, trying to locate the source of the sound when he hears it again. He looks at Dream. His friend is moving a little and mutters under his breath. George sits on a bed next to him.
“Dream?” he starts and the blonde moves again. “Dream, are you awake?”
There is a pause when nothing is happening. George thinks that whatever that was, it has passed and Dream is asleep again. He stands up and looks into his inventory. He has enough materials to make another bed for himself, but he needs to make more room in their dirt hole. He grabs a shovel.
“No!”
He looks at Dream again. His friend is moving in bed restlessly, his eyes firmy closed.
“Dream?”
“Please,” pleads Dream and then screams. George can’t move for a few seconds, paralised by shock. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“Dream?” George pulls himself out of the shocked trance. He grabs Dreams, trying to keep him steady in bed. “Dream, wake up!”
“I’m sorry, please,” Dream repeats, whimpering. “I’m sorry, Sir.”
There’s something so terrifying about this little word, George feels chills travel down his spine. He squeezes Dream’s body thigher, scared. Dream keeps moving, screaming and pleading with whoever is his opponent in his nightmare. It lasts a few more minutes and when George thinks about giving up, it stops. Dream’s eyes open for a moment, searching in fear, and when he finally sees George, he relaxes and starts slipping into unconsciousness again. George releases his body and takes two steps back. Dream appears to be sleeping again, his breath shallow.
“Fuck,” George says, rubbing his forehead, and then swears again. ”Fuck. What the fuck happened it that prison?”
***
George is tired. He has been spending the last few days repeatedly taking care of Dream and hunting him down. Hunters aren’t lucky with their search — George has been taking care of this very carefully. He can see how others are getting more and more frustrated and, thanks to that, easier to fool. Their hunts are getting shorter and messier.
If there’s one positive of this situation, that has to be Sapnap and Quackity. Whatever they talked about that first day, it caused a shift in their relationship. They talk more, even laugh together sometimes. George watches them from the distance with an odd feeling. Did they really move on from their issues so quickly? Should it be that easy to just move on if you care about the other person?
“Are you okay?”
George focuses on the world around him again and looks at Bad. The demon watches him with concern.
“Yeah. I was just thinking. Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologise,” Bad says with warmth in his voice. “Whatever troubles you, remember that you can always talk to me.”
For a moment George feels like he is going to break. Wouldn’t that be easier? Bad is much better at taking care of people, he would help Dream. He wouldn’t kill them instantly. He would help them and Dream would get better and then they would come up with a new plan. He just needs to say a few words and everything will be ok. He wouldn’t be the only one responsible any more.
Instead, George sighs.
“I haven't slept very well recently.”
Which isn't a lie. George's sleep has been terrible since the night he decided to break Dream out. At first he thought it was stress. But with every night spent on nothing but walking in the endless black room he visits in his dreams, he had to accept that something had changed. He tried to summon DreamXD in his dreams, to demand to take him to the meadow, to better times, to his friends but for the first time the god refused to even acknowledge George’s requests. Which was really inconvenient because George is pretty sure that DreamXD is responsible for this whole situation. But the god is stubbornly quiet so Geroge spends most of his nights wandering in the darkness, waiting for his body to wake up.
Or for Dream to start screaming. Which, no matter how many nights pass, is still a terrifying experience. The worst nights are ones when it’s not only the screaming but also whimpered words and George sits next to the bed, trying to wake up his friend, listening to his pleas, being terrified. From time to time he can catch weak “sir” in between different words and he begs all the gods and everything else to help him, to help Dream, to stop this nightmare and take away the pain.
Sometimes Dream wakes up for a few seconds. Sometimes he looks at George and relaxes. Sometimes his fear grows even more and he fights, trying to get away, until he passes out. Sometimes the nightmare just stops and Dream sleeps peacefully again.
Whatever happens, George can’t go back to sleep. He is wide awake in the middle at night and tries to busy himself with anything. He made their dirt-hole nicer. He covered walls with stone, he made himself a room and a kitchen. He even found a cave with clean water and started a little farm. He was able to go to the nether a few times for potion supplies, and whenever he met anyone, he blamed the manhunt for his weird sleepless nights. Or sleepless days.
Maybe he was whining like a baby, but from sleeping most of his days to not being able to sleep properly hit him twice as hard.
“Nightmares?”
“Sort of.”
“It’s probably this situation. We will find him soon and we will all be able to catch a break,” Bad tries to cheer him up.
“Yeah,” murmurs George. Let’s hope not, gets left unsaid.
***
There's one really close call on day five. Or day six, George isn’t sure any more.
They are searching through one of the lesser-known parts of the server. There are no villages or any buildings made by any of the members. They are walking through a forest, taking down some trees on their way to move faster.
George spots it first. It’s a path he created on one of his sleepless nights. He had to be more tired than he remembered and he didn’t cover it well.
He looks around. No one is paying him any attention so he goes to examine the trail. He breaks a few blocks and looks around. He could cover it up but if anyone finds it, the path is clear enough to follow. In a few places he can see his footsteps in the mud.
Stupid , he thinks. He has spent days hiding the truth just for it to be written clearly in the middle of the woods.
He looks behind him. The rest of the group walked away from him, giving him some time. He goes deeper and starts cleaning the path. He tries to make it less obvious, maybe like something an animal could do. While he works he takes slow steps back, looking at his creations. It’s not the best but that’s all he can do for now.
“Did you find something?”
George jumps in place and turns around.
“Quackity! Sapnap. Hi,” He tries to look casual. “No, not really, I thought but. It’s probably just an animal.”
Sapnap looks behind him.
“Kind of chaotic for an animal.”
“I don’t know, maybe it was a scared animal?” George wanted to sound confident but even he could hear the uncertainty in his voice.
Sapnap takes a few steps forward and steps on a path. George thinks frantically about a way out, a distraction. If they find it, they will find Dream. Can George take them out before they reach a hideout? Dream isn’t even awake, he won’t be able to escape.
He has an idea. Somewhere deep George knows this is a dirty move. But before Sapnap can take another step, he asks.
“So, you guys okay now?”
Both men look at him surprised.
“You had an issue of some kind, I believe,” George explains.
“Didn’t know you noticed,” Quackity laughs and George wishes he could snap. Of course he noticed. Of course they assumed he didn’t.
“I’m trying to be more observant,” he answers instead and moves forward, away from the part. Sapnap and Quackity follow him. “So, are you back at being stupidly in love?”
“We are… getting there,” Sapnap answers, taking Quackity's hand. George notices that he distracted them enough and they are leaving his path behind. Thank you, Prime. “Karl is… he has some memory problems, we believe, and that’s why he had never told Quackity about Kinoko.”
“Oh,” George murmurs. “So now you’re moving in?”
“I can’t,” Quackity answers. ”I put too much work into Las Nevadas. Too much sacrifice.” There’s something uneasy in Quackity's voice and his eyes, when he looks in the distance.
“Maybe we can connect Kinoko Kingdom and Las Nevadas,” Sapnap adds, excitement present in his voice. “I don’t want to leave. Kinoko is far away and there’s not a lot of people there but it feels like home the most on the server.”
George thinks of the Community House, rebuilt again and again, now without a trace of their original builders. That was home. Nothing else can come close to this feeling.
Maybe that's why George finds out that he doesn't really care about Kinoko, or Las Nevadas or any other place. He tried but maybe it’s impossible.
“Just don’t forget to tell me what you decide,” George says, acting playfully. Quackity laughs next to him.
“Yes, Sir.”
Sir.
Sir.
In that moment, George’s world falls apart.