Chapter Text
Ranboo was a father. He was a husband and he was a friend to many. He was generally a good person. Was.
Ranboo’s day started as a typical morning. What he hadn’t expected on a seemingly normal day was the Warden showing up at his house demanding he go to prison even after Ranboo had tried to explain he was better. The Warden claimed it didn’t matter and Ranboo was dragged to the prison. Techno had been scoping out of the prison and witnessed Ranboo being led to prison but he was seconds too late to stop the Warden from breaking the portal behind him.
Techno, the determined piglin hybrid he is, set out to break not only Dream out of Pandora’s Vault’s most guarded cell but also the enderman hybrid from one of the standard cells. When Techno, Dream, Ranboo, and -surprisingly- Conor emerged from the cool ocean that surrounded the prison, they were met with people in the armor of all sorts and degrees, who wanted nothing more than to send Dream right back to where he’d spent the last year of his life.
Mere moments after feeling the fresh air and touch of warmness from the sun, all hell broke loose. People started fighting and Ranboo’s attention was pulled away from the fight by none other than the Warden, Sam.
“Ranboo, I have something you might want to see. Get back here,” Sam asserts, handing him over a picture of his son. Micheal, the little pigman hybrid, looked terrified. “Take off your armor and call Dream back.”
With no hesitation. Ranboo takes off his armor, tossing it on the ground for the Warden to grab. “Ranboo what the heck are you doing?! Why would you take off your armor? Keep it on!” Techno calls from somewhere behind him.
Ranboo turns to face Techno. “He has Micheal,” he explains, solemnly.
“Who’s Micheal?” Ranboo hears the question as a whisper amongst the clashing of swords, the twang of bowstrings, and the screeches of wither as they’re spawned.
The last thing he hears before all he feels is pain and everything goes black is Technoblade yelling, “You have the wrong hostage! He doesn’t care, I care!”
Tommy prayed to Prime every night hoping that He would never break out but he always knew deep down inside that the Vault wouldn’t be able to hold Him forever. He remembers limbo and relives it as sirens blare, announcing His escape, pushing his mind into survival mode, and his actions into autopilot.
After he centers himself in reality and collects his thoughts, he goes to retrieve the Axe of Peace from where he’d retired it in Logstedshire, or his own personal hell, exile. He quickly moves across the nether, hoping not to catch anyone’s attention. He doesn’t want to chat, he just wants to grab the ax and head back home to the safety his land has to offer. He has to start building the wall as soon as he gets back.
Unfortunately for him, he isn’t lucky especially when it comes to Him. Tommy can feel the panic settle in his chest as realized the Axe of Peace is gone. He knows that when he’s towering up he would be met with Him, but he also knows being in a hole is the worst place to be with His past record of throwing and exploding things in holes. Tommy is quick to dig up and just as he suspects there He stands leaning up against a now broken nether portal in full netherite and a smug smirk.
“Hello, Tommy, welcome back to exile. I’m sure you’ve missed me,” He says, pushing himself off the ruined portal. “Now as I’m sure you remember the rules are quite simple. Take off your armor, and throw it in the hole. It doesn’t have to be difficult.” He shrugs as He walks up the path.
“What are you doing here? Why’d you break out of prison? You’re not supposed to be here!” He shouts, shakily, taking steps back hoping to widen the distance between them.
The smile, He’d previously worn on his face, falls at the mention of prison. “You know Tommy you really fucked me and for that, I’m going to kill you and I’ll revive you and kill you again and I’ll revive you again and kill you again and I’ll revive you, I’ll kill you and then I’ll leave you in limbo for a couple of thousand years. And then maybe we’ll be even enough for us to continue being friends,” he explains, pulling out the Axe of Peace, the torches making the enchantments more distinguished. Had Tommy’s life not been in danger he might even call it entrancing
“No no no we don’t have to do this,” Tommy stutters out quickly, pulling out his sword. Dream chuckles, taking a couple of steps forward, making the distance that Tommy needed, smaller and smaller till He was within striking distance.
“Do you really want to do that?” He asks with a tilt of his head.
“Y… Yes, I do,” Tommy says, taking a deep breath and fixing his posture.
“Oh- well, then,” He says, shaking his head in disapproval before charging at him. Tommy takes a couple of hits before realizing he was fighting a losing battle and decides to enact a tactical retreat.
He tosses an ender pearl as far away from Him as possible before Tommy could take any damning hits. Quicker than he expects, he hears Dream’s heavy footfalls behind him. He somehow caught up to Tommy and he takes a couple of hits because of it.
He feels a gash on his shoulder and on his left side. He throws his second and last ender pearl when he’s teleported, he lands in icy snow. He takes a quick look over his shoulder and realizes he still wasn’t far enough away to be comfortable or confident.
He starts to feel like shit as he tries to run further and further, he can feel the blood soaking his shirt. The cold is settling in as he goes further into the snow biome and although he starts to slow down falling into fatigue, Dream is still gaining on him. He doesn’t know how long it took for Techno and Phil’s area to come into view but by the time he’s approaching the enchanted forest that surrounded their homes he felt another hit on his back.
“Philll,” Tommy screams in agony. He trips falling forward from the force of another hit, at that moment he is drowning in dread. He hears a slight chuckle as footsteps approach his head.
“You’re lucky I’m merciful, you won’t be as lucky next time,” Dream says, leaning down before picking Tommy up by his neck. “Thank me, you piece of shit.” Tommy spits in his face, Dream tightens his grip, cutting off Tommy’s oxygen before speaking between gritted teeth, “just another lesson to go over next time.”
Tommy’s back hits one of the trees, gasping and sucking in much-needed air before Dream stalks off leaving a bloodied and bruised boy in the snow, staining it red. Tommy starts screaming.
Dream can vaguely hear the whooshing of wings as he walks away. “See you soon, you little pest,” he mutters to himself before pulling down his mask, which had sat comfortably on his head, and trudging towards Techno’s portal.