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If everything went the way it was meant to, this would have never happened. If everything had gone according to plan Dream would have never found himself running like this. With his lungs burning and his body aching and his wounds still bleeding. Without armor and the prison uniform doing next to nothing to protect his body from the whipping cold of the tundra around him. He had a plan to meet with Punz. He had a plan.
He’d thought Techno would have let him keep the armor. He didn’t think he’d be fighting everyone while also fighting the weakness and frailty of his own body. He didn’t think he would be barely healing from torture wounds. He didn’t think he was going to be in the position where a swing from some of the weakest pvpers he knew felt like a fight for his life. He didn’t think Techno would have left him. Especially not after their three months in hell together. He thought they’d bonded from that. He thought Techno would have let him keep more than the sword. He thought he might even have offered him a place to crash.
But that didn’t happen. And now Dream was running through the woods in the middle of a snow storm feeling like his body was falling apart at the seams and he could do nothing about it. He just had to keep going. If he stopped then the hypothermia would take over and he would freeze to death. He needed to move to stay warm. He needed his blood to be running.
It was just that he could feel it running down his skin under his filthy shirt that had him worried. He didn’t know how much he’d already lost but he knew he was beginning to be a risk. He knew not all of the cold he was feeling was from the snow. He knew not all of the dizziness he was experiencing was from the glancing blow to the head Sapnap managed to land earlier. He knew not all of the shake in his limbs was from the adrenaline racing through him.
Dream knew.
But that didn’t stop him. He had to get to Punz. He had to get to their meeting point. He needed to get there or Punz would think he left him and he wasn’t willing to risk losing the only person he had left by this point. Maybe there was a chance that he could get George back. Maybe even Sapnap. But he’d made his bed and he was going to lay in it until he reached his goal. Until he got his family to be a family again.
Even if it didn’t include him.
Punz would still include him.
He just had to get there.
One foot in front of the other. It was the only thing he allowed himself to think while he ran. The snow was making him more dizzy every time he looked up. He was purely just trusting his instinct to make sure he was still going in the right direction. He just had to get to Punz and then everything would be okay. It would be okay. He just had to keep going.
He was so focused on the rhythm of his moves that he didn’t notice the trees thinning out. He didn’t notice that he was out of the woods and into the clearing that took him to the frozen shore he would meet Punz at. He just kept going. Stumbling and slowly but continuing to force his body forward. He would be okay. It’d be okay.
It had to be okay.
After everything that he’d gone through for this he deserved for it to be okay. He’d earned that much at least.
His feet slipped on ice before he realized he’d nearly walked right off the edge. He stopped to stare at it. At the open expanse of water that laid before him. The deep freezing blue making him remember things he thought he would forget. The things his heart begged him not to. The color reminded him of George. The temperature reminded him of how he felt when George demanded he say he hated him. It made him remember what happened. It made him remember the chimes of the elder guardians that rang through the prison and the cell. The mining fatigue pulling down his limbs and making him frail and weak. Making him sick and slow and unable to fight back against Quackity hitting him repeatedly in the cell of Pandora’s Vault.
Part of him wanted to reach out and touch the water. Wanted him to continue down and fall into the abyss and let himself go out on his own terms. Surely if he were to be caught he would die. Surely at this rate he was going to die by the hands of another. He wanted to let himself go out with the sky shimmering above him through the water. He wanted to let the cold seep into his body and take away the heat from the cell. He wanted the water to replace the blood in his veins and sink him deeper and deeper until he was one with the water. Until he was just another story that people told.
He was dying already. Punz had others he could go to. Punz would be okay.
He reached his hand out and cupped the water. The frigid temperature made his fingertips go numb and red the second he touched it. He could let hypothermia take over his body. Let it shut him down and kill him without even going into the water. But clean water. Clean untouched water that was cold and pure and innocent. It was nothing like the overheated water of his cell. Nothing like the gross liquid that sat in the corner and collected filth with every potato that dropped into it. Nothing like the water that held bits of rotten potato and chunks of vomit. Nothing like the ooze of obsidian tears and blood that filled the cracks of his cell. It was clean. Pristine. Cold and deep and empty. It would wash away his body and the sins of his soul with it.
There was a hand on his shoulder.
Dream didn’t even realize he’d been leaning forward until he was being pulled back away and dragged from the shore line. He could barely move. His body wasn’t listening to him and he saw his vision blur when he tried to look around at the sky and expanse of blue and white before him. Hands were on his face. His chest, his neck, his arms.
He was caught. He was going to be killed. He was going to be taken back to the cell and the torture wasn’t going to stop. He was going to die alone and scared and probably crying. He didn’t want this. He wanted to die in his world. He wanted to sink away. He wanted to stay on the snowbay where Punz could find his body and bury him and maybe someone would visit his grave.
His chest was heaving. His breathing didn’t feel right. He felt like he couldn’t get air into his lungs. He wanted to cry but there were no tears left in his body to cry. There was nothing he could do to fight. He was too weak. Maybe he would bleed to death before they got him back to the cell. Maybe he would die before they could lock him behind obsidian again.
“Dream? Dream. Breathe dude. It’s me. Okay? See? Hang on.”
He was shifted around. Something moving around his body until his vision was filled with another type of white. Cloth. White cloth. A gold chain. Punz.
“Dream, in and out. I’m here. It’s just me. Can you see me? Hear me? Give me a sign here man.”
Dream tried to follow. He nodded shakily and reached out to grab onto Punz’s arms. He wanted Punz. He needed Punz. He was all he had left. All he had that still mattered to him. The second Dream was reaching for him Punz was reaching back. Wrapping him in his arms and holding him against his chest. Dream felt his body trying to make tears and instead choked a dry sob into Punz’s shoulder.
“You feel like a skeleton. You’re bleeding. Dream- this isn’t- you wouldn’t get this from a break out. What?-”
“The plan went a little south.”
His voice was shaking. Trembling and threatening to break on every word but he forced himself to get it out. Punz was warm. A comforting warmth that reminded him of good times. He wanted it all to stop. The spinning in his head. The too cold and too hot that raced through his body. It was all too much. He just wanted to pretend he was okay. He wanted to pretend there was no big plan and no big goal. That he hadn’t been betrayed and abandoned by nearly everyone he cared about. That he hadn’t been tortured for a year and that he hadn’t been starved. He wanted to pretend that he was sitting in a cabin safe and healthy just having a normal hug with one of his friends. That he could go outside and there would be others.
That he still had his family.
He still had his home.
He didn’t have to fight for them back.
“Don’t sleep. Dream? Hear me?”
He didn’t realize his eyes had closed. Didn’t notice himself leaning further and closer to Punz as his body began to shut down.
“I need to get you a potion, just; hold on. Okay? It’s in my shulker just stay awake.”
“I have a home.”
He didn’t see Punz’s worried look. Didn’t see him hurry a little faster to get through the shulker’s contents and pull out a healing potion.
“Yeah I know dude. Did Techno say you didn’t again?”
“..have a family.”
Punz stayed quiet this time. A silent wince on his face as he moved back to Dream’s side and held the potion to his lips. He just pulled away from it as soon as it got there.
“Punz?”
“Yeah? You need to drink this.”
“I..We’re family..right?.. The SMP..I made it a family..right?..They united?”
He dragged his eyes open to look up at Punz. Pain and sorrow filled green looking up at hurt blue. He saw the debate in Punz’s eyes. Saw the hesitation before he answered.
“Yeah. Yeah, Dream. It’s okay. It worked. They got together. They- they celebrated. Just drink the potion. Okay? Let me help you and we can go see it together. Yeah? That sound good?”
Dream nodded slowly. He let Punz hold the potion to his lips and this time he didn’t pull away. He let the potion in. Let the magic heat his body artificially and seal the worst wounds he was bearing from the prison. He let Punz carry him when his legs gave out after trying to stand. He let him lift him and take care of him and he let himself breathe.
He made a family. He’d see them.
And maybe he didn’t have to die to do it.