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“You and me George, ‘till the end.”
It’s something Dream said a lot, and at the time it made George smile. Now, the memory is bitter and cold, as he tunnelled into Pandoras Vault prison, a pickaxe clutched in his now filthy hand, and the map Punz had given him of the prisons layout stuffed haphazardly in his back pocket.
Logically, he didn’t want to be doing any of this. Logically, he wanted to be at home, but the more time passed, the more George realized he is perhaps not the most logical person. That was Dream’s job, to be logical and understanding and realistic, George’s was to balance it out.
Maybe, he thinks, that’s why they were such a good duo, and also maybe why they were so helpless without each other. At least how helpless George was without Dream, he wasn’t sure if it was like that for Dream, but judging by his current unfortunate situation he’d wager it was.
His pickaxe hit against a rock, offering a sharp ringing clang to show its displeasure, George flinched and covered his ears in order block out the grating sound.
“Stupid thing,” he grumbled, and shifted to dig around the rock, not bothering to go through the effort of mining through it. “Dream better thank me for this.”
-
Distantly, he wondered if Dream would even want to see him again. They hadn’t left off on very good terms, but George missed him a lot, and he hoped Dream felt the same.
His thoughts wandered more. What would they do when they escaped? Move servers maybe, that could probably work. What about Sapnap? Did Dream still care about him? George cared for him, but Sapnap had made it distinctly clear what he would do if Dream ever got out.
He’d gone off about it to George actually, ranting about how, “he wouldn’t even speak!” And “If he dares get out, I’ll take his final life, I swear to XD.” (He didn’t imagine that XD would do anything but laugh at that oath, but he wasn’t gonna tell Sapnap that.)
George had hated him for it, at the time. He’d wanted to punch him, kill him even, but he’d held back and scoffed cruelly instead.
“You know, it’s funny how, for someone who claims to be so loyal, you threw everything away like it was nothing,” he’d snapped. That had really pissed Sapnap off.
“What the fuck George?!” He’d said. “Who’s side are you even on?”
“Well I’m sure as hell not on yours, not anymore,” George had replied cooly, before turning around and walking back to his house, pointedly ignoring Sapnap’s betrayed glare on his back.
That had been nearly a year ago, and here he was, yet again disappointing Sapnap. He wouldn’t call it a betrayal, he hadn’t claimed loyalty, or even really friendship to Sapnap since that conversation all those months back, but it was at least another disappointment to add to the pile.
His spiralling was cut off by another aggravated clang, this time not from rock, but obsidian. George cheered silently, and dug straight up. If he’d planned his coords right, and if Punz hadn’t lied to him, then he should be at the main cell…the one holding Dream.
He’d heard sounds of a creature that he’d guessed was meant to be guarding this area, probably in case of this exact scenario, but Sam must’ve messed something up because the only things that had bothered him the whole trip were silverfish.
The creature bellowed from afar, and he mined up.
-
The first thing that George was not exactly prepared for was that the area he’d decided to enter from was filled with water. Not normal water either, but gross, dirty, bathroom water. It all drained onto him the moment he mined the final obsidian block, which make him gag and nearly lose his lunch.
The second thing was the actual cell: if he thought the water was bad, the cell was worse. The first thing he noticed was the intense stench of feces and rot, then the slightly more muted, but still heavy, smell of iron that filled the air. It smelled like the actual presence of hate and despair. George reeled back like he’d been hit, his eyes watering from the sheer audacity of the smell. When he got his bearings he looked around, and discovered the physical state of the cell pretty much matched the smell.
Blood was smeared across the walls and floor, teeth and fingernails decorated the ground, and a whip was left discarded by the wall. The more he looked, the further down his stomach sank.
Then, there was the third thing. There was Dream. George caught him out of the corner of his vision, and immediately all thinking was lost.
Dream, his Dream, his world and sun and moon and stars, was wordlessly crumpled in the corner. He wasn’t moving. He was barely breathing.
George doesn’t know if he screamed, blood rushed his ears and all he could think was “save him”, it repeated like a mantra as he ran to his downed best friend, and turned him over to check the damages.
Immediately, he regretted it. Dream looked even worse than the cell, he barely looked human anymore; his hair was matted and caked in blood, and both his eyes were swollen shut, any visible skin was either black and blue, or badly burned and oozing pus. His only movement was the occasional twitch or seize. Inhaling sharply, George glanced to the lava bubbling opposite to them, and knew he had to move quick.
With as much care as possible in the moment, George maneuvered Dream’s limp form into his arms bridal style, and climbed down the way he came.
As he was running out through the path he’d made to get in, a deep throaty grumble sounded, and the booming sound of footsteps behind him drew nearer and nearer.
The Warden.
George cursed himself for jinxing it. It must’ve been trained to sense Dream specifically, he couldn’t think of any other explanation as to why it only now decided to give chase.
He sped up into a dead sprint, cringing every time he felt Dream jostle in his arms. If he could just get into narrow part of the path, he’d be ok, but at that moment it looked universes away.
The warden roared, causing him to stumble and nearly drop Dream. His chest burned and he could hear his own ragged breathing echoing around the walls.
With a mad dash and leap of faith, he rolled into the narrow section, careful to keep Dream as protected as possible in his arms. His poor arms took a fair amount of damage, but he ignored the stinging pain as he kept running for the exit.
-
The fresh air and natural light would’ve been more pleasant to him if it hadn’t been for the living corpse he had bundled in his arms. Dream shifted at the sudden change in environment, looking up at George with glassy eyes and murmuring something incoherent.
“Shh, you’re gonna be ok. I’ve got you now,” George reassured, though he wasn’t really sure how much truth was in his words. Dream looked much more dire in light, his worse injuries no longer hidden by darkness.
Dream stared at him with a kind of newfound childish wonder that made George’s heart ache. He exhaled shakily and hurried to his house in Kinoko, depositing Dream on the table. He began cursing as he dug around intently for potions and other medical supplies, when suddenly, he heard something that stopped him in his tracks.
“George…” His head snapped over toward the voice, and his eyes found Dream. His hand outstretched and reaching pathetically for him. “Please,” he begged. George couldn’t bring himself to think about what for.
“Dream? Hey, you- you need to save your energy. I’m trying to heal you,” he said, stuttering around the grief he could feel already coating his tongue as his brain began processing the reality of what was happening. The reality he didn’t want to accept.
“Can’t,” Dream slurred. “Please.” He opened and closed his hand weakly, and George shook his head desperately.
“What do you mean, can’t? You’ll…you’ll be ok, ok? Please just stop. Stop, and let me save you.”
Dreams eyes filled with tears, and this time when he spoke, it might as well have been a boulder placed directly atop George’s already wounded heart. “…just want …just want a hug. Please. I’m sorry.”
“Dream! Shut up! We’ll hug when you’re not dying, I need to save you first,” he tried to order, though it sounded more like begging. Dream’s face fell, tears now slipping off his lashes, he closed his eyes quietly as George began frantically searching. Why didn’t he have any regeneration potions? Why, why, why-
“Sorry,” Dream whispered, and it sounded like goodbye.
All at once George’s world fell out from under him.
“Dream? Dream? Wait, Dream, no I’m sorry. Here, I’ll give you a hug, ok? Dream??” He rushed over, but it was too late. Dream lay on the table, dead, face frozen and devoid of any hope.
For a second there was nothing else in the world. For a second George stood still as a statue, staring down at the dead body of the love of his life. For a second, no birds chirped, no wind blew. For a second, from his head all the way down to his toes, George was dead too.
Then the second passed, and George was screaming. His awareness flicked back on like a light, everything hurt, his arms hurt, his face was wet, the room was stuffy.
He felt vaguely disconnected from his body, resigned to floating in space as he watched himself desperately shaking Dreams lifeless form, tears free falling down his beet red face.
Then it truly clicked that Dream was gone, and he was back in his body. It was heavy, he felt like he was made of lead. Unable to withstand the weight, George staggered back and slumped bonelessly against his wall.
Dream was dead. His Dream was dead and in his final moments all he’d wanted was a hug, and George couldn’t even do that for him. He’d failed, and this time he couldn’t repair it.
-
Eventually, be it from stress or exhaustion, his body allowed him to fall unconscious.
When he awoke he was in a clearing, deep within the forest.
“George?” A voice echoed, and George choked back a sob. It was XD, he knew it was XD, but he’d never noticed how similar they really sounded. He’d never been bothered by it until now.
Now it was like torture.
“Go away,” he cried. “I don’t- I don’t want to do this today. I can’t, I can’t…I can’t do this, please.”
“Has something occurred?” They asked, voice holding about as much concern as could be mustered by a God. George shook his head.
“I lost him. I- I couldn’t save him, XD. I couldn’t do it.”
“Who is this, ‘he’, you refer to? Do you mean The Dream?”
“Stop,” he whimpered. “Please stop, please don’t say his name, not today, please.”
They considered him for a moment, before nearing closer. George ignored them the best he could. “If it helps you, The Dream is not completely…gone.”
That got his attention. George spun to face them, squinting at the bright light they always emitted in his dreams. “What do you mean? He’s- he’s dead. I saw him die,” he said, shuddering at the way his own words seemed to pierce his skin.
“Dead doesn’t mean gone. I am the God of this plane, it seems you forget to remember this.”
“Wha…so- so you can bring him back? You can save him?”
“For a price, yes.”
George frowned, he’d heard from somewhere that making deals with gods was never a wise decision, but then he recalled the image of Dream’s outstretched arm falling to his side as he took a final, disappointed breath, and it didn’t seem like hard decision anymore.
“Ok, deal. What do you want?”
“We have a deal? You don’t even know what you’re agreeing to…are you sure?”
Dream’s face bashed in and his eyes glassy as he stared at George like he was the only thing in the world. “I’m sure. I don’t care anymore, just tell me what you want and I’ll do it.”
XD considered him for a moment, and shrugged. “A trade.”
“A trade? Of what?”
“I’ll bring Your Dream back, and in return, I get My George back.”
“Wait, but what does that mean for m-“
Before he could finish speaking, XD snapped his fingers, and George’s world went dark.