Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Lord Sapnap” the butler called. 

Sapnap was sitting in his study, reading a book about the magic of the land when he heard the butler from far away.

“What is it?” Sapnap called back. 

“The guard came with an important message, Lord Sapnap!” the butler said back now that he was face to face with his lord. 

“If Dream escaped again I’m actually going to murder the guards of pandora’s vault” Sapnap grumbled as a joke but when he saw the butler’s face his face fell. 

“You won’t have to Lord, Dream already took care of that.” The butler said in a sad voice. 

Sapnap jumped up and ran towards the door of the study. The loyal butler following him. 

“How long ago did he escape?” Sapnap asked while running. “The guard said he came here immediately so it can’t be longer than 30 minutes ago.” 

“Shit… he’s long gone than…” Sapnap said and started slowing down again. On the way more of his staff collected around him, knowing that Sapnap would need them right now. It wasn’t there first rodeo and by how fast Dream escaped this time, it wouldn’t be their last either. 

“Someone get Bad and Sam, make sure they are ready to go within 30 minutes. Someone go to George and tell him I’m ready in 30 minutes. Jack get my horse ready. Thomas grab my order from the armour smith and get back as fast as you can.” 

As soon as they heard their tasks, the staff started running. Sapnap himself went to his private armory and collected his sturdy gear. It was made of netherrite, the most valuable resource out there. The King had gifted it to him after capturing Dream the first time. Sapnap had tried to give it back when Dream escaped the first time because it felt like he had failed his task but the King had refused to take back his gift. On the basis that if Dream could escape prison this fast, he would need the armor to take Dream on a second time. Now Sapnap was happy with the King’s forthsight. Without his netherrite armor he would never be able to take on Dream. Dream had always been a fantastic fighter and Sapnap would only win from him every once in a while during practice but ever since Dream had been on the run, his fighting had become absolutely incredible. If the reason for Dream’s fall hadn’t been as serious as it was, Sapnap would have been impressed. Instead it was worrying. Over the past two years they caught Dream three times, and he escaped twice from prison within a day. This time it had taken them the better part of the year to catch him and they put him to the highest security prison in the Kingdom. He had gone to both his trails and was sentenced to death. Nothing surprising for the biggest criminal in the Kingdom. Nothing surprising for the criminal with the highest bounty in recorded history. However, it still hurt Sapnap to see his former friend that way. By law and tradition, death sentences were always preformed three days after the sentencing. Three days for the criminal to think about what is the come, three days for the criminal to ask for forgiveness. If they asked it they would be given it but they would still be executed. Dream hadn’t asked for forgiveness. Sapnap hadn’t expected him to do so. He also hadn’t expected Dream to be able to escape pandora’s vault however. Three days had been three days too many. But somewhere, deep in his heart Sapnap was relieved, relieved to know he wouldn’t have to watch his former best friend die. 

“Lord, I don’t understand. How can this happen?” Bad asked Sapnap. 

He and Sam were sitting on their horses, both in diamond armor and with the same tools and supplies ready as they had been carrying a week before. Only this time replenished, resharpened and cleaned. They had only been home a week but already they were looking towards a future than existed of camping, chasing and fighting. Neither for them look particularly forward to this but both knew just how important this was. 

“I don’t know Bad… he’s a psychopath, he doesn’t shy away from killing an entire guard just to save himself.” Sapnap answered bitter. 

“It’s just… Pandora’s vault… it’s inescapable… I just don’t understand how.” Bad mutter to himself but shut up when he saw George and Antfrost coming their way. 

George was just like Sapnap wearing his netherrite gear and Antfrost next to him was shining in his diamond armor. Together the 5 of them were looking like the most dangerous warriors out there. Which, to be honest, they were. Since Dream’s fall, Sapnap was the best warrior fighting under the King. George was also an above average fighter and their squires were the best squires in the Kingdom. However, what made them so much better than the rest wasn’t pure their skill, it was the way they trusted each other blindly. Ever since Dream betrayed the King, and his best friends, Sapnap and George had been forced to trust each other ever more than before. When they got the news of Dream’s betrayal both had hurt immensely, but both also immediately volunteered to search for Dream and bring him back to the King. The King had accepted this offer because he knew that in the whole Kingdom there was nobody who knew Dream better than Sapnap and George. Especially when Sam, Dream’s former squire, joined them in their search. 

“So, what’s the plan Sapnap.” George said when he was next to Sapnap. 

“Same as always, we track him down, catch him, bring him back to the King.” Sapnap answered and George nodded along. 

“I guess we start at Pandora’s Vault this time then.” George said and he spurred on his horse. It was clear that George didn’t want to talk about what happened. Sapnap understood this, nobody really wanted to talk about it. Ever since that day 2 years ago they had all lost their joy. Instead they had become the black finders. Named after their armor and their goal.

Chapter Text

Dream was running, running and running more. He knew he was going to need to put as much distance between him and Pandora’s Vault as possible. It had been too close for comfort this time, taking a full week to escape. Pandora’s Vault definitely was the best prison in the land, Dream couldn’t deny it. Not to mention that the trials had made him feel way worse than he was prepared for. Looking his friends in the face was painful but seeing the hatred in their face was even worse. He knew that he had lost his friends on that day 2 years ago, but that didn’t make it any less painful. Only wearing the mask made it more bearable, not having to look anyone in the eyes. The mask he made solely for this purpose, for becoming a criminal. As soon as he puts on the mask he feels like a different person and all the terrible things he did don’t bother him nearly as much. As a result he wears the mask almost 24/7, but in Pandora’s Vault he wasn’t allowed to wear it. “Everyone should be able to see your disgusting face” the guard had spat in his face after taking away his mask. He hadn’t flinched, his pride not letting him, but inside at that moment he mourned losing his mask more than any of the other stuff he had on him. That’s also why, when he escaped his cell he took the time to search and find his mask before leaving the prison fully. It had taken some valuable minutes but as soon as he put on his mask he knew it was worth it. Without the mask he couldn’t play the role he had to play.
That did mean that right now he was running with nothing but his mask. He didn’t even have boots, only his prison clothes. But he knew where he was going, just on the other side of the forest there was a village he could rob. Not the way he preferred to replenish his loot but he couldn’t go back to his castle right now. He knew it was permanently guarded for if he was to return there. For a minute he mourned his former life as Lord Clay. One of the most respected lords, the best warrior and one of the close confidants of the King. Every morning he would eat what the cooks had prepared. After that he would meet with George and Sapnap. They would either do what the King had commanded them to do or teach the sons of the older Lords how to be the perfect knight. In the afternoon he would go hunting with them or teach awesamdude more tricks. He would look after the horses in his stable and take a stroll through the castle gardens. In the evening he would study in his library after dinner until he was too tired to read. It had been a fantastic life but it wasn’t meant to last.
Dream shook his head, trying to remove the memory of a better time and instead focus on the task ahead. Navigating tight forests was difficult at the best of times but without shoes it was close to hell. But he managed, fast but carefully he made his way through the forest until finally he reached the edge. Without letting himself be seen he checked just how far he went of his original course while navigating the forest. To his relief he wasn’t far of course at all and after making sure his mask was on good and comfortably he made his way to the village. It was midday, there was no way he was going to enter unseen. However, he also had no weapons or anything. In the end he grabbed a sturdy stick from woods to defend himself and just walked into the village like he owned the place.
Immediately people started shouting and running away but Dream paid them no mind. Instead he was scanning the village for someone around his length and stature so he could rob the innocent man of his boots and clothing. It didn’t take long until he had found his target. The guy had guts and instead of running away from Dream, he was approaching him, probably to try and take him out. But Dream wasn’t having any of that. Suddenly, Dream started running and in no time he was in the guy’s face, grabbed him by his collar and punched him hard enough to knock him unconscious. Like nothing happened Dream put the guy down and started robbing him. While the guy was poor, he hadn’t been wealthy. But wealthy enough for a good pair of boots (luckily for Dream they were only a tiny bit too small) and a good vest. The pants were a bit more worn down but Dream didn’t care. The villagers had been so shocked by Dream’s sudden attack that they didn’t dare to approach while Dream slowly stripped the poor boy of all his belongings. Within 5 minutes Dream was done with the guy and finally dressed in some proper clothes. luckily for Dream, the guy was also carrying a pouch with some coins and a small dagger. Dream decided that he could use both so took them as well. Just when he wanted to go he heard someone behind him shout some kind of battle cry. He turned around to see a boy, no older than 12, run towards him with a broom. When the boy was almost there Dream simply stepped aside. The boy, who had expected to hit Dream with his stumbled forwards and would have fallen to the ground if it wasn’t for Dream catching him. Dream grabbed him by his collar and stepped close until he was right next to the now trembling boy.
“The black finders will come through the village soon. Tell them I robbed that guy and he will be compensated nicely. However, also tell them I’m went south. Do you understand?” Dream whispered in the boys ear and the boy nodded.
Dream let the boy go, who fell on his knees, still trembling in fear. But Dream didn’t care. He grabbed all the stuff he just got and went on his way. Away from the village, up to the next one where he could buy some more supplies with the coins hopefully.

Chapter Text

The guard was standing in the hallway. Inner castle duty was pretty boring. It almost never happened that someone managed to get through all the other guards. But still he was standing there, alert to anything out of the ordinary. He was stationed next to the prince's chambers. The oldest prince was 5 years old, meaning most of his shift consisted of watching the nanny chase the little boy around. It was endearing to watch and made the shift easy to stand through. The second prince was coming up close to his first birthday. He was just starting to take his first steps, something the queen had shown him, and all the other staff around, proudly. Right now the second prince was sleeping and the crown prince was following classes in his room. Everything was how it should be, until a man wearing a white mask with a taunting smiley face turned the corner. 

Dream had no clue if his hunters were already on his tail or not. But he knew from experience that if he thought they hadn’t found him yet, they had. Of course he wasn’t really going south, instead he went west towards the sea. Port cities were the best place for supplies, both for honest traders and for dark criminals. If you knew where to look, port cities sold literally everything you needed. Not that Dream wanted anything considered illegal, but he did want to buy without having to risk being told on by the shop owner to his hunters. 

However, for now he didn’t have the luxury of anonymity. The villages this close to L’Manburg city and Pandora’s Vault were very loyal to the crown. He knew that as soon as anyone in one of these villages spotted him, they would call the closest guard available. And ever since he escaped prison the first time, the closest guard was never far away. 

The mask was also both a blessing and a curse. While it kept him focused on his task being the most dangerous criminal in the land , it also made him stand out as a sore thumb. Most of the time this was welcomed because if people ran away from him, he wouldn’t have to kill them. But when he was trying to restock after breaking out of prison, it was really freaking annoying. That’s why for the past few hours Dream had been jogging towards the west, through fields and forests. He had skipped the closest two villages and instead had run straight for the third village westward, that is if he had memorized the map correctly. Every single map he could get his hands on he would memorize so he could still find his way without maps. But it was risky and because he didn’t have anything to eat right now, he couldn’t afford not finding his target village. 

“Do you really think he went through a forest as dense as this, without shoes?” Bad thought out loud while he and Sam were making their way through the forest. 

After Sapnap and George went to Pandora’s Vault, the only two guards that survived Dream’s rampage told them that they had seen him running towards the forest. They had tried to shoot him but neither were trained archers so all shots had missed. The black finders had made their way towards the forest and Sapnap had grabbed his map to check what was beyond it. When they found out that there was a village close to the edge of the forest they knew that that had most likely been Dream’s target. It was George who had came with the idea of splitting up. It was most likely that Dream had gone to the village, so it would be fastest to go straight to the village, taking the path through the forest. However, Dream had not entered the forest where the path was and he most likely would have avoided the road so he could also still be hiding in the forest. So Bad and Sam went through the forest on foot while the others took the horses and raced towards the village. 

“While, it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing he has done since…” Sam started but he didn’t have to finish. They both know since when he ment and neither felt like talking about that day. 

“Yeah that’s true. I do think he’s in the village though. Let’s hope the others were fast enough.” Bad said but both knew that they most likely were not fast enough. 

For two years, save of a few days here and there, they had been hunting Dream and almost always Dream was two steps ahead of his hunters. It felt like Dream knew what was happening before it was. Like he could see the future Sam thought. It hadn’t been the first time he had thought that. His former Lord had always had a knack for knowing news before it was announced and more than once they had prepped a trap for an attack Clay had been convinced was coming. Sam used to never think this was odd, his Lord was one of the closest confidants of the King, had immaculate fighting instincts and a very strategic brain. But sometimes, sometimes he asked himself if it could be something more than that, if maybe his Lord could see the future. He never voiced these thoughts because of what they would implicate. 

“Let’s just try to get out of this damn forest as soon as possible so we can help the others again.” 

“Yeah, let’s do that” 

When Bad and Sam arrived in the village the others were still there. Bad honestly hadn’t expected that. His Lord wasn’t known for his patience, especially when it came to hunting Dream. Sapnap always wanted to go as fast as possible with little to no breaks. If Dream had gone to the village, he would have had to leave in a hurry and thus most likely leave an accidental clue as to where he was going. But apparently it wasn’t this easy this time around. 

“Bad, Sam, there you are, come here come here” Sapnap said when he saw the two squires enter the village. 

“Did he not go to the village?” Bad asked immediately when he and Sam arrived where the others were standing around.

“No, we were right, he did go to the village. He robbed this poor guy and apparently talked to his younger brother.”

Only now Bad saw the two peasants sitting next to Antfrost. One of the two barely had any clothing on and was missing his boots. George had clearly performed first aid on the guy, judging by the bandage going around his head. 

“So what happened?” Bad asked confused and the younger brother answered. 

“H-he just walked into the village. A-and than my brother tried to scare him a-away but suddenly h-he started running, g-grabbed my brother and hit him unconscious!” The younger brother stuttered. 

“He t-took everything f-from my brother. W-when I tried to h-help, h-he grabbed my collar and told me to tell you t-that my brother was robbed by d-d-dream and that I should tell you that he w-went south.” the younger brother continued.

Suddenly Bad understood why they were still in the village. Dream had already started his usual mind games. If he had told the guy that he was going south, he most likely was not going south. However, if that’s what he thought they would think, he maybe did go south. And even if he didn’t go south, they still had 3 other directions he could have gone. 

Sam sat down next to George and studied the map George was looking at. 

“I think we can assume he didn’t go south.” Sapnap said while also sitting down to check the map. Bad joined them on the ground and now all five were looking at the map. The two peasants were eagerly trying to hear what the black finders had to say. While Dream was infamous for being the worst criminal the Kingdom had ever seen, the black finders on the other hand were what every little boy aspired to be. They were cool, daring and extremely good at what they did. They were famous. 

“I think you’re right” George answered Sapnap’s statement. “There isn’t enough to the South that would make it worthwhile to go there. We shouldn’t forget that he has nothing more than what this guy here unwillingly gave him. That means that he’ll need supplies, mostly food.” he continued.

“We could just check on all the nearby villages.” Antfrost added to the conversation. “There aren’t that many villages around and with the coins he stole he will most likely try to buy some food.”

“No, that will take too long. Right now his lead isn’t big at all, we can’t afford to give him a bigger lead. Let’s try to look at it from Dream’s perspective. Like George said, he will need supplies and thus he’ll go somewhere that has what he’s looking for. I have an idea but Sam, what do you think, you were with him most.” Sapnap said.

“I still think my Lords, that you know him better than me, however I think that he went westwards towards the sea. Port Cities are the best place for supplies.” Sam answered while looking at the map. 

“Yes, that’s also what I thought, but if he went east instead it will take us days and days to catch up with him instead.”

“How about we try the first three villages westwards from this village.” George proposed while marking three villages almost in a straight line. All three were located next to the same river and not that far apart. 

“I don’t think he can go further than the third village westwards before really needing to buy food. They only gave him potatoes at Pandora’s Vault after all. He will need food to regain some strength.” George explained and the others were nodding while thinking over the plan. 

“Yes, let’s do that.” Sapnap decided. He rolled up the map, stood up and got on his horse. “If he didn’t go to the third village, we’ll go back to this village and try again in another direction.” 

The others nodded and everyone got back on their horse, except from Antfrost. Antfrost grabbed a pouch from his horse and counted the gold coins within. After he grabbed around a quarter of them and gave them to the brothers. 

“I’m sorry you had to go through this, please take this payment as an apology from the King.” Antfrost said, it wasn’t the first time he had to do that and it wouldn’t be the last.

He also got up on his horse and the black finders all went westwards, starting a new manhunt.

Chapter Text

“Who are you? What are you doing here!” The Guard asked the masked stranger loudly. The stranger was tall, wearing a green colored shirt, a green hood, leather armor and boots. The mask was big, round and white. The smiley face looking eerie rather than happy. The stranger didn’t reply, he just walked closer towards the prince’s chambers. 

“In the name of the King’s guard, I commend you to stop!” the guard shouted, alerting other guards around. The mysterious guy however did not stop. He just kept on walking. The guard sprinted towards the masked man, ready to attack, but the masked man had been ready and took the guard out with a single crossbow arrow. The guard hadn’t even seen the man was armed before he died. 

The masked man continued his journey towards the youngest prince’s chamber but the first guard had already fulfilled his duty by alerting the other guards. From all places guards came running and others were alerting even more guards. However, before the guards could reach the mysterious masked man, the masked man disappeared into the youngest prince’s chamber and closed the door. 

When the first guards reached the door they could hear the nanny screaming in fear. They opened the door immediately only to find the masked man standing next to the youngest prince’s crib. Inside the crib lay the youngest son with a dagger through his heart. He was dead. Meanwhile the masked man was just standing there, laughing maniacally. All the guards were so shocked that they didn’t move for a few seconds but in those few seconds the masked man ran towards the window, used his gloved hands to punch through the glass and escaped. 

Luckily for Dream, he had memorized the map good enough. Around an hour before sunset he saw his target village. He had long since stopped jogging. While his stamina was absolutely incredible, Pandora’s Vault had not been nice to him. However, seeing the village made him find the strength to jog some more. 

You couldn’t really call the welcome he got in the village warm, more the opposite. But he didn’t care. All the cared for was finding something to eat that wasn’t a goddamn potato. Without too much difficulty he found the local bakery and went in. 

“Can I get three loafs of bread please?” he asked the almost fainting lady in the bakery. 

“N-NO” the lady said firmly after finding some of confidence. “We do not sell to criminals!” 

Dream just sighed deeply and grabbed the dagger that was hanging from his belt. 

“Look, I have the money and I want to leave as quickly as I can. Just give me the bread or I simply take it myself.” Dream said, giving the lady a second chance. 

But like Dream had expected, she still refused. So Dream simply jumped over the counter, held the dagger against the ladies neck and grabbed the three loafs he wanted to get in the first place. He quickly jumped back and threw some money on the counter. Probably not enough to pay for all three loafs but Dream decided that since he had to serve himself, it was only fair he didn’t pay the full price. Before making a bigger fuss in the bakery he left the little shop, looking for a butcher. Most villages had at least a bakery and a butcher. If he was lucky the village also had a farmer selling some of his leftover vegetables but it wasn’t a must for now. 

The butcher wasn’t located far from the bakery so he quickly went in. When he had left the bakery, he had seen some kids run away from the village, most likely to warn a guard, so he knew he was going to run out of time soon. 

“Do you have any smoked meat for sale?” Dream asked the butcher but he didn’t expect an answer. Butchers, used to working with knives, were never scared to go against their customers and this butcher was no exception. Even before Dream had finished his sentence, the butcher was already shaking his head and waving a knife threatening towards Dream. Dream held his hands up and backed off. Usually he wouldn’t think twice about taking a fight with a butcher but he didn’t have a shield, armor or a proper sword. On top of that he was tired from walking all day on an empty stomach.
“Okay okay, I get the message.” Dream said while slowly backing off towards the door. “it was worth a try” he muttered to himself before backing out the door and closing it in the butcher's face. 

“What was worth a try?” Someone asked behind him and Dream turned around.
“Oh god” he only said when he was faced by 5 horses belonging to the black finders. Apparently he had had less time than anticipated. Behind his mask he was quickly scanning his surroundings to see if there was anywhere to go. Within seconds he had found a path and before any of the black finders could even comprehend what happened, Dream was sitting on one knee on a rooftop above the black finder.

“Oh god yes, I guess you didn’t expect us to find you this fast.” Sapnap said snugly. “Just in time to bring you back to Pandora’s Vault for tomorrow's… appointment.” he continued. 

“Yeah… about that appointment” Dream answered, trying to buy some time to once again scan his surroundings behind the mask and come up with a plan.
“I kinda decided to not go to that appointment. Seemed a bit like a waste of time ya-know.” Dream answered before sliding down the roof on the other side of the black finders and entering the first house he could. 

“GET HIM” George yelled while all the hunters immediately went around to the other side of the house Dream had been on.

“Where did he GO?” George yelled again when there was no sign of Dream.

“He must have gone into one of the houses.” Sapnap answered and immediately all 5 got off their horses and started searching through the houses. 

Dream in the meantime had finally found a bag to put his loafs in. He also decided that he, now that he was already robbing this family anyway, might as well take a blanket, some food and a rope while he was at it. He had just put everything in the bag and secured the bag on his back when he heard the door of the house he was in opening. He wasn’t sure if it was one of his hunters, but the chances were too big so he sneaked out the window, scanned his surroundings and decided that for now he would hide in the stables on the other side of the street. He debated if he would just take one of the horses of the hunters but decided against it. The first part of getting back on the run was usually easier on foot. He didn’t have anything to feed the horse anyway. He quietly got comfortable in the stables and waited for the hunters to come out while eating some of the bread.

“He’s not here” said Sam, the first one to leave the house he had been looking through.

“Not here either” a disappointed George said a heartbeat later. 

“If he’s not in any of these houses, than where the fuck is he??” Sapnap said angrily.
“I swear to god if we already lost him again…” 

“Look, he can’t have gone far. Let’s just search through the whole village until it’s completely dark.” George said to calm Sapnap down.

“Okay, let’s do that.” Sapnap said and without needing to communicate the 5 hunters all went their separate ways to look for Dream.

Dream knew that it was only a matter of time before they reached the stables he was in so as soon as all hunters were out of his sight he decided to make a run for it. The sun had started to set and he could use that to his advantage. Like a creature of the night, Dream sneaked out of the village and into the open field. He started to run towards his next destination, the forest a bit more westwards where he was planning to make his first camp. 

“We really lost him” Antforst concluded after the five had searched through the whole village. 

“Why does he always manage to sneak away like this?!” Sapnap asked frustrated but everyone already knew the answer so nobody felt like answering.

“Look, there is not a whole lot we can do right now.” George said. “Let’s stay at this village for the night and continue to follow him in the morning. He won’t be able to cover his tracks at night so chasing him will be easy, plus we are a lot faster than him on our horses. The others agreed and after finding a nice family who would let them stay in their stables they all settled down for the night.

The first day was always the most difficult when it came to hunting Dream. Every single time they had been so close yet so far on the first day. And now, only god knows how much time it would take them to catch him this time.

Chapter Text

“WHAT HAPPENED!” The king shouted while running towards the room of his youngest son.

“I- We- it happened so fast” one of the guards standing in the room said. 

But the King had no eyes for the guard talking, or for any of the other guards standing in the room, standing around the window, jumping out the window after the masked murderer or running around the castle grounds. Instead the King was looking at his son. The dagger was still there, including a scroll laying on top. But the King also didn’t care about the dagger or the scroll. He removed the dragger, wrapped his infant son in the blankets around him and held him one last time, crying silently. The queen joined her husband not long after and while the guards were trying to follow the murderer, the King and Queen just mourned their son. 

A few moments later the King gathers himself and stands up slowly.

“Gather all the Lords in the throne room.” The King said scarily calm before giving his dead son to his wife and grabbing the dagger with the scroll.  

“I want to know who did this and I want them hanging in the courtyard. Did I make myself clear?” he resumed and all the guards scrambled to do what they were told.

The whole castle was on high alert. All guards that were on leave or rest at the moment were commanded to report for duty. At the same time, the news of the death of the King’s second son reached the peasants. The King was loved among his people so it didn’t take long for the whole city to be mourning the second son’s death. Messenger boys were galloping through the city, trying to deliver their message to the furthest Lords as fast as possible while townspeople walked towards the castle to lay flowers at the gates.  

Back in the castle, the King took the scroll and made his way back to his throne room. The highest ranking guards followed their king while giving orders left and right. After the King sat down in his throne, he laid the dagger aside without a second look and instead grabbed the scroll and read what it said:

Fear me until you know who I am

Hunt me when you know who you want dead

Live in my nightmare

call me Dream

:) 

Dream had been walking westwards for days and days. He barely gave himself any time to rest because he knew his former best friends were right on his tail. He had to admit, they had been very annoying so far. After the encounter in the village he had seen the hunters two more times. Once when he was resting in a tree he saw them building up camp too close for comfort and once when he saw them riding on the road parallel to where he was walking through the field. Luckily they hadn’t seen him but it did mean that they were very close. So Dream had forced himself to keep walking, only letting himself rest a few hours in the early morning just after the sun came up. His bread had run out after two days and because he still only had a small dagger, hunting was out of the question. Instead he had robbed one of the farms that he had come across. While the farmer had first tried to put on a fight, as soon as Dream had grabbed his dagger the farmer chose his life over his honor and gave Dream everything he demanded. So Dream left the farm with an old tent, enough smoked meat for at least a few days, some bread, some fruit and a small hunting bow with a few arrows. In return, Dream had given the farmer the remaining coins that he had stolen from the guy in the first village before going on towards his goal. Luckily his goal was getting closer and closer. If Dream remembered correctly he would reach a pretty respectable port city, Port Portis, in not more than a few days. From there on he could finally focus on his real goal. 

“It looks like he has a real goal in mind” Antfrost muttered while looking at the map. The five of them were sitting around a table in the small town inn. It was a welcoming change to be sleeping on a bed instead of the hard ground. George nodded after hearing his squires comment and answered after swallowing his bite of the lamb stew they had ordered. 

“Yeah so far he’s been walking in an almost straight line towards Port Portis. It looks like we were right on the money the first day. We could take a gamble and just go straight there.”

“Yeah, no way I’m taking a gamble when it comes to Dream” Sapnap grumbled. 

“As soon as we think we are ahead of him, he does something completely else and we’re again stuck searching for him. I definitely rather follow him than search for him.” 

“Fair point” George said before focussing back on his food. His idea hadn’t really been an idea, just something that popped up in his mind. 

“It is the first time that he has such a clear goal in mind though.” Sam said thoughtfully. 

“Do you think he’s planning on leaving the country?” bad added but Sam immediately shook his head. 

“If he had wanted to leave the country, he would have done so 2 years ago. He wants us to hunt him, remember.” he said. 

Everyone sank back into their own minds, trying to find out what the hell was going on. They had been hunting Dream for two years and usually Dream didn’t have a clear goal at all. The only logic they had ever found was Dream collecting potion ingredients and other rare but valuable supplies like golden apples and ender pearls. Ender pearls..

“SHIT” Sapnap suddenly exclaimed, making his fellow hunters look up to him. 

“I know how that fucker escaped Pandora’s vault. He must have hidden an ender pearl somewhere. We know he likes to collect magical items. We even found other magic items like ghast tears and blaze rods in his bag when we arrested him.” 

Suddenly it dawned on all of them. It was the only explanation for a question they had for a while now. 

“Oh well, I’m pretty sure we took all his other magic items, there is nothing else as small as an ender pearl.” Bad said simply and they all laughed at that.

“I think it’s worth reporting to the King though. Maybe there is even a mage close to the King that might know a reason as to why Dream is going to the coast.” George said thoughtfully. 

“Do you know if there is anything magic related to the west or at the coast Sapnap?” he asked but the other Lord shook his head.

“As far as I know, magic is mostly found in the mountains and certain forests. That’s why we’ve been climbing mountains for the last two years… The sea does contain magic of course, but it’s impossible for humans to harvest it. The mountains are where you need to go.” Sapnap explained. 

“Hmm…” George reacted. “Welp, I guess we just have to keep following him for now then. But definitely let’s report the ender pearl thing to the King.” 

The other agreed and all went back to enjoying their dinner. It wasn’t often that they could eat and stay in an inn while they were hunting Dream. 

The next day, after sending a message to the King, they continued their chase after Dream. While they were on horses and thus could travel more distance in a shorter amount of time, they had to stop a lot to make sure they were still going the right way. So they were still behind the man on foot, even after chasing him for almost 2 weeks. Port Portis was less than a day’s travel away now so they were all silently preparing for another confrontation.

“I think we might be catching up with him before he reaches Port Portis” Antfrost conclude after they talked to the farmer they just passed and based on the tracks in the farmer’s land. The farmer had told them that he had seen a lone man walking through his field around an hour ago, giving them a pretty good estimation. 

“I think we should think up a plan before we catch up with him” Sapnap said while he got back up on his horse. Antfrost gave the farmer some money for his information before also getting back on his horse. 

“I think so too, we have to keep moving though” George said and the others nodded. 

They went back towards the main road to continue their hunt.

“Okay, we don’t have much time for a plan this time.” Sapnap started to brainstorm. 

“We’ll catch up with him in an hour, so we should probably just keep the plan simple. Do you know where we will probably catch up with him?” He asked Antfrost who hesitated before answering.

“I don’t think we’ll catch up with him at any particular place.” Antforst said. “This close to the coast there are no big forests or anything and the closest farm is at least 2 more hours away.”

“Okay, so at least we have the terrain going for us. He won’t be able to hide from George’s bow here. Let’s do it like this, George stays a bit behind with his bow while we surround him with our horses. Get off your horse as soon as you can and keep your horse behind you. If we keep our horses close together he won’t be able to leave. Even Dream isn’t stupid enough to walk behind a horse.” Sapnap decided. 

The others took their time to think over the plan. They were long over not criticizing plans because of someone’s pride. Instead  they learned that using their five brains together worked out best.

“It’s not a bad plan…” George started 

“However just having you in front of Dream might not be enough Sapnap. Ant, Bad and Sam aren’t bad fighters, but they are absolutely no match for Dream. Only you and me can take him, and even then we need to fight him two on one. How about, Ant takes my spot, he’s a good archerer as well and that way we can fight him two on one.” George suggested. 

“If you are more comfortable that way, let’s do it that way. Do you all agree?” Sapnap asked and the others nodded. 

“Let’s catch this motherfucker”

Chapter Text

Sam was restless. He didn’t know what to do. 2 days ago his Lord had told him that he was going to the King’s castle but since then a lot of things had happened. That same day, just after sunset, a message had come from the King, summoning his Lord immediately. This puzzled Sam because his Lord was already supposed to be there. Not to mention the rumors he was hearing around his Lord’s castle. The staff was whispering about the King’s second son’s death and how he was murdered by a masked killer. Of course Sam had asked the messenger about this and he had told Sam that the rumors were true. The King’s son was murdered by a masked man in a green hood. Ever since he heard that Sam has had a knot in his stomach. For a full day and night he had anxiously waited outside the gate of his Lord’s castle, praying for his Lord’s return. But Lord Clay never returned. He also never asked for Sam to come to the King’s castle. Sam hadn’t known what to do but in the end decided to travel to the castle and add himself to the waiting squires outside the throne room. All the King’s Lords were inside the throne room but squires and pages weren’t allowed to enter so like usually, they were waiting together outside the doors. And that’s where Sam was standing right now, between his friends Badboyhalo and Antfrost. He hadn’t told them that his Lord was not inside the throne room. That his Lord has been missing the past three days. He didn’t want to think about what that could mean, but at the same time he felt it was his duty to report his thoughts to the King. Again and again he played the scene of his Lord leaving in his head, like he was missing a detail, until suddenly he realized he did. Without a word he stepped forward towards the throne room and, after gathering all the courage he had, knocked on the door. All the squires were staring at him because he was so blatantly breaking the rules. Bad even whispered for him to get back but he ignored it. When a guard opened the door, Sam looked around the room real quick. He still had hope that he would see his Lord standing between the other Lords in the room but his Lord wasn’t there. His Lord was the only Lord not there, the gap between Lord George and Lord Sapnap feeling like an endless void. This gave him the last bit of courage that he needed and after taking a big breath he said in a loud voice.

“I have information about the masked killer.” 

Anyone who had been whispering fell silent before the King beckoned him forward. The door closed behind him while he walked towards the King and kneeled in front of him. 

“Who are you?” The King asked

“I am Lord Clay’s squire. My name is Sam, my King.” Sam answered and the impact his answer had was immense. The Lords started muttering between themselves, asking what had happened to their fellow Lord. Most thought that maybe Lord Clay was also killed by the masked killer but others felt like the story was about to take a new turn. 

“What do you know, squire Sam.” the King asked, staring at the kneeling squire in front of him. Sam took a big breath and started his explanation. 

“Two days ago my Lord told me he was going to the castle. He didn’t take me with him but besides that there was nothing out of the ordinary. However in the evening a messenger brought a summoning message for my Lord. I was confused because I thought my Lord was already at my King’s castle.” Sam explained in a monotone voice. 

“At the same time the rumors came about the second prince’s untimely demise and the appearance of the masked killer. I waited all night and day for my Lord to come home but he never did. I didn’t want to think about what that implied so instead I traveled to my King’s castle on my own, in the hope of seeing my Lord there. However, on my way here I suddenly remembered a detail about my Lord’s departure. He was wearing a green shirt with the hood down. On the back of his neck there was something round and white, half hidden under his shirt. After he put on his green hood it was no longer visible. Now that I am here and my Lord is not, I think I know what that was.” Sam said and a deadly silence rested in the throne room.

Slowly but surely the implications of what the squire just told the King were starting to become clear. A squire just accused his own Lord of high treasoning. The King slowly stood up to look around the room. His eyes stopped at the empty spot between Lord George and Lord Sapnap.

“Bring me the dagger that killed my son” The King said suddenly, making a few lords and the lonely squire flinch from the sudden sound. A butler returned not long after with the dagger and the King studied it deeply until he dropped the dagger on the ground, like it had become too hot to touch. The Lords closest to their King and Sam could see the dagger and knew why the King had dropped it. All Lords received a gift from the King when they became a Lord. Lord Clay’s gift had been a golden ceremonial dagger with emeralds decorating the handle. Between the handle there were two weapon crests. The crest of the King, and the crest of Lord Clay. There was no doubting who the dagger belonged to and that in combination with Sam’s knowledge concluded only one thing. Lord Clay had betrayed his King and killed the second son. The King took a big breath after coming to the same conclusion.

“I hereby revoke Clay’s Lordship and declare him enemy number one on suspicion of high treason and murder. Hereby we shall use the name he called himself during his despicable deed, Dream, so as to not further dirty the name of his respectable father.” The King declared. The Lords stayed silent. Nobody had expected the liked and respected young Lord to betray the King. 

George and Sapnap looked at each other. George’s eyes brimming with tears, Sapnap’s eyes brimming with anger. They nodded at each other before coming forward together and kneeling in front of the King.

“My King,” Sapnap started.

“Please allow Lord George and me to start the hunt on Dream. Even though we didn’t know Clay as well as we thought we did, we still know him best. We’ll catch him.” 

The determination in the two young Lords was clear and the king easily agreed to their request. 

“You may lay down your daily duties as Lords in order to catch the traitor. On the condition that one of you takes his former squire as your second squire. You’ll need his insight on your hunt.” The King answered

“Yes my King” the two young Lords answered.

After that different Lords received different orders but George and Sapnap were no longer in the throne room. Instead they had taken Sam and their own squires out of the King’s castle to prepare to hunt their former best friend. 

Dream knew that they were coming, that they were close and that he was not going to make it to Port Portis before they caught up. After swearing a bit at himself for not moving faster he prepared himself for his second confrontation with his hunters since escaping Pandora's Vault. Honestly he wasn't really sure what to do. While he had some camping supplies, he still had nothing to fight with. That's the reason why he had wanted to reach Port Portis before they caught up in the first place, but it was too late for that. His dagger and hunting bow were not going to be of any use against 5 fully armored warriors. Nor could he outrun the horses, especially here with no forest or village to dodge and hide. This didn’t mean he was going to give up though. He couldn't lose even more time by getting captured again. Nor did he know if he could escape this time but he rather not think about that. At least he had not yet seen his own death so he still had some power over his own life. 

Since the hunters catching up was inevitable anyway, he decided to go back to the main road and at least get as close to Port Portis as possible. On the main road he upped his pace a bit, trying not to lose too much energy but also trying to get as close to Port Portis as possible. At least it was a lot less exhausting to walk on the road instead of through the fields. Thinking of any escape plan on the other hand, was nearly impossible. In the end he could only think of one thing that could help him out, stealing one of the horses. But even that was a lot easier said than done. Stealing a horse of a fully geared warrior is like trying to grab a treat from a dog, not impossible but close to a suicide mission. However, the past 2 years had been one big suicide mission so it wasn’t really any different from normal. Heck, he was pretty much used to it at this point. The plan wasn’t a real plan, but at least he had an idea of what to do, which makes improvising a whole lot easier. 

“There he is!” Dream heard somebody say behind him. Alerting him that the time had come. He checked behind him just to be sure but it was really them, galloping towards him. His first instinct was to run, so he did. He knew he couldn’t outrun them but it was a good way to start up the adrenaline. 

“I will get in front of him!” Sapnap said and a second later Dream’s path was blocked by a horse. 

Dream tried to get around the horse going left, but it was too late. A few seconds later he was completely surrounded. He grabbed the dagger he had and looked around at the horses. 

“Everyone get off.”  Sapnap ordered. 

All the hunters got off their horses. Dream noticed that he was only surrounded by four people but he couldn’t turn around to look for the fifth hunter since Sapnap and George were in front of him. Behind his mask he was scanning around him as much as possible but he still wasn’t sure who was behind him. 

“Just give up right now, Dream. You’re surrounded and you have nothing to defend yourself with.” George said with a sigh. Even after 2 years he didn’t enjoy seeing his friend like this. Dream looked at George, then to Sapnap, then back to George and relaxed.

“Can’t you just leave me alone?!” Dream answered George, looking straight at him. 

“You are a fucking wanted criminal. You murdered the King’s son, you betrayed him and after you just went on killing. Of course we can’t leave you alone.” Sapnap ranted in George’s place, making Dream turn to him. Even though Sapnap’s words were true, it still hurt Dream to hear them outloud. He couldn’t wait to explain to his friends why he did what he did, but he knew he had to wait a bit longer to explain to them. Instead he dropped his dagger and put his hands up, seemingly giving up. 

“I know when I’m outplayed.” Was the only reaction Dream gave on Sapnap’s rant. He could see the hurt in Sapnap’s eyes at the lack of reaction but Dream decided to ignore that. 

“Bad, bind his arms together” George told Bad and Dream immediately turned around towards where he thought Bad would most likely be. While to the hunters it looked like he was scared or even trying to get away, for Dream this was very tactical. By facing Bad there was a much higher chance of his hands being bound in front of him instead of behind him. However it did mean that he had Sapnap and George behind him and it only took a second for Sapnap to take advantage of that. Suddenly there was a sword pushing on his neck, making sure he couldn’t escape in the time it took Bad to grab the rope to bind Dream’s hands.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Sapnap grumbled in his ears.

“Wasn’t going to, like I said I know when I’m outplayed” Dream just answered, staying completely still. However, he did use this opportunity to scan what had been behind him all this time. Finally he found the last hunter a few meters behind Bad, aiming a loaded bow at him. He knew this was going to make his escape plan a whole lot harder. Not that he had had a lot of opportunities to steal a horse so far, but he hadn’t given up yet. 

“Arms.” Bad said after grabbing the rope and Dream just did as he said and held out his arms. After that Sapnap relaxed his hold a bit and Sam, on his right, loosened the grip on his horse a bit, something Dream caught in the corner of his time. Sensing that this was most likely the only chance he would get to escape Dream started to talk again.

“Ya-know, I do have a rea-”

In the middle of his sentence Dream suddenly crouched and kicked Sapnap’s feet out from under him. Bad, George and Sam immediately closed into Dream but rolled away under Bad’s and Sam’s arms, grabbed Sam’s horse and jumped on. His hands were still bound together and he had lost his dagger but he didn’t need his hands to ride a horse. He just gave the horse the spores and galloped away.

But he wasn’t fast enough. Ant was a good shot, nearly as good as George and as soon as Dream had gotten on the horse, he had released his arrow towards the criminal and the shot had been good. 

“FUCK” you could hear through the plains when the arrow hit Dream straight in his shoulder. However, it did not stop Dream from galloping away.

His shoulder should probably be hurting like hell but the adrenaline wasn’t letting it. Instead he just kept on riding and riding and riding as fast as the horse could carry him. He didn’t give himself time to check what supplies the horse was carrying or even stop to unbind his hands. He didn’t know how far the hunters were behind him but he could only imagine it wasn’t that far. He just rode all the way to Port Portis as fast as his horse could carry him. It only took him 3 hours to get there, that’s how close he had been. When he arrived he gave himself a second to look behind him and when the hunters were not there he quickly got off the horse and checked through the supplies it was carrying. He knew he had almost no time so when he saw a small iron reserve sword he took it and cut himself free. Just when he went to look for more he heard the distinct sounds of horses galloping in the distance so he decided against it and abandoned the horse and ran away, the arrow still sticking out of his shoulder. By now his shoulder was hurting a lot so he knew he would have to put his first plan on hold to first find either a healer or a brewery. Honestly the one that would take a fox’s pelt as payment would have to do. At least the sun had set already so hiding in Port Portis wouldn’t be too hard. So he walked around the port, looking for a place that could treat his shoulder. Luckily sailors get injured quite often so Port Portis had multiple healers and breweries, some looking better than others. In the end Dream decided on one of the more shady breweries, pretty sure that they would take a fox’s pelt for a healing potion. 

“Come in, come in” the owner said as soon as he heard the little bell at the door.

“Hello, I need a healing potion.” Dream told the owner as soon as he was inside the dark brewery. 

“I can see that.” the owner replied after seeing the obvious arrow in Dream’s shoulder.

“You’ll probably need more than one if you don’t take that arrow out soon.” he continued.

“I’ll take it out soon, I can’t use the bloodloss right now.” Dream said shortly and the alchemist nodded.

“While, what do you have to offer in return for the health potion, Dream. You are a criminal, you must have some valuables in that bag of yours.” 

Dream carefully removed the bag from his back, trying to both not touch the arrow or move his shoulder too much. 

“I have a fox’s pelt for the potion. Nothing more.” 

“Well, I guess that will have to do then.” The alchemist muttered disappointed but grabbed a healing potion from the shelf. 

“Thank you” Dream said before taking the potion, ripping out the arrow at once and drinking the potion immediately. The alchemist was shocked by this, most people would at least test to see if the potion they got was a real healing potion and not something else but it seemed like this particular client didn’t care. 

“Not very strong but will do” Dream muttered to himself, making the alchemist even more surprised because usually people couldn’t tell the difference in strength when drinking healing potions. However he didn’t show his surprise to the criminal. Instead he took the fox’s pelt and asked no further questions. He had learned long ago that asking no questions was the safest way. 

Dream left the brewery without another word and made his way towards the actual port, looking for a ship that would take him north with just his labor as a payment. His shoulder would be hurting for a while but the healing potion had taken care of the bleeding and any infections that he could have gotten so he felt like he could offer labor for a ride. And he was right, a ship with only 3 other sailors could use all the help they could get, no matter if the help was offered by a criminal or not. The small ship was a trade ship that usually only sailed between Port Portis in the south and Port North in the north. They had been behind on schedule and only managed to leave just on time before the tide would no longer let them. As they left Port Portis Dream saw the black finders standing at shore, staring at him. He couldn’t help himself but wave. 

“FOLLOW HIM” George shouted and everyone got back on their horses. Only then they realized that Dream had taken a horse meaning they suddenly missed one. 

“You guys go ahead, I will get on the horse with Ant!” Sam said and the others only nodded before galloping after Dream. Antfrost was still trying to shoot Dream from his horse but it was no use, hitting a single target on a horse was nearly impossible. The others tried to follow Dream as fast as possible but he had gotten quite a lead on them in the time it took them to get on their horses. 

“HOW DAFUQ DID HE GET AWAY” Sapnap yelled but everyone knew he was mostly mad at himself for letting Dream slip through his fingers.
“It’s like he freaking knew we were coming” George said while sporing his horse on to go even faster. 

“We need to get to him before dark, if he’s in Port Portis after sunset we will lose him for sure!” 

The other 2 agreed and the three of them raced after Dream but they knew it was going to be hard to catch up. Especially since Antforst and Sam were still quite a bit behind. They also couldn’t go as fast as the other hunters because the horse was carrying twice the load he was used to. 

However, their efforts were in vain. When they reached Port Portis, only Sam’s horse was left and Dream was nowhere to be found. George, Sapnap and Bad got off their horses and grabbed Sam’s horse for him. 

“He can’t be far away.” Bad concluded after checking the horse's supplies. 

“He only took Sam’s reserve sword, nothing else. He could have gotten like 100 coins and actual armor. I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have taken that if he had had the time to grab it.” 

“Okay, do we wait for Ant and Sam or do we start searching now?” George asked but Sapnap already shook his head.

“Even if he was here just a few minutes ago, who knows where he went. Port Portis might be a small port city, but it is still a city. There are too many places for him to hide. We need all 5 of us and we need to make a good plan to search the city.” 

“Well, we can start by just warning the city and port guards. That will help us a lot.” Bad offered.

“I will do that, you two wait here for Ant and Sam. You can come towards the city guard tower after they have arrived.” George decided and he gave the reins of his horse to Bad before walking towards the guard tower. 

“I think we should look through the healers and breweries.” Sapnap thought out loud.

“Antfrost hit him for sure so he will need some medical help.” 

“Well, that’s a start for sure. I guess after we keep an eye on the port after, if we can’t find him there. Big chance he will try to escape by sailing away.” Bad replied and Sapnap nodded.

“I guess we have another plan again. Let’s hope that we finally have some luck with our plans.” he sighed and Bad sighed too.

“ I think you just cursed it ” he whispered.

Around 15 minutes later Antfrost and Sam also arrived at Port Portis but unlike what they had hoped. Sapnap and Bad were standing waiting for them, without Dream. They got off the horse as well and Sam grabbed his own horse to look after it. 

“Well, at least I have my horse back” he said to no one in particular. 

“Where is my Lord?” Antfrost asked after not spotting George anywhere.

“He’s at the city’s guard tower. We said to meet him there after you guys arrived. We lost Dream and didn’t see where he went so we will need the guard’s help to comb through the city.” Sapnap explained before leading the group towards the guard tower where George was already waiting outside.

“The guards are helping us. Anyone any idea on where to start searching?” he asked when he saw the others coming.

“Mhm, let’s start with the breweries and healers cuz Antfrost hit a master shot.” Sapnap replied and the others nodded.

They searched the whole evening for the masked criminal but with no luck. It was dark so hiding in a city wasn’t difficult. Especially not for Dream who knew exactly how to hide effectively. Long after dark the hunters decided to give up looking for now and instead keep an eye on the always busy port. The guards did dutifully continue their search but the hunters already knew it was most likely futile. Port Portis’ port wasn’t that big but sufficient for the small city. Most of the trade with Port Portis went either north or south but stayed within the Kingdom. Of course there was some trade with other countries, however usually traders from outside used the biggest port of the country, port Willow, just a bit further south. The hunters stayed on watch at the port for about an hour before it finally happened. 

“THERE, THERE HE IS!” George yelled, pointing at the only ship that was sailing away at the moment.

“GET ON A SHIP, FAST” Sapnap yelled as well but it was already too late. When the asked a sailor to set sail he told them that the tide was too low and that they would have to wait for the tide to rise again. Dream had sailed off at the exact right moment for the hunters to not be able to follow him. The hunters could do nothing but watch him wave them goodbye.

Chapter Text

He had made some major miscalculations while running away from the King’s castle. The first three days had been fine. He had camped in the King’s forest for the day before fleeing east into the most densely forested part of the Kingdom. He had prepared well and thus for the first week he didn’t have to worry about food or anything else. However, his first major miscalculation had come on the third day. Around midday he saw that his lordship would be revoked. It had come as a shock because even though it had been his plan to be found out, he had expected it to take at least a week before people would actually be suspicious of him, not mere days. It was inconvenient, but not too much. He would just have to move a bit further from the castle and maybe start his plans earlier.

But that’s where the second major miscalculation had come in. He had not realized just how many people had spotted him and just how easily his trail would have been found. By non other than this third miscalculation. He had never expected his former best friends and his squire to be the one hunting him. He had expected some of the best warriors in the land, of course. But for some reason he had thought that his best friends would find it too difficult to go after him. A major miscalculation, which was hurting his plans big time right now.

“WE GOT HIM, WE GOT HIM” He heard someone, Bad his mind provided, yell behind him. And that’s where his last miscalculation came in. He had run into a cave. A cave with no other paths but the small entrance through which he had come. To say it simply, he was screwed. The hunters walked into the cave as well and within seconds he was surrounded. From behind his mask he looked at his former friends. Even in the little light there was in the cave he could see the sadness in their eyes. He hated to be the reason for that but he knew he had no choice.

“Through the power bestowed upon us by the King. You, Dream, are hereby arrest on suspicion of high treason and murder.” Sapnap said in a monotone voice to his former best friends.

“Drop your weapons”  George added when Dream didn’t say anything and Dream knew he had no choice. He dropped his weapons only for his own squire to come forward and bind his hands together. 

“Didn’t expect you here” Dream said to Sam while Sam was leading him out of the cave but Sam didn’t react. He instead just kept looking forward.

“We didn’t expect our best friend to be a TRAITOR” Sapnap spat at Dream when he overheard Dream. Dream didn’t say anything back so Sapnap just took a big breath and instead started giving commands.  

“It’s too late to start heading back so let’s set up camp. Sam, bind his hands behind his back and bind him to a tree. Ant start a fire and start on dinner, Bad look after the horses. George and I will set up the tents.” 

Sam roughly grabbed Dream by his bound arms and without relaxing his grip at any point rebound Dream’s hands behind him before leading him towards a tree and pushing him down.

“Sit.” He only said before putting a rope around Dream’s neck and binding him to the tree. 

“Why did you join them though?” Dream asked Sam but Sam just ignored him. 

“Wait, are you the reason everyone found out so quickly?” Dream asked after the awkward silence. 

“You were the only one who knew I went to the King’s castle… Woa I guess you really weren’t very loyal to me.” He continued. He knew it was a low blow because Sam had been very loyal to him but he just needed a reaction from his former friends. The lack of comments was worse than the hurtful comments he had expected. At least he got what he hoped for.

“DON’T talk about loyalty to Him. You don’t deserve it.” Sapnap yelled before walking towards Dream and tearing his mask af.

“I bet you you can’t even look him in the eyes while saying that. Instead you just keep hiding behind the stupid mask.” He continued but Dream just looked him straight in his eyes. The others had all come closer as well with George standing next to Sapnap in front of Dream. 

“WHY DID YOU DO IT. WHY!” Sapnap shouted at his face but everyone could hear the tears through the shouting. Dream could too but decided to ignore it and instead just shrugged his shoulders.

“I felt like i-” He tried to say but before he finished George had punched him in his face. With his arms bound behind him Dream could do nothing but take the punch. It took him completely by surprise too because while he was a bit prepared for Sapnap to punch him, he never expected George to do so. 

“Just shut the fuck up.” George added before leaving Dream with a bloody nose and going back to setting up camp. All the others but Bad followed him. Bad instead grabbed a first aid kit and cleaned up some of the blood before putting something in Dream’s nose to stop the bleeding. He also checked if Dream had broken his nose but luckily for him, he hadn’t. 

“Thank you” Dream whispered before looking down.

“Just know that I do this out of respect for Lord Clay, not because of this Dream character you have become.” Bad said and walked away from the criminal to help his friends. A few minutes later Sam sat down next to Dream but didn’t say anything. Dream turned his face towards his former squire and saw the pain in his face. 

“I’m sorry, that was a low blow. I never doubted your loyalty, only my own.” Dream whispered towards his former squire. Sam said nothing back but the tears were running down his face. 

Dream had listened to George and kept quiet after the punch to the face. The bleeding luckily stopped fast but he would have a blue eye for a while. At dinner Sam had been the one to feed him some food and Antfrost had given him a blanket when it started getting cold. He knew they were being way nicer to him than they normally were to criminals. Only Sapnap and George had really ignored his existence after the confrontation, however it had been George that told Sam to give him food and Sapnap that had told Ant to give him a blanket. Right now they were all getting ready for the night. Bad had been assigned to take the first watch so the others all went to lay down in their tents. Everyone but Sam, who hadn’t moved from his place next to Dream. Nobody was saying anything but everyone knew nobody was sleeping.

“I’m not sorry for what I did. In a few years, it will all make sense.” Dream said quietly but loud enough for everyone to hear. 

Even though his shoulder was hurting, Dream dutifully helped out on the ship to pay for his ride. The sailors at first had been annoyed at him never taking off his mask but everyone had gotten used to it after some time. Dream and the three sailors actually got along really well. Of course they knew they had a wanted criminal on their ship but the captain had simply taken all Dream’s stuff and put him to work. And Dream simply did as he was told and did not cause any ruckus so everyone was feeling relaxed with the addition. It had gotten to the point that in the evenings they were even playing games together and talking about anything and nothing. Just like right now. The sea was calm and the wind was blowing the right way so besides checking if the wind had changed direction, they didn’t have to do a lot. Dream had been scrubbing the deck all day long so he had taken his shirt off and was resting next to one of the other sailors. 

“So you take off your shirt, but not your mask. You are actually insane” The sailor, Ponk, joked as a conversation started.

“Well, I’m sweating on my back, not behind my mask!” Dream joked back. He had taken a liking to the young and happy sailor. He was pretty sure that the guy could become a good page if he wanted to. He had almost offered him the job before he was reminded again that he was no longer a lord and thus could not offer him a job like that. 

“That actually does make sense!” Ponk laughed. After a bit he got quiet and Dream was just chilling until Ponk spoke up again. 

“Dream, can I ask you something?” 

“You can, can’t promise I’ll answer though.” Dream answered sleepily. 

“Where are you going? You are a wanted criminal, why not just leave the country?” Ponk asked while sitting up, looking at the criminal next to him.

“I’m looking for someone and they are rumored to be living in the north mountains. I know the rumors say otherwise, and I did that on purpose, but everything I’ve done so far, I’ve done with a reason.” Dream told the guy after thinking about his answer for a bit. 

“Hmm… that makes sense I guess.” Ponk answered before lying down again. 

“To be honest I was very mad at you when I first heard the news. The King is so nice to us all so I just didn’t understand. Well, I guess I still don’t understand but you must have had a good reason.” he continued

“You should be mad at me. I did something horrible and I’m not proud of it. But it will all make sense. Soon. As soon as I find the person I’m looking for.” Dream just said sadly. 

“Okay, then I will be mad at you. Until you personally come explain everything to me, deal?”

“Deal.” 

“Can I ask you another question?” Ponk continued after a few minutes of silence.

“Same rules apply” Dream replied with his eyes closed behind his mask.

“Why do you wear the mask?” Ponk asked, making Dream open his eyes to think over his answer. 

“You want a philosophical answer or a tactical answer?” Dream replied to the question with a question. 

“Both” Ponk said immediately so Dream thought a bit before answering.

“Well, tactically, due to the way the mask is made, you can’t see where I’m looking so it’s easier for me to surprise people when I attack them because people don’t know what I am planning on doing. philosophically I guess I wear the mask to separate Dream from Clay.” 

Ponk thought about this answer for a bit before nodding.

“I understand… Well, I hope you can take off your mask soon, Dream, and become Clay again!” he said, optimistic as always. 

“So do I…” Dream muttered back before drifting off into his thoughts. 

He had enjoyed the times on the ship. He knew there was only a few days left but it was good to live as a normal person for a bit, even if he was still wearing his mask. On top of that, for the first time since that day 2 years ago, he felt like he had made friends again. The past 2 years had been extremely lonely for him so the last few days had been a very welcome chance. Secretly he wished this time wouldn’t come to end but he knew that as soon as they made landfall in Port North he would go back to being a fugitive criminal. He wouldn’t have to run and hide as much as the past 2 weeks because the hunters were quite a bit behind him now, but if he learned anything over the past 2 years it was to always be careful. He was so tired of always being hunted and always being alone but if everything went as planned, this would all be over in a few more weeks. If all went as planned. His little side quest to Pandora’s Vault had really screwed with his plans. The hunters had caught him in the East Mountains when he was on his way to the North Mountains because he had been too focussed on searching. It was such a stupid mistake that cost him so much. They had taken all the magical items he had collected over the year so now he had to collect them all again. However, last time he still had time to collect everything, this time the time was against him. The longer he took finding the person he was looking for, the stronger the dark magic would grow. He could feel in every fiber of his being that the big confrontation was coming closer and closer. When he murdered the second son, there hadn’t been any dark magic wielders but over the past two years, dark magic wielders had grown in numbers faster than Dream could kill them. The only thing he could do was hope that the legend he was looking for was a myth rather than a legend and that together they could save the Kingdom from what was to come. Because that had been his reason for all this, saving the Kingdom for what was to come. 

It had taken the hunters an hour to calm Sapnap down after they had seen Dream sail away. On top of that they couldn’t follow him until the next day. At least the chief guard knew the ship and could tell him that it was a small honest trader ship that traded between Port Portis and Port North. Thus the black finders had taken the earliest ship with the same destination and were sailing it right now. Sailing from Port Portis to Port North took around a week and a half on average. It had been a smart move from Dream to travel north by sea instead of by land because by horse from l’Manburg city to the mountains in the North took around a month, let alone by foot. George had asked the captain of the ship if they could row while sailing in the wind to try and catch the small ship Dream had taken but the captain had explained that while he could definitely do that, the other ship had a way too big lead for them to ever catch it. Especially because the small ship would either way be faster than the big one they were sailing on and George had nodded disappointed. 

“I guess you were right Lord”  Bad muttered while looking at the chart in front of them. They would make landfall somewhere in the next few days so the hunters had stopped relaxing on the ship and gone back to planning their next step in hunting the masked criminal. 

“He probably wanted to go to the mountains after all.”  

“He seems to be in a hurry of sorts. It’s not like Dream to go straight to his goal, usually he lays traps and whatever for us on the way. What do you think is making him hurry so suddenly?” Sapnap said while nodding. 

“The last few weeks before we caught him, he had also been in the mountains, just the east ones. We went through almost the full mountain chain before we caught him. He must be looking for something in the mountains.” George said thoughtfully. 

“Well, the mountains have the most magic, maybe he’s just going back to recollect all the magic items he lost when we caught him. He must have collected them with a reason.” Antfrost reasoned and the others nodded again. 

“Either way, if he’s going into the mountains, it’s going to be a pain finding him.” Sam sighted and the others joined him. They had to leave their horses behind in Port Portis so all the hunting would have to be done on foot and nobody was really looking forward to that. All they could do was hope that they would catch the killer off guard like they had last time. 

“If only we knew what was going on inside that strange head…” Sapnap muttered to himself. 

“Maybe there is nothing going on in his head but he instead got infested by dark magic. I heard rumors of a rising number of dark magic infections.” Bad suggested but it was Sam who shook his head immediately. 

“Dream can’t be infested with black magic. His mother was a mage so he has light magic flowing through his veins.” Sam explained, making the others look up suddenly. 

“Lady Laeticia was a mage?” George asked surprised.

“Wait, you don’t know?” Sam asked just as surprised and all the others shook their heads. 

“I thought everyone knew… Well, Lady Laeticia was a mage but Lord Clay the Wise was not so Dream cannot be a mage. Mages are as rare as they are because only full blood mages can do magic. However, Lord Clay is a half mage so that’s why he is more perceptible to magic and magic items. And that’s why he can never be infested with dark magic.” Sam explained, he didn’t even realize he had been talking about Dream as he was still his Lord but the others didn’t have the heart to correct him. 

“He doesn’t have any other advantages because of that right??” George asked immediately but Sam shook his head.

“Not that I know at least.” 

“How did I not know…” George muttered to himself and Sapnap was thinking the exact same thing.

“Anything else about Dream that we didn’t know but that you failed to mention so far?” Sapnap asked Sam. He wasn’t really mad at Sam but Sam did realize that he wasn’t really joking either.

“Eeh… Not really” Sam decided on, not voicing his concerns about Dream maybe being able to see the future. Mostly because that clashed with the explanation he just gave. Only mage can see the future and even then it was the least common talent out there. Sapnap looked at Sam a bit suspicious because of that answer but decided to drop it. He knew that Sam really did want to catch Dream as well so he had no reason to withhold anything from him. 

“I guess it does settle it though” Bad chimed in. “He’s most definitely going to the mountains.”

Chapter Text

You can’t win every battle. Even if you were seen as the best warrior under the King, you can’t win every battle. And this battle Dream had lost. Admittedly, he had been under geared compared to his hunters and he was fighting alone vs four ground fighters and one archer. The hunters had been on his tail for a while and east, above the Willow river there wasn’t a lot of forest to hide in. He had been traveling to the mountain plateau in the North East corner of the Kingdom. The plateau was rumored to have a lot of magic and after Dream encountered his first dark magic wielder, he knew he was going to need some extra magic. He had had to kill the dark magic wielder because he didn’t know what else to do and dark magic was like an infectious disease as long as you had no light magic to fight it with. Sadly enough this also meant that his former friends now thought he hadn’t just killed the King’s son, but also started killing random innocent people. He couldn’t really do anything about that either, you only know if someone is a dark magic wielder when they are alive. However, It meant that his hunters hadn’t been nearly as nice to him this time. They had hunted him with a lot more vigor and because of the location he hadn’t been able to hide anywhere or out run them. So it had come to a fight in the middle of the road. Dream had been geared and ready to fight but Sapnap and George had gotten netherrite gear from the King and Dream’s diamond gear was no match for that. So after a long and exhausting fight Dream had had no choice but to give up. George had broken his shield and Sapnap had disarmed him but the real final nail in the coffin had been Antforst by hitting the back of his knee with an arrow, making it impossible for him to walk or even stand. So he had let himself fall to the ground and immediately Sapnap had jumped on his back and bound his hand behind him before ripping the mask of his face. 

“You are a-rested for- murder” Sapnap panted and the others lowered their weapons too. Everyone was exhausted so they just decided to set up camp where they were. There were no trees around so they just bound Dream’s arms and legs together so he couldn’t go anywhere. George did look after his knee though. He even gave him a healing potion so there wouldn’t be any permanent damage. 

“That was a fantastic shot, Ant” George complimented while performing the first aid. 

“He couldn’t move his leg at all after that.” 

“Thank you, I was afraid he would never give up if I hadn’t hit that” Ant answered. 

“I wouldn’t have” Dream replied angrily but everyone simply ignored him. He was not angry at Ant for shooting him though. Just angry that he had been caught so close to his goal. It would take weeks to go back ‘l Manburg city, escape prison again and go back to the plateau again. He would probably have to give up his plan of going to the plateau all together because of his hunters. He could only hope that it wouldn’t hurt his plan in the long run. 

“Thanks for the ride everyone” Dream said to the sailor crew before leaving the ship and going on his way. They had arrived at the port an hour ago and he had helped them get their trade supplies on shore before asking the captain for his own stuff back. Of course the captain had given them without any trouble and now it was time to go. He waved one more time to the young sailor he had grown close to before turning his back and deciding on what to do next. He was going to need new clothes and extra gear if he wanted to survive searching through the mountains but he didn’t have any money and didn’t feel like robbing the small port. So instead he left the Port City to hunt. He still had some arrows left so he could hunt around 2 or 3 small animals and trade those for some real money. He knew that he had at least a few hours head start on his hunters so he could take his time to prepare to go to the mountains. From Porth North it would take him another day to get in the mountains and from there on out he could finally start his search again. Besides looking for the person he really needed to find he was also planning on collecting as many magic items as possible. 

Magic attracts magic so due to the natural magic in the mountains, a lot of magical items ended up there. Golden apples and blaze rods grew there naturally while ender pearls you could find in mountain creeks and springs. Glowstone was only found in mountain caves and even glistering melons and golden carrots were a lot more common in the mountains than outside them even though they could be grown by just about everyone. Dream knew he needed all those items to make a chance against the dark magic and thus had been collecting them for a while. However, after the hunters had taken it all so he could only hope that he would find a lot on his way to the rumored location of the legendary person or that the legendary person had a lot of the items in stock. 

After hunting (2 foxes and 3 rabbits, he suspected that wild was a lot less skittish here because the local population mostly ate fish) he went back to Port North to find the best place to sell his yield. He found a butcher that was willing to skin the animals and only buy the meat for a respectable price. The skins he sold to a leatherworker not that far away and suddenly he had real money and could actually buy some supplies that were needed in the mountains. Meat was worth a lot more than he had expected so he could actually buy pretty good supplies. He didn’t need a new sword or a different bow so instead he bought some extra arrows, leather armor and a small shield. He had to make sure he didn’t take too much with him because every thing he bought he would have to carry up the mountains. Lastly he bought an iron pickaxe, traded his tent for a warm sleeping bag and bought some extra rope before he felt prepared enough to continue north east towards the Northern Mountains.

Finally they arrived at Port North. The sun was already setting so there was no way they could follow Dream today. But they could at least start tracking him down. The ship that had taken Dream was still in the port so that’s where the 5 hunters started their search. Sapnap led the group towards the ship and everyone got ready for a confrontation. Dream could still be there after all. 

“We demand to speak to the captain of this ship” Sapnap shouted as soon as they arrived and three sailors came out of the ship and one of them, assumably the captain, jumped ashore. 

“I’m the captain of this ship” the man said, nothing more and nothing less. 

It wasn’t unusual for sailors to be untrusting like that. Honestly Sapnap had never met a sailor that introduced himself with his name so he wasn’t surprised that this captain didn’t either.

“What is your name?” Sapnap asked, meeting the captain's rude attitude. 

“That’s none of your business, why are you here?” the captain asked in return. 

“It actually is my business. Tell me your name.” Sapnap demanded back and the captain knew that he could not keep up his act. Of course the captain had recognised the 5 hunters as the black finders and he knew exactly why they were there and what they wanted to know. He just didn’t feel like giving them that information, especially not for free. 

“Punz. Why are you here?” the captain answered shortly. 

Slowly but surely Sapnap was getting annoyed with the captain and George saw this too so he decided to take over the questioning before Sapnap would start swearing at the captain. 

“Just over a week ago we saw you sail away with the wanted criminal Dream on your ship. Helping a wanted criminal is a punishable offense. Did you help Dream?” George asked after stepping forward. Punz focussed his attention on George and answered.

“No. He threatened us into sailing him to Port North.” Punz answered with a straight face. 

Ponk, who had been listening from the ship, was surprised by just how easily his captain lied about something like that. He looked the exact same as when he told the truth. However, he knew that the hunters would probably question him and purpled as well so he made sure the hunters didn’t notice him while he listened to the conversation happening on the docks. Next to him, Purpled was doing the same. 

“How did 1 person threaten a full crew?” Sapnap asked suspiciously. Punz focussed back on Sapnap and looked him straight in the eyes while answering. 

“We are a crew of three. None of us are fighters.” 

It was another lie. Purpled was a fighter and he could have probably even won from Dream seeing as Dream was injured and barely had any gear. However they hadn’t wanted to fight the criminal. Dream had given them a fair deal and like most sailors, they didn’t care about the background of the people they hired. 

“Are you sure I won’t find more than 2 people on your ship?” Sapnap continued and Punz answered with a clear yes.

“Are you sure they will tell us the same story?”

“Yes.” Punz answered again but when the hunters tried to go on the ship, he stopped them. 

“What are you doing? Who told you you can go on my ship?” Punz asked annoyed and George knew that he would have to step in again. 

“We don’t need permission to search your ship and that is exactly what we’ll do right now. We know that the chances of him still being here are small but we have to take every small chance if we ever want to catch him.” George explained calmly and Punz could do nothing but stand down and let them on. Bad and Sam questioned  Ponk and Purpled but they both gave the same answers as Punz. There was also no trace of Dream anywhere on the ship so they had to give up on the ship. 

“Captain Punz, do you know where he went?” Sapnap asked before the hunters left and Punz thought a bit about his answer before answering truthfully, feeling like he had helped the criminal enough.
“He went hunting in the morning and later came back to sell his yield. I don’t know where he went after, nor do I want to know.” The hunters just nodded at that information and left the sailors alone. Punz just shook his head at the hunters before going back towards his crew. He was honestly rooting for Dream instead of the hunters, Dream had been a whole lot nicer. 

“Well, I guess he went into the mountains so either way we won’t be able to follow him today” George concluded after the five hunters had asked around the small port city. The sun had set completely so they really couldn’t follow him. 

“Can we sleep in an inn tonight?” Antfrost asked his lord and George nodded. 

“I prefer to sleep in an inn as well and we can’t follow him anyway. Let’s make sure we start our hunt again tomorrow morning early though. It’s going to be a pain in the ass to follow him through the mountains.” 

“I think we should first stock up tomorrow so we are fully prepared to travel through the mountains. We don’t have the right gear right now.” Bad thought out loud while the five of them made their way to one of the better looking inns in the port city. 

“Yeah I agree, hunting him in the mountains is completely different from the plains. When we hunted him in the east mountains we had the right gear as well. I can’t imagine hunting him without proper mountain gear.” Sapnap answered and the others agreed. 

“Okay, let’s eat, sleep, stock up and hunt” George recapped when they arrived at the inn. The rest of the night they spent just chilling in the inn. Sometimes it was nice to pretend they were not hunting their former best friend and lord, but that they were instead just a group of friends traveling the country.

Chapter Text

Everything hurt. He was pretty sure he had broken at least a few ribs and one of his legs when he slipped and fell down a canyon but honestly those were the least of his worries. He had also hit his head and slowly the blackness in front of his eyes was getting bigger. 

"This is how I die" he thought to himself, laying there at the bottom of the canyon. "In the end I die a criminal and didn't even get to save the country I threw away my life for. What a waste" was the last he thought before everything went black. 

When he woke up he was sure he had died. That was the only logical explanation for the softness he felt around him and the white he saw above him. That was until a soft voice somewhere left of him started talking. 

"Welcome back to this world" the voice said softly and Dream tried to answer but words refused to form in his head. 

"Don't strain yourself." the voice said, seeing his troubles. "You had a big fall. If it wasn't for Fundy you would have been dead. Instead he and H brought you here. I've been looking after you since." 

"So ‘m no' dead?" Dream asked, slurring his words. 

"No of course not! You are in our village, San." the voice laughed. Dream thought about this for a bit but his head was hurting too much to think. 

"Head hur's. Sleep" Dream answered with difficulty before falling back asleep. 

When he woke up next, he was doing a lot better. He was definitely less confused. He slowly looked around him and realized he was sleeping in what looked like a healer's house. Based on the white sheets and collection of different potions and medicine. 

"How are you doing?" The voice from before asked. This time Dream could actually see who the voice was coming from, a blond woman carrying some bandages and a potion. 

"Who are you?" he asked while slowly sitting up. 

"Watch out, your ribs are not fully healed yet I think!" the woman said before answering his question.

"I am Nikki" 

Dream nodded at this information before wincing at his still hurting head. 

"Thank you for saving me, Nikki" Dream said earnestly and Nikki just smiled. 

"Didn't expect a wanted criminal to immediately thank me for just doing my job. You are rumored to be a ruthless killer, Dream." 

Dream cringed at that. Of course she knew who he was. He had been wearing his mask when he fell. 

"If you know who I am, why help me?" he asked. 

"It's our law that we help everyone stranded in the mountains. No matter who they are." Nikki answered simply and Dream thought that over. 

"Seriously, thank you. And thank you to the people that brought me here. I don't remember the names you told me. I would have been dead without you. If there is anything I can repay you with, just tell me." Dream said a bit. 

"Fundy and H, for now just stay here and rest. Your full recovery is payment enough" Nikki answered with a smile and Dream just shook his head. He knew he must have used up some of the healer's supplies. Dream was going to say that out loud but before he could, Nikki shushed him.  

"No really, don't worry about it. For now just rest. I will bring you another healing potion."  Dream decided to just listen to her. It was clear that she was not going to give in anyway. 

After 3 days Nikki finally allowed Dream to walk around and explore the village. However, instead of exploring the village, Dream went looking for the two guys who saved him at the bottom of the canyon. He found the two having a friendly duel at the town's square so he sat down to watch as to not interrupt them. However, a few minutes later the two spotted him and walked up to him.

"Hi, I see you made a good recovery!" Fundy said happily when he saw Dream outside the healer's house. 

"Nikki is incredible" H commented and Dream could only nod in agreement. 

"She is, but so are you two. Thank you so much for saving my life" Dream said and the two young guys blushed at the heartfelt thanks. 

"No problem! It's our law to do so!" Fundy answered but Dream shook his head. 

"Even so, I am a wanted criminal. Saving me can cost you your life but you did so anyway! How can I repay you?" Dream asked but both Fundy and H shrugged their shoulders. 

"Our village eldest says that every life is important, no matter what their background is." H explained, Fundy nodding along.

"Still, I want to repay you, Nikki and the whole village! I am strong and smart. There must be something I can help with as a repayment!" 

"Well, you are a good fighter right? You could give us some lessons!" Fundy said enthusiastically. Dream nodded and immediately got up to grab the sword H hold out for him. Dream had always enjoyed teaching people how to fight properly so he was happy he could do that once again. However the classes weren’t to last.

“DREAM” Nikki shouted from across the square, startling the three practicing guys in the process. Dream turned to Nikki who was storming over to the three of them. 

“I allowed you to WALK around the village, not FIGHT. You broke multiple ribs, a leg and you have a concussion. BED, NOW.”  She yelled at Dream and Dream immediately dropped the sword and held his hands up in defeat. 

“They should send out angry healers instead of hunters to catch me” he muttered under his breath while following Nikki back to the healer's hut like a child that just got scolded. The other two had overheard Dream’s muttering and were laughing uncontrollably until Nikki sent them a glare.

That’s how Dream spent a week in San. He would go out, help out the village wherever he could until Nikki would collect him and tell him he had to rest more. Only after a full week of staying in bed for at least 14 hours a day she told him that he was fully healed. This meant that Dream could finally go on with his search for magical items. Especially since he knew he had used up a big portion of the village’s health potion supplies so he had secretly brewed some with the ingredients that he had collected so far. He was planning on giving them to the village in the evening during the big party they were throwing for his recovery. He had protested against the party for a good part of the day but Nikki had told him that there was no way of stopping the village from throwing a party if they wanted to so Dream had just accepted that that’s the way it was going to be. 

So in the evening he went to the square together with Nikki. He was wearing his mask again because he felt more comfortable that way and luckily nobody cared about that. After eating from the feast that they had prepared, Dream sat down around the big campfire in the middle with Nikki, Fundy, H and the village eldest next to him.

“Thank you so much for saving my life and letting me stay here for a full week.” Dream told the village eldest when everyone was quietly staring into the flames. 

“I made something to make it up to you all.” he continued before grabbing his bag and carefully getting out all the healing potions and giving them to the village eldest. 

“You know how to brew potions??” Fundy asked before anyone could even thank Dream. Dream simply nodded in response. The village eldest looked at him for a second longer before commenting.

“You didn’t need to do this. Thank you very much.” she said out loud as a voice for the whole village before continuing in a volume that only Dream could hear.

“You are a mage.” she said, it wasn’t a question, it was an observation. Dream looked at the village eldest through his mask before subtly nodding. 

“Let’s talk in private” she continued before getting up and walking towards her home. Dream knew he had no choice but to follow her so he did. Inside the house the village eldest motioned for Dream to sit down so he did and a few minutes later the village eldest sat down herself and gave Dream some tea. 

“Take off your mask, I want to look you in the eyes.” She said and Dream hesitated for a moment before deciding it couldn’t hurt to just take off his mask. 

“I don’t think I introduced myself yet, my name is Puffy and just like you, I am a mage.” The village eldest started the conversation. 

“You know that every mage has their own talent. I can read emotions and I know when you lie to me. So tell me, what were you doing when you fell down into the canyon.” she continued. 

Dream hesitated for a while. He didn’t know if he wanted to answer or not. There was nobody besides his parents who knew he was a mage, but then again he had never met any other mage before. Maybe this mage could help him and help the Kingdom. He decided to not tell her everything, but enough that she could maybe help him.

“I- I am collecting magical items for a fight to save the Kingdom” Dream explained. Puffy looked at him a little longer and then nodded.
“If you want to save the Kingdom, you’ll need to find Technoblade.” She simply said but that sentence made Dream almost fall off his chair.
“Technoblade is real? I thought he was nothing more than a legend!” he exclaimed.

“Technoblade is a myth, not a legend and myths are always based on true stories. I’ve never met Technoblade himself but I do know the mage he lives with. If you find Philza, you will find Technoblade. And if you really do want to save the Kingdom, he will help you. If this is all just a self-fulfilling prophecy to clear your name, he will kill you. I know you weren’t telling the full truth, so ask yourself if it’s worth the risk finding him” Puffy explained. 

It was the answer Dream had been looking for all this time. The answer for the future that had been hunting him for almost two years. He knew that he had to find Technoblade no matter what.
“Where do I find him?” He asked.

“Philza lives in the North Mountains, close to the east plateau. Go there.” Puffy answered. Dream thanked the old mage, put his mask back on and went back to the party with a head full of thoughts. The next day, after leaving a message for the village, Dream left before the sun was up. 

Dream hated the mountains. For the past week he had been climbing and descending while following the only path through the mountains that took you all the way through the mountain chain. The north mountains ended where the east mountains started, at the mountain plateau in the furthest corner of the Kingdom. Once before since he was on the run he had tried to go there but he never reached it because the hunters had caught him before he could. He honestly didn’t really want to go there because while it was a magical place, it was not where the legendary warrior was rumored to be living. He was simply following the path to find as many mountain villages as possible in the hope one of them could point him to the mage Philza. So far the two villages he had visited could only tell him to go further east, so he did. It was exhausting and annoying but at least the mountains had been able to restore his magical item collection a bit. He had found a new enderpearl that he had carefully stored in the sew of his sleeve, ready for emergency use and he had found a golden apple tree so he had taken as many apples as his bag could carry. The only item that he really mourned over and could probably not find again was the ghast tear that he had lost by getting caught. Ghast tears were one of the rarest potion ingredients and nearly impossible to find. Ghast tears and ancient debris were only found in the heart of a mountain so you did not only need a very deep cave system, you also needed one that actually went to the heart of the mountain. Last time he hadn’t even found the ghast tear himself, he had traded his netherrite sword (one of the few items he had left of being a lord) for it. So effectively he had lost both. He was absolutely still salty about this but there was nothing he could do about that right now. Instead he just collected as many glistering melons as possible. Healing potions were not nearly as strong with glistering melons as with a ghast tear but it would have to do. At least he knew how to make them stronger than your usual healing potions, as soon as he got his hands on a brewing stand that was. But that was a worry for later, first he had to find Philza. At least the next village was getting closer, according to the sign he just passed.

An hour or so later he arrived at the village. Mountain villages didn't have stores, they had people experienced in certain fields who used their expertise for the whole village. They also didn’t have inns, instead travelers usually stayed at the village leader or the village eldest. Dream honestly loved mountain villages. They were super peaceful and everyone always seemed happy. On top of that, they were not nearly as scared of him as the villages closer to the capital. Here they usually gave him a warm welcome and he repaid their kindness by helping out for a day or so. It was the perfect system in Dream's mind. And this village was no different. The head of the village approached him as soon as he entered the town square and offered him a place for the night that Dream immediately accepted. The head of the village introduced himself as Eret and took Dream to his own house. 

"Ranboo, we have a visitor!" Eret called towards a young boy in the house as soon

as they entered. Ranboo looked up from the book he was reading and immediately his eyes focussed on the mask Dream was wearing.

"You are Dream" he stated and Dream nodded.

"You are Ranboo" Dream said to the young boy, making him smile.

“Dream will be staying in our house for the night” Eret told Ranboo before continuing towards Dream.  

“Dream, sit down, I will get you some tea. Ranboo, would you mind running to

Aimsey and asking for some cake for our guest?” Eret asked the young boy and Ranboo nodded enthusiastically before running out of the house. Dream sat down at the table and grabbed two golden apples from his bag, giving them to Eret. 

“Thanks for letting me stay the night” he added when Eret looked confused and Eret just smiled. 

“No problem, no problem. It’s common courtesy after all!” Eret joked before setting some tea down in front of Dream. 

“So tell me, why is the biggest criminal in the Kingdom suddenly in my village and even offering golden apples in exchange for a place to sleep.” Eret said with a smile, making sure the criminal knew he wasn’t trying to offend the other. Dream just scratched his head sheepishly. He was used to people being confused by him just being a normal person. 

“Well actually, I’m looking for someone who lives in the North Mountains. A mage named Philza.” Dream explained after taking a sip from the lovely hot tea. 

“You are looking for Phil?” Eret asked confused and Dream sat up. He recognized the sound in Eret’s voice as someone who knew Phil.

“Yes, I’ve been looking for him for the better part of the year. I first went to the East Mountains but there they said he lived in the North Mountains so I’ve been traveling towards the North Mountains for a while!” Dream said enthusiastically. 

“But you came from the west, not the east?” Eret asked, even more confused and Dream once again scratched his head.

“Yeah, I… ehh… had a little unplanned trip to Pandora’s Vault in between.” Dream answered sheepishly and Eret laughed at that. 

“But you sounded like you know Philza! Do you know where I can find him?” Dream asked and Eret nodded.

“He actually lives at the spring of the stream that goes through his village! So you just have to follow the path next to the stream and you’ll find him! You can take Ranboo with you to guide you if you want. Ranboo adores Phil and always wants to visit him. He won’t say no to having you as an excuse for visiting Phil.” Eret said with a smile and for the first time since that day two years ago, Dream felt like he was actually getting closer to his goal and like he could actually save the kingdom. 

“Thank you so so much. Maybe finally I will be able to take off this stupid mask and become Clay again” Dream said happily and Eret just smiled at him more.

“So you never wanted to be a criminal to begin with” Eret concluded and Dream nodded.

“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done with a reason and finally it seems like I can explain that to the King himself soon” Dream explained easily. He noticed that lately he talked about himself a lot easier than he used to. Maybe he was simply getting too tired of being Dream.

“Well, I hope your reason is a good one. But if you are looking for Phil, it probably is. Or for your sake it should be. Phil is a nice guy but he’s also merciless. If you lie to him or try to use him for your own gain, he will simply get you killed.” Eret warned him and Dream nodded. 

“You are not the first one to tell me that, no worries” Dream said before the conversation got interrupted by Ranboo entering the house with cake. The young boy immediately agreed to take Dream to Philza but even though he wanted to go right at that moment, the two adults decided that they would go tomorrow morning. So instead the three spend the time by eating cake and playing some strategy games that Dream was way too good at. 

The next morning Ranboo and Dream start their 4 hour walk towards the spring of the little stream that the village calls the Glinster. Ranboo isn’t a very talkative companion but he does ask the occasional question and Dream enjoys answering the 12 year old’s questions. It’s quite the climb towards the spring of the river so neither have time to look at the skies. If they had done so, they would have noticed the crow following them till a resting point that Ranboo told Dream was the last resting point before they reached Philza. The crow disappeared into the direction of the spring and Dream saw it fly away but didn’t think anything of it. All in all the walk was exhausting but pleasant. Nothing really happened until around 30 minutes later a teenager appeared on the path.

“Wilbur!” Ranboo shouted when he saw the teenager and went up to him to give him a hug. 

“Hey Ranboo!” Wilbur said with a smile and returned the hug.

“It’s been a while since you visited! Tommy will love to see you! Why don’t you hurry along, I want to speak to the visitor you took with you.” Wilbur said after the hug and Ranboo just nodded without thinking about the request twice. Dream, however, did notice the request and thought it was strange. Strange enough that he made sure his sword was within reach and easily grabable. Of course Wilbur didn’t notice this, Dream was practiced enough to prepare without it standing out, especially when he was wearing his mask. As soon as Ranboo disappeared into the trees, Wilbur stepped forward towards Dream, under the latter’s watchful eyes. 

“Why are you here?” Wilbur asked in a dangerous tone, however Dream was absolutely not intimidated. 

“Hello, I’m Dream. Nice to meet you too.” Dream just answered with sarcasm lacing his words. 

“I know who you are. Everyone knows who you are. So Why. Are. You. Here.” Wilbur said, his tone becoming more and more angry. 

“Look. I’m not coming to cause trouble. I’m just looking for the mage Philza because I need his help.” Dream answered annoyed. He had almost reached the place he had been trying to reach for almost a year. He was not about to let a teenager stop him from reaching his goal.

“Phil said you were coming but I didn’t want to believe it. Why would a murderer need a mage’s help?” Wilbur continued his interrogation but Dream was honestly tired of it and just stepped away from Wilbur and continued following the path he and Ranboo had been following. 

“Don’t ignore me!” Wilbur said angrily and grabbed Dream by his arm but that was a mistake. Dream turned around and before Wilbur could even blink he had a sword at his neck and could no longer move.

“Look kid, Why I’m looking for Philza is only for adults to know so unless you want me to become the murderous criminal you think I am, I would stop standing in my way and just let me go. Maybe I will tell you after I told Philza why I am looking for him.” Dream whispered before letting the teenager go and continuing his path. Wilbur stood frozen from shock for a minute before following Dream. He decided that maybe trying to get a murderer to snap was not the best plan of action so instead he just followed the older. He, however, could not stop himself from making one more comment.

“Well, if you do something to Philza, Techno won’t hesitate to kill you.” 

“I know” Was the only thing Dream answered. 

Wilbur looked at the criminal in surprise. He didn’t think Dream would know about Technoblade. The criminal hadn’t mentioned the warrior once and most people only knew Philza, Tommy and himself. Maybe Phil had been right. An hour ago Phil had told him that Dream and Ranboo were coming. Wilbur had gotten mad at Philza for just letting a criminal come to their little home but Phil had said that it was important. Even though Wilbur trusted Phil’s judgment, he couldn’t help himself but walk down to see if the criminal really had nothing bad in mind. Honestly, he wasn’t really convinced yet but the fact that Dream knew about Techno and still went to Phil must mean something.  So he decided to just shut up and follow the criminal towards their home. 

The stream’s spring was a tiny lake next to a meadow. To be honest, the place was absolutely stunning and for a second Dream was awestruck when he arrived. On the meadow there were 2 huts, one bigger hut that from the outside looked to consist of 2 big rooms or 3 small rooms and one small hut that was clearly a one room. Between the two huts there was a big fire pit with logs around them to sit on. On top of the fire there was a pot hanging that was clearly cooking something. From the bigger house a man with two huge crow wings appeared. Dream first had to blink at the man to make sure he was seeing that right. He had never in his life seen a human look so not human like and it was confusing.

“Hello Dream, welcome to the syndicate.” The man said when he saw the masked criminal standing at the edge of the meadow. For the first time in two years Dream felt like he could relax, the first part of his goal had finally been reached.

“Hello, I guess that you are Philza?” Dream greeted back and the man nodded.

“Come further, you’ve met Wilbur” Philza continued before sending a glare to Wilbur that made Wilbur suddenly get very interested in his feet. 

“Tommy is sitting over there with Ranboo” Philza said while pointing to the lake and Dream nodded.

“And Techno is currently hunting, he will join us in a few hours.” 

“You seem to already know why I’m here.” Dream concluded a bit confused and Philza nodded.

“I do, you’ll still have to explain yourself to the others though, later. But I already know.” Philza explained, sort of. Honestly, Dream was still as confused as he was before.

“First, let’s go inside and talk. There is a lot I need to explain to you, and there are some explanations I want to hear from you.” Philza continued and Dream could do nothing more than just nodding and following the older mage towards the biggest hut.

“Wilbur, stay out here and look after Ranboo and Tommy please. We’ll explain everything to the three of you later.” Philza said to Wilbur when Wilbur wanted to follow too. It was clear that Wilbur wanted to protest that but Philza shut him up before he even started. Thus the two adults went inside the biggest hut while the kids stayed outside to play. Dream sat down at the table when Philza motioned for him to do so and Phil joined him after getting something to drink for the both of them. In the meantime Dream decided that this was not the place to wear his mask, so he took it off and put it in his bag. 

“It’s nice to see who’s behind the mask” Philza noted after sitting down and Dream just smiled.

“I’ve gotten so used to the mask that being without it still makes me feel weird. But I think right now is not the time and place for my mask.” he explained himself and Philza nodded.

“I think you’re right. But let’s start at the beginning. Hello, I’m Philza and as you know, I’m a mage.” Philza started his explanation. 

“I’m a changer and my second form is a crow. However, unlike other changers I also have a second talent. When I’m a crow, I can read minds. That’s how I know why you are here. I followed you and Ranboo for an hour or two and your mind was going a mile a minute.” 

Dream just looked at the mage in front of him in pure shock. Dream had honestly never even heard of a changer before, let alone one who can read minds. Suddenly he understood why everyone who talked about Philza, talked about him with so much respect.

“So, Dream, who are you?” Phil asked after his explanation, pulling Dream out of his thoughts. However, just as Dream was going to answer, someone knocked on the door before entering. A large muscled man with a netherrite ax entered the house. He was so tall that he could not stand up fully inside the house but the man was obviously used to it.

“Oh Techno, I didn’t expect you for another few hours!” Philza said surprised when he saw the tall warrior. Dream could just look at the man in awe. It was obvious that he was force to be reckoned with. 

“I felt a big source of magic drawing closer and closer to the meadow so I decided to return earlier.” Technoblade explained himself. If Philza was surprised by this information, he didn’t show it. Dream on the other hand was in shock again for the second time in 10 minutes. 

“And that big source is now sitting opposite of you so I guess you felt him too. Hi, I’m Technoblade.”  Techno finished with a smile towards the guest at the table. 

“Yes I did, and he was just about to introduce himself so you arrived at the exact right moment, like usual.”  Philza told his old friend, who took a chair and sat down. Dream took this as his que to start his story.

Chapter Text

Dream looked at the two mages in front of him and knew that the time had come to, for the first time in his life, tell someone else his full story. If his story was not going to convince Philza and Techno to join him, everything would have been for nothing. So Dream took a big breath and started explaining. 

“Mommy, mommy, wake up! We need to go outside to watch the big star!” a five year old Clay said while shaking his mother awake. Lady Laeticia woke up and looked at her son with a smile. 

“Why do I need to wake up sweetheart?” she asked and Clay repeated what he said before.

“We need to go outside and see the biiiiig star!” His hands motioning just how big the star would be. Lady Laeticia smiled and got out of bed. 

“Okay my big warrior, show me this big star of yours!” she said and Clay grabbed her hand and dragged her outside. Not even a minute later a big comet soared through the skies, making Lady Laeticia and her son look in awe at the beauty of it. However, after the comet disappeared Lady Laeticia realized what just happened.

“How did you know that the big star was coming, sweetheart?” she asked her son and Clay looked up at her with innocent eyes.

“I saw it coming!” Clay explained and his mother knew exactly what that meant. 

“Ooh, did my big warrior inherit my talent?” Lady Laeticia said with a smile and Clay just looked confused at his mother before shrugging his shoulders and going back to looking at the stars. Mother and son did this for another few minutes before Lady Laeticia decided it was time for the young boy to go to sleep.

Reading classes were boring. Clay preferred going outside with his dad and practicing with the wooden sword his dad had made for him. But his dad had told him that he could only go outside and practice fighting after he had done his reading class and his magic class. Honestly, his magic class was fun as well. His mother would explain to him how to use his gift because she had the same one. At 5 he had promised his parents to never tell anyone that he had the visions and that he was a mage. Clay hadn’t understood why but his parents had looked so serious that he never questioned it. Now he was 8 and the rule was still in place, but a year ago his mom had decided that inorder to hide his magic, he should know how to use it. So she had been teaching him ever since. Most of his magic classes were history of magic but his mom had also started teaching him how to know what was a vision of the future and what was just daydreaming and how to interpret different visions. He had learned that he has 2 different kind of future visions. The first one was the more daily type. Usually they were small things that would happen in the near future and were inevitable. For example he would almost always know when his friends would arrive because he would see it beforehand. The second type was the more difficult type. The type that you would read about in myths, the oracle type. These visions were about big events further in the future and they could change. His mom had explained that the further away in the future, the easier the vision would change. Honestly, Clay didn’t understand a lot of it, but the classes were fun. 

Clay couldn’t stop crying. Now he understood why his parents had told him to never tell anyone that he was a mage. Humans were scared of what they couldn’t understand and because mages were rare, normal humans almost never understood them. Honestly, most humans didn’t even understand anything about magic besides your basic potions and magical items. However, that was no excuse for them to kill mages, to kill his mom. His mom had been the nicest person he knew but still people killed her. Just because she was a mage. That day Clay promised himself to never tell anyone he was a mage and he completely stopped his magic classes. Instead he decided on focussing fully on becoming a lord like his father was. He would make sure that the lands under his father’s control would be completely free of murder. Luckily he had his friends by his side who were more than willing to help him. Sapnap and George had also been close to his mother so the three of them vowed to fight against evil together. They had always been close but from there on out they only grew closer. Their fathers had decided that the three of them should train together so they did and the three 12 year olds became inseparable. 

Even though he hadn’t practiced or even read about magic in years, he still had visions often multiple times a day. At this point he was very used to just ignoring the daily visions, besides the ones that were actually useful, like when he would see exactly when they would bump into the band of thieves they were following and so on. Of course he wouldn’t tell his friends that he knew where or when, he would always play it off like intuition and his friends luckily never questioned that. The three of them had been knighted at 16 but they had decided that they didn’t want to become lords yet. Instead for the past year they had been fighting crime as knights recruited by their fathers. All three of them also had been assigned their own squires and together the six 17 year olds had become close and fought crime like a well oiled machine. Life was good and being a mage no longer bothered Clay like it used to. That’s why when he got a vision of the King’s son being born, he decided to immediately send Sam towards the King’s Castle to congratulate the King and Queen. It was a risky move but nobody questioned it and the King and Queen had been way too happy to even realize how early the congratulation had been. 

At 20 year old, the trio, nicknamed the Dream Team, took over from their fathers as the King’s Lords. The older Lords went into retirement and became both advisors for the young Lords as well as advisors for the King. While it meant that the three of them could no longer always work together like they had for the past 3 years, they were still very happy to become Lords. And honestly, they ended up seeing each other nearly every day anyway. Like he had promised himself. Lord Clay was making his lands almost crime free and he was loved by the people working for him. He also started teaching the children how to fight. He was famous for his sword fighting ability and was more than happy to teach others what he knew. He had realized that because he was a mage he had way better awareness of his surroundings and he could more easily feel when people were behind him. While he couldn’t teach the children that, he could still teach them how to fight because even without his heightened senses, he was still an incredible fighter. 

Clay woke up sweating. The nightmare he had had, hadn’t been a nightmare, but a vision. A horrible vision of a future that was nothing short of a nightmare. He got up and grabbed some parchment and a quill to write down what he had just seen to make sure he knew what was going on. The vision had been a long one, probably why it had appeared in his dreams. It had started with the second son, the son that had only been born 2 weeks ago, killing his father and older brother, taking the throne for himself at the age of what Clay guessed to be 18. Then the vision had switched to a further future, one in which the second son was ruling over the land like a tyrant. One in which Clay and his friends were walking up to their execution for treason. However, the last jump into the further future was what worried Clay the most. The world had been dark, like a thunderstorm that wouldn’t go and almost all people had purple eyes. Clay didn’t know what it meant but he could feel that it meant something horrible. For the first time since his mother died, Clay decided that it was time for him to learn more about his magic and magic in general. The vision had been a vision of a far future so it was changeable. He had to find out how to change his vision. 

Nothing worked, nothing changed the vision. The only progress he had made so far was that he had found out what the purple eyes and dark clouds meant. It meant that dark magic had taken over. Apparently humans had aligned themselves with light magic a very long time ago and dark magic was salty about this. So every once in a while dark magic would try to take over the humans because they were the most powerful species. Honestly Clay had been so confused that magic had been an actual entity that he still didn’t understand how it worked. However, he did understand that humans formed an alliance with light magic not to fight against dark magic but because light magic fit their species best. If dark magic were to take over, a lot of humans would die from lack of sunlight. So while he didn’t really understand what dark magic was and why it was doing what it was doing, he knew it was bad. Very bad. The vision had come back almost every night and almost every night the last time jump of the vision would be a worse world than the night before. Clay knew he had to do something but he just didn’t know what. However, because he did see the youngest son become a tyrant night after night, he was pretty sure it had something to do with the youngest son. One way or another he had to stop the boy from becoming a tyrant. Probably sooner rather than later. 

He hated the plan he had come up with. Absolutely hated it, despised it, but he knew he had no choice. A soon as he had started thinking of his plan, his visions had changed. They had become so much more bright and positive, the dark magic still loomed in them but at least the Kingdom was fighting against it. The plan itself was simple and consisted of 2 parts, the first part was the easiest. Kill the infant son so he could never become a tyrant. It was horrible to have to kill an innocent baby but it was the only plan he could come up with. The second part was where good preparation was needed. Clay decided that if the Kingdom wanted to stand a chance against the dark magic, it would have to heighten its security. The Kingdom had been at peace for several decades so knights and lords alike were not nearly as practiced as they were supposed to be. To change this, Clay decided that he would become the Kingdom’s enemy. That way everyone would be prepared for if the real enemy were to come. Thus he prepared for his plan. He had to be thorough with it otherwise he would be dead before he could save the Kingdom fully. He knew he would need a second identity if he wanted to be able to pull this off, simply because as the Clay he was right now, he could never betray his King like that. So he made up a new identity for himself, made himself a mask that was comfortable to wear and hid his whole face. He commissioned the local tailor for some good clothes that could survive the wild easily. Clothes that were both comfortable in the winter and in the summer. He also bought a sturdy bag and made sure his tent was small and that he could carry it easily. Lastly he grabbed his bow, sword and shield and hid everything in the King’s forest. The more he prepared the brighter his vision became so he went through with the plan. Two days later he put on the green clothes, grabbed his ceremonial dagger and mask before making his way over to the stables. At the stables he saw his squire. It hurt to see Sam look at him with the usual admiration. It hurt him to know that he was going to hurt his loyal squire and friend but there was nothing he could do about it at this point. If he didn’t go forward with his plan right now, they would all die in a few years. So he said goodbye to his squire, and with it goodbye to Clay. From now on, he was Dream. 

His plan had gone well. Even considering he had some major miscalculations and had to escape prison already, his plan had gone well. His vision no longer showed anyone becoming a tyrant and the King could forever love his son without the pain of knowing what this son had become. The security in the Kingdom was also definitely on the rise. It was not yet at the level he wanted it to be, but his plan was working. To make sure nobody would go back to slacking off, he escaped out of prison as soon as he could. He thought he would have to be on the run for at least 18 years before he could come out of hiding and help the Kingdom fight the dark magic because that synced up with the timeline he had seen in his vision. He hadn’t gotten nearly as many visions as the months before so he was sure he had done the right thing. 

Until one night the vision changed completely. He hadn’t had a far future vision in a few weeks so he was fully unprepared for his talent to throw a vision about a war against the dark magic in 2 years at his face. 2 years… suddenly he had no time to prepare at all. He could no longer just run and hide, he had to do more. Otherwise everything would have been for nothing. It was around the same time that he slowly noticed more dark magic wielders popping up and he had started killing them, not knowing what else to do. He didn’t know what to do so he decided to go towards the most magical place of all, the plateau. In the hope that it would help him find the answers.

Dream took a drink from his tea. He had been talking for almost 30 minutes straight and while Phil and Techno had added some comments here and there, they had mostly just been listening to his explanation. 

“In the East Mountains I found a mage named Puffy, who said that if I wanted to fight to save the Kingdom, I had to find you.”  he continued, pointing at Technoblade.

“So, that leads me here. It took me a lot longer than I wanted to. Had a field trip to Pandora’s Vault in the middle of it that took way too much time.”  

“Okay, let me get this straight.” Philza said after Dream finished his explanation. 

“You are a mage with the talent of seeing the future. Very rare and powerful. However, you have never been taught how to use magic. You saw a vision of Dark Magic taking over and you knew you had to do something about it without knowing what it is. So you killed the king’s son and started looking for us to fight the dark magic.” Philza recapped and Dream nodded. 

“Well shit, I guess this is a real problem. I’m happy you found us. Even Techno here can’t fight dark magic without a warning.”  

“How much time do you think we have, considering Dark Magic always tries to concentrate around places with the most power, usually capital cities and we’ll have to travel all the way there.” Technoblade asked, thinking deeply. 

“Eeh… from here it will take at least a month to reach the capital by foot. So I guess at most 2 months?” Dream answered unsure, making Technoblades eyes go wide.

“Welp, I guess a late warning is still better than no warning at all.” Philza just said philosophical. 

“We are going to need more people though. I know you are a fighter Dream, the news reaches even all the way here. But the two of us are not going to be enough. And I’m pretty sure you are not going to be able to convince the King to fight on your side, no offense.” Technoblade thought out loud and Dream just scratched his head sheepishly. 

“Yeah… Wait. I have an idea! My friends (Philza raised his eyebrows at this word but didn’t comment) have been hunting me for 2 years now. They will most likely be close by! They are all formidable fighters and the King will definitely listen to them!” Dream said enthusiastically.

“Right, and what are the chances of them killing you instantly? We’re going to need your magic if we want to have a chance against the dark magic.” Philza asked with his eyebrows raised. 

“They won’t, they won’t. They have orders to capture me alive. I’m sure I can make a deal with them.” Dream answered.

“Okay. That settles it. We’re going to find your so-called friends, make them fight for us, defeat the dark magic and then let them capture you. Phil, I don’t know about you but I like this guy. He isn’t scared of anything.” Technoblade said with a smile before kicking his feet up on the table. 

“All you warriors are the same. Not an inch of self preservation” Phil just muttered to himself while shaking his head. 

“How far behind are your friends?” he asked Dream and Dream shrugged.

“No clue. They’re never far though.” 

“I will take a look around tomorrow morning. When I find them, you should go and get them Techno. I don’t think sending out Dream to get them is going to work.” Phil continued and Techno nodded.

“Will do. But first, let’s tell the boys what’s happening before Wilbur does. He has been listening at the door for the past hour.” Techno mentioned and all three of them laughed when they heard a curse word coming from outside.

Chapter Text

It had been a very long time since Technoblade last felt a source of dark magic. It felt very far away but the fact that he could feel it was worrying enough. He cut his jog short and instead teleported back to the meadow where they lived. 

"Phil, do you feel that?" He asked as soon as he saw the older man.

"Feel what?" Philza asked confused.

"Dark magic, it's coming from the east" Technoblade explained and Philza face scrunched in concentration until his eyes lit up.

"Shit you're right. We should go check what it is."

"Do you think a new war is coming? It has been almost 150 years since the last one." Techno asked worried.

"I can’t say for sure. It always starts like this, but sometimes it's nothing. Let’s go there though, maybe we can save the poor soul." Philza answered thoughtfully. 

"Souls." Technoblade corrected. 

"There are two of them. A man and a woman" Phil just nodded at his friend's observation. Technoblade had always been more sensitive to magic than him.

"Teleport us to the Plateau. I can scout from there and fly us over." Phil decided.

Technoblade nodded before grabbing Philza and teleporting them both to the plateau. When they arrived both mages had to take a minute to get used to the overwhelming magic of the plateau. The plateau was the most magical place in the Kingdom and if you went there unprepared like they just did, it could be very overwhelming. However, this wasn't the first time the two teleported to the plateau so they were used to the feeling. 

"I will be right back!" Phil said after he felt good again and changed into a full crow before flying away. Not even 5 minutes later he came back and changed back to himself. 

"It's a mom and dad living in a village not far from here. It seems like nobody noticed yet so we should expel the dark magic quick before anyone noticed." Phil said and Techno nodded. Technoblade turned around so his back was to the already flying man. Philza grabbed the big warrior and with supernatural strength flew both of them towards the village. Philza put the two of them behind the house where the dark magic was coming from. Luckily the house was a bit away from the village so nobody had seen them fly in. The two mages entered the house as quietly as they could. Inside they found a family in despair. In a corner of the house stood a 10 year old boy, carrying his baby brother. At the kitchen table sat two adults staring blankly at each other. 

"They are scouts." Philza noted and Techno nodded sadly. but Before he could answer the two dark magic wielders snapped their heads towards the two mages at the door. The purple in their eyes started to glow, making Technoblade and Philza take a defensive stand.

"I'm going to fly the children towards the plateau. Let's hope the self-destruct magic is not in place yet." Philza decided and within seconds the two mages came into action. Philza grabbed the two kids and flew away, which left Techno alone with the dark magic wielders. Immediately he let his light magic flow through him, making his eyes and the tips of his fingers glow. He ran towards the two dark magic wielders. You could expel dark magic from somebody’s body by touching their sleeps with light magic flowing fingers. You had to touch both sides at once and have enough control over your magic that you could make the magic flow from one finger to the other through the head. It wasn’t very difficult and Techno was used to it. However, with dark magic wielders like the two parents it was a bit difficult. Every couple of years dark magic would send out scouts, these scouts were a way for dark magic to see if it was feasible to start another invasion or not. These scouts were supposed to stay unnoticed, which was why the dark magic would kill off the dark magic wielders as soon as it had the information it wanted. Or in this case, kill the magic wielders before Techno could expel the magic from their souls. Half a second before putting his second hand on the woman’s head, the light went out in both her and her husband’s eyes. Techno looked at the two parents with a sad face. He had expected this, and he knew Phil had expected it too, but it was still sad. He had hoped that he could have saved at least one of them, for the sake of the two children they had. Instead he carried the two bodies outside and buried them real quick before teleporting back to the plateau where Philza was waiting with the two kids. 

When Philza saw Techno arrive alone, he already knew the mission had failed. The older kid looked at the guy who had flown them away and then to the guy who just teleported in front and started to cry. Philza had already explained what was happening and when the warrior came back alone, the 10 year old boy knew what was going on as well. 

“I’m sorry.” was the only thing Techno could say while petting the crying boy on his back. Philza stepped closer, took the baby from the boy and hugged the boy who let out all his sadness. When the boy finally calmed down enough Philza came with a proposal. 

“Wilbur, do you want to come live with me and Technoblade here? We can look after you and your little brother and as long as you are close to us, the dark magic would infect you or your brother.” Philza asked softly. Wilbur looked from the soft looking old guy to the fierce looking warrior before slowly nodding. Wilbur had just been flown to the plateau before seeing someone teleport in front of him. Even as a 10 year old, he understood that the two mages were strong and even standing close to the two of them, he already felt safer than he had ever before. 

The 6 of them were sitting around the fire, eating a fish stew that Wilbur had made as a silent apology after being caught eavesdropping on the adults. Philza had also made him wait till dinner to ask questions, so Ranboo and Tommy would be able to listen too. Dream had already given a short version of what he had told Techno and Philza while eating so the three kids were aware of what was happening as well. 

“So, I think I told my story enough for today.” Dream joked before turning towards Technoblade.

“It’s my turn to ask questions now. Technoblade, I thought you were a legend, not a real person. Tell me your story!” he continued. Technoblade looked at the criminal in front of him while thinking where he would start his story. 

“Hmm, okay let’s see.” Technoblade started. The three kids also stopped what they were doing to listen to Technoblade. They knew bits and pieces of the warrior’s story, but not the full story. Philza was also curious as to what Technoblade was going to tell the criminal, and what he was going to keep hidden.

“So, a bit of background first, I guess. I was born a very long time ago, during a years long war against dark magic. Back then there were a lot more mages and all of them were trying to fight off the dark magic. So, I was raised as a warrior from the start, especially when they found out my talent, teleportation. I guess that’s where the legend starts. I led the army that beat the dark magic that time at 16 years old. While we won, it was not a big win and we lost a lot of mages back then. So, Philza took me in and raised me from there on. We fought in 2 more wars against dark magic after that, making me now… 336 years old, I guess.” Technoblade explained briefly. Dream couldn’t do anything else but stare at the big warrior in front of him. 

“I guess I’m a more powerful mage than most mages and I’m very sensitive to magic so it’s a lot easier for me to sense when there is someone behind me, making me a decent warrior. Plus I’ve had literal decenia of training.” he continued. Dream could do nothing but shake his head at the humbleness of the warrior in front of him. Technoblade was known as the savior of the Kingdom and he just explained that that was justified. 

“He’s the best warrior ever!!” Tommy said enthusiastically after the short story. The admiration in his eyes was clear to anyone. Technoblade just sheepishly scratched his neck. Not used to the attention he was getting.

“Woa… I’m so happy you are willing to help me. Maybe you can train me as well?” Dream asked impressed and Technoblade just gave a short nod, agreeing to the training. Philza decided to help out his old friend and bring the attention to himself instead.

“Back then there were a lot of mages, it’s going to be a lot harder to defeat the dark magic this time, I’m afraid. Or at least we’re going to have to kill practically innocent people.” Philza said and the others put their attention on him.

“What do you mean?” Dream asked confused.

“Well, you can cure dark magic wielders by running light magic through their head but you can only do one wielder at a time and you need to use both hands. Right now there are almost no mages so to get rid of the dark magic, we’ll have to kill most wielders instead of saving them.” Philza said in a sad tone and Techno nodded next to him. 

“It’s going to be a bloody fight.” he added. 

“I guess that’s the way it is then…” Dream said sadly. 

“But at least we’ll have the best fighters in the Kingdom!!” Tommy said and everyone smiled at the 9 year old boy. 

The rest of the evening they each took turns telling their stories. Wilbur told the story about how Tommy and him ended up living with the two mages and Ranboo told them that his life had been boring so far but that he loved visiting the meadow and playing with Tommy, even if Tommy was 3 years younger than him. Only Philza refused to tell his story. Dream had asked for Philza to also tell his story but Philza said that he didn’t like to tell his and the others respected that. Techno added that even he didn’t know Philza’s full story. So instead Dream told some stories about what had happened while on the run and Techno told some stories about fights he fought. It was a nice evening and Dream enjoyed the familiarity of it. However, it did make him miss his friends more than he had over the past 2 years. He really hoped Technoblade would be able to find his friends tomorrow so he could finally explain why he had done what he had done and beg for their forgiveness. He rather not think about if his friends would forgive him or not. 

“Where is he going!?” George complained for the 10th time that day. The five hunters had picked up Dream’s trail two days after they arrived in Port North and had been following ever since. Antfrost estimated that they were only around 3 days behind the criminal because Dream had not been traveling in a hurry at all. 

“My only guess is the plateau to be honest, twice we caught him going that direction, he just never got close so it never crossed my mind before.” Sam thought out loud and Sapnap agreed.

“I’m thinking the same, especially since you said he’s a half mage. He probably wants to use the magic of the plateau for something. We better catch him before he can.” he said curtly. The others agreed and kept on walking forward. They had passed two villages so far that had both said that they had sent Dream further east so they just kept on following the only path that went east. They even decided to no longer check all the side paths because it was simply too much work. Instead they would check in at the upcoming village if Dream had passed there and if he didn’t, they would go back to check the paths going further into the mountains. 

“I wish we would just catch up to him a little bit.” Bad said and the others agreed. 

“And that there were more villages, I’m getting tired from sleeping in caves” Antfrost added, making the others laugh. 

“At least we are not alone, that crow has been following for the past hour or so.” Bad joked and the others looked up towards a bird that was sitting in a tree not too far from them.

“How do you know it’s the same crow?” George asked with a smile.

“All crows look exactly the same!” 

“Well, it’s fun to imagine, isn’t it!” Bad shot back and the others started laughing again. The banter between the five of them kept the spirits up and unconsciously they started walking a bit faster.

“Noo, you scared it away!” Bad said sadly a few minutes later when the crow flew away further east.

“Maybe it was scared you noticed it!” Sapnap shot back and everyone started laughing again while Bad shot a glare at him. 

Suddenly Sapnap held up his hand and everyone abruptly stood still and stopped making noise. Sapnap pointed to a place in between the trees, a bit further up the path that they were following.

“Someone’s sitting there” he whispered to the others and everyone nodded. 

“Let’s just walk past him but stay alert.” George said after looking at the person for a bit. From here he didn’t look dangerous but the mountains did not only house innocent mountain people, it was also often used as a base for criminals. So throughout their travel through the mountain they had been careful around strangers. Especially since it could be that Dream paid or forced the strangers to work for them. So the 5 of them continued their path but they were no longer joking around. Instead they were focussed on their surroundings, making sure that they were not being jumped from other places while keeping an eye on the person in front of them. When they were only a few meters away from the person sitting on a rock next to the path, the person got up.

“Eeh, Hi” he said. The hunter noticed how the person in front of them was fully geared and carrying a heavy looking netherrite ax. Sapnap quickly used a hand sign behind his back for everyone to be ready to attack if needed. Antfrost subtly shrugged his bow of his shoulder to make sure he could fire an arrow within a few seconds. The others made sure to have both their swords and shields ready. However, the person in front of them did not look threatened at all.

“Who are you?” Sapnap asked the scary looking warrior. 

“Eeh… look I don’t think me telling you my name is going to make this any easier so let me just get to the point. I want you five to come with me.” The warrior said easily and Sapnap could do nothing but stare at the blunt man in shock.

“Why?” He just asked. The others nodded in agreement, just as confused as him.

“Well, that’s not really for me to tell so eeh… you guys coming with me or do I have to force you to come with me?” 

“Where to?!” George asked, slowly starting to get annoyed at the guy in front of them. 

“To my friend’s and my house!” the person answered, happy to finally have an answer for the questions he was getting. 

“Look, we don’t have time for this bullshit. We are sent by the King to capture Dream so no, we are not coming with you. Bye” Sapnap cut the conversation short and tried to walk past the warrior but before he could, he was stopped by an ax in front of him. Behind him he felt his fellow hunters get ready to fight and with a single hand sign, the 5 of them attacked the person all at once.

But honestly the fight was over before it had even begun. With a tired sigh the warrior defended himself and within a few minutes he had all 5 hunters disarmed and on their knees. Sapnap was looking at the warrior with extreme anger and was getting up again to fight the warrior with his bare hands but the voice of George behind him stopped him.

“Don’t Sapnap, this man just won within minutes in a 5 on 1 battle. What do you think you’ll be able to do on your own?” George simply said and Sapnap looked from his friend to the warrior to his friend before sighing deeply and standing down. 

“Thank you” the warrior said with a genuine smile towards George. However, the warrior still did bind all five of their hands together before giving everyone their weapons back.

“I’m not going to be able to carry all your weapons and you’ll need them” the warrior simply explained before making sure that everyone was touching him. 

“A heads up, I’m going to teleport all of us to my house.” 

The hunters looked at each other confused before they felt a weird sensation and when it was over, they were standing on a meadow next to a lake. The big warrior that had teleported them there was panting loudly and clutching his head.

“Techno! What did I say about teleporting many people at once?!” an old guy scolded the warrior before walking towards the five hunters. However, non of the hunters were looking at the old guy coming their way. Instead they were staring at the person who was standing a bit further away.

“DREAM” the hunters exclaimed all at once.

Chapter Text

“Lord Sapnap, an urgent message from the King.” Badboyhalo told his Lord, who had been playing chess with Lord George in the castle garden. Sapnap looked up at his squire, nodded and followed the other towards his castle gate. George decided to also follow because an urgent message from the King was rare, and he couldn’t play chess on his own anyway. 

“Do you have any idea what it’s about Bad?” Sapnap asked his squire but Bad just shook his head. 

“I did hear rumors coming from the castle but they are too weird to be true.”

“Well, let’s see what it is” Sapnap just said before opening the gate for the messenger to come in. The messenger wasted no time and immediately told the two Lords in front of him why he was sent.

“The King orders all his Lords to gather at the castle two days from now.”

Sapnap and George looked at each other confused, it wasn’t often that all Lords were summoned to the castle.

“Can you tell us on what occasion we are being summoned?” George asked and the messenger, who focussed his attention on the Lord, answered in a sad tone.

“The second Prince has been murdered.” 

George, Sapnap and Bad did not know how to react to the news. It was too shocking to be real. 

“So the rumors were true…” Bad muttered to himself and Sapnap immediately turned to him.

“What are the rumors exactly?” Sapnap asked his squire but it was the messenger who answered the questions. 

“The second Prince was murdered by a man in a green hood wearing a mask with a smiley face.” he explained. 

“Holy shit” Sapnap could only say. He had never expected to hear something like that. The King was loved, even though there were of course always people that rather saw someone else ruling the country, in L’Manburg that group was very small. So small that for years and years nothing even a tiny bit threatening had happened. And suddenly this happens. What also made no sense was the fact that it was the second Prins who got killed, and not the first one or both. To kill a monarchy, you shouldn’t let the main heir stay alive. Simply none of it made sense and Sapnap was very confused. 

“We’ll go to the King’s castle immediately. If you have no other orders from the King, you can stay at my castle until you are ready to travel back. Thank you for your service.” Sapnap said to the still waiting messenger boy, who nodded gratefully. 

“You want to go back to your castle or are you coming to the King’s castle with me?” Sapnap asked George. George thought for a little bit before answering.

“I’m going back to my castle first. I left Antfrost there and I really want him to come with me. You don’t know what orders we’ll get. Maybe I will bump into Clay on the way as well.” George answered before walking back to the Castle to grab his stuff and get his horse to go back to his castle. Sapnap said bye to his friend before preparing himself to go to the King’s castle. Badboyhalo followed him to do the same. Not even 30 minutes later the knight and his squire were on their way towards the King’s castle. 

Sapnap’s castle was one of the closer ones towards the castle so he was one of the first Lords to arrive. It also helped that he was at home when the messenger boy arrived, most Lords would have probably gotten the message later than him. This meant that for now he and Bad were staying in one of the guest rooms that the King provided, waiting for the meeting that was taking place soon. Sapnap was restless. He felt in his bones that something was wrong, very very wrong but he just didn’t know what. Besides of course, the royal family apparently being under attack. Thus he and Bad just waited and after George and Antfrost arrived, they waited with the four of them. Of course both George and Sapnap were confused why Clay was so late to arrive, but at the same time Clay wasn’t really known for being on time. Honestly it was more the opposite. Okay, he was never late for a meeting with the King but he definitely wasn’t one to arrive more than 5 minutes before the meeting started. So even though this was a very urgent meeting for a very pressing matter, Sapnap and George didn’t think anything of it. Instead the four friends discussed what had happened and waited for the meeting to take place.

“Where is Clay?” George whispered to Sapnap. The two Lords were standing in the throne room surrounded by the other Lords of the country. 

“I don’t know, he’s never been this late before” Sapnap whispered back, just as worried as his friend.

“The King is not going to be happy if he misses this meeting….” George whispered and Sapnap nodded but couldn’t answer because the King walked in and started the meeting. 

“My Lords, Friends, I’ve gathered you all around on such short notice to make you all aware of some very sad news.” The King started the meeting and all the Lords listened intensively. 

“Three days ago, the second prince was murdered by a mad man. Sadly enough, this man managed to escape and thus I gathered you all here to make sure we can catch this man. We do not know who this man is, however he wa-” The King continued until he got interrupted by knocking on the door. The Lords all turned towards the door surprised. You need extreme courage to disturb one of the King’s meetings, especially one that was important as the current meeting.

“You think that’s Clay?” Sapnap whispered to George but before George could even nod, the door was opened and instead of Clay, his squire, Awesamdude was standing in the doorway. 

“I have information about the masked killer.” Awesamdude said, making George and Sapnap look at each other surprised and confused. 

“Who are you?” The King asked after Sam kneeled down in front of the King. 

“I am Lord Clay’s squire. My name is Sam, my King.” Sam answered. 

“Why is Sam here? Where is Clay?” George whispered confused and Sapnap shrugged, equally as confused.

“I don’t understand. It’s nothing for Clay to miss a meeting.” Sapnap answered before the King continued. 

“What do you know, squire Sam.” the King asked, staring at the kneeling squire in front of him. 

“Two days ago my Lord told me he was going to the castle. He didn’t take me with him but besides that there was nothing out of the ordinary. However in the evening a messenger brought a summoning message for my Lord. I was confused because I thought my Lord was already at my King’s castle.” Sam explained in a monotone voice. 

“At the same time the rumors came about the second prince’s untimely demise and the appearance of the masked killer. I waited all night and day for my Lord to come home but he never did. I didn’t want to think about what that implied so instead I traveled to my King’s castle on my own, in the hope of seeing my Lord there. However, on my way here I suddenly remembered a detail about my Lord’s departure. He was wearing a green shirt with the hood down. On the back of his neck there was something round and white, half hidden under his shirt. After he put on his green hood it was no longer visible. Now that I am here and my Lord is not, I think I know what that was.” Sam said and a deadly silence rested in the throne room. Sapnap and George were the first to understand what just happened. What Sam had just told them could only lead to one thing, their best friend being not only a traitor but a murderer. Sapnap had never felt so betrayed in his life. He felt like crying hysterically without stopping. He felt like hiding away and never being found. He felt like someone just threw a brick through his life, making it shatter like glass. However, he couldn’t do anything. Instead he just started in front of him until he made eye contact with the King. In the King’s eyes he saw his own sadness being mirrored. But also still some disbelief that Sapnap decided to hang onto. Maybe it was nothing, maybe it was all a joke. 

“Bring me the dagger that killed my son” The King said suddenly, making Sapnap and George fully focus on the King instead of just staring into nothingness. When a butler returned with the dagger, Sapnap already knew that Sam had not been lying. He would recognise that dagger everywhere. Even from a distance he knew that dagger too well. Clay would always carry it with him, even if it was just a ceremonial dagger. Clay would carry it around like George carried his ring and Sapnap carried his matchbox. The three of them had been proud of their lordship. Or so Sapnap had thought. Apparently one of the three had not been proud. It didn’t take long for the King to come to the conclusion George and Sapnap had already. The King took a big breath before once and for all shattering Sapnap’s world.

“I hereby revoke Clay’s Lordship and declare him enemy number one on suspicion of high treason and murder. Hereby we shall use the name he called himself during his despicable deed, Dream, so as to not further dirty the name of his respectable father.” 

The silence was deafening and Sapnap needed something to escape it so he turned towards George. George apparently had had the same idea because suddenly they were staring into each other's eyes and without a word being said the two were having a conversation. In that moment they decided that together they would catch Clay, Dream. That or they would die trying. 

Both Sapnap and George immediately ran towards the no longer masked criminal but their hands were still bound and before they could even set three steps Philza did something and suddenly non of the hunters could move from where they were. 

“How did you do that?!” Dream asked surprised and Philza just smiled at him

“You still have a lot to learn about magic. I can’t hold them forever though so you better start calming them down before Techno here has to knock them unconscious.” Philza said and Dream nodded towards him before focussing on the hunters before him.

“Please before you do anything, hear me out. I want to make a deal with the five of you.” Dream said carefully but he saw that his words were not really having the desired effect. Instead Sapnap just scoffed at him and Bad and Ant shook their heads. Only George and Sam seemed to be somewhat considering his words so he continued while focussing on the two of them.

“Please just hear me out. I will explain everything, literally everything I’ve done so far and why. Then you can make a decision on what to do and no matter what you choose, I will go willingly.” Finally his words seemed to have the effect he wanted when he saw Sapnap, Bad and Ant relax a bit while Sam and George were actively thinking over their answers. Phil and Techno saw this as well so Phil released his magic and Techno relaxed the hold he had on his ax. From Philza’s hut three heads also appeared, now it looked like it was safe to come out. Tommy was the first to reach the adults at the side of the meadow.

“Woaaaa, the real Black Finders!! Ranboo, Wilbur, do you see them!! They are so coooooool” Tommy said enthusiastically, making the others chuckle. 

“Calm down kid” Techno said fondly before grabbing the kid and carrying him back towards the hut.

“Let’s give them some privacy, we can greet your famous black finders after they no longer want to capture our new friend.” he continued and Tommy whined only a little bit before accepting his fate and letting Technoblade carry him back towards the cabin. Philza and the other two kids followed them, leaving Dream alone with the five hunters. Dream knew he had to show the hunters that he trusted them, so he started to unbind them, starting with Sam and ending with Sapnap. But the hunters definitely didn’t trust him, as soon as Sapnap could move his arm again, he drew his sword and held it at Dream’s throat.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you right now” Sapnap said in a deadly tone but Dream didn’t let himself get scared. Instead he answered as calmly as he would.

“You need me alive. For more reasons than you realize. So please, let me explain. Let me explain what you have wanted to know for the last 2 years. Bind my hands behind me if it makes you feel better. It’s not a trick, if it was a trick, Technoblade wouldn’t have brought you here.” 

“Technoblade?!” Sam said both surprised and confused.

“Yeah, that was my reaction too. But he’s real, and he’s going to help us. If you would just let me explain.” Dream said, focussing his attention on Sam.

“Who is Technoblade?” George asked confused, surprisingly, it was Sapnap who answered, however he did not lower his sword or even look away from Dream.

“Technoblade is a legendary warrior who saved the Kingdom multiple times. He doesn't exist.” 

“No, he does exist. The guy who brought you here, that’s Technoblade!” Dream tried to convince his old friend.

“If you would just let me explain!” 

“Lord Sapnap, we should let him explain. That warrior just beat the 5 of us in literal minutes. He can’t just be anyone. And if it’s really Technoblade, he wouldn’t help Dream if Dream had bad intentions for the Kingdom.” Sam reasoned. Finally Sapnap’s eyes left Dream’s to look around him. When he saw how the other hunters were not nearly as on edge as he was, he decided that maybe he should listen to the criminal. However, there was no way he was going to listen to Dream without the blond being bound. So he put his sword away and grabbed some rope to bind Dream’s hands together behind his back. Dream allowed the hunters to bind his hands and then awkwardly sat down. The others followed his example, Sapnap still right next to him with his sword in reach. Dream took a deep breath and started explaining.

“Okay, I think I should start with something that I’ve kept from you all for a very long time. I’m a mage.” 

The reaction was immediate. All five hunters started talking at once, with it all coming down to them not believing him or just straight up being shocked. Now it wasn’t just Sapnap who was sitting with his sword drawn, Ant and George were doing the same. Only Sam seemed to be not as surprised. 

“I thought you were only a half mage, who is your father?” Sam asked surprised after everyone had quiet down a bit. 

“Lord Clay is my father, but he’s also a mage. It’s a well kept secret because people tend to be scared of mages and thus tend to hunt them… like they did to my mom.” Dream explained in a small voice and Sam just nodded. However, not everyone accepted that explanation.

“Prove it. Prove to us that you are a mage.” Sapnap demanded. Dream looked at Sapnap scaredly, he never actually had to prove that he was a mage and didn’t really know how to do it. 

“Eeh, I never had to prove that before?” Dream said sheepishly. However, just as Sapnap was to answer angrily, a crow flew towards Dream and landed on his head.

“Philza!” Dream exclaimed happily, “How do I prove I’m a mage?” 

The older mage turned back into a man and completely ignored the hunters gasping behind him. 

“Focus on the little fire inside yourself. If you focus on it enough your eyes will start to glow white. I should have started your lessons earlier, sorry for that.” Philza told the criminal before changing back into a crow and flying away. Dream did as the mage had told him and a few seconds later his eyes were glowing a very bright white. For the third time that day the hunters were too shocked to talk. 

“Okay, yes, you are a mage.” Bad stated the obvious and Antfrost just nodded along. 

“Yes, he’s a mage but that doesn’t explain anything.” Sapnap said and Dream just nodded.

“I’m not done explaining yet! That’s just something you need to know before the real explanation.” Dream continued patiently. 

“I’m a mage who can see the future.” Dream continued and immediately the hunters wanted to say something again but he stopped them. 

Instead he explained everything he had explained the day before to Philza and Technoblade, to the hunters sitting in front of him. During his talk slowly the hunters started to get more relaxed but you could also see fear growing in their eyes. Not fear of Dream but fear of the dark magic. Dream ended his explanation with his reason for searching for Technoblade. For a few seconds, the hunters were completely silent, digesting everything their former friend had just explained to them. Suddenly Sam got up, walked towards dream and undid the binds that Dream had had on all that time. Dream thanked his former squire with a warm smile and Sam just smiled back. It was George who asked the first question.

“Okay, so why are we here? You’ve found Technoblade.” 

“Well, even Technoblade can’t fight a battle all on his own. Honestly, there are two reasons that I asked Technoblade to bring you here. First, I just really wanted to finally explain to you all why I did what I did. I know it was difficult for all of you and I’m so sorry for that. I should have thought about that but I didn’t. Secondly, you are the best fighters in the Kingdom. We need you on our side not only just for the raw power that the five of you bring, but also to convince the King of readying his army for a battle. I can’t convince the King, he will kill me before I get the chance, so I need either George or Sapnap to do it for me.” Dream explained

“Plus, while you are here, we can train together, just like old times!” he added happily and for a second the hunters had a smile on their face before they realized again what was going on in their beloved Kingdom. 

“What’s your plan for after that though? It’s not like the King will forgive you for what you did.” George asked and Dream looked at his friend before looking away.

“I know. After the battle, I will let you guys take me to the King and face my punishment. I know I deserve it and I don’t want to fight it. I knew what I was getting into and I knew the consequences.” Dream said softly. 

George looked sadly at his friend, but nodded. Somewhere deep in his heart he had hoped that Clay would flee and start a new life somewhere else. However, he knew that that was not his friend’s style. Maybe he would try to kill Clay on the battlefield, so his friend wouldn’t have to face the public humiliation that came with surrendering himself to the King. It was an option he would keep in mind. Maybe even let Sapnap in on it. 

“I… I don’t know.” Sapnap said after a while, he had been quite all this time, not knowing how to react. 

“How can I trust anything you tell me, anything at all after what you did. You have no way to prove that Technoblade really exists and really is the warrior who captured us. You have no way of proving to us that you can see the future. You have no way of proving to us that the dark magic is trying to take over. You have no way to prove that the second son would have really turned out to be a tyrant. You have no way of proving any of it.” Sapnap continued, getting more and more worked up. The others could see the hurt in his eyes but also hear the truth in his words. Why would they believe the criminal they had been hunting for two years. Who literally betrayed them.

“He’s right” Bad muttered.

“Give us a reason, anything, for us to believe you. A reason that we should help you with this plan.” he continued and Dream looked at his former friends. He looked each in their eyes and he could see the pain he had caused them all.

“You don’t need to believe me.” Dream started. 

“You just need to fight the dark magic with me. You can keep me locked up until the war and lock me up again after. You can bring me to the King after, I promise.” he begged his friends and while George and Sam looked convinced, Sapnap, Bad and Antfrost did not.

“How do we know it’s not a trap?” Antfrost asked directly. However, it was Sam who answered instead of Dream.

“I don’t know how we can know it’s not a trap. However I do know that I’ve suspected Dream to be able to see the future for a while. Just think back and how he always seemed so prepared for almost all our attacks. And even before that. I can’t even count how often he made me prepare for an attack for no reason, only for us to actually get attacked like half an hour later. I’m not saying we should fully trust him. But at least the part of him being able to see the future seems right to me. And if the dark magic really is trying to take over, it might be more important to fight the dark magic than to capture Dream. I think we should take up the deal.” Sam explained and Dream looked gratefully at his former squire. 

“I think Sam’s right, Sap.” George stared.

“Let’s just fight the dark magic with him and then we’ll see. We have caught him three times. We’ve practically caught him right now. Even if he’s a mage, he won’t be able to run forever.” George reasoned with Sapnap. Sapnap looked around, at his friends, at his former friend. Badboyhalo and Antfrost already looked kind of convinced. He was the only one left that was really against the plan. However, he also knew that non of them really trusted Dream so at least he would always have his friends behind him, no matter what Dream would do.

“Okay. We’ll help you fight the dark magic. Introduce us to the people here and we can help you plan. But know that if you do anything even a little bit weird I will bring you to the King immediately and personally request for the King to have you executed that same day.” Sapnap said towards Dream, who looked him in his eyes before looking down and nodding. It was a fair deal and Dream knew this.

Chapter Text

“Papa, can I play outside please?” Tubbo asked his dad while going back and forth from his heels to his toes. He already knew the answer, the answer had been the same for the past 2 years and he didn’t expect it to be different this time. But that didn’t stop the child from trying anyway. He just really wanted to play outside like he used to. He wanted to play knight with the knights and practice with his bow and arrow with his dad’s friends! Of course he understood why he wasn’t allowed to play outside. He was already 7 after all! However, yesterday his dad had been very happy so maybe, maybe he was finally allowed to play outside. 

“Hmm… You know what, you can play outside today. Just wait until I have gathered some knights to go with you.” His dad said with a smile and Tubbo’s face lit up like a christmas tree.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou” Tubbo said while hugging his dad.

“However, you have to listen to everything the knights tell you, okay? If they tell you to go inside, you have to go inside immediately. Do you understand?”

“Yes papa!” Tubbo answered happily.

“Can I practice with my bow?” 

“Yes of course! I will send one of the archeres to help you”

“Thank youuu papa!” 

It was weird to go outside after two years but he was so happy about it. Even if he had to take 5 knights and 3 archeres with him, but he didn’t really care about that. Especially because one of the archeres were there to train him instead of guarding him. So he stayed outside as long as he was allowed to and practiced a lot with his bow. He felt so cool when he actually hit his first shot and the archeres were so proud of him. Sadly enough he had to go back inside for dinner a few hours later.

The next day he asked again and his dad let him play outside again. This time he played knight with one of the knights and even played hide and seek (even though he was only allowed to stay within the castle gardens and one of the knights was hiding with him). He couldn’t play outside for very long though, because he had to go follow his classes. He didn’t like the classes but his papa said that they were very important so he went to them and tried his very best. His momma was always sad but when he did good in his classes, his momma would be less sad and he liked making his momma smile. 

The third day he was allowed to go outside again and this time his momma went with him. He played with his momma for a very long time and his momma was smiling the whole time. He knew his momma missed his little brother, he missed his baby brother too! But today his momma did not need to miss his brother! Because she could play with Tubbo and then she wouldn’t need to think about his brother! 

However, on the fourth day this all came to a sudden halt. His dad has let him play outside again until suddenly his dad had ordered him to come back inside and suddenly he was surrounded by not just 5 but 20 knights. His dad looked mad, scarily mad but Tubbo knew it wasn’t directed at him. Tubbo knew his dad well, he knew that face. It could only mean one thing. The scary man with the scary mask was free and maybe coming for him. 

Ever since the black finders arrived on the meadow, the atmosphere had been suffocating due to the extreme tension all around. Even little Tommy wasn’t as energetic as he usually was. Dream had introduced his former friends to the residents of the meadow and Ranboo had gone back home not long after because everything was just so awkward. The black finders had arrived before noon so they started training already in the afternoon after Dream had explained everything. However, they had refused to give Dream a real weapon and while at first Technoblade had protested against this because you need a real weapon to practice, he understood the reason the hunters had so Dream ended up practicing with a fake wooden sword while everyone else practiced with real weapons. It did look a bit silly and Tommy didn’t stop making fun of Dream for it but Dream accepted that he wasn’t going to get any training in any other way. It didn’t really matter either because after the first day of training Philza took over Dream’s training while Technoblade kept training the black finders. 

“Okay, so when you use your magic you have to think of magic as energy flowing through your body. You can keep the energy within yourself, which will help you with your talent. Now I don’t have any experience with seeing the future so I don’t know if you can even control it, but if you could, you would do it by focussing on keeping the energy within yourself. For every talent you have to focus the energy in a different spot. For example, both me and Techno have to focus the energy in our brains to control it. I think that would be the most logical for you as well but I think it’s better that for now we focus on the other things you can do with your magic. We can train seeing the future after the future's looking brighter than it is!” Philza explained jokingly to his new pupil. Dream laughed at Philza and nodded in agreement before Philza went on with his explanation.

“To use your magic for things outside your talent, you have to focus the energy to outside your body. For example, Technoblade heightens his fighting senses by giving himself a layer of magic around him that senses things for him. I think you already naturally do that because your fighting senses are similar to Techno’s, you are just less experienced. However, there is more that you can do with pushing the magic outside your body. You can physically restrain people like I did to your friends, you can more easily brew potions because the magic will know the exact amount that is needed for specific potions, you can expel black magic from somebody's body by running your magic through their head, you can lift small objects and even grab objects from far away. But, the further you need to extend your magic and the more you want to restrain or lift, the more energy it uses. So brewing a potion doesn’t use a lot of energy, but grabbing your sword that your enemy tossed away does.” 

“So how do I train my magic stamina then? If it all uses so much energy?” Dream asked confused and Philza just smiled at him.

“The same way you always train stamina, by using your magic a lot. Techno has almost infinite stamina with the amount he uses his magic. I’ve been training for decenia so I have a lot of stamina too, but you don’t. The coming month you’ll have to fight using your magic as much as you can so you will have some stamina when the real fight starts. I’m afraid that during the real battle you won’t be able to use your magic as much as you want and you will have to pace it. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” 

Dream nodded at Philza and tried to use the information he received to practice his magic, however it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. He had never actively used his magic before and thus it took him a lot of tries to even feel it flow inside him. It took him a lot of attempts but in the late afternoon he managed to move some of the leaves around him. It looked pitiful but Philza didn’t make fun of him, instead he praised him and encouraged him to keep on practicing. So he did, and the next day again, and again. At the end of the week, he could move heavier objects around and he was much better at recognizing his own magic. 

“I think it might be time for you to train with Technoblade now. You understand your magic and have some control over it, that’s my job done. But to practice better fighting you should really train with Techno. You’ve seen how much your friends have improved in the past week. You need that same improvement if we want to have a chance against the black magic.”  Philza said after the 8th day of practicing and Dream nodded while panting. The magic was using a lot of energy but he felt that it was already getting easier. 

“Thank you Philza. Really. You could have just turned me away, I’m a very wanted criminal after all. But you listened to my story and even decided to train me and my friends. Thank you.”  Dream said sincerely and Phil just nodded.

“No problem mate” 

And that’s how Dream, the black finders, the two mages and the two children spent the rest of the month. Everyday Dream, Techno and the Black finders would make up early to continue training and while the atmosphere was still awkward, it had definitely gotten better after a few weeks. Philza had also started training Tommy and Wilbur, it being more in medicine and cooking then in fighting, but still they were being prepared to go with their adoptive dads to the battlefield. Even though the last word had not been said about this yet because while Techno thought it would be better to take the children with them, Philza was convinced that they shouldn’t. For now, however, the Children received training so they could both take care of themselves and others. All of them were preparing for what was to come, even if they didn’t want to think about what was to come.