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Dream stood in the middle of the room, with his hands up and all weapons pointed towards him. And yet, Tommy didn´t feel the victory. It just didn´t feel right. There right in front of him stood his enemy, the monsters in his nightmares, the person that made his life hell, unarmed and with bloodied clothes. He didn´t look defeated, he stood with to much pride for something that should be humiliating. That man just died twice by his hands. Tommy couldn’t bear that he seemingly was to week to really hurt this Dream.
He needed to do more. He wanted to see him plead. He wanted to see him beg for mercy only Tommy could give.
What was there important to Dream. He took all his Items. His weapons, his amor. The only person Dream still had left, just betrayed him. He had nothing anymore. Or had he.
There was one thing that fucker clinched to like his life depended on it. Tommy had never seen him without it.
His mask.
That was it. That was what Tommy needed to make this right. “Take off the mask!” The room stilled. No one had expected him to do more than what he already did and especially not this. One word cut through the silence “What?” that was all Dream could thing of. Only one time in his life had someone attempted to take his mask off and they had faced the consequences right away. After that the rumours spread and everyone was to scared to ask.
“You heard me. Take that stupid mask off, bitch.”
“Believe me. You don´t want this mask off.”
“Yes. Yes, I do and your gonna take it off now.”
“No, I won’t”
Tommy took a step forward. “Yes, you will, or I’ll do it.” He took another step.
But before he could get any further Sapnap stepped in. “Now you won´t. Neither he nor you will touch that fucking mask. Understood.” With that he pointed his sword at Dream, who shook his hands a little bit in the air as if wanting to say “I´m not touching anything, see” as a response.
Tommy didn´t understood. Why was Sapnap saying that? It was just a stupid mask, one that haunted him everywhere he went but still just a mask. “It´s just a mask.” “No, it´s not. It´s dangerous.”
“How the fuck is it dangerous?”
“It´s- I- “Sapnap could feel the threatening stare of the thing behind that mask, “Just believe me. You haven´t seen what I´ve seen. Please it´s bad.”
“Now that’s Bullshit. Sapnap what are you talking about?” that was Quackity who called out.
Sapnap hesitated but then he started to explain: “The mask is safety, not for him but for us. Without it we couldn´t really interact with him.” Dream let his hands drop. Something in his posture had changed, if you looked close enough you could say he looked disappointed. But Sapnap ignored it. “So, you all know what Dream is, don´t you. But you don´t know what that means. Those who cannot be definite as mortal or immortal.”
Dream tried to interrupt: “Just bring me into the prison and shut up.”
Still Sapnap carried on. “Those who have treats of either side. They have to pay a tribute. It makes them powerful beyond the mortal realm, but it brings flaws which make them less than actual gods. On this server are a lot of those half-gods. Technoblade, Philza, Foohlish. They all made a tribute to gain power. And Dream gave his face.”
“Enough.” The half-gods tone was cold and filled with anger. “You have no idea of what you’re talking about.”
“I´m only repeating what you´ve told me.”
“And clearly you didn´t listen. But it doesn´t matter. You have no right to talk about this.”
“I don´t need a right given by you.”
“Shut up”
Dream took only one step, but it was seen as a treat by the Blaze-hybrid. He swung his sword and Dream dodged. His body worked on pure muscle memory as he attacked with a speed that shouldn´t be possible in his condition. With that he had a moment of momentum and he managed to unarm his opponent.
Only then did the rest realise what was happening and joined the fight. It was pure chaos. Dream fought like a caged animal and the rest struggled to work together to defeat him.
Suddenly everything stopped as a click was heard, and the mask fell to the ground.
“Don´t look at him.” At Sapnap´s shout everyone jumped away from him and shielded their eyes.
All but Tommy he looked right at him. At the man crouched at the ground and at his face or that what ones was his face.
Now it was a dark void. There were no facial features and it looked like corrupted code.
Dreams face was a black glitch.
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Dream felt the rush of pure power through his veins as he stood, his mask disregarded on the ground. He misted this felling, he really misted this, so much it nearly made him smile.
He looked around and took the scene in. most of them were hunched over with their eyes down, some were even on the ground. They were to weak to stand against the force that now filled the room.
He stood tall in the centre of it all.
Without weapons, without a shield, without amor.
He stood mighty above them all.
In this state, there was only one person you could take him on. To his luck Technoblade wasn´t here.
So, he just needed to worry about his next move. At this moment his mind only gave him two useful options. First, he could go with them really obvious voluntarily or second he could just leave.
He chose the second.
But before he could do that, he had to attach his strings new to ensure that he could continue his game.
“Well, I just want to be clear. This was your fault. Mostly Sapnap´s and Tommy’s. And Sam´s who just tried to stab me and that why I had to take the mask off. Look, I didn´t want it to come this far. I would´ve come with you. I never used my powers against you. But you forced my now. “His eyes fell on Sapnap. That coward just exposed him, now he needed to know what it mend to disappoint him. “I´m going to give you an explanation now and a demonstration on top.”
“So, Sapnap.” The man froze instantly. “Would you be so friendly and explain the secret you just spilled.” It wasn´t a question. It was a command.
Dream scoffed at the pathetic try to get away from him. It only made him grab his old friend harder than he intended to and make him look him in the face. The Blaze-Hybrid went numb immediately, he didn´t fight anymore and he moved unnaturally, but the worst was the will-less expression in his eyes.
Dream hated this expression. The thing standing in front of him wasn´t a person anymore, it was a pupped made to obey. He hated this sight. He had used his ability thousands of times and he won´t hesitated to do it again. He had commanded entire armies, with every single soldier having this expression on the face. He still hated it. It was so much more fun if they had their full will and still obeyed every single word of his.
He had given a command and his pupped now obeyed. He began to speak with the most emotionless voice one could imagen: “The Mask is a medium, which oppresses his ability. This implies that his full power is realised when the mask is removed. Those powers contain complete control over every living being, which looks him in the face.”
“Exactly” Dream snapped and released Sapnap from his grip. He collapsed immediately and stayed on the ground. Dream turned away in despise. He had nothing to say to him.
“For those who couldn´t quite follow that means you have absolutely zero chanced against me. So, don´t even try. I´m gonna go now.” He picked up his mask and walked towards the portal. No one dared to stop him or even move.
But before he could enter the portal, he turned towards them once again. “Before I forget. No one leaves this room in the next five hours and don´t even think of following me. The next time someone disappoints me, I won´t be so kind.” He paused. “Although someone has already disappointed me. A betrayal even. Punz, come here.” His voice was cold.
Like that, only to people new, that Punz moved willingly to the side of the villain.
At the sight of his loyal mercenary Dream nearly regretted, what he needed to do to him for his next move.
He looked over the vault one more time.
This didn´t went liked he had planned, but it gave him new options he could choose from.
An interesting new twist in his game.
With that they left.