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Tommy landed in a well-trained and, if he said so himself and he did, perfectly executed crouch. With even better stealth he crept through the massive, fuckoff room to the giant, fuckoff computer. No sound could be heard from the Greatest Hero to ever live, Theseus
No, he was as silent as a wolf, or a worm, fuck yeah!
Though his breathing sounds amplified by the quiet surrounding him. And yeah, maybe his boots made a little squick every time they reconnect with the metal floor. So just in case he tightened his hands around his fight sticks. Wilbur had told him about a thousand times to just call them escrima sticks, but they’re his to name and he likes to annoy Wilbur.
He only started to notice the faint buzzing filling the space when he stopped in front of the control panel. It was a constant, slightly changing tone that nestled itself deep in his ear canal.
He could feel his hackles rising.
He looked at the screen.
The login page mocked him with its flashing line blinking at him in its box.
But Theseus could not be stopped, only stalled, so he put away his sticks and started filling in random words and phrases. Tubbo would probably have an actual tactic to break through, but he wasn’t the one to cleverly find the hideout of their arch-enemy, so that was his loss.
So Theseus stood there, entering password after password. The first few times the screen blared in red, he jumped in his skin. After a while it mingled together with the buzzing and the sound of his fingers hammering on the keys with increasing strength as his frustration grew.
After a few dozen guesses he slammed his fists down.
“Fuck!”
He stepped back and gripped his hair.
“Maybe I can try.”
A familiar voice sai d over his right shoulder.
A hand took hold of the same shoulder before he could spin around and raise his sticks in a defensive position.
A tingling sensation rushed through his body.
His heartbeat rose.
He couldn’t move.
He could barely breathe, only shallowly.
Dream appeared into his vision as he leaned over his shoulder, putting more weight on it. Pain shot from the still healing wound that Dream had to know was there, since he caused it in the big, headline worthy fight they had a few days ago.
He must have remembered that, cause he squeezed it just a little tighter as he typed something on the keyboard.
It happened too quick for Theseus to read it. When he pressed enter the screen bathed them both in its green light before showing a cluttered mess of files, maps and various videos showing what looked like security camera footage.
Dream shifted to lean more heavily on Theseus’ shoulder with his arm. Theseus winced “So… What did you want to see?” He turned his head to face him.
The smile on his mask seemed to look at him expectantly.
Theseus could barely push a “What the fuck.” out from between his lips. Since when could Dream paralyse people?
“Okay, I’ll choose.” he said with more glee than should be possible to put into those words. “How about your friends?” a strange tint entered his voice when he said that word. Then it immediately disappeared again “You must be itching to know what they’re up to. Since you left them to fend for themselves while trying to catch me and all.” He chuckled.
Theseus wanted to deck him in the face so bad, but all he could do was bare his teeth and snarl at the bastard.
Dream clicked on one of the maps, causing it to fill up the entirety of the screen. “Good job following my clues, by the way.” Theseus tried to ignore the condescending comment, by figuring out what it was for. “I worked really hard on those.” Dream selected the lonely green dot that blinked in an area that Tommy was starting to recognise as the docks. Wasn’t that where Tubbo and Ranboo-
In a flash security footage took over the map. It showed the inside of a warehouse. The camera was pointed at Ranboo, who’s tail flicked nervously as he was wringing his hands.
They were looking at Tubbo, who in turn, was working on what Theseus could only guess based on the general shape and mess of wires sticking out of it was a bomb. It definitely wasn’t one of Tubbo’s own. The bright green smiley face on its hull was enough proof of that.
He started to feel light-headed. How long had they been trying to diffuse it? It can’t have been more than a few minutes, Tubbo would have been done already. Black spots began appearing in his vision. The hand on his shoulder might as well have been around his throat.
Through the blood rushing in his ears he vaguely picks up a thoughtful hum and scattered bits of a sentence “Effective… than I predicted”.
Next thing he knew, he was on the floor. The metal floor felt cool under his knees and hands. He gasped. Dusty air filled his lungs. He coughed.
The dancing spots slowly lessened with each shaky breath.
A set of combat boots filled his vision. Looking up revealed that fucking mask again.
Tilted slightly to one side, like Theseus was some mildly interesting rock.
The first thing he thought to say was “They’ll stop you.”
Dream showed no reaction. Theseus pushed himself back on his feet.
“Bee boy will destroy that bomb before you-” He swayed a little, catching himself on the edge of the control panel. “Before you can say ‘mimimi I’m Dream. I’m the biggest bastard to ever set foot in this city’”
Dream just laughed “Oh, that’s no bomb.”
Theseus had regained his composure enough to grab his sticks and settle into a fighting stance.
“No, that was just to keep them occupied” Slowly Dream began to circle around him. Theseus made sure to always keep him in his sights “Wouldn’t want them to interrupt our chat.”
Step.
His earlier words about clues suddenly rung through Theseus’ mind again.
Fuck.
He fucked up.
“What do you want from me?” He tried to keep his voice steady, he really did.
Step.
“I want to make an offer.”
Theseus scoffed “And why don’t I just kick your arse instead?”
Step.
“Well…” He pulled a remote trigger out of nowhere with a flourish. “If you try anything, you can say goodbye to your team.”
Theseus eyed the trigger, Dreams finger poised to press down.
Step.
“You’re bluffing. You just said there are no explosives.”
Step.
“Oh” Dream said “No, I didn’t say that. I said that that” he used his other hand to point at the screen, where Tubbo was currently hurriedly talking with Ranboo. He paid no mind to the mess of wires anymore. “isn’t a bomb. I never said anything about there being no explosives at all.”
Step.
Theseus held his hands up a little higher, maybe if he could reach his earpiece he could warn them. He would leave himself open to an attack, but he could deal with that.
Step.
Dream didn’t seem to notice as he continued “And you could never guess where. Though I’d like you to try.”
Step.
Theseus inched his hand just a bit closer to his ear. “Where? The fucking floor?”
“Wrong!” Dream made jazz hands of all things, keeping a hold of the trigger by pushing it into the palm of his hand with his thumb “It’s Ranboo!”
Theseus froze “What?!” There was so much wrong with that answer. How did Dream know his civilian identity. How the fuck could he ever put a fucking bomb in them. “HOW!” his voice bounced around the room. His hands were back where they started.
Dream stopped circling, but continued to speak as gleefully calm as ever. “Can you imagine how surprised I was when they hadn’t even found the tracker. Well, they hadn’t removed it, so I doubt they found any of the safeguards I put in him.” he shrugged “But who knows, maybe they did find the small charge. The real question is,” He put his thumb back on the button “would you risk the possibility?”
From how they where stood now, Theseus had full view of the screen. It no longer showed the inside of the warehouse. Instead it followed Ranboo and Tubbo as they hurriedly made their way out of the docks. The footage switched cameras every time one couldn’t follow them anymore.
To be more specific, the cameras where following Ranboo, always focused on him.
Theseus’ eyes shot back to Dream.
“ You’re lying. When would you even have done that? ”
“ Didn’t they tell you? ” When Theseus just gave a confused look, Dream started to laugh “Oh my god, they didn’t!” He was full on wheezing now.
“What do you mean? Didn’t who tell me what?!” His knuckles where starting to hurt with how hard he was gripping his sticks.
In place of giving an actual answer Dream said “Then again, why would they? They clearly don’t respect you. Hell, they didn’t even let you choose your own hero name. I mean, everybody already thinks it was Technoblade who pick ed ‘Theseus’ and your old logo didn’t even match ”
Theseus’ face flushed red. He had tried so hard to convince them that he could pick his own name, but eventually Phil vetoed it.
“Tell me, what did BM stand for,” Dream asked “Boy Menace?”
To say Theseus was seething felt like an understatement. He wanted to wipe that smug smile of his face and then do the same to the one that was no doubt hidden under the mask. He looked at the trigger.
“What didn’t they tell me? How do you know Ra- Ender?” he demanded. “ And what do you want from me!? ”
“ Ranboo,” he said “was my first protegee and since your mentors took him when they kicked me out, I need a new one. Which is just as well. I’ve found a better candidate anyway. ” The smile was audible in his voice.
Theseus couldn’t believe how confidently Dream was spouting all that bullshit and expecting him to believe it. “Ranboo would never work with you. You where kicked out of the league because you were experimenting on people.”
“ Well, he still had some room for improvement. I just tried to speed up the process. ”
The implications of that statement hit Theseus like a fist in his stomach.
“but lets not talk about past failures. Instead here’s the deal. You become my new protegee and I won’t blow of their head. Just hand over your mask and weapons.”
Theseus looked back at the screen one last time. Tubbo and Ranboo flew and teleported past respectively. They were looking for something.
They were looking for someone.
They were looking in the wrong place.
Theseus shifted his gaze to Dream. He stuck out his escrima to him. Dream took them as he tucked away the trigger somewhere he could quickly reach it. The escrima he put on his back next to his axe.
Then he stretched his arm out to Theseus, palm up.
Theseus hesitated, then slowly pealed of the domino and placed it in his hand. His face felt horribly naked.
“Now.” Dream said “what’s your real name.”
Tommy opened his mouth and told him.