Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The blond looked down at the wings, squinting at his patchwork. They seemed functional, but the hole that tore in them had been pretty big. He hoped he managed to fix them well enough. He picked up the leather wings and carefully pressed them back into themselves. He sighed and threw the elytra over his back and stood up. The wind blew through his hair as he looked down from the cliff he stood on at the lands below. A massive forest was to the left, and a great chasm took up most of the land to his right. The mists were beginning to roll in on the wind behind him, filling the air with a glowing turquoise haze. He didn’t want to stick around long enough for them to reach him 

He pulled his mask on and let himself fall forward off the cliff. Wind rushed past his ears and he reached back, releasing his wings. They caught the updraft and he was soaring over the land. Once he had a steady momentum, he spared a glance down at the obsidian chasm. Deep, deep within he could make out the soft glow of the plants and skulk within, no doubt filled with deadly creatures. Nobody went into the deep dark. Nobody risked it unless they would likely die either way.

The moon was beginning to rise over the world, and the blond double checked that his gloves and mask were on. He didn’t want to be bothered by the moonlight tonight. His supplies were running low, and he needed to find a safe place to camp and forage. But with the mists nearing the area, it wasn’t very safe to stay around. He’d have to make do until they passed out he out flew them. 

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The blond all but crashed into a swamp. He stumbled and fell flat on his face not far from the steaming water. He shuddered to think what would have happened had he landed in the water. Even on land the tiny pink piranhas eyed him dangerously. He was far enough out from the mists now that he shouldn’t have to worry about them for a few days, giving him time to forage. 

The man pulled his tent out of his bag and set it up plenty of feet away from the swamp. Once done, he stepped back to make sure the tent was set up correctly. The damn thing was more patches and repairs than its original material, making it all multicolored and oddly textured. Some places were made of admittedly weak fabric, letting in rain and cold air, while other patches were of stronger material that kept out even light. All in all, it looked like shit, and the man couldn’t be happier with it.

Now, he had foraging to do. 

The blond dropped his elytra and main bag, taking a smaller one for his finds, and walked off through the trees, keeping in mind the direction he came from. He quickly spotted a bunch of mushrooms and plucked them up with his gloved hands, checking their stems to be sure they weren’t hollow. These particular fungi had a near identical evil twin that would make any who ate it sick and hallucinate for days, unlike the real ones which made for a good lunch. The main difference: the poisonous ones had hollow stems. Lucky for him none of the ones he’d found were hollow, so he chucked them all in his bag.

The blond stood and moved on from his mushroom find, proceeding to gather some berries, plant roots and edible leaves. He made his way back to his camp, careful to avoid the nest of tiny dew scorpions that was hidden in some vines he passed. The swamp came into view, along with his tent, and the fucking mutant stealing his things . He gasped and ran over to his tent, the tall boy with mutations and scars scrambling back up against a tree, holding one of the man’s knives in his hand. 

“Give that back!” The man demanded, pulling his own weapon off his back which was considerably more impressive; an obsidian sickle he’d attached to the end of a staff. It was basically a scythe, but he wasn’t one to get technical. 

The mutant cowered and chucked the knife at him, the blade flying past the man’s leg, slicing open his calf as it flew. To his surprise, the mutant gasped in horror, holding his hands up in front of his mouth in shock.

The blond tilted his head in confusion. “What are you doing out here? You look young,” He asked, looking the teen over. He was tall, and the whole left side of his body was covered in moonlight burn scars. The blond winced in sympathy. Along with the scars, he also had mutations. Namely the black horn protruding from his head like some weird unicorn, and the fact that the right side of his mouth seemed to stretch across his face more, even to the point of taking up half his cheek. Other smaller features included claws and blackened parts of his skin, but the man was more focussed on the fact that he’d been stealing.

“I’m not that young… I don’t think,” The mutant mumbled. He looked up at the blond, his bi-colored hair almost long enough to cover his purple, pupil-less eyes. “I- I’m sorry, I don’t have anything else that I took. I was just trying to find food,”

The blond’s heart clenched with sympathy. Fuck, I’m gonna help this kid, aren’t I? He thought to himself. “Well,” He sighed. “I suppose I have a bit to spare,”

The teen smiled weakly.

Chapter Text

The man sat down in front of the firepit he’d dug and threw in some sticks and branches. He lit them up with his old lighter and blue green flames burst into existence. Out of the corner of his eye he was the mutant teen stare in awe. Chuckling to himself the blond moved back to grab some of the food he’d gathered. “Roasted mushrooms sound alright to you?” He asked the teen.

He nodded eagerly, still sat up against the tree with his long legs bunched up in front of him. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to waste your edibles on me-”

“No, it’s alright. There’s more around here, I’m sure. In fact, I even caught a sweet chicken that was nested near the swamp, so we’ve got eggs and meat if you want some,” He pulled the fluffy bird over and held it up for the teen to see. He blinked in surprise and nodded slowly, so the man got to work cleaning off the feathers.

“So, what’s your story?” The blond asked as he pulled handfuls of feathers off the bird. “You don’t normally see people your age out here on their own. Why aren’t you in a city or settlement?” 

The mutated boy sighed and scratched the scarred half of his face. “I don’t really know… I probably came from some city, though I don’t really remember.” He paused, looking into the fire distantly, “I’ve been out here a long time. I didn’t have much when I woke up either. Just some shorts and a mostly empty bag. I… I’m guessing that I was there all through the night with a full moon, because I’ve got these burns all over the side that I wasn’t lying on,”

The man grimaced, imagining the devastation the moonbeams caused to the kid’s skin. Those burns were no joke, especially from the full moon light. They damaged nerves and fucked with bone density after long exposure. He wondered if that’s why the kid looked so thin. “That sucks, mate” He muttered, cutting a piece of meat off the sweet chicken and holding it on a stick over the fire.

“So, what does this taste like? The chicken I mean,” The mutant asked awkwardly.

The man smiled. “It’s kind of like a normal chicken, but chewier and sweet. It’s weird,” He replied and handed the piece of meat to the teen once it was done.

They carefully took it, but made no move to take a bite. 

“It’s not poisoned, you know,” The blond said jokingly, but the teen still seemed anxious.

“I- I know, I just, I’ve never eaten around anyone before. And my mouth is weird from the mutations and stuff,” He mumbled, wringing his fingers together. 

The man blinked, a bit surprised that that’s what was bothering him. “Oh. Well, uhm, I don’t care either way, but I can look away if you want?” He offered.

The teen nodded slowly. “That’d be nice, thank you. Oh- And we haven’t really introduced ourselves. I’ve just been calling you ‘guy’ in my head. My name is Ranboo, I think… Uhm, what’s yours?” He asked with a nervous smile.

The man returned the smile, “I’m Philza. You can call me Phil.”

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Phil rolled up his tent and shoved it into his bag, then carefully doused the hot coals from the fire with the water from the swamp. He double checked that he had all his gear and turned to leave when he spotted Ranboo. 

Shit .

Phil had admittedly forgotten about the teen. He carefully walked up to where he slept up against a tree and shook his shoulder, “Ranboo?”

The mutant blinked open his eyes, adjusting to the light. “Mm?” He mumbled as he sat upright, stretching out and much to Phil’s horror, causing spike-like bones along his spine to just tear their way out of his skin.

“Ack-! Are you okay?” He asked worriedly.

Ranboo turned and looked over his shoulder at the little bits of blood running down his back. “Oh. I’m fine. I can’t really feel it anymore. Pretty sure it’s part of my mutations,” He said plainly.

Phil blinked. “Ya think ?” He sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Would’ve been nice to know this beforehand. Kinda thought you’d majorly fucked up your spine,”

Ranboo lowered his head, “Sorry…”

“No no, don’t be. It’s not your fault. Do you, think there's a purpose to that or is it just a meaningless mutation?” He wondered aloud. 

The teen tilted his head in thought, “Hm. Never thought about it. They come out when I’m scared though, maybe it’s for defense, like if something grabs me?”

That made sense, Phil thought. He nodded before speaking again, “Well anyway, I need to get going before the mists catch up. Do you want to come with? I’ll give you a shirt.” He offered.

Ranboo’s lit up, “Really?! I- I mean, yes. Yes please, thank you so much. I was ready for you to just leave and go back to your travels or whatever. But I’ll go with you- And I swear I’ll make myself useful!”

Phil smiled, albeit a little worried about the kid. “Alright. Here,” He tossed him one of his spare t-shirts. “I fell into a dust bunny burrow and got covered in their dust, so the whole left side is stained red. But other than that it’s only got a couple of patches on it,”

Ranboo smiled and slipped the green and red shirt on. It hung off his lanky body and made him look even skinnier than he was but it was better than nothing. “Thank you so much, Phil.” He smiled.

The blond nodded. “Alright, let’s get a move on! Hopefully we can find a settlement soon, let me tell you I’ve been meaning to stock up on supplies for a while ,” 

Chapter Text

Tommy jumped off a rock, landing a particularly cool landing, and totally not falling flat on his face. He quickly stood up and brushed dust off of him. He looked up, thankful that Niki hadn’t seen his not-failure. The woman was busy looking out over the plains. Tommy walked up next to her and sat down in the grass. “Where are we going again?” He asked quietly, flicking some lint off his pants.

The mutant shot a glare at him before sighing and rubbing her forehead. “We’re trying to get out of the plains, Tommy. It’s too out in the open, anything could attack us out here, not to mention we’re in direct danger of full moonbeams.” She whispered, sparing another glance around the miles of grass.

Tommy sighed. He hated moonbeams. Despite being duller than sunlight they burned , in a weird way too. He didn’t like the cold itch they left under his skin or the restless paranoia that came with it. He had plenty of mild white burn scars on his hands and knees where his hands were ripped. 

Niki suddenly went deathly still, her strange frilly ears pricked up and tilted to her side. She slowly turned to the same direction her ears faced, eyes scanning over the long grasses. Tommy knew Niki had heightened hearing, which had saved their lives more than a few times. He slowly stood up and looked to where Niki’s gaze was when she spoke. “Tommy, run,” She said urgently. Tommy froze for a moment, processing what she said, when suddenly shrill shrieks filled the air and a whole fucking swarm of airhogs flew out of the grass, their beady blue eyes locking onto Niki and him. The one in front, clearly the queen due to its larger horns and yellow eyes, screeched and the whole bunch of them shot towards them.

Niki grabbed Tommy by the wrist and bolted.

“Where did they all come from?!” The boy asked as Niki dragged him along at rapid speeds through the grass.

“There must be a nest beneath the ground. Come on, I don’t want to end up skewered with their horn-tusk things!” Niki yelled over the rush of wind and grass in their ears.

Tommy nodded and ran as fast as he could with her. The airhogs had to consider them too far away eventually right? They were already a ways away from the nest. He spared a look over his shoulder and the damn things were still on their tail. Despite their small size, about the same as a large cat, these things were vicious when it came to protecting their nests.

The teen stumbled as Niki pulled him into a tight turn and booked it for a fucking chasm . “No- Niki, you’re great, biggest woman ever, but are you INSANE?!” Tommy shouted in disbelief.

The mutant only smiled. Tommy screamed as she pulled him with and jumped down into the depths. The surface’s light quickly faded as they fell down into the darkness. Glowing blue lights filled his vision as he fell, scattered all over the rocky obsidian walls in some sort of weird moss. Eventually they fell past the chasm and into an absolutely massive cave. The ground rapidly approached and Tommy held his free hand over his eyes in fear, screaming as they fell towards the ground.

Then they fell into the moss covered ground, and strangely, there was no pancaking or splattered guts involved. Tommy opened his eyes to find that the moss had not only softened his fall, but was holding itself together, likely over a hole in the cave floor, like a spiderweb. He looked over at Niki and gasped, “Bitch, your eyes are glowing!”

Niki looked around in surprise, the soft light from her eyes illuminating wherever she looked. “Sweet, built in flashlight.”

Tommy burst into laughter, Niki joining in. “You drag us, down to the pits of fuckin’ hell, and all you have to say about your spooky ass eyes is basically just ‘Yo cool upgrade’?!” He choked out between laughs. Niki just shrugged, chuckling as she climbed out of the moss.

“So,” Tommy began, inhaling deeply once he finished laughing. “What’s the plan now? Get eaten by deep dark monsters? Get out brains infected by skulk?”

“What would happen if we ate it?” Niki mumbled, staring strangely at a chunk of the glowy moss. She slowly raised it up to her mouth.

“No!” Tommy tackled her, whacking the moss out of her hand. “What is wrong with you?!”

Niki burst into laughter again. “Man, you actually thought I was gonna eat it. I’m just messin’ with you,”

Tommy scowled. “Very not pog. I was worried for you, but maybe I’ll just take my friendship and concerns elsewhere,” He huffed and stood up.

“Mhm. Let me know if you survive the deep dark on your own,” Niki said with a smirk.

Tommy sighed. “Why must you treat me this way?”

“Oh calm down. I’m not doing anything. Now come on, we gotta get moving. Hopefully we can find a way out of this cave before we lose our minds to the spores in the air,”

Tommy nodded and followed after her. “Wait. THAT CAN HAPPEN?!”

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Tommy walked tiredly after Niki as they weaved through the dull stalagmites. They’d been walking for hours. Tommy was honestly starting to believe they’d never get out.

“Niki, this is pointless…” He mumbled, dragging his feet along the ground. “We’re never getting out of here.”

Niki hummed in question, turning to the teen. “What makes you say tha- Ack! Tommy!”

Tommy looked up slowly. “What?” He asked in an uninterested tone.

“Y-your leg!” She pointed down at his leg, her eyes wide with terror.

Tommy blinked slowly, looking down at his left leg. Clinging to his calf with its fangs sunk into his flesh, was a massive, fluffy, spider. “Oh…” Was all he said before he fell over, unconscious.

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Tommy woke up feeling dizzy. The world swayed before him as he lay still, not wanting to move. Colors and lights blurred together and he giggled lightly, reaching his hand out towards them.

“Man, you’re really out of it aren’t you?” Someone mumbled above him. 

The teen looked up to see Niki looking down on him, a concerned expression on her face. Tommy smiled. “Nikiii, your eyes are glowing,” He chuckled, waving his hand in front of her eyes.

The mutant smiled. “I know, Toms.”

Tommy moved his gaze back down to take in his surroundings. One thing he noticed was that the reason the world was swaying was because Niki was carrying him. “Heheh, strong woman. Pog. You’re pog, Niki.” He stated seriously. “Mhm. Biggest woman ever.” 

Niki chuckled, “Thanks Tommy. That spider must’ve had some weird venom or some shit ‘cause now you’re all loopy. I wonder how long it lasts,” She looked back up, continuing to walk through the caves. There were more lights now, brighter than before. Focussing up on the cave walls and ceiling Tommy noticed that the lights were from berries growing from vines. Soft yellow glows and blue and pink, some tangled together in messy bunches.

“S’pretty here. Are we almost out of the caves, Niki?” He asked, burying his face in her arm. He still felt so tired.

“Awh, c’mon Toms, don’t fall asleep. I don’t know how potent that venom was. We should be out of the caves soon enough, I’ve been climbing up every so often so I know we’re going higher at least,”

Tommy nodded weakly. “Tha’s good…” He slurred, his head lolling to the side.

“No no no no no no- Tommy, Tommy c’mon, why- why don’t you talk to me about something?” She said quickly, picking up the pace as she hurried through the caves.

“Mm… Can’ think ‘f anythin’...” He mumbled. Tears fell on his cheeks, glowing oddly. He looked up, seeing Niki looking down at him and crying. “Oh Niki, don’ cry. S’okay, y’re a big woman. Strong, ‘m jus’ tired…” He smiled weakly and put his hand on her arm. “‘M just gon’ take a nap…” He closed his eyes.

“Oh no Tommy, no-” Niki inhaled deeply, “Just hold on,” She looked up at an opening letting light in the cave. 

Chapter Text

Tommy woke up to rain. Lots of rain. He squinted, hissing as the salty water stinging his eyes. The teen looked up, holding a hand over his eyes to protect them from the rain, and gasped. There was so much water above them, seemingly endless as it went on for miles and miles. The water raining down was merely the little droplets falling from the extreme mass of water suspended in midair above them.

They were in the Falling Sea. Tommy looked around frantically, calming down once he spotted Niki, passed out slumped over a large rock. She looked exhausted. She had to have been if she’d carried him all the way here. At least the water wasn’t very high at the moment, so the sea must have very recently reset. Within a few months it would all be down again, and some mysterious force in the air would send it back up. It was risky being here. If they stuck around too long they’d be swimming in trouble, literally.

Tommy stood up, ankle deep in water, and walked over to Niki. His vision spun a bit and he was really hungry, but other than that he felt okay. “Niki, Niki c’mon. Wake up, we could drown ,” He said dramatically, shaking the mutant by her shoulder. 

Niki snorted and jerked up, blinking groggily and tilting her head. “T’mmy? Ack- Tommy!” She jumped up, splashing water all over their already soaked clothes. “You’re awake! How do you feel? Are you nauseous or light headed? Can you see alright?” She asked frantically, looking him over head to toe.

Tommy chuckled and held up his hands. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Though I can’t see very well with all this rain in my eyes. Why are we here anyway?” He asked.

“Oh- I was trying to get away from that spider,” She pointed over to the nearby beach, where the spider that practically mauled Tommy’s leg was sitting.

Tommy blinked in surprise. “It’s been following us? Even out of the caves, and all the way out here ?” He couldn’t believe it. The stupid bug was persistent as fuck. It must really want him dead.

“Yeah. I tried shooting it a few times but not much happened, it just screamed and backed off for like two minutes,” Niki sighed. “I don’t really want to go back over there with it watching us like that. I think it’s out for your death or something. Or maybe it got a taste of you and wants to finish its meal.”

Tommy shuddered. “Hope not. My manly legs are not for chompin’.” He said seriously and ignored Niki’s confused look. “Let’s go show that thing who’s boss!”

“I dunno, Toms, you’re still healing- Hey, wait up!” The mutant called and ran after the teen, splashing up water with her hurried steps.

Tommy walked right up onto the sandy beach and up to the spider which was already scuttling towards him. The boy looked down at the spider with a serious expression, scowling at its deep red eyes. “So, you got a problem with me, I hear.” He said calmly.

The spider took a few steps towards him, then jumped on his leg. Tommy screamed and tried to shake it off, and Niki ran up next to him trying to grab it. “Get it off, get it off!” Tommy screamed.

Niki pulled hard on the spider, successfully prying it off and falling back into the sand with an “oomph!”. As the spider came off there was the sickening of tearing flesh and both Niki and Tommy stared at the spot where a small chunk was missing from Tommy’s leg, before the boy started screaming .

“WHY CAN’T I FEEL THAT?!” He yelled.

“WHAT?!” Niki shouted back, standing up and looking from his leg to his expression in confusion.

“IT DOESN’T HURT! I CAN’T FEEL IT!” He exclaimed loudly.

Niki shook the spider in the midst of her terror. “WHY ARE WE STILL YELLING?!”

“I DON’T KNOW!”

The two quieted down after that, both looking down in heavy discomfort at Tommy’s leg. “Wait, what the fuck is that?” Tommy asked, pointing to the spider’s mouth.

Niki looked down, trying not to gag at the sight of the chunk of Tommy’s flesh in the spider’s mouth. But along with it was a skulk worm, a parasitic little bastard that turned hosts into zombie-like husks of their former selves. Niki’s mouth fell open in shock while the spider devoured the worm, then looked up at her blinking its big red eyes.

“Nope!” Niki said and chucked the spider to the side. 

Tommy yelped and dived over, catching the spider in his arms and effectively getting sand all over his wound. Niki sighed, knowing she’d have to clean it. “You can’t just chuck him around like that! He saved my life!” Tommy exclaimed.

“You don’t know that! It might’ve been trying to get a snack, then it would have finished you off!” Niki argued, glaring down at the raccoon sized spider. “It was in the deep dark, nothing down there is good, Tommy. You know this.” She said in a softer tone, trying to reason with him.

Tommy huffed and pulled the spider close. “Hmph. He is not evil. He saved me. You’re being very not pog right now, Niki,”

The mutant groaned in annoyance and dragged her hand down her face. “Gods, you’re being ridiculous…”

Tommy ignored her, holding the spider up in front of him and smiling. “I’m gonna call you Shroud”

Chapter Text

Phil panted and leaned up against a tree. How the fuck did they get out of that alive? He looked over at Ranboo who was doing virtually the same thing, although looking significantly more exhausted than he was. The poor kid looked like he’d been through a tornado. “You good, Ranboo?” Phil asked, scanning him over for any serious bites.

“I- I’m alright, Phil,” He said breathlessly. “Wh- what’d you say those things were again?” 

The blond sighed. “Shrothers, they’re like old day wolves mixed with moths. The pups have really potent venom which sticks with them until adulthood, so I’m just hoping none of the younger ones got you,”

“Oh,” Ranboo muttered, looking down at all his wounds in worry.

Phil inhaled deeply and reached into his bag, pulling out a small container. “Here. If you’re really worried you can rub some of this on the bites, and don’t worry about ‘using up my supplies’. This salve is easy to make,” He reassured and passed the container to Ranboo. “Now, once we’re all patched up we can get going again, since I am pretty sure we’re getting close to Snowchester,”

Ranboo nodded, carefully applying the salve in the smallest amount possible. “Have you ever been to Snowchester?” He asked, to which Phil nodded. “What’s it like?”

“Oh, it’s snowy, I can tell you that much. But it’s not very cold. The snow comes from paint clouds, which let out snow-like crystalline flakes that dissolve when hot, so touching them melts them just like snow. No one is sure exactly what they are, but some strange souls have eaten the snow before and nothing happened so it’s probably now toxic.”

“That’s reassuring,” Ranboo mumbled.

Phil chuckled and nodded, standing back up and putting away the container when Ranboo handed it to him. “The town’s been around a while, and nobody has died. From the snow at least. So I’d say it’s pretty safe. Besides, it’s strangely fragrant so it keeps away a lot of creatures,” The blond finished and began walking out towards a shape in the distant land.

“Okay,” Ranboo said and followed after him. “But how do they feel about… people like me?” He asked nervously.

To that, Phil paused, thinking over the question before he answered. “They’re pretty accepting. Their leader is a really nice guy,” He said and began leading Ranboo towards the town. “Now come on, don’t wanna wait around for the mists.”

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Phil and Ranboo stood in front of the massive wooden walls surrounding Snowchester, Ranboo in particular off to the side, wheezing from running away from a, quote, ‘Really really really scary butterfly’. The blond walked up to the gates and pulled on the bell rope. The bell rung overhead and a guard stuck her head over the wall. 

“Hello?” She called down, her gaze landing on Ranboo in confusion. “Are they okay?” She asked.

Phil nodded. “He saw a scary butterfly.”

The woman nodded slowly. “Okay… Well, what can I do ya for?”

“Could we possibly come in? We’re just travelers and could really use a restock on supplies,” He said calmly, but loud enough for her to hear.

The woman paused for a moment and ran her hand through her particularly fluffy hair. “Yeah, as long as you ain’t bringing any critters or diseases with ya. Don’t mind if we give you a quick look over?”

“Not at all, ma’am,” Phil replied.

“Oh none of that, call me Puffy. Now come on in, the other guards will look you over,” She said and disappeared behind the wall again. Not long after, the large gates opened and Phil and Ranboo walked in.

As stated, some other guards came over to make sure they were healthy and not carrying any parasites or animals with them. Ranboo had freaked out when they shined light in his eyes, causing his eye color to fluctuate in hue. “This one’s fine, it’s from mutations, not illness,” One of the guards huffed as they finished up with Ranboo. Phil’s check up went easier than his younger companions but after a moment they were let out into the town.

As he thought, the multicolored clouds up above were letting down a fine sprinkling of colorful snow. Ranboo looked all of it coating the ground in shock. He held out his hand, a few flakes melting into weird colorful liquid that he then let drip off his hand. “This is cool, and it’s not even that cold,” Ranboo said in awe.

Phil nodded. “If I had to guess I’d say it’s about four degrees out,”

Ranboo looked at him in confusion. “It’s warmer than that. If it were four degrees out we’d be freezing.”

The older blinked a few times before realization dawned on him. “Ooohhhh, you’re probably from the west, closer to the area that in the old days was called America.” He said.

Ranboo shrugged, “Probably. I don’t understand why there’s two versions of measuring though,”

“Nobody does. Now, let’s see if we can find someplace to trade or buy supplies,”

Chapter Text

Phil sat at a table in the public cafeteria of the community house. He chewed on his olive burger, a little weirded out by the ingredients but food was food. Ranboo was currently nowhere to be seen. Phil supposed he was out looking through the town or trading things. That was fine with him.

The blond took another bite of his food as a young man in a suit came into the cafeteria along with a few others. He seemed stressed, and Phil grimaced at the sight of the massive burn scar on the side of his face. He’d be surprised if the guy’s right eye still worked. He sat down at one of the tables, rubbing his temples while a man with red and white glasses and a person with a white hat with bunny ears on it.

Phil took another bite of his burger.

Ranboo walked into the cafeteria, looking around nervously before his eyes landed on Phil and he walked over to him, sitting down beside him and wringing his hands together nervously. “When do we leave?” He asked in a mumble.

The older swallowed and cleared his throat, “I dunno, soon if you want. Why?”

“I don’t know. The people are making me uncomfortable… Ah- I don’t mean they’re doing anything wrong! I just, don’t do good with people…” Ranboo said, glancing around the cafeteria.

Phil nodded, smiling sympathetically. “Yeah. I get it, mate. We can be on our way soon. I just wanna get some more supplies, and make sure you eat somethin’ alright?” He asked, getting a nod from the mutant. “Good,” He replied and finished off his burger.

The blond stood and left the cafeteria, sparing a glance at the young man in the suit before he walked out the door. The cool air hit his face and he breathed deeply, then walked off to trade.

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Ranboo followed after Phil as the two exited Snowchester, waving at Puffy as they left the town behind. Ranboo was quiet for a long time after they left, so Phil decided to break the silence. “What’s the matter, Ranboo?”

The mutant sighed. “Emotions,”

“Oof, I’ve been there,” Phil made a face, looking off to the side and giving Ranboo time to elaborate if he pleased.

“I dunno. People are a lot, and it’s overwhelming. But out here it’s also kind of…” He trailed off, but the older didn’t need to hear the rest to understand.

“Lonely.” Phil finished for him, to which Ranboo nodded. “I get it. I’ve wanted to put down roots for so long, but I can’t stand being in one place after a while. I don’t like a lot of people, and smaller settlements never last long, either dying out or joining up with a bigger one. There’s just no having it I suppose. You’ve gotta settle with something,”

Ranboo nodded slowly. “I suppose that’s true.” The two were quiet after that, walking in the calm silence that had sort of become the norm for them. Then Ranboo spoke. “Ah, Phil?”

“Yeah, mate?” The blond asked, not looking up from his rough map. A hand tapped his shoulder and he looked up to where Ranboo was pointing at. The mists were blowing in on the wind. Phil groaned in irritation and pulled his bag off, rummaging through it until he found the old days paint mask he’d not yet had to lend to Ranboo. He passed it to the young mutant, pulling on his own mask. “Put that on. We should be fine as long as they’re not the skin irritating kind, or the kinds that make animals go nuts, or the kind that fuck with your eyes. Ah, just in case, put these on,” He tossed Ranboo some long gloves and some goggles. 

The mutant nodded nervously and put the items on, following the action by pulling on his coat which had been tied around his waist. After about another half hour the mists reached them, these ones in particular being mostly a soft lilac color. Phil had a theory he knew what they’d do, but one could never be certain.

It didn’t take long for his theory to be proved correct. His and Ranboo’s hair was standing on end, floating up above their heads. Soon, Ranboo’s feet began to lift off the ground, and the young mutant cried out in fear. Phil jumped up and grabbed him, causing both him and Ranboo to float up higher. Ranboo was panicking, his breath coming out in sharp panting. “Hey, hey,” The blond said slowly. “Deep breathes. This is okay, the mists never go very high so we’d fall down before we got up to a really dangerous point, and even so I have my elytra. Okay? Deep breaths , we can just find a tree or something to hold onto and wait ‘till this passes, okay?”

Ranboo nodded slowly, glancing down at the ground through his goggles. “Good,” Phil said softly. He carefully turned and pushed himself back down towards the ground by waving his bag like a propeller. Once near the ground again, Phil grabbed onto some strong plants, slowly walking along with his hands by carefully grabbing the grass and plants. The two reached a tree, its own leaves and fines floating around silently. Ranboo held onto Phil’s hand, looking up in slight awe.

The blond pulled Ranboo down to the exposed roots of the tree, tucking himself under one of the larger ones and showing Ranboo how to do the same. The mutant clung to his root like his life depended on it and rested his head against the tree trunk, his breathing finally calmer. “Thanks, Phil. You didn’t have to do that…”

Phil smiled. “No problem, mate. You’re my friend, I didn’t want you to be scared.”

The younger mutant smiled and closed his eyes, breathing deeply through his mask.

Chapter Text

The girl looked into the eye of the mechanical raven, giggling as its lens zoomed in on her.

“Why did you have to bring that thing?” The man in the mask asked, his voice filled with annoyance.

The girl rolled her eyes, face covered by a parody of the man’s. Instead of a smiley face like his, she had a silly face with its tongue sticking out and eyes closed. “Yes. Dolus the Raven is my best friend, which is something none of you will ever come close to. You’re lucky if I consider you anything above my lackeys”

It had been easy to gaslight him into thinking that she was his long lost younger sister. Well, maybe not easy , but she did it. So now she got to hang out with him and his friends, and annoy them without consequence. For the most part.

The raven cawed statically, flying over and landing on the girl’s head. She giggled and walked after the masked man and his friends. “We’re not your lackeys,” The man with the goggles said. The girl was pretty sure he was sick. Mushrooms growing out of places on your skin wasn’t from normal mutations, but it seemed his friends either ignored it, or just didn’t know. “You’re the one who came to us. Being Dream’s long lost little sister or whatever bullshit you pulled over his head,” He scoffed.

“Uh, I am his sister, duh,” The girl replied, rolling her eyes. “Have you not seen our lovely resemblance? I obviously got the better genes, whereas he got… something,” She said, proudly gesturing to herself.

The man with the white bandana tied around his head chuckled, only to get elbowed in the side by the shorter man with goggles. “Well Drista ,” The goggles man said, pronouncing her name irritation, “We do need to find a place to set up camp for the night. So if you could just be q-”

“How ‘bout over there?” The girl pointed to salt outcrop within a small clearing.

“I don’t know. Seems too out in the open,” The man with goggles began, but Dream cut him off. “No, that’s great. Let’s go,” He said plainly.

Drista skipped after him, flipping the man with goggles off before he began to follow as well. The group set up camp on the salty rock, making sure that their sleeping bags wouldn’t leave them laying on the salt at night. These salts were strong, like very strong. Even if you placed your hand on it for too long it would start to dry you out, and sleeping on it, with hardly anything between you and the minerals? That was a death sentence. Plus, a lot of animals wouldn’t go near the salt for some reason.

Dream laid down their sleeping bags, making sure there were no holes in them, while Drista pulled out her hammock and tied it between two nearby trees. “You should really sleep over here, on the outcrop, that you picked out,” Dream said, not looking up from his work.

The girl shrugged, “Nah. I like my hammock. And besides, you guys are sleeping over there, so it’s gonna smell like gross men and salt. And also mushrooms because of George,” There was a quiet ‘hey!’ in the background, coming from said George.

Dream rolled his eyes. “Whatever. But if you get eaten that’s not our fault,” He huffed and walked away, no doubt to start foraging. 

Drista chuckled to herself. Being a sister was fun.

_____________________________

The girl woke up to the whirring of Dolus’ mechanics near her head and his robotic croaking. She groaned, rolling over in her hammock and wondering why he woke her up. Her breath hitched when she noticed the massive eyeless bird pecking around the salty outcrop her companions slept on. A fucking Salt Vulture ? Why hadn’t Dream set out his alarm scanner? That would have been a big help, since they would have woken up when the scanner alerted them of the bird’s presence. But then Drista remembered. She’d accidentally kicked the scanner into an acid lake a few weeks ago. With a sigh she hopped out of her hammock, dusted herself off, and started screaming .

The giant bird raised its head at the sound, while Dream and his friends jerked up and looked around frantically before their eyes landed on the vulture. Drista stopped screaming and chucked a rock at the bird, which effectively pissed it off. Perfect.

The bird screeched and raised its wings in some sort of aggressive show off gesture that Drista didn’t understand because she didn’t speak pissy bird. “Come on you overgrown turkey, I know you like your salty corpses, and I am very salty!” She grinned, and George snickered in the background.

She threw another rock and that managed to get the bird to attack. It shrieked and ran at her, slashing down with its talons. Drista grabbed a fruit and bit into it so she’d have an excuse for what she was about to do, then she started floating above the bird, and chucked the fruit at its head for good measure. The vulture made a noise that sounded like it was insulted before it flapped its big wings and followed Drista into the air. From there, it was pretty easy to take her knife and lodge it into the bird’s skull.

It fell to the ground with a loud thud and Drista fell back down on top of it, doing a flip before she did so just for dramatics. “Tada! Dinner!” She grinned wildly, her mask still forgotten at her hammock revealing her young face that did so much resemble Dream’s.

The older sighed and chuckled lightly. “Yeah, okay. That was pretty cool,” He said.

George seemed unimpressed. “How’d you even float up there?”

Ah yes, she’d been prepared for this asshole. “I took a bite of a rose fruit, the yellow ones, there’s a 23% they fuck with your gravity, and I took those chances,”

George huffed but seemed to deem that as an acceptable answer and laid back down beside Dream. As much of an asshole as he was, Drista felt bad for George. He was always tired, and the mushrooms growing out of his skin had to be painful. She knew he was sick, but shroom-rot was a rarer disease, not many knew about it, and thus nobody knew a cure.

Drista brushed that off and instead decided to do what she did best in the situation. Be an irritating younger sister. After all, it really helped with the whole acting as Dream’s younger sister thing. “Dream, your boyfriend’s being clingy again,” She giggled.

Dream squawked and flinched away from George who chuckled lightly. “You know that’s not what he is, idiot. We’re friends,” The normally masked man explained for the millionth time.

The man in the bandana chuckled and leaned over to Drista’s ear, “He’s in denial,” He whispered. Drista giggled, smiling like a madman. She liked Sapnap. He always joined her in messing with Dream and George. He then got up and walked over to the bird, beginning to cut off pieces for them to cook. While he did that, Drista walked back over to her hammock and climbed into it, Dolus settling into the crook of her arm. Dream yelled at her to come help with the bird, but she ignored him, and went back to sleep.

Chapter Text

Drista was drifting again. That’s what she called it when she sort of floated away from her body. It was difficult to keep up the human form for a long time, so it had its side effects. Her movements seemed delayed and her hearing was muffled. She seemed almost sick whenever it happened, her skin pale and eyes distant. She had told Dream and his friends that it happened because of something traumatic in her past that she’d rather not talk about, and of course they didn’t want to pry so they left it at that.

It did make her a bit of a liability though.

Dream complained about how slow she was, and it especially bothered him when she wandered off course. He compared her to the zombies from the old days’ comics. Right now, she was being carried by Sapnap, which was lame, but hey, at least she didn’t have to walk. She’d find some way to annoy them though, just so she could have a little fun. Sapnap kept shifting her around in his arms, trying to find a way to hold her so she wouldn’t slip out of his arms like a wet noodle.

She chuckled weakly, probably looking half dead and loopy. “Eck-! You’re drooling on my arm!” Sapnap complained. Drista did nothing about this. Meanwhile, Dolus was flapping his mechanical wings around George’s head, squawking and letting out alarm calls. 

Drista blinked slowly, turning her head to face the robot bird. “... He’s warning us,” She muttered after a moment. “Somethin’s nearby,”

They all froze, George and Dream drawing their weapons, and Sapnap trying to get a better hold on the girl while he looked around. Dolus perched on a nearby tree, the red lens of his eye locked on something behind them in the sky.

Something swooped down past them in a blur and George cried out. He clutched the bleeding wound on his arm where a mushroom had been growing out of his skin moments before. Dream stared in shock for a moment before another attack was made. Another blur zoomed past George and left a bleeding hole above his ear where he’d had another mushroom. He whimpered and stepped back, his hand trembling around his pistol. “D-Dream-”

The masked man was seething, his sword drawn as he stepped closer to George. He looked up at the dark sky, squinting and trying to spot where the things were coming from. 

His eyes widened in horror beneath his mask. “It’s a big ass swarm of drabats…” He whispered. “Shit- Fuck, run !” He shouted as the drabats screamed and swarmed down.

Drista yelped as Sapnap took off through the thin trees with her in his arms. There wasn’t exactly any avoiding the shaking. The girl squinted, looking over the man’s shoulder at the shifting black shape in the sky. George and Dream were being divebombed by the drabats. They weren’t paying attention.

The girl held her hand up, her palm glowing a soft yellow, and the drabats shrieked, suddenly flying back and away from them. Drista lowered her hand, yawning and resting her head on Sapnap’s shoulder.

Dream, George and Sapnap panted heavily, but George looked the worst. A good chunk of the mushrooms growing out of his skin had been ripped out, leaving tons of little wounds all over. The worst part was, his blood was orange, and littered with little lines of mycelium. Dream’s hands hovered over his friend, trembling slightly. “S-Sap, he’s sick- I- I thought it was just mutations, this isn’t normal!” He said, panic filling his voice.

George looked away in shame, a little upset by the fact that he couldn’t actually see that well without the mushrooms. His eyesight had been fucked ever since he got sick, but the mushrooms provided him some weird purple vision by sensing the energy signals in the ground and air. Now it was really weak, and he could only make out vague outlines of his friends.

“Sap, what do we do ?” Dream asked, pulling his mask off and looking at Sapnap with tear filled eyes. The black haired man just stood in shock, staring at George bleeding on the ground.

“Fuck-” George coughed. “I’m fine , the wounds aren’t that deep-”

“That’s not what I’m fucking talking about, George!” Dream snapped, “You’re sick ! Why did you say it was mutations?! You’re fucking dying! I- I don’t- I can’t-” He broke off into sobs.

Drista stared, shocked even in her distant state. She’d never seen Dream so much as shed a tear. This was new. 

“Dream, I’m fine. I won’t die any time soon, just get me some bandages, I’ll be fine,” George said quietly, pushing himself up into a sitting position. Dream threw his arms around him, sobbing into his shirt, and George just sat there in surprise.

Sapnap still hadn’t moved. Drista looked up at him. Maybe he was in shock. Well, she thought, might as well . Her hand glowed again and she sliced her palm open with her teeth. She dripped some of her golden blood into a vial, not worried about statue-Sapnap watching her. She wiggled out of the man’s hold and shoved her hand into her pocket before slowly walking over to Dream. She held the vial out to him silently, and the man looked up at her in confusion.

“What’s…?” He trailed off, looking at the contents within the glass. He gasped in shock, holding it up to get a better look. “Dris! How did you get your hands on Being blood?!” He asked.

Drista shrugged lazily, her movements still slowed. “Found it in an abandoned lab,” She lied, blinking tiredly. “Give it to George,” Was all she said before promptly passing out.

Dream stared at her sleeping form for a moment before turning to George and having the shorter drink the blood, much to his displeasure. 

“That stuff is nasty,” He complained, the wounds on his body stitching themselves back together. “You shouldn’t have wasted it on me anyway. We could have used that if one of us got seriously hurt-”

“No. It will buy you more time with the disease. It’s worth it,” Dream said, dead serious. He pulled his mask back on and glanced at Drista asleep on the ground. “I still can’t believe that little weirdo managed to find Being blood. Those things are basically gods .

Chapter Text

Tommy hummed happily, walking behind Niki as they headed away from the Falling Sea long behind them and Shroud no longer a problem. He held the fluffy spider in his arms, nuzzling into his head. “Niki,” He mumbled. “Why’s he so soft? How old do you think he is? Can you tell if he loves me?”

Niki bit into her sleeve and screamed. Then she pulled her arm away and inhaled deeply, “I don’t know, Tommy. I’m guessing he’s young because most spiders like him are like five times that size,”

Tommy turned Shroud around, staring at him with stars in his eyes. “You’re just a baby. That’s okay,” He said softly, “I’ll take care of you. You can be my son,” He whispered and hugged the spider close.

Niki seemed like she wanted to scream again.

“Niki! You can be the badass aunt,” Tommy declared, and the mutant rolled her eyes. “Okay Tommy,” She said, amused.

“Soooo, where are we going now?” Tommy asked, hopping over a rock.

Niki sighed, “I don’t know, Tommy. We should find a more permanent home… As much as I love wandering the dangerous world with you, it’s starting to feel very pointless…”

Tommy frowned. “Wh-what? What do you mean?” He asked quietly.

The mutant sat down on top of cobalt colored rock and rubbed her eyes. “Tommy, we’re not doing anything. We wander around, try to find food, try to survive the night, and for what? Just to do it all again,”

“Niki, you're sounding very depressing right now, very not pog.” He stated.’’

The woman chuckled weakly. “Tommy, please… I just, I want a home, is that too much to ask? I want things to look forward to other than just surviving to the next day. Hell, I want a cookie,”

Tommy frowned. “I want a cookie too…” He whispered.

Niki burst out laughing. Tommy looked up at her in confusion. “What?!”

“N-nothing! Just the way you said that is all-” She snorted, “ I want a cookie too, ” She mimicked. “Hahahah, so damn dramatic and sad,”

Tommy made a face, “Hmph, well I am exceptional at cheering people up.”

“I’m surprised you know that word,”

“Hey!”

“Well,” Niki began, finally calming down, “Do you think we could maybe look for a place to settle down?” She asked softly.

Tommy held Shroud tightly in his arms and sighed. “I guess so. Only because I don’t want to see you sad! You’re meant to be badass, and very pog, no sads allowed!”

Niki giggled. “Okay Tommy,”

_____________________________

Tommy was surprised to see the change in Niki’s behavior now that she had a set goal to work towards. The girl was crazy. Tommy respected that.

She moved them across the lands with newfound efficiency, even if they didn’t really know where any settlements were, they would find one. 

At one point they came across the city Hypixel. The two had taken one look at the giant mass of buildings and turned around. Something smaller was definitely what they needed. Hypixel seemed like a sensory overload waiting to happen, not to mention he couldn’t imagine many of the people were that great. To be fair, most people these days weren’t that great. Niki was different. She was pog.

The two wandered through the plains, Shroud scuttling along behind Tommy. The blond felt like shit, and more than the usual tired and hungry. He was dizzy and really tired and it felt difficult to even keep up with Niki, who was walking fairly slowly.

Tommy let out a quiet yelp and collapsed on the ground.

_____________________________

The first thing Tommy saw when he opened his eyes was the fabric of the tent. He blinked, looking around. He was definitely in the tent. And Niki was nowhere to be seen. But Shroud was there. He was curled up at Tommy’s feet. The teen smiled and sat up, blinking wildly at the light headedness that hit him. Once that passed he pulled himself out of the sleeping bag and over to the exit of the tent. He walked out of it, and Niki still wasn’t around.

That was fine. Tommy wasn’t worried. She’s too awesome and strong to get carried off my animals or anything. She was fine. She had to be.

Tommy walked around the tent a few times, looking around the rolling plains he was in, with its stupid blue and purple grass and fluffy clouds in the sky. Where was Niki ? There wasn’t anywhere for her to be unless she went off into the forest that looked to be fucking miles away, but she wouldn’t go that far without him, right?

Unless she had to go foraging for food or herbs because of Tommy. She could have been attacked by an animal with no one to watch her back. Tommy’s breath was coming out faster now. He fell to his knees and curled in on himself. 

He was alone again. Niki was gone. She was dead. No one would come to save him this time-

“Tommy?”

The boy flinched, quickly looking up. A familiar mutant woman was looking down at him in concern.

Tommy jumped up and threw his arms around her, unable to stop the tears falling from his eyes. “Where were you?” He asked, his voice cracking.

“I- I found a small cave hidden in the grass, I was gathering some mushrooms. Are you okay?” She asked softly.

Tommy sobbed into her shirt. “I- I just thought- That- that you-” He inhaled sharply.

“Hey, hey Toms, deep breaths,” Niki said slowly, inhaling deeply, then exhaling, so he could follow along.

Tommy sucked in a breath, and coughed it back out right after. “There we go, come on, you’re doing great,” Niki encouraged. Tommy tried again, inhaling deeply a few times before he managed to calm down a bit.

“Now, do you want to tell me what happened?” The mutant asked calmly.

Tommy sighed and sat down, looking out over the plains of long grass. “I guess I just haven’t been alone since before you found me,”

Chapter Text

The boy sat in his room. The smiling man hadn’t come to check on him in a long time, nor had any of the others. His old roommate hadn’t come back after the last test, and the boy was smart enough to know what that meant, he wasn’t stupid. The man in the sweater was dead.

But he wasn’t, so why was nobody coming to feed him? He was hungry, and it was dark. Maybe they were upset that he hadn’t behaved during the last test. He’d have to be better next time. He didn’t like going hungry. He’d even be good if they sent him down into the dark again, it might be scary, but at least there were some glowing lights in the moss. Here, alone in his room with no one to turn the lights on, it was awful.

He thought back to a few days ago, the last time he heard anyone. He’d been half asleep, exhausted from his previous test. The smiling man and his friends were arguing outside his room.

“We can’t keep this up, the lab is unstable!” The man with goggles shouted.

“We’re so close though! They don’t affect him now, if we just train him to get close enough to gather-” The smiling man got cut off.

“No, he’s right. We can’t keep this up. The lab is ancient, it’s old days tech, and the ground is half collapsed beneath it. We can’t stay,” The black hair man said.

“But guys, everything we’ve worked for would have been for nothing . We can’t lose it now!” Smiling man argued.

“Dream, if we don’t leave we wouldn’t even survive to see the world be fixed,” The man in goggles stated.

After that the ground had shook violently and the lights went out. After that, the boy had been alone. And he still was.

He sat on his floor, feeling cold and numb. Then he heard footsteps echoing down the hall. His head shot up. Had they come back?

The cause of the footsteps went straight past his room, and his heart sank. They weren’t coming for him. He whimpered, curling in on himself, but then the footsteps stopped. It was quiet for a moment, before they slowly came back towards his room. A light was shined in through the glass door and he yelped, shielding his eyes from it. Somebody gasped and the door shattered, allowing the person to walk in.

The boy looked up, freezing when he realized that he did not know this person. It was a woman, a mutant woman. The boy had never seen a mutant. The ground lurched beneath them and the mutant stumbled. The floor was now at a slant, and it was getting increasingly steep by the minute. The woman grabbed his wrist and they bolted out of the room through the halls.

The boy never went back to the lab.

_____________________________

Tommy stared out through the trees. Niki had moved the tent into the woods so that she wouldn’t have to go far to forage. Tommy felt bad. He didn’t want her to be stuck out here any longer than she had to be. She wanted a settlement, she wanted people. Tommy could only tell so many jokes. Tommy was only one person. But they had no idea where any towns were, and the one they happened across just totally sucked ass. 

Niki deserved to be happy. She had made Tommy’s life a thousand times better. So Tommy would make sure she got the life she wanted. First they needed a town, the best town, and if they happened to settle down in one that sucked, he’d reform that shit so fast they wouldn’t know what hit them. Niki could have only the best. 

He inhaled deeply and stood up. Niki was asleep in her sleeping bag, Shroud curled up in her arms. She either didn’t know he was there, or she really didn’t hate him as much as she claimed to. Tommy hoped it was the latter, but if it was the former he wanted to see her reaction when waking up.

The boy exited the tent. He locked his sights on the biggest tree in the area and began to climb. He focussed on the branches, careful not to slip. He didn’t want Niki to have to deal with him breaking any bones. Soon, he reached the top, or as close to it as he could get without the tree bending over anyway. He gasped and looked out on the horizon, the sun beginning to rise over the plains in the distance. Far, far away, Tommy could barely make out a tiny shape, lit up by the rising sun. 

The boy smiled. It was a town.

Chapter Text

“Phil!” Ranboo screamed, “I don’t know how to feel about this!” 

Phil’s breath came in as sharp gasps as he and Ranboo sprinted towards a cliff, “We gotta get away somehow!” He shot back, not daring to glance behind them at the rapidly approaching pack of shrothers, chittering wildly and snarling at them. The vicious wolf-moth creatures were terribly fast, but at least they couldn’t fly.

“Phiiiiiiillll?!” Ranboo shouted questioningly as they neared the edge of the cliff. “I don’t know about you but I can’t exactly fly !”

Phil laughed. “I know! Come on, trust me!” He yelled. “Just jump!”

Ranboo looked on the verge of a panic attack but when he neared the cliff edge he jumped off it either way. The mutant screamed as he fell, and Phil dove down after him, releasing his wings from his elytra. In one calculated swoop he grabbed Ranboo under the arms and swerved harshly to the side. His elytra was definitely not meant for this kind of weight. The two went spiraling towards the forest and Phil shrieked, “Mask!”

Ranboo frantically pulled his mask up, just in case there were toxins in this jungle. Phil fumbled with his own before managing to get it on. You could never be too safe.

“Brace for impact!” The blond said loudly as they crashed down into a massive tree. Twigs and branches snapped under their weight and they fell down, getting tangled in a mess of vines. The two hung there, panting wildly and trying to catch their breath. Phil looked over at Ranboo from where he hung in the vines, almost upside down. The two burst into laughter.

“How the fuck did we survive that?!” Ranboo asked.

“I have no fuckin’ clue, mate,” Phil chuckled.

They cut themselves down from the vines, and Phil groaned realizing that there was another massive hole in his wings that he’d have to fix. In the meantime though, he just folded them back in on themselves. He turned back to Ranboo, who was staring out at the trees in awe. The flora was very diverse here, so there was no telling what toxic plants could be hiding in the underbrush. Phil still remembered one time he’d been wandering through a breathable biome, but almost fucking died just because there was a single toxic spuffshroom that managed to grow nearby. Those fumes were awful.

Ranboo chuckled, “The ground feels weird.” He stated, shifting his bare feet on the ground. Phil really needed to get him some shoes sometime soon.

The blond placed his hand down on the grassy forest floor, and sure enough there was a mild buzz leaving his hand feeling tingly. “Huh. That’s a new one. I wonder if we should be worried about that,” He raised his hand back up. “Ranboo let’s get going, we don’t know what’s out here.”

Ranboo nodded and picked up the few items he’d dropped in the crash before following Phil off through the trees. Birds and bugs and animals could be heard distantly throughout the woods, creating a calm ambiance. It stayed this way for about an hour, which was why Phil was very unsettled when everything was suddenly quiet.

He and Ranboo froze, looking around through the trees. There was nothing to be seen, but that didn’t mean there was nothing around. Then he heard a soft bird call. Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him. After all, he could still hear some animals and birds in the far off distance, so maybe it was nothing.

He turned to Ranboo to see what he thought, but the teen was staring up at the trees in horror. Phil followed his gaze and his blood ran cold when he caught sight of what grabbed the mutant’s attention.

There, perched in the trees, was what appeared to be a person. A handmade mask with bones built into it stared back at him, and the wearer of such a mask had an arrow notched and pointed right at him.

Phil and Ranboo slowly backed away, but the stranger hopped down from the trees, tilting their head at them in an eerie way. 

Phil wasn’t fond of the mask. It slightly resembled a bone boar, but seemed to be mixed with the appearance of a dragon hare, together it made a very unsettling look. That wasn’t even the start of the weirdness about the stranger though. They had no shoes on, only strips of leather wrapped around the arches of their feet. They wore a furred cape and an old very patched up peasants shirt. Along with that they had baggy pants that gathered back around the ankles, a thick belt with many knives and items attached to it, gloves with false bone claws, hopefully for climbing and not for hitting enemies. Their brown hair was pulled back into a very long and messy braid, with two dyed pink strips hanging down on either side of their mask-covered face.

Overall, a terrifying person.

“We don’t want any trouble,” Phil said, raising his hands, “We were just passing through. We glided down from the cliff to escape from shrothers and crashed in this forest. We apologize if we’ve trespassed on your land,”

The stranger huffed and removed their mask, revealing a man with golden eyes and plenty of earrings to match. “You should go. There are mists that settle here every night. Not the ones y’re likely used to either, I mean mists released from the plants. They make you crazy,” He grinned wildly.

“I think he may have been breathing in these mists for a long time, Phil,” Ranboo whispered.

The man blinked and burst into laughter. “Hah! I like you kid,” He stated.

Ranboo shared a look with Phil and shrugged. “Well sir, we really should be on our way,” Phil said.

“Nah. You guys come with me. The mists’ll be out before you manage to leave the woods anyway,” He huffed and began walking off, expecting them to follow.

Feeling they had no other choice, Phil sighed and followed the man, gesturing for Ranboo to join him.

Chapter Text

This man was insane, this man was insane . Phil was going to lose his mind. He was like a fucking animal, Ranboo and Phil barely kept up with him as he led them through the forest. Eventually though, he led them to a massive potato garden, and above it, a treehouse. 

“What’s with all the potatoes?” Ranboo asked.

“What do you mean? Potatoes are amazing! Did you know that they are one of the few foods that has survived, completely the same as they were in the old days? Amazing,” The man said and began to climb up into the treehouse. 

Phil watched him, but decided to use the ladder rather than scaling the side of the tree like a monkey. The inside of the treehouse was somehow just as weird as the man who lived there. There were blankets and pillows galore, mounted animal heads and displayed skulls, a large collection of scrolls and books, even so far back as the old days. Phil even saw some broken pieces of vases and artifacts that were ancient even to the old days.

Another notable thing was the fact that this man had a freaking polar bear . Although, he knew those had changed and mutated from the way they used to be in the old days. Polar bears now were smaller, coming up to about Phil’s waist in height. Along with that, they had sharper teeth and better eyesight, and they were capable of filtering out toxins in the air. Not to mention they were very rare.

“Where’d you get a polar bear?” Ranboo asked in awe, crouching down to be level with the animal.

The man shrugged. “Found ‘im, he was trapped in a tar pit, couldn’t get all of him out, ya see,” He gestured to where the bear was missing one of its back legs. “Anyways, where’re you guys headin’ after this?”

Phil shrugged. “Nowhere in particular. We’re wanderers. I’ve yet to find a place I actually want to settle in, and Ranboo’s fine with coming along,”

The man nodded. “Well you might as well know my name. It’s Technoblade. Techno’s fine too,” He said very not-dramatically, standing there awkwardly for a moment before spinning around on his heel and disappearing into the kitchen.

Phil blinked. What ? 

“Wait- The Technoblade? As in the Technoblade who took down Manberg and L’manburg?” Ranboo asked in shock.

The man shrugged and handed him a mug of tea. “Yep”

Ranboo sat down, dumbfounded.

Phil chuckled and took his own mug from Techno. “So, why’d you move out here?”

Techno sat down on the floor, crossing his legs and drinking his tea. “Less people. No government.” He nodded to himself.

“Mm, why here specifically though? There are plenty of places where there’s no people around. I would know, I travel a lot.” Phil said.

“Well,” Techno began, looking out the window, “I like it here. The plains remind me too much of a place I used to live. Anywhere open, in fact. I prefer the trees.”

Ranboo nodded. “I don’t like open spaces very much either…” He mumbled, pulling off his mask to drink.

Techno hissed, grimacing at the sight of the white scars all over Ranboo’s left side. “Eesh, I would imagine you don’t. I’ve got my fair share of scars too, but most aren’t from moonbeams. Fighting a lot and taking down cities will result in that y’know. Also, I tend to fall out of my treehouse a lot,”

Phil chuckled. “How does the great Technoblade fall out of a treehouse?”

Techno set his mug down and walked over to the window, leaning against it. “Like this,” He fell out of it backwards with a yelp.

Phil laughed while Ranboo hurried over to make sure Techno was okay. The blond followed him over, also wanting to check on their new acquaintance. Techno definitely must do that a lot, because he had a net set up under his window to catch him.

“Hullo,” He said from where he laid, munching on a potato he somehow had.

Phil burst into laughter again.

_____________________________

Phil found that he quite liked Technoblade. He was weird, very weird, but he enjoyed his company. But despite this, Ranboo and him had to be on their way. 

“We should be leaving,” Phil said during breakfast.

Techno looked up at him and shrugged, “Okay. Door’s over there,” He gestured vaguely to the door.

Phil blinked. “I expected something else, but okay,”

“You’re odd,” Ranboo stated. 

“What’d you want me to say? That I’d come with you? Nah, my potatoes are here,” The man said and shoved some food into his mouth.

“Huh. Alright then, well, if we ever need someone like you, we know where to find you,” Phil said before he grabbed his stuff and left with Ranboo.

“Well that was over quickly,” Ranboo mumbled, looking back at the treehouse as they walked. “I really expected more, even if it was just the typical ‘oh, you’re leaving? Well goodbye then.’ Y’know?”

Phil nodded. “Yeah. But that’s fine, we should get out of this forest before we end up loony like that guy,”

“Mhm”

The two walked through the trees, eager to leave the forest behind. They didn’t notice the way all the animals watched them as they went.

Chapter Text

Drista noticed first. Nobody else seemed to pick up on it, but it wasn’t exactly easy to hide things from her. George was getting worse. Her blood had helped heal his wounds, but there were more mushrooms sprouting out of his skin than before, and she could hear the way his heartbeat sounded off. She wasn’t sure how Dream would react if the man died. It likely wouldn’t be good.

She glanced over at George from where she sat on a tree branch. He  was laying up against a rock, coughing up orange blood and bits of mycelium. Dream and George had gone to collect firewood, so they weren’t around. Drista looked up at George, her expression cold. “You’re not going to last long,” She said, leaning against the tree trunk and carving a piece of wood with her knife.

George glared at her. “I know. You don’t gotta tell them that though,” He muttered.

The moon rose over the dead forest, shining through the barren branches. George hissed and pulled his mask up, but Drista just looked unfeeling up at the moon. “How’d you get sick?”

The man stared at her, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. “I was stupid. Got my back sliced open by an enemy, fled into a mushroom forest. Spores got in the wound.”

The girl nodded. “That is stupid. There’s much more dramatic ways to die, you’ll probably just fall down one day and never get back up, leaving Dream and Sapnap in shock. Sapnap would probably run off on his own, but Dream would go mad with grief. He’s oddly attached to you,” She spun her knife in her hand.

George looked away. “He isn’t. He’d be fine,”

“You’re either a fool or denying the obvious. We both saw how he reacted to your illness.” Drista rolled her eyes.

“Where did you get that Being blood anyway? And don’t try that abandoned lab bullshit, I know that’s not true. Beings could never be caught by old days people,” The man said darkly.

The girl laughed. “Ever the observant one, George. But maybe that’s because you don’t see the way most do. It’s fucked up your eyes by now, hasn’t it? You’re beginning to see me,”

George blinked, glaring at the young girl. “I’ll admit, there is definitely something off about you. I can always see you, even when my vision is weak. You give off so much power in your signals, you glow yellow, where everyone else is normally a low purple. There’s something you’re hiding from us.”

Drista smiled and chucked her carving at the man. He caught it, feeling over the wood. It was shaped like a mushroom.

_____________________________

“Dream, I’m boooreed!” The girl complained. “Are we there yet?”

“Are we where yet? We don’t have a destination,” Dream groaned in annoyance. 

“That’s not true. We’ll end up somewhere eventually. I know it’s gonna happen, I know you’re searching for something,” She tilted her head slowly and smiled widely up at the men.

Dream stared back, unaffected. Sapnap however, “Dream, Dream she’s got the same psychotic smile as you- Dream I’m scared,”

George chuckled lowly from where he was limping alongside Dream. The girl rolled her eyes and looked around the dead trees. “Hmmm, where’s Dolus? If he were a normal bird I’d assume he was off hunting, but he’s a robo birb, he eats sunlight,”

“He doesn’t eat sunlight , he charges his battery via solar energy,” Dream corrected. Drista flipped him off.

“No matter what you say, I know you’re looking for something. We’re heading roughly north-west, and have been consecutively. Heading in this direction will in no way benefit us as the biomes up north are more hazardous, and there’s a huge chasm spanning across most of the continent to the west. On top of that, we have not stayed at any towns we’ve come across for more than a day or two, gathering supplies. Both Dream and Sapnap constantly complain about life out here, and seem as though they would prefer a life in a settlement, so please explain to me why we are out here, heading off towards the middle of the fucking death zone?” The girl asked after she finished, looking up at the men.

They stared at her in disbelief, Sapnap’s mouth was even open in shock.

“What, the fuck.” Dream hissed, “What are you, some kind of detective? How are you picking up on all this?”

Drista grinned darkly again. “It’s a secret,”

A robotic croak sounded above and Dolus landed on top of Drista’s head, dropping an item in her hand. “Oh look, Dolus is back!” She chuckled and looked down at the item. “Ah sick, he found an old days tech map.” She threw the device on the ground, resulting in some panicked shrieks from her companions. But the map did not break, in fact, it clicked and a giant holographic map of the area appeared around them.

Dream gasped and looked around, finding the dead forest they were in. “There! That’s where we are. So, how far does this show?” He muttered and walked around through the map while the others gazed at it in awe. The masked man smiled wildly and pointed to a spot on the map. “ There. ”

Drista looked over to what he had found. The map showed a massive hole in the earth, surrounded by all types of new age flora. The girl’s eyes widened. She knew what was down there.

Chapter Text

Tommy was a little bit disappointed. The town he’d seen turned out to be completely abandoned, which he didn’t understand why. It had beautiful scenery, built up on a cliff overlooking a massive lake with an island in the middle, didn’t seem to be around any toxic plants, and had clean water running through near the town, there was even an old water wheel still turning in it. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, at least out of the ordinary for these days.

Niki didn’t seem nearly as disappointed as Tommy, but she should. She looked interested, intrigued by all the abandoned buildings. The blond watched her wander around, feeling guilty. He’d led her here for nothing, he’d gotten her hopes up.

Tommy nodded to himself, inhaling deeply and rolling up his sleeves. The boy grabbed a vine covered rake, pulling it out of the small indent it had made in the ground from being there so long. He got to work raking away leaves and twigs and little bits of debris, when Niki came over looking at him in confusion. 

“Tommy, what are you doing?” She asked, puzzled.

The teen huffed, “Making you a home,” He said seriously, kicking a rock off the side of the cliff and into the lake below. 

Niki gave him a sympathetic look, “Tommy-”

“No, stop that. Why are you looking at me like that? I’m doing a nice thing! You deserve nice things, you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met! You’ve done so much for me, you deserve to have things done for you! So I’m not going to let us wander around, hoping we’ll come across a decent place to live. I’m fucking making one,” He said determinded. 

He looked Niki dead in the eyes, waiting for her response, when she started crying. He wasn’t even sure she realized it, she was just staring at him with her mouth slightly open in shock when strange blue tears began to stream down her cheeks.

“Ack-! Niki, I’m sorry- What did I do?!” The blond asked frantically, dropping his rake and hurrying over to the mutant.

Niki pulled him into a hug. Tommy squeaked in surprise, the woman lifting him off the ground with the strength of her hug. “Niki?” He choked out, confused.

Niki set him back down, wiping tears off her cheeks. “You’re amazing, Tommy,” She smiled. “Thank you so much,”

Tommy’s cheeks heated up. “Stop it, I’m just doing what any good person would do. Don’t gotta be all sappy about it,”

“Okay kid,” The mutant chuckled. “But you know, there aren’t very many ‘good people’ left. But really, thank you,” She turned and looked out over the dusty, overgrown town. “This shithole is perfect.” She said happily, but trailed off, narrowing her eyes. “Really perfect. Huh… Makes you wonder why it’s abandoned,” She mumbled.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Tommy replied. “Why is a town as good as this so dead? Is the soil bad or something? Maybe they couldn’t grow food,”

“Nah, don’t think that’s it,” Niki said, gesturing to a completely out of control patch of wheat mixing in with another patch full of corn. 

“Suspicious…” Tommy muttered, putting his hand on his chin in thought. “Think there’s predators around?”

“Dunno, maybe,” Niki shrugged.

The blond nodded, “Shroud could help us find out. He can sniff out any predators,”

The mutant woman held her hand up, “I don’t think he can-”

Tommy looked around, “Where is Shroud?” He asked, walking around through the buildings. “Shroud? Buddy, where’d you go?” He began to worry. “Shroud? Shrouuuud?!”

He looked back at Niki but she was gone. “Niki!? Shroud, Niki?! Where are you guys?!” He ran through the abandoned town, looking everywhere for his friends. The boy came to a stop at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the island in the lake below.

Tears fell from his eyes as he broke down in sobs. They were gone. They left him, or they got dragged off by some animal, or they fell of the cliff, or-

“Tommy!” 

The boy’s head snapped up, locking onto the woman and spider floating up above the lake. How had he missed the light purple mists that had blown in on the wind? 

Niki stared at him in disbelief, not even seeming worried that she was floating more than a hundred feet in the air over the lake below, she could die if she fell. But she seemed much more focussed on Tommy, and the fact that he wasn’t floating .

Chapter Text

“Tommy!” Niki shouted, trying to swim her way through the air back over to the ground, though it wasn’t really working. “Why aren’t you floating !?” She shrieked, confused.

Tommy wiped the tears off his cheeks and looked around for a way to bring her and Shroud back over solid ground. The spider himself was seeming very freaked out by being in the air, wriggling around all his little legs and hissing in distress.

“I don’t know!” He yelled back. “The mists an’ stuff haven’t affected me in a long time!”

“AND YOU DIDN'T THINK TO TELL ME?!” Niki screamed.

Tommy grimaced. “Sorry?” He ignored Niki as she went on a rant about something, looking around for anything useful. The blond spotted an old rope laying beside what looked like a stable beneath all the dust and leaves. He grabbed it and hurried back over to the edge of the cliff and threw it out to Niki as hard as he could, standing on the other end so he wouldn’t drop it by accident.

Niki reached for the rope but it didn’t reach her. She tried to swim through the air again, but failed. She glanced over at Shroud and grinned. The mutant grabbed the large spider and held him out towards the rope, which he happily latched onto. “Pull us in! I don’t have much faith in this spider’s ability to keep a hold of this!” Niki shouted.

Tommy nodded and carefully began to pull the rope in. Niki and Shroud were finally floating over land again just as the mists began to pass, and Niki fell flat on her face in the dirt. Shroud on the other hand fell into Tommy’s arms. The mutant groaned, lifting herself up off the ground and wiping away little rocks that stuck to her face.

“In my defense, I would have fallen over too if I tried to catch you,” Tommy said.

“You didn’t even try!” Niki shot back. She stopped, and inhaled deeply. “No, if I’m going to yell at you, it’s going to be important,” She said calmly. Tommy relaxed a bit. “So then, WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME YOU WERE IMMUNE TO THE MISTS?!”

Tommy yelped in surprise. “I dunno- Whenever it became relevant I guess!” He said hurriedly, clutching Shroud tightly in his arms.

“Tommy, this type of thing will always be relevant! How long have you been able to do this?!” The woman asked, gesturing around wildly with her arms.

“I guess I’ve been this way since-” Tommy froze.

“He handled the test nicely, none of our other subjects have survived”

“The experiments must be working, that mist should be burning his skin right now, and he’s just sitting there,”

“Yes. It’s working. We’re getting closer to our goal,”

Tommy stumbled back, falling down into the dirt and dropping Shroud. The spider squeaked and scurried over to Niki, hiding behind her legs. The blond’s breath came out quick and shallow, and he blinked to try and stop from tearing up.

“Tommy? Tommy, I’m sorry for yelling- Look, you don’t have to tell me,” Niki said softly, crouching down in front of him and reaching her hand out.

Tommy flinched. Niki’s eyes widened in hurt and she pulled her hand back. “Tommy…?”

“I- I don’t wanna- I- I can’t, they hurt- Don’t make me do anymore, please-” The boy stuttered. “No- no more tests, please!”

Niki’s eyes filled with tears and she threw her arms around the boy. He screamed and struggled for a moment before breaking down and sobbing into her shoulder. “Shhh, it’s okay, Toms. You’re not there, you’re with me,” She whispered softly as she ran a hand through his hair. 

The blond clung onto her tightly, afraid she might disappear if he let go. “Don’t let them take me, Niki… Please…”

“No one’s going to take you, Toms. You’re safe out here with me, and- and Shroud, remember?” She awkwardly pulled the spider over and held him up for Tommy. The boy nodded, wiping his nose before he grabbed onto Shroud and hugged him tightly, curled up in Niki’s arms. “There, it’s okay. We’re not going anywhere,” Niki smiled sadly.

Tommy nodded slowly, inhaling deeply. Niki smelled like fresh air and flowers. Tommy chuckled weakly. He remembered a few days ago when she bit the head straight off a rose. 

“Something funny?” Niki asked.

The blond nodded. “R-remember when you ate that rose?” He choked out between giggles. 

“Ah,” Niki nodded. She reached over and plucked a cornflower out of the grass and bit the head off it. “Like tha’?” She mumbled.

Tommy burst into laughter, almost falling out of Niki’s arms with the strength of his laughs. Niki smiled and chewed on the petals, and Shroud chittered curiously, wondering why Tommy was making so much noise.

Once Tommy calmed down, Niki looked out at the fading mists. She swallowed the flower and sighed. “You think it’s because of what they did to you?” Tommy nodded. The mutant rubbed her face and stood up. “Well, guess those fuckers gave you something good out of the whole ordeal. Can you imagine? Everyone else is just floating away or losing their mind from the mists, and you’re just strolling around?”

Tommy smiled. “I am the biggest man ever,”

“You sure are. Let’s fix up this shit hole,” Niki grinned. Tommy stood up beside her and nodded. “Yeah. It’s gonna be great,”

Chapter Text

So much for leaving the forest behind. 

Phil hurried through the trees back towards Technoblade’s home, an unconscious Ranboo limp in his arms. Being surprise attacked by a voldeer was not something he’d expected. The strangely electric deer were quite a shock, literally. Ranboo had taken the most damage, standing between two charged deer and having the electricity zap straight through him couldn’t have felt good. 

It didn’t take long to get back to Techno’s treehouse. They hadn’t made it very far before the voldeer attacked. He sighed in relief and looked up at the building in the trees, “Technoblade! Are you here?!” He shouted, “I could really use some help!”

“Yes?” 

Phil shrieked and almost dropped Ranboo as he jumped in surprise. Technoblade stood behind him, his mask on the side of his head so Phil could see his face. The brunette blew one of the pink strips of hair out of his face and looked down at Ranboo, unconscious in Phil’s arms. “What happened to Ranbo?”

“Ranboo,” Phil corrected, “And he got zapped by some voldeer.

“Eesh,” Techno grimaced. “I don’t know about this. He seems pretty dead,”

“He doesn’t seem dead at all! I can feel his pulse and heart-beat and everything!” Phil snapped, worried about the idea of Ranboo being gone. “Can you do anything?”

“Well,” The brunette scratched his head, “Voldeer are weird. Their electricity isn’t like the stuff from salvaged old days tech. It’s weird and magical, new age stuffs. Based on what I’ve dealt with before, he’ll probably be out for months, which ain’t good, since he can’t eat and stuff. So, we need a special plant to wake him up,”

“Great! Where can we get this?” Phil asked eagerly, adjusting his grip on the sleeping teen.

“It only grows near the Origin Cave, powerful stuffs, y’know? Last time I saw it was at a little village not far from it, but it’s really far away,” Techno explained.

Phil sighed and sunk to the ground, looking down at Ranboo worriedly. “The Origin Cave is over a hundred klicks from here…” He mumbled.

He heard Technoblade sigh and climb up into his treehouse, leaving Phil alone with Ranboo’s sleeping body. Tears filled his eyes at the thought of them not being able to wake him up. He’d starve, or die of dehydration, or who knows what else could cause an issue. The blond held Ranboo close, tears dripping off his cheeks and landing on Ranboo’s clothes.

“Okay, ready,” Techno’s voice said from behind him.

Phil turned to him, confused. He wiped tears from his face and asked, “What?”

“M’ready.” Techno repeated. The man had his full feral man outfit on, plus some extra gear and a massive backpack. His polar bear stood beside him, a weird sled attached to it by a harness. “Are we goin’ or what?”

“Wha- I thought you said before that you weren’t going to leave without… your potatoes,” He mumbled, confused.

“Yeah well, if we’re goin’ that far, I’m probably never comin’ back, so,” He gestured to his sled which had a good amount of potatoes stored in it, as well as many other things he likely grabbed from his home. It seemed like most of his home was in that massive backpack anyway.

“You’re leaving, just to help us get a plant?” Phil asked, shocked.

Techno nodded. “Yep. Change of scenery might be nice, plus this forest might be bad for my mental health,” He chuckled madly.

The blond nodded slowly, moving to stand with Ranboo still in his arms. Techno plucked the teen from his grasp and laid him down on the sled, somehow managing to make room for him within the blankets and baskets of potatoes and various other crap. “There. C’mon Steve, and Phil I guess, let’s go,”

“Wait- Are you sure, uhm, Steve, can pull that sled? He’s missing one of his legs, and that sled looks really heavy,” The blond questioned.

Techno shrugged. “Steve’s tough. Polar bears may have gotten smaller in the new age, but they’re still just as strong. Now hurry up, we need to get a move on before Ranbo starves,”

Phil nodded and hurried after Techno and the sled, occasionally sparing glances back at Ranboo. “ Okay, ” he thought, “ We can do this. Just gotta get to this plant, no big deal, ” 

Chapter Text

“Dris, are you sure we’re going the right way?” Dream asked suspiciously.

Drista nodded, heading due fucking south. “Yep. Dolus has a built-in compass, and besides, my mental compass has never failed us before, right?”

Dream sighed. “I suppose, but I just don’t feel like we’re going the right way,”

“Well you’re in no place to question my navigation skills. George is dying,” She stated, deciding to throw that out there and give everyone the grim reminder so they’d focus on that instead of the fact that she was leading them away from the Origin Cave.

Dream visibly wilted, glancing over at George walking beside him. Drista felt bad, but she couldn’t let them go there. She had to keep them distracted. She didn’t know what they wanted with the Origin Cave, but it couldn’t be good. So a never-ending detour was in order. 

“Dris, can we stop?” Sapnap asked quietly. The poor guy looked like he was about to pass out.

“Yeah, sure.” She girl said with a shrug.

Almost as soon as they stopped Sapnap collapsed, unconscious. Dream shrieked and hurried over to his friend, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. “He’s burning up-! Like, fuck-” He hissed, pulling his hand back, “He’s actually really hot,”

Drista rolled her eyes and walked over to the unconscious man. She placed her hand on his forehead and pulled it back with a wince. “Does Sapnap have any mutations?” She asked.

“No, not that he’s told us about,” Dream answered anxiously. 

“Well, I’m guessing he’s got heat raid. That sucks,” She said with a grimace.

“Wha- Is he gonna die?!” Dream asked frantically.

“Unless we get a cure, yeah,” The girl said honestly.

Dream fell to his knees. “No- First George, now Sapnap? Wh-why does everything in this stupid fucking world have to hurt us?!”

Drista looked away, “Hey, some stuff isn’t that bad-”

“I don’t care! Almost everything is out to get us, this world is sick and twisted like some sort of cruel fantasy world! I’m done ! This is why we need to get to that damn cave and kill the Beings! Then the world will go back to the way it used to be, before the Origins Cave was blown open!” The masked man shouted.

The girl paled. That’s why they wanted to go to the Origins Cave? She knew it couldn’t be good, but this is even worse than she expected. “Y-you don’t know what that would do though-” She stuttered.

“Oh but I do,” Dream hissed. “Getting rid of the Beings will get rid of the crap they brought with them into this world. By great great grandfather, I think it was, spoke to a being once, and it told him these very words! So I know it’s true!”

Drista mentally facepalmed. “ Shit, ” She thought. “B-but you can’t kill a being! They’re super powerful, magical and stuff!”

“Hah! You don’t think I’ve thought that over?! Beings might be magical god- like creatures, but they’re not god . They can still be injured, they can still die. It’s just harder to make it happen. But we’ve thought this through, we have poisons and weapons and all kinds of things stashed in a bunker near the Cave.” The man ranted.

“Dream, Dream, don’t you think this is a bit much?” The girl laughed nervously. “We can find a cure for Sapnap. Hell, I know of a plant that might be around here that could help!”

“And what about after that? What about George !? He’s fucking dying , Drista. There’s no cure for shroom-rot, he’s gonna fucking die !” Dream seethed, glaring at the girl. He inhaled deeply and turned around. “I’m going to look for that plant. What is it?” He asked coldly.

Drista trembled but stuttered out, “Uhm, i-it’s polycite… Blue flowers, silver stems…”

Dream nodded and walked off into the woods without another word. George turned to her slowly, “Will that plant actually do anyth- Ack! What are you doing?!”

Drista’s hands glowed bright yellow as she held them over Sapnap’s head. The sickness was gone from him in an instant and she pulled her hands back quickly as the man gasped and sat up. “What- What ‘appened?!” He slurred.

George stared at Drista, and the girl walked over to him and whispered. “You tell either of them what you saw, and I’ll make your head implode, got it?” She threatened.

The man nodded, eyes wide. “Good,” She muttered. “Dream will be back in a bit, tell him I found some of the plants already and gave them to Sapnap. I’m going for a walk,” She stated and stormed off into the trees, her mechanical raven following her.

Chapter Text

Tommy laughed nervously. “You think this is why the town is abandoned?!” He shouted over to Niki who was trying to fight off some very irritating sentient vines. 

“Oh I don’t know, maybe it was the, agh- weather!” She shot back sarcastically, slicing her axe through the vines. 

“Why are the plants around here so fucking crazy ?” Tommy wondered out loud, waving a torch around to fend off the vines.

Niki laughed. “Tommy we’re really close to the Origins Cave you know!” 

“What? Really ?!” The blond asked, shocked. “I didn’t know that! I honestly don’t keep track of where we’re traveling, you’re the only one with a map! How far away is the cave?”

“I don’t- Ack!” She chopped off a vine that was curling around her leg. “I don’t think this is the best time, Tommy!”

“Well then,” Tommy chucked his torch at the vines, lighting them aflame. A shrill hissing came from the vines as they slithered back into the forest within seconds. “Now, how close are we to the Origins Cave?”

Niki balked. “ What ? Why didn’t you do that to begin with?!” She yelled.

“I didn’t know if it would work ! I was just trying to get rid of the torch so I could grab a weapon!” Tommy replied, waving his hands around as emphasis. 

Niki sighed and facepalmed, “Well, I don’t actually know where the origin cave is. There are maps but they’re all pretty outdated. Nobody’s been able to find it in years, so I don’t really know where it is. Now we need to get inside before the moon comes out,”

“No, I wanna stay out and see the stars! Besides, it’s a new moon tonight, there won’t be as much light!” Tommy protested.

The mutant sighed again and nodded. “Fine. I’ll get some dinner put together then we can go look at the stars.” She said before walking off into the house they’d been staying in. It looked a lot better than when they’d first arrived. They’d been fixing it up, and it even had a makeshift fireplace in it now. 

Tommy walked over to the edge of the cliff, looking up at the sky as the stars began to show. He always liked the stars. He hated being inside if he didn’t have to, he preferred being outside, being free. Not trapped in a small, dark room -

Something caught Tommy’s attention out of the corner of his eyes. He glanced down at the lake and his mouth fell open in shock. The island in the middle of the lake was fucking rising out of it , and there was no mists in sight. Not that that mattered. Mists didn’t seem to affect the ground and stuff. The teen watched the island float out of the water until it was high above the lake, stagnant in the air.

Tommy stood there in disbelief staring at the island as Niki came up behind him. “Tommy, what’s with the look?” She asked and handed him an attempt at a sandwich.

The boy took it and pointed up at the island. Niki’s gaze slowly followed to where he was pointing and she let out a gasp. “Tommy- Wha- How-” She stuttered before realization dawned on her. “Do you think it’s ‘cause of how close we are to the Origins Cave?” She wondered.

Tommy blinked. “I dunno, just started floatin’,” He took a bite of his sandwich. “Do you think we could build something on it?”

Niki paused for a moment before smiling. “That’d be pretty cool, actually,”

The blond nodded. “Mhm. We could build like, a big building that’s sort of a hub, with rooms for anyone to stay in if they don’t have a house, and a big kitchen,”

Niki laughed. “You’ve got big plans considering we don’t even have anyone else living here yet,” She elbowed him in the side.

The younger shrugged. “I’m excited I guess,” He chuckled, “I want this to be someplace you’re happy. And it would be pretty cool,”

She nodded. “We could build a little spot for Shroud,” She said with a smirk.

Tommy threw his arms up, some of the contents of his sandwich going flying. “YES! Shroud deserves only the best!” He exclaimed.

Niki burst into laughter and doubled over, falling onto the ground. Tommy put his hands on his hips and scowled. “Hmph, it’s not funny. Shroud’s a king, he is to be respected.” He stated seriously. “But, how would we even get out there?” Tommy wondered, looking out at the island.

Niki calmed down, staring at the island. Tommy looked down at her and could practically see the cogs working in her brain. Then she grinned and said, “Bridge. If we could build a really long bridge out there, it would sink down into the water when the island floated back down, so you would only be able to get in at night, assuming this thing floats every night,”

Tommy smiled widely. “That’s awesome! Yes, yes !” He chuckled and took another big bite of his sandwich. “Le’s do it!”

Chapter Text

Phil was frankly surprised with the change in Techno’s behavior. It seemed that whatever he was breathing in while living in that forest really was fucking with him, because he was almost a completely different person now. Phil liked it. He was oddly quiet, but he seemed more calm and collected, still showing a strange favor towards potatoes though. 

“You can make cake with ‘em, and bread, and all sorts of stuffs,” The man rambled on monotonously. Phil enjoyed him filling the silence. Quiet was one thing he never handled well while on his own, at least not for long. 

“Cake? Really?” Phil asked, wanting to add to the conversation.

Techno nodded. “Mhm. You can use mashed potatoes t’make cake. Makes it nice an’ moist too,”

“That’s cool,” The blond replied, glancing back at Ranboo still unconscious in the sled. He sighed, worried about his young friend.

Technoblade seemed to pick up on this because he nudged Phil’s shoulder. “Hey, he’s gonna be alright, y’know. We’re gonna get the plants. We’re not all that far now anyway, as I’m sure you’ve noticed from the increasin’ly irritatin’ plant life and fauna,” 

Phil nodded. “Yeah. So those killer roses were a good sign?” He asked with a small grin.

Techno chuckled dryly, “Yeah. If I remember correctly, which I’m sure I do,” Phil rolled his eyes, “We should be at the village in a day ‘r two,”

“Well that’s good, I’m not sure how much longer Ranboo can take this,” He mumbled. Techno patted his shoulder awkwardly, and Phil was sure he was trying to make him feel better. He chuckled slightly, continuing on towards the village.

_____________________________

The village was fucking abandoned. Seemed like it had been for a long time.

Phil sighed, flopping down on the ground in frustration and exhaustion. 

Techno tilted his head, glancing down at the blond. “What’s your problem?” He asked bluntly.

The man rubbed a hand down his face, “Nobody’s here. The place is abandoned, clearly,” 

“Yeah, but the plants are probably still here, y’know. No need for mopin’ about,” He stated, gesturing out to the town.

Phil sighed, nodding slightly as he looked up at his companion. “I suppose you’re righ- Ah! Techno look out!” He shouted, pointing to the dark figure with shining eyes sneaking up behind the brunette.

Techno spun around, pulling his axe off his back as the stranger seemed about to strike down with their own. Their weapons clashed, sending sparks flying, and Techno shoved the figure back. 

They landed on the ground with a huff, but paused halfway through getting back up. Phil followed their gaze, which was locked directly onto Ranboo’s unconscious body.

The stranger carefully stood up, holding their hands up in peace. They walked into the light, their mutant qualities on full display. What surprised Phil most was that it was a woman.

“You’ve got an injured kid there?” She asked carefully, her hands still raised.

The blond nodded, glancing back at Ranboo instinctively. “Yes, he got zapped by some voldeer.” He explained. “I thought this place was abandoned?”

“It was,” The mutant huffed, snapping her axe to a holder on her hip. “Me and my companion are trying to change that though,” She gestured to the one slightly nicer looking house in the town.

Phil nodded. “Do you know if there’s any- Uhm, Techno, what is it?” He asked, turning to the man.

“Polycite,” Techno finished. “Blue flowers, weird shiny silver stems. Used to be pretty abundant around here,”

The mutant scratched her head in thought. “Yeah. I’ve seen something like that. Thought it was a weed, actually. It’s growing all over the town,” She shrugged.

Phil felt relieved . “That’s great! Techno, c’mon, we need to get some so we can wake up Ranboo,” He said eagerly as he stood, walking into the town. 

The blond caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. He turned, trying to figure out what it was, and locked eyes with a blond boy standing beside one of the buildings. He stood there for a moment before running off, leaving Phil confused. With a sigh he went back to looking for polycite, assuming the boy was the companion the mutant woman spoke of.

Chapter Text

Tommy hurried over to Niki, Shroud scurrying along behind him. “Niki! There’s people here- Ack!” He skidded to a halt when he found her. Standing beside her was a tall and very threatening looking man. 

The blond yelped and hid behind Niki. “Nikiiiiiii, there are people here,” He repeated, quieter.

The mutant chuckled, picking up Shroud before he nibbled through her boot. “I know, Tommy. This is Techno, and the guy you saw was probably Phil,” She said, gesturing to the tall and muscly brunette.

Tommy glared at him. “Why are they here?” He asked suspiciously.

“Well, I believe they’re looking for a plant to heal their friend,” Niki pointed to an unconscious mutant boy who seemed to be laying in a sled covered in potatoes.

“Huh…” Tommy mumbled, walking over and crouching down beside the sled. “He looks like he’s around my age,” He noted, looking at the boy. “I’ve decided; You guys are not leaving.” He said seriously, standing up with his hands on his hips.

“Tommy you can’t-” Niki began, but the big muscly guy cut her off.

“Fine with me. Free real estate.” He shrugged, biting into a potato that Tommy wasn’t even sure if it was cooked.

Niki blinked. “Okay then… I suppose it would be nice to have more people around,” She ran a hand through her hair.

The blond man from before, Phil supposedly, hurried back over with his arms full of that stupid weed that kept growing all over town. The boy watched him and Techno turn it into a weird paste and pretty much force feed it to unconscious mutant boy.

After about thirty seconds, unconscious mutant boy woke up. He gasped, looking around in confusion before he grimaced, clutching his stomach. “Hungry-” He choked out, his voice hoarse from lack of use.

Phil hugged him tightly, while Techno started up a fire to cook some potatoes with Niki. 

Tommy decided that there was entirely too much going on at the moment, and walked back over to the house he and Niki lived in before passing out in his makeshift bed.

_____________________________

Tommy was frankly surprised when he went outside after waking up. This Phil guy seemed to be living his best life overworking himself beyond any sane point. Tommy blinked at the bridge leading to the island floating in the middle of the lake, and on top of said island there was already a frame of a large building.

The boy shoved his hands into his pockets after making sure his mask was on, not wanting to be burnt by the moon. He walked around town, trying to find where the Techno guy and no-longer-unconscious-boy were.

Niki was passed out over a stump, a stray hat placed over her head to prevent burning. Tommy chuckled, continuing his walk through the town.

Eventually he found a house with the door wide open, and inside was the mutant boy who was now awake. He didn’t seem very tired, which made sense considering he had probably been asleep for a long time before the stupid weeds woke him up. He was feverishly cleaning the rundown building, sweeping out dust and cobwebs and chucking rotted furniture out the open windows.

Tommy was frankly impressed. “Hey- Woah!” He ducked under a chair that flew out the door. 

The mutant stopped, looking over at him in surprise. “Oh, shoot- I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there,” He apologized.

Tommy shrugged casually. “It’s fine. What’s your name?” He asked, walking into the house and letting out a shriek when his next step went straight through the floor, sending him awkwardly to the ground with one of his legs swallowed by the rotting wood.

“Ah- Yeah, there’s a hole there,” The tall mutant muttered. 

“No shit, dumbass,” Tommy snided. 

The mutant rubbed the back of his neck. “But my name is Ranboo, to answer your question.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, pulling himself up out of the floor and scowled at the spiderwebs and bugs all over his pant leg. Ranboo noticed the spiders and ants crawling on his legs and shuddered harshly, backing away.

Tommy scoffed and dusted his leg off, and Ranboo very quickly swept the bugs out of the house. “So, uhm, why are you here? I mean this town, like what made you want to live here specifically-” Ranboo rambled.

“Yeah yeah, I get it,” Tommy rolled his eyes again. “I dunno, we just found it. Me and Niki have been looking for a place to live for a while now. She wanted to settle down. She’s lonely, and feels without purpose or something lame like that,”

Ranboo frowned. “That’s sad. She seems very nice though. I saw her sleeping on a stump and got worried about the moonbeams so I put a hat over her face. I hope she doesn’t mind,” He mumbled.

“You did that?” Tommy asked, surprised. “Well I suppose that was pretty decent of you, Ranman. And yeah, she is really nice.” The blond glanced up at the mutant, for once noticing the fact that the white side of his body was scarred , not just bi-colored from mutations. He cringed in sympathy, “Eesh, what happened to get you all those moonlight burns?”

The mutant looked down, his hands clasped tightly around his broom handle. “I don’t remember much, but the first thing I do remember was waking up in a field in nothing but shorts. I was laying on my side, so I’m pretty sure that I’m all burnt up from that,”

“That sucks, man,” Tommy stated. The mutant only nodded, going back to sweeping. “Well,” Tommy started, trying to keep talking so he wouldn’t be bored. “What about those other guys you’re with?”

“Well Phil has been with me for a while. I tried stealing from his tent and he caught me, but after that he invited me to travel with him and that’s how it’s been since. And Techno is new. We found him in a toxic forest living in a treehouse. He’s acting less crazy now than he was when I met him, but to be fair he was breathing in a lot of toxic mists and I was out cold the whole journey here,” Ranboo explained.

Tommy nodded, leaning against the wall. Ranboo looked back at him, “What about you and that Niki lady?”

The blond sighed, looking out the window as he thought. “Niki found me a couple years ago. I feel pretty stupid about it now, since looking back on it it’s so clear that what was going on was pretty shitty. But I was experimented on. These guys were trying to make me immune to something, I think. They wanted me to be unaffected by shit so I could do things for them without dying or getting sick. In the end they left since the lab was going to fall deeper into the cave it was built in. Niki found me not long before it collapsed.” He said simply.

“Oh,” Ranboo muttered.

Tommy nodded. “Yep,”

“Well, it’s nice to have more people to talk to,” The mutant continued. 

Tommy grinned slightly. “Yeah, it is.”

Chapter Text

Drista had made the very, very foolish mistake of falling asleep. When she awoke, she was being carried by Sapnap again, heading back in the direction of the Origin Cave.

She yelped, squirming around and successfully falling out of the man’s arms. She ran up to Dream, waving her arms frantically. “Dream-! Dream, ah- I think we’re heading the wrong way, why’d you change course?” She asked as casually as she could, which wasn’t very casual at all.

The man removed his mask and glared down at her. “ You were going the wrong way, Miss Mental-Compass-Has-Never-Failed ,” He hissed.

Drista paled, falling behind as the others walked ahead of her. Dolus squawked and flew over to her, landing on her head. He looked down at her, his red lens eye zooming in and focussing on her. The girl sighed and trudged on, a terrible sense of dread filling her.

But, maybe nothing would happen. Dream, George and Sapnap would see that there were no Beings there, and they’d leave, right? But, Drista couldn’t be near the cave for very long, and she really didn’t want to go in it at all anyway. But that didn’t matter now. Dream had reset their course, and he wouldn’t be letting Drista lead again now that he caught on to the fact that she was leading them away.

The girl resigned herself to her fate, following the three men as they walked towards the cave.

_____________________________

Drista was, frankly, surprised. Sure, she hadn’t been here in a long, long time, but even the old days tech map didn’t show any of this. There was an abandoned village built along the cliffside, overlooking what used to be a massive hole leading down to the deepest cave in the known world. Now it was a lake with a stupid little island in the middle of it.

“What the FUCK?!” Dream shouted, staring out in shock and anger at the lake. “Where’s the fucking cave ?!”

Drista scratched her arm, nervously looking around the village. “Guy’s, I don’t know how abandoned this place actually is-”

“We came all this way!” Dream continued, kicking a chunk of dirt down into the water. “Was it for- for nothing ?!” Tears were starting to fill his eyes, and George leaned against him, grabbing his hand.

“Uh, guys?” Drista tried again.

“It’s okay, Dream…” The man in goggles said quietly. “We didn’t need to find it-”

“We did ! You’re gonna die, and we can’t do a fucking thing about it!”

“DREAM!” Drista shouted, getting the attention of all three men. She turned and pointed to the armed strangers standing not far from them, one in particular staring at Dream and his friend with a frozen fear.

“Ah-” Dream stuttered, staring right back at the blond stranger. “ You ,” He whispered, shock coating his expression.

The stranger turned and bolted away, one of the other’s taking off after him. This left a blond man in green clothes, a tall mutant boy with very excessive moonburn scars, and a dude who looked like freaking Technoblade.

Drista's eyes bounced between her companions and the newcomers, “Uhm, introductions, anyone?” She asked nervously.

Dream shook his head and cleared his throat. “I’m Dream WasTaken-” A potato hits him in the face.

The man squawked in shock, looking up at the thrower of the potato. The guy who looked like Technoblade had a couple more in his hand. “What?” He asked monotonously, to which Dream made a confused face.

George rolled his eyes beneath his goggles, stepping forward. “I’m George NotFound-” A potato hit him in the leg too. He yelped, jumping backwards.

Potato man had two more potatoes in hand, and Sapnap looked nervous as he stepped forward. “I’m, uhm, Sapnap Pandas- ACK!” He fell over after getting pelted with a potato in the chest.

Drista rolled her eyes and stepped forward, eyeing the man with the singular potato remaining. “I’m just Drista,” She said, and the potato was thrown through the air towards her. She tilted her and shot her arm out, catching the vegetable in her hand. “Hm, nice arm. Do we get introductions from you now?” She asked calmly.

The guy who looked like Technoblade made a vaguely surprised face before nodding. “I’m Technoblade,” He stated. Well, that explained the resemblance then.

The blond man in green nodded, moving some hair out of his face. “I’m Philza McCraft, but Phil is fine.” He said kindly.

“And uhm, I’m Ranboo Beloved,” The tall mutant said anxiously.

Dream scoffed and chucked his potato at Phil, who failed to avoid the vegetable hitting him in the arm. Drista followed, chucking her own potato back at Technoblade, and he caught it just as she had. Poor Ranboo though ended up crying on the ground after being pelted with both George and Sapnap’s potatoes.

“Well,” Drista grinned. “I think that’s it for introductions. Can we possibly get a place to sleep?”

Chapter Text

Tommy was going to have a panic attack. He wasn’t breathing right. Niki had told him he needed to breathe when this happened, but he couldn’t think straight. The smiling man, fucking Dream was here. Why was he here ?! And he brought his friends too, and some new girl but who cared about her because it was Dream . 

Tommy inhaled sharply, digging his nails into his sides as he stared down at the lake. “No, no no, he can’t-” He stuttered, tears filling his eyes. “Why is he- He’s gonna hurt me again, I don’t want to do anything,” He rambled to no one.

A hand landed on his shoulder, making him flinch harshly. He turned around, his panicked gaze landing on a worried Niki. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. You really freaked out back there, are you okay?”

Tommy shook his head. “It’s them . The guys from the lab. H-how did they find me? What do they want?!” He stuttered.

“Hey, calm down, Toms,” Niki said softly, pulling him into a hug. “We’ll be okay, I won’t let them do anything. And who knows, maybe they’re here just by coincidence and want nothing to do with you,”

“That’s too good to be true,” Tommy mumbled.

“No it’s not. It’s perfectly plausible. But either way, you don’t have to go near any of them if you don’t want to. That’s completely fine,” The mutant soothed, running her hand through his hair and scratching at his scalp.

Tommy clung to her, his scared sounds muffled in her shirt. She somehow always knew how to make him feel better, and the stupid head scratching thing felt like a cheat code for that.

The blond looked over Niki’s shoulder, spotting the masked man watching them for a moment before walking off. Tommy tensed up, burying his face in Niki’s shoulder. “Please don’t let them do anything…” He whispered.

Niki frowned, rubbing her hand down his back. “Don’t worry, Toms, they won’t lay a finger on you,” She said seriously.

_____________________________

Tommy whimpered, clinging to the man in goggles as he carried him down to the deep dark. He hated the caves. The air felt full of weird dust that he hated breathing in, and it used to make him sick before they started doing more tests on him. Now it just felt weird to breathe in.

The man in goggles set him down and hooked a cable to the harness around his body, “Go down there,” He said, pointing towards a deeper part of the caves. “We’ll pull you up if anything bad happens,”

The boy trembled, looking down into the cave. “It’s scary… Please, don’t make me-”

“Hurry up, we haven’t got all day. You’ll miss spending time with Ghostbur if you take too long,” The man said plainly before walking back towards the lab.

Tommy squeaked. He didn’t want to lose time with Ghostbur. Ever since Wilbur went away and came back, different , he’d gotten even less time with him than before. The blond urged himself forward, placing one shaking foot in front of the other and descending into the darkness.

They had said that this cave was close to a very special cave that made the world go wrong years and years ago, and that Tommy was special too because he was chosen to come down and investigate things that normal people couldn’t. Not even them. 

But Tommy didn’t feel special. Having needles jammed into his skin and tests taken and having to breathe in weird gasses wasn’t fun. Having to go down in the dark scary caves wasn’t fun.

He whimpered, stepping through the squishy moss that sounded all too gross. He looked up, trying to keep tears from falling. Dream said he shouldn’t cry, it was a privilege to be able to do this. 

The boy walked on, focussing on the pulsing lights on the walls, floor and ceiling. They almost looked like stars, but too blue. Tommy inhaled deeply, resisting the urge to cough at the weird stuff in the air. He just had to get to the bottom, he just had to get to the special cave then he could go back up to Ghostbur, and the light .

Tommy’s foot suddenly slipped on the moss and he slid off the edge of a cliff. The blond screamed. Flailing around before his hands found the cable attached to his harness. He closed his eyes tightly, tears filling his eyes from fear. 

He yelped, the air suddenly knocked out of him as the cable caught on a rocky ledge, stopping him right before he hit the cave floor. Tommy breathed heavily, staring at the ground as tears dripped down his cheeks. The ledge the cable had caught on crumbled under the pressure and Tommy fell the remaining feet to the floor, crying out in pain.

The boy pushed himself up on his hands and knees, looking around at the cave he found himself in. He couldn’t see anything , but the ground felt weird and the air was different, he could feel it. He blinked a few times, and suddenly there was a bright yellow, glowing thing in front of him, smiling eerily wide with pointed teeth. “ Hi !” Its voice echoed, and Tommy screamed, tugging frantically on his cable.

It yanked him up, once again knocking the air out of him as it rapidly pulled him back to the men. Tommy watched the glowing person stand up and watch him as he rose up the cliffside. It stood there, watching somehow despite not having eyes. It tilted its head, in an almost melancholy way, before Tommy disappeared over the cliff's edge.

_____________________________

Tommy gasped, sitting up in his bed and feeling around frantically. “ Not stone, it’s not stone ” He thought to himself, trying to take steady breaths. He noticed Niki was asleep beside him, which wasn’t a first. Sometimes she’d carry Tommy to bed after he had a breakdown, and her arm would be stuck under him when she set him down, so she’d end up passing out beside him. The blond assumed that was what happened. 

He sighed, glancing around the room. For a split second he could’ve sworn he seen a soft yellow glow near the doorway, but it wasn’t there when he blinked. Tommy yawned and laid back down, running his thumb over Niki’s weirdly textured hand. He’d picked up the habit of doing that when he was nervous back when she’d first found him, since he would cling to her hand wherever they went, afraid she’d let him go.

Tommy yawned again, his eyes slipping closed as he drifted back off to sleep. He’d forget about the yellow glow by morning.

Chapter Text

Drista laid in the decade old bed, filling coming out of the mattress and dust coating the thing. She curled in on herself, trembling. “What am I supposed to do ?” She mumbled to herself, watching her hands flicker to yellow before back to normal again. “I can’t be here…” 

The door slammed open and the girl nearly jumped up and hit the ceiling. “ACK! Who-?!” She blinked, taking in her attempted-killer since she almost had a heart attack . It was Sapnap. “Sap? What do you want?” Drista asked irritably.

“George is acting really weird, and Dream went off to forage! Please, I don’t know what to do,” He explained worriedly.

Drista sighed and got up from her bed. “Alright, show me where he is,” She mumbled.

Sapnap led her over to the edge of the cliff where George was sitting on the ground, tracing circles in the dirt repeatedly with his finger while staring out at the lake, muttering to himself.

“George?” The girled tried, sitting down beside him. The girl grimaced, seeing his goggles were off for once, and his eyes were almost pure violet. “Oh no…” She whispered. George was really sick now, like losing-control-of-his-mind-to-the-mushrooms sick.

“We’re losing him,” Drista stated, making Sapnap’s eyes widen. “There’s no cure. He’s not going to last much longer in this state,” She sighed.

Sapnap wiped his eyes, sniffling as he sat down next to the dissociated George. He leaned his head on his friend’s shoulder, wrapping an arm around him. “Fuck, I’m sorry George…” He whispered. “I wish we could make you better.”

Drista looked away, out over the lake and rising moon. She kinda wished that too.

She glanced over at the men, noticing Sapnap pull on his gloves and bandana over his face to protect him from the moonlight, and similarly helping George get his things on. Just as the moon was beginning to rise, oddly enough, the little island in the middle of the lake did too. Out of the water rose a long bridge that led to the island, and Drista had to admire how well hidden it was on a normal basis. It led over to the island, and the work-in-progress building on top of it which she had chosen to ignore until now. 

But the thing that she really noticed, was the gap in the water left behind by the island.

Water poured in on all sides, but somehow the lake wasn’t draining or filling the hole. Drista stared, wide eyed at what lay hidden beneath the lake, and her skin flickered to yellow for a moment. 

She yelped, jumping up and focussing on keeping a human appearance, but she couldn’t stop her heart from racing at the sight of oh so familiar plants and dull lights coming from beneath the lake.

Sapnap paid no mind to her reaction, instead staring in awe at the island now floating over the lake. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to have noticed the freaking Origin Cave right beneath it. And hopefully he never would. Drista needed to get them out of this town, now -

“What’s going on?”

The girl turned to see Dream standing behind her, basket full of foraged foods. 

“The island just fucking floated out of the lake,” Sapnap explained. “Oh… And George is pretty much gone,” He added sorrowfully, waving his hand in front of his friend’s purple eyes.

Dream dropped the basket, hurrying over to George and crouching down beside him. “George? George, can you hear me?” He asked frantically, turning the man’s face to look at him.

George blinked slowly, dark tears filling his eyes. He leaned against Dream, weakly wrapping his arms around him. He didn’t say anything more than a pained and sorrowful sound, burying his face in the masked man’s shoulder.

Dream inhaled sharply, wrapping his own arms around his sick friend. “Please George… You’ll be fine, you’ve gotta be…” He whispered, tears slipping down his cheeks. 

Drista swallowed, a strange feeling filling her gut at the sad sight. Despite this, she awkwardly moved over to attempt to block their sight of the cave opening beneath the island should they turn to look. 

Of course, this didn’t seem to fucking matter, because Dream turned around to look at the island, looked straight past Drista and saw it. But his gaze quickly flickered down at the dark blur beneath the island. Maybe he’d mistake it for a shadow? That was hopeful thinking though, and Drista knew it.

The man gasped, reluctantly letting go of George and running across the wet bridge to look down under the island. “Sap! Come look!” He said with manic glee in his eyes. “I think we’ve found the cave!”

Chapter Text

Phil was, quote, ‘overworking himself’. 

Lies. 

He pulled himself up on the support beams, carefully standing and balancing on top of them as he walked over to the part he was working on. The building, or as Tommy was calling it ‘The Pub’ was coming along fairly nicely. He had finished the framework and flooring, was halfway through installing the roof and was beginning to work on the walls. Totally normal amount of work for a week in his opinion.

Techno had been keeping an eye on the new guys, cautious as he is, and Ranboo was honestly doing the opposite. He was avoiding them. He claimed that something about them made him feel weird and gave him a headache, so he chose to avoid them.

Phil thought this was good. He didn’t want Ranboo to feel uncomfortable. But it did raise some questions. Why did they make Ranboo feel this way? 

The blond shook his head. He’d have to find the answers another time. He looked out the glassless window, spotting Dream and everyone who’d shown up with him. They were sitting on the edge of the cliff, pointing down at the lake now that the island had risen. Phil noticed the distant look in George’s purple eyes and felt a pang of sympathy. Shroom rot sucked, it really did. He would know, he lost someone he loved to it only a few years back.

The man jumped down from the window, gliding safely to the ground with the new, simple glider he’d built for when he was building high up. It wasn’t as complex or large as his elytra, so it worked well. 

Phil watched the newcomers talk and bicker over something, Dream pointing down at the lake beneath the island every so often. The blond walked across the bridge a ways so he could see under the island. There was a gap in the water just beneath the island that he’d always assumed was just the shadow of the risen ground. Apparently not. 

He could vaguely make out what looked to be plants inside, but even the air down there seemed thick with toxic pollen and mists. Out of habit, Phil pulled up his mask, even if he was hundreds of feet above the toxic air.

He glanced back at the cliff, watching Dream and his friends walk off, George being led along by Sapnap. The blond sighed, walking along the bridge and back to the town. He should find Ranboo. He hadn’t seen the mutant boy since Dream and the others showed up.

He didn’t much care for Dream and his friends. They gave him bad vibes. And seeing Tommy’s reaction to them showing up had been anything but reassuring. He had a feeling the kid had met them before. 

From what he’d heard from Ranboo, Tommy’s life had been pretty shitty before Niki found him, but it didn’t sound like they’d met anyone else significant on their travels. It led him to wonder if Dream might have been one of the men to experiment on Tommy.

He wandered through the abandoned buildings before coming across the one with a simple crown symbol painted near the door. He knocked, waiting for an answer but he received none. “Ranboo?” He tried, pushing open the door. It stopped moving after opening a few inches, and a quick look in showed the cause to be an overturned chair blocking the door. 

Phil’s expression filled with concern as he carefully forced the door the rest of the way open, the chair scratching against the floor. The blond walked in, noticing most of the furniture was knocked over and items were scattered all around. In the corner, Ranboo was curled up on his bed, the spine-like bones in his spine pierced out of his skin from the tension.

Phil gasped and hurried over to the young mutant, careful not to trip over anything. “Ranboo? Ranboo what’s wrong? Are you alright?” He asked worriedly.

Ranboo shook his head, digging his nails into his sides. “No no, I- It’s too much, my head hurts…” He muttered.

Phil carefully placed his hand on Ranboo’s shoulder. “Please Ranboo, I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong,” He pleaded.

The young mutant turned to him salty tears stinging his scarred skin, “I- I think that I might remember. I-” He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes tightly. “I think I was at the lab before Tommy… I think I failed to become what they wanted, and- and they left me for dead,” He raised his hand up to the scarred half of his face, opening his eyes once again to see Phil’s horrified expression.

“We need to find Tommy,” He said, turning back to the open door, “ Now ,”

Chapter Text

Tommy laid in his bed, alone since Niki went off to do stuff to fix up the village. He was too tired to go with, choosing to instead stay in his bed. He blinked slowly, hearing the door creak open. 

Niki had said she’d bring him breakfast, and it was probably around noon now if Tommy’s mental clock was anywhere near correct. The blond turned to the door, not surprised to see her standing there with a wooden plate in hand.

“Hey Toms, brought you some lunch,” She said softly, giving him a smile. She crouched down and placed the plate down on his bed. Her gaze moved up to his tired expression and she frowned slightly. The mutant carefully brushed Tommy’s blond hair out of his face, giving him a kiss on the forehead before heading out of the room. “Eat up,” She said before leaving, shutting the door behind her.

Tommy sighed and picked up a piece of fruit, sticking it in his mouth and lazily chewing on it. He heard the door creak open again and rubbed his eyes. “Niki, I don’t need a fork if that’s what you’re here for- Mph?!” He yelped through the rag suddenly on his face.

“Shush,” Dream hissed, his smiling mask staring down at him. 

Tommy’s heart nearly stopped. “ No, ” He thought, “ No, no not again, ” He whimpered, breath coming in quickly through the rag. He tried to get up but found that Dream was pinning him down, making it impossible.

“Now, I think you remember how things used to go, Tommy. We have a special job for you,” The man whispered, making Tommy shudder.

He whimpered through the rag, shaking his head as tears welled in his eyes. “ No no no no no, I can’t do this again! ” His mind screamed as he struggled beneath Dream’s hold. It was no use.

The masked man glanced around quickly before grabbing Tommy and throwing him over his shoulder, “We gotta hurry up. Time’s runnin’ out,” He said as he ran out of the house. 

Tommy cried, watching from Dream's shoulder as he weaved through the town, carrying him like he was nothing more than a sack of potatoes. They left the buildings behind, snaking around the cliffs surrounding the lake. Tommy could see the island hovering over the lake, a massive hole in the water where it used to be. He’d always thought it was a shadow, never paying it any mind.

“ Please not down there, not the caves, ” He silently begged, tears slipping down his cheeks. “ Not again ,” 

His silent prayers went unanswered as Dream took him down a narrow path along the cliff, all the way down to a makeshift dock with some very old looking rowboats bobbing in the water. Dream’s friends were there, the one with the bandana looked anxious as he held up the one who Tommy usually saw in goggles, but now he was covered in mushrooms and his eyes were glowing purple. With them was the new girl, he’d never seen her in the labs, so she probably hadn’t been with them more than a few years. She looked even more anxious than the others.

Dream set Tommy down in one of the rowboats, quickly hopping in with him. “Got your masks?” He asked the others hurriedly, to which they nodded, except for the man without his goggles, he just stared off absently. “Good, now hurry up. He gotta do this before the island sinks back down.” Dream said as he began rowing his boat off towards the hole.

Tommy sobbed, watching the others get in a boat and row after them once they’d pulled on their masks. “ Not again, ” He thought to himself, “ I can’t do this again, ”

_____________________________

Tommy couldn’t breathe. Actually, he was the only one who could , but it was proving to be very difficult with how rapidly the air was entering and exiting his body.

Dream and the others had rode their boats over to beneath the island, carefully using some vines hanging from the bottom of it to climb down into the hole. It was worse than Tommy remembered. The air was thick with toxins and dust and everything was dark despite the bioluminescent plants’ dull glow. Tommy collapsed, clutching his chest as he tried to breathe. It was all too familiar, it was just like before.

They were going to experiment on him again. They were going to stab needles into his skin and inject untested serums into his blood to try and make him the perfect little lab rat to go down into the caves and find whatever it was that they wanted. They were going to-

“Tommy?” 

The boy gasped harshly, looking up at the girl with a stupid parody of Dream’s mask strapped to the side of her head. She was crouched down in front of him, looking into his eyes with worry. “Are you alright? Can you breathe okay?” She asked, her own gas mask over her mouth and nose to prevent the toxic air from poisoning her.

Tommy shuddered, inhaling sharply again. He could breathe the air just fine, but he was currently having a lot of trouble actually completing the action. His hands found his hair and he gripped onto it tightly, tears dripping from his face and onto the mossy ground below. 

He wanted Niki. He felt like a stupid little kid wanting their mom to come make sure there were no monsters under the bed, but he needed her. She made him feel safe. She’d saved him before, she could do it again.

“Come on, we don’t have all day,” Dream said, pulling Tommy to his feet and tugging him along.

The blond stumbled, struggling to keep up with Dream as he and the others led him through the underground forest that looked like the ones on the surface but on steroids. Everything was so much more . More vines, more glow, more toxins and weird sounds and eerie feelings. More fantastical horror. Everything was just, to the extreme.

Tommy sobbed, letting Dream pull him along. The masked man himself seemed to be struggling to breathe, even with his mask. The others appeared to be having the same issue, except for the girl, strangely enough. Dream coughed into his arm, picking up the pace. The plants seemed to thin up ahead, a large open space beyond them. 

Tommy didn’t want to think about what they were looking for. Knowing Dream, it couldn’t be good. 

They broke from the trees, and the sight before them was the furthest thing from what Tommy expected. 

Chapter Text

Phil rounded the corner and collided with Niki, sending them both to the ground. The mutant woman groaned in mild pain, looking up at him in confusion. “What’s the rush?” She wheezed out as Phil scrambled to get off of her.

“Dream’s going to take Tommy-! We need to stop him!” The blond stuttered, standing up and taking off down the path again. He could hear Niki running behind him, and he was sure that some ways behind her was Ranboo.

“What- How do you know that?!” Niki shouted as they ran.

“Ranboo remembers being from the same lab Tommy’s from, and I think that he wants Tommy because whatever tests and shit they did on him actually worked ,” Phil explained hurriedly before skidding to a stop in front of Tommy’s house. He shuddered, seeing the door was already ajar, and kicked it open the rest of the way.

Nobody was inside.

“Shit,” Phil hissed, turning around and looking through the old buildings for any sign of the boy. “Where do you think they went?”

“Phil!” Ranboo shouted from some ways away. “I think I know where they went!”

Phil and Niki exchanged a glance before taking off after the sound of Ranboo’s voice. They found him on the edge of the cliff, staring out at two rotten row boats bobbing around in the water near the massive hole in the lake.

“Shit!” Phil said again, watching the island start to lower back down into the water as the sun rose. “No no no, how do we get them out of there?! What are they doing down there?! Even with masks they won’t be able to breathe very long! How do we-” He cut himself off, noticing Niki was walking away. “Niki?”

The mutant woman turned back to him, fiery vengeance in her eyes. “I’m going to get Tommy back,” She said darkly, and Phil felt just slightly bad for Dream and his friends.

Niki huffed and walked off away from the cliffs, and eventually he and Ranboo followed after her.

“Niki, where are we going, specifically?” Ranboo asked nervously, struggling to keep up with her determined stride.

“The cave where I found Tommy isn’t that far from here. It’s a massive system, and I’m fairly certain it connects to the Origin Cave. We can get to them from there,” She explained bluntly, leading them down a hill.

Ranboo stumbled on the uneven ground but managed not to fall over, “Oh, well that’s convenient. But what about the air? And what will we do when we get there?”

“Masks,” Niki stated plainly.

“But the air will-” Ranboo started, but the woman cut him off.

She turned to him and said, “So we get down there, beat their asses, and get back out with Tommy,” She said sternly before turning back around on her heel and walking quickly down the hill.

Ranboo balked before following after her.

Phil sighed, looking out at the rising sun. He didn’t know what Dream and his friends wanted in the Origin Cave, but it had to be bad given what they’ve done to Tommy in an attempt to achieve it.

The blond hurried after the others, pulling up his mask when he saw the cave Niki had been talking about. The woman wasted no time jumping down into it while Ranboo struggled to climb down. Phil jumped down, gliding with his simpler elytra, and caught Ranboo when he eventually slipped. “Considering how skinny you are, you’re still pretty heavy, mate,” The blond chuckled weakly as he set the mutant boy down.

Ranboo apologized before running off after Niki, pulling up his own mask once deeper into the caves. Niki led them to the edge of a very tall cliff and below it, was the most insane forest/jungle/clusterfuck of chaos he’d ever seen. There was so much going on. So many plants, giant and tiny and every size in between, some of them were glowing even. Moss and vines and tiny little flowers covered and hung from the walls and ceiling, animals of all sorts roamed around, there was even a river running through the place, the water strange and fizzing.

“We have to go down there?” Ranboo asked nervously.

Niki simply nodded before she began scaling down the rocky cliff. Ranboo made a small noise, peering over the edge after her. “I don’t know about this…”

“Hey, I can glide you down if you want?” Phil offered with a smile, letting out the smaller wings from his pack.

Ranboo nodded, “Yes, please. Thank you, Phil,” He said gratefully.

“It’s no problem, mate. Hold on,” He jumped off the cliff just as Ranboo grabbed him around the middle. The two floated down to the ground, albeit a bit faster than normal with the extra weight. But they managed to land without much issue. 

Not long after, Niki jumped down from the cliff the rest of the way. “Come on, we’ve got to hurry. Pretty soon these toxins will start eating through our lungs,” She said bluntly.

Ranboo whimpered. “What-?” He wheezed out.

“It’s okay, Ranboo,” Phil said, putting his hand on the younger mutant’s shoulder. “Let’s just hurry up and find Tommy so we can get out of here,”

Ranboo nodded, and the two quickly walked off after Niki.

Chapter Text

Drista stood, frozen at the sight before her. She never wanted to come back here. Ever . Yet here she stood, gazing out at multiple massive skeletons littered around the golden stained ground.

She whimpered, feeling her skin flicker to yellow like she was some glitching out technology. Dream and the others just stared.

“They’re all dead …” Sapnap whispered, looking around at the massive skeletons. “They’re already gone. Why- why is the world still like this then?”

Dream’s mask fell to the ground and shattered. “What. The. Fuck !” He shouted, a pained rage visible in his expression. “What do we do now?! There has to be one left somewhere , otherwise nothing would be keeping this fucking chaotic shit alive!” He snapped, kicking at some glowing moss on the ground.

Tommy trembled, glancing around at the skeletons in confusion before his eyes landed on Drista. “Mm- Mmph?!” His eyes widened as his words came out muffled through his gag. Drista’s eyes caught his and she wondered what he was looking at. Her gaze dropped, and she noticed her hands were glowing again.

“Oh…” She mumbled quietly, unable to make them go back to human. She looked up, noticing a particularly familiar skeleton draped in extravagant green and gold robes, lifeless silver halos laying against its skull. “Exdii…” She whispered, tears welling in her eyes at the sight of her brother’s bones.

She tugged off her mask, the plastic uncomfortable on her face and making it difficult to breathe.

“Drista! You can’t just-” Sapnap began before he fell silent, staring in shock at the girl. “Dream…” He whispered, nudging his friend in the side.

“What?!” Dream snapped, before Sapnap nodded towards the masked man’s ‘sister’. Dream gaped at the glowing girl before him, tears floating up around her as if there were gravity altering mists in the area, but it was only her. 

“She’s the last Being…” The man realized. “The Being blood, the floating with the salt vulture, everything makes sense. We’ve been traveling with the damn thing the whole time!” He laughed hysterically.

Drista inhaled sharply, looking up at the sound of a sword being drawn. Dream pointed his blade directly at her. “You’re no sister of mine, I knew you were suspicious from the moment you showed up- ACK!” Dolus suddenly flew at him, scratching at his head while letting out angered mechanical caws.

The surprise caused Drista to completely drop her human form, the entirety of her skin poofing to a soft glowing yellow. She backed away slightly, trembling in fear at the fact that Dream had so quickly drawn his sword on her. 

Amidst all the chaos, Tommy managed to get the gag out of his mouth. “Run!” He shouted, grabbing her hand and taking off into the dense forest.

Drista looked around, able to see things much clearer now despite the absence of her human eyes. The flora around them seemed to react to her presence, standing taller, glowing brighter, moving around to help her. Despite his initial shock from the plants’ movement, Tommy quickly adjusted and used the massive leaves of several plants to climb up on top of a giant mushroom. 

The blond pushed Drista down against the mushroom to avoid being seen by Dream running by below them. Once he had passed, he let out a large breath and sat up slightly.

Drista looked down at the cap of the mushroom she sat on, feeling overwhelmed yet numb at the same time. “I can’t believe he did that… I thought, maybe after everything we’ve been through, that he would care at least a little bit about me…” She whispered.

Tommy sighed, running a hand through his hair awkwardly. “Well, not that I want to defend the man, because personally I hate him with every inch of my being, but he might be scared,” He said as casually as he could.

“Scared?” Drista repeated, turning to face the boy. 

Tommy seemed a little unnerved by her new, or rather very old appearance, but continued nonetheless. “Well, if he managed to get rid of all this new age stuff, it would probably get rid of shroom rot too, y’know…”

“Oh…” Drista mumbled. “Yeah, I guess it would,” She looked down at her arms, littered with little gold, swirling designs. She felt so alone. She had all this power, all this greatness and immortality, yet she had no friends. No real friends. It all felt pointless.

“Hey,” Tommy said, nudging her shoulder. “Don’t look so down. Give him a moment to cool off and maybe you can think of a solution that doesn’t involve you dying. Besides, you’re too pretty to be sad,” 

Drista tilted her head in surprise, and Tommy’s face flushed. “No wait, not to say I’m interested- Just, Niki told me that most people don’t get compliments these days and it always feels nice to get one-! S-so I try to give them often to people I know-” He struggled to explain rapidly.

Drista chuckled. “That’s nice, Tommy,” She suddenly pulled him into a hug. “I needed that…”

Tommy blinked before hugging her back. After a while he whispered, “How long can we do this before it gets awkward?” And Drista burst into laughter.

She toppled over, clutching her side as she laughed loudly on the mushroom cap. Tommy laughed along with her, though less loudly and more confused. “Well I’m glad I made you laugh. But what do we do now?”

The girl’s laughs died down and she sat back up, brushing yellow hair out of her face. “Well, I suppose I do have a lot of power. Truth be told, I never learned how to use much of it…” Her gaze traveled past the plants and mushrooms and over to the large skeletons in the distance.

“Oh… What happened?” Tommy asked quietly, fiddling with his hands nervously.

“Well, it was a long time ago. Only about a hundred years after the cave was blown open in the first place, but there was one man who befriended one of us. He- he seemed so nice, they didn’t even think that he would do something like that, but they told him that Beings were the things keeping all the new stuff alive. But he turned around and told everyone in his town, and they came with explosives and guns, big cannons and they just wiped them out…” She whispered painfully.

“Oh shit…” Tommy mumbled, grabbing her hand. 

She looked down at it, then back up at him and raised an eyebrow. “What?” Tommy asked defensively. “I do this with Niki all the time!”

“Yeah, Niki. What is she to you anyway? Is she like, your sister, or do you see her as a mother figure?” Drista asked curiously.

Tommy seemed to short circuit. “I uh… I dunno, she’s just Niki. I don’t think she can be defined that simply. If anything, I’d say she has cool aunt vibes, but she takes care of me. Very pog woman she is,”

Drista chuckled. “Okay then. I suppose she taught you to compliment and hold hands with every girl you meet?” She teased.

Tommy huffed and pulled his hand back. “ No , I’ve never actually met a girl besides Niki…”

“So you’re not trying to flirt with me?” The girl grinned.

“What? Ew! No! That’s gross!” Tommy exclaimed. 

“Heheh, can relate,” Drista said, laying back and looking up at the cave ceiling and all the plants growing on it. “Do you think we should do something before their lungs melt from the toxins in the air?”

“Uh, yeah. Probably,” Tommy mumbled, looking over at her nervously. “But uhm, I do have a question,”

“Ask away, blondie,” Drista replied, waving her hand encouragingly. 

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Are you the same thing I saw in the cave years ago…? You look the same, I just… I was wondering,”

The Being smiled. “Damn right. I’m really old, despite being the youngest of my kind. Or well, guess I’m the only of my kind now,” She trailed off.

“Wow, I’ve never met someone so old. Do you need a cane to walk around?” Tommy grinned.

Drista scoffed and tackled him off the mushroom. They fell through the air, screaming out of fear and excitement before they landed in a massive bed of moss that cushioned their fall.

“Why thank you, moss,” Drista said happily, leaning down and kissing the fluffy plant.

Tommy feigned retching. “Don’t kiss it!”

“I can do what I want, it’s my fantastical flora. In fact, they’re practically my children,” She laid down, wrapping her arms around the plants.

Tommy groaned dramatically. “You nasty. Now hurry up! We gotta find Dream and save his terrible ass before his lungs melt.”

“Yeah, that would be real nasty,” Drista nodded seriously, and Tommy mimicked her before they broke into stupid grins. “Hey blondie, can we be friends?” She asked.

Tommy hummed in thought, “I don’t know if I should be hanging out with chicks so much older than me, Niki would probably disapprove,” He said feigning seriousness.

Drista rolled her eyes. “Mhm, yeah. I don’t care what Miss Frilly Ears thinks, we’re gonna be friends whether she likes it or not! No one can stop me,” She giggled madly.

Tommy made a weird face, staring past Drista. “What are you looking at?” The girl asked, turning around. She came face to face with a furious looking Niki. “Ahhhhh, hello ma’am! Nice to see you again,” She chuckled nervously. “Uhm, you gotta teach this boy how to act around women,”

Chapter Text

Tommy sighed, slung over Niki’s shoulder. Drista on the other hand got the great honor of being dragged along on a giant leaf by Phil after Niki ‘accidentally’ knocked her out with a frying pan to the head.

“Niki, where are we going? The island closed the hole up, we can’t climb out,” Tommy mumbled, leaning against his hand.

The mutant huffed. “How do you think we got down here in the first place?”

The blond shrugged, “Dropped down through the holes before it closed?” He tried.

“No. We came in through another cave, moron,” Niki rolled her eyes.

“But why did you knock out Drista?” He whined, going limp in her grasp and watching Phil and Ranboo walk behind him as he swayed around.

“The Being is Drista ?” Niki asked, confused, like it wasn’t obvious . She still had the same clothes on, even if her skin and hair was all yellow and she was a bit bigger and she had no eyes. Maybe she did look pretty different, but still! Clothes!

“ Duh ,” Tommy groaned, “By the way, she said that you need to teach me how to act around girls,” He stated, turning his head as much as he could in his awkward position to look at her.

Niki scowled. “I heard. Haven’t I taught you well enough though? I mean, what did you even do to bring that up? Don’t tell me you did something stupid,”

“Niki, I am appalled you would think such things of me!” Tommy huffed, holding his head up proudly. “All I did was held her hand and told her she was pretty,”

Phil snorted and Ranboo choked on his spit.

Tommy gasped dramatically, insulted. “How dare you laugh at me,” He whispered darkly.

“Tommy, Toms, listen,” Niki rubbed her face, “Good on you for the compliment, but don’t hold hands with strangers, ‘kay?”

“But she’s not a stranger!” Tommy protested. “She’s my friend…”

The mutant woman sighed, “Okay. Let’s just get out of here before anything else happens-”

She froze.

Tommy blinked, struggling to turn and see what she was staring at. He managed to wiggle out of her grasp and well to the ground with an ‘oof’. He shook his head and looked up, meeting the gaze of fucking Dream .

The blond yelped, scrambling back closer to Phil as Niki drew her axe. Dream laughed wheezingly. “Give me-” He cut himself off with a cough, pulling his mask off enough to spit out some blood. He pulled the mask back on and glared at them with panic fueled rage. “Give me the Being,”

Tommy trembled, his eyes falling to Dream’s sharp sword. Sapnap stumbled out of the trees behind him, yanking his mask down frantically before he started retching into the bushes. Tommy winced at the distinct smell of blood.

“Listen, if we kill it then the world will be normal again! These plants will wither and die in an instant and we’ll all be safe from dying to the toxins! Anyone out there with shroom rot or withering disease will be cured because all that shit comes from the new age flora!” He took a step forward, “No more worrying about the moon burning us every night! No more fear of what hides in the shadows! No more worry about what you’re breathing in, or whether or not there are giant monster bugs around! We could be free again!”

Tommy shook his head, crawling over to where Drista laid. “No! You’re not touching her!”

Dream narrowed his eyes, “I didn’t ask, Tommy,” 

The boy screamed as a knife flew past his face, nicking him under the eye. Niki slashed out with her sword, blocking an attack from Dream as Phil leaped into action with Sapnap. Tommy trembled, crouched down beside his unconscious friend.

Even if Dream didn’t kill them, they would die from the toxins in the air if they didn’t leave soon. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, trying to stop the tears dripping down his cheeks. Then, there was a soft glow he could see through his eyelids. 

Tommy slowly opened his eyes, met with the sight of Drista sitting up and facing him, frowning in worry. “Are you alright, Tommy?” She asked quietly.

The boy shook his head. “They’re gonna die. Dreams either gonna kill them or the air will, and he wants to kill you too,” He inhaled sharply, trying not to cry again. “I don’t know what to do…”

“You don’t have to do anything. Just watch me be badass. Trust me, I’m totally gonna have a moment here where I discover my powers and become really OP. Total main character moment,” She said seriously, making Tommy chuckle. 

“Okay, but if that doesn’t work, just- just don’t get hurt, okay?” He mumbled.

“Okay.” Drista nodded before standing up. She wobbled a bit, trying to find her balance. She shot Tommy an awkward smile before she walked over towards the others and shouted. “Oi dickhead! Check this out,” She snapped her fingers and a flower popped up in Dream’s hair.

“Huh…” She mumbled, tilting her head. “Not what I expected. Looks good,”

Dream glared at her before swiftly ducking under Niki’s next attack, pushing her over and running at the girl. Drista yelped and held her hands out, blasting Dream back with a burst of wind.

Tommy watched, frozen in shock as the two fought. Niki hurried over to him and picked him up, worriedly glancing back at Phil and Ranboo. “Guys! We need to go, come on!” She shouted.

The two looked up from what they were doing and ran over to her, the sudden stop of the fight causing Sapnap to fall over. The three hurried away from the fight, eager to get out of the toxic air, when Sapnap screamed. “GEORGE!”

Everyone’s eyes turned to where the man was looking, and they all saw George collapse on the ground, his mask gone from his face and mushrooms sprouted out of his skin all over. 

Dream recovered from the shock first.

Tommy screamed as he watched the man plunge his sword through Drista’s stomach.

The girl stumbled, glitching between human and Being forms as tears welled in her eyes when they were visible. Golden blood seeped through her clothes rapidly after Dream drew back his sword. She exhaled shakily, falling to her knees as she pressed her hand over the wound, and the world itself shook.

“NO!” Tommy shouted as she fell to the ground, plants withering and crumbling into nothing. Sapnap gasped, inhaling deeply as the air seemed to clear of the toxins, and Dream dropped his sword, running over to George as the mushrooms dried up and fell off his body, leaving open wounds in their place.

Tommy ran over to Drista as her golden blood began to pool beneath her on the ground, ignoring the pieces of rock falling from the rumbling cave ceiling. “Dris- Drista, come on- You’re fine, please,” He sobbed, his hands trembling as they hovered over her wound.

Niki yelped, jumping out of the way as she, Ranboo and Phil ran over to the blond. “We gotta go! This place is coming down with or without us inside!” Phil shouted over the rumbling.

Tommy shook his head, sobbing as he sat crouched over his friend. “Tommy,” Drista choked out, golden blood bubbling out of her mouth with a cough, “ Go ,” She whispered and held her glowing hand out.

Bright yellow bubbles formed around all of them, and with one last bloody smile from Drista, they disappeared. 

Chapter Text

They fell to the ground as the bubbles popped, once again back up on the cliffs near the town. Tommy gasped, frantically scrambling to get up. He ran over to the edge, nearly stumbling off it in his rush. He made it just in time to see the ground beneath the lake collapse, and the water flood into the once beautifully alive cave.

The boy screamed, sobs racking his body as he doubled over in tears. Drista was gone . She didn’t deserve that, Dream had fucking killed her and for what? Green grass and clean air? They didn’t need that. There were plenty of places with clean air, he didn’t need to destroy everything to be happy.

It wasn’t just the cave it affected. After all, Dream had destroyed the source of life as it was in the new age. Grass, trees, flowers, everything around them withered to nothing. Even the clouds fizzled away.

Tommy sobbed, his nails digging into his side as the world around them died with her. Niki ran over, collapsing beside Tommy and pulling him into her lap, hugging him tightly. “Hey, hey shhh, its okay-”

“No! No it’s not! How can he- She’s-” He struggled to speak, breathing fast and heavily. He trembled in the woman’s hand as she tried to comfort him by running her hand through his hair.

“Oh Tommy, it’s okay… We’ll get through this, she’s with her family now,” Niki reassured, wiping the tears off his face.

Tommy shook his head before he froze, looking up at Niki’s face. She looked normal . Her eyes didn’t glow, her pupils were regular round, her ears weren’t tall and frilly. She looked unmistakably human . “N-Niki…” He whispered, staring up at her in shock. “You’re so pretty…”

She blinked in surprise, raising a hand up to her now small, rounded ears. She smiled, “Was I not pretty before?” She teased, poking him in the side.

Tommy huffed, “You’re always pretty, stupid,”

“Don’t stupid me, stupid,” The woman shot back before pulling him tighter into a hug. “We’ll be okay, I promise,”

Tommy nodded slowly, then his eyes moved over to where Dream was. He and Sapnap were sitting beside George’s lifeless body, trying desperately to wake the man up. The blood oozing out of his many wounds was deep red, no longer the unhealthy contaminated orange. Despite this, he was still laying there, his chest unmoving.

Dream finally broke down in sobs, throwing himself over his dead friend's body and clinging onto him for dear life. “No, no no- We tried so fucking hard, you can’t be gone!” He cried.

Sapnap turned away, a distant, pained look on his face as he let his friend mourn. “It was all for nothing,” He whispered, looking out over the dead lands. “Did we even do a good thing…?”

Tommy frowned, burying his face in Niki’s shoulder. Maybe he shouldn’t blame them. They truly thought they were doing something right. But despite all that, they still killed their friend, and they still lost the one they’d intended to save. Was it worth it?

Tommy didn’t think it was.

The blond pulled himself away from Niki, walking back over to the very edge of the cliffs. He looked out at the debris filled lake, the water level much lower now that it had all poured down into the collapsed cave system. Even the island was leaning slightly to the side, parts of the building Phil had been working on broken off and floating around in the dirty water.

Tommy sighed, silent tears slipping down his cheeks as he sat down on the edge of the cliff. The moon sun was setting, and he could see the moon beginning to show over the horizon. He supposed, with Drista gone, the moon wouldn’t burn anymore. So he didn’t bother getting back up. The boy stared absently out at the lake, the rising moon reflecting in the small choppy waves. It felt painfully normal after everything that had happened.

He turned around, taking in the sight of Dream mourning George, Phil and Niki helping Ranboo get used to the lack of his mutations, and Sapnap stare off at nothing. 

“None of this should have happened…” He whispered to himself. “We didn’t deserve this,”

“Ah! Tommy, look!” Ranboo shrieked, leaning on Phil as he pointed out over the lake.

Tommy turned, following Ranboo’s gaze to the island in the middle of the lake. It was beginning to rise again. The blond gasped, watching the piece of earth ever so slowly float up into the sky. It wasn’t as steady or fast as normal, more shaking and falling back down a few feet every few moments, but eventually, it reached its place high over the lake. And below it, tangled in the vines and dusty plants still clinging to life, was a soft yellow glow.

_____________________________

Tommy barely waited for anyone to get a rope, he just snatched Phil’s glider elytra and jumped off the island. Having no idea what he was doing, he nearly crashed back into its rocking underside. But he managed to get his bearings and latched onto a thick vine growing out of the tough dirt. 

He quickly made his way down to the body wrapped in plant life, carefully reaching through it. The plants seemed to make room for him to reach her, separating from each other just enough for him to grab onto the body. He did, just as a rope was tossed down to him. He tied the rope around himself then pulled the body up into his arms. “Okay!” He shouted, “Pull me up!”

The rope pulled at him as he was lifted higher into the air, holding onto the girl in his arms with a death grip. When he was finally pulled over the edge of the island he gasped in relief, laying her down in the dead grass.

Phil rushed over, brushing away bits of plant and rubble before leaning his ear down to her chest. Everyone was silent, tension thick in the air. Then he sat up, letting out a relieved chuckle. “She’s alive,” He stated, and everyone broke into cheers.

Suddenly the girl sat up, gasping sharply. The glow coming from her got stronger with her awakening, and the grass around her exploded into life, growing rapidly in a mix of clovers and wildflowers. She looked over to Tommy and his friends, the yellow flickering away as her human appearance returned. She smiled widely, shocked relief written all over her face as she sat there in silence.

Then she finally spoke, “I guess I’m just too awesome to die,”

Tommy laughed and threw his arms around her, and Niki soon joined in, followed by Ranboo and even Phil. The girl blinked in surprise before hugging back, a strange warmth radiating off of her.

“Where’s Dream…?” She asked nervously once everyone pulled away.

They all exchanged a look before Tommy pointed back near the village. The girl’s eyes followed, landing on the distant figure of Dream hunched over a body, Sapnap standing silently beside him.

Drista frowned. “Oh…” She whispered, carefully getting to her feet.

Tommy followed her as she walked across the damaged bridge back to the town, the others trailing behind. Once on solid ground again, the girl walked straight over to the man she’d once convinced was her brother. “Dream?” She asked quietly, causing the man’s attention to snap to her.

He looked awful, eyes red and puffy from crying and tears still streaming down his cheeks. The sorrow written across his face mixed with fear and shock at the sight of her, and he breathed in sharply, whispering; “How…? How are you alive?”

The girl frowned, taking a deep breath. “Honestly? I have no fucking clue. Can I sit?”

The man nodded hesitantly, allowing her to sit on the dead ground behind him. As soon as she touched the soil, plants began to grow around them, vines beginning to curl around the corpse of his friend.

Dream gasped, looking at the vines worriedly and reaching to remove them. “Hey,” Drista said calmly, carefully grabbing his wrist to stop him. “Let me try something,”

Everyone watched in silence as she placed her hands on the side of the body’s head, her palms lighting up with a warm glow. For much too long, everything was quiet. Until,

George gasped, his eyes snapping open as his empty lungs panicked to take in oxygen. Dream sobbed, a wide smile spreading across his face as he pulled his friend tightly into his arms. “Never, never do that again!” He demanded, holding the man so, so tightly.

George wheezed, wincing as he hugged Dream back. “Okay, just don’t suffocate me, please. I only just got air back in my lungs, I don’t need you squeezing it out of me,” He chuckled weakly.

Dream loosened his grip only slightly, burying his face into his friend’s shoulder. “Never…” He repeated desperately, and George smiled. “Never again,” He promised.

“As much as I’m enjoying the little love fest, can somebody explain to me why ALL MY FUCKING POTATOES JUST DIED?!” Techno suddenly shouted from behind them all.

Tommy looked up, chuckling at the sight of the confused man in his straw hat, a rotten potato in hand.

Drista burst into laughter, and Techno hurled the potato at her. Her arm snapped out, and the instant she caught it the thing burst into life, roots going wild and stems growing all the way to the point of flowering. She tossed the plant back to Techno, which he stared at in awe before turning to go back to his garden. “Cool, thanks,” He mumbled before disappearing. 

Everyone shared a look before breaking out into laughter once again.

A familiar spider scurried out of the buildings with a robotic raven perched on his head. The boy smiled, dropping to his knees and caught the younger spider in his arms after it barreled into him, chittering wildly. “Shroud, we’re okay!” He exclaimed happily as the raven flew off to his owner. 

The blond looked down at the spider before carefully letting it crawl out of his arms. It looked up to him, and almost seemed to smile.

Tommy stood up, looking up at the sky with the brightest smile he’d ever had. He spread his arms wide, eagerness to live coursing through his veins. “We’re alive! We fucking survived!” He screamed to the world, and everyone joined in.

“We’re alive! And we are going to live !”

Chapter Text

Tubbo panted as he reached the top of the hill overlooking the land below. His people followed him, desperate to know where their leader was taking them.

Tubbo was no leader, he was hardly a man. But he tried anyway. 

He’d heard rumors, whispers on the wind about a town born in the midst of chaos. New Origins, they called it. After the supposed death of the last being, the town emerged from the destruction and became paradise. Tubbo could only hope it was true.

He looked up, hands still on his knees as he dragged in heavy breaths. He nearly collapsed right there at the sight he saw. Lush, beautifully green grass sprawled across the land as far as the eye could see. There were fields of wheat and potatoes and all other vegetables. Orchards and vineyards, a lake running by with a water wheel in it. There were countless sheep grazing in a pasture, horses, cows, chickens and even bees . Tubbo hadn’t seen bees since he was a child. And in the middle of it all, right on the edge of a cliff overlooking a lake with an island in the middle, was a perfect little town, bustling with life. 

Tubbo sobbed, smiling down at the life in the land.

From where he stood on the hill, he caught the sight of a scarred boy with bi-colored hair, likely near his age, walking by with a basket of potatoes. He smiled widely and waved at him from where he stood. Tubbo waved back.

He did it. He led his people to life .