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Dream woke up slowly. His body feeling heavy and his brain taking a moment to try to register anything around him. He felt like he was being crushed. Like there was something sitting on top of him and he couldn’t dare move. He was cold. Something freezing out along his body and making him want to shiver despite the exhaustion settled deep into his bones.
He was really cold.
Dream tried to open his eyes only to find that one of them was nearly plastered shut. He was laying on something. That realization came far too slow. His face and the entire left half of his body for that matter were pressed down into something hard. Soft at the top. He felt almost numb but something around his face was burning.
His right eye could open.
Blurring vision and light that was far too bright for him to properly process. Dream made out the white of the ground in front of him first. The snow that was fluttering down on him and the freeze that was taking over the air. He dimly noticed the fog of air that was leaving him with the shallow breaths he was taking.
Why were they so shallow?
What happened?
Dream tried to breathe a little deeper. Nearly blinding pain shooting through his chest and torso the moment the attempt was made. He was trying to keep himself from blacking out but it didn’t work when he had to open his eye again to try to blink it clear of spots and stars.
Dream tried to wet the inside of his mouth. Groaning as he felt his ribs shifting against each other when he tried to move. He allowed himself a moment to take stock of the rest of his body. Testing it limb by limb as he made his way up to his main body.
His wings, of course, were the last thing to be shifted.
The strain down his back made him dizzy. The muscles pulling tight on each other and reminding him of the wounds that were seared into them from his time in the prison.
The prison.
Right.
Dream had escaped. With the help of Techno and his friends, Technos, not Dream’s, Dream didn’t have any friends, he’d gotten out of the hell box that he was trapped in by his own design. It was meant to be fine with Sam there as the warden but Dream hadn’t accounted for him to have made it fully proofed against every type of non human. He knew that he and Sam had talked about it with each other and that they had made the agreement that it would be for the best but he’d underestimated Sam’s skills when it came to redstone. His old friend had made the cell Admin proof just as much as he had done it for any other hybrid.
Dream was cut from the world.
He’d been forced to sit and wait as his extra layers of communication with Punz were stripped away from him. He was meant to have a way to be checking in with his mercenary and seeing things through the world still. He was meant to hold his connection and keep things running as they should. Operate through the server entity of XD that he’d made ages ago.
But without his connection, the world had suffered. The server had turned on him and it bit and nipped at the hand that made it. Turning the plans that Dream had made onto their head and shifting things so that it would be all against him in the end. Sam had turned cruel. Instead of being the just and level headed warden that Dream had assigned, he became consumed with the title and power that came with it. He began starving and beating, drugging and interrogating. He was awful to him and there hadn’t been a damn thing that Dream was able to do to stop him. He ‘d had to sit and wait and watch and just simply deal with it all.
Sam sanctioned his torture.
The world outside continued to shift.
Only when the lava was down, did Dream get to have a moment where he could check on his world. Where it would push past him and try to get to him to find its source again. He had to fix the errors that were wrong with it but he couldn’t do that if he was cut off from it completely.
Quackity tortured him as much as he could. Daily attempts to break down the carefully constructed walls of Dream’s mind but Dream was stronger. He would always be stronger. He found out about the errors and corruptions that were spreading through his world. Trying to make a plan so that he could figure out a way to save it all.
When XD fell to the corruption the server had dissolved the entity. Without a proper source code of a player to back it immediately, the power well had unraveled.
The next time the lava came down for Sam to drug him and interrogate him before Quackity’s torture session, Dream was hit with the code that wanted nothing more than to rush to its owner.
He remembered screaming. As loud as his lungs could make him as the power wells returned full force after having so long without them. Since the creation of the server, Dream had made XD to help him with the mundane and routine issues the Admin was required to attend. He wanted to be able to have a life so he’d separated things. Gave him the Admin identifiers and called it that.
Laying in the cell, feeling the searing pain and the sensitivity that they brought, Dream felt his wings return to him vein by blood filled vein.
Wings were incredibly sensitive. They were strong but they were so delicate that a single feather being out of place would mean discomfort for the avian instantly.
Sam knew that.
Quackity knew that.
Dream wore the consequences of their knowledge.
When Techno came to get him. He was keeping his wings tucked stubbornly. Holding them in to try to protect them even though it was causing him an extreme amount of pain. He wanted them to be hidden so that Quackity couldn’t use them as his play toys anymore. He wanted to maintain his ability to fly once he got out.
And he had.
But he hadn’t expected to need it so soon.
Starved and hurt and weak, and while Techno and Phil had helped him make it out to the arctic with them, they turned him away soon after. Dream tried to explain to Phil about his wings and his status but the other man hadn’t let him get past his first words. Shaking his head and telling him to go.
So Dream had.
Returning the armor and heading out into the woods. He was meant to meet with Punz somewhere but he also wasn’t supposed to be in the prison for this long. They didn’t know that it was Admin proof and he didn’t know if his mercenary would have accepted the impromptu change of plans.
Dream remembered through hazy memories trying to find his way in the freezing woods. Letting his wings unfurl behind him so that he could make his attempt to fly again and see what would happen. He’d made it up for a while. Trying to make a plan in the air and feel his world return to him.
It was just too much too fast.
Dream got dizzy. The world blurring around him and his body failing to keep up with the strain. He’d started to fall and his body hadn’t listened to him when he tried to save himself. He’d been close to the main server. He’d been looking for Punz’s tower to see if it was still there and he could access his mercenary that way or if he’d have to figure something out. He was in danger if he was on the ground but Dream hadn’t planned to be on the ground.
He crashed.
Dream had crashed.
He dragged his eye open again. Making out the trees around him and the snow that was still falling down. Even without being in the arctic, with the sun fallen below the horizon the temperatures had dropped. He tried to assess his wounds again but all he could feel was a combination of numbness and pain.
He needed help.
His ribs protested every breath he dragged into his lungs and he knew that if he didn’t get medical attention he would die on his own probably before the sun ever came up again. If he stayed here and somehow managed to live or tend to himself then he was going to be found and he would lose any fight someone tried to offer.
Even if they were as poor a fighter as Tommy.
The kid didn’t hold his sword correctly and got mad the moment someone with more experience and skill tried to show him how to correct.
It was half of his issue with him in the first place.
His vision blurred again. Begging him to slip back and give into the darkness that seemed so comforting and close. He wanted to give in. to sleep and relish that it was cold around him and not the sweltering heat of Pandora.
He forced his right arm to move. Pushing his palm against the cold ground and feeling the snow crunching beneath his weight. The pain that came with it sparking his sight again but he worked on breathing through it with shallow pants.
He was close to the Greater SMP. Close to the prison. He would need to fly again to avoid the foot traffic and the risk of being caught. But he wouldn’t be able to fly for a long distance and he would need somewhere close and somewhere safe to land.
Neither of those things were really working for Dream’s favor.
He’d been by the prison.
Mentally, Dream tried to work through the map he had in his head of the area. All the things that were near and all the places he could use for his aid right now.
The people who he had a chance with.
He was coming up empty.
All but one.
The one place that Dream thought he might still have a chance with.
The one and only BadBoyHalo.
Bad was like a father to him when he was younger. He had always been there for him and always there to help him. He was kind and he was good when it came to medical aid. He was trained to the point that when they were still doing manhunts he was the one that always did their checks if someone got hurt.
Bad was good.
Bad was Sapnap’s father.
Sapnap, who promised to kill him.
But Bad himself hadn’t. He had been the one guard in the prison that actually seemed like he cared about Dream’s actual sentence inside. He was the one that tried to offer him sandwiches and good food and would go talk to him with the lava down so that he could breathe.
Bad also knew that Dream was an Admin.
He knew the sensitivity of his wings. He’d helped him grow up and helped him learn what he was supposed to be doing.
Bad could either save him or he could ruin him.
Dream didn’t think there was a chance for there to be a middle.
But if he stayed he would die. If Bad killed him then what would be the difference other than more pain sitting in his heart for the end of his last life? At least this way he would have the chance to survive.
Pushing himself up was agony. Dream letting his body work more on its own internal function than anything else for the fact that he could barely breathe. He could feel the blood in the back of his throat but he had to hold on. He had to push past it. If he was going to fly or have any sort of a chance here then he was going to have to work it.
Dream didn’t remember getting to his feet. He didn’t remember moving his wings or stumbling forward into a tree. His lungs were grinding. Blood bubbling up with each breath he breathed. It hurt but he couldn’t give in.
He had taken torture daily for the last near year of his life. He could manage some broken ribs after a crash landing.
The air in his lungs was fresh. It was clean. He could taste his blood but that was normal now. He could do this. He could be fine.
He was the Admin of the damn server, he would not die like this.
With that thought ringing in his ears, Dream jumped for the sky. Pushing off the ground and letting his wings beat strong behind him. Pushing up into the night sky and feeling the way it grabbed for him.
Feeling the way his body screamed with agony and begged for rest.
Dream forced his eyes to focus. Pushing himself more and more so that he could find the white building that had once upon a time meant a home to him. He would live there with them. He and Sapnap as brothers and impossible to separate. He had thought that it would last them forever.
Forever.
Such a long time, as Bad had said.
Sapnap’s promise was going to last for their forever.
His heart burned behind shattered ribs. Aching and feeling like it was trying to tear itself apart. Dream almost wondered if it was. If the thing had caught itself on a sharp of bone and was just simply pulling apart inside of him with each pulse it beat.
The image made his stomach turn.
He wasn’t breathing enough.
His vision was turning dark.
Dream barely realized he was falling out of the sky again. Until he was just above Bad’s roof and he was scrambling to catch himself and slow his fall.
He still clipped the roof and rolled over the width of it. Slamming himself on the corner before he was falling back into the yard like an angel that was cast from the heavens.
Dream coughed. Weak and pathetic on the ground and blood bubbling heavily between his lips. It was catching in his throat and it was all he could do to force himself up to his side and over to get it out.
He didn’t want to drown today. Most certainly not in his own blood. It would be such a waste of an escape. He had no where that he could reset his spawn. If he died to his injuries and managed to respawn then he would be right back where he started and no one would know he was in there. If he died and it was canon then it made all of it for nothing all the same.
He didn’t hear the sound of a door opening over the sound of his wheezing. He didn’t hear the soft call of his name or the running footsteps that raced to him.
He registered the hands though.
Dream knew the feeling of hands.
Rough, harmful, forceful. They would hold him down while he screamed and thrashed and force his jaw open to make him drink the potions for interrogations. They would beat him and hold the weapons to carve into him. They were—
“Dream? Muffin, can you hear me?”
Bad. Bad was here.
Right.
He was going to Bad. He was trying for help.
“How did you even— I knew you got out but why didn’t you run?”
His wings should still be out. He could feel how they were digging into the ground. How the one was bent and bleeding. How the feathers on the other were so destroyed by Quackity’s games that he was sure it would take months for him to heal properly.
“You flew, I see that. Did you crash?”
Dream tried to open his eyes. He made out the blurry form of the demon hybrid above him. The man’s eyes were as kind as he remembered them. He felt his hands and oh, his hands.
Bad’s hands were gentle. Caring. Soft. They were tender with him and assessing him. Pressing over his chest but not pushing on him. He was feeling for the breaks and to see how bad they were. He was trying to nurse him.
He was helping him.
He was still trying to save him.
“Dream?”
“He—” His voice caught. Emotions or blood he wasn’t sure. “Here.”
“It’s not safe here.”
His heart broke.
“We need to get you inside before someone sees or heard the crash and comes to look. Can you stand? Do you want me to carry you? Help you walk?”
He could have cried.
All of this time Sam and Quackity had been trying to make him believe that there was no one on the server who would ever help him or protect him. That all of them wanted him to be tortured and hurt and all of them wanted to see him dead on the ground.
But that wasn’t true.
Bad was right here. Techno and Phil had saved him and despite that they didn’t continue helping him after, they didn’t hurt him They guarded him when he was shaking when the fighting started and they made sure he was away from everyone else before they set him on his own. They wouldn’t talk about the direction he went off on and he knew that he could count on them.
Punz, he didn’t know where Punz was.
“Help?”
Dream didn’t want to be carried but he knew he couldn’t do this on his own anymore. He would need to be holding onto something for support and he didn’t remember right now if the stairs to Bad’s main level of house had a railing or not. He wasn’t exactly wanting to have to crawl himself up them so this was the only way.
He was lucky that Bad didn’t push on it.
He simply helped where he was needed and encouraged Dream to stay with him when the world fizzed dark around them. He stayed close and pulled one of his arms up and around his shoulder. Guiding them both up the steps and into the house that smelled so familiar and comforting that Dream thought if he hadn’t cried already, he did then.
Bad didn’t comment on it other than wiping away one of his tears. Brushing his face gently and setting him down on the couch.
“I’ll be right back. I need to get supplies. Are you okay?”
Dream nodded. He felt numb.
Bad had a fire going. It was warm and comforting and so much different than the oppressive heat of Pandora. Like a lifeline that was tossed out to him at sea. Dream sat and he waited. His mind running through the risks that Bad could be betraying him and lulling him into a false sense of security but he knew he was just being paranoid. If anyone in this world could be trusted, it was Bad.
The man Dream had always wanted to call a father.
He came back in just as swift as he left. Setting down the supplies on the table by the couch and opening it up.
“What hurts most? Where do you want me to start?”
No one had asked him permission to his body in so long.
“You aren’t hurting me?”
Bad stared at him. His jaw nearly fell to the floor.
“What? No! Why would I—”
“I thought you might but you were the only person who might also help but I was worried that since you were a guard you would—”
His ribs were screaming. His vision was blotting dark. Bad reached for him as gently as he could.
“Dream, you absolute muffinhead, I gave them the blueprints to help you get out.”
Something loosened in his chest.
“When Sam kicked the guards out, I was worried. I knew how you looked in there and I didn’t like that he was going to escalate to do something where no one could see. When Techno started coming around I gave him the blueprints. I wanted you out but I didn’t know how to do it myself and I figured that he would.”
Bad took him in again. Watching the wounds he wore and his expression turning guilty.
“I’m glad I was right about that part at least.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
Bad just smiled at him. Regret still heavy in his eyes but he saw the hope that was there too.
“Most of what I can see looks superficial. Anything more serious?”
“Ribs.”
He could barely breathe. The long rant he did trying to explain to him had taken it out of him. He watched Bad nod before he hesitated again.
“We should take your shirt off then, so I can wrap them.”
Dream nodded. His hands going to the hem of his shirt and hesitating.
“It’s alright. I promise you’re alright.”
He nodded again but he still didn’t move. His lungs were wheezing. His ribs were grinding. He needed to get them fixed sooner rather than later.
“Dream?”
“Help?”
Bad would be gentle with him. He had been around when Dream was younger and having nightmares. He would know if he started to panic and he would be able to help him. That was the way they worked. That was how their broken family had always been.
So he expected it when Bad nodded to him and worked his shirt up and over his arms and head. Careful with him and waiting whenever he heard a sound of pain slip through Dream’s guard.
He wasn’t mocking him or insulting him for feeling it. He was caring for him with actual genuine care.
He sat and waited while Bad worked on him.
Talking idly and letting Dream fall back into the pattern of being treated like a human being rather than something wrong and monstrous.
Funny that it took a demon in order for him to get that.
He breathed in the smell of the muffins that were baked earlier in the day. Ones that Dream recognized as Sapnap’s favorite’s.
He felt the panic that lanced through his heart at the realization. The thought of his brother that years ago would have been nothing but comfort and maybe a light joke and now it meant terror pumping with his blood.
He knew that promise was real. He knew that Sapnap hated him and that he wanted him dead and gone from the world. He knew that any of their bond that Dream still believed in was waiting to be destroyed. That it was going to get carved and it was going to be with Sapnap’s sword through Dream’s flesh and he couldn’t feel that again.
Not right now.
Not when he was trying to let his guard down and actually breathe for the first time in a year. He couldn’t handle seeing Sapnap and he couldn't handle being near his brother. Not when it meant that he would be killed and screamed at.
Not when it meant that the things Quackity shouted to him time after time were going to be true.
He didn’t want to lose all of his family and if Dream and Sapnap fought then Bad would protect Sapnap. He would guard his son and Dream would be alone again and before he knew it he would be dead or back in the prison and the torture would be happening again only this time no one would save him and—
“Dream?”
He whimpered. Trying to speak and failing as it came out broken and closed.
“What is it? What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”
He was in the middle of taping him. Of actually fixing the injury that Dream had instead of exasperating it. He was helping him and Dream was going to be forever grateful for that fact. He shook his head. He needed Bad to know that it wasn’t his fault. He needed him not to stop. Not to push him away.
“Sapnap?”
He shouldn’t be this scared. He was supposed to be the feared man of the server but Dream knew he was hurt right now and the thought of facing Sapnap made him feel ill. Dream had gone to his childhood home. He’d run to his brother’s father and only now he was considering the chance of Sapnap being home.
“He’s not here. He was earlier, but he left. He’s at Kinoko with Karl. He’s not here, I’m sorry—”
Bad froze as he was saying it. The apology catching when he caught the look in his eye.
“Sapnnap wasn’t involved in what happened to you, was he?”
Dream shook his head again. He was going to have to answer this. He was going to hope that the treatment was enough that he could manage for a while on his own if Bad kicked him out for this.
“He came to visit. He promised that he would— that if I ever—” How could he word this? “That if I ever escaped he would take my last life and I just—”
“Dream.” The seriousness in Bad’s voice almost made his heart stop. “You are welcome here whenever you’d like. If Sapnap comes back and does anything, I will stop him. Okay? I am seeing you right now. I’m not letting you get hurt. I’m not letting you get killed.”
Fresh tears welled in his eyes.
They fell when Bad pulled him against his chest in a hug.
“You are just as much my son as he is, Dream. I love you.”
He clung back as much as he could. His wings arcing and covering them both. He didn’t need to hide them with Bad.
He was safe with Bad.
“Let me clean you up and make sure you’re alright and we’ll go from there, okay?”
Dream nodded. Pulling back but smiling and wiping the tears from his cheeks. He saw Bad doing the same. He was safe.
He was home.
He had his dad.
“Okay.”