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They were pissed with him but they still agreed to go on the manhunt. They were furious but they still said they’d go on the hunt. It was just them. Just the three of them this time. They were going to add a challenge to the hunt. But it was different this time from all the other times.
The other times they would gear up for manhunts the community house was full of chatter. They were all laughing and making jokes. They hiked through the woods making fun of each other and pointing out little things about their environment. They sang songs as they moved, they ate together, slept together. They threw arms around each other and practiced sword fighting when they made camp but got too restless. They checked their gear a thousand times over and checked each other’s just in case. They worked as a unit for every hunt and every challenge.
But not this time. This time Dream was the only one in the community house. George and Sapnap having long moved out and refusing to spend the night before with him like they had in the past after the two moved out and they still did challenges. He’d sat on his bed waiting for the sound of their footsteps above them but they never came. He checked his gear over before stashing most of it away. The community house felt hollow without them. Just like his bag felt lighter without half the supplies he normally brought. Normally he was paranoid, he was ready just in case anything went wrong. He would bring supplies for himself and everyone else. Just in case. But this time when he’d told George and Sapnap about his idea they both sneered at him.
“The only reason I’m agreeing to coming along is because I want the chance to run my sword through you.”
Sapnap had been furious with him. They both were. After everything with the dethroning they had said he didn’t care. They told him he was a liar. But he’d never lied about caring for them. It’s what made George’s words cut into him like knives.
“Don’t pretend like you care about us, Dream. If we’re doing this with you again then no lying. You tell the honest truth the entire time. Don’t bring anything for us, we don’t want your cheats or manipulation.”
Dream kept a set of medical. If it was the set he brought that was tailored to George then who would know. Unless it was needed there was no reason to bring it. Each of them had kits tailored just for them from Dream. All of their potions were adjusted to heal just them specifically. He’d slaved for hours to find the right adjustments. The right ways to tie the magic to his friend’s biologies just to make sure they were safe. George was the one who got hurt the most in manhunts. He was the one Dream worried about more. Sapnap could treat his own wounds, if he got any serious enough to require treatment. George was the higher risk.
Just because they said he didn’t care didn’t make it true.
He pretended that it didn’t hurt when he saw the two of them walking to the meeting spot together. He wished could say he was surprised. But he wasn’t. He knew they were mad at him. He knew they were only doing this so they could kill him. It wouldn’t be canon and the challenges had easy respawns, but the thought still hurt him somewhere deep. He’d thought their years of friendships meant more. He thought he meant more. But it looked like he was wrong.
“Hey—”
“Don’t start, Dream. We don’t want to talk to you.”
The sound of his jaw clicking shut behind the mask echoed in his ears. He wondered if they heard it. He wondered if they cared. They wanted him to shut up. They didn’t want him. They only wanted to beat him. To stab him, hurt him. They wanted to kill him. To watch the life drain from his eyes.
Stop. You’re being ridiculous. They’re just upset. Give them time. They don’t think that.
But they did. He watched George and Sapnap both set off in the direction of the start point’s coords. They didn’t want him with them. He was barely a part of the group as they moved through the woods. It used to be full of chatter, now it was silent. It used to be full of joy and now it was just tense looks and remarks. He could see they were talking in front of him but he couldn’t hear them very well. It didn’t take Dream long to pick up his speed enough to hear their conversation but not make it obvious what he was doing. He wished he hadn’t.
“We could have just done this without the challenge.”
“It could have been canon then.”
“I don’t care. George. He’s lied to us all these years. He deserves it.”
Dream felt his heart drop to his feet. He dropped away from the conversation immediately. He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want the confirmation that they hated him now. He didn’t want to believe that they wanted him dead that badly. Old worries came rearing their heads back to him quickly. He should have taken care of himself better. He shouldn’t have gotten attached. They always leave once you get attached. Always. He should have been a better leader. He should have never let any of this happen. He should have learned to be self-reliant better. He should have been better.
But he wasn’t.
He fell into a pit inside his own head. Maybe that was why he didn’t notice it growing dark. Maybe that was why he didn’t notice when they stopped moving in front of him. Not until he nearly ran into George’s back. In less than a second Sapnap had his sword out.
“Don’t touch him.”
Dream backed away quickly. He saw the fire glint in his eyes. He was so stuck on them he didn’t hear George’s stiff words.
“Stop talking out of your ass. He won’t do anything. Put the sword down.”
He didn’t hear the layer of frustration and emotion under his words. He didn’t see the glint of anger directed at Sapnap hidden behind goggles. All he saw was his brother ready to kill him for something that before would have been no issue. Before it would have been cause for gentle questions and careful hugs. It would have been cause for cuddles under the starlight. But now it looked like all Dream deserved was the edge of a sword.
“Sorry.”
He spoke it quickly. Turning away from both of them and moving to the other side of the clearing to set out his own sleeping equipment. He was far from the fire. Far from the warmth he knew they were providing sleeping side by side. Once upon a time he’d been with them. Part of him wondered if he would ever be there again. If this was the end.
Part of him wondered if he should remove the non-canon rule for the challenge. If he should let Sapnap get his wish. If he should let them take their anger out in the way they clearly wanted.
There was no sharing of food. Sapnap and George laughed together at the fire with quiet jokes and ate. Dream sat alone on his sleeping mat and chewed on a bland piece of bread. He zoned out again. Completely lost in the look of the stars above him and the taste of bread on his tongue. Everything else drifted away. He didn’t feel the grass or the hard ground under him. He didn’t feel the wind on his skin. He didn’t feel the burn in his eyes when they got too dry from him not blinking. It wasn’t a surprise when he didn’t hear the hiss of the creeper.
Light exploded around him, his instinct kicking in at the final second as he tucked himself into a roll to not take as much damage. His whole front felt warm. Only then did he realize where the creeper hole was. He hadn’t noticed the thing walk right up to him. The creeper had stared him in the face to detonate and he hadn’t realized it was ever there. He could hear George and Sapnap yelling. Could hear both of them swearing as more and more mobs came to investigate the noise and caught their scent. The bang of the creeper attracted more than what Dream thought there should have been. Most of them appeared on his side of the clearing since he was away from the light. As quickly as he could he pulled his axe into his hand and got ready to move.
He could hear shouting, could hear cursing. But most of it was drowned in his ears by the sounds of the mobs around him. The rattles of the skeletons, the groans and moans of the zombies. The fight was over sooner than he thought it would be. The sudden silence of the clearing ringing in his ears. Or maybe that was just from the creeper explosion.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Sapnap’s fury was more than enough to shake Dream’s attention away from where it had been locked on the crater left behind from the first mob.
“Sapnap—”
George’s call went ignored as Sapnap grabbed Dream by the collar and pulled him forward. He felt a pull in his shoulder and glanced at it to see an arrow broken into his body. Funny how Sapnap didn’t seem to care. How they were meant to be like brothers but he didn’t care that he was shot.
“Are you trying to get us all killed?! Was that your grand plan?!”
None of the words that were trapped in his mind wanted to come out. All of it felt stuck, trapped in his throat. Stuck in his lungs as they were unwilling to pull in any air at the confirmation that Sapnap no longer cared.
“Sap—”
“You’re a fucking bitch. I know your skill level Dream. We both do. So don’t even try to lie about this right now because there’s no way a creeper got up to like that without you seeing it.”
His mouth tasted like ash. He could hardly breathe around the accusation but he didn’t know what he could say. He didn’t know what to do with himself when this was the way his brother was looking at him. The anger was so bright in his eyes. Catching on the light of the fire and for a moment Dream wondered if the heat he still felt through his front was going to be from his brother burning him alive.
Sapnap wanted him dead.
It wouldn’t be that much of a surprise.
“Dream?”
He saw George hovering over Sapnap’s shoulder. Something too unreadable on his face. Maybe it was because Dream didn’t know how to read him anymore. Maybe it was because he’d truly lost their friendship and he was just now realizing they were right.
Maybe it was his vision blurring from the injuries he had that they didn’t seem to care for.
“I say we start the hunt now.”
His heart lurched in his chest. Beating too harsh and making him feel sick. He wasn’t breathing enough. The way Sapnap was holding onto his collar was feeling more and more like a noose around his neck.
He couldn’t do this.
“I say, you run. Like the bastard you are, you run. And George and I hunt you down and kill you like you deserve.”
Dream tasted blood in the back of his throat. All he could do was nod to Sapnap. To accept the deal that was demanded and not asked. He was stumbling when his brother pushed him away. Scrambling for purchase on trembling legs and Dream wondered how badly he was actually injured if this was how he was reacting.
He’d faced creepers before. It shouldn’t be this bad. He should be able to handle more than this. This should be nothing to him. He should be fine.
Dream didn’t take his packed supplies. All of them left behind. All of them with his friends blocking his path.
Was he still allowed to think of them as friends?
Not now.
Not when they wanted to see him dead. Not when they wanted to get the chance to kill him. Not when they only played this game so that they could dump his blood into the ground and make him out into the pathetic excuse of flesh that he was.
He should have been better. He should have done more. He should have fought more, should have led better.
He shouldn’t have allowed himself to feel.
Dream ran with the thoughts buzzing through his skull like they were the only things he could really process. The sharp pain through his body was turning into a rhythm. The grinding in his lungs that felt like he’d breathed glass. The pain that was launching through him and shaking him to his very core. All of it was a pattern.
Dream didn’t hear anything.
He didn’t hear the mobs around him as he ran. Just trusting his body to know the things he was supposed to do and play along. If he was going to die for this then he at least could give them a good hunt.
He could apologize like that.
Or maybe they’d want him to be a sitting duck.
Dream didn’t know anymore. He didn’t know anything anymore.
His heart felt like it was nearly screaming in his chest. Pumping more of agony than it was of blood. It was making him gag and choke and only when Dream stumbled and fell into a tree to cough and heave did he realize that it was blood stuck in his throat. He saw red bile, he saw the clumps that were in it. His eyes were blurring bad. He felt cold and still too hot. Like he was facing a fire too close on a bitter cold day and his back was frozen while his front was scalding.
He was sweating. He was shivering.
Dream took the moment where he could get it. Opening an admin panel despite the tremor lancing through his hand. Through all of their time together, Sapnap and George had always been Dream’s highest priority. They were the ones that he did just about everything for. All of his goals and everything he strived for. It was to try to make their world better.
Right now they’d made it plenty clear to him the only way that he could truly make things better for them.
Dream felt sick. His stomach tightening around into knots until he felt like he could hardly breathe. He could feel a fever heat that was trying to burn through his skin. Something that was trying to make him feel worse and worse. It was from the burn from the creeper. That was all. Nothing more.
His hands were shaking. His face was wet. Blood or water or sweat, he didn’t know. He didn’t really care.
It didn’t matter.
To Sapnap and George, it wouldn’t matter.
With blurring eyes, Dream found the section of code he was looking for. The area that would mark the deaths for all of them. He could see the player list in the world and he marked over his own name.
He saw his three bright beating lives.
He removed the protection of respawns.
If he died from here on out, it would be canon. It would be real. He could give his friends the satisfaction that they wanted. He could give them his death so that they would be happy and they could move on with their lives. They could laugh and smile again and it would be fine.
They would all be fine.
Dream allowed himself a moment to mourn for himself. To know the fact that neither of his best friends would be th ones to grieve him and that it would be him and him alone that would do it. He would be left here alone to relish in his own death and misery. They wouldn’t even notice.
He left the bond link between them. The magic that would connect them and let them all know if something was wrong with the other.
It wasn’t something they’d used in years and he doubted that either of them would be looking for him to be alright right now. If they could feel anything that was coming through now from the pain he was feeling then he knew they didn’t care. There weren’t messages on his comm. He wasn’t being told that the hunt was over or that they would come find him and protect him.
It was nothing. Silence that was consuming his mind and soul more by the moment.
Grief in his heart.
Pain in his chest.
Dream made himself run.
The patterns of a manhunt were so engraved into his mind that he knew them inside and out and could perform them in his sleep. Making his way through the overworld and finding iron and supplies. He wasn’t really being careful with himself but he did want to make sure that if he was going to lose a life to this game then it was going to be to his friends. They wanted to kill him.
Not some part of the world.
He made himself armor so that it wouldn’t be another mob or a careless slip or fall that would do it. It would be their blades that would break through it and do him in.
Dream moved through to get his gear. He built the portal for the nether with a fog in his head. Thoughts overlapping with each other and the sound of his friends taunting and insulting him. It was mostly Sapnap that was coming through but Dream never heard George stopping him so he knew that he agreed. He knew the hurt that was going through his chest.
Dream ignored it as he ran through the nether. He could hear the footfalls behind him but when the time for the skirmish came he couldn’t help but fall into the instinct of the fight. He told himself that he was just trying to be good prey. That he was trying to get a good hunt for them so that they wouldn’t be mad and want to take a second life when this was over. He wanted them to forgive him.
He hoped he could do that with just one.
He would give them all of them if they wanted it.
“Oh Dream!”
He heard the anger in Sapnap’s voice.
Right before there was fire wrapping around his leg and holding him back.
“Sapnap!”
It was one of the early rules of a hunt. No using their powers.
“He deserves it.”
The heat was too much. His head was spinning.
There was a fight behind him but he couldn’t pay attention to it. Taking the moment when the flames flickered down to throw an enderpearl and get himself as far away as he possibly could. Racing on a leg that was limping and barely holding up his weight. He focused in on finding and getting to the fortress. To getting the blaze rods that he needed.
Getting out.
Dream didn’t remember getting out.
All he knew was he was in the overworld when the air stopped singing into his lungs. He knew he was in the overworld.
Now he just had to get to the end.
They could kill him in the end.
That would be a good hunt, right?
They would make it through and the last thing Dream would see would be the Stars. He could have peace. He could fall and he could feel the stone and sand beneath his body and he would be able to float immediately with the void right there. If he was lucky then they would shove him over into it and he would just get to die in its embrace and not come back.
Dream was wondering if he wanted to be able to come back at all.
If he should move his code so that he only had one life.
So that this would be how it ended.
There wasn’t anything for him anymore. Not when his best friends were wanting him dead and gone and willing to hunt him down to do it. They wanted him killed and they wanted it done violently. They didn’t want him around and no one else did either. They were the only people he had left and if he lost them then, well, he had no one.
He was alone.
Dream had never been very good at being alone.
He took one last breath of the air of the overworld.
He jumped into the End portal.
Dream lost track of time. Letting himself follow the patterns and hear the sounds of his friends entering the realm in behind him. They were shouting for him. Dream could barely hear them over the sound of his blood rushing in his ears. He felt sick. The burns from the creeper and Sapnap’s fire and everything else that was going on.
He was wrong.
He was hurt.
He was—
“Dream! You ready to die?!”
Sapnap. His brother was going to kill him.
He heard George this time in the background. His other friend was shouting for Sapnap to stop. For him to pull his head out of his ass even though Dream didn’t understand. He didn’t follow the conversation. He knew that they wanted him gone. He knew that it was the way this fight was going to go.
His instincts weren’t letting him stop.
Fight after fight after fight and he’d pushed himself in order to survive and now he couldn’t let go. He was trying and he couldn’t.
He and Sapnap locked their blades. They were fighting. They were pushing with each other.
The dragon was coming down.
Sapnap shoved Dream backwards. He was losing balance. Sapnap getting caught by the wings of the beast and Dream by her claws. Ripping through his armor and into his flesh. His body tearing under her weight and still Dream knew the pattern he was meant to commit.
To slay the dragon.
He drove his sword up. Plunging it up and into her throat. Hearing the deafening roar above him while he laid on his back and the light started to swallow around him.
When it ended and her body vanished, Dream felt the blood pooling beneath his shoulders and between him and his armor. He could feel the slickness and the other wounds he’d taken flooding through him. Washing into his lungs and making the illness feel worse. The pain that was shocking through him and lighting him alive.
He should be cheering. Celebrating a good hunt.
But Dream was watching his health decline and smiling a bit that Sapnap had pushed him. Sapnap had gotten to kill him.
“Sapnap, calm down.”
He’d missed what was said before. George’s words lighting something like recognition through his brain.
“I should have taken the strike where I could.”
He was angry. Dream could still tell that.
“The hunt is over. We’re done. We can go home.”
“Why are you pissy with me?”
“Because you’re being an asshole. The whole time you’re talking about killing Dream like he means nothing.”
“He—”
“Is still our friend. He fucked up. But he’s still our friend, so quit being a dick.”
“He deserves it.”
Dream tried to keep track of the conversations. He could feel it slipping through his head but he understood the overall thing. He knew that Sapnnap was upset. That this wasn’t the way it was supposed to go and Dream was meant to be dying faster. That was how he took it. That him being alive was wrong.
He was wrong.
He was bad for breathing.
Dream made himself turn. Forcing himself to his knees and lifting off the ground with the stagger of a drunkard. He could feel the magic blistering around him. The way it was bulking and the force his heart was thudding with.
He thought he saw his friends go tense. Like they were picking up on something. Like they actually cared. He knew that was wrong.
“Y’can do it…”
They were facing him now. Staring at him and Dream thought he saw horror on George’s face. Something terrified and confused on Sapnap’s. Neither of them were looking him in the eye. They were both staring at his chest.
“Kill me.”
His lungs were failing on him. He could see the dark of the void coming in to carry him home. The sparks of light of the stars. The cold seeping into his limbs and begging him to sleep.
“I des’rve it…”
Like a string snapped, Dream fell. His body finally rejecting the treatment he’d given to it and crumpling down to the ground. Hitting against the stone as blood bubbled violently from his mouth. Choking in his throat and suffocating him.
“Dream?!”
They didn’t feel it until then. The tension in the air. The strain of the magic around them telling them whatever happened would count. Blood continued to bubble from his mouth. He kept trying to speak, kept telling them he deserved it. George noticed it first. Feeling the shift through their friend and the world all around them.
The pull was violent. He could see Dream’s lives count. The one that was flickering.
He was making it canon.
“Dream—”
“What the hell—”
Sapnap did this. Sapnap was the one that has spent this entire hunt saying that Dream should die. He was the one that had drilled this into him and now George was staring at his friend covered in wounds and heaving on blood. His chest was clawed to the point it was nearly shred.
He was dying.
Dream was dying.
George floundered for potions. Trying to get healing and regen and strength, anything that he could find.
“Sapnap, you took his stuff from the clearing. Get his medical.”
The kit that would be tailored to him. The one that would heal him faster. The—
“Fucking shit.”
His heart beat cold blood.
“What? What is it?”
“It’s not his kit. He fucking—”
He was carrying for them. He left the supplies for himself behind.
This was intentional.
This was suicide.
“Dream.”
George cupped his face. Holding him tight and forcing him to look up at him.
“You keep breathing. You hear me? You stay with me and you don’t—”
Sapnap was standing there. He didn’t know what to do. His eyes were wide but Dream was still choking and he was slipping. He wasn’t going to last forever. He was running out of time to be saved and then they could deal with the conversation that now needed to happen. They couldn’t push it off anymore. Not when it was going to get them killed like this.
Not when Dream was trying to die like this.
“Sapnap, potions.”
Something was still better than nothing. It would work. They could make it work.
He watched as his friend pulled the corks off the bottles and pushed them into Dream’s mouth. The two of them having to work together to coax him into drinking because he kept shaking his head no and trying to make them stop. He was trying to die.
Dream was well and truly, trying to die.
Because of them.
“You just stay with us.”
He was going to kill Sapnap.
George crushed the thought. The second it went through his mind he was pushing it away. He couldn’t afford to be thinking the same things that got them into this situation in the first place. It wouldn’t save them in the end. It would only cause them more hurt.
“Don’t you dare give up on me.”
He wouldn’t say us. Not when he knew what Sapnap had been doing to him.
George knew that he was to blame as well. He could have done more in stopping the fight. He could have done more in stopping Sapnap. He hadn’t. He’d failed. He’d been a coward.
“You just stay alive.”
Dream’s eyes were distant. Unfocused and staring up to the Stars that were filling the void around them. George had him pulled to his lap. Holding him steady and trying to make sure he was breathing. Keeping a watch on his vitals enough so that he could tell when Dream would be stable enough for them to move to the overworld again so they could get him home and to proper help.
They could get him help.
This wasn’t going to be the end.
Not for them.
“Just stay with me, Dream.”
But George watched Dream’s focus slip. He felt his breathing fall shallow.
His pulse stayed steady.
“Please, stay with me.”
Dream stayed weak. His eyes slipped shut.
Dream’s heart stayed steady.
While George’s broke.