Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The thing is, Dream never actually smiled. Sure, he had a mask with a smiley face. That didn’t mean he was happy. Everyone around him assumed that he enjoyed everything he did, even pain and destruction.  That was far from the truth. 

 A day however was different, Dream had been in prison. Quackity had just  entered his cell. “Dream, how are you doing?” Quackity asked, grinning at the bloody masked man. “Oh, I’m fine, Quackity. How are you?” Dream replied, sounding cheerful. Quackity glared, “Just stop, Dream. Give me the book.” Quackity said. “Oh~ why would I give chick a book when a god has it instead?” Dream asked, standing up. Quackity’s eyes depicted the anger he felt. “That’s it!” Quackity growled, walking over to Dream.

 Internally and mentally, Dream was trembling. He was scared. Quackity pushed Dream to the ground, then placed his boot on Dream’s chest and pressed hard. Dream concealed a low whimper. Fortunately for him, Quackity didn’t hear it. “I’m gonna a give you the worst beating I ever have.” Quackity growled, he hated the fact that Dream could hide with his mask, he would change that soon. 

 Dream shut his eyes tightly and looked away. Quackity laughed, all Quackity had seen was Dream looking away, as his mask obscured certain things. “Scared, now are we?” Quackity asked, grinning. “No. . .” Dream mumbled, sounding very afraid and uncertain. Quackity bent down and roughly unstrapped Dream’s mask, then proceeded to rip it off his face. “So, you are scared?” Quackity asked, a manic smile on his face. Dream opened his eyes, they grew very wide. Dream couldn’t stop himself from whimpering, Quackity’s grin widened. He put an axe to Dream’s face and cut him multiple times. Dream didn’t resist, he just let it happen, whimpering loudly. This went on for awhile. Quackity wounded Dream in multiple other places, leaving Dream barely conscious after.

The same things kept happening. Torture. Pain. Fear. Why was it like that? Just pain… and more pain… and fear.

One day, Dream, Technoblade, Awesamdude, Quackity, Tommyinnit, Wilbur Soot, and Sapnap, woke up somewhere else. They we’re in to what looked to be a castle, specifically a throne room.

 However, all of them seemed to be either fourteen, thirteen, eleven, ten, twelve, six or four. Wilbur looked fourteen, Techno looked to be thirteen, Awesamdude looked to be twelve, Quackity seemed to be eleven, Sapnap seemed to ten, Tommy seemed to six, while Dream seemed to be youngest, being four, perhaps five (you would have to ask him). 

 Techno had long pink hair into a low braid, a white button down shirt and  black pants and boots. His eyes were reddish-blue grey. He was quite tall. He had elf like ears and a boar mask on the side of his head. He had very light pink skin that resembled one of a light humans.

 Sam had medium dark green hair and dark green eyes with his sclera being black. He had a grey long sleeved T-shirt on and dark grey shorts. Sam was quite tall. He had light and dark green freckles. He had greenish normal light skin.

 Quackity had medium black hair, a navy blue beanie, a light navy blue oversized sweater and black shorts with navy blue shoes and white socks. He was average height and had dark brown chocolate eyes. He had golden yellow duck feathers on his head, a bit obscured by the beanie and medium sized golden yellow duck wings. He had a tan skintone.

Wilbur had shaggy short brown hair, a bit oversized yellow sweater, dark grey shorts and brown short boots. He had brown eyes and his height was a bit over average. He had a light skintone. 

 Sapnap had medium black hair and a white bandana around his head. He wore a white sweater with a small fire symbol on it, he had black shorts on and white socks and black shoes. He had average height and he had tan skin. He looked a bit similar to how he looked at his present age. Though not exactly.

 Tommy had medium blonde curly hair and  blue eyes. He had a red and white sweatshirt on with a badly written ‘Tommyinnit Rules’. He had light navy blue shorts on and white socks with red and white shoes. He slightly tall for a six year old. He had red demon horns and a red demon tail. He had a light skintone.

 Dream had small sheep horns and a cream colored fluffy sheep tail. He was surprisingly short. He had dull pale green eyes, pale brown hair with a few platinum blonde highlights. He wore a white short sleeved oversized hoodie and grey shorts. He had bandages on his arms and legs. Dream was light and pale.

 He looked nothing like he presently did.

 Wait… Dream wasn’t a sheep hyrbid.

 Techno observed the place, he noticed it was his childhood home after his parents had died (from orphans). “Why are we here?” Tommy asked, he hadn’t noticed Dream, or the child somewhat resembling Dream. “I don’t know, Tommy.” Sam replied, he looked at everyone. Is that Dream? I think so. But he’s a dreamon, not a hybrid… I might as well check. Sam thought and went over to the child Dream. 

 Dream had been observing everyone and the place, Dream tilted his head as who he thought was Sam walked over. “You’re Dream, right?” Sam asked, Dream nodded. Tommy swiveled around and looked right at Dream.

 “You bass fish! Wait- what?” Tommy cursed though he became confused when he noticed that his cursing had somehow been changed. Dream looked at Tommy, “Bass fish?” He repeated, feeling confused. Techno, Sam, Sapnap, Dream, Wilbur and Quackity had all turned to Tommy, utterly confused.

 “What if I try to say the F word?” Dream wondered out loud, Quackity glanced at him, it didn’t feel right to be mad at him as looked very young.

 Wait a dang minute, Dream wasn’t a sheep- he could just ignore it. Yeah, that would help,

 “No- with you looking and sounding like a four year old- that seems wrong.” Sam said, putting a hand on Dream’s shoulder. Dream looked up, an odd expression on his face, “Floof?” Dream paused, “Oh, interesting.” He mumbled. “Snuff.” Tommy imitated, also saying the F word. There were a series of ‘floof’s and ‘snuff’s’. 

 Tommy said snuff, Techno said snuff as well, Quackity said floof, Sam said snuff, Dream said floof, Sapnap said snuff, Wilbur said snuff.

 Sam’s hand still rested on Dream’s shoulder. It felt nice to him, being touched it what actually felt like a reassuring way. “Anyway, where are we?” Sapnap asked, Techno sighed, “My home when I was thirteen.” Techno replied, glancing at Dream. Dream’s eyes lit up, “I didn’t remember this place! Is everything from before still here?” Dream asked excitedly, partly actually seeming like a four year old. 

 Tommy realized with Dream’s physical age being of a four year old, he wasn’t the youngest anymore. However, he didn’t realize that Dream’s species changed.

 “Snuff yeah! I’m not the youngest anymore talking about physical age!” Tommy cheered, “Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Wilbur said, walking over to Tommy and hugging him. “Snuff you.” Tommy grumbled and hugged Wilbur back, a few seconds later they released eachother. 

 “Dream, do you wanna go to the training ground and play place so we can revisit memories?” Techno asked, Dream practically bounced up and down in glee, he nodded. “I’m coming with you both, then.” Sam said, not wanting to leave Dream alone, fully knowing he probably wouldn’t do anything and probably couldn’t as he was physically a child, though they both could plan something.

 “Okay!” Dream exclaimed, not really caring. He ran over to Techno. Sam followed behind, “How about Quackity and Sapnap go together and Tommy and I go together to explore?” Wilbur suggested, they all agreed.

“Techno! Remember when you fell off of that tree and sprained your arm?” Dream asked, Techno nodded. Sam didn’t exactly want to intrude on their conversation so he would just follow them and listen. “How’s prison been?” Techno asked, Dream went quiet. Sam was curious how Dream would reply, “I don’t know. . ., prison? I don’t want to explain. Ah! I’m sorry if that sounded rude. . .” Dream replied, sounding anxious, they stopped walking and Techno out a hand on Dream’s shoulder. “It’s okay, I’m sure I want to know what’s happening if your anxious and seem to be frightened. It’ll be okay.” Techno said and pulled Dream into a hug. “M- mhm. . .” Dream mumbled. Sam just watched, he was intrigued.

 When Techno released Dream, Dream looked up at him and asked something that Sam thought he would never hear Dream ask, “Can I have another hug? If not now, later?” Techno smiled, patted Dream’s head and nodded. 

Wilbur walked around with Tommy. “Did Big T actually live here?” Tommy asked, “Yeah, I visited him once with Phil. Dream was with him, actually.” Wilbur replied, “M’kay. He’s a green bass fish.” Tommy said, “Sometimes, as in most of the time, agreed.” Wilbur said.

Sapnap and Quackity explored in silence. No words. Just looking around. “You’re short.” Sapnap said dully, “Shut up.” Quackity replied.

Eventually, everyone met back at the throne room. “So, what did you all do?” Wilbur asked, then added, “Tommy and I agreed that Dream can be a bass fish and that Techno’s castle is huge.” Tommy nodded enthusiastically.

  “Well, Techno and I, along with Sam even though he just followed us and listened to us, revisited childhood memories!” Dream said happily, he hadn’t actually been happy since he met Techno for the first time, and even that took awhile. “Well, Sapnap and I insulted eachother the whole time. It was fun.” Quackity said, Sapnap laughed then muttered, “Short.” Quackity slapped him. “Ow!” He yelped. “Here, I’ll show you all your rooms.” Techno said, he lead Dream, Quackity and Sam to one bedroom with multiple beds and two bathrooms for some reason.

 He then gave Tommy, Wilbur and Sapnap a room while Techno himself went to his old room. 

Sam immediately hit the bed and fell asleep. “How old is your physical body?” Quackity asked, “Five. . .” Dream mumbled, being tired yet knowing that he couldn’t sleep. He had a soft crow plushie wrapped tightly in his arms. “Huh, I thought you’d be four.” Quackity replied, “Yeah, malnutrition and neglect does that to you. Small.” There was silence and he received no response.

 Quackity got out of the bottom bunk of the bed and crawled into the top, where Dream was. Dream was in the corner of the bed with crow plush, his head buried in it. Sam had a separate bed. “Why- why do you have bandages?” Quackity asked, knowing that a five year old shouldn’t be injured with that amount of bandages on them.

 “People.” Dream replied, lifting his head out from the crows large, soft, fabric feathered wings. “People? What does that mean?” Quackity questioned, “People.” Dream repeated, not wanting to elaborate, “Dream.” Quackity said, his voice turning as stern as what he thought an eleven year old could sound. “P- people hurt me. . .” Dream said softly, “They hurt you?” Quackity asked, “Yeah… They said that hybrids didn’t deserve to be treated like humans and they were basically still prey, animals and pets for humans.” Dream whispered. Quackity ruffled his wings, “You do know that’s not true, right? I’m a hybrid, Techno’s a hybrid, Tommy’s a hybrid, Sapnap’s a hybrid, Sam’s a hybrid, you’re a hybrid.” Quackity questioned.

 “For almost everyone, yeah. I don’t think that hybrids are animals. Though I feel like one, I feel like prey, like a pet. I don’t know about myself. I know for others though.” Dream replied, Quackity’s wings ruffled again. “Huh, alright. You do know it’s two a.m, right?” Quackity asked, “Yeah. I can’t sleep.” Dream mumbled into the large crow plush. “How do you normally sleep?” Quackity said, feeling the need to help partly, “I don’t. It’s unlikely I fall asleep without help from you basically knocking me unconscious, or just passing out. Sometimes my body just shuts down itself because it can’t handle lack of sleep. Though occasionally, sleeping pills help a bit and sometimes plushies when I feel safe.” Dream said. “Alright, goodnight, I guess, Dream.” Quackity said, climbing down to the bottom bunk.

 Dream didn’t think he could sleep, he was with Sam and Quackity. That wasn’t relatively comfortable. At around four a.m, the door opened, “Dream? Are you awake?” Sapnap’s voice asked quietly, “Yeah. . .” Dream whispered, hoping Sapnap would hear, fortunately, he did. “I can’t sleep, and I’m almost certain you can’t, too. Do you wanna talk?” Sapnap said, “Sure. . .” Dream replied quietly, he carefully climbed down the ladder, reaching the floor soon. He stumbled over to the door.

 When Dream had successfully left the room, Sapnap shut the door quietly. “Y’know how I said I would kill you if you escaped?” Sapnap asked, Dream still had the large crow plush in his arms, it was being dragged on the floor though Dream was also hugging it tightly. Dream nodded, “You are aware that doesn’t count for this, right?” Sapnap said, “It doesn’t?” Dream asked, his tone seeming a bit shocked. “No, you didn’t choose to escape or get out of prison, so I don’t have the right to fulfill what I said.” Sapnap said. “Huh, that makes sense I guess.” Dream replied. “Do you wanna go find a couch and try to sleep there?” Sapnap asked, Dream  nodded. 

　They eventually found one of the couches in the castle and settled. Dream was leaning against Sapnap and Sapnap was leaning the side of the couch. Dream yawned. “I’ve asked you before, Dream, do you have insomnia?” Sapnap asked, “Before you answer, don’t lie.” Sapnap added, “Yeah. . .” Dream mumbled, getting sleepier. They both fell asleep.

 Happily ever after— yeah no.

Sapnap felt someone shake him roughly, he half expected to see Dream, but a man was there instead. Actually, there were two men, they had armor. They were probably guards. One of the men was crouched down in front of Dream, probably thinking he was just a little kid, which was how he looked.

 “Who are you?” The guard in front of Sapnap asked, “I’m Sapnap Halo.” Sapnap replied, “Do you know who this little kid is? They won’t speak.” The guard said. Sapnap looked at Dream. He seemed scared. “It’s okay, kid.” The guard speaking with Dream said comfortingly, but not actually comforting him, or anyone. Dream shook his head. “He’s Dream WasTaken.” Sapnap said, walking the short distance over to Dream and offering him a hug, which Dream immediately accepted.

 Sapnap didn’t really expect Dream to be scared of them, nor did he think that Dream would hug him. “Alright, do you know why the other kids are here? Apart from Lord Technoblade.” One of the guards said, “We were invited by Technoblade.” Sapnap said. “Alright.” The guard said and lead them over to an outside area.

 Sapnap held Dream’s small hand, he still seemed frightened. Everyone else was there. “Where were you, Sapnap?” Tommy asked, “I went to talk with Dream and we fell asleep.” Sapnap replied. Techno was there, he noticed Dream’s anxiousness and went over to him.

 “You okay?” Techno asked, Dream shook his head. Everyone else had been watching, they hadn’t expected Dream to never not be okay and to actually say it. “Do they remind you of them?” Techno questioned, Dream nodded again. “Alright, nothing will happen, okay?” Techno said, Dream nodded. Quackity decided to give Dream a small glare for fun. When Dream noticed it and he cowered closer to Techno and Sapnap. Needless to say, Quackity felt a bit guilty. 

 After about five minutes of talking, Sapnap glanced at Dream. Dream’s eyes were unfocused and he looked tired, like he was gonna faint. “Dream? You okay?” Sapnap asked, everyone looked at Dream. Dream nodded, but he collapsed. “Dream?” Techno said, bending down next to Dream. He heard the sound of things dropping. He looked to see everyone collapsed, and then he, too, collapsed.

Chapter Text

Dream sat up. He looked around and saw his friends on the ground. Dream saw everyone looked the same as before. Dream got up, he was in a forest. He didn’t want to wake up anyone, so he started to wander around.

 After about an hour, Dream realized he was lost. Dream sucked in a breath, there was a hissing noise behind him.

Sam woke up, his head hurt. He looked for everyone, they were all there, except Dream. Sam looked around the perimeter. Creeper Forest, he read. “Is Dream lost?” He wondered aloud to himself, quietly. Quackity shook himself awake. 

 “Sam?” Quackity mumbled, “Dream’s missing.” Sam said, “He’s missing?” Quackity repeated, his eyes narrow. “I grew up here, there’s a lot of dangerous creatures. Dream could get hurt.” Sam said. 

 After about an hour, everyone had woken up, Sam told them about Dream, and how they should stick together but go looking for him. Everyone agreed, except Tommy, who followed anyway. 

After two hours, they heard an explosion near by. “Dream might be over there.” Sam suggested, they followed where the sound came from. The good news is that they found Dream, the bad news is that he was surrounded by creepers. “No. Leave me alone. . .” Dream said, looking at the creepers, they went closer to him. Dream sighed, “Alright. Um, tree. . . Sword. . . A minute. . . Result: death. . . Hmm, that won’t work.” Dream mumbled to himself. 

“Dream!” Sam yelled, Dream froze, he looked at Sam and the others. “Hi.” Dream called back, “Help, please.” Dream added, a small smile on his face. A creeper exploded near him and his smile fell, Dream immediately cowered and covered his ears at the noise. 

 Sam, Techno, Sapnap, Wilbur and Quackity fought the creepers near Dream while Tommy was to keep watch for more. 

 Eventually the creepers weren’t there anymore. “Why did you leave?” Quackity demanded, Dream looked at him. “I didn’t. . . I didn’t want to wake you guys and. . . I got curious.” Dream said quietly, “That’s not a good reason!” Quackity yelled, Dream looked at him, his eyes wide. “I-. . . sorry. . .” Dream mumbled, Quackity glared at Dream and lightly yet roughly slapped him. Dream stumbled backwards, he looked down. 

 Sam walked them through the forest and to a village. A woman walked up to Sam, “Hi, Sammy. Did you find some new friends?” She asked, “Hi, Mom, yeah, I did.” Sam said and smiled. The woman looked at all of them, then her eyes rested on Dream. 

 She went over to him, “Are you okay, sweetie?” She asked, Dream nodded, keeping his gaze on the ground. “Are you sure?” Dream nodded again. “Alright. . .” She said and turned to everyone else. “How about we get you all some food?” She suggested, Wilbur nodded enthusiastically. Tommy pulled his hair for fun, “Stop it, Tommy!” Wilbur yelled, “But Wilby~!” Tommy grinned, Wilbur sighed and pulled Tommy’s hair once before going with Sam’s mother.

 Sam’s mother went up to Sam, “Is that little boy okay, Sam?” She asked, Sam looked at Dream, who she was referring to, Dream hadn’t talked since Quackity spoke with him in the forest. “Yeah. He’s okay, he just doesn’t talk much.” Sam said, knowing he was lying. “Alright. Now you can go eat.” She said, Sam went over to the table and started to eat.

 Before they knew it, it was night. “Alright, Dream, was it?” The woman  said, Dream nodded, “Okay, Dream, Technoblade and Tommy follow me.” Sam’s mother said, they lead them to a room and then went back to the others. “Okay, Sapnap, Quackity, Sam and Wilbur, follow me.” She lead them to a room as well.

“I don’t wanna be in a room with him, Techno!” Tommy whined, “Dream’s not doing anything. In fact, he can’t even do anything because he could get in trouble and he doesn’t even have a weapon or anything to hurt you.” Techno replied, gesturing at Dream. 

 Dream was in the corner of his bed, just sitting with his gaze down and his bangs covering his eyes. He had pillow in his arms, as if it was a plushie. “He killed me with a potato!” Tommy yelled quietly, “Not my problem. Just know, if he does something to you, I’ll protect you. Dream already used his favor.” Techno said, “What was his favor?” “He asked me for a hug, not knowing I would give him one for free anyway.” Techno replied, glancing at Dream. Dream looked at him for a moment, then looked away. “A hug?” Tommy questioned, “Yeah, a hug.” Techno replied. 

 “Why would he want a hug? He’s a maniac.” Tommy said, “You sure? Did you really ever know him?” Techno asked, “I- yeah!” Tommy whispered in a loud tone. “Fine, what was he feeling when destroying L’manburg with TNT?” Techno asked, “He was. . .“ —Tommy paused, trying to think back to that time— “feeling manipulative and happy?” Tommy said, Techno shook his head. “He felt bad, he didn’t want any of you to get hurt, but he did it anyway because he and I had planned that. He was scared someone would start saying they hated him, of course, he never said that to me, I  just knew it.” 

 Tommy looked at Dream, “Why do you know me so well, Techno?” Dream muttered quietly, “You never hid from me.” Techno replied, yawning. “I’m going to bed, night. Tommy, wake me up if Dream does do something.” Tommy scoffed but nodded, “Night.” He grumbled, looking at Dream. 

It was four A.M and Tommy had woken up to muffled crying. He looked around, he saw a small silhouette shaking. Techno was beside him, so it was Dream. “Dream?” Tommy whispered, “I- I’m sorry, T- Tommy. . .” Dream whispered, his voice watery, “That you woke me?” Tommy questioned, “Y- yeah. . ., and f- for. . .” The room went silent. It felt wrong for a child’s voice to apologize to Tommy, it felt even worse because he sounded so sad and scared. “I don’t know how to react to that. . . So, for now, it’s okay. But not forever.” Tommy said, “O- okay. . .” Dream mumbled.

 “Why aren’t you asleep?” Tommy asked, going over to Dream’s side of the room. “N- nightmares. . .” Dream replied, “About what?” Dream looked at him, his eyes red and puffy, “I don’t think I should answer that. . .” Dream whispered. Tommy sighed and went back to his and Techno’s side to sleep. “Night, Dream.” Tommy said, “Good night, Tommy.”

When Techno woke up he saw Dream and Tommy talking relatively normally. “Morning.” Techno said, “Morning, Big T.” Tommy replied, “Good morning, Techno.” Dream said, his voice quiet. “How you’d sleep, Tommy?” Techno asked, “I didn’t sleep that much with Dream being in the room. But I slept for five hours at least.” Tommy replied, “And you, Dream?” Techno continued, “Oh, I slept good!” Dream replied, smiling.

 “How long?” Techno asked, “Uh, eight hours? All of the night?” Dream offered, “But, you-. . .” Tommy went quiet, he knew how Dream felt. He felt it during exile. Dream didn’t want Techno to know, and since Tommy was such a nice person, he didn’t tell Techno, yet.

 “Alright, we should go eat.” The pig hybrid said, standing up and glancing at the two then walking out of the room while Tommy watched.

 “I’m such a nice person! I didn’t tell him you probably didn’t sleep!” Tommy said proudly, “Yep, thanks.” Dream replied, crawling over to the side of his bed and trying to stand but nearly falling off. The blonde laughed, causing Dream to frown at him while once again nearly falling. “Why is it so high up?” He whined, finally getting onto the floor. “You’re just short.” Tommy replied.

 Tommy unfortunately sat next to Dream, “Sam, would you and your friends mind helping me out at the farm? Only you Technoblade, Sapnap and Quackity, though.” Sam’s mother said, “Can you—?” Sam asked somewhat hesitantly to the people mentioned, “Sure.” Quackity replied.

 “Why not me! I’m a big man!” Sam’s mother laughed gently, “I know, but the equipment is too big and heavy for you, you can watch along with Dream though.” She said, smiling softly, “Fine.” Tommy grumbled.

Well, it turns out that while Tommy and Dream were watching everyone else do work, they happened to be near Techno shearing a sheep. And it just so happened Dream had trauma with shears, so that left Tommy to stop him from having a panic attack.

 “Dream? Are you alright?” Tommy asked Dream hesitantly, the (physically) child had started to breathe hard and his breaths went from even to shaky in a matter of seconds. Tommy, having no idea what Dream went through, did whatever his mind came up with to console someone. He hugged Dream.

 Almost immediately, Dream relaxed into the hug. Tommy had to admit, it was quite the surprise for him to calm down so quickly. Tommy rubbed his back, he noted how the repetition of the motion seemed calming for 

Dream.

 Dream snuggled into his chest, and it felt good knowing he comforted someone when they needed it. “I’m sorry.” Dream mumbled, “It’s okay, but can you tell me why you were panicking?” Tommy replied, shifting the child on his chest to be sitting beside him. 

 “In… in prison, Quackity… he tortured me a- and… and he liked to use s- shears…” His eyes widened, Quackity tortured Dream? Nobody deserved that, he pulled Dream in for another hug. “Why- why are you being so nice?” The child mumbled, “Well, for one, you’re a little kid right now, and besides, you’re probably touch starved after being in prison for like six months. And apart from that, nobody deserves torture.”

 “I do.” Tommy felt his chest ache with guilt. He hated feeling guilty, especially because Dream did deserve prison, but if Dream actually thought he deserved torture, that was far. It was so much farther than he had wanted it to go. 

 “No, no, you don’t.” Tommy said, Dream didn’t argue, he didn’t do anything, but Tommy felt his shirt start to get wet. He rubbed Dream’s back soothing and pulled him closer. This was easy because Dream was so small, so concerningly small.

 That was when he realised, Dream had goat ears and tail, why hadn’t he noticed that before? His eyes didn’t glow emerald green, they were a sullen pale gray-green. Apart from that, Dream wasn’t a hybrid, he was a form of demon, a dreamon. 

 He also noticed Dream had a damn ear tag. He wasn’t an animal, he was honestly closer to human than the people he did that to him. “Hey, do want help to remove that ear tag?” Tommy asked, Dream nodded. “I know you don’t have any actual piercings in the present, so this might hurt a bit because you’re not used to it.” Dream, again, nodded.

 Tommy stood up, being mindful of the small child on his chest as he grabbed Dream’s small hand. “Um, Miss Sam’s Mum?” Tommy said to Sam’s mother, she turned to him. “Yes, honey?” She replied, “Do you have anything to remove an ear tag? My um- friend has one on his ear and he wants it off.” He noticed her eyes widen, she quietly hissed in annoyance (probably with whoever put an ear tag on a child).

 “Of course, I’ll go get something.” After a moment, she came back with pliers. Tommy noticed Dream’s eyes widen at the sight, and he genuinely considered telling Sam’s mother to forget it. “Come here.” She said.

 Dream held tight to Tommy’s hand, he backed away a bit. “It won’t hurt, I promise.” She assured him, “I’ll can hold your hand?” Tommy offered, Dream shook his head, hiding behind Tommy.

 “Don’t you want it off?” Tommy asked him, kneeling down to meet his gaze. And prime, Dream looked so damn scared. He was shaking and had an undescribable look of fear on his face. “If you really don’t want it off, we won’t make you.” Sam’s mother assured the small (physically) five year old. 

 Dream, reasonably, considering the context of why he was so scared, hid in Tommy’s shirt. Then, Dream went completely limp. His eyes widened as he held the child’s body, then, black spots appeared in his vision and he too, blacked out.

Chapter Text

Tommy woke up with Dream beside him, the child latched onto his hand, already awake. Tommy sat up and looked around, oh, it was the lab he grew up in before Phil adopted him. He glanced at Dream, who was shaking, scared. “Hey, it’s okay.” He assured the other, who pressed into him.

 “I lived here until I was six, then Phil adopted me.” Tommy explained, looking around the lab, the horrid place he spent six years of his life getting punished for not acting ‘right’. He watched Dream take in everything, then, he paused before speaking in the most grown up voice the body of a five year old Tommy had heard.

 “They hurt you.” How the hell- how the hell did he know? “W- what? Of course not!” He didn’t want to worry Dream, but he couldn’t prevent the truth. “Fine, they did. They wanted me to be perfect n’ toast.” Wait a damn minute, toast? What happened to the other word for poop? Oh, right, ‘child friendly’.

 “Maybe that’s why I’m so snuffing loud and reckless, I couldn’t be a child for six years.” Dream, to his surprise, hugged him. “Having your childhood robbed from you regardless of being born to parents or artificially created isn’t acceptable and I’m sorry.” Tommy… hadn’t expected that, and Dream even sounded sincere.

 He hugged Dream back, tears forming in his eyes. “You can cry, I won’t judge you.” Dream said softly, Tommy started crying. He hated crying, it made him weak. But… everyone needed to cry at times. It wasn’t bad.

After a bit, Tommy calmed down. He had been crying so hard that he didn’t even notice Dream give him a plushie. “What’s this?” He asked, Dream shrugged, “It has ‘Tommyinnit Rules’ on the bottom so I figured it was yours.” The child replied, standing up and walking but nearly falling over. 

 “Floof!” He hissed, Tommy hurriedly stood up, going over to Dream. “They have an electric force field around the stupid cell.” Dream muttered, “Hey, wait, where is everyone?” He asked, Tommy’s eyes widened, “We’re in different cells. I- I can’t warn them- snuff!” He felt something warm hug him.

 “Calm down, I understand what your feeling and we can deal with this. We act good and they give us a reward, right? Like food, a toy or getting out for a bit?” Damn, Dream was smart— but he described it like he knew how it worked. It was weird.

 “Yeah…” Tommy replied, “Okay! What are the rules? Do what your told without question, don’t yell or run, get everything done on time?” He questioned, it sounded like he was all too familiar with it. “You can run when it’s playtime, but just don’t be loud, and basically everything else is right.” Dream smiled, “Got it! Now, is there any speaking rules apart from yelling?” 

 “Don’t talk back or argue, oh! And don’t break anything.” Tommy explained, the child in front of him nodding and smiling. It faltered when a woman came up to the cell. The name tag said ‘Miss Hazel’. 

 “Tommy, Dream.” Hazel said, looking at each of them individually. “Hello, Miss Hazel.” Tommy said, glancing at Dream, who froze for a second before smiling brightly at her. “Hello, Ma’am!” He said, she smiled at him then looked away for a second, grimacing and muttering something about how it was his first day and she shouldn’t punish him.

 “Oh, I’m deeply sorry, Miss Hazel, for the loudness of my voice, it wasn’t correct of me.” Tommy stared at him, eyes wide, he had heard that? She was basically silent and he only picked up ‘loud’ and ‘punish’. She turned to him, “No worries, just don’t do it again.” She replied, “Yes, of course. I won’t cause any trouble to you or your coworkers.” 

 Tommy was very surprised; he handled it so well. “I assume Tommy told you the rules?” Miss Hazel asked, “Yes, he did. He explained them all very well, I’m quite proud of him.” It honestly felt weird to be praised by someone who looked like a four year old, but still. “Oh, thank you.” 

Miss Hazel told Tommy, “You can get some dessert today.” Dessert? He never got that here before- what changed?

 “Now, Dream, I’d like to test your intelligence.” She said, opening the door and walking inside, grabbing Dream’s small hand. “Yes, Miss Hazel.” He said, glancing at Tommy and waving at him.

 Then, Tommy got worried. If you scored below your expectation of intelligence, they punished you. Then they also punished you if you got too high above it and Dream was smart. They probably had the expectation of maybe an eight year old or below.

 Snuff.

Dream finished taking the test, he didn’t like this place. A man came over to him and grabbed his hand. The man’s grip was tight and it hurt, but he knew better than to fight it. He was worried for Tommy, being back in this place must really mess with his head.

 “Dream WasTaken, you’re going to be punished, you may not question why as it is classified.” The man said to him, squeezing his hand so tight it felt like it was about to break. He was shoved into a pitch black room. Then, there was a black light on the floor pointing to a spot on the wall. There were words saying, “I will be perfect, look around.” Being illuminated. Dream looked around, the light showed (what looked like bloody) hand prints. There were words with them constantly repeating, “I will be perfect.”

 It sickened him, he noticed each individual child’s handwriting and he felt like vomiting when he saw something similar to Tommy’s handwriting written all over the walls, near the ground. “I will be perfect.” It said, he counted at least twenty of those.

 In the middle of the ground, it said, “Write it like everyone else until you learn.” There was a small, bloody knife. Dream wasn’t going to use that when he knew the wounds on his five year old body were already bleeding. 

 He unwrapped some of the bandages and wrote once, “I will be perfect”. He did that a few times before using completely different wrote and writing, “I don’t have to be perfect” and “Don’t listen to them”. He write that a couple of times. 

 If anyone else came in here, they’d know they don’t have to listen. He hoped they’d know that they don’t have to be perfect. So, he sat down in a corner that no one wrote in and rewrapped the bandages around his arm, it stinging from the lack of care given to the injuries.

Tommy anxiously waited for Dream, it had been three hours. Finally, he came back. Dream looked perfectly fine apart from one of the bandages on his arm being slightly more bloody. That was concerning.

 He entered the cell and immediately hugged Tommy. “Can they hear me if I whisper?” Dream asked, “They don’t pay attention to us, besides, the walls are sound proof.” Tommy replied, rubbing the child’s back. “I broke the rules. There was a black light room and I was supposed to write ‘I will be perfect’. I did, but I also wrote ‘I don’t have to be perfect’ and ‘Don’t listen to them’. Will I get in trouble?” Okay, that wasn’t a good idea to do on your first day here.

 “You might, they take a couple of days to check on the room so they might not if we leave by then.” Tommy told Dream, who nodded and snuggled into his chest. “I… I saw your handwriting. You didn’t deserve any of that, and I presently made it worse. I’m sorry, I really am.” All the ‘sorry’s’ Dream was saying weren’t going to mean anything when they got back to present time, would it?

 This childish, sweet version of Dream, Tommy couldn’t hate. But if he put those apologies in present Dream’s mouth, he felt hatred. He didn’t know why he was suddenly thinking of this, but he really just wanted Dream dead. He knew Dream didn’t deserve whatever toast he had in his childhood, because it was obvious from how injured he was as five year old, but that wasn’t an excuse.

 Tommy gently pushed Dream away from him, “Sorry, I just want to think about something.” He said, Dream nodded, going over to a corner and sitting in it despite a bed being positioned near by. It was weird but he wouldn’t question it.

 He sat on his own bed, he was in a place he hated with a person he hated. It wasn’t fair, but nor was life. Everyone told him that, life wasn’t fair. He knew that, he knows that. But that isn’t an excuse for the toast he’s been put through. He hates everyone who hurt him. He hates Dream mostly.

 He hates Dream because of the manipulation and how he’d snuff with his brain. He hates how easily Dream got under his skin and he hates how much he thought Dream was his friend. And now he’s starting to hate himself for the fact that he hates someone who will have to go through their childhood trauma again.

 Stupid, toasty, Dream. The person who he’s stuck in a room with for the what? Third time? First exile, then prison and now this toasty room. He grabs his hair and pulls. He’s so snuffing angry.

 He doesn’t want to be here, he doesn’t want to have to deal with this place and most of all: he doesn’t want his friends, let alone his mortal enemy, to deal it either! He hates himself for having this childhood because not one of these people should experience it. He wants Dream to suffer and rot in prison, not where he’s punished for making small mistakes.

 Tommy, frustrated, half-shouts. He barely picks up on Dream flinching. He also knows that when he gets back and Dream’s in prison, he’s going to tell Sam that whoever is torturing Dream shouldn’t be allowed there anymore. Nobody deserves torture.

 And that makes him even more mad, he originally wanted Dream to suffer in countless ways, manipulation and toast. He was so pissed and so done, he barely noticed when Dream tugged on his sleeve. But he did, and he helped him onto the bed.

 “Sorry to um… interrupt you, but when do they serve lunch? I don’t mean to be rude or anything-! B- but I just— I’m really hungry.” Oh, right. Dream had missed lunch while he was in the punishment cell, but dinner should be in about two hours. “You’re okay, you missed lunch but dinner is in two hours.” Dream slumped and as if on cue, his stomach rumbled.

 “Shut up, you’ve gone longer.” Dream mouthed to himself, now, Tommy was curious, what did that mean? He’d gone longer? They had come in the morning (that’s what the clock showed) and it was almost seven at night. Dinner was at nine. That was honestly quite concerning.

 “Would a hug get your mind off of it?” Tommy asked, Dream nodded, crawling over to him and then hugging him. He hated how nice it felt to have a child hug you. He most hated it because that child was Dream. He hated how safe he knew Dream felt with him.

 He hated himself even more for it, he hated it because everyone deserved to feel safe. He hated everything and nothing at the same time. But out of all of that, he hated what guided everyone wrong. Greed, the need for power. It had corrupted Dream, Wilbur, Schlatt, maybe even Tubbo, hell even himself! 

 Tommy felt Dream snuggle into him, “Are you asleep?” Dream asked quietly, he didn’t answer. He didn’t even know he closed his eyes. “I’m sorry for all I put you through. I know by being next to you, being in the same room as you, hugging you constantly, talking to you… I make you feel worse. I make you feel bad, you shouldn’t feel bad. I should feel bad, and I do! I do feel guilty. You didn’t do anything wrong, you were being a kid because your childhood was taken away. It’s my fault and I’m sorry.” 

 Tommy pretended to sigh contently in his sleep. He really disliked when he heard the voice a child say those things. It sounded so wrong. But if he put Dream’s present voice over the words, he felt anger. Dream didn’t deserve to feel bad, he didn’t deserve happiness. But the more rational side of him told him that everyone did. 

 Besides, Dream needed to heal. He was being tortured. Why did bad people get worse things done to them? It was basically a redemption arc, if he was being honest. But Dream… Dream was different. He got hurt and he wanted revenge, not against the person who hurt him, against everyone who ‘wronged him’. 

 If Tommy had any say in it, Dream wouldn’t be tortured, but he would stay in prison. Maybe the stay would be long enough that he changed. But that was very unlikely, he knew that Dream couldn’t do much in a child’s body, so he would wait until he was an adult. He would wait until his body healed enough to escape and come torture people worse than what he felt. 

 Because of course Dream would. He was a bass fish like that.

 “Dinner time!”

Dream didn’t want to eat, he was convinced he didn’t deserve it. But then they might hurt him- Happy Homes didn’t like when he didn’t eat. But they didn’t give him a lot of food most of the time. “Now, be good children and eat it all.” A man said, the man who had put him in that toasty room.

 He sat next to Techno and Sapnap, Tommy next to Sam and Sam next to Quackity who was by Techno. He leaned against Techno, who glanced at him. “What? Are you scared of potatoes or something?” Techno asked, chuckling softly, because to him, it seemed funny.

 Unknown to his rival, and everyone except Sam and Quackity, Dream could not keep down potatoes. He would be deemed ‘bad’ if he vomited. He grabbed his fork and picked up a piece. He nearly belched at the smell. How in Prime’s name was he supposed to eat this?

 After a bit, the man from earlier came over to him. Techno and Sapnap tensed when the man came over. “What? Are you not hungry?” The man asked, Dream tensed. “No, I’m sorry. I- I’m just going to eat now.” He said hurriedly as the adult frowned at him, “Have it finished soon.” He nodded as the man walked off.

 “You alright?” Sapnap asked him, “Um, yeah. Potatoes just don’t sit well with my uh- stomach…” Techno looked confused, “You used to eat them often when you visited my house.” The Piglin hybrid commented, “Oh! I just get fed potatoes in prison! They’re pretty good but I’ve just been 

leaving them out too long and now I don’t like them as much anymore.” He explained, quickly starting to eat the potatoes.

When Tommy and Dream got back to their cell, Dream immediately went to the bathroom. He vomited the contents of his stomach, eyes watering with the force. He hated the taste, it would always stay in his mouth.

 After a bit, he was dry heaving. Once he was done, he sat limp on the cold floor. Presently, he barely ate anymore. He was thin from what he knew, but that didn’t matter. He wasn’t there right now. He was somewhere else, somewhere hopefully safer.

 There was a knock on the door. “Big D? You okay?” Tommy asked, “Yeah. I’m okay, I’ll be out soon.” Dream said, he noticed the nickname and he hated it. He hated the concern in Tommy’s voice, too. He didn’t deserve any of it. He deserved to be locked away with no one who cared about him. He deserved to be in pain. But… Tommy said he didn’t. Tommy assured him that no one deserved it.

 Then why… why did it feel so right to be tortured? It shouldn’t. He shouldn’t have to remind himself he was a person, a living, breathing, person. This wasn’t the first time he had to remind himself of this. He did it when he realised what his parents were doing was wrong, when he finally realised the abuse of the orphanage, and in the children’s asylum, too.

 He loathed the world then, everyone said it was great. Life was good and all, but they- they just sat there, happy, while he suffered. But he deserved it, he always did. He knew he did. He knew he was connected to the Egg, in a way, he knew he had helped somehow. He automatically, as a child, and now, deserved it.

 Always.

 Dream sighed, flushing the toilet and washing his hands. He exited the bathroom, not glancing at Tommy as he climbed (it was very difficult) onto his bed. He pulled a pillow close to him, he huffed, gripping it tightly. “Did something happen?” Tommy asked him, “No. I’m fine.” Finally, for once in a long time, his skill of lying came in handy. However, Tommy didn’t look convinced but nodded.

 “If you need to talk, I’m here. I want to help you get better.” Better, huh? He couldn’t dream of it. No pun intended. “Thanks.” He muttered, leaning his head against the wall. He missed Techno, and his clock. He really missed his clock. He missed the ticking, he missed how obnoxious it was. He missed the soothing sound and he missed Happy Time.

 The clock in this cell had a digital clock, and he’d missed the first Happy Time. It never felt as satisfying as the clock in his prison cell when any other clock he had seen hit the middle point. Maybe he was just lonely.

 Maybe the clock helped. He liked the clock, it made him happy. But the clock in this cell didn’t. It didn’t let him have Happy Time, the only time when he was actually, truly happy for a minute. He didn’t miss prison, but he missed the clock. It was his friend. 

 He yawned, curling up in the beds soft surface and falling asleep.

—

Sam couldn’t sleep. Maybe it was because Dream and Tommy were alone together, but it wasn’t like Dream could do anything. Besides, he was pretty sure Tommy could handle someone in the body of a five year old. It would be weird if he couldn’t, but that didn’t matter. Dream could still play mind games.

The next morning when Quackity woke up, he immediately got ready to go to breakfast. And boy, was he hungry. Which he did eventually make it, he had sat next to Dream, who looked like he was about to puke. They had potatoes- again. Quackity had gotten soup, and he didn’t really want to have potatoes but considering how thin this version of Dream’s body was and how the guy literally vomited the vegetable when it was eaten, the duck could deal.

 “Do you want my soup?” He asked, making Dream jolt, startled, “U- uh, no. No, I’m fine. I- I’m good.” Quackity blinked, “I’m willing to give it to you, I’d just like to have your potatoes instead. Besides, there’s only a tiny bit of potato’s in the soup- and no, I did not already eat from it.”

 He noticed Dream was shaking a bit, and then he heard footsteps. He glanced behind him and saw a man, the same man who bothered Dream the night before about eating. “Are you going to eat, Dream?” The man leaned over Dream, “Yes, yes of course.”

 “If you don’t we don’t mind not giving you the rest if your meals today, or tomorrow.” Dream’s eyes were wide, he opened his mouth to respond but Tommy did it first. “He’s only five! You can’t take food away from him!” Quackity did not expect that, but he rubbed Dream’s back, who was shaking like a leaf.

 “Do not talk back to me, Child.” The man hissed, grabbing Tommy’s arm. Quackity reacted this time, “Stop!” He yelled, the man looked at him. “No yelling, pet.” He felt tears come into his eyes and he sunk into his chair. “Good. I’ll spare you of the punishment. Now, Tommy, I wouldn’t mind using that method as punishment.” What in the quack did that mean? 

 He snapped his head to look at the man, and noticed Dream was doing the same. “Hey, man. How about you take me instead? That’s allowed, I was told.” Techno’s voice cut through the solid air, and Tommy’s arm was dropped. The blonde sat on the chair, knees to his chest, body shaking violently.

 Dream moved out of the way so Quackity could comfort him, and prime, this wasn’t good. “Very well, Technoblade. Follow me.” Techno stood up, but he was more focused on Tommy paused before leaving with the man. “You told me this place was bad but wow. Anyway, good luck.” Techno ruffled Tommy’s hair and left.

 Tommy was crying and Quackity did not know what to do. “Rooms!” The speaker yelled through the still air, and Quackity didn’t want to leave Tommy alone with Dream of all people. But he didn’t have a choice, so before Dream went to his room, Quackity stopped him and talked for a moment.

 He grabbed Dream’s small hand, and the sheep hybrid froze, then turned around. “Don’t do anything to Tommy or when we get back it’s gonna be a hell of a lot harder.” He hissed, watching as Dream’s face turned from one of confusion to utter fear. “Y- yes, Sir.” He mumbled, hurrying off to his room. 

 Quackity almost felt bad.

 Almost.

Dream was shaking as he quickly made his way to his cell- room. Was it a room? He didn’t know. He noticed Tommy watching him before climbing onto his own bed, and Dream could barely think. He (with a lot of effort) got onto his bed.

 He felt tears burning his eyes. He was scared- so, so, so scared. How much worse could it get? Would it hurt more? He didn’t want that- he couldn’t want. He’s not allowed to. His breathing sped up, and he started crying, 

 This all seemed like a nice (except for Tommy’s past) vacation kinda, maybe Sam’s wasn’t great, but he would like to think it went well. He opted to ignore it and climbed underneath the covers of the bed he sat on. He curled into a ball, and the wounds on his body protested, but he didn’t care. He’d been through worse- technically.

 He whimpered, trying his absolute best not to think about what would happen in the prison. Wait- wait- wait, Sir- no, Quackity had said ‘anything’ what did that include? Was it making Tommy upset? Manipulating him (which he honestly didn’t have the mental capacity for)? Was it making him cry? Or something like hurting him? He didn’t know. He

didn’t get it.

 So, when he felt a hand on his back (which was covered by a blanket) he jolted from underneath the covers and shrunk into himself, petrified. But, there was just Tommy- he didn’t want to make Tommy upset. What made Tommy upset?

 “Hey, are you okay?” Tommy asked, and he didn’t know how to respond. What if he got in trouble? So, instead of speaking, he shakily nodded, flinching when Tommy pulled him towards the blonde. But he allowed it, he didn’t know what made Tommy upset. 

 He had relaxed when Tommy started to stroke his hair, though. It… was nice. He felt his eyes get heavy, and he eventually closed them, falling asleep.

Tommy didn’t know what made Dream panic so bad, but he was glad he could help. He had seen the Quackity and Dream talking a bit earlier, though. Then he thought back, “In… in prison, Quackity… he tortured me.” Oh. Quackity had tortured the guy- of course he would be scared.

 But they were friendly before, so what changed? He had heard something, he thought, “Don’t- anything- Tommy- back- hell- harder.” That, unfortunately, also made sense. ‘Harder’ probably meant that the pain level would increase. And well, ‘Hell’ was self explanatory, most likely it would be like hell. Which, once again, was horrible. 

 The rest was likely to mean if Dream did anything to him that would happen, so, in theory, it made sense why Dream was basically having a panic attack. Besides, Dream didn’t know he was going to tell Sam to stop letting Quackity torture the guy. It was reasonable in the worst way possible.

 But, that didn’t matter now, Dream was sleeping soundly in his arms, comfortable and relaxed. Tommy thought back to how Techno took his punishment, which he was grateful and horrified for. It was brutal and painful, as in, imagine having all your bones (except your neck and spine) crushed then fixed immediately with a healing potion after five hours of laying there in agony.

 He hated that. Besides, that stupid piece of toast left a deep purple bruise on his arm. He really hoped Techno would handle it well, the guy didn’t need any more toast. He didn’t think it would break his brother, but he didn’t know if it would cause damage.

 Then, a scream ripped through the air and the alarm went off. He covered his ears immediately, barely noticing Dream jolt awake and do the same. There were more screams, and Tommy knew Techno hadn’t allowed himself to have the punishment. It was a horrible one, and Tommy was glad the Blood God didn’t experience it.

 The cells went on lockdown and then there was silence. No sound. That was, until Dream broke it. “What… what happened?” Dream asked timidly, looking to him for help. “Techno didn’t accept the punishment. He probably killed someone.” Dream froze at that, and he sighed, patting the child on the head.

 “I don’t think Techno’s gonna get hurt. He’ll probably get us out of here.” He said, waiting until Dream nodded to continue, “He’s the blood god, remember? The most powerful anarchist there ever was?” He smiled when Dream laughed lightly.

 “Techno’s the best. He helped both of us. I’ve always liked and disliked that about him. He cares for others, and puts himself in the middle. It’s as if he cares about himself as much as others, but is willing to sacrifice himself if someone he cares about just hints at it specifically. I don’t like it.”

 Tommy understood that, “When I first met Techno, Phil and I were in the nether and he was really hurt. He had said that he was fine but probably needed help if Phil was willing, of course, he was. Once Phil helped him, Phil just couldn’t leave Techno there, so he came with us.

 “At first, Techno was very quiet, sarcastic and far from trusting us. But he seemed protective of me. Like, if someone insulted me, he was there, and blood was about to stain his hands before Phil intervened. Techno almost always listed to Phil, except for the time somebody broke my arm. Phil wasn’t entirely against that person getting hurt.

 “And then when Phil needed help defending himself from somebody, but in all honestly he could’ve, he was just really tired. The person mugging Phil said if Techno went with them he would let Phil go. Techno was all for it, but then they were killed, so…”

 Dream nodded knowingly, Tommy missed Techno. He missed those rigid, uncomfortable, relaxing hugs. There was more screaming and Dream nearly jumped out of his skin and immediately hugged Tommy in fear. He just dealt with it and rubbed Dream’s back, used to the screaming.

 But, he felt himself getting worn out. It was like whenever they changed places, he let it happen, quickly falling asleep with Dream, shaking yet growing more relaxed on his chest.

Chapter Text

Sapnap woke up in the Nether, he was in a cell with Quackity beside him, unconscious. Unsurprisingly, he panicked. Why in the mother of blazes was he here? Here again? He felt like crying as he curled up into a ball.

 This was a year before Bad found him. He hated it. He hated it so, so much. He hated the abuse, the starving, the inhumane tasks they made him do and the punishments. The gods forsaken punishments. Sapnap stared at Quackity, this place was far from suited for a duck hybrid.

 “Q?” He said, nudging the duck, who groggily opened his eyes and blinked at Sapnap for a moment. “What?” He groaned, then immediately jolted up, utter confusion on his face. “Where are we?” Sapnap sighed, “Well, uh, we- we’re um, we’re in the uh- we’re in the nether- where I was as a child?” It sounded like a question, this was because he was confused and had no humanly idea on how to answer. 

 “Oh. Oh. That place you told me and Karl about?” He nodded, shrinking in on himself. He was so scared- scared for his friends’ safety and his own. Quackity crawled over to Sapnap, hugging him tightly. “You have fresh burns and scars on your skin…” The duck hybrid observed, “The- the punishments here aren’t- they aren’t- they aren’t humane.”

 Quackity froze at that, then quickly went back to normal. “Do they let you out ever?” He nodded, “It’s normally just tasks that take hours to days to do… and if we don’t complete every single one by the end of the week- then- then… um- we get in trouble…” Sapnap replied, snuggling into Quackity’s shoulder.

 “Sapnap, Quackity!” A garbled voice yelled, and the door to their cell was flung open. “Out. Now! You have to chop all the trees in Sector Ten!” The voice —a hunch back piglin broot— snapped and walked off, Sapnap cowered at the noises, tears filling his eyes. 

 He felt the hug he was in tighten, “It’s okay, Sap. It’s okay… they won’t hurt you. I won’t let them.” Quackity assured Sapnap, hastily standing up then helped the blaze hybrid up.

 “Just- just do what they tell you, okay?” Q nodded, holding his hand. He led them out of his cell and into Sector Ten. 

   Everything felt so surreal, like he was imagining it. Like it was just a bad nightmare. He wished it was, but then Quackity wouldn’t be here with him. And he would be getting punished, not having to chop trees. 

Quackity stayed near Sapnap while they chopped crimson trees. Sapnap shouldn’t have to experience this again. It was Dream’s fault, wasn’t it? He was going to have a fun time with him back at the prison. He couldn’t wait.

   Sapnap nudged him, and he turned to look at the hybrid. “Can- can you tell me some um, stories? To get my mind off of this, please?” Quackity smiled, nodding. “Do you wanna hear the stories about drugs or do you want me to make one up?” 

   Sapnap chuckled softly, turning to an overly tall tree and hitting it with his wooden axe. “Make one up, Q.” Quackity cocked his head, thinking. “Well, there was once a blaze hybrid named Sapity Napity.” He started, and abruptly got smacked on the back of his head. He ignored it and continued.

   “Sapity Napity had two fiancés called Karll with two L’s and his other fiancé was named Q. He loved them very much, and they got married. Later, Sapity Napity and Karll with two L’s built a kingdom as a surprise for Q. Q loved it very much because he loved his fiancés very much.

   “Karll with two L’s stayed with them for a very long while before Sapity Napity and Q got together and…” Quackity paused, he stopped chopping the tree and looked at Sapnap. “Q, Karl’s been having memory issues. Like, really, really bad. He- he forgot where we lived.” 

   “Sapnap, come here.” A voice commanded, Sapnap immediately went over to whoever said that. Quackity frowned, going back to chopping trees.

Sapnap went over to theFeeder, which they called the only human player in the plantation. “Find an animal and bring it to me. We’ll need dinner.” The Feeder told him, Sapnap nodded shakily. “Yes, Sir.” He whispered.

   He went over to the Hall of Hunger. He walked to a cage and gently scooped out a large rabbit. It was scared and squeaking. But it was quickly becoming weaker with the potion effects of it’s food coming into play. Soon, the rabbit went limp. He walked back over to the Feeder.

“This one is alright. Unless you make any other mistakes we’ll spare you of your daily beating.” The Feeder said coldly, “Yes, Sir.” Sapnap responded, hurrying away.

“Do you think the others are okay?” Quackity asked Sapnap quietly, snuggling into his shoulder from behind him. They are both in their cell. “I don’t know about all of them. Techno might be having issues, because y’know. Uh, Sam is probably fine. Tommy- Tommy might be in an exile-esque mindset, so he could be okay, or really bad. Dream… I don’t know about him. He could be in a really bad place mentally right now, or he could be fine.” Sapnap replied.

Quackity’s face went from empathetic towards Tommy to apathetic to Dream in less than a second. It was weird. “Let’s go to sleep.” Sapnap smiles at Quackity, moving himself onto the ground, curling up. He feels warmth press into his side.

“It’s really hot.” Tommy complains at what Dream thinks is four in the morning (it could be two pm, he wouldn’t know). “We’re in the nether.” Dream murmurs, glancing at Tommy, who looks anxious and annoyed. He puts his hand against the bars of the cell he and Tommy are in.

He flinches when the bars glow orange and hot. Burn. It’s like the lava, the longer you do it, the better you feel. Try. Dream’s thoughts whisper and he keeps his hand on the glowing, burning metal. His skin grows hot, he can feel burns creeping onto his hand.

“Put your hand in the lava, Dreamie. Know what? Because you’ve been so obedient, I won’t make you swallow your tongue this time!” Sir says cheerily, Dream reaches out his shaking hand and dunks it in the lava. It doesn’t hurt nearly as much as it should.

“There you go,” Sir coos, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. Kind. Warm. Good. Safe. He thinks, slumping as his flesh turns charred. “I miss when you didn’t listen to me, Dreamie. The sessions were so much more fun. Your cute little insults brought me joy. Do you wanna start that again?” Sir smiles and pushes him directly into the lava, burning his skin and his body until the only thing left of him is cold.

He respawns back in the water hole. He feels weak again.

Dream blinks blearily, he removes his hand, which has third-degree burns. He’s shaking and he sits down on the ground. Why does he feel safe here?

You can’t be hurt if you’re in lava, where no one would touch you. A voice whispers in his head, he curls up on the ground, closes his eyes. He doesn’t see Tommy’s worried eyes locked on his blackened hand.

“So,” Techno drawls as he looks at Sam, “we’re supposed to ignore the fact that Sapnap was uh, tortured, I guess, here.” Sam nods, giving him a stony look. “Come on, man, Chat’s bored and so am I.” He rolls his eyes, slightly debating just breaking out of this place then getting everyone else.

“I don’t care about Chat.” Sam says coldly. “You should, they kinda decide if I kill someone or not.” He gets no reply. “I mean, yeah, I choose that too, but they fuel my bloodlust, y’know?” Once again, he receives no answer. Techno sighs, rolling his eyes and deciding to go to sleep.

Sam seems to have the same idea not too long after. The cell is dark and quiet, but it’s not the worst thing he’s experienced. It’s hot and dry yet humid and sticky. It’s not the most comfortable place to sleep, but it’s fine. He’s fine.

Sapnap doesn’t like breakfast time. He’s fed chopped up limbs and organs from the punished kids and adults here. People in the Nether grow their missing body parts back, but it takes a month. There’s a reason why it’s the most often used punishment.

“Eat your lung, Blaze 54990127#.” A piglin brute huffs, glaring down at Sapnap dangerously. He nods, picking up the lung with his bare hands. He opens his mouth, taking a bite out of the organ, which is dried and hard, yet it rips easily. The taste is good. He forgot how good lungs were. That was one of the only good things here, the food. It never was nutritious enough, but it tasted great.

He finishes eating, ignoring the looks Sam and Tommy give him. Quackity was given a heart, Dream was given a tongue, Techno was given part of a brain (frontal lobe), Tommy was given some arm flesh (the color varies from each appendage, well, at least in the Nether), and Sam was given liver. Sam easily got the best one.

Dream stared blankly at a crimson tree. He had an axe in his hands, which he could barely lift. A piglin walked up to him, cold, stony eyes piecing his soul. “Follow.” The English it spoke was broken and gravelly. It grabbed his wrist in a vice-like grip. He trudged along with it, the piglin was basically dragging him.

After about ten minutes of walking, the piglin abruptly stopped and Dream almost ran into it. “Weird hybrid go with.” It said, pushing him into a cell. He stumbled, shutting his eyes tightly off instinct. He expected his face to meet the scorching ground, but someone caught him instead.

His brain short-circuited.

Sam. Sam caught him and Sam steadied him, watching his confusion. “They don’t recognise what hybrids we are so we’ll probably have to stay together for awhile. Quackity will probably come, too.” Sam said and Dream flinched, backing away a bit. “He won’t hurt you in here, probably would get in trouble for it.” He nodded slowly, manuevering himself onto the ground. It burned a bit.

“H- how are you, S- Sam?” Floof his stutter and floof this child- friendly toast. Ah, he hates this. “I could be better.” Sam replied, moving himself onto the ground in a sitting position. He yelped softly when he felt the ground. “Personally, do you think what you’re going to experience is worse than Tommy’s or Sapnap’s?” Sam asked.

Dream paused, “I’m probably going to be with my p- parents, and I don’t remember them at all, but I know I have a ton of scars from them, so I don’t really know. I don’t think it’ll be worse. Besides, I know that the orphanage I was at for like… four and a half years was much worse than my parents.” Sam’s face contorted into confusion.

“Care to elaborate?” He asked, and Dream nodded. “So, basically, the revive book—eh, there’s ten in the world. The orphanage, well, there wasn’t anything good about it. Actually, actually! I think I met Q- Quackity there, but he was only there for a day or so before getting adopted. “Anyway, they, and my parents, had a revive book. So, it’s actually kinda funny because getting revived used to hurt, but now it doesn’t! It doesn’t anymore. So, basically, if any of the kids at the orphanage made mistakes, we would be severely punished. It was kinda like prison but worse.” Sam’s eyebrows shot up. “Worse?” He asked, “Yeah! Yeah.” Dream smiled.

“The orphanage was called Happy Homes! Though no one there was happy, a- anyway, one of the punishments I remember is that if we spoke like… at all, we would have to get a really tiny knife and soak it in lava with our hand also in the lava!

“After about nine hours, I think it was, we would take the knife out and cut off our fingers and toes, then our ankles, hips and such. We would be slowly bleeding out, and then once our legs were gone, we would take the knife to one of our arms, the dominant one, and slowly cut it piece by piece. After that, we would cut the corners of our mouths in slits going upwards, making us smile. We never really lived long enough for anything apart from scars to be permanent. Just like the slits, they didn’t ever stay. I’m kinda sad about it.

“Anyway, our leftover arm we would put in lava, oh, we would be multiple feet away from it, like fifty, so we had to crawl with one arm. So, after we burned our arm off, we would stick our heads in it and slowly die. It was a day process, but that’s just one of the punishments I remember. Then they would revive us after.”

Sam looked horrified, his eyes were wide and his mouth was agape. “That was just one of them?” He asked softly, Dream nodded, he didn’t understand what was wrong. “Sometimes, if we were good, they would give us some steak. It was only once a month at best, though. We never could stomach it. The only nutrients we ever got really was soup, which had little bits of flesh from other punishments. I can’t really die because of how many times I was revived, canon deaths just revert me back to a tad bit younger version of myself.”

“Was… was every death in prison canon?” Dream nodded, leaning back against the simmering bars. “Yeah, but eating wise, my body never fully recovered from then and the other two times after, so I wasn’t ever not used to it. Starving wasn’t bad. Oh! And if we wanted something, they would get a knife and put tally marks carved into our hands. When we inevitably left the orphanage, they would beat us for how many favours we had. I luckily only had ten, the less experienced people had many more.”

Everything went silent and Sam abruptly vomited. They didn’t talk after that.

Tommy chopped some trees down with Quackity. “How’ve you been handling this, Toms?” Quackity asked, “Eh, as well as I can. I’ve been having to be with Dream constantly. It’s getting tiring.” Tommy replied and he nodded, “I get it. I visit him everyday in prison,” he paused, gaining a confused expression when Tommy flinched. He ignored it. “he listens to me, doesn’t disobey. He’s obedient with me, but dang, he gets annoying.”

Tommy nods, and for some reason, that is the end of the conversation.

Sapnap sat on the scalding ground, but he didn’t feel the heat. He was cold, and maybe it was because blood was dripping down his forehead and one of his eyes were gouged out, but he didn’t know. He was so, so, tired. 

Techno was given free time, probably because he was a piglin brute hybrid. He wandered around and eventually came across Sapnap, who was heavily bleeding from his head and missing eye. Huh.

Bleeding pog

Blood for the Blood God?

Not the time

Okay, but like… murder?

Bruh, no

Techno walked over to Sapnap, kneeling down. He ripped off a piece of his sleeve and wrapped it around Sapnap’s head, then tried to help stop the bleeding from his eye socket.