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Karl found it by accident. He wasn't even looking for anything important, he just wanted a book to read because things had been quiet lately and he missed reading. Quackity kept a bunch of old books in the back office of the hotel, so Karl went in there to grab one.
That's when he saw the notebook shoved under a pile of tax papers.
He almost didn't open it. He should have listened to that feeling, honestly, but he was curious, so he opened it anyway.
It was full of dates and notes, all in Quackity's handwriting. The same handwriting he used to write Karl little love notes, and more recently, notes explaining how he was busy and won’t be home for a while.
Day 2 - refused food again. Sam says vitals are fine. Keep going.
Day 27 - Used shears on him. He cried. Deserves it.
Day 51 - He’s finally stopped trying to be defiant. Addressed me as sir and stopped fighting
Day 74 - asked for George today. Said no.
Karl felt sick. He read a few more pages but his hands were shaking too much to keep going.
He grabbed the book and ran to Sapnap's house without really deciding to. He just wanted the comfort of his fiance. S̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶D̶r̶e̶a̶m̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶g̶a̶i̶n̶. Sapnap opened the door, his face already in his hand and a stoic expression on his face, which he relaxed when he caught sight of Karl. When he saw Karl’s face however, his grip on his axe tightened in one hand, and he immediately cupped Karl's face.
"Karl? What's wrong, what happened?"
Karl stepped back, and just held out the notebook because he couldn't get the words out. He'd tried to think of how to say it on the way over and every time he tried it sounded insane in his head. Quackity has been torturing Dream. Your fiance has been torturing the man that you think of as your brother. He couldn't say that. It didn't even sound real.
Sapnap read it standing in the doorway. Karl watched his face change, like a light turning off behind his eyes.
"This can't be real," Sapnap said, flipping through more pages, faster now. "He wouldn't do this. Q wouldn't do this to anyone, not even him."
"It's his handwriting, Sap."
"That doesn't prove anything." But his voice was already breaking. He knew that handwriting better than anyone.
They went to George's next because neither of them knew what else to do. When they arrived, he was asleep, just like always. Sapnap’s face crumpled, and Karl knows that Sapnap hates it whenever George lets XD make him sleep, because Sapnap already lost Dream, and now George is leaving him by sleeping for hours straight.
“XD” Karl called, and in a flash, The God appeared and tilted his head like a puppy. His hood was up and apart from the fact that his hood was darker green and his mask doesn't have the classic smiley face, he looked so much like Dream before the wars, that it made Karl freeze for a moment before shaking his head.
“We need George awake. Now,” Sapnap said to the God, who merely stared at him, before nodding, snapping his fingers and disappearing once more.
“Waz going on” George said, blinking the sleep out of his voice, face looking more worried and awake when he saw Sapnap and Karl’s expressions.
They led him to the kitchen and gave him the book.George read the whole thing sitting at his kitchen table, completely silent, and when he got to the part that mentioned him, he put his hand over his mouth and just sat there frozen.
"He's been asking me about Dream," George said finally, his voice all muffled. "Every time I've seen Q, he’s asked me questions about Dream. His personal life, what he likes and dislikes. He's been asking ME. While he was the one doing this the whole time."
"Don't say what you're thinking," Sapnap said, even though he was clearly thinking it too. "Not yet. We go talk to him first. Maybe it's not what it looks like."
Nobody actually believed that. But it felt better to have a plan than to just sit there.
They found Quackity in his office in Las Nevadas, all his papers stacked up neat like always. He looked up and smiled at first, that quick easy smile he always had, and then he saw their faces and the smile dropped.
"What's going on? Why do you guys look like that?"
Sapnap dropped the notebook on his desk without saying anything.
Quackity looked down at it. Karl watched it happen, watched him recognize it instantly, watched the way his whole face changed in like half a second. He wasn't confused. He knew exactly what it was.
"Tell me it's not true," George said, and his voice sounded so small.
For one second Karl actually hoped Quackity would say something that made it okay. But instead he just said,
"He's dangerous. You don't get it, none of you had to make the calls I had to make. He hurt Tommy and everyone else so much. Besides, it's not like anyone cares about him.”
"You've been torturing him," Sapnap said, voice cracking. His voice sounded so different from the way he sounded just a year ago, all carefree and happy. "For months. While you were engaged to us. You’ve been torturing my brother"
"I did what I had to do."
"He asked for George," Karl said, voice shaky and quiet. "And you told him that George didn’t want to see him any longer instead."
"You don't understand the position I was in! Besides–" he said looking at Sapnap, “he told me what you said when you visited him. That you would be the one to kill him if he ever esc–”
Sapnap moved so fast Karl almost didn't see it happen. One second Quackity was still talking and the next Sapnap had him by the collar against the desk, papers going flying everywhere.
"Sapnap stop-" Karl tried to grab his arm. "We need him, we need to know how to even get in there-"
"I don't care," Sapnap said, and his voice had gone somewhere really dark. "I don't care what we need right now. He's been torturing Dream in there for months, Karl. Months. While we were sleeping right next to him every night, he wasn’t busy hurting my brother. Making him feel like everyone hates him."
"Sapnap please," Quackity said, and now he actually sounded scared. "Please, I love you guys, I never wanted-"
"Don't say that to me right now."
The next moment , the axe that Sapnap was holding materialized in his hand, and he swung it at Quackity multiple times, until Quackity popped out of existence. Karl frantically checked the logs, only to realize that it wasn’t a canon death.
Nobody said anything for a while after that.
George was breathing really hard, while Sapnap just stood there looking down at his own hands like they didn't belong to him anymore, his face pale.
"We need to get into the prison," he said finally, and his voice was flat now, no emotion in it at all. "Right now. Before we lose Dream too."
They found Sam outside the prison. He was standing tall, sword in his hand glinting and clearly enchanted, with a mask covering his expression, but it was clear that he knew that they were coming. They saw him notice the blood still on Sapnap's hands that he never bothered to wash off, and watched Sam slowly start to connect the dots between the blood and the death message on the comms.
"Where's Quackity?"
"Dead," Sapnap said. "And if you don’t let us in to see Dream, you’ll be next."
Sam stared at them, silent for a moment. "You don't understand what he's like in there, I've had to keep him contained because-"
"I don't care about your stupid frikin’ reasons." Sapnap's hand was still on the axe, ready to attack, and behind him, George was loading up his bow. "Quackity had reasons too. Every single one of them was something he told himself so he could sleep at night. You've got like five seconds before I stop asking nicely."
"You'd have to get through me to-"
"Try it."
George aimed his bow right up at Sam, and they all knew that there was no chance that he’d miss. Not for someone as important as Dream. Karl came up to stand next to Sapnap as well, his diamond sword shimmering.
"Fine," Sam said quietly, as he realized that there was no getting out of it. "Fine. Follow me"
Sam took the trio into the prison, and they all held their breath as they walked through hundreds and hundreds of bricks of netherite. No escape. Karl gasped as he saw the lava pouring while Sam walked off to the side to push a button to turn off the lava flow, and then clicked the button next to it to build a bridge.
The bridge came out slow, obsidian sliding into place, piece by piece, over where the lava used to be, and they watched the lava drain out until there was only a single layer of it underneath the bridge. Karl looked at the lava, and netherite, and thought that he could never go to the nether and look at everything the same way again.
He was lost in his head as they walked on the bridge, too wrapped up with the terrible smell that came out of nowhere, and the blinding light from the lava, which likely made it impossible to sleep, and the crying obsidian that dripped water. And then he finally saw the cell.
There wasn't a bed, just a pile of what used to be a blanket, all gray and stiff in places. In the corner there was a little pile of potatoes and most of them were rotten, green and black with mold, and it looked like someone had eaten around the mold because there hadn't been anything else.
And in the very back corner, next to what Karl assumed was the toilet, sitting against the wall like he'd just been dropped there and left, was Dream.
His hair, that once shined in the sunlight and was kept neat and short, had grown out past his ears, dried blood and dirt clumping pieces together. There was more blood dried on his neck and jaw, and newer blood was shining on top of that. His green jacket, the one that everyone saw and instantly recognized him with, was now hanging off him, way too big. His wrists had rope marks all over them, and the mask that he wore, which Karl knew he wore to hide his expressive face, was broken on the floor.
He didn't move when the gate opened. His eyes were open but they weren't looking at anything, and for a second, Karl thought that they were already too late.
Then Dream blinked, and his eyes moved, slowly, over to the gate. Over to where he, Sapnap, and George were standing.
“Dream,” George said, already on his knees, hands hovering around him like he didn’t know whether or not he could touch. “Dreamie, hey it’s us. It’s George, Sapnap, and Karl. We’re going to get you out of here okay”
The expression on Dream’s face changed, now quiet hope, more like a sliver of recognition that was quickly wiped away.
"You're not real," he said, and his voice was totally wrecked, like he hadn't used it in a while or he'd been screaming too much. "You're not- Sir does this. Sends people. Makes them look like-"
"We're real," Sapnap said quickly, kneeling down on his other side, his hands shaking as he reached out. "I promise, Dream. Quackity's not sending anyone else ever again."
Dream flinched hard at just hearing the name, curling into himself, and all of their faces crumpled seeing it.
"It's alright," George said, keeping his voice steady even though it was shaking too. "It's alright, you don't have to believe us right away, just look at me, please, just look at me."
Slowly Dream's eyes found George's face and stayed there this time. His shoulders relaxed just a little.
"George?" It came out cracked, like he couldn't believe it.
"Yeah, it's me. We're getting you out right now okay? Can you stand up? I’ve got you, I'm not letting go of you again."
"Sapnap," Karl said, his voice tight. He was staring at the water bucket in the corner, all black and gross, and the rotten potatoes, and thinking about how someone had basically just been keeping Dream alive and nothing else. "We need to hurry. Look at all this. He hasn't had actual food in who knows how long."
"I know," Sapnap said, his jaw tight. "I know. Help me get him up."
Sapnap and George got their arms under him and when they finally lifted him, Dream made a sound that sounded like he was trying to scream but wasn’t allowed to.
"Sorry, sorry, I know it hurts, we're almost there," George kept saying, tears streaming down his face as he tried to get his ex-lover out.
Dream's eyes started to close, and his head fell against George's shoulder. Karl watched as Sapnap and George helped him as if he barely weighed anything, and that was the part that got to Karl the most, watching from behind them, because Dream used to be someone who took up so much space just by existing and now he weighed nothing at all.
"Almost out," Sapnap kept muttering, more to himself than to any of them. "Just a little more."
They made it across the bridge, Sam following behind them, looking almost worried, as if he actually felt guilty for putting Dream through all of that. For letting the man that he once saw as a brother get tortured under his watch. Karl looked forward and realized that they were almost at the exit, to air that didn't smell like rot anymore.
Dream's knees completely gave out ten feet from the exit, his eyes rolling up, but still barely conscious.
"Dream-" George went down with him, catching his head gently before it hit the ground. "No, no, stay with us, we're so close, please-"
Dream's eyes were barely open now. His breathing sounded wrong, shallow enough that Sapnap's face went completely white.
"Karl, go, get help, get anyone, just go-"
Karl ran. He ran as fast as he could to find anyone, anything, but some part of him already knew, even while he was running, that it might already be too late.
He ran towards the main pathway.
“HELP HELP IT’S DREAM, HE’S GONNA DIE” Karl screamed, as he caught sight of Tommy and Tubbo, as well as Jack and Slimecicle and Puffy. None of them did anything though, they just stood there, before Tommy decided to speak up.
“Good riddance. He fuckin deserves it for all of the shit that he put me through,” Tommy said, walking back to his house, Tubbo in tow.
“He’s was being tortured for months please, he’s going to die.” Karl said, crying now.
“Tortured?” A voice said behind Karl, and when he turned around, he saw Techno and Phil walking over. Karl nodded, hoping that they would be willing to help.
“Lead the way,” Techno said, and Karl took off, running as fast as he could, with Techno and Phil keeping up.
By the time the trio got back to where Dream was, George was still holding Dream's head in his lap on the tunnel floor, although he was now in a more comfortable position, and Sapnap had both hands pressed against a wound in Dream's side that nobody had noticed under the ruined jacket, blood still finding a way to escape.
"Stay with me," George kept saying, so soft, like he was trying not to scare him. "Please, please, you're out now, you don't have to fight anymore, just stay a little longer, okay?"
Dream's eyes opened again, just barely, and found George's face above him. Something in his expression eased up a little, and it made George cry even harder seeing it.
"George?" he asked, barely more than a breath, as he used some of the last of his power to cup his face for a second, before his arm strength gave up and he fell back down.
"I'm here. I'm right here. You made it, you're safe, just hold on a little longer. Please, I love you. Please, I'm sorry for leaving you, pleas–"
Dream's mouth moved into something like a smile. It looked wrong on his face, all busted up like that, blood coming up from somewhere inside his mouth, running down over his cracked lips and down his chin, but the smile stayed on his face anyways.
"Me?" His voice was barely there but somehow it was really loud in how quiet everything else was. "I feel like a million bucks."
"Don't," George said, cupping his jaw, not caring about the blood at all. "Don't joke about that right now, just breathe, keep breathing, please-"
But Dream's eyes were already drifting somewhere past George's shoulder, past the ceiling of the tunnel, past everything. The bloody smile stayed on his face even after everything else went still, even after his chest rose one more time and then just didn't rise again.
George's scream filled up the whole tunnel.
Sapnap didn't move from where he was kneeling, hands still pressed to a wound that didn't matter anymore. Karl got there just in time to see it happen, just in time to be too late along with Phil and Techno, just standing there with help that didn't have anything left to help.
Behind them, deeper in the prison, Sam stood, not knowing what to say, or what to do. He finally just nodded at them and went back to the prison.
They carried him out into the sunlight for the first time in months. His face almost looked peaceful in the light if you didn't look too close at the blood, if you didn't think too hard about how thin he'd gotten, about how his jacket that used to fit him perfectly now hung off him like it belonged to someone else completely.
They took him to a flower field that he used to sit at a lot. The same flower field that he asked George out officially, all those years ago, and the same one that he promised to eventually propose to George at. Something that he’d never get to do.
George didn't let go of him the whole way there . Sapnap walked next to him without saying a word, the blood on his own hands already dried and dark, matching the blood dried down Dream's chin from that last smile.
Karl walked next to Sapnap, the notebook still in his pocket. He wished that things turned out different, but he knew that he would’ve regretted not telling Sapnap about his brother being hurt. At least Dream gets to rest peacefully now.
The sun was really bright. Dream's smile, all bloody and awful, was the last thing any of them would remember about him clearly. Everything before that, all the good memories from before the prison, from before any of this, would slowly start to fade, but that smile would never leave their memories.
They stayed in the flowerfield for about 2 hours, trying to convince George to let them bury Dream, while he kept telling them that he needed more time, when they felt the air shift. They turned around and saw Dream XD.
It wasn't like XD's usual entrance, no quick flash nor a tilted head. This time the light dimmed like clouds passing over the sun, and when XD appeared, he was standing very still, his darker green hood pulled all the way up, hands folded in front of him instead of tucked in his pockets like usual.
George looked up first, still cradling Dream's head in his lap, and something in him went cold at the expression on XD's face. Grief. It looked so wrong on a god's face.
"What do you want," Sapnap said, voice hoarse and empty of everything but exhaustion.
"I promised Dream I would explain something to you all should anything ever happen to him," XD said,his voice still emotionless like always, but now it held a hint of regret in it, "Before I take him."
"Take him where?" George's grip on Dream tightened instinctively, his gaze sharpened, as if he was prepared to fight a god.
XD crouched down slowly, keeping distance, as if he didn't think he had the right to get closer. "You know how Dream’s an admin. Haven’t you wondered why this world hasn't been destroyed yet?
Nobody said anything, so he kept going.
"Me and Dream were once the same soul, with him being the more carfree part of us, and me being the more structured one. However, over time, Dream would get lonely, and he would watch you all. He wanted to live like all of you. Really live, not just watch from somewhere outside of it. Admins aren't supposed to want that, but he did. So the only way for him to become mortal was for something to stay behind and hold what he gave up." XD's hands tightened together. "That was me. I'm not a separate person. I'm the piece of him that had to stay an admin so the rest of him could be human. So the world wouldn't end when he stopped being what he was. But we are still part of the same soul. For example, even though we have different thoughts and opinions, Dream has such strong feelings for George, that even I feel some sort of emotion when looking at him."
George’s face turned five shades paler. “Is that why you’ve been making me sleep and keeping me in your world.” he asks, and then looks away when XD nods twice.
Karl felt his stomach turn, but forced himself to keep asking questions. "You're saying you're a part of him."
"Yes, and I've been watching over all of you, watching over him, all this time," XD said quietly. "And now that he's gone, I need to take what's left of him somewhere none of you can hurt it, and nothing else can hurt his body either. The End."
"No." George's voice cracked as he scrambled back, Dream’s body in tow. "No, you're not taking him anywhere, he stays with us, he stays with me, he’s—"
"George." Techno's voice, low, but firm enough to cut through. "Let him finish."
XD looked at George directly then, and for a moment, the resemblance to Dream was unbearable. "If a body remains in the overworld or nether for more than a day, the body decays and all player materials drop. In The End however, the body won’t decay. Players can't go there. It's not built for you. But I can make exceptions." His gaze moved to George, then Sapnap, then Karl. "The three of you can visit once a week. I'll open the way myself, every time. No one else gets that."
"And everyone else?" Phil asked, broken wings folded behind him, watching XD carefully.
"Once every three months. Anyone who wants to pay their respects, except—" his jaw tightened, something colder passing over his expression, "—Quackity and Sam don't get to go. Not now, not ever. That door stays shut for them."
Sapnap’s shoulders loosen a bit, and he nods, “Good.”
"No one's allowed to hurt the dragon while they're there either," XD added. "It doesn't matter how upset anyone is. The dragon is something for you to take your anger out on. No one can travel past the main island. And no one can take the dragon egg. It's the only thing keeping that space quiet for him."
George was crying again, quietly this time, looking down at Dream's face like he was trying to memorize it before it disappeared for good. "Can I say goodbye first? Properly?"
XD's shoulders dropped, some of the coldness leaving him. "Of course. Take as long as you need."
George nodded, and pressed his forehead to Dream's, whispering things too quiet for anyone else to hear. Sapnap held onto his hand until his own fingers went numb. Karl just stood there, notebook still weighing down his pocket, wondering if he'd ever stop seeing that bloody smile when he closed his eyes.
When it was time, XD listened to Dream’s body carefully, and whispered something to it before turning back towards the group who watched.
"I'll come for you Sunday," he told George. "All three of you. I promise."
Then, with a small flash, XD and Dream vanished, off to somewhere that only they could go whenever they wanted.
The field went quiet after that, and the world kept spinning, with bees buzzing around and flowers moving, but everything around them felt muted, as if the world could feel that half of its beloved admin was gone.
Karl never stopped seeing that smile when he closed his eyes. Bloody, broken, and somehow still soft — the last piece of Dream that any of them got to keep.
Every Sunday, XD would open the portal for them to pay their respects, and they never missed a week.
After three months, lots of people went to visit their beloved admin that they treated so badly at the end, even Tommy, who waited until everyone was gone to have a chat with him.
Over time, people started visiting less and less and even started to leave the server and adventure out, until all that remained was Sapnap and George, who would stay on the same server forever, still mourning the loss of their dearest friend.
And sitting in the end was a grave, with a plaque that read, "In loving memory of Dream, a friend, lover and admin who left us too soon."