Work Text:
Sam's communicator went off at 3:15.
He didn’t bother checking it. After six weeks you start to learn the sounds of the prison, with the chirps of the messages, the double beep when someone logs onto the server, the little ding for a death and the long buzzing for a canon death. There was another sound form the communicator, this one being the ding that signals a non-canon death and Sam sighed before checking it.
Dream was slain by Quackity
He wrote it in the ledger. 3:15 pm. Quackity. He'd stopped counting a while ago, but he never stopped writing them down, because writing things down was part of his job, and the job was the only part of any of this that made sense.
Quackity had signed in at eleven. Same as yesterday. Same as most days. The visitor pass said INTERROGATION in Sam's own block capitals, and under that, smaller, re: location of revive book. Sam had signed it the first time because Quackity had a good argument and a lot of people behind him. He'd renewed it every Monday since because... he didn't really have an answer for that one. Because it was easier than not renewing it, probably.
It isn’t really him. Sam thought to himself, a phrase he repeats too much. This wasn’t the kid that he found with Punz when the two were on the run. This wasn’t the kid that he took in before he had money. This wasn’t the kid he taught how to swim or find quick and easy food out in the wild. That kid wouldn’t have ever made Tommy dig a hole, or kill Tommy. Whatever was sitting in that cell had killed Dream, Dream his sweet little brother and turned him into something worse. Something that Sam had built the prison for.
He remembers when Dream (or at least what he thought was his little brother) asked him to build the prison. Remembers how he wasn’t allowed to know what it was for, but was supposed to make sure the prisoners had good food and living space. But this monster didn’t deserve it. D̶i̶d̶n̶'t̶ e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶o̶n̶e̶ d̶e̶s̶e̶r̶v̶e̶ a̶ s̶a̶f̶e̶ p̶l̶a̶c̶e̶ t̶o̶ l̶i̶v̶e̶?̶
He remembered the day they had caught Dream. The underground area where they discovered he’d kept all of their prized possessions. The way that Dream had looked when Punz H̶i̶s̶ o̶w̶n̶ b̶r̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ had betrayed him, along with the whole server. The way Dream looked when Tommy knocked off his mask, and Dream looked so scared as Tommy took away two of his lives. The way everyone looked when Dream told Tommy he could revive Wilbur. When they herded him to the prison Dream had looked so nervous, but his eyes still screamed that he would manipulate someone.
At the beginning of Dream’s prison arc, he remembered how careful he was with his little brother. How he would make sure to Dream would be alright. He would talk to Dream and give him good food and clean his cell every other day, but over time, he realized that Dream was probably trying to manipulate him and stopped visiting as much, only to give
He'd visited twice, the first month. Both times Dream had tried to talk about when they were kids, and both times Sam had cut him off, because it felt like a trick. It probably was a trick, back then. Sam still thought that.
He'd just stopped being sure it was only a trick.
3:19. Ding.
Dream burned to death
He wrote it down.
At 3:26 the communicator did the triple beep instead, and Sam glanced at it without thinking, and then kept looking.
Punz joined the game
His pen stopped.
Nobody had heard from Punz in four months.
Punz
Punz breathed a sigh of relief when he looked around and noticed he was back in the SMP area. He went traveling around different worlds and servers ever since betraying his baby brother, but it’s been four months since then, and he missed this place. He looked around, noting that he was in the spruce forest a bit further from the community house. He opened his communicator that had been carefully stored away at the bottom of the chest he left behind and noticed that there had only been two messages. He frowned as he realized neither were from Dream. He thought that his baby brother would message him, whether it was an apology or anger.
He remembered when Dream realized Punz had betrayed him, that look of despair and confusion that quickly hardened to anger. The way he had backed off so suddenly, and looked so surprised, as if it genuinely wouldn’t have ever crossed his mind that Punz might switch sides. Honestly, it surprised Punz that he had betrayed Dream, but Dream had gone too far, and needed help. Help that hopefully he had gotten by now. He missed travelling around the world and joking with him like they used to do.
He decided that he should figure out where his siblings were, and when he checked his comm, he noticed that Sam had his location on, and it was at the prison they were keeping Dream. He made his way towards the prison and when he got within visual distance his comm started erupting with buzzing.
He looked down at the comm to try and understand why so many people were messaging and started to read what was going on.
Dream was slain by Quackity Dream was slain by Quackity Dream burned to death Dream was slain by Quackity Dream drowned Dream was slain by Quackity Dream was slain by Quackity
He kept scrolling. It kept going. Weeks of it.
He thought of the conversation he had with Dream before the betrayal. They were getting ready for battle and Punz had noticed Dream hyperfixating on planning and wanted to cool him down, so he convinced Dream they should go fishing for food and other items. Dream had refused, but after a lot of begging, he had finally relented. They went to a lake near their base and started fishing. Dream kept on losing his bait because he kept getting distracted and the fish would already eat the bait and leave by the time he’d realize, and Punz made fun of him for it, and they were laughing and happy and Dream even took off his mask, looking so carefree.
Three days later Punz walked everyone through the portal.
He didn't know why that was the one his brain kept picking. It just was.
The newest message was from nine minutes ago.
He didn’t really remember how he had gotten in front of the prison after that. He just knew that when he checked his inventory, the 13 pearls he had were all gone, and by the time he got in front of Pandora’s Vault, he was completely out of breath.
Sam was right there on the other side, in the uniform, with the gas mask on.
"Punz." Sam's voice came crackly through the intercom. "Hey. You're not on the list."
"Open it."
"There's a form, you have to—"
"Sam. Open the gate."
"Visiting hours are over." He explained as if he was talking to a child. And maybe he did see Punz as the little kid that he found years ago, but Punz was too upset to feel nostalgic about the old times. "There's an interrogation going on right now, so—"
"An interrogation." Punz actually laughed, which surprised him. It didn't sound great. He held his communication up to Sam’s face. "You wanna see what your interrogation looks like? There's like two hundred of these, man."
Sam didn't say anything.
"How long's Quackity been in there today?"
"I can't tell you that."
"How long."
A pause. "Four hours."
Punz put his forehead against the obsidian. It was boiling hot.
“You promised me,” he said, “When I said I'd help all of you. You promised that nobody would touch him, that he would be safe and you would make sure he’d get better. That’s the only reason that I–” he paused to take a breath, “that’s the only reason I said I would help you.”
"Things changed."
"Like what?"
"The book. Quackity wants—"
"I don't give a shit about the book!" He shoved off the obsidian, eyes tearing up. "He's our baby brother! He used to climb into your bed every time there was a storm, do you remember that? You’d force me to come join cause Dream was scared I would get hurt? And you're out here doing paperwork while somebody's—"
He couldn't finish. He didn't want to say what the death messages actually meant, out loud.
"He's not that kid anymore," Sam said, already turning away.
"You don't know that. You're standing out here."
Punz undid his chestplate and let it drop on the bridge. Then his helmet. Then he unbuckled his sword and kicked the whole pile off the edge. It hit the water and sank.
Sam's eyes went wide.
"There," Punz said. "No armor, no sword. I'm not breaking anybody out. I just want to see him."
"Punz, come on—"
“Listen to me. It’s my turn to talk now,” Punz said, voice calm and face showing that he would do anything to see his brother, “If you don’t open these doors and let me in, I’ll wait for as long as it takes. I’ll tell everyone what you’re doing, and I knwo that no matter how mad some of them could be at Dream, there will be people furious at what you’re doing. People like BadBoyHalo and George and Technoblade. Do you really think you could take on the three of them with maybe others?”
Sam stared at him.
“Please Sammy?” Punz said, voice wobbling, “He’s my baby brother and it’s my fault he’s in this position. I just want to see what happened to him and make sure that he isn’t dead. Do it for me if you won’t for him?”
The water sloshed against the bridge for a while.
Then Sam reached for the lever.
The gate ground opened, and Punz was through before it finished. He grabbed Sam's arm on the way past.
"Is he conscious?"
Sam opened his mouth, then paused.
He didn't know.
Sam
It had taken eleven minutes to walk to Dream’s cell. Eleven, long, silent moments. Sam had timed it by the second, not knowing what else to do.
The entire way to the cell, Punz didn’t talk. He went through the redstone contraptions, the nether portal, the scanners, took everything off his body and inventory, everything. Someone this was worse than if he had decided to scream at Sam and fight him.
Is he conscious.
Sam should have known. He was responsible for D̶r̶e̶a̶m̶ the prisoner after all. The server had put him in charge of the prisoner, and he was supposed to also check his well-being. He knew how many potatoes went down the dispenser, and what time Quackity came and what time he left. H̶e̶ k̶n̶e̶w̶ h̶o̶w̶ m̶a̶n̶y̶ t̶i̶m̶e̶s̶ h̶e̶ l̶e̶t̶ h̶i̶s̶ l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ b̶r̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ d̶i̶e̶.
He didn’t want to admit to Punz that he hadn't checked on the prisoner in 18 days. He looked through the camera and then took Quackity’s word for the rest. Couldn’t admit to his little brother that Sam had hung a blanket over the window outlooking the cell because he couldn’t watch the kid he used to care about be tortured.
THey arrived in front of the cell, and Punz’s eyes opened up in worry when he saw the never ending, constantly flowing wall of lava separating the prisoner from the outside world. Sam turned around and flicked the lever. The lava drained quicker and slower than Sam wanted, but by the time the lava had completely drained and the platform started to slide out, Sam noticed that Quackity was on the other side, tools already bundled up and looking ready to leave the cell.
Quackity smiled at Sam, and his eyebrows went up when he noticed Punz.
“Punz!” Quackity exclaimed, opening his arms in a friendly manner that made him look more creepy with the blood that clearly wasn’t his dripping down him, “Long time no see!”
Punz stared at Quackity for a moment, his eyes fixed on the drops of blood dripping down Quackity’s clothing before stepping forward towards the platform, face showing that he was going to murder Quackity. Sam caught his arm and pulled him back before he could.
“Quackity,” Sam started, “Visiting hours are over for today. Punz is a special exception since he just got back.”
Quackity blinked at him. Once. Twice. Then he smiled.
“For sure, I’m done here anyway,” Quackity said, stepping on the platform and getting back onto the side Sam and Punz were on, “Let me know if the prison is closed again tomorrow! Bye Sam, bye Punz!” and with that, Quackity walked out of the prison.
And then it was just Sam and Punz. They both got onto the platform and started going across, and Sam almost gagged when the smell hit him.
It smelled like something had been molding and rotting for months, mixed with blood and stale water. Punz closed his eyes, anger evident on his face, and when they got closer, both of their eyes widened.
The bed was empty.
Instead, Dream was lying on the floor furthest from the lava. He was on his side, facing away from Sam and Punz, and Sam noticed the prisoner's mask lying on the floor a few feet away from him. Sam realized that the mask was broken in half, and covered in dirt and blood. He looked back to the prisoner and noticed that the prison shirt was red instead of orange, and there was blood soaked into it. He noticed how long the prisoners' hair had gotten and how there was something that made it all clump together.
On top of the chest that was sitting in the corner, there was a book and a quill that Sam recognized. The prisoner was given one book and Sam had figured that Dream would probably use it to plan something, so he used to check it daily, but after a while wasn’t able to decipher anything so he stopped checking. He also noticed that on the left wall there were tally marks, rows and rows of them that got shakier the further they went down. There was probably well over a hundred.
Sam stepped off the platform and just stood there, looking at the state he left his precious prison in. The prisoner didn’t deserve nice things, but Sam promised himself that he would clean up the cell because the prison didn’t deserve to be in such a nasty state. In the corner of his eye, he noticed Punz rushing across the room to t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ b̶r̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ the prisoner.
"Dream?" Punz was already across the room, down on his knees. "Hey. Dreamie. It's Punz. I'm here."
There was no response.
Sam stood against the corner of the cell, not able to get any further. His legs were barely holding him up.
Punz reached out slowly and put two fingers on Dream's neck. His lips moved while he counted.
“Sam, his heart’s going way too fast,” Punz revealed, “He’s still breathing though. Dreamie? Dreamie, can you open your eyes for me? Please bud?”
There were a few terrifying seconds where nothing happened.
Then Dream opened his eyes, and for a few seconds, maybe less, maybe more, Sam had felt something almost like relief.
Then he noticed that his eyes weren't moving. They just stared at the wall. Punz waved a hand in front of them. Nothing. His pupils were enlarged.
"Is he conscious?" Punz said again, quieter, more to himself that to Sam.
"Dream, squeeze my hand if you can hear me. You don't have to say anything. Just squeeze." Punz said, desperately as Sam just watched, not knowing what else to do.
Sam watched the prisoner D̶r̶e̶a̶m̶?̶ squeeze. Hard. Way too hard, and all at once. Punz hissed. Then Dream's arm went stiff, then the other one, and then his whole back arched and his head raised up before dropping back down and hitting the obsidian (Sam heard it, and could feel it in his teeth), and this awful groan came out of him. It wasn't a word. It sounded like the air was being crushed out of his chest.
"Sam!" Punz yelled, panicked. "SAM."
Sam looked at Dream again and noticed that his eyes had rolled up.He was locked solid and there was spit coming out of the corner of his mouth. He wasn't breathing. His lips were going grey.
And then he started to jerk.
There was only one other time that Sam had been this scared for Dream, and they were so young back then. Dream was around seven and Sam and Punz had only taken him in a month or two before. It was the middle of winter and Sam had been stupid enough to have them leave the village they were staying at and they had gotten lost in a snowstorm with a small cave as shelter. Dream had caught a really bad fever and Sam had shared a bed with him to keep Dream as warm as possible.
Sam remembered waking up late into the night and Dream’s lips had turned blue. He had no clue what to do, and Punz had looked so scared and confused, so Sam took off his outer clothing and immediately put it on the ground to get Dream a little warmer. He had Punz sleep on one side of Dream while he lay on the other and the two desperately tried to keep him warm through the night.
Dream would walk up sometimes, shivering and crying for Sammy to come and help him.
There were only two people that would ever call Sam that. Punz and Dream. When they first took Dream with them, Dream had a lisp and wasn’t able to say Sam properly so instead he would call him Sammy, a nickname that stuck with the three of them for years.
The clipboard hit the floor.
Sam didn't remember crossing the room.
"Get him on his side," he heard himself say. "Punz, roll him on his side. Don't hold him down, just let it happen. Get your hand out from under his head, here, move." He ripped his jacket off, balled it up, and got it between Dream's head and the floor. "Don't put anything in his mouth. Just keep him off the wall. Watch the time."
"How long is—"
"Just watch it, Punz."
Punz was white as a sheet, but he did it. He wedged himself between Dream and the corner so that when Dream's arm flung out it hit Punz's shoulder instead of stone. Sam knelt behind Dream and put his hands on his shoulders. Not holding him still. Just there.
"Dreamie, it's okay," Sam said, and his voice broke. "I've got you. Everythings going to be fine."
It felt as if it was going on forever. Probably a minute and a half, really. Dream kept making these horrible snorting gasps between jerks. There was spit at the corner of his mouth, pinkish, because he'd bitten his tongue.
Then he slowed down before coming to a stop.
Dream went totally limp. His breathing was heavy and wet. Sam tipped his chin forward a little to keep his airway open, still whispering encouragement to keep breathing and that everything was going to be okay.
"Is it done?" Punz whispered.
"I don't know."
Dream's eyes cracked open. They drifted around without landing on anything. His lips moved and some mumbling came out of his mouth.
And then he jolted, and his hand shot back behind him, grabbing at nothing, and he screamed.
"Sammy!"
Sam couldn't breathe.
"Sammy, Sammy, make it stop, don’t let him hurt me, where are you, Sammy, where'd you go—"
It didn't sound anything like the man who'd blown up a country. It sounded like a little kid who'd woken up somewhere he didn't recognize and just wanted his brother. B̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ t̶h̶e̶y̶ w̶e̶r̶e̶ b̶r̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶s̶ a̶n̶d̶ S̶a̶m̶ l̶e̶t̶ s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ t̶o̶r̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ h̶i̶m̶. .
"I'm here." Sam caught the hand. "I'm right here, bud. I've got you."
"Punzi—" Dream's head rolled. "Punzie, don't let him in, please, I'll tell him, I don't know where it is, I don't know, please don't—"
"He's gone," Punz said, and he was crying now. "He's not coming back. I promise. No one’s going to hurt you as long as I’m here."
"Sammy—"
Dream's fingers clamped down on Sam's, and his back bowed, and it started again.
And that's when Sam realized what he had probably known for months now.
For the past six weeks, he had been telling himself that this wasn’t Dream, his little brother. That this was the prisoner, the prisoner who had killed Dream and Tommy and had hurt countless other people. That this was a monster who deserved to be in that cell, all alone. It had been easy to pretend when he covered up the window and kept himself busy with other stuff.
But looking at the prisoner now, he realized that this was his little brother. That his little brother had been lying in a cell surrounded by lava, all alone yelling for his older brothers to help him and protect him.
Punz had asked if he was conscious.
He had been. The whole time.
The second seizure lasted three minutes. The third one started before Dream had even come up from the second.
"That's not right, is it?" Punz's hands were shaking. "They're supposed to stop. Sam. Tell me that he’s going to be fine. That this is normal."
"We need to get him out of here."
"What?"
"Out. We're getting him out." Sam already had an arm under Dream’s knee and one supporting his neck. When he lifted, Dream weighed basically nothing. Sam could feel his ribs through the shirt. "I don’t keep enough potions in the prison. We need to go to my house, I have proper supplies there. Golden apples. A brewing stand. I can't do anything for him in here."
"I, Sam we need to go fast or else–"
"Punz."
Punz shut up.
"I didn’t lock the gate in front of the cell, go double tap the third obsidian block from the laval all the way on the left, It’ll bring the platform back over"
Sam had built the prison so nobody could run through it. He ran through it anyway. He did it in six minutes with Dream seizing against his chest, while Punz ran ahead following every order Sam called out, and every door opened for them because Sam had all the codes. Alarms went off everywhere. He didn't stop to turn them off.
When they came out on the bridge, Dream flinched from the daylight, still seizing, and Sam’s heart broke when he realized that the only light he’s seen in the past six weeks was the lava surrounding his cell. That he hadn't seen the sky in six months.
Sam’s base was about 20 minutes away by horseback, close. Punz rode in the front while Sam held Dream tightly, one hand on the rein. Dream seized twice on the ride, and Sam had to stop the horse and get off because Dream had almost slid off.
The second time, Punz doubled back and got off his horse too. He crouched in the grass on Dream's other side and didn't say anything until it was over. Then he said, "How long?"
"Four minutes. Maybe a little more."
"That's longer than the last one."
"I know."
Punz just stared at Dream, looking at how his baby brother was barely breathing, with his eyes open, but so blank and empty. There were pieces of grass stuck to his cheek and Punz carefully picked it off him as if it mattered.
"He's so skinny," Punz said.
Sam didn't say anything.
"Were you not feeding him?"
"The dispenser works, I double checked." Sam said. "I don’t understand why he wasn’t eating anything from it."
"Did you ever bother asking him why?"
Sam lifted Dream back into the saddle and didn't answer, and Punz didn't ask again.
By the time they got there, Dream wasn't really coming back between seizures anymore. His eyes would open, not focused on anything, and his mouth would move, and then he'd go stiff again. Sometimes he got one word out first. Sammy. Punz. Once, really quietly, "sorry." Sam had no idea who that one was for.
They carried him into Sam’s bed since it was the comfiest and Sam had Punz sit with Dream, while he started brewing potions and get out his already created ones as well.
"Regen first," Sam said, walking over to Dream’s barely moving body.
Punz tried to get it in Dream's mouth and most of it ran down his chin. Dream choked and started seizing again, and the bottle went flying and smashed on the floor. Punz swore, grabbed a splash potion, and just threw it down against the bed frame. Pink mist went everywhere.
Sam and Punz looked at Dream, and for a couple moments, it looked like it was working.
The grey around Dream's mouth went pink. The burns on his arm closed up. The cuts on his hands sealed over. The spot on the back of his head stopped bleeding.
But he didn't stop seizing.
"No, no, no." Punz grabbed another bottle from Sam and threw it at Dream. "He's healed. Look at him, he's healed, why isn't it—"
"It's not the injuries," Sam said.
"Then what is it?"
Sam didn't answer, but he had a pretty good idea.
Dream was the admin of the server, and when he created it, any time someone died and respawned whether it was canon or not, it was clean, as if everything had just been restarted. But because Dream’s the admin, Sam knew that it works differently for him. For him, the more times he dies, whether it be canon or not canon, it takes more out of him. And Sam knew that Dream had died a total of 68 times in the past six weeks. He knew that everytime Quackity went into that cell, the chance of Dream ever being able to see the daylight lessened.
Sam knew that the potions wouldn’t be able to fix that.
He didn’t have the heart to tell Punz though. Punz, who out of desperation cut up golden apples as small as he could and pushed them into Dream’s teeth, but Dream wasn’t able to swallow them. Punz tried another regen potion, and then another, and then a health potion. He kept throwing potions onto the bed until the entire room felt thick with the lingering effect of the potions, and all the bruises and cuts Sam had already cleared up.
Sam watched as the seizures came faster and faster with less time in between and lasting longer each time. Dreams lips were completely blue and his breathing was weird to the point that it would stop for a terrifying couple seconds before starting once more.
Punz stood up so fast his chair fell over.
"Totem," he said.
"What?"
"I've got a totem. Of undying. I got it months ago while working a job. It’s in my ender chest." He went over to Sam’s ender chest and looked through it, before picking it up and walking back over. "Here. If he's holding it when he... it'll bring him back, right? That's what they do?"
Sam looked at him and nodded, but he didn’t think it would work. He didn’t think a totem would be able to fix Dream after everything he had been through. After everything Sam had let him go through. But Punz was looking at him the same way he used to when something went wrong and needed Sam’s help, and Sam couldn’t say anything.
"Put it in his hand," he said, praying that it would work.
They sat there for eleven long minutes, until the seizure didn't end like the others. Instead, it slowed down before stopping as Dream took a long breath, let it out, and stopped moving.
“Dreamie,” Punz said, grabbing onto his hand, “C’mon Dreamie, take a breath for me, you got it, C’mon”
The totem burst into flakes of gold.
Sam had to cover his eyes. Gold and green light burst out of Dream's hand and spun all around him, and there was this huge ringing sound, and Dream's body jerked up off the mattress like somebody had yanked him.
Then it faded, and the totem was gone, and Dream’s eyes opened, and instead of looking past them, they focused directly onto Punz and Sam.
"Sammy?"
It was hoarse and quiet, and so different from the way that he’d say it as a kid.
Sam made some kind of noise as he knelt down next to Dream.
“Hey Dreamie,” he said, “You’re alright. You’re safe now at my house.”
Dream relaxed a little looking around. His eye caught on the window, and Sam and Pun watched as his face softened.
“It’s been so long since I've seen grass,” Dream said, wistfully and Punz had to look away to stop himself from crying.
“And you’re gonna get plenty of opportunities to see it again. You’re never going back to that cell.” Sam spoke.
Dream looked past Sam and saw Punz and his entire face lit up.
“Punz, you came back!” he said, and Punz nodded, “I thought you didn’t wanna see me after you betra- left me. I kept asking Sam where you were but he wouldn’t give me a proper response.”
“Dream, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left, or betray you in the first place. I should have at least stuck around to keep an eye to make sure that you’d be taken care of properly.”
“'S okay.”
"It's not ok—"
"It's okay," Dream said again, sounding calmer than he had in years.
Sam remembers a village he lived in before taking in Punz and Dream. Before he was forced out of the village. There was an old healer that used to let him help her with simple tasks like filling up water in bowls and giving letters to people about ingredients that she needed. He remembered when someone would get super sick and then would magically get a lot better. Their families always thought it meant that the patient was safe again, but Sam would never forget how the healer said “When they get better out of nowhere, that’s when you know that it’s too late.”
He shook off the memory and held Dream’s hand and closed his eyes to compose himself when he realized that it was ice cold.
"Sammy."
"Yeah, Dreamer."
"I called for you a lot in the prison."
Sam felt his whole chest cave in.
"I know," he said. "I know. I'm sorry. I should've come. I'm so sorry."
"I figured you weren’t able to hear me but I don’t know how Quackity would have gotten it without you letting him in."
"Dream I’m so sorry." He wasn’t able to voice how sorry he was for letting his little brother get tortured. About the blanket. About not letting George in, knowing that him and Dream had something a few months ago that was never resolved. "It was all my fault. I should have taken care of you. I’ll never let anything like that ever happen again in this lifetime or any others."
Dream stayed quiet, his eyes half shut. His breathing had slowed down again.
“M so tired Sammy” he yawned.
It took Sam a second to find a response.
"That's okay. It’s a part of healing,” Punz said, holding his other hand.
"I know. You can sleep. We're both here." Sam comforted him.
"Punz?"
"Right here," Punz said. "I'm not going anywhere. Not ever again."
Dream smiled just how he used to when he was a kid, with all of his teeth showing and slightly lopsided.
“Dream, when you get better we can go further away from the SMP and find a new area further away from everyone else. We can have a farm and find villagers for friends and you can get a cat. Do you have a good name?” Sam asked.
“I had a cat in the prison named Patches. Tommy killed her.” Dream mumbled tiredly, eyes fully closed.
“Then let’s get another cat and name her Patches,” Punz said, joining in.
Punz and Sam took turns talking to Dream until they couldn’t feel his heartbeat any longer, and then just sat there, not knowing what to do when one of them was gone forever. Sam checked the ping on his communicator and saw the message at 5:46.
Dream died because of [Redacted]
No weapon caused this. Nor a specific person. Instead it was just everything that he had been put through over the last couple weeks.
Sam sat there, waiting for the respawn sound.
He knew that it wasn’t coming but he waited anyway. He sat next to Dream’s body,holding it as tight as he could as Punz sat on Dream’s other side, his face buried in Dream’s hair.
After an amount of time that could have been five minutes or three hours, Punz finally spoke up, “He didn’t believe that you actually let Quackity in to torture him.”
"Yeah."
"Is that worse? Or better? Then if he knew that you let..." Punz trailed off. "I honestly can't tell."
Sam didn’t know either.
He thought about the weapons in a small room in the prison. The shears that were covered in the blood of his brother. He never thought to question exactly how much damage Quackity was making. He figured that since everyone let Dream get locked up, then Dream deserved it. He didn’t want to admit that he made a mistake, and his pretending to be oblivious caused his baby brother to leave them forever.
"I didn’t feed him for almost a week. I also didn’t gone into the cell for almost a month now. I would just use the dispenser.," Sam said.
Punz looked at him, betrayal and disgust written into his face..
"I kept telling myself that he deserved it." He swallowed. "Because if I saw him, I'd have to admit it was still him in there."
Punz didn’t respond with words. Instead, he leaned over and rested his head on Sam’s shoulder, like how they used to do when they were kids, with Dream sitting on top of them.
They stayed like that for the rest of the night, and the next morning Punz looked at him and asked, “What do we tell people when they ask? Someone’s sure to want to see Dream again eventually.”
"The truth," he said.
"All of it?"
“Dream deserves it.” Sam rubbed his face, “People who were close to Dream deserve to know how he was treated in that prison. They’re going to ask about the revival book. Punz, I really don’t think he knew where it was. Maybe he did at one point but I think he might have done something to it. He told Quackity that he didn’t know hundreds of times and I let him get tortured for that.”
Punz stiffened. “Quackity’s gonna say that you let him out. That you failed to fulfill your role as Warden.”
“It’s the truth.”
"They're gonna come after you."
"Most likely."
"I'll be there," Punz said. "When they do. I'm not leaving a brother behind again."
Sam nodded. He didn't trust his voice.
Outside, the wind blew by and Sam knew that it was Dream in the wind, the admin becoming one with his server again, but forever separated from his friends and family.