Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It is nighttime in the Dream SMP server. The stars shine brightly in the night sky, and except for the occasional groans and moans of mobs, things seem to be peaceful for once in the server’s short lifespan. 

Then the alarms start. They begin as a simple beat. A couple of notes that seem just to be tapping before each one gets louder and louder—as if finally yelling out to the world the danger everyone is in. This is the only warning they'll get.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Meanwhile, inside the cells in the center of the prison, everything lies empty. The missing person? One of the most dangerous people on the server: Dreamwastaken. The once-proud admin of the server now one of the most dangerous criminals that the server has ever seen.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Tommy jumped up from his bed. The sound of the alarms pierced through his walls like swords. His eyes widened and his breath began to quicken. "Oh no….No no!!" He rushed out of the house, trying to look for something to protect himself, only to see Tubbo and Ranboo running towards him, Michael in  hand. 

"Tommy?! What's going on?!”

"Dream, he-"

"He’s escaped.." Ranboo said quietly, clutching a confused Michael. 

"Papa…what’s going on?" The young Piglin asked. Ranboo's grip only  tightened.

Blood began to pound in Tommy's ears as he tried to think of something

He’s going to kill me…

"Tubbo, look at me, look at me. You have to go to your bunker." 

"That's the plan,” Tubbo said, then his eyes widen and realization. “ what about you?!”

“I'm going to Logstedshire to get the Axe of Peace."

Tubbo and Ranboo's eyes widened at that.

"Wait, what?! Tommy, you can't! He'll go after you!-"

"I know he will."

Tears began to flow down his cheeks, the memories of prison suddenly hit him squarely in the chest.

"He-he … fuck …" 

Tommy struggled to calm down. All he could hear was the sound of the alarms and the beating of his heart. He needed a way to calm down so he could  fucking think of a plan... 

I- can take deep breaths like Puffy said- just count to 10 … 

10..9..8

 “Put your things in the hole, Tommy.”

.7…6..5..5, shit …

“Ohhh. Well, Tommy, you wanna be a hero?”

5.-4-5-4… fuck OFF …

“Schlatt? He's fucking dead. I've seen his grave! His grave is real. His corpse is there, alright?”

    “.... Why don't you go see him then?” 

NO! STOP, STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP- 

4-

Tommy collapsed and began  to shake, crying out as Tubbo and Ranboo sat down next to him. Michael just tugged on his fathers’ jackets, wondering what was going on. 

"Dad… it's so loud, what's going on ?"

Ranboo slid over to Michael as Tubbo comforted Tommy, holding him tightly. As Ranboo looked up to the prison, he wondered  where Sam had gone… and how he could have let Dream  escape.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Sam gasped as he jumped out of his makeshift bed. He knew that sound. Sam quickly snapped his fingers, rushing out of the door to the edge of the makeshift island as his armor appeared. He looked up to see the prison’s red and blue lights color the night sky.

"Oh, god no…."

That- that was impossible. He had secured the prison just before he left, and Bad and Ant had promised not to let anyone in or out.

He looked at his communicator and noticed two messages sticking out

BadBoyHalo has left the game at 17:50

Antfrost has left the game at 18:00

He stared at it in disbelief “…Shit.”

 All Sam could do was drop the communicator. He had no time for finding them. He had to get there now. If they couldn’t do it, then he would. He had been  chosen to be the Warden for a reason.

Of course you fail to secure your own guards, especially when you pick the ones who are still worshiping the almighty egg .

Sam shook his head as he tried to gather up his items and armor; he had to be prepared. He had to get Dream back to the cell. He can’t allow him to hurt innocent people. Like-like he did with…

Did you really think that you could keep him in there for long? You were already pushing it the moment that you left to cry on your tiny island .

Sam growls and tries to keep the tears back as he switches from his regular body to his Warden form. More thoughts begin to appear in his head as he tries to secure his normal body to keep it safe. 

Do you really think it’d be that secure for long? You're just wasting your time .

Shut Up.

Everything that happened is your fault because you're such an incompetent warden. You only got one prisoner, and you let him run the show .

I know, but I can fix this.

You try everything to keep people safe, or so you said after the death of Tommy. You ‘add’ more Security. You ignore Dream’s screams as he demands you to come to him to kill you. You even chop off your love’s arm to keep them from trying to help him ‘escape’."

Shut up shut up shut up shut-

Let's face it, the only reason why you're in the situation is because you want to distract yourself from the fact that it was your fault that Tommy died!

“SHUT UP!” Sam screamed. He just wants this to stop.

Your fault, your fault, your fault, your fault, your fault, your fault, your fault

The sound of the alarms covered those creeper-like screams that came out of the island, and no one noticed the amount of smoke that came out of that island a few seconds later.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"No…Duckling…" Puffy whispered as she just watched the red and blue in The distance. She already knew the meaning of it.

"Hey Papa," a familiar hand comes on her shoulder as her son, Foolish, comes up behind her, "you don't think he…."

"He did," Puffy Whispered. 

“Mum…” a small voice called out, causing the two adults to turn around. A young Piglen stands nervously with a Totem boy that looks only a few years younger “what’s going on….”

“Yeah,” the Totem boy says, with his fists up. “Did he escape..?”

Puffy rushes toward the two and hugs them close. “It’s going to be okay you two, we just need to do something important.” Then she turns to Foolish. "Foolish, get Michelle into the crib with Junior and Finely to keep them safe." 

"Alright, papa," Foolish said as he picked up his son.

"Meet me at the prison after; I’ve got to go now. We can't have Dream destroy the server again."

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Fuck!" Quackity froze as he heard the alarms, a freshly made boat still in his grip. How?! How did he escape? It's fucking impossible! The only way he could is he-…No! Sam! Quackity dropped the boat and rushed toward the Vault. He had to stop the bastard and hopefully save Sam, but it seems like the plans have changed.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

A large crowd surrounds the prison, each with different goals and beliefs, usually enemies or friends, but all united with a purpose to face whatever threat comes to the prison entrance.

"Where is he?" One voice said, a voice trembling like the sword that he carries.

"And what should we do when he comes  out?" Another voice asked. 

"Shut down another symbol of tyranny," Someone called back. 

"Shut up, Techno. How do we know that you're not the one who planned it?" Quackity said as he pointed at Techno.

"Please, even if I was involved, I would have seen the abuse of power from miles away.”

“If you try to help him escape, I swear to g-”

There was a sudden shake. 

"What's going on?!" Quackity screams, his shoulders tense, his ax ready to swing

"Is that an earthquake?"

"But that's impossible."

"Was it Dream?!"

Before anyone could do anything, there was a sudden drop somewhere… There was a brief moment of screams before it went silent.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Tommy opened his eyes… Something is wrong. He looks around to Tubbo, only to see Tubbo covering his mouth, tears threatening to come out of his eyes.

"Tubbo… where is Ranboo and Michael..?"

Tubbo looks up, fear and grief in his eyes. "They're gone… there was some light, and then they just.. disappeared…” He whispered quietly as he held himself close, fearful yet numb at the same time. “Something’s very wrong…”

"Tubbo-" The world begins to shake again as the glow surrounds both him and Tubbo.

"Tommy…" suddenly the glow just began to surround Tubbo, Tommy's breath stopped at that oh no no no no, he can't.

"No, no, no - Tubbo, Tubbo it's gonna be fine- we're just gonna get it off of you-" Tommy tries to wipe the glow off, only for it to return stronger. "Shit- it's gonna be fine, I swear.” Tommy said as he desperately tried to rip it off. 

“I mean as soon as this is over, we're gonna look back and just laugh about it." He barely even notices the glow beginning to spread onto him. 

"Wait, Tommy! It’s spre!-" Tubbo screamed, and just like that he had vanished, leaving nothing behind. Tommy only had a few seconds as he realized that the glow had finally spread all over him, and began to fade.

We're fucking screwed- was the last thought that went through Tommy's head before darkness took over. 

The glow flickered across the server for a moment, as if looking for more players. As fast as it starts, the  flickering stops—leaving the server empty, and the server members falling into a new world filled with new people. New rules.

In a different world, a woman smiled as she watched a forest begin to glow.

Chapter Text

Tommy groaned as he slowly sat up.  His body was sore from the fall, and his head was spinning. 

“What the fuck….” He bit down on the bile burning the back of his throat, his blue eyes fluttering open. A small field full of scattered objects was what greeted him. What the hell are those? 

His eyes drifted to a familiar figure, wearing a brown coat with a familiar flag on it. Next to them was someone wearing a suit that made his eyes widen and a strangled cry escaped his lips.

“TUBBO! RANBOO! MICHAEL!” He rushed to their sides, not caring that his knees dug into the ground and began to shake.

No no no no! They can’t be… gone! Not now!

“Come on, come on, you gotta wake up.” But when they didn’t move, Tommy began to fear the worst. Suddenly, a cough racked through the brunette's body and he opened his eyes.  “Tommy..?”

He sighed a breath of relief as the stress left his body. 

“Oh dear prime, you're alive. I thought that you were….” Tubbo laughed weakly. 

“Dead? It’s fine. Where are we?” Ranboo groaned as he sat up as well, his green and red eyes blinking as he tiredly looked around. 

“Hey…Guys?” As Tubbo and Ranboo look around the woods, realization has hit them hard. 

“We’re not in the server anymore, Big T,” Tubbo said jokingly, but Tommy could hear how his voice trembled.

“So where are we…?” Ranboo said as he clutched a sleeping Michael close.

 “I don’t know,” Tommy said, “but Ranboo, you’ve got to hide Michael.”

“What, why?”

“We’re not alone.”

A glance around revealed that they weren’t the only ones who had woken up in this strange place either. A bit away, Techno and Phil had just begun to stir; just past them, Sapnap had started to push himself up. Indeed it seemed most of the server was scattered around, in varying degrees of awareness. 

Tommy scanned the area slightly frantic, a jolt of fear going up against his spine, but fortunately, Sam seemed to be the only green shape with them. Ranboo took that moment to hide the still sleeping Michael in his bag, thankful that Michael was small enough to do so.

“What happened? Where are we?” Sam groaned, pushing himself to his feet.  Hand instinctively reaches for one of his weapons.

“Well it looks like a forest.” Techno shrugged, snorting.

“Wow really? Gee thanks Techno, we never could have fucking figured it out without you,” Quackity said, grabbing onto Sam’s arm and using it to pull himself to his feet.

“Well, I’m sorry for making a guess.” He said sarcastically as he helped up Phil.

“Look, I think it’s a bit more important to figure out how we got here than yelling at each other,” Puffy interjected sternly.

“And Dream could have transported us into this place to kill us once and for all!” Quackity interrupts as he stumbles about, glancing at the pig.

Techno just smugly summons a pickaxe and waves it at Quackity. “I’ll be safe from him. Phil and I didn’t lock him up in a prison.” 

“Well, that because you weren’t fucking involved at all.” Sam snapped back, stepping in front of Quackity.

“Oh, really, and I thought that you were supposed to guard him.” Phil snarks back.

Both almost seem rearing for a fight. Hands twitching for their weapons, ready to start a pvp, but then someone pipes up.

“Look, I hate to interrupt, but is there any way for us to get home? We left Michelle, Junior, and Finley in their cribs, y’know,” Foolish swallowed. “I can’t exactly leave a group of infants alone.”

Both men look back at Puffy; one of them tries to say something before Puffy stops them.

“Listen, I know that all of us are suspicious-” she glared at Sam and Phil, “-in some ways or another, but is it a good idea to be fighting when we're in the middle of the woods in an unknown area?”

The server stops and takes a look around the surroundings.

“What the fuck…”

“Before we start arguing again, at least we can make a deal,” Puffy gave each member a look. “Can we do a truce? Since we're in a strange and unfamiliar place?”

“And exactly what does that mean?” Sapnap asked.

“It means we don't hurt you; you don't hurt us, mate. Got it?” Phil responds. 

“I know what a damn truce is; I just don’t know whatever, not that we could trust you with that,” Quackity said, eyeing Technoblade with a hard glare.

“Quackity,” Sam comes up from behind Quackity and places his hand on his shoulder. “I think it’s a good idea to do this, just for now.”

Quackity sighed, “Can  we even trust them?”

“Yes.” He sighed, “We don't know anything about where we are, for all we know Dream's already running around planning to kill us all, we can't afford to be divided, not against him.” 

“Maybe if you didn't put him in prison with no trial and inhumane conditions, you wouldn't have to worry about him taking retribution.” Techno retorts.

“Oh, yo-!” But before Quackity could finish, there was rustling in the bushes.

“What the fuck is that?!” Niki yelled, stepping away.

Everyone huddled together, side to side, weapons in hand, wondering what creature would come out to try and kill them. Instead of a horrible creature, they were met with a  young boy tumbling out of the bushes.

There was a brief moment of silence before Jack spoke up. “Are you.... okay?” 

The young boy just giggled as he jumped up from the ground. “Yep! That happens a lot, anyway, hi! I'm Toby.”

In return, the server started right back at the young boy, as if he was crazy.

“Who are you kid?” Jack asked again.

 “Like I said before my name is Toby.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“You need more information? My name is Toby, I’m around 13 years old and I live here!”

Jack just blinked at that, looking at the other server members confused.

“What's wrong with this kid?” Sam mutters.

“What do you mean? He seems nice.” Foolish whispered to Sam.

“You know what I mean; if this was our world, they would have killed him years ago.” 

Toby just stands there smiling at the group before he suddenly turns to an empty part of the forest as if noticing someone besides them. For an uncomfortable few seconds, Toby stares at the corner before laughing, “I know Jon, I shouldn’t talk to strangers but they seem pretty nice.” He said.

The server stared at Toby for a moment before Ranboo nervously spoke up,

“Toby, did you hear something?”

Toby looked back, confused before his eyes widened in realization. A brief flush of red came to his face before he covered it up with a smile. “Oh, that was just Jon, one of my ghosts.” 

“Ghost?” Techno said. D oes he have voices too? He turned to the others who have similar questions on their minds.

“Yeah, my ghosts!” Toby said excitedly as he spins around towards the group. “Anyways, do you guys need help? My sisters are nearby, and we got a campsite.” 

“Oh yes, thank you, we just need a way out of these woods.” Ranboo said.

He nodded as he pointed to the path in front of the bushes.

“Follow me!”

 “Wait!” Quackity interrupted.

Toby stopped as Quackity walked to him, a glare apparent on his face.

“How do we know that you're not going to betray us?”

 Toby tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

 “I mean seriously why would you help a bunch of strangers that you just met in the woods if you don't have any nefarious plans especially since it seems we weren't expected to appear here!”

 Toby stared for a moment before he smiled. “Because my uncle taught me that you should help everyone in need!  And you guys seem to be in need!” 

Quackity just stood there and just shook his head as if  Toby had just spoken in a completely different language.

Before he, or any of the others could come up with a response, Toby just grabbed Quackity's arm and pulled him towards the path. “Come!”

 That awoke the server from their stupor as they just realized what just happened.

“Wait!” Sapnap yelled as he ran into the woods followed by Karl and Sam. 

And with that the group immediately followed suit. 

After a few moments of wandering, they come across a small campsite in the clearing; the boy happily skips over a couple of rocks and a small pond with Quackity surrounded by his family still a bit dazed about what happened.

Tommy looked around, his face a mixture of concern and nervousness, “Do you guys live here?”

Tubbo elbowed Tommy in the stomach. “Don’t be rude.”

Toby shook his head at that. “No we’re going on a camping trip, Scar and Min were getting antsy, so dad said that we can go camping for a few days. We’re gonna go back home tomorrow.”

Tommy seemed to calm down as Toby rushed towards one of the tents and opened it up. The server stiffened. 

“Listen kid, you don’t need to-”

“Who’s that?!” A sudden new voice came out of the tent, a voice of a young woman.

“Scar, Min! I met some new friends.” Toby said with a huge smile.

Suddenly the tents open up, revealing two girls. The first one to appear is a young woman with long reddish-orange hair, behind her were a pair of owl wings that draped down her back which complimented her black nightgown. Next to her was another young woman; her skin was darker than the girl next to her with her braids going down her back, wearing a nightgown as well.

They stared at them and the two girls stared right back. It was only broken when one of them elbowed the other.

“Okay...right…uh” One of the girls, the one with the reddish-orange hair, turned toward the woman with braided hair, “Scarlett?”  

‘Scarlett’ narrowed her eyes and took out a silver knife as she circled the group. “Alright, who are you then, and what the hell are you doing here?”

The server stiffened, instinctively grabbed their weapons and pointed at the small group. Scarlett and what the group presumed to be ‘Min’ doing the same in turn. The only ones who were not were Toby and surprisingly Techno.

Techno just stared at the knife and smirked. “What are you going to do with that?” With that, he took out a pickaxe and threateningly pointed at Scarlett

She just smiles casually as she lunges, aiming the knife at Techno’s wrist, though he managed to pull his hand back in time. Techno surged forward in return, swinging the pickaxe toward Scarlett’s head. Scarlett ducked down and swiped for his thigh.

Techno twisted his body, avoiding the blow before sweeping his pickaxe in a large arc aimed at Scarlett’s shoulder. She sidestepped the move.

The pair went around like that, neither able to actually hit the other, until both parties were suddenly yanked back. Minerva gently wrapped a hand around Scarlett’s arm while Sam was much less gentle in grabbing Techno’s cape and tugging him away from the fight.

Before the fight could break out again Sam spoke up, taking a deep breath allowing smoke to come out of his mask.  Straightening up his back to reveal his height to the women in front of him. “Please put the knife down; you're very threatening.” He stressed.

Scarlett blinked at Sam for a few moments before she laughed. The server stood there staring at the moment, wondering why the girl was just laughing. “No one's called me threatening before, that's fun!”

The young girl continued to laugh as she put away the knife. “My name is Scarlett, and the girl next to me is my girlfriend, Minerva.”

“Soo, umm, if you’re not gonna stab us can you at least tell us where we are?” Karl asked, just managing to peek over Sapnap’s shoulder.

“Woods outside of town, you don’t look like new toons though,” Minerva says, suspicious.

“Toons?” Foolish asked.

“That’s… well that’s hard to explain to be honest. They’re just… the Toons.”

“How did you get here?” she asked, still wary.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.” Tubbo said.

“I mean we kinda just like… woke up here.” Ranboo shrinked backward.

Toby asked, “Do you want directions to town? The others might know how you got here.” 

He then turned to the side and shushed the air, “Tim, don’t interrupt. They seem to want help.”

The server looked at each other for a moment before Tommy piped up. “Sure. I reckon that’s a good place to start, innit? I mean, we aren’t gonna get very far in these fucking woods.”

Toby pointed off to the left of them. “The gate is that way. It isn’t too far and it should be unlocked.”

“Thanks.”

With that, the server began to walk off in the direction Toby had pointed towards, though Sam and Techno kept their eyes on Scarlett and Minerva as best they could until the trees covered their view. But, as Toby had said, it didn’t take long until they reached a wall.

The walls of the towns seem to be painted, with so many colorful children's drawings and carvings showing different names and initials.

“Phil, do you really need your wings out?” Niki asked.

“Listen, it’s the best way of protecting you guys and is a way for us to get out of here quickly.”

Sam opened the gates, took a deep breath, and let a few clouds of dark smoke seeped out of his mask. They opened the door behind the gate. It opened with a creaky noise to reveal a small village of people laughing and talking to each other; they’re all different shapes and forms. None of them were exactly alike, human, hybrid, and animals. 

For a moment, no one noticed them. But then someone, a young girl with a short bob cut looking no more than 15 and holding what seemed to be her boyfriend’s hand glanced back and noticed the group.

“Who are you…?”

The town stopped talking to each other only to look at the street, looking confused.

“Why are they looking at us?” Tommy whispered.

“I don’t know; maybe it’s because we don’t look like we belong here.” 

The townsfolk continue to stare at the small group as they slowly filter inside.

“Hi, we just got here. We just, like, woke up in the woods.” Foolish trailed off.

“Some kid pointed us this way, said their father might be able to help us figure out what happened. Said their name was Toby.” Sam said, stepping forward.

The townsfolk began to whisper amongst themselves, and the boy separated himself from the crowd and headed towards Sam. “Toby, you said?”

“Yes. Do you know him?” He asked.

Steven smiled. “Of course, we know him. He's Bugs' son, my name is Steven, what’s your name, what's all your names?”

“I’m big man Tommyinnit, this is Samuel, and-”

“Sam is fine,” he gently interrupted, causing Tommy to roll his eyes. “Look, we really need to try to find a way home and figure out what happened to cause us to end up here. Do you think this Bugs could help?”

“Maybe, where is your door?” Steven asks.

“Door?”

“Yeah, usually there’s a door that helps you get back home?” 

The girl pipes up, “and there’s usually a house for someone along with the door.”

The town looks around for a moment trying to look for a house similar to the server but finds none.

“We just woke up in the woods. There was no door or anything. So we have no idea what happened,” Sam shrugged a bit.

“That’s… weird.” The girl noted

“All right, guys, we’ll help you get yourself home, and for now, we can give you a house for you to live in for a bit.” The girl said. “We’ll tell Mickey.”

“Oh no, thanks,” Phil said, waving a hand.

They look at him, perplexed, “huh?”

“Well, what we’re saying is we can build our own home outside of here. Ms…”

“Connie and that could take weeks.” 

“Relax, we’ve managed to build a house in a day before, and we’ve got Samuel and Build Boy. They’re great at that stuff.” Tommy gestures towards Sam and Foolish.

“So when are we going to meet the leaders?” Tubbo asked.

“I’m sure the Head Toons will want to talk to you guys soon,” Steven said, 

“It’ll be sometime today I’m sure.”

“The Head Toons?”

“The leaders of the town and the main body of government besides the representatives.”

One crowd member notices a dark look in Phil’s and Techno’s eyes

“So… you’re just gonna be outside of town?” The person asked 

“Yeah, that would make the most sense. Should be enough materials to build a place to stay. Though I’m limited in what I can do without any redstone…” Sam said the second part more to himself, already thinking of what to build for a base.

“So we’re still gonna tell Mickey. Don’t want too many questions being asked.”

Phil looked on the side and noticed a kid staring at him and Techno. He tugs at his apprentice's cape. 

“Techno, just to let you know there’s a kid over there and I don’t like the look they are giving to us.” 

Techno suddenly pipes up, “So what’s your name kid?” his eyes narrowed.

“Sasha, and you?”

“Technoblade, The Blood God.”

A couple of people raised an eyebrow at the name. “Blood God?” Steven questioned.

“Yes.”

“Right…” 

“So it’s okay for us to go?  We want to get started on the fort.” Puffy asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Steven said. “The Head Toons will come to talk to you guys soon.”

The server began to walk out, looking back at the town folks who were still staring at them.  They wave at the server as the gates close. “They seem nice,” Steven said.

“Sasha got a point,” One woman, Gloria, said as she looked back at the gate. “I have a bit of a bad feeling about them, they seem like ticking time bombs.”

“So are we.”

“No, I mean like the pigman and birdman. They seem mischievous.”

“You just described half the town, including you.” 

“You know what I mean.”

“It’s gonna be fine, we're gonna ask Mickey and the others anyway about them.”

“Something tells me that they’re not going to stay out of town for long….” An older woman said out loud as the crowd began to disperse, some moving towards the center of town.

Sasha just looks back. “I wonder if they’ve already started in making their little fort…I have a hard time imagining they could build something so large so fast…”

Meanwhile, building wasn’t going as smoothly as the server used the remaining blocks from inventories. Arguments about what to make it look like were common, and as a couple of people started running out of blocks, they found they couldn’t get anymore. Any attempts to turn the materials around them into building materials left them with just puddles of ink. 

“This looks like a mess,” Sam groaned. “Plus I don’t even have any materials. Of course I had to be grabbed while doing prison work.”

Tommy grew more and more frustrated as he stared at the ink staining his hands. He just threw his head back and screamed from the top of his lungs.

“Fucking! Could you just turn into cobblestone or something?!?” Suddenly just as he yelled out that wish, the ink that’s around him had suddenly turned into a block of cobblestone.

Sam raised an eyebrow, before kneeling down over a puddle of ink. “Some wood would be useful.”   The puddle of ink turned into wood blocks,

“Okay that is useful,” he said standing up holding the wood. “Almost wish we had this sorta stuff back home. Think it can become redstone?”

“You could try asking?” Foolish said, starting to add in some of his own personal touches.

“It would be helpful if we need to defend it,” Sam said, beginning to walk around the growing fort. “We still don’t know if these ‘Toons’ are friendly, or if Dream is around. You can never be too prepared.”

“They seem pretty nice, they haven’t attacked us,” Ranboo said as he picked up a recent block of brick.

“Believe me Ranboo, sometimes kindest people are some of the most dangerous out there,” Puffy said, “ I should know…”

“I’d rather not wake up to find that Green Bastard leaning over me.” Tommy said, looking around, “You don’t think he’s actually here, do you Sam?”

“I don’t know Tommy. I don’t know.”

There’s some shuffling in Ranboo’s bag as Michael pops out “Dad? what are we doing here?” 

Ranboo and Tubbo froze, most of the other server members stopping to stare at the child. Foolish just grins and waves at Michael. “Hey Michael.” Sam tried to cover his mouth but it was too late.

“Ranboo, why do you have a child in your bag? And why are they calling you dad?” Techno asked.

“Uh, That is a great question. I mean it’s pretty weird for me to just have some random kid I never told you about despite everything, but it’s whatever. I mean-”

“Mate. Calm down,” Phil spoke. “There’s no need to get all worked up.”

Ranboo just wilted. “This is Michael. He’s my son. Mine and, well, Tubbo’s too.”

“HEH?”

Chapter Text

Mickey tilted his head at the small group of young adults. "So there's a bunch of new folks in town?" Anne, Steven, Sasha, and Connie sat down at a table, and a few Toons joined them.

“Yep.”

“They don’t have a door or a house in town?”

“Nope.”

Mickey furrowed his brows. “That’s pretty weird, so where are they now?”

“Just outside of town,” one of the girls, Anne, said. “They made their own fort. In one night! It’s kind of impressive.”

“Wow, really?” Bugs smiled, impressed. “That’s amazing.”

“So what are they like?” Mickey inquired.

“Odd. That’s the best way I can think of to describe them. They didn’t look or act like toons,” Steven said. “But they’re pretty well armed. They weren’t threatening, or at least I didn’t find them threatening, but I did see several weapons on them.”

“Okay, that’s not too unusual, I mean a lot of people bring in weapons.”

The small group mumbled in agreement.

“Okay, so anything else?”

“Yeah, just to let you know, you should keep an eye on two of them in particular,” Sasha commented.

One of the head toons, Goofy, tilted his head. “What do you mean?” 

“There was a bird like man, he had wings of a crow I believe or a raven. He was with a pig hybrid. They were looking at each other pretty strangely the moment that someone mentioned you guys  were our government.”

The Head Toons looked at eachother, concerned. Mickey shook his head and smiled.

“Well we’ll figure it out. I mean it happens all the time. Maybe they live in a world where there’s danger at every turn or maybe they’re just anxious,” Mickey suggested.

“Maybe, living in a dangerous world would explain why all of them seemed to be armed. A couple having weapons could be them being anxious or just liking them. All of them implies they have them for a reason,” Steven remarked.

“Well thank you all for the information. I think our next move is to find their files and see what we can learn from there,” Mickey said. “Come on you guys.”

Phil sighed as he looked out from the small fort that they had made. One might have thought that the town folks might have left them alone after seeing their massive fort and the number of weapons that they managed to take with them, but apparently not. 

Phil just looked down on the small group of town folks, who seemed to be deliberately walking by it with wary but curious eyes. It gets worse with kids who seem to make it their life goal to break in. It took Phil a moment to look over to Sam, watching as he tries to put back the blocks that the kids manage to break through, as he has already scared away a group of kids. 

Adding the blocks, Sam sighed, "We can't keep doing this."

It's just one hole," Phil said. "You're doing fine right now."

"One hole?" Sam asked as he pointed out a group of holes all over the fort.

He stared  for a moment. "Wow...I guess they're strong..." he said.

“You think? I don’t know how some of them got weapons as well so I can’t really say that they weren’t hostile.”

“How do we know that you're not giving the fort stronger blocks?” Phil asked almost accusingly. 

Sam whirled around in surprise. "I didn't sabotage anything!" he exclaimed.

As Sam and Phil continued their argument about the wall, Jack was lying next to Niki under the tree.

"Is anyone else bored?” Jack asked absentmindedly, playing with a piece of ink that alternated between colorful blocks and an arrow. 

Right beside him, Niki yawned. "Nothing really to do."

“We can play a game?” Tubbo suggested, holding Michael in his arms.

“Maybe I spy,” Michael said. “I spy with my little eye something big…”

Michael looks at Techno with a smile. 

Techno just raised a brow at the toddler. “What?”

“You’re huge.” Tubbo covers Michael’s mouth before looking at the pigman nervously. For a brief moment Techno just stared at the two before he chuckled, “I like this kid.”

Tommy sighed as he got up from sewing a flag for the fort. “Could we take a break or something?”

“Yeah, we could take a break, we can do an icebreaker or something,” Puffy suggested.

A few server members groaned at that.

“Is that really how we’re gonna spend our time?” Tommy groaned. “That sounds fucking stupid.”

“Hey Boss man, could you not swear in front of Michael? It makes Ranboo upset,” Tubbo said. Tommy just rolled his eyes.

“I know I know, but with our whole truce it will be a good way for us to get to know each other.” Puffy eyes lit up as she thought about it more. “Plus I read online that it’s really good at cultivating a sense of community!”

“Honey,” Niki spoke up, looking a bit embarrassed, “that sounds nice but I don’t think that’s the best idea.”

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun!” Foolish said with a grin. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“We end up murdering each other?” Jack suggested.

“Or we end up getting closer together. I mean how much do we know about each other?”

“Listen, I barely even know anyone in this group and I even know how ridiculous this is.”

Puffy turned around and took a closer look at one member, a young alien boy wearing a purple hoodie “What’s your name again?”

“Purpled,” the boy said, looking a bit bored.

“Oh, nice to meet you. I don't think I've ever seen you around the server often.”

Purpled just sighed, “That’s mostly because I try to make sure I’m as unnoticeable as possible.”

Tommy’s eyes lit up in recognition, “Oh, I remember you.”

“You do?” Purpled asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tommy began to think about the times he saw the kid before coming up with one. “The socializing club I think?”

“You annoyed half the people there.”

“Excuse me, I am not annoying! I have never annoyed anyone ever!”

Purpled look back at him with an amused smirk. “You are very loud.”

“Fuck yeah I am! I am the loudest and biggest man around!”

“You’re trying to compensate for something?”

“You two, I don’t think Puffy meant to start fighting when she suggested icebreakers. Calm down,” Sam said.

Both boys went quiet at that but not before they stuck their tongues out at each other.

Phil raised his hand up. “Now that’s over with, maybe we should stop with this stupid game. I mean it seems like no one is really getting along with it.”

“We’re not gonna give up on it just from one fight,” Puffy said to Phil.

“Okay, I have a question, what was everyone doing, like, what happened before we ended up landing here?”

Tubbo was the first to say anything. “Well I’ve been working on a couple things. Me and Ranboo were gonna make a hotel.”

“I was…journaling,” Karl said awkwardly. “I often have to travel a lot so I journal so I can perfectly recall the stories.”

“Karl, does journaling relate to why you haven’t been home lately?” Sapnap asked.

Quackity nodded as he narrowed his eyes at him.

“Oh, you know me, I just have so many great stories ....”  Quackity and Sapnap look at him confused. “It’s nothing.”

Niki then raised her hand.

“Well I had been taking care of a certain someone at my house before we ended up here,” Niki said.

Everyone around the circle looked at her shocked.

“Wait there was someone at your home?!” 

“Well they were injured. I had to help them especially since I did help out with something.”

“Really?!  Who was it?!”

“I don’t know if I could tell you considering that there’s a certain someone among us who probably would be disappointed to hear that he isn’t dead.” With that, Niki shot a pointed glare at Sam.

Sam looked back, confused. "What do you mean by that?”

“Oh you know what I mean.”

“No seriously I don’t and are you gonna tell me or are you just going-”

 Niki then yelled, “Why would you take off Ponk's arm for keycards that didn't even work Sam?! What was your justification!?''

Sam stood there,  stunned for a moment  before he glared  back at her. “Do we have to argue about this now?” 

“Yeah, I think we do actually!”

“And why do you care, you barely even hang out with him!”

“He’s my friend! Did you really expect me to not be upset about you taking off his arm?!”

The atmosphere was quiet as that last question rang out.

“It was… It was the point of the matter. I couldn’t just… I told him to just give them back.” Sam sighed. “I should have just kept fixing the wall.” Sam got up and began to grab some blocks as Niki sat back down, still red in the face.

“Not very surprising that the government official is corrupt as usual,” Techno mumbled.

Everyone sat away from each other awkwardly after that until Puffy just said “Listen we can talk about it later but right now….” Everybody looked at Puffy and she could see the tired looks in everyone's eyes. “…Okay, maybe instead we should focus on what’s going on and how we get home. Do we have any plan on how to get them to build us a portal home? And quickly?”

“Well maybe you guys can actually talk to us rather than just sit here and act all sinister,” a familiar voice spoke behind them, causing everyone to jump as they noticed three familiar kids standing in the room.

“How did you manage to break in?” Sam asked, resheathing his weapon after he had instinctively drawn it.

“You stopped in the middle of the work and there’s a hole in the wall,”  Scarlett said, deadpan. The server looks back on one particularly large hole in the fort.

“Oh….”

“So what are you doing here kid?”

“Well we just got back from our camping trip and we saw your little fort,” Minerva said, “We asked one of our friends and they said that a bunch of new people live here and we knew it was you.”

“We got some games,” Toby said happily. He took out different games like Cards Against Humanity and bingo from his bag. “Sasha said that these are the perfect games to start making friends with.”

“Sasha?” Techno asked. “The blonde girl?”

Toby just giggles. “Not that Sasha, my Sasha. Sasha James.”

“How many Sashas are there?” 

“I don’t know? I just know that my Sasha lives with me.”

“I mean we manage to deal with two Michaels?” Tubbo said.

“Tubbs literally only six of us knew your Michael existed before a couple days ago,” Tommy pointed out.

“Ok, fair point.” 

“Is there a reason you keep looking at me?” Sam asked Toby, who had been staring at Sam for most of the conversation.

“What are you? I thought you were a cat, but cats aren’t green and you don’t look quite like a cat,"  Toby asked.

“...I’m a creeper hybrid?” 

Instead of responding Toby just reached out and started petting Sam along his back. “You’re very fluffy.”

Sam just sat there, unsure of how to respond, looking to the other server members for help, though a couple seemed to be enjoying his discomfort.

“Toby you’re supposed to ask before you pet someone,” Scarlett reminded the boy.

“Yeah and I think Sam would really rather you not do that,” Puffy said. “It’s not very polite back home.”

“Oh,” Toby withdrew his hand, “I’m sorry Mr. Sam.”

Sam just vaguely nodded, confusion written across his face, even through the mask he wore. 

Minerva sat down, placing the games in front of the server. “So which games do you wanna play first?"

“I guess the Cards Against Humanity…”

“Min, do you think this is a good idea to allow Toby to play cards against humanity?” Scarlett whispers in Minerva's ear.

“Well it won’t be that bad as long as he doesn’t pull any inappropriate cards then it will be fine,” Minerva whispered back.

Before Minerva could do anything, the server grabbed the cards.“Or they will read the cards….”

Scarlett giggles a bit at that as each of the server members look at the cards.

Purpled took out a card and nearly laughed. 

“Holy shit they added this in the kids game?!”

“It’s not for kids?” Tommy asked as he looked over at Purpled’s card, his eyes widened as he burst into laughter.

“Holy shit why would anyone hahahaha”

Meanwhile, Ranboo took out a card and looked down, confused. “I don’t get this card…” He said, looking up to Techno and Phil.

“Let me see mate,” Phil said, looking at the card after Ranboo handed it to him. “Uhhh are we sure we wanna play this game with kids around? Especially with a toddler in the fort?”

“Is it that bad?”

Techno just sighed. “Sorry Phil, but you’re on your own for this,” and the pigman just walked to a corner and took out the Art of War.

Jack just rolled his eyes as he looked through the cards only to get a feeling that someone seemed to be looking at him. He turned around only to see Toby looking at him.

“Hey, your name is Jack right?” Toby said.

Jack looked down at him, confused. “Yeah?”

“I think you look cool.”

Jack looked at the boy, confused. “Thank you?”

Toby just waved his hands a bit as he continued to look at Jack, “You’re welcome, so do you wanna be friends?”

Jack looked at him confused, “Really?”

“Yeah! Oh wait, I'm supposed to introduce myself when I want friends, right?”

Jack just continued to look at the kid. What's wrong with him? “I’m pretty sure you already introduced yourself.”

“Okay, so this is the part where you tell me about yourself,” Toby sat next to Jack before quickly picking himself up. “So do you want me to sit next to you?”

“I guess?”

Toby sat down happily as he showed Jack some of his cards. “Do you want to read some of the questions?”

Jack looked at Niki as if pleading for help.

She kindly smiled at Toby as she sat next to Jack.

“Hello, what’s your name?” Toby asked

“I’m Niki. I’m Jack’s friend.”

“I’m Toby! Wait, you already knew that.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. So have you played this game before?”

“Nope! But Sasha said it was a good way to make friends and I trust her advice,” Toby said, showing Niki a couple of his cards as well. Jack just looked between the two, eyebrows raised.

“Are you supposed to show other people your cards in this game?” Ranboo asked, before showing his cards to Tubbo.

“Ohhh this card is about bees!”

“Yeah you’re supposed to show them and they’re supposed to connect what the black heart say to the white card,” Minerva explains. 

“Not all of them though,” Scarlet pointed out. “Maybe we should actually go over the rules?”

“Do we?”  Toby asked.

“Yeah,” Tubbo chimed in. “I mean look at everyone. They're doing pretty good.”

Scarlet looked around the Fort, Tommy and Purpled laughing their butts off, Sam, Puffy, Eret, and Phil looking at their cards uncomfortably. Toby continued to talk to Niki excitedly as Jack looked on, seemingly getting more interested by the moment. Quackity, Foolish, Karl, Sapnap and George just looked at their cards, looking confused.  Sapnap suddenly took the initiative to set his card on fire, causing them to scream as they tried to put it out, and Techno sat on the sidelines reading his book, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah Toby we do,” Scarlett sighed. I wonder what Dad and the others are doing. I mean with who the server is, finding their files can’t be that hard.

Meanwhile, underground in the center of town, there were multiple shelves, as well as hundreds of filing cabinets. A group of toons wandered around, looking for something.

There was a groan in the middle of the file cabinet. Then the cabinet door opened up revealing Bugs.

“Why is this place always so messy!!!” Bugs shouted.

“You’re the one who made it like that,” Donald said as he looked under the many cabinets.

“It wasn't my fault!” Bugs shouted back.

“Listen, I don’t give a darn whose fault it is or not, we still need to look for those files,” Minnie declared.

“Well why can’t we find them normally?" Donald complained as he sat down covering his head. "The files usually just appear right in front of town. I don’t get why it suddenly end up deep inside this flipping hallway.”

Minnie shushed the two. “There are children here.” She pointed at the Warner siblings as they pushed around a couple of files cabinets, causing it to crash into the ground.

“So what do they call themselves again….?” Goofy asked, confused. 

“I don’t know, they just gave out a few names and that’s it.”

“Maybe we should just-”

“THEY’RE CALLED ‘DREAM SMP’!!!”

They look over only to see Yakko waving around an entire file cabinet. 

“Holy– why is it that big?!” Daffy cried out.

“I guess so I mean there’s what, 15 or 16 people?”

“That is true…”

“Why can’t the files just pop into our hands like every time someone arrives here?!”

“We’d still need to file them at some point.”

“Jeez, look at this danger level.” 

Daisy placed her hand on the ten star showing the amount of danger of the place. “It even went over five.”

“I mean it happens sometimes I mean remember the danger levels on some like Korra?”

Bugs looked away. “True, but there’s a lot of it here.”

Mickey opened the first one titled ‘Technoblade’. As he read the first sentences, his smile turned into a concerned frown.

“Alright doc, how bad is it?” Bugs asked. 

Mickey turns the file to Bugs and he notices the first thing that pops out of the file.

Hears voices, is prone to violence due to the voices.

“Well maybe it’s just one person…” Mickey grabbed and opened another file. His frown deepened as he grabbed and opened a third. “So it’s not just one person.”

“What is wrong with these people?” Daffy said, staring at another file.

“You’re telling me. They’re a bunch of maniacs and murderers.” Minnie says nervously.

The Animaniacs read over the files, looking over the words with an almost bored expression.

“So…are we gonna take them to be our little special friends?” Yakko calmly put down one file saying “Quackity” with a smile. “To make sure they don’t cause any trouble?”

Wakko and Dot appear behind their brother with mischievous grins on their faces. 

“Guys no, they could be too dangerous for you,” Mickey said.

“We have to bring them in… even if they’re not gonna hurt us, we just need to make sure that they’re not gonna cause any harm,” Donald pointed out.

“Then all of us go. I’m not risking my kids,” Bugs said.

“Speaking of your kids, shouldn’t the rascals be getting back from their camping trip by now?” Minnie asked. “Maybe you should tell them what’s been going on?”

“Probably a good idea,” Bugs said, pulling out his phone to send them a text. After a couple seconds Bugs looked up with a worried frown on his face. “So the rascals are currently with these people…”

Jack sighs as they continue to play the game with the rascals. “So how long did they say until they’re going to see us?”

“They just need to look over some files about you and then maybe tomorrow or the day after that,” Scarlett said, not even looking up from her game.

“But that’ll take so fucking long!” Tommy exclaimed. A couple other server members let out grumbles of agreement as well.

“Does it really take that long to look over some crusty old files?”

“Stuff like this takes time plus this is the first time this has actually happened,” Scarlett said.

“Plus have you even seen that room? It's super big!”  Toby interjects.

Minerva then chimes in, “Plus that’s not to forget that, the files will tell them everything about you. What’s your experience, your friends and family, the crimes that you committed-”

The server jumped up at that. Eyes widen at that statement.

“Wait…”

“Everything?”

Minerva looks at them reassuringly, “Uh…yeah… it’ll be neutral, not condemning anyone.”

“Everything? Everything ? That’s… that’s a lot for strangers to know,” Sam said, trying to avoid looking at anyone.

“Well it is the will of the Inkwell,” Scarlett said sarcastically.

“The inkwell?”

Toby looked up in surprise, “You’re not supposed to tell them that!”

“Wait, why? What’s the Inkwell? Why aren’t we supposed to know about it?” Sam asked, suspicious. 

“It’s a secret,” Minerva said.

“That doesn’t raise our confidence,” Sam said, frowning.

“It’s not anything you need to worry about, okay?” 

“Then why can’t you tell us?” Karl asked.

“We have our reasons, okay?”

“Guys, I got some good news, you guys won’t have to wait for long,” Toby interrupted with a smile as he looked up from his phone.

“What’s that mean?”

“They want to see you now!”

“Well, maybe we can finally get some answers,” Eret said. 

“And maybe they’ll know if that fucking bastard is around.”

“Okay, lead the way,” Sam said, gripping his trident nervously.

“That’s great, let’s go!”

Chapter Text

『 Various DSMP members were interviewed by the heads and a few volunters, 8 of them are recorded below』

CLICK

Jack: What the hell is this?

Emma Perkins: It's a tape recorder.

Jack: I know what it is but why use it?

Emma: Oh you know, budget, it’s a lot more mysterious, and also a God seems to really like it when we use it.

Jack: Wait what?

Emma: Oh yeah. There's this god of fear who watches us and shit…Nevermind, that would take too long to explain. Just tell me about yourself.

Jack: Okay, I know that, but you can’t just mention something like that and not expect me to question it.

Emma: Yeah… But you're not really in a position to ask questions. Besides, right now the point is just to get to know you more. 

Jack: Fine, whatever. 

Emma: Okay, now tell me about yourself.

Jack: My name is Jack Manifold… A player of Dream SMP, server 052020.

Emma: What with the numbers? 

Jack: That’s the ending of the code of every server, you don’t have that?

Emma: No…

Jack: Wow… That’s pretty odd.

Emma: Well it is different here rather than your world. So how did you discover the server?

Jack: Me and Niki were looking for a place to live, there were some rumors about a new world, a place where we can make all sorts of friends, so we followed the rumors to the door of the server and we got whitelisted.

Emma: Nice, so here’s a thing that some of the people here were wondering.

Jack: What is it?

Emma: It says right here that there was a moment a few months after an event called doomsday where you disappeared.

Jack:...

Emma: Listen…you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to but at the very least try to say one random answer so that no one would question anything okay?

Jack:....

Emma: Jack?

Jack: It was Hell, let's just say that.

Emma: Yeah sometimes it feels like that you went through an experience that felt like hell-

Jack: No no, it was literal.

Emma: …What?

Jack: Are we fucking done here?

Emma: Unfortunately no, we have a couple more questions and then we’ll be done.

Jack: Well shit.

Emma: I know, but don’t worry. As long as you answer the questions quickly then this will be over sooner than later.

Jack: I know that I’m just concerned how everyone else will be doing.

Emma: No one‘s gonna treat them harshly.

Jack: It’s not the server that I’m worried about with the exception of I think one or two people. Most of the members don’t really like probing questions.

Emma: It happens a lot, what’s the worst that could happen?

Jack [ Weary ]: Do you want a list? 

CLICK

CLICK

Sam [ uncomfortable ]: I don’t feel really comfortable with this being recorded.

Bugs: Well Doc, it’s either a live interview or you write it down.

Sam: And there’s no way of getting out of this?

Bugs: Nope, you’re not leaving this room until you answer some questions. We need your perspective of things.

Sam [ After a moment of silence ]: Fine, I’ll answer your questions. Just, please don’t share what I said around. Please.

Bug: Okay, just tell me about yourself.

Sam: What do you want to know?

Bugs: Well what’s your beginnings, because there’s a section of your childhood in the files that is blank.

Sam: I- I’m not comfortable talking about that.

Bugs: I need something doc.

Sam: I-I… I don’t know, okay? I don’t remember large parts of my childhood, it’s as blank to me as it is to you.

Bugs: Okay so what do you remember?

Sam: Do I really have to talk about this?

Bugs: Yes.

Sam: Fine. Most of my childhood I remember was my apprenticeship. I vaguely remember running around before they found me. Not sure why or what I did during that time. From then on they taught me about redstone and the like. I found Quackity during that time too. He imprinted on me, and well the rest is history.

Bugs: Isn’t Quackity only eight years younger than you?

Sam: Around that area yes.

Bugs: How old were you? Cause if Quackity was young enough to imprint on you, you can’t have been that old.

Sam: I think I was eleven or so?

Bugs: Eleven?! An eleven year old with a child, and no one thought to say anything?

Sam: The blacksmith helped me with him. Besides he had imprinted on me, it’s not like someone could just take him away.

Bugs: An eleven year old. Parenting a child. But you were a child yourself.

Sam: I had to grow up fast. All of us did.

Bugs: I see. Well why come to the server?

Sam: I had my reasons. Not a lot of other places to go for folks like me.

Bugs: Like you?

Sam: Mob hybrids.

Bugs: I see. So let’s address the elephant in the room, the prison.

Sam: What about it? I built it exactly as Dream requested, and I kept Dream in the prison like the majority of the server requested.

Bugs: You’ve gone to some pretty far extremes to keep him in there.

Sam: If you’re talking about Tommy, I regret that. It was a mistake and I’ll admit it.

Bugs: I was actually referring to the incident with this Ponk person.

Sam: I gave Ponk multiple chances to give back the keycards. It was a security risk. I did what I had to.

Bugs: Do you really believe that?

Sam:...

Bugs: [ after a long silence from Sam ] I see. 

Sam: Is this going to take much longer?

Bugs: We’ll see. We want to cover all our bases, you get me doc?

Sam: …fine.

CLICK

CLICK

Minnie: You were only 14 when you found Foolish?

Puffy: Well I wasn't gonna leave him there, he was only a baby.

Minnie: Weren’t there other actual adults around who could have taken him in?

Puffy: Not really.

Minnie: A 14 year old girl with a child?

Puffy: It’s not that weird in our world.

Minnie: You’re not serious.

Puffy: I am.

Minnie: Where were your parents?

Puffy:...

Minnie: [ After Puffy doesn’t respond after a while ] Your parents?

Puffy: Not around. Let’s leave it with that.

Minnie: Okay so what’s your history with your children?

Puffy: I have two children, Foolish and Michelle.  It was a recent development, but I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Minnie: Is that so?

Puffy: Yes.

Minnie: Lying to people who are trying to help you isn't very nice, Puffy Everetstdottir.

Puffy: What…? How the fuck do you know that name?

Minnie: That's your full name right? You also forgot one more person on your list of children.

Puffy: ….

Minnie: Really, you wouldn't trade them for anything, not even your son who's supposed to be in prison?

Puffy: I would, but he doesn’t consider me his mom… not anymore at least..

CLICK

CLICK

Mickey: So about L’Manberg’s revolution.

Eret:  sigh That was… regrettable. It was a mistake.

Mickey: And what’s it like as king?

Eret: It’s my position. While I regret how I got it, I intend to use it for good.

Mickey: And how about your friendship with Foolish?

Eret: Seems your file knows things even I don’t.

Mickey: You don’t know? How can you not know?

Eret: I just don’t. I know Foolish says that he knew me but I don’t remember it. 

Mickey: Is there anything else you don’t remember?

Eret: Well I suppose…I don’t know. I didn’t realize I had gaps in my memory until Foolish pointed them out. It’s possible there are more but I don’t know about them.

Mickey: That makes sense. How about your conflict with the “Eggpire” as it’s called in here?

Eret: Giant mind controlling egg appears out of nowhere and starts brainwashing my friends into hurting each other. Obviously I’m gonna try and stop it.

Mickey: I suppose that makes sense.

Eret: So how many more questions do we have?

Mickey: Quite a few yet. The more you cooperate the better this will go.

Eret: Okay, and you promised that everyone else is doing alright, right?

Mickey: I think they are. I mean, I trust that my friends won’t do anything bad.

CLICK

CLICK

Donald: So “The Blood God” huh?

Techno: Yep.

Donald: Interesting nickname. So what’s with these voices?

Techno: Those files told you about them?

Donald: Answer the question please.

Techno: Why should I? Why should I tell a bunch of strangers things I haven’t told anyone besides my closest friends? What else is in those files?

Donald: Your perspective. Which is why we’re here. Now can you just answer the questions instead of yelling? I didn’t write the damn things.

Techno: Fine. I don’t know where the voices come from; they’re just there. They’ve pretty much always been there.

Donald: What sort of things do they say?

Techno: They say “E” a lot. They really like that letter.

Donald: That's it?

Techno: Well, they say different things depending on the situation. 

Donald: What are they saying right now?

Techno: Hmmm, lots saying “E,” some are asking how long this is gonna take cause they’re bored. Some…nothing interesting. 

Donald: That all?

Techno: Yes. Are you just gonna ask me about the voices or can we move on?

Donald: Fine, fine. So how about this “Doomsday”?

Techno: They had it coming. They tried to execute me, I repaid them back in full. Besides, it's not like anyone died.

Donald: Technically one person did and they end up being brought to life through unknown means.

Techno: Heh?

Donald: Were you not aware of that?

Techno: No. Obviously not or I wouldn’t be surprised by it. Who was it?

Donald: A certain Jack Manifold.

Techno: How do you know this but I don’t?

Donald: Well maybe you weren’t paying enough attention Mr “Blood God”.

Techno: Are you insulting me?

Donald: Not really. Also your inventory doesn't work here just to let you know so don’t even think about taking out that axe or whatever you’re taking out.

Techno: You are very aggravating, you know that?

Donald: I’ve been told a couple times. Now can we move on?

Techno: Please, I’d like to get out of here before I die of old age. Whenever that would occur.

CLICK

CLICK

Goofy: So what was your childhood like?

Ranboo: I don’t know.

Goofy: Your parents?

Ranboo: I don’t know.

Goofy: Amnesia is that bad?

Ranboo: Pretty much. There’s a reason I write everything down.

Goofy: Your memory books then?

Ranboo: Yes.

Goofy: What about Michael? What’s he like?

Ranboo: He’s my son. I’d do anything to protect him. Absolutely anything.

Goofy: Aren’t you a bit young to be a father?

Ranboo: I’m not that young. I’ve heard of people becoming parents younger.

Goofy: And no one thought it was odd?

Ranboo: Nope.

Goofy: I see. How about this enderwalk state?

Ranboo: How do you know about that? No one is supposed to know about that.

Goofy: I know everything in the file.

Ranboo: But how does it know about that? I barely know about that!! How does it know? Who made those things anyway?!

Goofy: Now let’s just calm down here, I promise we’re not gonna hurt you.

Ranboo: [ after taking a couple breaths ] Not gonna hurt us, right…What were we talking about?

Goofy: Let’s move on to your relationship with Techno and Phil shall we?

Ranboo: Techno and Phil. Yeah sure. They’re my friends. I care about them.

Goofy: Even with their conflicts with Tubbo?

Ranboo: I don’t take sides. I care about all of them. Phil knows about Tubbo, and Techno does now too. Neither of them have said anything. 

Goofy: You’re pretty solid on that philosophy.

Ranboo: I am. The world would be much better if people followed it.

Goofy: What about Fundy? File says you were friends once.

Ranboo: We were?

Goofy: Don’t remember that either I’m guessing.

Ranboo: No, no I don’t. It’s why I write everything down. Everything important at least. But why didn’t I write down my friendship with Fundy?

Goofy: I’m afraid I can’t answer that.

Ranboo: Are there too many more questions left?

Goofy: Not too many. Course helps with your amnesia, a lot of the answers are pretty short.

CLICK

CLICK

Daffy: So you really have no idea how you all got here?

Quackity: No, I don't. I thought that was supposed to be something you knew.

Daffy: What were your plans for this ‘Las Nevadas’ place?

Quackity: I wanted my own space. Is that too much for a man to ask?

Daffy: Anything more specific?

Quackity: Well, you know, it was a country, trying to protect and care for the people I care about.

Daffy: Alright, how about you tell me about your plans to torture this ‘Dream WasTaken?

Quackity: What? What are you talking about? I haven’t touched Dream.

Daffy: But you were planning on it.

Quackity: And how the fuck would you know that?

Daffy: I don’t want you hurting the people I care about.

Quackity: I’m not planning on hurting anyone! You’re paranoid, you motherfucker!

Daffy: Is that so?

Quackity: Yes! Now, are you planning on actually interviewing me, or are you just gonna sit here accusing me of more things I haven’t done?!

Daffy: The fact that you’d planned on asking your old man about Dream the moment you took that boat to visit him says a lot about you. 

Quackity: How the fuck did you know that?

Daffy: What on earth made you want to do that?

Quackity: Fine! You want a fucking answer, I’ll give you a fucking answer. Cause he fucking deserves it. Do your little “files” tell you about all the fucked up shit Dream did to Tommy? Dream had it coming. Our entire server would have been a million times better off without him in it!

Daffy: You sure seem to have a lot of anger at him.

Quackity: No shit! Once again, all the fucked up shit he did to Tommy! TO THE SERVER! Tommy is my friend I’m not about to let some stupid green blob fucking kill him and get away with it.

Daffy: Okay, please sit back down.

Quackity: And why the fuck should I?

Daffy: Because if you don't, someone is going to make you sit down. Now, we’re almost done here, and the last couple questions will go much smoother if you stop screaming. 

Quackity: Fine. Let’s hurry up and get this over with.

CLICK

CLICK

Paul: Last two questions: Do you have any info on Dream WasTaken.. your arch-nemesis?

Tommy: That bitch wishes I thought about him enough to be an arch-nemesis, stupid obsessed piece of shit.

Paul: Okay, we’re almost done

Tommy: Thank fucking Prime, I thought that this would take forever.

Paul: Okay, that’s good. Wow, you went through a lot of questions. 

Tommy: At least the ones that are pretty obvious I only gave you the answers to the questions that I was comfortable with.

Paul: Understandable, now listen, I’m going to ask one more question, and it’s probably going to be a bit personal.

Tommy: Like the hundred other questions that you asked me before?

Paul: I just wanted you to know so you can be prepared.  

Tommy: About what?

Paul [ There’s some shuffling of paper ]: What is the resurrection book? 

Tommy: What?

Paul: It's okay, you don’t have to answer it. I was just-

Tommy: How the fuck do you know about that?

Paul: I-

Tommy[ There was a clatter of the chair as Tommy shouted ]: Where the FUCK did you hear about that!? Are you working for Him ?! I'm not going back!'

Paul: Okay, Okay, Okay! Calm down, calm down!

Tommy: no, no No, NO! I’m not fucking calm down until you answer my goddamn questions!

Paul[ a noise of a slight struggle ]: Where did you get a knife?! You know what? Not important right now; what is important is we're not sending you anywhere but home as soon as we can, and why would I work for him when I don't even know who 'he' is.

Tommy[ silence for a moment ]: Okay, so you don’t work for him.

Paul[ panting ]: No?

Tommy: …You didn’t answer my question.

Paul: I was too busy not trying to die.

Tommy: Okay, fuck it I can give you that, at least tell me when you got that information.

Paul: Well it's in the file, would you like to see?

Paul[ There’s a brief moment of a pause, then there are some shuffling up papers ]: It says in the files and it says that you were resurrected by it. I know that’s a lot to handle but at the very least you know how I know?

Tommy: …

Paul: Tommy…

Tommy[ quietly, almost impossible to hear in the recording ]: How did it know…?

Paul: I don’t know it usually just does.

Tommy [ Nervous ]: Well that's fucked up.

Paul : Yes…Yes it is.

CLICK

Chapter Text

“So honey, have you found the Interviews interesting?”

“I don’t know why they had to be so mean. The only one who didn’t seem to already hate the server was Goofy,” Toby said, crossing his arms.

“ You know how they get, they just get protective even if it is stupid.”

Toby lay on his bed as he looked over at a cloaked woman with bright green eyes. 

“Honestly, I find it fascinating more than anything. We didn’t see any other worlds after we landed in those woods….” She smirked “How Fascinating ~.”

Toby only nodded. “I guess so… what are they so nervous about?”

The Woman, Eye just shrugged, “As I said before, they’re feeling protective. But, something in those files makes them feel nervous, you heard some of the stuff, torture, other events called  Doomsday that led to the death of one person, even if they did get resurrected by a resurrection book~” Eye fakes a pondering look, “ I can’t help but wonder what’s that about, End wouldn’t be too happy if he found out there’s an actual book that takes people away from the afterlife….”

Toby raises his eyebrows as he slowly gets up. “What do you mean?” Toby asked, “I mean, people got books about the dead, or that could bring them back most of the time?”

Eye laughed, “Like books that could bring the full person to life, not a ghost that stays for a temporary time nor undead monstrosities that uses the body as a cloak.” She smiled as she leaned towards Toby; he shook a bit as his mother breathed into him, “ Lil Archivist, use your head. This is a unique situation.” she pinched his cheeks. 

“Well, what if the resurrection book is not here?”  Toby mumbled.

Eye just now rolled her eyes at him “ Honey, even if it’s not here that do you mean that the Server could contain information that is important.”

“But they just got here and right now they’re just feeling nervous!”

“I don’t know, how about you use your powers on them?” she patted his head, “ The ones that I gave to you.”

“I don’t know, doesn’t seem right….”

“Honey, I know that you’re going to be reluctant but you gotta learn how to use your powers to gain the knowledge that is needed.”

Toby sighed as he sorted through the tapes and files. He can feel his mom‘s eyes burning at him.

As he tried to sort them, one particular file stood out…

“Dream…”

Eye just looks at Toby with an amused smile on her face, “ What’s that ?” She said with mock surprise.

“It’s another person, but I didn’t see him with the group….”

“ Oh no that's so awful.”

“So mom, do you wanna help me find him?”

Eye gave him a smug look before saying her answer

“No.”

“No?!”

“No, Toby. You refuse to do me a favor so I decided not to tell you a single thing until you ask them about that Resurrection book.”

Toby stared at her, Incredulous at her refusal, before just shaking his head.

“Fine, I’ll look for him the old-fashioned way.” 

Toby’s eyes glow green as he attempts to locate Dream, only for his head to begin to hurt.

“Mom, why are you blocking my powers!”

“ I don't know, why wouldn't you get me the revival book?”

“Mom just blocking my powers won’t get me the resurrection book faster that would just get me angrier and not wanting to do it more,” Toby said

“Well if you just willingly listen to me and just ask them then this wouldn’t have happened.”

“They just got here.”

“When I “just got there” I managed to cause fear in an entire world.” 

“Mom, I'm not an Eldritch representation of fear.”

The two of them just stared angrily at one another before she just sighed,“ You don’t have to do it now but eventually you got to ask them.” 

Toby looks away. “That’s your compromise?”

“Yes, I’ll come back when you’re more willing,” she kissed the top of Toby‘s head, ignoring his whine, “ See you later, honey hopefully you’ll be less reluctant next time we meet again.”

She then faded away, and the tension in the room finally let out. Toby sits on his chair, waiting for the shaking to stop eventually.

As he sighs, Toby gets up and looks outside his window, the fort as looming as ever. I can’t just ask them about that book. Not right now…

“You’re OK, kid? ”

Toby smiles sadly as a ghostly form of a young man looking to be in his early to mid 20s  appears although it looks as if he was torn apart by something,

“Yeah, just a bit worried…”

“I have never seen them act like this before, or at the very least this is open about their suspicions.”

“I mean I’m not that surprised.” A ghostly woman appeared as well. She looked to be in her 60s with her hair in a bun, Her green eyes would’ve been the biggest things that stick out to her if it weren’t for the three gun holes in her chest. “I mean I saw some of those files and they seem to be interesting….”

“ I guess you can say that but I don’t think that’s a good idea.” A few more figures appear as well.  A dark skin man with glowing green eyes with a knife wound to the chest still dripping with dark red, next to him was a taller man with brown and white hair he got freckles all over his face that are hidden under the dark Bruises and cuts, and a young woman, her hair tied up into a high ponytail although she’s a lot more unusual than the rest of her companions. Beside her glasses, Long dress, and mouth there’s no other discernible features; as if she was a crude drawing on a chalkboard.

 “ I mean are you even surprised that some of them reacted less than warmly. I mean you should’ve seen some of the reactions when they saw us! One of them literally took out a knife and they had to take it away from him.”

Jon sighs as he just shakes his head “ Tim….”

“That is pretty true I mean I remember the time when I switch out all the music for stuff like baby shark for that little incident”

Toby laughs nervously a bit; he’s not very surprised that they would be having mixed feelings about this. “I know that it’s weird and it’s okay to be nervous, but they’re new. I think that Dad and the others should at the very least give them a chance to get used to being here.”

“That is true, and we already gave them a bit of a talk in a recorder,”  Martin said.

“Do you think they would listen?”

Martin smiled reassuringly, “Most likely.”

“ Not like they could get rid of us,” Tim said, hugging the boy, causing him to laugh.

Toby began to think a bit about how he could connect to the server, how he could get them to feel safe in town, how he could prove to Dad and the others that they are safe. Then he heard something that caused an idea to grow.

“Well it’s just them, I don’t think anyone else in town view now you done the same way.”

Toby looks at Tim before smiling “ Maybe that’s it, maybe I can bring over some of my friends.”

He grabbed his bag as he skipped out of the room.

“Toby, what are you planning?” Sasha said. Despite the seemingly worried tone in her voice, there was a glint of mischief in her eyes.

“ I'm going to get some friends to come along and give the server the best tour of the town!”

After returning to the fort, most of the server kept to themselves, quieter than they would normally be. The only thing on their mind, cause the information given by  the interviewers, some of which they don’t even know about

Eventually, Tommy broke the silence.

“How did the files know all that?” Tommy asked, looking around. “I mean, some of the stuff in there, how did a bunch of strangers know all that?”

“How in depth was your file? I’ll admit from what I was told, mine was mostly empty. It seems to just be stuff we remember,” Ranboo said, “I mean, we all know my memory issues.”

“That dang duck was asking me about things I haven’t told anyone besides Phil,” Techno said.

“They were certainly very pushy,” Sam said. “I mean, I haven’t told anyone some of the things they were asking about.”

“They certainly seemed to dislike us for people we just fucking met.” Quackity stopped in his pacing briefly. “Kept yelling at me about stuff I haven’t even done.” Quackity added something under his breath, before beginning to pace again.

“And you said the files didn’t have anything you didn’t remember Ranboo?” Eret asked.

“No, why?”

“Weird. The person interviewing me mentioned my supposed friendship with Foolish but I don’t remember that at all.” Eret hummed thoughtfully.

“Might have read it in mine?” Foolish asked. “I got asked about that too, and unlike you I do remember that.”

Eret hummed again, seemingly in agreement.

“Definitely very distrustful. Never got accused of anything, but the guy interviewing me didn’t seem to trust me very much,” Phil said, crossing his arms.

“I don’t suppose anyone got anything about how we might have ended up here, did you?” Puffy asked.

“Nope. He kept asking me that same question. Like I don’t fucking know!” Quackity growled.

“You okay Big Q?” Sam asked, walking over to rest a hand on Quackity’s shoulder.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it Sam,” Quackity responded, shrugging Sam’s hand off his shoulder and walking away.

“What I still want to know is how they got these files and how they contain so much information about us,” Phil said.

“You don’t think Dream told them, do you?” Tommy asked, his voice shaking slightly.

“I don’t think so Tommy,” Sam said, “Dream wouldn’t have realistically been able to know some of the things they were asking me about.”

A couple of people hummed in agreement with Sam.

“Then how did they know?” Tubbo asked. “I mean it’s not like we told them.”

“Maybe it has something to do with that ink well the three kids mentioned,” Foolish suggested.

“Maybe,” Puffy said.

“Would explain why they didn’t wanna tell us what it was,” Sam said. “I’ll admit, I don’t entirely want to have to face them again. I don’t like people knowing some of the things those files told them.”

“But we have to if we’re gonna get home,” Sapnap said.

No one could argue with that, and the server fell silent again. They all knew they would eventually have to face the toons again.

Toby hums happily as he drags a small group to the fort.

“You seem pretty excited,” Connie said.

“Yep!” Toby said,

“So we’re gonna show these heavily armed randos who just appeared for reasons even the Head Toons don’t understand around town?” Catra asked.

“That’s the plan.”

“Are we sure that’s a good idea?” Adora asked.

“It’ll be fine. Besides, if the Head Toons don’t know how they got here it’s gonna take a while to find a way to get them back home, so they’re gonna need to be shown around town eventually,” Toby said.

“They didn’t seem bad when I visited.”

“Mabel, one guy chased you out with a trident,” Dipper said.

“Come on!” Mabel said, elbowing her brother. “Besides they didn’t pull out any weapons when Toby visited the last time, and he’s with us so I’m sure it’ll go great!”

“That’s the spirit!” Toby said. “Come on, we're almost there.”

The group of kids (and two adults) came up to the fort. Walking around, they found one hole, in the process of being patched by Sam.

“Hi Mr. Sam,” Toby said. 

Sam jumped slightly looking up. “Hi Toby, what are you doing here?” Sam asked, eyeing the toons with the trio.

“I thought it would be nice to show you guys around town,” Toby said. “These are my friends.”
“Hi again,” Steven said. Connie nodded.

“And this is Dipper, Mabel, Catra, Adora, and Anne,” Toby said, pointing at the people in turn, before stepping through the hole Sam was trying to patch, Mabel, Minerva, and Scarlett close behind him.

Sam just sighed. “Look, kid, I don’t know if any of us are up for a tour right now okay?”

“Is it because of the interviews?” Toby asked.

A look of shock passed over Sam’s face briefly before disappearing. He sighed again and nodded.

“Well maybe a tour will help you feel better,” Mabel said. “Also is your fur soft? Can I pet you?”

“Please don’t,” Sam said backing up.

“What’s going on?” Phil asked, sticking his head in. “Oh.”

“Hi!” Toby said, waving.

Scarlett walked past Phil out into the rest of the fort, the other kids following behind her, leaving Sam and Phil to trail after them.

“Uhhh, why are these children here?” Techno asked, as Mabel stared up at him in awe.

“They wanna give us a tour,” Sam said with a sigh.

“Yeah!” Toby said. “It’ll be fun! Plus I heard the interviews went less than smoothly so I thought it would take your minds off it.”

The server looks at each other for a couple of minutes before Tommy stood up. “It’ll at least beat sitting here staring at the walls,” Tommy said. “I guess I’ll tag along.”

“That makes sense,” Fundy said.

“Guess we’re going then?” Sam said. 

“It could be informative,” Techno said. 

“Sure, I’m in,” Quackity said, standing up and stretching. “You coming too Sam?”

“I don’t know…” Sam said, trying to avoid looking at the toons.

Quackity just looked at Sam, until he sighed and agreed.

“I’m down,” Niki said, “Come on Jack.”

Jack just glared at Niki as he walked over to stand next to her.

“Great!” Toby said. “Come on guys, let’s go!” Toby started to walk back towards the hole they entered through before Sam stopped him.

“You know we have a door, right? How about we don’t exit through the hole in my bedroom wall?” Sam said.

“Oh. Okay!” Toby said, letting Sam lead the way to a hidden door he had set up.

“Wooooahhh,” Toby and Mabel said in unison as an opening appeared out of nowhere.

Sam just grinned. “The power of redstone.”

The six who had remained outside were still looking at the wall, shock written on their faces as a portion of the wall suddenly pulled away letting the server members and the four who had gone inside out into the woods.

“How did you make a door appear out of thin air?” Dipper asked, walking over, watching as the wall pushed its way back into position.

“Redstone,” Sam said.

“How do red rocks help you make a magic door?” Catra asked.

“Redstone isn’t-” Sam began before Quackity interrupted him

“Don’t get him started on one of his redstone speeches, we’ll be here until tomorrow evening,” Quackity said.

Sam just glared in response.

“Are we gonna go on this fucking tour or what?” Tommy asked.

“Let’s go ahead and go,” Minerva said, gesturing for Toby to lead the way.

The group walked mostly in silence as they walked towards town, Mabel continuing to trail behind Techno looking up at him excitedly.

“Okay why is this child staring at me?” Techno finally asked halfway through the walk, pointing at Mabel.

“She likes pigs,” Dipper said.

“Is that it?”

“Pretty much.”

The rest of the walk was spent in silence as well. Tommy was gripping the fabric of his jeans, Quackity was keeping as close to Sam as he could without it getting in the way of either of their ability to walk, and Phil was keeping to the front of the group, feathers in his wings sticking up slightly.

“So where should we start?” Toby asked once they reached the gates. “Any suggestions?”

“The square would make a good place to start,” Steven suggested, pushing the gates open to let the group inside.

“Great idea!” Toby said. “Come on!” With that Toby confidently walked into town, followed by Minerva, Scarlett, and the toons, and after a bit of hesitation, the server.

It doesn’t take long before the citizens just stare at the small group and begin to whisper among themselves.

“Are those the new people?”

“Should we be worried about the rascals hanging around them?”One of the Toons whispered to the other, side-eyeing the server, 

“Remember the incident? They aren't the ones we should be worried about.”

Toby and Scarlett pretended not to hear but Minerva just flipped the toon the bird, “That's fair but fuck off.”

“What is…” Ranboo said before Dipper gave him a look, “it's better you don't know.”

“Well this is the square,” Minerva said once they reached it. “Town Hall is that building over there. That’s the library right there. And then Mickey and Minnie live there, and Dad lives across from them.”

“Most of the other Head Toons live nearby to the square, besides The McDuck’s they live close to the other edge of town. Their house is huge,” Scarlett said.

“I mean there are like 12 of them all in one house,” Connie said. “They definitely need the room.”

“Yeah, you can’t quite see it from here, but we’ll probably be able to see it from a far once we get to that side of town,” Minerva said.

“Oh! We can show you where me, Min, and Scar live!” Toby said, running off down one of the side streams, forcing the rest of the group to run off after him.

“Here we are,” Toby said once they reached it.

“Come on in,” Scarlett said, opening the door and ushering the group inside.

“This is really well built,” Sam said, looking around. “And what material is this? It doesn’t look like anything we have.” Sam knocked on the wall, tilting his head at the sound it made.

“Oh it’s uhhhh,” Scarlett trailed off. “I don’t actually know whether it’s plaster or drywall. One of the two.”

“Probably drywall. It’s more common nowadays,” Toby said.

“Okay. So probably drywall then,” Scarlett said.

Sam just hummed, continuing to inspect the wall, Foolish coming over to stand next to them.

“Weird ass builders,” Tommy muttered. “Get excited by the weirdest shit.”

“Well if you two are done staring at the walls, how about we move on?” Minerva said.

“So do most houses look like this?” Eret asked, looking around “It certainly seems smaller than the two houses in the square.”

“Yeah, most of the Head Toons’ houses are bigger than average,” Toby said.

“So what other examples do you have about what an average house looks like?” 

“Well….” Anne said nervously as you look at the others who look back at her with a similar look. But then Toby tug her arm

“We’ll be right back.”

Toby dragged everyone to the other room before looking at them. “Do you think that anyone else will allow them to look at their houses?”

Catra shook her head “No way, most people are already hesitant with them. I don’t think it’s a great idea to just knock at their doors and ask to allow the server to explore their house.”

“I can show you mine” Steven suggested 

“Are you sure I don’t want to intrude-” 

“It’s fine. It’s all in service of showing them around town plus it’s just one house what the worst that could happen,” Steven said reassuringly

“Ok! Let's do it!”

“So where are we going next?” Eret asked 

“We’re going to Steven‘s house next to show you another example!”

Steven opened the door to his house as he showed them around “ this is my house”

“... Pog, who built it?”

“Technically it appeared within town The moment that We appeared.” Connie explains Steven then added something else  “Although from where we live my dad built it so that I can have somewhere to live rather than a van.”

“What?” Sam asked.

“Oh we technically moved here.”

“You moved here from your server?” Puffy asked

“Server? Like a computer server?” Steven asked. 

The server members just stared at Steven for a moment before Sapnap spoke up “No a server like your world.”

“Oh Yeah, it’s right over there.” Steven moves to the side revealing what looks to be a Blue transport pad and…

“A door?”

“Oh yeah that’s how we got here, a door appears in our house, we open it and then we land in town.”

The server stared at the door, it was a mural of Steven and the crystal gems along with his friends and family. It looks so familiar just like the doors that they used to see before.

“ I was a bit surprised with the painting I didn’t know that the town would know about-”

“You said you didn't have servers though?” Sapnap asked, looking at them confused. 

Steven looks at him confused, “No? Why do you ask?”

George then gestures at Steven's door “Then what the fuck are those?!”

The server nodded as well. 

“Oh those are doors that go back to our home,” Connie response 

“Yeah, all of our homes have these doors,” Adora added, “Basically it leads from Toon town to our respective worlds.”

The server just stared at the group clearly confusingly Processing this. 

“That's literally what server doors are for!?!?” Fundy said, “You're from servers and this is like a communal space!”

The Group just stares at the server before they realize what the server must have meant,“Ohhhhh, Interesting.” Dipper said, “So is it similar to what happened in our world?”

Fundy kneeled in front of the boy “What do you mean by that?! The doors act like portals to other worlds!”

“Yeah! So how do your doors work?”

“Only  admins have access to it, if you’re on the list of all the Official members and then you can enter it, people have to have permission if they want to have guests come over.”

“It seems like the nerd club is officially  in session.” Mabel teased

“Yeah it would be entertaining if we don’t have other things to do…” Techno said.

“Are we going anywhere else? This is all fascinating but I’d rather get going.”

“Ok.”

Steven led everyone to the beach where Adora and Minerva already set a blanket down with a small picnic set up.

“Do you want some?” Toby said, holding up some sandwiches quickly. 

The server just stared at the food for a moment.

“If you’re not interest-”

As quickly the sandwiches appeared they disappeared as the server grabbed them and proceeded to tear into them, not even taking off the plastic.

“Wow you haven’t eaten all day, huh?” Steven asked. “You know those would probably taste better if you removed the plastic.”

“What’s plastic?” Tommy asked.

“Right, another thing your world doesn’t have.”

“The types of food we have in our world is a lot more limited,” Sam said.

“Plastic isn’t food…” Connie said, looking at them concerned.

“Is that why they tasted terrible?” Tommy asked.

“Yes,” Minerva said, snickering slightly.

“I was wondering something, actually,” Puffy said.

“Sure, go ahead and ask,” Connie said.

“So you guys don’t often go home?” Puffy asked.

Most of them shook their head.

“Some of us sort of staple time but we do come back home a lot”

“Really so you guys still go back to your homes?”

“Not everyone stays here for longer than a week or two for vacation and such. But usually, we just go back home whatever we want to.  Although most of us just stay here most of the time. So we’re not really servers but different worlds.”

“Divergent evolution then,” Jack said, “Still you can't deny you basically have servers.”

 “I guess not.”

Puffy tilted her head in confusion“What do you mean you don't go home? We get sick if we don't go back to our servers frequently enough.” 

“Not just us either,” Phil interjects. “That's the reason tournaments are so far apart, so people can recharge.”

The kids look at each other a bit uncomfortable as if wondering what to say next before Anne speaks up,  “Well sometimes a lot happens at home plus we don’t need to “recharge” or whatever you guys do. Plus again not everyone stays here, some just visit once in a while.”

Tommy huffed, “Weird.”

“So what’s your Home is like?” Adora asked

“Chaotic,” Puffy said, “Honestly we'd probably be better off finding a new server but when you know, you know.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Is everything all right at home?

“I mean…” Tubbo holds up his hands and counts his fingers. “There's been a lot of wars and trauma and there's an egg cult but eh, it adds a certain charm.” 

“Yeah! Besides, the wrongun who caused all of it is usually in prison so we have the run of it!” Tommy said.

The Group stares at the server stunned by what they heard but at the same time… not surprised.

“….. shit. Then again I shouldn’t be surprised…” Connie said “A lot of things usually happen in our world as well but that sounds like a lot even for us”

“yeah usually we have to deal with  one war.” 

“Or A demonic triangle.”

“Or Evil Newt king.”

“A corrupted empire.”

The server just started as the kids talked about their own experiences overlapping one another before one of them interrupted.

“Well ain't that nice for you,” Techno said dismissively “Let me guess everyone has void sickness”

“ What's void sickness?” Anne asked

“You know, you go through wild shit, you almost die, you see people die, you have nightmares or feel like you can't breathe or see all the wild shit happening again or have nightmares while you're awake,” Tommy  answered “Or some shit like that”

“That sounds pretty familiar, you mean trauma?” Steven smiles kindly “Dr. Maheswaran talked to me a bit about it shortly before I got to therapy.” 

Tommy just stared at Steven with a confused look on his face “What's therapy?”

The group looked at each other with a knowing look. Definitely one of those places.

“You talk to people about your problems and they help you get better?” Minerva asked.

“Sounds like a scam. Just get a catmaid instead, better use of trade goods.” Tommy said.

Catra just laughed at that “A maid who is a cat?”

She looks at the server only to realize that they were dead serious.

“No? whatever the fuck H is.” Eret said,

“A menace,” Foolish mumbled behind him.

Minerva let out a giggle at that while the rest of the kids just stare at the server confused,

“Should we question…”

Tommy just shook his head, “No just don’t.”

“So… what do you guys do without it since you seem to be similar to some places where therapy is nonexistent…” Scarlett asked, “Or at the very least its infancy.”

“Ignore it.” Tubbo said.

“Kill the person who gave it to you.” Techno said.

“Suffer.” Tommy said.

“What…”

“Yeah, some of us tried that before but it didn't really work out,” Catra said.

“Clearly you didn't try hard enough, only reason it hasn't succeeded was it would destroy the server or whatever if he died,” Tommy said.

Catra gives Tommy a deadpan look, “Really…”

“OK so who is the person you’re facing… since you guys seem to really dislike him,” Minerva asked

“Admin of the server.”

“So the ruler? I get it, a classic evil bad guy who rules everything and shit.” Catra said. 

“Eh…” Techno said, with a bored look “He's kind of pathetic, and obsessive. They rebelled against him.”

“You did, me and George left because of the obsessing thing.” 

 “Interesting,” Toby nervously looked at his bag before looking up to everyone else “So where is he now?”

“Well he was in prison,” Nikki said with a pointed glare at Sam “But the alarms were going off before we came here so who really knows.”

“Hey I don’t know what happened,” Sam said.

“So he is alone at the server…” Toby said with a thoughtful look

“Presumably not, there is the cult we mentioned, plus others who aren't here.”

“Yeah but still… would it be dangerous for some of the people who are not on his side? I mean could he convince them to his side?”

“Well what would happen to the server if he was also here?” 

George shrugged “Probably nothing? from the way he explained it when we were younger it basically is him. So if he's alive, it's alive.”

A strange look came to Toby's face before he lit up “ OK, so nothing would happen if he’s in town, maybe that’s the reason why his file is here,” he mumbled.

Tommy heard that and  Immediately turned to him, “Sorry what.”

“Well my mom gave me the files and one of them had Dream’s name on it…” 

“What-What does that means-” but Toby interrupted, 

“It was really interesting because that means he must’ve landed in the same woods as you guys just further away.”

“WHAT?!” 

The reaction from most of the server was fairly instant. Tommy started looking around, gripping at the fabric of his pants. Sapnap and Sam both pulled out their weapons. Sam and Puffy both took steps towards Tommy. Most of the server went pale. The only two not reacting to the news were Techno and Phil.

“Did I mess up…” Toby asked as he clung onto his bag. 

“Okay I’m going to assume this Dream dude is bad news then,” Steven said. “What’s got you so scared of him?”

Tommy just shook his head.

“He’s more than just bad news,” Sapnap said.

“If Dream is here, we need to be on our guard,” Sam said.

“Ehhh, me and Phil will be fine,” Techno said.

“Great, you can celebrate with him when the rest of us are dead! Or worse being forced to act as his playthings or he’ll destroy everything we care about,” Quackity yelled. “Honestly you ask me you’re just as bad as him.”

“Why you little-”

“Enough! We have bigger problems to worry about than you two’s rivalry,” Sam said, pushing his way between the two.

“I thought he was pathetic?” Scarlett said 

“Definitely not. One of the best fighters on the server,” Sapnap said. “I’d know, we’ve sparred before.”

“I mean I managed to beat him,” Techno said, puffing his chest out.

“Yeah but Techno you’re one of the only ones,” Niki pointed out. “The rest of us wouldn’t stand a chance. And he doesn’t like all of us as much as you and Phil.”

“Look, thanks for the tour and all but I think we’d better get back to the fort,” Sam said, a couple of others nodding in agreement.

“Are you sure we can help if y-”

“No !”

The rascals and toons were shocked by the interruption.

“No. Okay. We appreciate the offer but we’d rather handle this by ourselves,” Sam said. “Come on guys, let’s go.”

With that, the server began to walk back towards the gate, Sam, Sapnap, Puffy, and George looking around as they walked, obviously on the watch for something.

“Do you think it worked?”

“No Toby, it didn’t,” Catra said deadpan.

“Oh…” Toby look down with a crestfallen look

“We can try again another time Toby, they’re probably just freaked out by the idea of this Dream guy being here too,” Steven said, resting a hand on Toby’s shoulder.

“Yeah, give them some space to cool off and maybe we can still help them get comfortable in town until they can go home,” Connie suggested.

“I don’t get why mom  gave me those files if the point wasn’t  to ask them about it,” Toby said.

“Let’s face it Toby, I seriously doubt Eye cares about them being comfortable in town, she just wants you to get knowledge,” Minerva said.

“But where is this Dream guy?” Adora asked. “No one in town has reported seeing any new people, and if he did appear with the rest of the server he has to be somewhere.”

“I don’t know,” Steven said. “I just hope they’ll be okay. They seemed pretty freaked out.”

“So Dream’s here too, huh?” Sapnap said, once the group had reached the fort. 

“Sure would seem that way,” Sam replied. “I'd better get to work fixing the rest of the holes in the walls before nightfall. Last thing we need is him sneaking in while we sleep.”

“I can help,” Foolish volunteered.

“It’ll go faster if we all pitch in. It shouldn’t be too hard,” Karl said.

“Look, I know we’ve had our differences but with Dream on the loose again we need to work together. Especially being in a strange new place like this,” Puffy said. 

“How dangerous can he be, mate? I mean I know he’s tough but didn’t you guys take basically all his stuff when you locked him in prison? What does he even have?” Phil asked.

“The revival book,” Tommy muttered.

“Heh?”

“How do you know that?” Phil asked.

“He used it on me. Wasn’t pleasant, trust me,” Tommy said, glaring weakly at Phil.

“I told you two Dream killed him,” Ranboo said quietly.

Phil took a moment to respond. “You did. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you at the time.”

“Wait, there’s a book that allows people to revive others?” Techno asked.

“Yep. It’s old magic though, I saw it used once ages ago,” Phil said. “How did Dream even get his hands on it though?”

“Schlatt,” Quackity said.

“How do you know that?” Tommy asked.

“Glatt told me. To be honest, at first I thought he was lying to me.”

“Wait, Glatt? Schlatt has a ghost now too?” Sam asked. “And why were you even talking to him? After everything he did in life.”

“I know, Sam. Trust me I didn’t enjoy it,” Quackity said. “He hasn’t changed much in death.”

“Well that’s no way to talk about an old flame,” a voice said from behind the group.

“GACK!” Quackity shouted as the entire server turned suddenly to see a familiar pair of ghosts.

“Ghostbur!” Tommy shouted, a grin appearing on his face.

“Hi Tommy! Hi Son! Hi Dad!” Ghostbur said, waving.

“How did you two get here?” Phil asked.

“I don’t fucking know, how did you guys get here?” Glatt asked.

“We don’t know either,” Sapnap said, as he, Sam, and Karl all moved to be between Glatt and Quackity.

“We’ve been wandering the woods for a couple days I think,” Ghostbur said. “How long have you guys been here?”

“Couple days Dad,” Fundy said.

“So you guys probably landed at the same time as us, just away from us,” Phil said, humming in thought. “Suppose that means Dream did too.”

“Dream’s here? Not here, right?” Ghostbur asked.

“Somewhere in this world,” Sam said. “We’re not sure. He could be anywhere, just waiting for his chance to strike.”

“What is this place? What is wrong with these trees?” Dream wondered aloud, glaring at the inky mess he had ended up with trying to gather wood. “I can not even make replacement tools like this. What am I supposed to do now?”

Dream kicked the stump remaining, hissing at the resulting pain.

“Okay calm down Dream. You can come up with a plan. At least you’re out of prison, that’s a good thing. You just have to get your hands on some gear and then you can get even. Get back at that dang Warden for locking me up for so long.”

Dream smirked behind his mask before beginning to walk again. Until he heard a twig snap behind him.

“Who’s there?” Dream asked, wheeling around.

“I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m Dr Madden.”

Chapter Text

It was nighttime in town and Minerva hums as she lay on her bed, The thoughts of what happened earlier today still ringing in her head. Even now laying in bed with her girlfriend, sleeping peacefully next to her she can still see it. Every time she closed her eyes.

Tommy's eyes were full of fear as tears threatened to come out of his eyes.

Sam tightened his grip on his sword.

Every single one of the server members had a look of fear and worry on their faces.

She covered her face, groaning as she continues to think of how scared they look, and how much they look around fearfully…reminding her of…that.

”What about this guy is so scary what he did to them!”

Suddenly, the blanket next to her moved, “Min.”

Minerva jumps as she turns around to see Scarlett opening her eyes a bit looking grumpy.

“Oh, hey.”

The girl rubs her eyes as she yawns, tugging on her bonnet, “Is there any reason why you’re screaming in the middle of the night?” Scarlett mumbles.

“I can’t go to sleep.”Minerva answered quietly. “The servers’ reaction to that Dream guy concerns me based on what we heard he is the big bad guy so I guess they worry that him being in town would cause trouble.” 

Scarlett gave her an annoyed look “Well, do you think that we should do something about it now or tomorrow?”

Minerva blush nervously “Like tomorrow is optional but now could be the best option.” Minerva groans as her wings flutter nervously. “ I mean yes lot of our friends have faced a lot about people but for them to react that way to that guy he must have hurt a lot of people and I’m just worried that he might go after the town as well and-” 

“Oh, Min,” Scarlett got up and gave her girlfriend a soft look as she hugged her.  “I get it. I want to help them too and whoever this asshole is, he's probably going to hurt a lot of people. But they got us.” 

“ But what about everyone else and dad? Listen, I know that Some of our friends seem to be on our side but you see how people react ....”

Scarlett shrugs at that “Sure the town is a bit iffy with them but they will understand that this Dream guy needs to be stopped.”

Minerva smiled, hopeful. “Thanks Scarlett.”

Her wings flutter happily as he went to the side of the bed. “We can go now and-”

But then Scarlett put her hands on her shoulder, her eyes already close “Problem is…what time is it” 

Minerva deflated a bit as she sheepishly look at the clock “...12:14 AM.”

Scarlett opens one eye at that before frowning. “Yeah no, we’re not gonna go out and run around at 12:14 AM for something that could’ve been done tomorrow. I want to help them too, but right now I need some sleep.” 

And with that Scarlett laying down back to bed with Minerva following next to her.

“Okay… I just think that there could be a better way like, I don’t know, a magic spell or something that could protect them.”

“Maybe we can just adopt them….” Scarlett mumbles  “That would probably put them underneath dad‘s protection or something…” and with that her girlfriend went back to sleep, her breathing becoming slow and steady

Minerva narrows her eyes in  thought at Scarlett’s suggestion “Maybe…”

And then her eyes lit up at the idea.  Why didn’t she think of it before?!  She can just do what her Dad did when he found them when anyone found someone who needed a friend or family.

I should’ve thought of that earlier

“Thank you honey”  she whispered to herself as she jumped up and turned around. Minerva looks over Scarlett’s sleeping form. She raised her hand for a moment as if to wake her before pulling her hand away. That's not a good idea. She'll get cranky if I wake her up . Minerva just got up and grabbed a jacket. As she puts it on she gives Scarlett a kiss. It will be just for a quick moment and she’ll be back before Scarlett wakes up.

“You’re feeling alright Toby?” 

Toby turns towards Tim and the others as he places down his pencil.

“Oh little bit it’s just I shouldn’t have messed in it”

“I mean you didn’t know that would happen like you didn’t do it maliciously.”

The other ghosts nod sympathetically as they pat Toby‘s head

“ I’m not surprised. ”

“Gertrude!” Tim said, shocked at what she said.

“Well I’m not gonna cuddle Toby, I get it but, you Gotta be a lot more careful of it next time. ”

Toby sighs at that as he lays his head on his desk “I know but I do want to help…”

Martin then hugged Toby who practically leaped onto the ghost. Tim give Gertrude an annoyed look and He tried to firmly push her toward Toby but she pulled away and glared at him.

“Don’t even think about it”

Tim back up nervously “Sorry madam”  He then turn towards Toby “Toby , it’s good that you want to help and It’s really kind for you to give them a tour it’s just  you just need to be more careful” 

Toby just buried his face to Martin's chest “Do you think that they would be angry at me next time they see me?”

“ I don’t think” Jon said reassuringly as he pat his head “I mean yes they panic but they probably just say no because they just want to protect you guys”

“Yeah that’s what I was thinking as well but…I just wish that it could’ve been a better way for me to talk to them…”

“ I mean you have to wait till tomorrow”

“I guess… Who is this Dream guy…”

“No idea, Your mom is still not letting you see what’s going on?”

Toby just blink his eyes which glows green for a moment before glitching out

“Nope.”

Then Toby saw a figure leaping out of the window from his house

“What…”

“What is it champ?” 

“Is that Minerva?”

The answer seems to be confirmed as the figure used her wings to fly towards the fort.

Toby’s eyes widened. “Oi she’s visiting! Without me?!”

“I mean you’re supposed to be asleep”

Toby didn’t listen as he grabbed his coat and ran down the stairs.

If she’s gonna go visit then I should go

“By that logic shouldn’t you wake up Scarlett”  Sasha said sarcastically 

“No, she gets cranky when she’s awoken from her sleep too early”

“That makes sense,But Toby you have to stay home” Jon begins to say but Toby ignore that as he opens the door and runs out following Minerva. Leaving the ghosts standing there just watching at the to rush towards the fourth

“So what’s the plan, Boss…” Tim said

Jon shrugged as he sigh “I don’t know I just wish that the kid doesn’t keep on disconnecting us”

“Yeah…” 

Gertrude just shakes her head as she just looks upstairs with a smile.

“Well it’s time for us to wake up the sleeping giant”

Tommy hummed as he heard knocking from somewhere. He glanced down the two halls containing the various rooms but no one seemed to be in the hallways. He tried to shake it off until he heard it again, this time obviously coming from outside the fort. 

He crept up the stairs so he could see outside the fort, heart-pounding until he saw Minerva standing by where the door was.

“Yo! What are you doing here?”

Minerva looked up and smiled when she saw Tommy. “Hey. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out a bit more. The tour kind of got cut short due to the whole ‘Dream’ revelation.”

“You wanted to hang out in the middle of the night?” Tommy tilted his head.

“Sure, I couldn’t sleep. I’m assuming since you’re up you couldn’t sleep either.”

Tommy sat in thought for a minute, before shrugging. “Sure. I’ll let you in.”

Minerva walked through the door as soon as Tommy opened it, but before Tommy could close it a voice shouted out “Hey, wait for me!”

“Toby! You’re supposed to be asleep,” Minerva said as Toby scurried into the fort after her.

“So are you,” Toby pointed out.

“Touche.”

“What’s going on out here?” Jack asked, walking into the main room. “People are trying to- what are you two doing here?”

“We wanted to hang out,” Toby said, walking over to stand next to Jack.

“In the middle of the night.”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Toby and Minerva said in unison.

Jack just sighed. “Guess everyone’s having sleep issues tonight.”

“Besides I didn’t get to talk to you at all during the tour,” Toby said, grinning up at Jack.

“You wanted to talk to me?”

“Yeah!”

“Me? What? Really? Why?”

“You seem nice and if we’re gonna be friends we should talk sometimes,” Toby pointed out.”

“Alright I guess we can talk,” Jack said. “Come on.”

Toby happily followed Jack back down the hallway, leaving Minerva and Tommy alone.

“So you wanted to hang out?” Tommy asked.

“I also wanted to check up on you, you seemed pretty freaked out after that Dream bombshell. What did he do to you?” Minerva asked gently.

Tommy turned away. “What didn’t he do is more like it. Bastard is obsessed with me for some reason. He’s devoted himself to making my life a living hell.”

Minerva's eyes widened. “That sounds awful.”

Tommy nodded as he continued to look away from her.

“Yeah pretty much.”

“And this type of guy is in town or at the very least in the woods?!  We need to stop him!”

“Min I know that you guys think that you could handle him but he’s not someone to be mess with”

“I can kind of get that from everyone’s reactions except for Techno and Phil. what’s with them?”

Tommy went quiet at that, a bit of a haunting look in his eyes. “It’s a long story. Let’s just say that they were great pals at one point.”

“They used to be allies to this guy?”

“Yep and the results lead to great devastation,” Tommy said bitterly

“Oh dear…”

There was a moment of silence. “ Are they a threat?” Minerva asked concerned

Tommy shook his head “No, they’re not look working for Dream anymore it was just a one-time thing and then they went their separate ways for an out. They're just content in having an alliance and truce and just try to get out of here”

“Well I have been thinking and I have decided that I’ll make you all my family.”

Tommy freezes as his mouth opens wide open “What-”

Minerva giggled as she nodded “I mean think about it! Not only that would put you under mine and by extension Toontown protection.”

Tommy looked down in shock before laughing “What are you, Phil? I don’t need anyone else! I got some friends, I don’t need any motherly figure ”

Minerva blink your eyes before shaking her head “Well do you ever have any older siblings?”

“Older brother figures, I guess but they never really work out for me…Wilbur went nuts and Techno kind of hates me”

“Well I could be an older sister.”

“Aren’t you 17, like around my age?”

“I’m gonna be 18 in a couple months so I’m older than you.”

“What?!”

“Well that’s Settled, we're gonna be siblings.”

“I guess, but I’m gonna be the big brother.”

“What no, I already chose myself to be the big sister.”

“You already get to be a big sister.”

“Only for one brother.”

“What about Scarlett?”

“She’s my girlfriend.”

“Pog, but still let me have a turn being the older sibling.”

“OK OK fine but only because you asked politely.”

“Hell yeah! I’m gonna be the best big brother! Just wait and see!”

“Well now I’m starting to doubt it.”

“No! No take backs! I’m the big brother, you outright said it.”

“Hmmm, don’t think I said that.”

“You did too!”

Both laughed as they continue to bantered over who will be the older sibling

“So, do you have any friends among the people here?”

“Yeah! There’s Tubbo, he’s my best friend. Ranboob is okay sometimes, not sure why Tubbo married him though-”

“Wait Tubbo and Ranboo are married?! Aren’t they only 17 too?”

“Yeah, what does that have to do with anything?”

“Jeez, your world is weird.”

“Says you, to me your world is weird.”

“You don’t know the half of it. Anyone else of note?”

“Sam’s a bitch, Quackity is okay I guess, Jack Manifold is also a bitch.”

“You mean the guy my brother is trying to befriend.”

“Yeah. Jack isn’t actually that bad, but I can’t tell him that, it’ll go to his head.”

“Wonder what Toby and Jack are talking about?”

“Ohhh is this your room?” Toby asked as Jack opened a door, letting Jack inside.

“Yeah. Keep it down a little though please, I’m pretty sure all the others are asleep.”

“Oh sorry. So what do you wanna talk about?”

Jack hummed. “I don’t know. Don’t exactly have many friends besides Niki.”

“Well how did you and Niki become friends?” 

Jack looked away before sighing and facing Toby. “We both wanted to kill Tommy.”

“What? Why did you wanna kill Tommy?” Toby tilted his head to the side, confusion written across his face. “He seems nice enough.”

“Because he killed me. Pushed me into lava and never even bothered apologizing for it.”

“Oh. Well, have you ever talked to him about it?”

“Pff Why would I do that?”

“Because you might be able to get an apology. Also I thought Technoblade was the one who killed you.”

“Well he didn’t permanently kill me. We all have three lives, Tommy just took the second one. It was Techno who took my final life. Or what was supposed to be my final life.”

“So you can die three times and then you’re gone?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that. Only some deaths count as ‘canon deaths’ and it’s only those that cause us to lose lives. I could get blown up by creepers all day, but as long as it doesn’t take a canon life I won’t go anywhere besides to my bed to respawn.”

“Well, what’s the difference between ‘canon deaths’ and the not canon ones?” 

“No one fucking knows. It’s a bit of a crapshoot to be honest with you. Like one festival Technoblade blew up pretty much everyone there, Quackity, Tubbo, Schlatt, Ponk, Niki, but the only people who lost any canon lives was Tubbo.”

Toby hummed in thought. “Jack, how would Tommy know he took one of your canon lives? Does he know?”

Jack paused. “I- To be honest I don’t know. I’ve never thought of that. But he still shouldn’t have pushed me in lava! Plus he’s always getting other people involved in his stupid problems! The server would be better off without him.”

“Well yeah, pushing you in lava was rude. But do you really think everyone would be better off without him? Puffy and Sam seemed to care about him based on the way they reacted when I told you guys Dream was here.”

“Dang it kid, let me be angry.” Despite his words, Jack’s tone held no malice.

“Do you think the server would be better off without him?”

“I don’t know,” Jack admitted. “I thought it would, but when Dream killed him I realized I actually missed him. But his reaction when he came back was so- so! Gahh!”

“Dream revived Tommy didn’t he?”

“Yeah. Stupid Tommy acting like he’s the only person who’s ever come back from the dead.”

“You’re a lot more chatty with me than you were in the interview.”

“And how’d you know that? Your mom show you those too?”

“Pretty much.” 

After a moment of silence, Jack spoke again. “Honestly I’m not sure why I trust you so much, but most people don’t care much about me. Not enough to seek me out and listen to me rant like this. Probably just tired.”

“It’s sort of part of my abilities as the Archivist. It’s easy for people to rant to me.”

“Archivist? What’s that?”

Toby looked away for a moment, nervous “You’re not gonna get mad at me if I tell you…?”

Jack shook his head “No, a lot already have happened at this point I’m gonna be pretty numb to it.“

“It’s a title, basically I have the ability to get people to tell them their stories and my mom is the goddess of the fear of being watched.”

“Your mom is a goddess? Dang. So does that make you some sort of demigod?”

“No, I was adopted. She found me when I was just a baby.”

“So probably an orphan. Just don’t tell Techno. He has this weird distaste for orphans for some reason.”

“Noted?”

“Technoblade is weird. Everyone on this server is weird. Think that’s why we all stick around,” Jack said.

“Guess that makes sense,” Toby said. 

Jack opened his mouth to respond but was silenced by a loud noise and shouting from another room. 

“What’s going on?” Toby asked, as Jack rushed to the door, and outside.

As Toby went to follow Jack, he realized Jack wasn’t the only person who had woken up, as several other server members with armor thrown hastily on over their pajamas rushed down the hall as well.

As Toby reached the main room, he heard a familiar voice asking, “I told you this could wait until morning.”

“Hi Scar,” Toby said, managing to push between Puffy and Sam who were both just staring at Scarlett and the now destroyed door in a combination of shock and annoyance.

“Toby, what were you thinking?” Scarlett asked, turning towards him.

“Well Min was going and I wanted to come along,” Toby shrugged.

“The door-” Sam began, “Why did you-”

“Would you rather I break through your bedroom wall again?”

“Kind of, the wall would have taken less time to fix.”

Scarlett just looked at him and shook her head. “Come on Min, Toby, let’s go.”

“Okay,” Toby said. “Bye Jack!”

Minerva waved to Tommy and the trio walked back towards town. Most of the server started to make their way back to bed, besides Sam who frowned as he got to work fixing the door.

The next morning, Phil and Techno slipped away from the fort while everyone else was eating breakfast.

“So Phil, do you trust these toons?”

“Not entirely mate. I’m still suspicious of them claiming to have no idea how we got here. If they didn’t bring us here, who did?”

“Good point. Maybe we should try to do some research gathering?”

“Might be a good idea. See if we can’t figure out what they might be planning. They might know more than they’re telling us.”

“Should we bring Niki and Ranboo along?”

“Nah, the more of us the more noticeable we are. Plus If we get caught we might have to fight our way out.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

With that the pair began to make their way towards the wall. Upon reaching it, Phil stretched out his wings.

“I’m gonna try flying up some, see if I can find a place we can climb over without being too obvious.”

Techno nodded, and Phil flew up flying off away from the gate, high and far enough Techno could barely make him out.

After a couple minutes, Phil landed back on the ground beside Techno.

“I found a place a little ways away, goes into some empty back garden. No lights in the house and a bit of dust on everything so it looks like nobody's home, or has been for a while.”

“Alright let’s go.”

The pair made their way to the section of wall Phil had found, managing to climb their way over.

“I see what you mean when you say this place hasn’t been visited in a while,” Techno said. “This garden is way overgrown.”

“At least it means we won’t be found. Let’s go.”

The pair made their way out of the garden looking around. Once they were confident no one was around to see them, they snuck their way out of the garden, slowly making their way towards Town square, ducking through empty backyards and the like to avoid anyone seeing them.

“Guess these Toons aren’t early risers.”

“Guess not. Makes our job easier though, barely anyone seems to be up.”

Eventually, after a lot of sneaking around the pair managed to reach the edge of the town square.

“Wow, that is a lot of people,” Techno said.

“Looks like some sort of meeting. Think we can get closer?” Phil asked

“Maybe…” Techno trailed off looking around. “Wait over there. There are some pretty thick bushes between the library and town hall. If we can get over there we shouldn’t be spotted in them.”

“Let’s go.”

Phil and Techno began to sneak around the square, keeping out of sight of the group standing in front of Town Hall.

The pair managed to make their way into the bushes, settling in to listen in on the conversation.

“Look I know you’re all worried-” Mickey began before being spoken over

“I just don’t want those guys near my kids,” A black man said.

“We’re doing our best to keep them out of the creek, we swear,” Mickey said.

“Well what are we gonna do about them? They don’t have a house, or a door so it’s not like we can just make them go home?” Another man wearing a bomber jacket pointed out.

“We’re working on it, doc,” Bugs said.

“Well we need to figure something out in the meantime. I don’t want my sons getting hurt,” This line is spoken by a strange duck with a metal leg. “I’m sure my brother will agree with me.”

Donald nodded.

“At least the kids should be savable, the adults might be too corrupted,” A man with red hair said.

“We are not corrupted,” Phil said, wings fluttering slightly as Techno put a hand over Phil’s mouth, holding his finger up to his snout in order to tell Phil to hush.

“I know that guy. He’s the one who interviewed me,” Phil whispered, glaring at him. Techno just repeated the gesture with his finger before focusing back in on the conversation.

“-chance,” Mickey finished.

“We’ll make sure this is handled,” Bugs said. “We’ll do our best to ensure no one in town is hurt.”

Phil and Techno looked at each other and  then snuck away before anyone could see them. There was a moment of silence between the two while they walk back to the port.They’ve been together long enough to understand what the other is possibly thinking.

“So what do you think of that?” Phil asked, turning to the piglin hybrid.

“Sounds to me like we’re about to have another butcher army on our hands,” Techno said, arms crossed. “I’m not letting them hurt the people I care about.”

Phil nodded solemnly “Let’s get back. We might want to warn the others.”

“Agreed.”

Chapter Text

Two days ago

“What’s up Doc?” Bugs greeted his son when he opened the bedroom door to see Toby standing there. He held several things that made Bugs raise an eyebrow, “Toby how did you get those?”

“Mom gave them to me,” Toby said. “Can I talk to you about something?”

“Course, always. Come on in,” Bugs said, opening the door wider to let his son into the house.

“I was just finishing breakfast,” He said, sitting down at the table as Toby sat down next to him, placing the files and tapes on the table. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I was actually hoping to talk about the interviews.”

“You listen to those, huh?”

“Yeah. I think Mom wants me to find that revive book or whatever. Wouldn’t even let me use my powers to try to find Dream until I did.”

Bugs groaned “Sounds like her.”

“Dad, did you and the others have to be so mean to the server? Everyone except Goofy and Paul already seemed to think the server was evil. Especially uncle Daffy.”

“You know how Daffy can be Toby. We’re only trying to ensure the town stays safe.”

“But they just got here and you guys were already accusing them of things.” Toby cried out.

Bugs turn away from the boy towards one of the books on the shelf. “Toby, you read the files right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you should know most of that wasn’t just accusations. These people are dangerous.”

“But you didn’t even give them a chance!”

“We will, okay! We’re just being cautious.”

“They just didn’t seem mean or dangerous when me, Scar, and Min were hanging out with them! Even before or during the tour.”

“I heard about that little tour.” Bugs stated “How did that go?”

“It went well. They were interested in town, Mr. Sam and Mr. Foolish were very surprised and interested by the plaster, which I guess they don’t have in their world? They also don’t seem to know what is plastic considering they thought it was food.”

“They thought plastic was food?”

“Yeah. We had a little picnic and they ate the sandwiches without taking the plastic off first.”

“That’s…”

“They’re not dangerous, Dad. Please, just give them a chance.”

Bugs just sighed, “Toby-”

“Please Dad? They seem really nice and one of them has agreed to be my friend, and-”

“Toby,” Bugs interrupted. “Look, you know that’s not entirely in my hands. The other Head Toons have a say too.”

“But the other Head Toons respect you! If you argue to give them a chance a lot of them will go along with it.”

“However the other townsfolk are going to have their opinions as well. The other people in town are worried for their families.”

“Can’t you try to reassure them?”

Bugs just sighed again. “You sure are persistent, you know that? But, alright. I’ll do what I can to convince the others. I mean it’s not like your sister is going to adopt one of them.”

Now

“You adopted Tommy….” Scarlett said, deadpan, holding the syrup. 

“Well yeah I was thinking that that would be the best way for protection. Considering the server is Tommy’s family, by extension they’re underneath protection as well.” Minerva explained.

A wildly fucked up family, in my opinion, Bugs thinks.

“Minerva you only knew him for like what? One, two days at most. What’s with the adoption?” Bugs said as he passed around her pancakes towards Minerva. 

Minerva stared at him, indignation on her face as she piled a few pancakes onto her plate. She tossed it to Yakko before she huffed, “Well, you did the same thing with us.”

“Min,” Bug said, holding the rest of the pancakes out of Wakko’s reach. “We got to know each other for months. It takes time..”

“Well Tommy seems to agree,” Minerva replied smugly 

Bug sighed as he shook his head. Minerva’s eyes only got softer at that. 

 “Listen, listen…I get it. I really do. But if Tommy is willing then I’m going to act like his sister.”

“Of course you would.” Bugs got up from his chair. “Listen, I’m going to go out for a bit, we're going to have a meeting today.”

Everyone looks up at that. “Is it about the server?” Scarlett asked.

“Yeah…”

“Dad…” Toby pouted.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s about always helping them as well to make sure that they’re not gonna hurt anyone.”

“I don’t get what’s so wrong with them?” But, Yakko noted, “I mean we can take them on. Have you seen some of them?”

Dot and Wakko nodded. “Yeah, none of them seem particularly scary. In fact some of them look pretty handsome.” Dot said

“I know, but it’s for everyone’s safety.”

Wakko just rolled his eyes “ I’m just surprised that they didn’t act aggressively towards you guys considering the files.”

Minerva gave Wakko a look “What do you mean by that?

“I mean some of them are supposed to be the most paranoid people out there?” Wakko said 

“They got a fair point,” Scarlett notes, leaning on the table. “It’s a bit odd for them to be somewhat cautious.” 

“Maybe the files are exaggerated?” Toby said hopefully

“Maybe they were a bit disoriented,” Scarlett said casually as she played around with the knife “ I mean they did say they literally fell down from the sky.”

Before Bugs could respond, the lights turned off, leaving the family in darkness. 

“What the-”

“Or~” Dot turns around with a spooky look on her face, flashlight in hand. “Maybe this is their plan all along to lower our guards” she then jumps on top of the shelf. “And they’re just waiting for the chance to strike.”

Toby glared at Dot. “Dot that’s not very funny-”

Suddenly Yakko and Wakko Pop out from under the table and roar at Toby as they begin to tickle him.

“Yakko! Wakko! Stop!” Toby laughed as he tried to push the two away from him.

Bugs and girls then come over and pull them apart.

“OK, that’s not nice,” Scarlett remarked. “I guess I’m gonna be in charge for the night.”

 Yakko looked up, surprised. “What?! I’m usually in charge.”

“No I agree with Scarlett. That seems to be the best course of action.” Bugs said.

“What? that’s unfair,” Wakko groaned.

Bugs Ignored that as He played Yakko down and he went out the door

“Scarlett is still in charge.” Bugs said, “And not to burn the house down when I’m gone.”

“See you Bugs,” Minerva said. Bugs waved at his kids as he close the door.

“I’m guessing that went great,”  Scarlett said to Minerva, “Told you he’s not gonna react well.”

Minerva rolls her eyes “Come on Scar, we made a pretty good agreement to become siblings. What's the worst that could happen?”

Scarlett rolls her eyes “Whatever floats your boat, honey.”

“Minerva, are you gonna put me down now?” Toby said, still struggling in her arms.

“I agree with Toby, like how long are you going to hold us.” Wakko said as well

Both girls look at each other deadpan and smirking as they drop the boys to the floor with a thud.

“I’m gonna be honest, I wasn’t expecting this many people to show up when we called this meeting,” Mickey muttered to Bugs, looking at the growing crowd. “Seems like every parent in the city is here.”

“Seems like it,” Bugs griped.

“And you told Toby you’d try to convince them to give the server a chance?”

“Yeah. You know how persistent Toby can be. Ehhh it is what it is, Doc.”

“We should probably get started,” Minnie interrupted. “People are getting antsy.”

“Alright, alright.” Mickey stepped up to the podium in front of Town Hall as he began to speak to the crowd. “Hello everyone. Now, as you all no doubt know, we have some new people in town. And I know some people had some concerns about them, so we decided to call this meeting both to try to alleviate any fears we can and let everyone’s voices be heard in the decision making process. Let’s start with some questions.”

    The Head Toons listened as the crowd erupted with questions before Daffy raised his wings. “ONE AT A TIME! WE CAN’T UNDERSTAND YOU WHEN EVERYONE TALKS OVER EACH OTHER!”

    “Thank you Daffy,” Mickey laughed awkwardly as the crowd fell quiet due to Daffy’s yelling. “Alright, how about you first?”

    “How did they get here? They don’t have a house or a door, and they don’t look like toons, so how did they get here?” Lilith asked.

    “Good question, I’ll admit we’re not entirely sure of that ourselves, but we are looking into it. We shall alert the town if and when we find anything out. The server themselves don’t seem to know. So however they ended up here doesn’t seem to be something they did, at least not purposefully. How about you next?”

    “You’re not planning on letting them stay in town, are you?”  Lilth asked from next to her sister.

    “We’re not sure on that one either,” Mickey admitted, causing the crowd to get loud again. Bugs glanced over at one of the streets where he thought he saw something but just shook his head when he didn’t see anything there.

    “Can everyone calm down please?” Mickey asked. “We really can’t address your concerns if we can’t understand them. Please just… Look I know you’re all worried-”

    “I just don’t want those guys near my kids,” Duane Williams said, interrupting Mickey.

    “We’re doing our best to keep them out of the creek, we swear,” Mickey responded.

    “Well what are we gonna do about them? They don’t have a house, or a door so it’s not like we can just make them go home?” Doug pointed out.

    “We’re working on it, doc,” Bugs said.

    “Well we need to figure something out in the meantime. I don’t want my sons getting hurt,” Della said. “I’m sure my brother will agree with me.”

    Donald nodded.

    “At least the kids should be savable, the adults might be too corrupted,” Tom said, arms crossed.

    “Now that might be a bit harsh,” Mickey said, frowning when Tom just scoffed. “Look, I know everyone is worried. I don’t want anyone getting hurt either. But these are not the first dangerous people to arrive in Toon Town. And we gave them a chance in the past. So I don’t see any reason we shouldn’t give these new people the same treatment we gave every other quote-unquote monsters who arrived in town and at least give them a chance.”

    “We’ll make sure this is handled,” Bugs said. “We’ll do our best to ensure no one in town is hurt.”

    The crowd murmured amongst themselves for a minute before someone raised their hand.

    “Yes?” Mickey asked.

    “What are we going to do about sending them home?” Garnet asked. “From what I’ve heard they’ve made it pretty clear that’s what they want.”

    “Yes, I do believe the server’s plan is to eventually return home, and alongside working on finding out how they ended up here we are working on figuring out a way to send them home. The first step is trying to find where their home is.”

    “What if we can’t send them home?” Pearl asked, tilting her head.

    “I’m sure there’s a way,” Bugs said. “Something brought them here, there has to be a way to send them back.”

    “Well does anyone else have any questions or concerns?” Mickey asked, looking over the crowd. When he got no response, he continued. “The current plan is to keep an eye on them while me and the rest of the Head Toons work on finding a way to send them home. We’ve already begun work on that, and I believe using the information they’ve given about their home already we should be able to pinpoint a location of sorts soon. Once we do that, we’ll begin devising a portal to send them back. Some of you may be contacted when work begins on that due to your knowledge of magic and other such things. We’ll contact you when we need you. If no one else has any questions, I believe we can call this meeting here.”

    Mickey watched as the crowd began to disperse, sighing as he turned to look at the other Head Toons. “Are you guys sure we’re making the right decision?”

    “Nuh uh,” Donald said.

    “The best decision? No. But I do think this is the right decision for now. Cause you’re right, these aren’t the first villains to end up here, and they’re not the first villains we’ve given a chance. Plus I did make a promise to Toby,” Bugs said, pulling out a carrot and beginning to munch on it.

    “But most of those villains we’ve given second chances were already seeking redemption in their own worlds,” Daffy pointed out. “Not so much with these guys.”

    “They still deserve a chance,” Goofy said. “They’ve been through a lot too.”

    “Yeah, that’s a good point. Thanks Goofy,” Mickey said.

    “I’ll admit I’m curious what the kids are gonna think of all this,” Minnie said. “Some of them seem to have become quite fond of the server already.”

    “So, did you guys hear about the meeting among the adults this morning?” Steven asked where he and some of the other kids were hanging out.

    “Apparently a lot of the adults don’t really trust them. Not sure why,” Mabel said.

    “Don’t they have, like, a ridiculously high danger level?” Dipper asked.

    “So does Korra, and she’s really nice,” Mabel pointed out.

    “I just know they’re working on a way to send the server home,” Connie said. “That’s what my dad said when he got home at least.”

    “Awww, I’m gonna miss them,” Mabel said.

    “Honestly with what they said about their home I’m not sure why they’d want to go home. Seems really dangerous and stressful,” Steven said. “Maybe it would be better if they didn’t go home.”

    “Don’t say that Steven. It’s still their home,” Connie said.

    “I mean after everything that happened I was happy to get away from Beach City,” Steven pointed out.

    “I guess I can’t argue with that.”

    Dipper opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by yelling as the Warner siblings ran past, chased by the rascals, nearly bowling Mabel over as they rushed past, the Warners using the four kids as a sort of meat shield, trying to keep them between them and the rascals.

    “What on earth are you guys doing?” Steven asked.

    “Dad put me in charge but they won’t listen!” Scarlett said, arms crossed.

    “Why should we? I’m normally in charge.” Yakko pointed out, leaning on Connie’s head.

    “Not today you’re not.”Scarlett crossed her arms.

    “Look, can you six have this argument somewhere else and stop leaning on my head?” Connie asked, suddenly bending over, nearly causing Yakko to fall over. “We’re trying to have a conversation here.”

    “Ooh what about?” Toby asked, completely forgetting the previous argument and pulling out a chair to sit down.

    “The server and that meeting the adults had today. I’ll admit I’m unsure if they should really go home after everything they said,” Steven said.

    “It’s still their home,” Dipper responded. “We should let them make that decision.”

    “Dipper has a point,” Connie said.

    “Awww, but I’ll miss them if they leave,” Toby said, frown on his face.

    “Still, they deserve to go home if they want to,” Minerva said, though she was frowning as well.

    “I mean, maybe they’ll be able to visit?” Connie said.

    “With how the adults were talking, I get the feeling they’re not likely to be allowed back,” Dipper said.

    “We’ll just have to see. For now at least the adults have agreed to give them a chance. Maybe things will change,” Steven said.

    “We’ll just have to see,” Dipper agreed.

Tommy pants as he stops running, mind racing from what he had heard. “Maybe it would be better if they didn’t go home” Why would Steven say that? They weren’t planning on keeping them here by force, were they?

Tommy looked back at where the four kids had been sitting, blinking back the tears that were starting to gather in his eyes. They couldn’t keep them here. They just couldn’t! They had to send them home.

Tommy bit his lip before turning to run back towards the fort. At the very least, he had to tell Tubbo about this.

“There you three are,” Puffy said, turning around as the three reentered the fort. “I was… Tommy, are you okay? And Techno, Phil why are you covered in dirt?”

Tommy just kept panting, giving Puffy a thumbs up as he tried to catch his breath. Techno and Phil both tried to dust themselves off as best they could.

“We have news, we might wanna gather the rest of the server mate,” Phil said.

“Alright, but this better be important. I just got Sam to go to bed after staying up  all night to fix the door,” Puffy said, walking down one of the hallways to get everyone into the main room, Phil walking down the other to do the same thing.

“Alright, so what exactly did you guys learn?” Puffy asked, poking Sam awake again as the creeper hybrid started to doze off again.

“Alright, well me and Techno decided to do some reconnaissance of our own, see what this town really seems to think of us, and to be completely frank me and Techno think we’re all in danger.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“What do you mean?” Sam asked, suddenly awake and alert at the mention of possible danger.

“They were having some sort of meeting,” Techno said. “Talking about ‘what to do with us.’ Talking about concerns about us hurting people, one dude called us all ‘too corrupted’ and the Head Toon just said they were going to ‘deal with it.’ I’m pretty sure we’re gonna have a repeat Butcher Army situation to deal with coming up.”

The server all fell silent, looking around at each other at that comment. “Maybe there’s another explanation?” Ranboo asked, holding Michael closer.

“I don’t think so,” Tommy said quietly. 

“What was that kid?” Sam asked.

“I overheard something myself. A couple of the kids in town, the kids from Toby’s tour. Steven said that it might be better if we don’t go home,” Tommy said. “I’m afraid they’re planning to keep us here.”

That caused the server to erupt into shouts.

“They can’t! My kids are back on the server!” Foolish yelled, his eyes flashing with a red light.

“And Michelle,” Puffy pointed out.

“My friendsss, my dog, Ponk. They can’t keep me away from them. I won’t let them. I don’t care about how many of them I have to fight to do ssssso.” If the slight hiss wasn’t enough to show how angry Sam was at the idea, the iron grip he had on his trident did.

“Well then,” Techno shouted, standing up on a table to get over the crowd. “We’ll just have to make them let us go home.”

“And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” Quackity asked.

“Let’s just say I managed to bring a couple things from home.” With that Techno pulled out a wither skull, wide grin on his face. “They won’t know what hit them.”

Chapter Text

“So what are you suggesting?” Puffy asked.

“I thought I was clear with the whole skull thing-” Techno began before being cut offby the sheep hybrid

“And you’re certain they’re planning to attack us?” Puffy asked,raising her eyebrow.

“Well, can you think of any other explanation?” Techno retorted.

“A couple. We haven’t done anything, why would they hurt us?” Puffy asked

“They’re scared mate,” Phil pointed out. “People do silly stuff when they’re scared.”

Quackity just rolled his eyes at that. “Yeah almost like they got a reason to be like that?”

“What are you implying?”Phil said.

“Well you can’t really blame us for being a bit skeptical of your story?” Quackity said.

“What makes you think that we would lie about that?”

“I don’t know, because you guys have a history of jumping to conclusions, because you used to destroy every fucking thing in your path, even though you got no proof of anything that you’re saying.”

“Well Tommy seems to agree with us,” Techno said, pointing at the boy.

Tommy freezes from that “Hey I don’t-”

“I have more trust in him in from the few months we got to know each other than you from the many years that you terrorize me.”

“Hate to interrupt, but slight question,” Sam said. “You do have soul sand right?”

Techno’s face just went blank in response. 

“Well that throws a slight wrench into our wither plan,” Sam pointed out.

“I mean we can just turn that black stuff into other stuff, right? We can just make soul sand out of that,” Ranboo suggested, before picking up some spare ink. The ink begins to stretch and seems to form something, before collapsing in on itself. “Okay maybe we can’t just turn the black stuff into soul sand.”

“Soul sand contains a lot of magic, it might just take more focus to make,” Sam suggested. “We’ll keep trying. Is there anything else major we should do in preparation?”

“I know a couple things we can use to give the wither a power boost, trying to get our hands on some of those would be helpful,” Phil said. “Plus maybe try to get some more information out of the toons.”

“How should we go about that?” Techno asked. “We don’t want them moving forward with their plans if they are violent.”

“Just avoid asking anything suspicious, and avoid the head toons,” Puffy said.

“So you agree with us?” Techno asked

“Not really I think that there could be a more logical explanation and I don’t wanna jump into any conclusions but at the same time we do need to be careful.”

 “Maybe try asking about that inkwell,” Sam suggested. “See if we can get any more information on that, and if that might be something we need to watch out for.”

“So just act normal?” Ranboo asked.

“Pretty much. Does everyone understand the plan?” Phil asked.

Most of the group began to nod. They weren’t quite united, but it was closer than they were normally.

Sam sighed as he continued to pour all the ink from the ground into the bottles. 

“Why does this end up being used as ink anyway that doesn’t make sense….”

Sam thought about Some of the way the people seem to act and the interview that he had with Bugs. If it was an act it seems sloppy for them to be talking about their plans out loud especially if it’s so nearby them. And even if they plan on hurting them this whole time wouldn’t it have been better to keep them in town rather than risk them finding out in a fortified fort.

Sam stood there for a moment before he shook his head. Yeah but it’s good to have a backup plan. It is better to be prepared for a conflict and not to be prepared. Even if it’s A misunderstanding they could be at the very least prepared, there’s nothing wrong with being prepared and making sure that everyone is safe. I can be prepared 

“What're you building?”

Sam jumped as a female voice appeared behind him. He turned around only to see a young girl wearing a purple and white hoodie.

“Uh… nothing, why'd you ask…”

“I never seen anything like that before.”

“So you’ve never seen this before?”

“Think it’s rather interesting! It reminds me of the glyphs.”

The girl then draws a symbol on a piece of paper and in an instant it turns into a ball of light.

“Interesting little ability. What’s your name?”

“My name is Luz.”she said, extending her hand towards the creeper.Sam stared at it and surprise for a second before reluctantly, shaking her  hand  back

“Oh, I am Sam.”

“Nice to meet you. What are you doing anyway?”

Sam  flinch at the question. This is what he was afraidwas going to happen. His mind race to come up with a satisfying answer “It’s a secret.”

She stared at him with a blank expression “Why?”

“Reasons. If you all are allowed to have secrets, so are we.”

He expect her to ask you a question attempt to digging more into what he’s doing,what it seems like she lost interest in the topic

“I guess that makes sense.” she murmured before turning to Sam “How are you liking it here so far?”

“Ehhhh. It’s very weird. Like what’s with this weird black stuff that stuff turns into if I don’t focus enough,” Almost as if it was triggered by what he was doing, the block Sam was working with started to dissolve into ink, though Sam was able to get it back into shape quickly.

“It’s ink. Everything here’s made of it. Well except you and the Hatchetfielders.”

“So why is the ink is so weird”

she shrugged,“I don’t know, it sort of has always been like that”

“Where does it come from? Surely it has to come from somewhere.”

“So do you know what the Inkwell is…” Immediately  Luz covers her mouth. “I may have said too much, Shi-oot I shouldn’t have said that.  Eda and the other said that I should keep that a secret from you guys until we…”

“Luz …”

“It’s OK I’ll talk to you later!” Luz  cried out, before she sprinted away back to town.

Sam stood there, concerned about this information. Another reference to this mysterious Inkwell. Plus she had said something about the Toons planning to do something to them. Sam squared his shoulders and got back to work, whatever it was they were planning he doubted it was good, and he wasn’t going to let these strangers hurt him or his friends. Especially not Tommy, the kid have through more than enough trauma.

in a bar at the edge of town, Jack was thrown out of it, as the person glared at him annoyed by the 19-year-old kid “Kid we’re not gonna allow you to get any alcoholic drinks. Unless you're of age and got a license, we’re not gonna allow you in the bar.” and with that the owner slams the door causing Jack to sigh.

“Great, what's the point of the bar if you’re not gonna sell it to anyone…” he murmured leaning against the wall of the bar 

Jack just sits down on against it as he try to think of what to do before he remembers what’s in his bag.The one thing that he brought over from home besides his daggers and some clothing.

“Oh right my flask…”

Jack sneaks around the alleys, The further away he gets from there, the more that he stops hearing the laughing and talking from the other side. When he finally finds a quiet place he sits down: a small hill that look over the town. Taking out a small brown porch, he took one big gulp of beer down his throat. At that moment, he feels safe, at that moment, he was no longer at the anger filled boy who  feel rejected by the world and who the void screamed in anger for him to return when he crawled out of hell. Right now the only thing he could feel is blissful numbness.The state where every negative emotion drain out of him for just a moment.

As he’s taking his drink, he hears footsteps approaching him.

“You’re good?”

Jack looks up to see a girl with brown hair and a gray hoodie around his age looking down on him. Her eyebrow was raise despite the deadpan look on her face,  “I’m fine.”

She crosses her arms at that. “You’re literally outside of town.” 

“So? I won’t have people staring at me…”

“I get it. But I know a spot where not a lot of people go to”

“I don’t know, I prefer being here”

“It’s better than nothing.”

Jack stared at her for a moment before saying “Fine I’ll follow you, what’s your name?”

“It’s Lex.”

Both of them walk for a bit down the hill, before arriving at a park. Jack look around to see a bunch of families and couples walking around and playing with each other.

“Lex this is the opposite of being out of sight?!” He growled.

Lex just rolled her eyes “Just follow me.”

After a few moments they finally arrived at a small bench under a tree that looks out over the boardwalk. 

“Are you sure No one will see us here?”

“Yep they would notice small shapes  but it’s a good place to hang out if you want to relax.”

Both sat down on the bench as Jack took another gulp of his drink. They sat there in silence for a bit, taking awkward glances at one another. Lex was the first one to speak up. “So you’re the new people?”

Jack jumped a bit at that before giving her a smile “Yeah I guess we stick out like a sore thumb.”

“Yeah, A little bit… you literally appeared on the front door”

“I mean I bet people are talking ‘bout the strange people with ‘no doors’ who are ‘Super dangerous’.”

“Eh, not having a door isn't that strange. I mean we don't.”

Jack shot up at that as he stared at Lex. What does she mean by that? “So really, you guys don’t get doors?”

Lex shrugs as she takes another whiff of her cigarette. “Nope besides you guys we didn’t get any doors and we kind of fell here too.”

“Then how did you…”

“My little sister got a magical spider friend that’s sort of transported us after the 10th apocalypse or was it the 11th” Lex just shrugged, “I don’t know.”

Jack narrowed his eyes “So are you telling me that you guys got transported here and you guys didn’t go home?”

Lex gives him a deadpan look. “Kind of, it’s more of the fact that our home sucks so we just decided to screw Hatchetfield and stay here.”

“Don’t you have anyone who would miss you?”

“Not really, my mom is a dick and we lived in a trailer park for a while. But I live in an apartment now and Mr. Houston happened to help me and Hannah.”  

“Is there any other places besides you and me that got transported here that are not ‘toons?’”

“Technically there’s Clivesdale but…just fuck Clivesdale.  it’s one of the worst places you guys could ever go to”

“I was literally in hell for a while, how bad could it be.” Jack said deadpan.

“Believe me there’s some places that are worse than hell.”

“Huh…” Jack rolls his eyes at that “So what’s wrong with your town?

“How long do you have?”

“Just a few hours just tell me everything that happened…”

“Well to make a long story short there of the stupid Teletubbies gods who think that our world. Well techically most of the town are their little praying grounds to fuck with and unfortunately we’re usually the victims of that”

“That kind of sounds like XD”

“Who the hell is that?”

“He is the god of the server and he never really does much except just appear and just watch us… And create statues of themselves, narcissistic bastards.”

Lex then laughed, Jack noticed the harsh tone in her laugh. “Usually with these ‘gods’ that we have to deal with they just fuck with people usually causing the end of the world because they were bored and that’s not getting into the time loop…”

“A time loop?”

“Yep, every time we die it gets sent back to the same point. For some reason it’s Jane’s death I guess that that’s a turning point or whatever” 

Jack went silent…“Holy shit…that sucks….”

“Yeah luckily we managed to figure out a way to escape… we just couldn’t really return home.”

“Yeah I can see why you wouldn’t…” 

“Yeah things are a bit better it’s just… not fun”

“Can I ask a question?”

“Sure what is it?”

“So why aren’t they telling us anything about the inkwell or about what’s going on in general?”

Lex just sighed “ listen I’m not gonna tell you-”

“I know I get it but…” Jack groans as he holds his head And begins to walk around the bench. “It’s just that some people are looking at us suspiciously, and treating us like criminals even though we just got here. Listen I get being a little bit suspicious about a strange group of people arriving in their homes But at the very least give the courtesy of pretending that they don’t judge us…” Jack took a breath as he sat back down on the bench.

Lex stared at him worriedly “Are you OK?”

Jack looks up his eyes looking tired and shakes his head “Please I haven’t been OK since I first arrive at that server.”

Lex gives Jack a reassuring look and pats him on the shoulders “Dude, it's sort of a bit like a wait-and-see thing with you guys. I guess that they’re feeling a bit anxious since it’s not very often that they get people like you. It's still an asshole thing to do but that’s something that they’re working on.”

“Glad to know that they’re fucking learning how to be decent.”

 Lex smiles at him and says “They may not be willing to tell you guys some things but they’re not gonna hurt you.”

Or so they said, Jack plays around with the flask.  “What’s their current plan for us?”

“Just I don’t know? stay in your fort, don’t cause too much trouble or try to blow up the town”

Jack just looked out towards the street in front of him and saw the people walking throughout their lives. If they’re not taking glances at him and Lex. They’re just talking to their friends and family and just living life. His hands crush the flask a bit, causing the drips of beer to fall down to the ground.

“Yeah… we won’t cause too much trouble.”

“I mean it’s not like no one has given you a chance. The rascals already like you guys and that’ll probably get Bugs to tolerate you guys at least,” Lex pointed out.

“True, I suppose they’re not all bad,” Jack said. 

“I’ve heard  Toby really likes you.”

“Yeah…” Jack trailed off, thinking of the nicer people in town. Toby, Minerva, Scarlett, Steven, Mabel, and the like. They all seemed to trust the head toons, would it really be right to try blowing them up?

“You okay dude?” 

“Yeah, just thinking. I think I’m gonna head back to the fort. Nice to meet you though,” Jack said, standing up, waving, and beginning to walk back towards the fort. Thoughts of the conversation fill his mind as he struggles to take deep breaths.

“Hey mate, everything alright?” Phil asked as Jack walked in. 

“Phil, are you positive about what you and Techno heard?”

“What brings this on? What do you mean?”

“It’s just…” Jack just shakes his head  “you don’t think that if we blow them up they’ll get more mad? They have had every opportunity to hurt us but they didn’t?”

Phil just stares at him before he narrowed his eyes.

“Come on, Jack did you not consider that there might be a chance that maybe they might be acting this way just to get our guard down?”

“What do you mean by that?! Do you really think that something like the tours are some way to manipulate us or something!” 

“We don’t know Jack. Look, if you don’t want to fight you don’t have to, but you’re not gonna stop the rest of us. Right?” Phil didn’t wait for an answer before walking away.

Jack just sighed. People were gonna get hurt, and there were people he cared about on both sides.

“Hey Guys!” Toby said, walking through the door of the fort. 

“What are you guys doing?” Scarlett asked as Puffy and Phil quickly gathered up some papers and shoved them into a box.

“Nothing, just some writing,” Puffy said.

Scarlett just raises an eyebrow before shrugging.

“Ohhh what’s it about?” Toby asked walking over

“Oh we’re trying to-” Phil was cut off as he shoved a hand over his mouth, eyes wide as he realized what he was about to say.

“It’s a secret,” Puffy shouted out quickly, “Are you looking for Jack? I think he’s out back hanging out with Niki. And Tommy should be chilling in his room with Tubbo if you’re looking for him, Minerva.”

“You guys are acting weird,” Minerva said. “Like weirder than normal.”

“We’re just a bit tired, plus with Dream running around we want to be prepared, you know?” Philza said.

“Oh, do the papers have something to do with defending yourself?” Toby asked, trying to get a look in the box.

“Yep,” Phil said, picking it up and starting to walk away towards his room. “Now go play, me and Ms Puffy have other things to do.”

“We’re not that young,” Minerva said.

“You’re still kids. Now like I said Jack is out back and Tommy is in his room if you want to talk to either of them.”

“Why are you so worried about Dream?” Scarlett asked.

“He’s a monster,” Quackity said, walking into the room.
“He wasn’t always that bad, back when me, him and George still used to be close,” Sapnap said.

“He is now though.” Quackity turned to face Sapnap

“I know, he is,” Sapnap said with a sigh. “Look, let’s just say there’s a reason I promised to kill him if he ever broke out.”

“You were gonna kill him if he broke out?” Scarlett asked.

“If that’s what it takes to protect the people I care about now.”

Scarlett tilted her head to the side, before turning to Minerva and Toby. “You two can go talk to your friends if you want, I’m gonna go talk to some of the others.”

“About Dream?” Minerva asked.

“Yep.”

Minerva nodded and started walking down the hall towards Tommy’s room, Toby meanwhile had already headed towards the back door to go find Jack.

“Alright,” Scarlett said, rubbing her hands together, “It’s time to find out about this dream figure.”

Scarlett decided to start with George going off what Sapnap had said about the three of them being friends. After a bit of poking around she was eventually able to find George passed out in another room. It took a lot of prodding and yelling but Scarlett was eventually able to wake him up.

“Huh? What do you want?” George asked, looking up and rubbing his eyes.

“Why is everyone so scared of Dream?”

“Why do you wanna know?”

“I just do okay.”

“If I refuse, will you let me go back to sleep?”

“Nope.”

George just sighed. “And if I tell you?”

“Then I will leave you to sleep your life away in peace.”

“Alright fine,” George sat up and stretched. “So Dream used to be a friend of mine. Very loyal. Very brave. He even look past my appearance to see the best in me. But then things changed. When L’Manberg declared independence he was pretty pissed. Can’t entirely blame him to be honest, but after that he just got brutal. Took advantage of Tommy griefing my house to get him exiled. I didn’t care honestly, it wasn’t much damage I probably could have fixed it pretty quick. He went down hill pretty fast from there. I kinda miss him sometimes but I know it wouldn’t be healthy for me to stay friends with him the path he was going down. That enough for you?” George asked.

“Perfect. Enjoy your sleep,” Scarlett said walking towards her next target.

Minerva and Tommy jumped slightly as Scarlett suddenly burst through the door.

“Tommy, tell me about Dream,” Scarlett said before either could respond.

“What? Why?!” Tommy asked.

“I wanna know what we’re dealing with if he tries anything,” Scarlett responded.

“That would be useful,” Minerva said.

“Ugh fine. He’s the fucking worst! This weird creepy blob thing, taller than Sam. And he doesn’t have a face! Then again I heard he’s a shapeshifter or some shit” Tommy mutter, crossing his arms and starting to fiddle with one of his sleeves. “Bastard killed me. Like permanently, just to prove he could revive people. The bastard.”

“He can revive people?” Scarlett asked.

“Sadly.”

“Anything else?”

“NO!” Tommy yelled, before looking away and taking a deep breath. “I don’t fucking know, go ask the others. Think there’s a whole crowd out back, ask them.”

Scarlett opened her mouth to argue before Minerva put a hand on her shoulder. The two looked at each other for a minute before Scarlett walked out of Tommy’s room to head out back.

“Alright, tell me about Dream,” Scarlett said to the crowd as she arrived out back.

“Ummm why?” Foolish asked.

“So we know what we’re dealing with. Honestly I don’t think he sounds that bad-”

“He’sssss a monsssster! You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about!” Sam hissed out, thick smoke coming out of his gas mask, causing the others in the area to quickly back away from. “He’ssss ruined my life!”

Scarlett stepped back as a stray spark came from Sam’s skin, as Foolish stepped forward and put a hand on Sam’s shoulder.

“Come on Sam, I’ve just remembered we have to do something way out in the woods,” Foolish forced a laugh before beginning to push Sam off away from the fort.

“He planned to steal all our attachments and lock them up in order to control us,” Niki said, frown on her face. “Including Skeppy. Who’s a person.”

“HE LEFT ME AT THE ALTAR!”

Scarlett looked over to stare at Fundy who was standing up, shaking slightly.

“What? He did?” Fundy said, backing away as people began to stare at him.

“Right,” Scarlett said. “Thanks for the info.”

Scarlett then went to walk back inside, leaning against a wall as she thought about what the server had said. They had all had pretty negative things to say.

“They really seem to hate him,” Scarlett said to herself before beginning to hum to herself as she thought about all they had said, trying to put their statements together into a solid picture of the man that was likely sneaking around the woods and town.

“Looking at the file will probably help put all this together,” Scarlett said before nodding and starting to walk back towards town, shouting over her shoulder “Toby tell Minerva I decided to head back. I need to go check something.”

“Okay!” She heard Toby shout from behind her as Scarlett walked around the fort and back towards town.

“Let’s see where did they end up?” Scarlett said walking around the files room. “Ahhh here they are.”

Scarlett opened up the drawers searching until she found the correct file. She pulled it out and walked over to a table to set it down, opening it up.

“Hoo boy that’s a lot,” Scarlett said, eyes widening as she struggled to read through all of it. Unlike most of the server who Toby said had blanks in their files, especially around their childhoods, Dream&s was full and told every single thing he had been through. She grimace at some of the description. Scarlett may not be a Scarlett may not be an expert, but something about the word, traffickers already made her not want to read more of it, so she quickly turn the page to the next one before just beginning to flipped through the file quickly. But then Scarlett paused when she saw a part updating in the file.

With her curiosity peak by this, Scarlett flipped back to find herself looking at the injuries section.

“Pending information?” Scarlett began to tap the table. That wasn’t good. If the file was pending information then whether Dream was having wounds healed or having more wounds inflicted. Either way, it meant Dream was with at least someone else.

She stuffed the file into her bag. She’ll tell her dad later about this.

Chapter Text

Quackity quickly finished  brushing his dress shirt up, before he begin walking out of the fort and towards town hall. He intended to try to get more information out of the Head Toons, and if he could verify what Techno claimed he had heard. He may not be as great as Wilbur or Dream, but he think he got a way with words.

“You don’t trust Techno’s claims?” Sam had asked when Quackity explained his plan to him the night before.

“I don’t trust anything that comes out of that pig’s fucking mouth. He growled, his blood boiling at the thought “He could tell me the sky is blue and I’d have to go outside to check.”

“Why would they lie about this though?”

Quackity’s waved his hand, “I don’t fucking know. Trick the rest of us into blowing up the town and then just run off and leave us to take the fall for it? Sounds like something those two would find funny.”

Sam had sighed in response, before asking “Do you want me to come with you?”

“Nah, I can handle myself. Besides, of everyone in this fort, you’re one of the few I actually trust to keep Tommy safe if Dream shows up.”

Sam curled up at the suggestion, clearly reluctant, “I’ve failed before.”

“And that’s part of why I trust you to not fuck it up this time.” Quackity said before placing his hands on Sam’s face lovingly. “And I meant what I said when I said Tommy’s death wasn’t your fault Sam. The only person to blame is the fucking bastard who actually murdered him.”

Sam stare at him for a moment despite the look up doubt in his eyes, he nodded “Okay….

”G ood,I’ll update you and the others on anything once I’m done.”

”Should I tell Sapnap and Karl”

Quackity shook his head “No.”

And so Quackity had left the fort just after lunchtime to begin the walk towards Toontown, leaving Techno and Phil in their crazy efforts to prepare for a possible attack on the town. 

Quackity could already feel eyes on him as he entered the town, staring at him with either curiosity or apprehension, but did his best to ignore them. He’d dealt with staring before, he could deal with it again. Instead, he just squared his shoulders and began to walk the path Toby had shown them towards Town square, hoping he’d find the Head toons there.

“Can I help you?” A large cat like man standing behind a desk asked, glaring at Quackity as soon as he came in. A quick glance at the nametag pinned to his shirt revealed his name to be “Pete.”

“Hello, I was actually wondering if the Head Toons were in?” Quackity asked, smiling.

“Why do you wanna know?” Pete’s glare didn’t falter.

“I just felt that perhaps we got off on the wrong foot. I know I wasn’t the kindest in my original interview, and knowing my friends, well they’re not exactly the trusting sort. I was hoping maybe I could begin to help everyone put all that unpleasantness behind us. A fresh start you know?”

Pete cracked a grin at that. “Sure, they’re just holding a meeting through there. Go on ahead.”

“Thank you,” Quackity said, turning towards the door in question and knocking, ignoring Pete’s quiet laughter.

Pete just continued laughing to himself as Quackity waited on someone to open the door. Looks like Pete had just won his bet.

The head toons were deep in conversation about various issues facing the town when they were interrupted by a knock on the door

“Oh you can come in!” Mickey called out, not looking up from his papers.

With that the door opens up revealing a familiar young hispanic man with yellow duck feathers and a golden tooth complementing a giant scar on the side of his head

“Oh Christ it’s you…” Daffy mumbled 

Mickey held up his hand in front of Daffy 

“Oh hello! You must be one of the server members,” Mickey said.

“Yes sir. Now I know you all might not be exactly pleased to see me, but I'd say we got off on the wrong foot, so let's start over!”

“Ok….So Quackity right?”

“Yep, that's me!” He smiled as he held down his hand “the big Q, owner of Las Nevadas! And you all?”

“I’m Mickey, this is Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Bugs, and Porky. You probably already met Daffy.”

“Oh yeah,” Quackity replied with a hard glare at the black duck who rolled his eyes “We were well acquainted”

“Yeah he’s certainly interesting…” 

Bugs elbowed him before turning to Quackity “Las Nevadas? What’s that?”

Quackity nodded with a smile as he sat down on the chair “I mean it’s currently under construction and planning. But I planned it to be the greatest city our server had ever seen.”

“Interesting.”

Quackity took the opportunity to lay out a blueprint showing the city in full. It seems to be a shiny city with different types of casinos and hotels.

“Oh it would have been wonderful, plus Sam and Bad owe me so they'd have to strip at the opening.”

“Your father?” Mickey asked. “You planned to get your father to strip at the opening? Does that mean something different in your world?”

“I wouldn’t be watching. That would just be weird,” Quackity responded.

Bugs quickly change the subject “So how did you manage to get through the front desk”

“I have a certain flair for convincing people.”

“Uh..ok”  Donald said rolling his eyes

“Good, good,” Quackity smirked. “So how's this whole thing working, how do people just listen to you?”

“Huh?”

“Well it can't be that simple, people don't listen so how does it work?”

The Head toons laughed a bit at the answer before Minnie answered “We listen back, we try to be there for everyone.”

Quackity gave them a look of disbelief, this is got to be a joke, a way to protect their secrets or a way to taunt him. He knows that they know about his past and his reasoning for his struggles. So maybe this was some sort of weird test or way to mess with him?

“That doesn't work though?'”

“It does.” Mickey said cheerfully. “Plus this is a safe zone, a place where people could be away from the burdens in their worlds”

Quackity blink twice at that with a shocked expression on his face.This sounds too much like what dream would’ve said when he first arrive at the server.But at the same time, there’s a hint of sincerity to it like they sincerely think that this is the most sustainable way of taking care of a community. Just by, trusting that no one would try to fuck anyone over

”What?”

“You know like a truce?” Minnie said.

“Yeah I know what that means. Why would anyone do that? they're just gonna get backstabbed,” Quackity said, frowning.

“Well, because we work to keep those who could break the rules in line.”

Quackity just stared at them for a moment before a realization popped out. “All right I get it. So you manipulate everyone that makes more sense.”

There was a sudden silence in the room.The heads mouths dropped  while they stared at the mimic duck hybrid in disbelief. He can’t be serious….

“What…”

“People are horrible so you're manipulating the town so everything stays peaceful! That totally makes sense now.” Quackity seemed to relax at that. This is like home.

The Head toons begin to glitch slightly at Quackity’s comment, “No we didn’t manipulate anyone!” They said in unison, their shadows, twisting and turning behind them

Quackity just waved them off. “We all do it, it's fine if you do it, less weird than people trusting each other.”

“Quackity no we don’t manipulate people what makes you even think that?!” Mickey demanded, his eyes glowing green.

Quackity flinch at this, “You... said you keep people who break the rules in line, ergo others are more inclined to listen to you, favors for favors you're manipulating them!”

“No no no NO, that is not what we meant!!!”

Quackity tilted his head “Are you sure?”

“Yes!!” They all yelledThey quickly shook their head as they try to calm them selves down.

“I mean maybe we should figure out a better way to say that.” Porky said, still twitching,  “like most of the villains stay away from here because the rascals especially when the girls-”

At that moment Bugs quickly shushed Porky at that “Nope nope we are not doing that,”  He whispered in his ears.

“Oh yeah! them! they're cool!” Quackity raises his eyes as he begins to think back to how the people seem to look at the rascals with almost somewhat fearful expressions on their faces to the other children talking about their experiences fighting in the wars. I’m beginning to get the picture…

“Oh, well we’re glad that you think that.” Goofy said 

“Sure, It's nice you let the kids out and about, would have thought you'd keep them on a shorter leash.”

“WHAT?!?! ” The glitching began to get worse at that one.  “ What are you implying duck?”

“Just... Most people who are living weapons on our server tend to police themselves or get policed? Is that not what's happening here?”

The Head toons looked at him horrified and ink began to flow off of them as they got closer to him “WE DON’T USE ANYONE AS WEAPONS!”

“They... murdered your enemies for you though?… that’s what happened, is that the reason why the citizens were scared of them is that the reason why you keep them close to you?”

At that, all the doors slammed closed everywhere as lights suddenly turned off leaving Quackity in the dark. Immediately his stomach dropped.whatever he have said he fucked up badly.

“I feel like I've said the wrong thing.” Quackity  whispered. He looks around frantically trying to look for a way out or some form of light with no luck. 

“Hello, is anyone there where are you…”

“Oh dear you got them so angry,  it’s hilarious if you didn’t imply that we were hurt our citizens.”

The hairs on Quackity back stood up as a cold dripping mass landed on his shoulders and squeezed it tight. As they spin around him to the front of the room

“You have 10 seconds to take it back or we will have roasted duck.”

Quackity shut his eyes tight, trying not to look at them only for a pair of fingers to force them open.

He looks to see what he can only describe as Inky masses looking at him with sharp teeth and white glowing eyes. They seem to be smiling at him. Many of them have different features like Wings and rabbit-like ears but the thing that is holding him has The most piercing green eyes.

“I almost wonder what you taste like,”  It said with a sinister grin.

“Okay! Okay! They're not weapons, holy shit!” Tears had begun to gather in Quackity’s eyes, and with one quick motion, he pushed the being away from him, doing his best to cover his wings and head at the same time. 

As quickly as the light shut off they turned on again showing the head Toons back to normal on the floor holding their heads as if something hit them.

“What the fuck…”

Their eyes widened with the realization of what happened upon seeing how terrified Quackity looked.

“Oh no…” Mickey whispers covering his mouth.

Bugs slowly got up and try to hold out his hand “Look-” 

“Nope I understand I'm just gonna go now.”

Quackity scrambled for the handle of the door behind him, back pressed to it as close as he could get.

“Quackity no, we should talk…we shouldn’t have-”

“Can I just... leave please?” 

Both sides stare at each other for a moment before the doors open up.

“Okay”

Quackity finally got the door open and rushed from the room, dashing out of the Townhall and out of town, not slowing down until he reached the fort.

Sam looked up from his tinkering project as the door to the fort opened, revealing Quackity who was fighting off tears and was shaking like a leaf.

“Big Q? What happened?” Sam asked, standing up. Quackity just shook his head, starting to scurry down one of the halls towards his room, Sam following behind him.

Once safely in his room, Quackity just grabbed the blanket and threw it over his head, before grabbing onto Sam’s arm. Sam sat down on the floor beside him, gently rubbing a hand up and down Quackity’s back, in an attempt to sooth him.

“What happened?” Sam asked after a couple minutes, voice calm and level, despite the rage and fear running through his veins at seeing his son in such a state.

“They're really scary!” Quackity responded, briefly glancing out of his hiding spot at Sam.

“Did they hurt you?” 

Quackity just shook his head.

Sam opened his mouth to ask another question, when the door burst open, Sapnap and Karl rushing in.

“What happened?” Sapnap asked, kneeling down in front of Quackity, while Karl went to Quackity’s other side, throwing an arm around his shoulder.

“I went to talk to the Head Toons, see if I could figure out how accurate what Techno, Phil and Tommy heard was, you know? But I ended up saying something that really pissed them off. And the room got all dark, and these weird inky things were staring at me and then they threatened to eat me and-” Quackity choked back a sob, Sam and Karl both pressing themselves closer against Quackity’s side. Sam began to purr, faltering at times due to his own stress, but trying his best, the sound seeming to calm Quackity down some.

“Holy shit…. I knew those things were nothing but trouble…” Sapnap growled as bits of flame began to come up from his hair. “ We have to get that Wither up, We can’t let this slide!”

“Do you all really think this is a good idea!?!” Karl yelled as he held Quackity tight.  “Whatever these things, are and whatever you guys are planning, I’m not going!”

“What!” Sapnap gasped “ Hold on, babe-”

“No no, not hold on babe, There’s no way we can fight them! Don’t you see what they’re doing, they're just toying with us!” Karl's eyes filled with tears as he began to breathe heavily “We have to run!”

“Run where?” Sam asked quietly. “We have no idea how to get home and no idea where we are. Our backs are against a wall here.” 

“ I don’t know! But why can we still try!”

There was a knock at the door and all of them turned around to see Techno.

“Techno now isn’t a great time,” Sam said.

Techno just rolls his eyes “Well I overheard what happened” he walks towards Quackity and places his hand on his shoulder “ Are you OK, Q?”

“Fine, I’m fine,” Quackity said, shrugging Techno’s hand off his shoulder, scooting back some, as if to put Sam between him and Techno. “Sam’s right though. We can’t run, we’re gonna have to fight.”

“Karl you don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” Sapnap said, glancing over at Karl.

Karl just frowned and nodded.

“I’m gonna go update everyone,” Techno rubbed the back of his neck, before walking back out, closing the door behind him. Sam nodded, and began to purr again as Quackity rested his head against Sam’s shoulder.

“Let me get this straight, you allowed them to come out.”

“Yeah…”

The Head Toons looked around, guilt written across their expressions.

“Not our fault he was the one who messed up.”

Oswald gave them a deadpan look “Wow… how did you manage to lose control like that?”

“He said a bunch of messed up stuff, we got mad, they came out.”

“What did he say?”

“He thought we were using the kids as weapons…” Donald mumbled

“Well if he wouldn’t have smelled weird we wouldn’t have to do that!”

“Now they’re complaining about them smelling weird” Minnie complained

“What are you talking about?” Daffy asked

“Did you not sense something off about them…He sent us back early…”

They sense that their eldritch sides seem to be pouting at that moment

“We were just about to have fun!”

Oswald just sighed “Listen just let him calm down and next time you see him you guys can talk it out”

“Ok.” Mickey nodded 

“When should we talk to them?” Minnie asked.

“Tomorrow maybe?” Bugs suggested. “Should give everyone some time to calm down.”

“Wait, I was wondering what they mean by smell odd…?” Porky asked.

“Who knows?” Mickey said. “I mean, they don’t seem to be ink, maybe that’s what was causing it.”

“You think?”

“Oh hush you. You threatened to eat him, you don’t get to claim the high ground,” Bugs pointed out.

“We weren’t really going to eat him…”

“Plus he’s funny~”

“He sure didn’t seem to realize that,” Bugs replied.

“So what, the worst he could do….”

“I think that’s everything,” Puffy said, setting down the last block.

“Looks like it,” Phil said, looking over the blocks and other materials they had managed to form over the last couple days. “Our little friend is gonna knock these toons’ socks off.”

“I vote we name him Jeffrey,” Ranboo said.

“Why does it need a name?” Sam asked.

“Jeffrey it is,” Techno said, completely ignoring Sam opening his mouth to repeat his question as he continued on. “These toons are gonna have to whether send us home or face the consequences.”

“When do we strike?” Niki asked.

“Early in the morning,” Phil suggested. “It should give us time to put Jeffrey together before the toons wake up.”

“You guys are not gonna get yourself killed.” Jack said as he carried some of the wards.

“Don’t worry, Big Manifold, We got the Element of surprise against them”

Jack just rolled his eyes as he turn to Tubbo “I think that I misspoke are you going to make sure that Tommy’s not gonna fuck things up?”

“Hey!” Tommy yelled as Purpled laughs. 

“Come on, tell me you’re one of the most accident prone members here.”

Tommy growled at the alien, while Tubbo laughed a bit “Don’t worry, I promised Michael that we’ll be home soon plus I have to admit,” Tubbo turned to look at the soul sand and books. A shudder went down his back as he took a deep breath. “ We already know how destructive these things are.”

Ghlatt laughs as he pops open a bottle of wine “Good luck, here’s still hoping that you all won’t die.”

Ghostbur nodded as he giggled “Be safe Tommy, be safe my little champion.”

“Everyone have their weapons ready?” Sam asked.

Most of the server members nodded in agreement, expressions a combination of excitement and nerves. 

“Well then,” Techno said, “In the morning, we strike.”

Chapter Text

Mickey stretched as he looked briefly away from the papers on his desk. He had promised Minnie he’d go to bed hours ago, but he had lost track of time working and was struggling to convince himself to take a break to sleep. He glanced briefly at the window, before looking back after seeing what looked like movement in the square.

Mickey stood and walked over to the window, looking out over the square. 

“Is that the server?” he muttered to himself, watching as the group worked on putting something together, the tension of magic in the air was palpable. 

“I don’t like this….” Mickey said, reaching for his phone on his desk to call Bugs.

“Mickey, it’s three in the morning, why are you calling?” Bugs asked when he finally picked up the phone, voice thick with tiredness.

“Bugs look out one of your front windows.”

“What, why?”

“Just do it.”

Mickey heard Bugs grumble, the sound of blankets being thrown back and shuffling until Bugs spoke up.

“What the fuck are they doing?”

“I don’t know. You can feel the magic in the air, can’t you?”

“Yeah, I can feel it. Should we call the alarm?”

“Possibly-” Mickey was cut off as something in the square exploded, and a loud cry echoed around town.

“I’m calling the alarm.”

“So this’ll be more powerful than a normal wither?” Sam asked, looking it over.

“Yep,” Phil said, “And the chains should keep it contained until it’s time to unleash it.”

“You remember your job, Ranboo?” Techno asked, turning to look at the enderman hybrid.

“Wait until I hear the wither spawn and then sneak into Town Hall and grab the files,” Ranboo repeated the words that had been drilled into his head since the plan was made. “I’ve got it written down, see?” With that, Ranboo pulled a paper from his sleeve.

“Smart thinking. Alright Ranboo, you get in position. We’ll see you soon.”

Ranboo nodded before running off.

“Are we sure this thing isn’t gonna just attack us the second it spawns?” Tommy asks, eyeing the all too familiar soul sand shape.

“That’s what the chains are for, mate. It’ll be fine,” Phil assured, handing Sam and Foolish each one of the chains.

“Once it spawns, Sam and I will keep it chained down until it’s time,” Techno said, picking up his chain. “You sure you can handle this, you two?”

“Positive,” Sam said. Foolish just nods.

“Alright, Phil, place the last skull when you’re ready.”

Phil nodded, looking over the group, before moving in front of the thing. After looking at Sam, Foolish, and Techno once more, he placed the skull. As the well-known sound rang out, Sam, Foolish, and Techno threw the chains over it, wrapping it up to keep it down on the ground, bracing themselves as the explosion rang out through the square.

“Korra....”

Korra yawned as she got up to see her girlfriend looking out the window, a bright light shining as an alarm sounded in their home.

“What the hell is that?” Korra whispered. Asami looked at her, concerned.

 “I don’t know but we have to go to the town square.”

Korra nodded as she put on her shirt and pants. Then Mako and Bolin rush in from the next room. “Korra, Asami have you seen it?!” Mako yelled.

Asami tilted her head as she put on her gauntlets. “What do you mean?” 

“It's the ‘server’ people! They're outside with some sort of skull-like creature!!”

Both of their eyes widen as they rush towards the brothers' room to see the server surrounding the chained-up skeletal creature.

“Fuck…. Is that a spirit?” Korra asked. Bolin shrugged.

“I don't know, I guess we have to go and find out.” Korra and Asami nodded as they rushed out.

Scrooge jumped awake as an alarm sound started to blare through the house.

“What in the heavens is going on?” The older duck asked, pulling on a robe and marching over to the window. “Now what the-?”

Scrooge could do nothing but stare as he looked at where lights seemed to be coming up throughout town centered on the town square, barely hearing as Donald and Della ran around, only shaking out of his thoughts when he saw the front door fling open out of the corner of his eye as his niece and nephew ran out the door, off towards the square.

Scrooge looked back at the square before turning away from the window. There was no way he was letting those two run off towards danger on their own.

“Beakley!” He shouted out as he ran towards the door, “Keep the kids in the house.”

“Are you sure about that sir?” She asked. “I could help.”

“This is going to be dangerous, Beakley, someone needs to keep the kids safe. I’m trusting you to do that.”

“Yes sir.”

“What’s going on?” Steven asked, jumping out of bed after being awoken by the blare of an alarm. As he ran to his window, he could see shapes moving towards the square, and hear shouting going on from that location as well.

“Oh great, this is gonna go well,” Steven said, rolling his eyes, as he watched as the Gems rushed past his place heading towards the square. “I’d better get over there.”

Toby’s eyes widened as he watched the black skeletal-like creature scream on with the server in front of it.

“Should we check that out…?” Toby asked. Minerva shook her head.

“We couldn't, she’s asleep.” She looked over to her girlfriend who was still snoring in her bed. 

“But we can’t leave the server! We have to ask them what they're doing and stop this.” Minerva sighed as she held Toby’s hand.

“Well, we got to wait and see. I mean our family isn't gonna kill them…” Toby looks up at Minerva skeptically. “...I think.”

Under the night sky, a scene is beholden by many of the citizens of Toontown in Town Square. One is a group of animated characters still in their pajamas or random pieces of clothing crammed on to be warm in the chilly night and the other is a group of server members armed with weapons out with the skeletal thing and fire behind them, screeching and screaming in the background. If the server did hear it scream they did not show any reaction to it.

“You have thirty seconds to explain what the fuck you think you're doing.” Bugs growled at the group. The server stands there silent, the strange skeletal being still screaming and shrieking, its eyes burning.

“We want to go home. This is encouragement.” Techno said quietly, gripping his sword.

“We can’t send you home!” Bugs shouted. 

“You can’t or you won’t?” Techno asked.

“What sort of question is that?” Bugs demanded, his shadow seeming to stretch out behind him.

“I know what I heard, talking about us not going home,” Tommy spoke up, He was shaking, but he plays his feet harder on the ground as if to keep himself from running

“Who said that?” Minnie demanded, coming up to stand next to Bugs.

“Look, please just stand down, we don’t have to fight,” Mickey said.

“Then send us home,” Techno said.

“We already told you we can’t!” Bugs shouted, as his shadow continued to stretch and warp, Minnie’s doing the same thing.

“What was that thing about making sure things were ‘handled’ also?” Phil asked, glaring.

“How did you hear that?” Mickey said.

“We heard. We heard a lot of things in that meeting of yours,” Phil crossed his arms.

“Well if you guys actually listened to the whole meeting you’d know we fully intend to send you home,” Bugs pointed out.

“What Tommy overheard seems to contradict that,” Techno said. 

“Listen, this seems to be a misunderstanding! We would never hurt you guys!”

“Like hell it was a misunderstanding, you monsters!” Quackity yelled, noticeably being blocked behind Sapnap. “You threatened to eat me!”

“Quackity…” Mickey said quietly.

“Look, will you send us home or not?” Techno interrupted annoyed.

“WE CAN’T! WHAT PART OF THAT DON’T YOU GET?!” Bugs yelled, his shadow, as well as the shadow of his and the other Head Toons, seemed to thrash around behind them. Techno looked at the other members who gave him the same look.

“Well then, maybe this will change your mind.” With that fairly simple statement Techno dropped the chain he was holding, Sam and Foolish quickly following his lead, all three rushing away from the screaming behemoth. The three-headed beast rose up in the air and began to fire at the things around it, strange black skulls similar to its own, craters opening up where the skulls hit the pavement. 

The Toons stared in horror at the thing as it rushed towards many of the houses. The being breathed fire and caused some houses to  burst into flames. Screams came out of them as the people inside rushed out the doors.

“You should’ve surrendered when you had the chance!” one of the server members yelled.

“Mickey, what should we do?!” 

Mickey’s worried eyes quickly gave way to a look of determination. They have to stop this.

“Get the server, we need to restrain them so that they won’t hurt any more people,” Mickey said. He turned towards Bugs and Minnie. “Some of you will have to destroy that thing”

“Got it, Mic” Bugs said, Minnie and a bunch of heroes nodded as they ran in different directions. Some towards the server members and others towards the Monster

“Goofy, Porky, Get the citizens underground”

Both nodded as well as they rushed towards the citizens that managed to escape from the burning houses. 

“Goofy! What’s going on?!” One of the citizen said

“Come on, we gotta go. we’ll take you somewhere safe!”

The group nodded as they followed the two ti behind town hall.

Mickey took a deep breath as he rushed towards the scene. He just hoped that no one would get hurt.

Bugs frowned, reaching into Hammerspace for his Hammer.

“You lot are in soo much trouble,” Bugs growled out, before charging at the thing blasting away at the town. 

Jumping up and raising the hammer above his head, Bugs brought it down over the creature’s head, dragging it down to earth and smashing it flat, though the thing returned to its full size quickly after.

“You’re tougher than you look,” Bugs commented, dodging out of the way of a shot from the thing, swinging his hammer at the thing's back, knocking it to the side as it started to rise up.

The thing wasn’t able to get very far up before being blasted with white flames, and a bunch of purple goop reached up to drag it back towards the ground.

“You looked like you might need some help,” Luz said, pulling out a glyph to throw one of her own attacks at it.

“I appreciate it,” Bugs said, swinging his hammer at the thing as it broke free of Amity’s magic.

“JEFFREY NO!” A voice shouted before Bugs was knocked away from the fight, looking up to see Techno looking at him enraged.

“You really wanna piss me off, don’t you?” Bugs asked.

“I want to go home,” Techno said, gripping his axe.

Bugs looked over Techno’s shoulder to watch the trio of witches work against the strange beast. The trio was managing to summon up a storm of magic, with Lilith managing to shield them from its attacks with ease. They probably had it.

“Alright you wanna fight, I’ll fight,” Bugs said, hefting his hammer. Techno merely charged in response.

Tommy ran from the Wither as he avoided corners where different toons were trying to stop the other server members.  Shit, that thing is still freaky as usual.

“Tommy!”

Tommy clutched his sword before turning toward Steven, pointing the sword at him.

“How the hell did you find me?!” Tommy growled. Steven held his hand up with a reassuring smile.

“Well I wanted to find you and the town sent me here.” 

“What the fuck does that mean?!”

“That's the strange thing about this town, anything is possible,” Steven said jokingly.

Tommy just glared at him.

“Listen, we're not going to hurt you…” Steven said, glancing at the sword held in the other teen’s grip.

“Bullshit! Do you literally plan to keep us hostage?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You know what you said!”

“Oh dear. It was a bit out of context. I was just a bit worried about you guys since you reacted badly when Toby mentioned Dream.” Tommy just stares at Steven as he walks closer to him. “I didn’t mean to cause you guys any distress for that, for that I’m sorry-”

“No, no, fucking don’t you do that!” Tommy yelled, covering his ears.

“What?”

Tommy lunches at Steven with a screech causing Steven to instinctively summon his shield, blocking the attack. Tommy growled as he launched into another attack as he continued to swing at the boy with the sword.

“Listen, Tommy, we don’t have to fight, I get that things are a bit tense but-”

“A bit?!” Tommy yelled out before he bitterly laughed. “Oh, right, it’s only a bit tense and weird like the fact that you guys pretended to be nice! The fact that you seem to think that some of us are going to cause trouble and then came the whole file that knows shit not even we know!” 

With each sentence, Tommy frantically hit the shield. Steven grunts as he continues to block the attacks.

“Tommy, I know that is this distressing and a lot has happened for the past few days but why do you think that we won’t let you go home?”

“Because that’s how you pricks work,” Tommy stopped fighting as he continued to rant. 

“You guys first pretend to be super nice and helpful then the moment that something happens that threatens your power, Dre- you decide to go all crazy and then try to hurt everyone.”

“We would never do that!”

“That's what they all fucking said!”

“Just put your weapon down and just let us help you,” Steven said, offering a hand out.

Tommy looks at Steven confused and wary. Is it another trick? Tommy’s hand grips onto the sword more, just wait for him to get me to let my guard down? Tommy’s eyes frantically look over Steven’s face just for a hint of anything, a smirk, a cruel look in his eyes, something! Something that shows that he’s lying. But he looks so sincere. Why does he have to look like that?! How could he be sincere after what he overheard?

Steven noticed the conflicted look and smiled.

“I know that it’s a lot, just put everything down.”

Immediately at that moment, Steven felt a sudden sharp pain in the side of his cheek as he fell. His shield bounced far from him before it disappeared. He opened his eyes to see Tommy shaking as he glared at him, the sword having a bit of red. 

“NO oh no no no no I’m not going to be tricked again!” Tommy yelled as he attempted to stab Steven with the sword only for Steven to roll away and jump up and attempt to summon his shield again only for Tommy to hit his hand with the butt of his sword causing Steven to yelp in pain. “I won't fall-” 

But before he could finish his statement, Tommy felt a light tap on the back of his neck. He froze for a moment as exhaustion began to spread throughout his body for a moment. Tommy tried to struggle against it as he heard a voice behind him. 

“I wish that I didn’t have to do this…” Tommy felt his knees fall to the floor as everything went dark.

Mickey sighed sadly as he looked at a knocked-out Tommy.

The mouse holds his hand out. 

“Are you OK, Steven?” Steven nods as he grabs Mickey’s hand. “Yeah…” He then looked down at Tommy. “Will Tommy be okay?”

Mickey smiled reassuringly as he picked up Tommy

“Yeah I just knocked him out for a bit, the spell will last for about 40 minutes to an hour,” Mickey looked at the now damaged Wither. “Hopefully by that time this fight will have ended.”

Steven then looked down sadly.

“…Mickey, I didn’t mean-” But Mickey shook his head.

“Listen it isn’t your fault, it just seems to be a misunderstanding.”

“But I caused this!”

“And you just didn’t know Tommy was there! None of us knew they were this…”

 “Jumpy?”

“War heavy seems to be a better term…” Mickey looked around. “But we should get back…we got people who need us.”

Steven nodded as Mickey put down Tommy and snapped his fingers. Rope then appeared on Tommy’s arms and legs.

“There,” Mickey said as he turned to Steven. “Now where should we go now? This question was quickly answered when both of them heard a yell from a corner.

“Three againsst one huh?” Sam asked, slight hiss to his voice as he drew his sword, staring down the crystal gems.

“Stand down now,” Garnet said, “this isn’t a fight you’re going to win.”

“You’re very confident in yoursselvesss.” 

“Well we probably have hundreds of years of experience on you,” Amethyst pointed out.

Sam just huffed, lowering his stance feigning left before charging towards the right, swinging towards Pearl. The gem easily dodged out of the way. She threw her spear towards Sam’s left, causing him to dodge to the right.

Before Sam could swing again he felt something wrap around his lower stomach. Suddenly the world went white as a sudden searing pain ran through his body, disappearing almost instantly leaving a feeling of greater strength behind.

“Uhhh, Garnet, is he supposed to be flashing?” Amethyst asked as Sam looked up at them, a wide smirk on his face as he charged at them.

Amethyst jumped up out of the way as Garnet dodged to the side. Pearl threw her spear, managing to hit Sam in the back. Sam hissed but continued to swing at Garnet, hissing more as the gem managed to dodge every swing. Amethyst swung her whip wrapping it around Sam’s arm, pulling on his arm to stop him from swinging. Sam crumpled to the ground, as Garnet hit him in the side of the head, the flashing light around him fading quickly.

“Are you guys okay?” Steven asked, coming around the corner.

“We’re fine Steven,” Pearl said.

“Who yelled?” Mickey asked.

“Him,” Garnet said, nudging Sam with her foot. “He reacted oddly when I tried shocking him.”

“Yeah he got all flashy,” Amethyst said.

“We should probably save the conversation for after the rest of them are taken care of,” Pearl pointed out as the sounds of fighting continued on.

“Good point,” Steven said.

As soon as the Wither was released Phil flew up into the air, ignoring the pain in his wings as he look around over the chaos.

Already fights were breaking out, Tommy facing down with Steven, Sam just around a corner facing down against three different people, Quackity seemed to just be yelling at Daffy which made Phil raise an eyebrow as neither seemed to be going for weapons, instead just arguing about something or other. He was too high up to hear. Indeed, most of the server already seemed to be struggling to deal with someone or other, a couple such as Foolish, Sam, and Sapnap struggling against multiple opponents at once. They were outnumbered, and badly. He could only hope that the wither would provide enough chaos for them to win out.

Though their wither wasn’t turning into the all-powerful weapon they were hoping for. Even with all the magic boosting it, it was struggling against the onslaught from four sides as Bugs and three other toons did battle with the thing.

But not for long, as Techno charged Bugs. Phil frowned as the pair began to fight. Even with Techno’s skills, Techno was struggling. He had to do something.

Phil dived down to aid his friend, but before he could get there, he was knocked down, pain and heat exploding against his side.

“Oh no you don’t,” Donald said, sending another blast of sparks at him that Phil barely dodged.

Phil didn’t bother with words. It would only waste air, and he flew back up, diving at Donald, narrowly dodging another attack, to swing at Donald.

“Guess Tom was right about you,” Donald said, sending more sparks at him, knocking Phil back a bit. Whatever those sparks were, they sure strong.

“Tom has no idea what he was talking about,” Phil said, attacking Donald again. Unfortunately, he stumbled as Donald sucker-punched him, feeling a sudden sense of exhaustion overcome him. Unable to fight it off, Phil collapsed, as the world went black.

“I’ll have to thank Mickey for teaching me that one,” Donald said to himself, before turning to aid in the other fights.

Fundy dodged out of the way of another skull, fighting off panic as memories of Doomsday and previous issues with Techno ran through his head. Though Shifting in and out of his fox form, Fundy helped as he could, firing arrows into fights, but trying to avoid getting involved in any directly.

Fundy ran down an alley trying to get away from where Sam had been struggling against three toons, not wanting to be nearby if Sam exploded with him being charged.

“Well, what are you trying to do, little fox?” A voice asked from the shadows, echoing strangely. Fundy looked around as a huge, harpy woman came out of the shadows. “I was wanting a slight snack.”

Fundy backed up, shaking as he raised his bow. “Back off!” He shouted, firing at the harpy, only for them to burn to ashes in a flash of orange fire.

Fundy stared before turning to run, only to run into a suddenly appearing wall, causing him to stumble back, before being hit in the back of the head again, causing him to lose consciousness.

Niki's eyes widen at the fight as she takes a deep breath and sets the match ablaze as she rushes behind one of the homes. “Ok, this is maybe different from L’Manberg or any of the other servers in general,” she looked back at the fighting gasping as the Duck took down Phil. She then looks at the townhall determined, “but it has the same tyrants.”

She threw the match at the house and was about to run towards Phil only to hear a quiet sigh she turned around only to see Minnie holding the match in her hand which still had a bit of light.

“Trying to burn our home?” she said, raising her eyebrows before she blew it out. “Niki right?” Niki narrowed her eyes toward Minnie who looked at her disapprovingly “This is very disappointing. We offered you our home and you guys decided to stab us in the back and attack it.” Niki rolls her eyes. 

“Lay on the guilt trip early then huh?”

“It’s not a guilt trip at all! We’re asking you guys to surrender peacefully.”

“Yeah fucking right!” Niki tries to hit Minnie with one of her daggers only for the Mouse to grab her wrist.

“Listen, are you really gonna do this?” Niki glared at her angrily before she elbowed Minnie in the stomach. Minnie yelled in pain as Niki managed to free herself from the grip and attempted to slash Minnie, who managed to avoid it, only for Niki to kick at her legs causing Minnie to fall and hit her head. She groans as she slowly tries to get up from the ground, only to notice a tip over silver in front of her. Minnie looks up from the floor as Niki points her dagger at her.

“Do you really think we would let you win! Now you’re going to tell us what you're planning on doing to us or I swear-” Minnie interrupts her looking at her deadpan.

“Or what? You gonna kill me? Hold me hostage? Force me to betray my people?” Niki stares at her in surprise while Minnie continues “Listen, honey, I have heard a lot of stuff like that for the years. You’re not the first villain that I meet who has threatened me”

“Villain?!”

“I mean you and your pals did attack the town filled with innocent people!”

“How fucking dare you-! We are not the bad guys! She growled out “You guys are trying to hold us hostage in a place that-” Suddenly Niki felt a sudden shot of pain going through her body. She screams as she collapses to the floor. Niki looked only to see Minnie's hand gripping on both of her ankles.

“Sorry about that, but I cannot allow you to hurt anyone else.” 

“You motherfuck-” suddenly a bar of soap appeared in her mouth. Niki automatically spit it out as she coughed up soap and drool as Minnie groaned.

“What with everyone's insistence on swearing. This is getting ridiculous.” She continues complaining as picks up Niki who weakly attempts to kick at Minnie‘s back.

“Where are you taking me?!” Niki demanded.

Minnie ignored her as she opened the back door of Town Hall. “I'm just gonna put you in the meeting room until we get everyone else.” Niki narrows her eyes suspiciously.

“What are you planning?”

“Well, originally I was sleeping with my husband thinking about the wonderful date we will have tomorrow.” She said wistfully as she tied up Niki. “But then you guys decide to wake us up around three in the morning and now Mickey will be too tired to take me on a gondola ride.”

They both heard a scream from the file room as a bunch of devious giggling was heard. Niki’s eyes widen with recognition at the screams as Minnie just shakes her head.

“And the night keeps on getting worse.”

“What are you doing to Ranboo!” Niki yelled as she struggled against her ropes.

“Well, it wasn’t my fault! He must’ve encountered the Warners and he was unlucky enough to be chosen as the special friend.”

Foolish glared at the group of four, trident held in his grip.

“I don’t suppose you wanna just stand down, huh?” Korra asked.

“I’ll do what it takes to get home to my children,” Foolish said. “Do you plan to try to stop me?”

“Stop you from destroying the town at least,” Korra replied.

“Very well,” Foolish said, before spreading his arms, summoning down lightning as a start. Asami, Korra, and Bolin managed to dodge out of the way, while Mako managed to redirect it, throwing it back at Foolish, though it did little to the totem.

The two blasts of fire and the large rock however did do more, knocking him back some, though Foolish was able to stay standing. He flung his trident at one of the toons assailing him, though she was able to leap over it the first go around. She did stumble slightly when it flew back to his hand, allowing him to throw it at one of the others, only for it to embed itself in a rock suddenly appearing in its path.

Foolish shook his head as a blast of water hit him in the face. “You’re gonna have to do a lot better than that to take down a demigod,” Foolish growled, swinging his trident at Asami as she was trying to charge at him, forcing her to jump back.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Korra said, sending another rock at his face, though he was able to easily knock it out of the way.

Foolish stumbled back again at the ice, rock, and fire blast hitting him, only to hear a shout from behind the four, though wasn’t able to properly look to see who it was, as he continued to deflect attacks from the main trio.

Asami, however, did look, only to see Puffy charging Korra from behind. She ran, knocking Puffy from her path to defend her girlfriend.

The pair exchanged blows, Asami managing to use her gauntlet to block Puffy’s attacks.

“I won’t let you hurt my son,” Puffy growled out, swinging her sword again, which Asami was able to dodge with ease.

“And I won’t let you hurt Korra.” Asami dodged another attack, managing to use it as an opening to hit Puffy with her gauntlet. Puffy shouted, before falling to the ground, unconscious.

“PAPA, NO!” Foolish yelled, watching as Puffy hit the ground. “How dare you?!”

Asami was barely able to dodge out of the way when Foolish charged her, his previously emerald green eyes now a solid red. Mako and Bolin both tried to get the totem’s attention off her and onto them, however in his rage at Puffy’s defeat, Foolish was dead set on taking out Asami. She was able to dodge a couple more attacks, before the side of the trident hit her square in the side of the head, with the strength behind the blow being enough to knock her out.

“ASAMI!!!” Korra screamed.

Foolish turned to face Korra, his eyes widening as Korra’s eyes turned blinding white. Foolish was quickly overwhelmed as Korra threw a complete storm of earth, fire, water, and air at him, unable to keep up. Black spots began to dance in his vision, struggling to keep conscious, even as the onslaught stole his breath until eventually, Foolish fell to his knees before keeling over, landing at Puffy’s side.

Korra struggled to catch her breath, as Mako looked up from checking on Asami.

“She’s alive. Unconscious but she'll live.”

“Where’d Bolin go?” Korra asked, looking around and seeing him nowhere.

“Went to go find Steven,” Mako replied. “Him or Katara at least. We weren’t originally sure how bad Asami had been hit so we thought it would be the best move.” Korra just nodded.

“You think the others will be able to handle the fight without us?”

“Hopefully. Besides, you’re not the only avatar running around.”

Sapnap smirked along with George as he looked at a group of colorful princesses and boys in front of them. 

“Very interesting isn’t it George?”

“Listen, half of the server has already been captured,” Glimmer said. “Just stand down.”

Sapnap smiles mischievously as his hand sparks with fire.

“It's time to lighten up your days.” He let out a yell as he threw bursts of fire at the group.

But then there was a sudden gush of water that splashed onto the fireball extinguishing it immediately and is still barreling towards him and George.

“Shit! George, get out of the way!”

George managed to get out of the way but Sapnap got caught up in the water and was blasted back to a tree. He coughed lightly as he slowly got up.

“You know some of us could control water right?” Mermista said.

Sapnap just spit out the water as he just laughed.

“So?”

“That means we will put out any fire you cause,” Katara said. Sapnap just smirked.

“You may be a bunch of darn water witches, but there’s one thing you don’t know about me.” He slowly backs away towards a bunch of houses.

“What the hell are you doing!?”

“You guys may have trained to gain your magic, but I was born in the fire.”

“What are you planning?” Aang asked. Sapnap just smirked before he waved his hand setting those houses blaze.

“NO!” Aang yelled, quickly rushing past Sapnap, Katara and Zuko fast on his heels, Mermista following a bit slower. Katara and Aang used waterbending to put out the fire, Mermista used her own water powers, while Zuko used his own fire abilities to calm and contain the flames. 

Meanwhile, Sapnap found himself struggling to dodge out of the way of a mass of attacks from Toph and several of the princesses.

“What’s wrong with you?” Aang demanded returning to the fray, flinging attacks of fire, water, and air at Sapnap which he narrowly avoided.

“What kind of a bunch of overpowered assholes are you?” Sapnap screams at Aang. 

“You’re the one trying to attack a town full of people who haven’t done anything,” Aang retorted, continuing his attack.

Sapnap growled as he grabbed his sword and slashed at Aang. He easily dodged out of the way, using a blast of wind to knock Sapnap back.  

“Ok, you little shit is this how you wanna play?” 

Before he could do anything he was tied up by plants. “You really need to calm down.”

“Let me go, you overgrown flower!” Sapnap yelled as he struggled against the vines.

“So what, so you could hurt more people?” Bow asked angrily.

“If you guys just sent us home this wouldn’t have happened!”

Before he could respond, Perfuma yelped as an arrow glazed onto her hand causing the plants to loosen. Sapnap quickly sees the opportunity to set the vines on fire.

“Thanks, George!” He yelled out before he rushed towards the others, flames in hand.

“Perfuma! Are you ok!?” Glimmer said as she ran toward her side. “Bow, we forgot the other one!”

“Look out!” Sokka managed to pull Bow away as a few more arrows were shot out. 

“This guy isn’t alone,” Sokka pointed out, “But where is this archer?”

George laughed to himself as he continued to shoot arrows from the tree.

“Glimmer! Perfuma get out of the way!” Glimmer nodded as she teleported away with Perfuma.

Bow looked around, dodging arrows as he tried to figure out where the arrows were coming from.

“He’s moving around, I should be able to find him but it’ll take time, and if he notices me tracking him, he’ll get harder to find.”

“So keep him distracted?” Sokka asked.

“As best you can.” Sokka nodded as he started to run towards the forest, a couple others following after him.

Bow meanwhile bowed behind a building, trying to make his way towards the forest, trying to avoid being seen.

Bow analyzed the arrows, watching from where they came from, and how often the source seemed to move. After a while, Bow began to move, not towards the source, but a large tree a bit aways, that he guessed would be the next place for George to go.

“Sokka… you still got your boomerang?”

 Meanwhile, Sapnap growled at the group surrounding him, sword in one hand and flame in the other.

“You do realize we’re surrounded by very flammable trees right?” Sapnap asked.

“You do realize if you try that you’re gonna burn yourself and your little archer friend too, right?” Mermista retorted. “Honestly, you’re worse than Seahawk.”

“Who?”

Sapnap stumbled forward feeling something hit him in the back of the head, feeling another blow knock him to the ground.

“Nice one, Sokka,” Glimmer said.

Sapnap, nursing his wound, slowly got up. 

“What the hell did you-?!” Before he could finish he got hit again by the boomerang and fell back to the ground.

George gasps at the sight and quickly sets another arrow ready to save his friend, then a sudden blow hits him in the front of his head. George yelped as he fell to the ground next to Sapnap. “What the…”

“You’re in so much trouble,” Glimmer said as everyone else surrounded him.

“Fuck..”

Netossa smiled, throwing nets over both of them.

“Ha! Do you really think that a bunch of nets could stop us?” Sapnap taunts, but his actions tell a different story as he struggles against the net. Which just seems to attach himself the more he struggles. He tries to set it on fire only for it to just glow a bit, absorbing the flames.

“Try to set it on fire all you want, that net is fireproof! ” Netossa said.

Sapnap and George look at each other panicked; this is not how they expected this evening to go.

“I knew that I should have just gone to sleep back at the fort,” George groaned.

Ranboo opened another drawer, groaning as he found more files for random toons.

“I swear there aren’t this many people in town. I mean my god, I’ve seen like 30 people so far.” Ranboo sighed as he kept going, trying to keep quiet, and listening for any change in the noise from above ground. Not that he could hear much, the walls were surprisingly thick. Though that hopefully meant no one would hear him sneaking around down here looking for the files.

“Why, hello there, I don’t think you’re supposed to be down here.”

Ranboo jumped, turning to see three smiling, dog-things? Looking at him.

“Oh hehe, hey there,” Ranboo said, backing up.

“Now what are you doing down here?”

“Oh, you know, stuff.”

“You’re not trying to destroy any of the files are you?”

“What? No, don’t be ridiculous,” Ranboo said, forcing a laugh.

“Hmm, I don’t know if I believe him, do you guys?” Yakko said, turning to face his siblings. Wakko and Dot just shook their heads.

“I’m not!” Ranboo repeated, raising his hands in front of them. “Just looking, promise.”

“Now, why would you be doing that?” Dot asked, suddenly standing behind him.

“Reasons?” Ranboo said, turning and trying to back up again only to back into Wakko.

“What sort of reasons?” Wakko asked. 

Ranboo just kept looking between the siblings.

“Hmm, what do you guys think?” Yakko asked. “Special friend time?”

“What does that mean?” Ranboo asked, as the Warners, moved to all be standing in front of him. Instead of responding, Wakko and Dot just stared at him for a second before nodding.

“Oh, this is gonna be fun,” Yakko said. 

“What is wrong with you people?” Adora demanded, staring down at Eret and Tubbo.

“I could ask you the same thing after what Techno, Phil, and Tommy overheard,” Eret said. 

“You’re delusional, we never planned to hurt you!”

“Heard that before, they still ended up hurting me,” Tubbo said.

“You’re paranoid,” Adora said, adjusting her grip on her sword, “we don’t have to fight.”

Eret and Tubbo just pointed weapons at her.

“Apparently we do,” Adora just sighed. “Alright. FOR THE HONOR OF GREYSKULL!”

Eret and Tubbo stumbled back at the blinding flash, both slightly surprised at Adora suddenly growing taller. Neither had much of a chance to regather themselves before Adora was charging them, quickly on the offensive.

Tubbo was able to dodge out of the way with ease, though Eret was much clumsier, betraying her limited combat skills, barely able to raise their shield enough to block Adora’s attack.

Tubbo charged, kicking Adora in the side, before swinging his sword at her, trying to distract her from Eret. While the strike made contact, Adora barely stumbled, quickly turning to focus on Tubbo. 

Tubbo was able to dodge and weave out of the way of Adora’s attacks, however, Adora was able to block or simply absorb all of Tubbo’s strikes. Her combat skills weren’t aided by Eret’s interference, with her attempting to try Adora up, and aiming dirt at her eyes at one point.

“Okay, you’re getting annoying,” Adora said, blocking another one of Tubbo’s attacks, before suddenly reaching out and grabbing Eret by the collar, flinging him against a wall, which Eret slid down, not getting back up.

Without Eret providing interference, the fight quickly went badly for Tubbo. Adora seemed to expect half of his moves, and Tubbo quickly fell as well, as she hit him with the pommel of his sword.

Adora sighed, looking down at the two unconscious server members. She hadn’t wanted to do this, and couldn’t understand why they wanted to.

Techno stumbled back, readjusting his grip on his axe. Bugs was one of the tougher opponents he had faced, but Techno was still standing. He had heard the wither fall behind him but hadn’t had much time to focus on it, throwing all his energy into his battle with Bugs. He was tired, but Bugs hadn’t gotten out of the first part of the battle completely unharmed.

“Look, just stand down already,” Bugs said, readjusting his grip on his hammer.

“Why should I?” Techno asked, pointing his swords at the rabbit.

“Don’t know if you noticed, Doc, but you’re the only one left standing.”

Techno looked around, eyes widening as he realized Bugs was right. Around him, the other server members lay unconscious, several being carried towards somewhere. Purpled, Karl, and Jack, meanwhile, were being led into the square, hands bound behind their backs. Karl’s eyes widen as he looks at the scene.

“Sapnap? Quackity?” Jack just shakes his head at the mess.“What did you idiots do….” Techno ignored Jack as he turned toward one familiar body on the ground.

“Phil-” Techno said, staring at where Phil was laid on the steps of the town hall, starting to shake with barely contained rage. Only for the world to go black before he could do anything.

Bugs sighed looking down at Techno as he crumpled after a final blow to the back of the head.

“You’d think someone as good at fighting as him would know better than to turn their back on their opponent,” Bugs said, looking up. “Is that everyone dealt with?”

“Pretty much. I’ve got Niki tied up in Town Hall, and I think the Warners have Ranboo pretty thoroughly distracted. Having a bit of trouble moving Foolish anywhere though. He’s pretty heavy,” Minnie said.

“I mean he is made of what seems to be solid gold,” Daffy said. “Still don’t see why Donald had to interrupt my debate.”

“Because you were just standing there yelling at Quackity. We had to actually knock him out at some point,” Donald pointed out.

“So what are we doing with them anyway?” Eda asked, dropping Fundy.

“Throw them in one of the prison cells for now. We’ll figure out what to do with them tomorrow.”

“What do you mean I missed an entire battle?!” Scarlett asked as she put on her clothes. 

“Well you were asleep and you get cranky when you wake up” Toby answered through the door.

“Why didn’t you wake me up for it?!” 

“If we left you behind then you’ll be angry at us for leaving you behind.” Minerva pointed out. Scarlett sighed as she opened the door.

“Ok, where’s the server then?”

“I don’t know? Dad is in bed….”

The rascals wander to the next room, which is currently being guarded by the Warners

“Hey, guys.” Minerva walks in with an innocent expression on her face

“Sorry but your face isn’t cute enough to get us not to think you’re planning on getting into this room,” Dot said, arms crossed.

“What do you mean I mean all we wanted was to figure out what happened to the little server.” Wakko just laughs as he spits out a newspaper.

“Well you know how the town gets with the news, it always comes quick.” Toby grimaced as he touched the newspaper which, despite the spit, on it the letters of the front line still clearly read, “ Mysterious Group Attacks town, All the Heroes Managed to Take Terrorists Down After They Dare to Attack Us Around Fucking Three in the Morning.”

“Guess Aunt Daisy is just as pissed as everyone else” Scarlett notes.

“Yeah, most people don’t like it when someone wakes them up around three in the morning,” Wakko replied.

“OK, can we see dad?” Minerva asked. 

“No,” the Warners responded in unison.

“Is there any way to convince you to allow us a few minutes to talk to him?”

“Nope.”

“Well if we give you some money would you allow us to come in?” Scarlett asked.

“How much?” Dot asked. Scarlet took out A $50 bill.

”Just get out the way we just wanna ask some questions.”

The Warners stared at the money for a moment before Yakko took it. 

“You only got 15 minutes and then we’re kicking you out, you know.”

“I know.”

They open the door to see Bugs sleeping on the bed.

“Dad?” Toby asked. Bugs groaned, throwing an arm over his head. “What is it?”

“We were wondering what happened last night,” Minerva said.

“Server went nuts, tried blowing up the town.”

“Where are they now?” Toby asked.

“Currently in jail, we’re planning on discussing what to do with them later or tomorrow.”

“Ok…?”

“Can you arrest and put people from a different universe on trial?” Toby asked. Bugs groans as he covers his head with a pillow.

“Listen I don’t know, either way, they’re gonna sit in jail to think about what they did.” The rascals looked at each other before they nodded.

“Understandable, I guess we have to get going,” Scarlett said 

 “I’m glad that you are considerate enough to let me-” Bugs stopped himself before quickly turning towards the rascals. “No. Don't you dare.”

“What are you talking about? We did nothing wrong.” Minerva asked innocently.

“I know that look on your face; you’re not going to visit them.”

They frowned a bit. 

“Well, what’s wrong with a little visit?” Toby asked.

“Did I mention the part where they tried to blow up the town? You are not to go visit them under any circumstances, understood?” The Rascals look at each other as they cross their fingers on their back. 

“We won't...we promise.”

“Uncross your fingers,” Bugs said.

“We won’t do anything rash, dad, we promise. You get some more sleep. Besides, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot will be in here any second to kick us out,” Scarlett said. 

“You are not to go into that prison, promise me.”

“We promise, dad,” The rascals said in unison, pouting. Bugs nodded, before laying back down as the rascals left the room, letting the Warners take their spot guarding the door again. The trio walked towards the living room before sitting down to talk.

“Wonder what led to the server trying to do that?” Minerva said.

“Who knows, not like we can just ask them,” Scarlett said.

“Unless we break into the prison,” Toby responded.

“And before we even leave the front door,” Scarlett said, deadpan. “Should we be worried that if we do so we’ll get caught 10 seconds flat?”

“That’s a good point,” Toby said.

“Come on, aren’t you guys even slightly curious as to why they did it?” Minerva said.

“Well yeah, but like I already said, we can’t exactly ask them that, not unless they get let out,” Scarlett said. “There’s no way Dad is gonna let us visit them, not after that.”

“Not unless we break in, and I have no idea how we’d go about that,” Toby .

“Perhaps we could teach you how to break into a building,”  Sasha said with a smile on her face as she and the ghost crew appeared.

“That’s a great idea!” Tim said, his eyes sparkling at the opportunity. “ There’s a couple tricks I could teach you from the time that we were alive.”

“Ohhh maybe it could be like one of those great escape movies!” 

“Maybe, but maybe not that far….”

“We are not teaching the children how to break into prison,” Gertrude said, holding the two ghosts by their shirts. “ At least wait until Tobias is 15.”

“Admittedly it isn’t a good idea to do so,” Jon said.

“Come on boss, don’t you want them to get early experience?” Tim said.

“Yeah!” Sasha agreed.   “If you’re worried about security cameras, I can do a few tricks on them to make sure they don’t see them.”

“Yeah! Uncle Tim is right, what’s wrong with a little early learning?” Minerva said with a bit of mischief in her eyes. Toby shook his hands, excited, and Scarlett seemed to be buzzing. Jon looked at the kids perplexed before he turned to his boyfriend.

“ Uh...Martin help?”

“Maybe a compromise; when I get better you won’t be in the prison but you’ll be near it just enough for no one to see you,” Martin suggested. Jon looked at Martin for a moment before he nodded.

“ That sounds about right….”

“Perfect!” Scarlett said. “Plus he can’t really say that we broke the rules if we weren’t in the prison.”

“True…” Gertrude rolled her eyes before she turned towards the kids. “ We'll help. But you have to be the ones to get the supplies.” Minerva smiles at Gertrude as she looks around the house.

“Oh, I got so many ideas to try out.”

Chapter Text

A soft groan escapes from Tommy’s mouth as he slowly gets up from the ground. He just remembered his fight was Steven him telling him to put down his weapon and something hit him in the back of his neck…

He squinted his eyes as he looked around the room, seeing a gray room, with little to no furniture, he looked up to see a pair of bars on the windows and…

Wait!? bars!?

Tommy sat up, heart racing as he looked around to realize he was in a prison cell, memories of the last time he found himself in a cell forcing their way into his head.

“No no no no no no,” Tommy muttered, gripping his hair and trying to fight off the coming panic attack.

“Tommy?” A voice called out, though Tommy barely noticed.

“Tommy! Calm down, mate!”

“Phil?” Tommy asked, looking around.

“Yeah, looks like they threw us in prison after the failed riot,” Phil said, his voice coming from to his left.

Tommy turned around to find himself facing a wall of bars, Sam lying curled up on the ground across from him. If he walked forward he could just see cells to either side of Sam’s, but couldn’t tell who was in them.

“At least I’m not alone in here,” Tommy said, moving to sit next to the left wall.

“You idiots are finally awake!” A voice called out.

“Oh hey, Big Manifold.”

“Don’t go all Big Manifold on me!” Jack yelled out. “You all have so much explaining to do! How did you guys fucked up this badly!?”

“Is everyone here?” Puffy called out from somewhere to Tommy’s right.

A couple of voices rang out, as well as some groans.

“I still feel sore. I don't think that’s a good sign… shouldn’t we feel a bit better…?”

“How is everyone’s health level!?” Puffy asked Panic filling her voice

Everyone pulled down their sleeves and an uncomfortable silence spread. Tommy’s face fell, his heart began pounding in his chest as he struggled to calm down, staring down at the two hearts on his arm.

“Well that explains why I feel so much like garbage,” Sam said quietly, so quiet Tommy could barely hear.

 “Yeahhhhh this is a bit of a problem,” Techno said. Even with his attempt of staying calm, Tommy could tell that Techno seemed just as concerned as everyone else.  “We need to fuel up now. With this amount of hearts, we’ll be lucky to survive even one hit.”

“We need to grab our items and eat our food quickly!”

The server waved their hand trying to summon their items, some selection, something to show that they still got their items…but nothing.

A brief moment of silence passed before Jack screamed. 

“Of fucking course we don’t have our inventory in this place! I mean it’s not like that they’re just gonna forget that most of our weapons are in there. They probably took all our items and food to make sure  that we didn’t bring any weapons in our food or some shit!”

“Jack, I know that this is a lot but you need to calm down,”  Niki said. 

“I need to calm down?! ME?!” Jack yelled as he walked around the room of his cell “Because I said that maybe this isn’t a good idea, we don’t actually know what they’re saying! For all we know it could be a mistake or some shit, but no! You guys have to go out there and fuck things up! Now we’re all trapped in jail! They’re probably going to kill us soon and you have no other plan do you!” Jack just took a deep breath and began to pant, rage clear on his face.

“We didn’t expect them to be so tough,” Sapnap said.

“Why can’t we access our inventories though?” Eret wondered aloud.

“We block all your powers for now. We can’t have you destroying stuff in the jail.” a voice came out. 

The server turns around to see a rabbit pushing a cart in front of them. Her violet eyes show a bit of kindness but still, have a bit of caution for the server.

“Very clever. If you’re going to kill us you should at the very least have a courtesy of doing that before locking us in here or are you trying to scare us by having us on one heart?” Quackity growled out.

Judy just stared at them. “No… are you hungry? We did a bit of a coin flip and I’m the one who is bringing your food.“

“You’re gonna give us raw potatoes?” Sam asked.

 “We got some sandwiches. Why would someone feed anyone raw potato?” Judy asked.

Sam didn’t respond to that, and Judy began to pass out the sandwiches. A couple of server members hesitated before grabbing them, but others quickly grabbed them and scarfed them down.

“Your food doesn’t even do shit it’s not even raising our hearts up!” Quackity complained loudly, causing Sam and Eret to groan. 

“Heart?” Judy’s eyes widened. “Are you guys suffering from some sort of heart condition? I'll tell the others so that  a doctor could check on you!”

“What no? It’s our health meters. Do you not have those?” Quackity asked quieter this time.

“No…That's good….I’m a bit surprised that you guys are even conscious? I mean based on what the other said, some of you guys hit your head.”

“I wish I wasn’t conscious,” Sam muttered, curling back up on the floor and doing his best to cover his head.

“OK,” there was a brief moment of silence before Judy spoke up “So why did you do that?”

“Did what?” Ranboo asked

“Attack the town.” Judy said, “I mean none of us hurt you and you did caused a lot of property damage and could’ve hurt a lot of people with your weapon.”

“You betrayed us first,” Phil grumbled.

“And how exactly did we do that?” Judy asked, resting her paws on her hips.

“You planned on hunting us down and keeping us here!” Tommy yelled. More groans from Sam, Eret, and Techno.

“No? We were discussing the ways to get you back home. Some people got concerns about you guy but-”

“Mmhmm, you say that now,” Quackity muttered out.

“Listen, what makes you think that we would ever keep you here? what would we even do with you if we did that?”

“Force us to fight for your amusement? Kill us? Run fucked up experiments on us?” Quackity said, starting to breathe quicker.

Judy just stared at them in shock. “What?! Why would we do that?! What makes you think that we were suddenly hurting random people that we met?!”

“Learn what we are, how we work,” Puffy said.

Judy just groaned “We weren’t going to do that…”

“And why should we believe you?” Quackity demanded.

Judy just groaned. “Look, the head toons will be by to talk to you later.” With that Judy walked out, letting the door slam behind her, leading to more groans.

“Un-fucking believable, who does she think she is?” Quackity growled. 

“She doesn’t seem to be lying, she seems to actually believe that they’re trying to help…” Niki whispers as she sits down “Either their leaders are lying to them, or She is in on it as well and just trying to calm us down…”

“Or we’re dealing with some sort of cult shit.”

“That would explain a few things…”

“Great just when we thought that we escaped from an Egg cult only to be sacrificed to a bunch of monsters…” Quackity moan.

Jack just groaned as he lay down on his bed. He should have come with them if they’re gonna be that stupid.

“And I can’t even have access to my flask….”

Then there was a knock at the window.

“Hello there!”

Jack looks up expecting to see One of the Toons taunting them or something only to see..

“Toby?”

Toby waves his hands as Minerva and Scarlett scooch next to him.

“Hey guys you seem to be in a bit of a pickle,” Minerva said.

“Don’t suppose you can get us out can you?” Jack asked.

“We’re not going to break you out, we made a promise not to do so.” Scarlett interrupted.

“Didn’t think so,” Jack groaned, suddenly sitting down. “Do you know what they’re planning on doing to us?”

“Hold you here? I think that’s about it,” Minerva said. “They’re gonna have a meeting later to make a final decision.”

“Minerva?” Tommy called out “You’re here!?”

“Can y’all stop yelling and shut the fuck up,” Eret groaned out. “You are not helping my head.”

“Please get us out?!” Tommy asked. 

“But we made a promise and we never break a promise!”

“Well…. Technically we’re not gonna do anything if we get out of town,” Purpled say.

“You’re not?

“No, we're just gonna go back to our Fort and just stay there.”

“Wait, where’s Michael?” Ranboo suddenly yelled. “Tubbo! Do you have Michael?!”

“No! Shit, where’s our son?!” Tubbo responded

Tommy’s eyes widened and realized as well Michael doesn’t seem to be the only person missing. “Fuck!  Have you seen Ghostbur as well!?” Tommy yelled.

“Wait, that Michael kid. Your son?”  Scarlett asked, turning towards Tommy. “And you all got one ghost with you?”

The three nodded panicky as they rush towards the window. 

“Where did they put him?!” Tubbo shouted.

“Don’t worry, one of the Toons got him. I think Rapunzel and Eugene,” Toby said cheerfully. “She’ll take good care of him.”

“Someone I’ve never met has my son! I’m going to worry no matter how well you say she’ll take care of him! He’s my son!” Ranboo yelled.

“We get it but it’s not like anyone else wants to put a child in jail, especially one that small.” Toby said nervously. “And don’t worry! Once they talk to you they will bring him back to you.”

Ranboo didn’t respond, just muttering to himself and pacing in worry.

Tommy look at Ranboo worriedly before turning to the rascals “And Ghostbur?”

They shrugged “Haven’t seen him. If he says he’s a ghost he probably is currently invisible….”

Tommy only nodded quietly. “I mean maybe you could let us out just to see them.”

“I don’t know, we did make a promise and you guys are in trouble for a reason…”

“Listen,” Techno then stood up and walked towards his window towards the rascals “I know that’s a lot has happened. We attack the town and cause a bit of minor terrorism.” 

“You guys nearly burnt down several houses and used a super weapon.”

“I know, I know but listen even if you are not going to let us go because of some promise at least consider letting Ranboo and the gov…” Techno stops himself at that “…Tubbo go.”

“I don’t know,” Minerva crosses her arms and looks around.  “We still made a promise to Dad and if we broke that promise he’ll get pissed.”

“We’re only here to check on you guys and we overheard yours and Judy’s conversation so we got most of our answers.” Scarlett added

“And Jon and Gertrude say that we’re only here to watch and it took some convincing for us to even allow us to even get near you,” Toby noted.

“And those are understandable doubts but we’re just gonna be out for a little bit and then we’ll go back to our area without causing any more trouble.”

The rascals looked at one another and whispered. 

“Are we really gonna do this?” Scarlett asked.

“Yep,” Minerva responded. “what do you say, Scarlett?”

“We could get people hurt, we only promised him that we only visit them.”

“Especially considering everything that just happened,” Gertrude added.

Jon popped in as well “And let’s not forget the fact that they could be lying.”

Minerva shrugged “Well if they were lying we will drag them back to jail”

Jon raised his eyebrows “Really?”

“I mean we’re letting them out because they’re willing to change.” Toby said.

“We should let them out but we could stay in the fort for a little bit to make sure they don’t cause any trouble.”

“Do you have any plans on sneaking them out?” Tim asked. 

“We just have them run?”

The ghosts just stared at them with confusion. 

“What”

The rascals just smiled at them “Just trust us on this! We just saw Judy and Nick left to talk to Dad and then we’ll have them run to the woods and then we’ll sneak there and then they will be in the fort.” Minerva said

The ghosts look at each other before sighing  “Just… don’t do anything stupid.” Martin said before they fade away. 

“We made an executive decision,” Scarlett announced to the server “But you guys got to replace the promise that we made to Dad if this is gonna work.”

Quackity scoffed “Really that sounds like-”

The server narrows their eyes at Quackity. 

“A wonderful idea… what kind of promise?”

“You will promise that you’re not going to hurt our family and you’re going to go back to your fort and stay there for a little while until things finally cool down.” Minerva stated.

“Really?!” Tommy said.

“Do you want to get out?”

“Yes…”

“Then put your hands on your heart and promise”

The server looks at each other as they mumble something about it being stupid but they all stood up and put their hands on their hearts.

“We promise not to do anything to the town folks and go back to the fort like nothing happened.”

The rascal stared at them before nodding “That’s great! Your promise manage to replace the one that we got.”

“That’s it?!” Quackity said.

“Yep.”

“Well that was easy,” Jack said. “I was expecting more blood.”

“Yeah at the very least we’ll be back to figure out what to do next,” Phil whispered to himself.  “Probably figure out a way to beat them.”

As the rascals walked towards the front door Toby tilted his head on the side with a confused look on his face.  

“Jon, what are you talking about? Dad is not going to be here and Judy already left.”

But just before the rascals even left for the Front door. Several hands grab them and lift them off the ground with a yelp.

“-Out of all the irresponsible things that you guys would have decided to do-” Bugs yelled.

“Uhhh… Hi Dad,” Toby said.

“WAIT! Bugs is your dad?!” Jack yelled, once again met by a chorus of groans.

“That is pretty low for you all to try to convince them to help you escape,” Judy said. “Honestly, do you have any shame?”

“Technically it is willing,” Scarlett remarked “They did replace your promise, Dad.”

“I don’t care. They’re staying put and you three are going home. You can consider yourselves grounded,” Bugs said. “Now go!”

The rascals muttered to themselves and started to walk home. 

“Well that went well…” Fundy mumbled

“Yeah and I’m guessing that we get to start talking early this time,” Bugs growled. “Judy, Nick tell the others that if they’re looking for me I’ll be with them.”

Judy and Nick nodded before walking away.

The server struggled to keep themselves calm as they heard Bugs slam the door open. Silently staring at him as he stalked into the jail, looking at them each in turn. 

“Now I have a few questions about why you attacked the town last night around three in the morning?!”

“We heard you threatenin’ to keep us here against our will. We were defendin’ ourselves. Plus threatenin’ to eat Quackity? You really expect us to trust you?” Techno growled out, doing everything in his power to ignore the pounding in his head. “I mean I don’t like the guy but that was beyond messed up.”

“Admittedly that was a mistake on our part, Not keeping an eye on them.” Bugs mumbled “But how much did you hear that got you thinking that we would hold you against your will? Do you listen to all of it or did you just listen to some of it and just went with your assumption?”

“We heard enough,” Techno grumbled.

“I’m going to take that to mean that you didn’t hear everything,” Bugs said before groaning. “Do you always jump to assumptions this quickly?”

“You threatened to eat my ssson, that is more than enough for me,” Sam hissed out, lifting his head slightly to glare at him.

Bugs sighed “I get it… But that doesn’t justify what you did. The number of people that could have been hurt. I mean that skull-thing!was targeting random houses! And one of your numbers literally tried to burn houses!”

“Sapnap!” Karl cried out.

“They were empty! And I was fighting water witches!”

“How would you know that?!” Bugs demanded. “Plus, people still lived there.” 

“They could just rebuild them,” George yawned. “I mean people destroy houses every day and no one complains about it either that or they just burn their house and they call it even.”

“That’s not how that works here!” Bugs yelled.

“It’s not our fault that your world sucks!” George said smugly before going laying down again. “And keep it down I’m trying to sleep.”

“Please?” Tubbo said.

Sam just groaned again.

Bugs’s eyes soft in a bit at that, looking concern for the server.

“Are you even all right?”

“I’m all fine and dandy…”

“Yeah I’m definitely going to get a doctor.”

“We don’t need a doctor!” Tommy shouted. “We can handle ourselves and don’t need any needle sticking into us!“

“You definitely do need a doctor,I forgot how hard some of them hit…” Bugs said, looking around focusing on the couple just laying curled up in their cells. Bugs walk to the phone and dial it “Dr. Maheswaran… can you do me a favor… we need some assistance.“

After a few moments, there was a knock at the door, Bugs opened it to let in a dark-skinned woman wearing a doctor’s coat. 

“You all really did a number on them,” She said, walking down the hall looking into each of the cells in turn.

“Yeah… Self-defense though,” Bugs joked.

“Of course the government brought in their own doctor… probably try to stick some needles into us, you bastards.” 

“At least we know that they’re lying about not experimenting on others,” Quackity said under his breath.

“You are a very paranoid bunch of patients,” Dr. Maheswaren said, stopping at one cell. “Are you the one the Gems were fighting?”

“Maybe so, We have too many experiences with quacks that like you!” Sam hissed “The only doctor that we need is Ponk and… They’re not here right now.”

“No, they’re not.”

“Either way I don’t need you to stick any needles into me” 

“What is with your obsession with needles?” Dr. Maheswaren asked. “Bugs, do you know what happened to him?”

“I don’t know there was an entire blank on his childhood…”

“I meant in the riot.”

“Garnet say that she struck him with lightning and that end up lighting him up for a bit and then a little while later she punch him in the head”

“How many times do I have to tell her…” Dr. Maheswaren sighed. “There’s no way that didn’t lead to a concussion.”

“It’s not a concussion,” Puffy said “We slept just fine…”

“What?!”

That’s not a good thing?”

“We're not supposed to just sleep through them?”

“No! No you're not!”

“I sleep through concussions all the time,” Sapnap said. “I’m still here.”

“How are you all not dead yet?”

“We’re only dead if our heath meter is down, and we’re not dead yet.”

“What does that mean? Like in one of those video games Steven sometimes plays?” 

There was a brief moment of silence at the server just stared at her

“What now…?”

“So how could you tell that your Health is low?”

“That’s…” Dr. Maheswaren paused before continuing. “Okay obviously your world is much more different from ours than I realized. We can’t really measure our health in some bar or whatever, and how healthy people are can vary wildly, not just based on injuries but other things as well.”

The server paused for a minute before Tommy responded, “Well that sounds stupid.”

“Well that’s how it works,” Dr. Maheswaren said. “Now are you all going to let me do my job or not?”

“I’m not letting you run any experiments on me lady,” Techno said.

“I’m not going to experiment on you. I’m a doctor not a mad scientist. What sort of malpractice is going on in your world for that to be your first assumption?”

“Please, we’re not gonna tell you our backstory,” Karl said

“You all are a very stubborn bunch. Look, I’m not sure how things work in your world, but here, things like untreated concussions and the like can and do kill. Bugs just let me into one of the cells.”

The server pushed themselves against the walls as Bugs opened the door to Tubbo’s cell, allowing Dr. Maheswaren in but standing right by it in case Tubbo tried anything. 

Dr. Maheswaren walked over to kneel next to Tubbo, looking at his eyes for a minute before turning his head to the side in order to look at where Adora had hit him.

“What’s 8 times 7?”

“What?” Tubbo asked. “Why are you asking me math problems?”

“Checking your cognition. Please answer the question.”

Tubbo sat blinking for a couple of seconds humming. 

“I see. What’s your son’s name?” Dr. Maheswaren asked, pulling a small thing out of a pocket of her coat and messing with it for a couple seconds.

“Michael?”

“Alright that’s good. Any issues with light or sound?”

Tubbo just did his best to avoid looking at her.

Dr. Maheswaren sighed before standing up and messing with the strange device and walking back towards the cell door.

“Definitely concussed, someone will need to keep an eye on him.” Dr. Maheswaren said before moving onto the next cell as Bugs locked it behind her.

”But I don’t get concussion…” Tubbo mumbled but the woman ignored him as she repeated the process with Eret, Techno, Sam, and Fundy to varying degrees of success, with Techno having to be physically restrained by Bugs in order for Dr. Maheswaren to actually get a look at him.

“Right, all of those five have concussions. Someone will need to keep constant watch over them for the next bit. Techno seems to be the least affected, but it’s hard to say with him refusing to cooperate. Honestly, what made you think it was a good idea to just throw them in here and leave them in this state?”

“We didn’t know they had concussions,” Bugs said, weakly trying to defend himself.

“You knew they were hit on the head hard enough to be knocked unconscious. You should have called me right away.”

“It was three in the morning!”

“I was awake! Everyone in town was awake!”

Bugs just grumbled in response. 

“Anyway, those five need to be observed until tomorrow, for now I should check on the others involved in the fight.”

“OK, so what‘s you planning on doing to us?” Tommy asked, “You’re not going to leave us here.”

“That’ll depend on a couple things. For now, just play nice and let Dr. Maheswaren do her job,” Bugs said.

Tommy just glared at Bugs “I don’t like you.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

“Let’s keep moving please? I’d like to be home for dinner,” Dr. Maheswaren said.

Bugs just grumbled, before letting her into the next cell.

“ What happened to your wings?” Dr. Maheswaren asked, glancing at Phil’s wings once she was inside his cell.

“I thought you all would already know that,” Phil said.

“Well if we already know then surely there’s no harm in telling me?”

Phil grumbled for a couple of seconds before sighing. “There was an explosion and I lost them saving my son.”

“I see,” Dr. Maheswaren said, a frown on her face. “ What happened to your son?”

“That’s in my file, I’m sure. I’m not talking about it. Not here and not with a stranger,” Phil blurted out.

Dr. Maheswaren just looked at him before kneeling down to look him over. 

“Bugs, can you get me my bag?”

“Woah, no no no! I’m not letting you get any needles near me!” Phil said rising, as Dr. Maheswaren walked over to take a bag from Bugs. 

“What are you doing to him?!” Techno yelled, running to the front of his cell.

“Bandaging his wounds. So they don’t get infected,” Dr. Maheswaren said, pulling a roll of bandages out of the bag and holding them up. “I’m not going to be doing anything that would require needles. I don’t even have any syringes on me.”

Phil just glared but sat back down as Bugs glared at him. Though the calm didn’t last long as she also pulled a strange pair of scissors out of the bag as well.

“What is-”

“Bandage scissors. For cutting bandages,” Dr. Maheswaren interrupted. 

“Have you never been bandaged before?” Bugs asked.

“We usually got our potions with us until a certain group of people took them away from us!”

“Well in this world, we use bandages,” Dr. Maheswaren said, kneeling back down next to Phil, grabbing his arm and beginning to wrap the burn where Donald had hit him, though Phil started struggling when Dr. Maheswaren went to access the burn on his back.

“What are you doing now?!” Phil said, tugging away from her.

“You have a burn on your back, I need to bandage that too.”

“Do you though?”

“Yes. This will take less than a minute if you just cooperate!” 

“I'll cooperate if you just give us our inventory back and let me get my health potion,” Phil growled. “ I don’t need this.”

“What, so you can blow up more stuff?” Bugs demanded. “No way! Whether let Dr. Maheswaren treat you or deal with the infection risks yourself!”

Philza glared but eventually let Dr. Maheswaren bandage the burn on his back, even if he did grumble the entire time he was doing it.

Dr. Maheswaren stood and left the cell after doing so, leaving Phil to readjust his coat and shirt, grumbling to himself, as she went on to the next cell.

“You must be Tommy,” She said as Bugs let her in.

“Fuck you!”

“That’s how we’re going to start, hmm?”

“I already dealt with people like you before, don’t need another fucking mad scientist, thank you very much.”

“Once again, not a mad scientist, just a doctor.” Dr. Maheswaren rolled her eyes slightly, starting to look Tommy over for any obvious injuries.

Tommy tried not to look away as she found some of the bruises on him. 

“Bugs… where did he get those bruises?”

Bugs for the first time looked surprised at them. “I never really seen those before at all plus when we were picking him up it didn’t appear on him.”

“That’s odd….” 

“You know what I’m feeling a lot better, I totally don’t need a doctor I’m fine-” Tommy said frantically, but froze as he noticed the doctor staring at the bandage on his neck. “What’s on your neck?”

“Nothing! It’s nothing! I just have a bandage there to look cool,” Tommy said, covering the bandage with his hand.

“If you’re injured, I can treat it,” she said, gently trying to pull Tommy’s hand away.

“No! You don’t need to see it, you wrongun!”

Dr. Maheswaren just tugged Tommy’s hand away and peeled off the bandage before Tommy could react.

“Tommy what is that….” She said, eyes wide.

Tommy just started breathing shakily, trying to keep himself calm.

Dr. Maheswaren sighed before gently putting another bandage on Tommy’s neck. “I’m sorry.”

Dr. Maheswaren gave Tommy another once over before standing up. “Besides the bruises and… that, you seem just fine.” With that she stood up and walked out of the cell, moving on to continue her work more solemnly. 

After checking on the health of the rest of the server members and treating what wounds she could, she closed her bag back up and began to walk towards the door.

“Like I said someone needs to be here to watch over those with concussions, but they should be stable,” Dr. Maheswaren said.

“I’ll walk you out,” Bugs said, going to follow her.

“Fine, but once I’m gone you had better call someone to watch them,” she said, glaring at him.

“I will, I will, I promise.”

Bugs followed Dr. Maheswaren out before sighing. “So, what did you think?”

“They’re certainly a paranoid bunch. It’s not hard to see them hearing a couple lines out of context and jumping to terrorism. I am curious about why though.”

“Me too, especially what I saw there…. You say that someone was missing from the group?”

“Yep. From the files it looks like one of the most dangerous of the group.”

Dr. Maheswaren looked at him concerned “How dangerous is he?”

“At least most of these guys seem to have some level of empathy, I don’t think this ‘Dream’ guy does, plus he’s left a couple of these guys ridiculously traumatized. Most of the bruises on Tommy were from him, plus  the cut on his neck.”

“ Huh… do you think that they heard something about him that might have caused them to react the way they did? I mean that’s what Connie said they weren't nice but they didn’t suddenly decide to destroy the town.”  She noted

“Don’t think so, no I think whatever happened in those missing parts of their files left more scars than it might seem,” Bugs said.

“Sounds like they all need therapy.”

“The only other therapist has got her degree online so not surprising…”

“There are some good online schools.”

“No, I mean she bought it off the internet, she never went to school.”

“What-”

“You heard me.”

“...No wonder they’re such messes.”

“And of course my kids got attached to them…”

“I feel for you. At least the Gems try to make sure no one gets hurt even if they don’t understand humans very well.”

“Yeah, I caught them trying to break into the jail to free them.”

“I can’t say Connie has ever tried anything like that.”

“Yeah,” Bugs said, rubbing his forehead.

“Migraine coming on?”

“You got it doc.”

“You head on home, I’ll call Judy to have her work out with people to watch the server,” Dr. Maheswaren said, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

“Alright, I’ll head home. Thanks for your help Doc.”

Bugs began to walk away from the Jail, barely paying attention to Dr Maheswaren talking to Judy.

Bugs open the door to his house, stumble towards the couch. He groaned as he lay down on it and threw the blanket over him. A migraine spread throughout his head. Well, that was concerning. 

“Hey Bugs” he opened his eyes to see the other Head Toons and a few other of his friends staring at him.

“Hello people that don’t live here.” Bugs mumble before getting up.  “What are you doing here, guys?”

“Well we heard that you were talking to the server and considering what they’re like…. We should check on you,” Mickey said with a smile.

“Ok, great you checked on me. Now if you excuse me, I’m going to lay down-”

“So, We heard about what your kids have done.” Daisy said sitting next to him on the couch. 

“The attempt to break a bunch of dangerous people out?” Bugs said tiredly 

Daisy nodded “What is with those kids?”

“ I guess they were bored….”

“We were trying to help! Don’t get it twisted” A voice cried out from upstairs before the door slammed again.

“Definitely bored…” Donald said. 

“I’m a bit surprised that they were willing to get close to them like this.”

“Me too...”

“Why did they get so attached to them?” Daffy asked

“I don’t know?!” Bugs shouted.

“Told you that boy’s trusting nature would get him in trouble” Pete grumbled.

“Pete, that's not helping!”

“I am helping and I’m telling you that you should make sure that that kid doesn’t get himself in trouble by befriending a bunch of unstable nutjobs.”

“So what did Dr. Maheswaren say?” Mickey asked, trying to change the subject. 

“Well, some of them got concussions and she was pretty upset that we allowed them to be like that when we put them in the cell.”

“Well it was three in the morning and we just want to be back in bed…” Donald grumbled.

“I said that, and she wasn’t happy about that excuse.”

“So anything else besides a couple of burns on Phil,” Bugs noticed Donald rolled his eyes at that. “Most of them were surprisingly okay, we also learned that they got health meters.”

“Like video games?” Minnie asked.

“More or less,” Bugs said with a frown.

“Shoot, I think that I got a theory…” Mickey said.

“Let me guess we pick up a bunch of characters from some dystopian future game thing,” Bugs groaned

“That would explain a few things. It would also explain that anarchist pig guy.”

“So what’s the plan for them?” Minnie asked, “We can’t keep them in jail forever.”

“Obviously we’re not gonna kick them out of town,” Bug mumbled. “But I can't really trust that they won’t come back and start burning everything.”

“A-also your kids got-t attached to them-m.” Porky added. 

“Also I was thinking that we should learn more about them rather than judge them for this one incident. I mean they’re not the best but should we be reforming them rather than acting like they’re too dangerous?” Goofy said.

The head toons look at each other as they think about it.

“That is a good point,” Daisy said.

“But difficult considering how stubborn they are,” Bugs said. “As well as the fact that they seem to be rather convinced that we were going to experiment on them.”

“I think that that might be a clue to what happened to them for their entire childhood to be blanked out,” Mickey said.

“They did suddenly get so paranoid that in a couple sentences that they just overheard they suddenly decided to burn down a town,” Pete said.

“As well as the fact that we sort of scared one of them,” Mickey pointed out. “So it's not like it’s entirely their fault or that we were innocent in that regard.”

“But we can’t really have them go around on rampages because they feel slighted in some way.” Daffy responded.

“But again, we can’t really kick them out of town.”

“Yeah but even if we did release them, we can’t really allow them to go back to their fort. For all, we know they could be planning another attack.” 

“Well maybe they could stay in one of the houses?” Minnie suggested.

Everybody looks at her confused. “ What do you mean by that?”

“I mean there’s a few empty houses that have extra bedrooms so that will take care of both the problems! They will be in town and we get to keep an eye on them,” Minnie said.

“Plus it might help us get them to trust us,” Mickey responded. 

“That’s actually a decent idea…”

“Now, how do we make sure that they won’t end up blowing up someone because I don’t know the person has tripped over them?” Pete said.

“We’ll make sure someone is keeping an eye on them at all times. At least at the start,” Mickey said.

“Plus based on what the files and Dr. Maheswaren said, getting them into therapy wouldn’t go amiss,” Bugs said.

“And as for trying to get them to make up for what happened,” Porky said “Maybe we could put them through community service for a bit?”

“They do seem to be experienced in building houses and things,” Mickey said.

“So that’s the plan?” Bugs asked.

Everyone nodded. 

“So tomorrow or after my migraine goes away we will go talk to them and tell them the news?”

“Yep!” Mickey said happily.

Bugs nodded as he put the blanket on his head. “Great, now get out of my house I need to sleep.”

Chapter Text

“What’s taking them so long?” Purpled mumbled as he made faces at a camera near him. “ If they're going to kill us at the very least they should give us some form of entertainment.

“Maybe they’re trying to drive us crazy from boredom,” Techno said. 

“That seems to be possible,” Tommy yawned. He rubs the New bandage on his neck. 

“Hey, Purpled” Ranboo whispered nervously “Maybe you shouldn’t have taunted the camera, we don't know whether or not they will get upset by that…”

He rolled his eyes at the enderman hybrid “Oh please it’s barely even on, we got a full bill of health Plus the red dot is not even on”

Ranboo reluctantly nodded as he sat down and pulled his hair. 

Tubbo look up at him in concern as he tried to whispered to him 

“It’s going to be ok, Ran…”

He just absentmindedly nodded at Tubbo as he tried to lay down “Thanks…”

Tubbo looks at him worriedly as he glances at Tommy who seems to be lost in his thoughts as he holds onto the bandage. His  stomach dropped remembering Tommy’s reaction when the doctor took it off

“You alright Tommy?” Tubbo asked, “You have been quiet for a while.”

He jumped in surprise “oh-Yeah I’m fine… I'm just surprised….”

“I mean the doctors didn’t experiment on  us, I can’t really blame you” Tubbo whispered as he touched his head.

“Almost like we’re wrong about them” Jack yelled

Quackity growled at him “Jack if you don’t-”

“Shhhh” Puffy suddenly jumps up as she leans against her door.

“What!?”  Quackity yelled “Don’t you fucking go “shush” on me ”

She just shush him again “Someone coming… and I think it’s that Bugs guy”

Everyone jumped at the news.

“Shit!”

Puffy looked up at the door as it began to open, Mickey and Bugs entering.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, “That was pretty quick. I was expecting you to leave us here for like a month or two.”

Mickey smiled at her “We made a decision about what to do with you guys”

“Oh?” Puffy asked.

“I’m guessing that you got our execution date or something, government” Techno grumbled 

“We’re not going to execute you,” Bugs said, rolling his eyes. “And we have names you know.”

“And I don’t care.”

“Mickey, are you sure this is the right plan?”

“Positive,” Mickey said. “We’ve decided we’ll give you another chance. However you will be expected to complete community service repairing the buildings you all damaged in your riot, and you can’t return to your fort, you have to stay in town.”

“Wait! That’s it?” Sam asked incredulously, pushing himself to his feet and walking over to the front of his cell. “Rebuild a couple buildings and that’s it?”

“Yep. Obviously we’ll be keeping our eyes on you to make sure you don’t pull anything, but that’s about it. What were you expecting?”

“I mean we were has expecting you to I don’t know take our canon lives, beat us up …something” George mumbled 

“Canon lives?” Bugs asked. “What do you mean by that?”

The server went silent on that, some glaring at George.

“It’s a joke-I mean we’re not telling you that at all…”

Mickey narrowed his eyes before sighing and continuing. “Well anyway, like I said if you agree to the terms you’re free to leave. You’ll be escorted to your new house and you can start your community service tomorrow. Do you agree?”

Most of the server was very quick to nod and voice their agreement, though a couple had their reservations. 

“You’ll give us back Michael?” Ranboo asked. 

“We will.”

“Then I’ll do it.”

Tubbo nodded in agreement.

“Why should we trust you?” Phil asked.

“Well, even if you don’t trust us, don’t you think that we should be giving each other a chance.” Mickey held his hand out “I promise we’re not going to hurt you.”

Phil stared at Mickey’s hand for a second. Eventually he cautiously took it to shake.

“So you’re ready to move in?” Bugs asked.

The server nodded as they get up

“I’m glad that you’re willing to give us a S”second chance after everything.” Eret said

“Good.”

But before any of them could leave. Bug stop them

“Oh and one more thing about my kids they took a liking to you”

“Yeah? What does this have to do with any of this?”

“Well with the Rascals they’re rather naïve” Mickey said

Tommy just shrugged “Well, Minerva made me her brother to help with protection. I’ll call her reasonable.”

Bugs shake his head “No it’s n-”

“Bugs~” Mickey said with sly smile

“OK, OK.”

“So why did you bring them up?” Jack asked 

“I need you to promise that you guys would never hurt them,”

“We won’t,” Tommy and Jack said simultaneously. 

Bugs give them a small smile “Good. But just know that I got my eye on you, on all of you.”

Mickey opens the door. “You first.”

Bugs nodded as he walked out the door, he took a few steps before realizing that the server wasn’t following him. ““You’re coming?”

They stood there for a moment before they cautiously followed. Mickey smiles at the members as they follow out before he closes the door.

They barely notice that the camera is on.

“Am I the only one who feels a bit off leaving the fort?” Niki asked as she looked through the items in her inventory. “ I mean a house is not as safe as a fort…”

“Not like we have many other options mate. The failed riot proved we can’t fight them and this time we don’t even have a wither on our side.”

“Right now our only option is do as they say and hope they send us home first,” Sam said.

“But do you think that they would be happy to see us after what happened?” Tommy said as he continued to grab a few of his stuff “ I did nearly kill Steven…”

“I mean, they’re the ones who decided to invite us to live in town,” Sam said.

“So why didn’t you tell them about the canon lives or the health meter…” Jack asked, crossing his arms.

“I don’t know about you guys but I still don’t entirely trust those toons,” Phil said.

“ I get it…” Jack said “ I'm just glad that we didn’t get ourselves killed…”

Niki patted on Jack’s back “Me too… I'm kind of glad that you weren’t there. I don’t know what I would have done if you got hurt”

As the server went to their new house, they saw a young woman with long blond braid looking to be around 18 or 19 holding Micheal by the place. “Hello, you must be the new people in town” she give them a wide smile “ my name is Rapunzel”

“Hi, can I have my son back?” Ranboo said.

“Oh, sure,” Rapunzel said, handing Michael back to Ranboo.

“Hi Dad!”

“Hi Michael. How are you?” Ranboo asked, smiling as he held his son.

“It was nice, where were you last night? Miss Rapunzel told me that you were out for a little bit.”

“Me, Papa, and the rest of the server had a slight disagreement with the toons. We had to deal with that for a while,” Ranboo said.

“Did you make up?”

“Ummm, we’re working on it Michael.”

Meanwhile the rest of the server mulled around, looking at the house until Sam stepped forward to push open the door. Inside the house, it looked similar to the two houses they had already seen, though less decorated. Comfortable looking furniture, a kitchen Sam could just see past it, and some stairs leading up. 

“Not a bad looking place,” Foolish said, stepping in behind Sam.

“So you finally arrived?” A familiar voice said in the room.

Ghostbur! Tommy said excitedly “you’re here”

“Yep, we were watching you!” Ghostbur giggled.

“Why didn’t you reappear?”

“Ghlatty said that we should hide for a little bit and just watch” Ghostbur hugs Tommy tighter. “I wish I could reappear there. You look so sad.”

“ it’s all right, I’m just glad that you safe”

“Yeah I heard you barely even mention me, not even a hey where’s Ghlatt? Nothing?” Ghlatt said

“I was hoping you had disappeared,” Quackity said, rolling his eyes and following Sam to explore the kitchen.

“Oh come on Sugar Plum-”

“Don’t! Do. Not.” Quackity turned to face the ghost with a growl. “You lost the right to call me that a long time ago. 

“Alright. Alright,” Ghlatt said, raising his hands in surrender. 

“Honestly why you think anyone would be concerned about you is beyond me,” Niki snapped as she goes to explore upstairs.

“So Tommy, are the toons nice or mean” Ghostbur asked “They seem weird”

“ I don’t even know to be honest… I mean they’re not unreasonable I guess but.. I don’t know, they just seem off.”

“Hey guys we got a bit of a problem,” Niki called from upstairs.

“What's wrong?” Jack asked,walking up the stairs

“We have a problem already?” Fundy grumbled

“ Oh no it’s not the house itself, it's just the rooms…”

They went upstairs to see some of the bedrooms their faces contorting into different expressions of confusion and mild concerned

The bedrooms have three beds in them, some of them are bunk beds with one bed on the other side while others are just three beds in one room. 

Everyone just stared at the bedrooms as they looked at one another uncomfortably.

“Well…” Fundy mummer “It seems like we don’t get individual bedrooms….”

“I don’t think so….” 

“So none of us feel comfortable being… you know.”

“Yup.”

“ yeah I’m not staying with you guys in one room…”

“Agreed”

Ghlatt just chuckled, “Luckily for us we don’t really need bedrooms, we’ll be in the living room.”

Actually there is one single room,” Phil said, calling out from one room “ it’s just small…”

The server stared at the bedroom despite its small size it seems actually manageable

“So who gets dibs on that bedroom?” Tommy asked.

They all looked at each other before their eyes narrowed.

“I’ll fight you for it” Purpled said to Tommy

Tommy gave him a smirk “You’re on”

“Nope nope we’re not fighting over a primedamn bedroom” Puffy interjected pulling the boys away from each other. 

“What?! I’m not sharing bedroom with Random people that I don’t know!” Purpled complained

“We will figure something out” Puffy said “just let me look for something”

Puffy looks for the cabinets for a moment before taking out some bright colorful tapes “At least it’s convenient…. All right choose which room it is and we’ll mark out things. Who’s staying with who?”

“Me, Karl and Quackity can share one room,” Sapnap said. 

“And Tommy, Ranboo and I could share that bedroom,” Tubbo suggested. 

“What about Michael?” Ranboo asked.

“We’ll figure that out.”

Michael, not paying attention to the conversation, happily walks into the one bedroom. He sat on the floor playing with the doll Rapunzel gave him.

“I guess we figured that problem out…” Sam said.

“I mean I don’t know about three people but I wouldn’t be opposed to sharing a room with Sam,” Foolish said before turning to grin at Sam.

Sam just shrugged. “I wouldn’t complain too much.”

“I’ll room with Phil but I don’t want any of the rest of you in my space,” Techno said, crossing his arms.

“Yeah I could say the same thing to you.” 

“I guess you and me?” Puffy said, turning to Niki.

“Works for me.”

“ So where do I go?” Jack asked.

“You, Fundy, and Purpled?” Puffy said.

Purpled frowned at that.

“Or one of you could room with me and Sam?” Foolish said.

Jack think for a moment “I’m guessing I’m have to hang out with you two”

“Wait, what about George?” Sam said.

“I also have to sleep somewhere,” Eret pointed out.

“Where is George anyway?” Puffy said, looking around.

“Think he fell asleep on the couch,” Sapnap.

“I mean I wouldn’t mind sharing a room with Eret,” Niki said nervously,. “Not unless you’d mind Puffy.”

“That works for me,” Puffy said.

“Alright, that's one room figured out,” Eret stated.

“As for me and Foolish, I personally would rather share with George, especially if Eret is sharing with Niki and Puffy,” Sam said.

“Grandpa?” Fundy asked, looking at Philza hopefully.

“No.”

Fundy just sighed. “Fine, I’ll room with Jack and Purpled.”

“I guess that’s everyone figured out,” Puffy humes, using the tape to quickly label the rooms. 

“It’s night already… but wasn’t it daytime before…” Sapnap said looking out a window.

“Guess we were talking longer than we thought,” Puffy shrugged.

“Either way I think I’m going to bed,” Sam said. “My head is still feeling tender.”

“I’ll go get George,” Sapnap said walking downstairs.

The rest of the server awkwardly wished each other goodnight, Ranboo and Tubbo put Michael to bed.

George fell asleep pretty much the second he hit the bed and Foolish fell asleep fairly soon after.

As  Sam prepared for bed. he felt a sudden shock of pain in his head “ what.. what’s going…” He covers his mouth as a feeling of nausea spreads throughout his body before you even have a time to say anything or even call out for help. He collapsed onto his bed and Sam fell into A wave of unconsciousness.

“Sam, It wasn’t your fault. Tommy’s death was not your fault at all.”

He  was on an island, A familiar one he could feel the dirt on the ground. He was no longer in his warden body… he was in his regular body…

That doesn’t make sense… he’s not here

“Quackity, It was my fault…” he felt himself saying as he turned around to see his son…

But he looks different..

He’s wearing The same jumper and white shirt that he thought earlier, his wings out from his backside. He don’t know how different he looks

Maybe it’s the golden tooth that replaced the silver one that he made for him after Techno used the pickaxe against him…. Maybe it’s the roulette ball that shows the seven rather than the false eye that he made for him

Or maybe it’s the cruel smile on his face that doesn’t seem to fit yet it does….

“You have to come to terms with that, man.” Not-Quackity said to him frowning in what’s looks to be sympathy

Sam wants to turn away to tell him that he doesn’t wanna think about it. He already knows that it’s his fault and he doesn't need any other reminders or for sympathy but he felt the other him listening as the Not-Quackity continues to talk to him. His words beginning to fill the air sounding less like the boy he knew and more like something else, something wrong

Take that sword and- Just kill that son of a bitch. Let’s go do it right now!

“If we just kill him, he’s done for good! C’mon, Sam. C’mon. Do it, Sam.”

That son of a bitch tortured Tommy- He basically tortured Tommy! 

Sam tries to cover his ears already knowing that he doesn’t wanna hear that he just wants to go back. Come on Sam wake up wake up this is-A nightmare a dream he don’t even know what it is

This is how the story is supposed to go, everyone have a story in a different place

He then found himself in The jail he’s back in The warden body. How is that even possible?  Sam looks up to see Quackity with a wide smile on his face with a glint of cruelty that he’s never really seen in him, not even at his most angriest.

“ come~ you know you want him dead as much as I do~”

He backed away to reveal the lever that was meant to pull down the lava. Sam felt his body move forward as his hand reached for the lever.

“ SAM, TOMMY WOULD WANT HIM TO FUCKING DIE!”

No stop please….

“Are you fucking kidding me, Sam?!”

“There’s one rule in this prison and it’s to keep Dream locked up!”

“He fucking killed someone! fucking dead! Are you fucking kidding me, Sam?! Are you kidding me? You had one goddamn job and you can- you can- you can- You can do redemption right now! This is- This is your redemption right now! We go in there and we fucking kill him,”

“Sam! FUCK, MAN! WHA- We- We had one plan! We had one plan and you can’t even get it right”

No!

No wonder Tommy hates you You can’t even Avenge his death when you have the chance

This is wrong, This is not his son, this is not Quackity, this is he doesn't even know What this is what he wanted to stop but why does it feel right…why did it feel right that this…. What does it feel like that’s the what he supposed to do

You’re very lucky that you’re no longer there. You wouldn’t like the results of that as a series of decisions….

Sam gasps as he jumps from his bed. 

Holy shit… what the hell was that

He sat there, frozen on the bed not  knowing whether or not he was on his island in the prison or at his house…. Where is he

“Guys! Are you ready to come out?!” A voice cried out

“Oh yes community service, we did commit crimes….” Sam muttered to himself, watching as Foolish pushed himself out of bed.

“Woah, Sam are you okay?” Foolish asked, looking over to the creeper hybrid. “You’re really pale.”

“ I don’t really know…. I guess I got myself a nightmare…”

“Are you sure? You don’t look so good. I can tell the toons you’re unwell to try to get you out of work today if you want?”

“Nah, I’ll be fine, Foolish. Just need to calm myself down.”

Foolish looked at him doubtfully before going over to shake George awake.

Sam meanwhile made his way to the bathroom, looking over the place. Definitely different from what he was used to but after a bit of fumbling he was able to turn the sink on, in order to splash some cold water on his face.

But when he looked up in the mirror, he  froze on the spot. For a brief moment a face appeared, it looked like him but a lot more tired. Bags were underneath his eyes which seemed almost black. But despite it didn’t hide the almost angry and cruel expression on his face. Smoke coming out of his sharp mouth despite him not smelling any smoke.“Ah!” He yelled as he jumped back and then he blinked and the face disappeared, the mirror now showed just his own fearful face.

“Sam, you okay?” Puffy asked, knocking on the door.

“Fine! I’m fine,” Sam cried out. “Don’t worry about me.” He stared at the mirror for a second, it only revealed his normal reflection. Eventually Sam just dried off his face and moved on.

He came out of the bathroom, taking deep breaths as he tried to walk towards the bedroom then he felt a bump. “Oh I’m sorry”

He stopped himself as he realize who he bumped into: Quackity looks at him, a face filled with an expression that he cannot describe. That expression disappeared as he tried to cover it with a smile.

“Sam… oh sorry about that I didn’t mean to bump into you..”

“It’s fine. How did you sleep?”

“Oh hehe, I slept fine. Just fine,” Quackity said, trying to avoid looking at Sam.

“Quackity.”

“It’s fine. Nothing you need to worry about. How did you sleep?” He forced a laugh as he said that.

Sam looked around them before turning back to Quackity. “Not well I’ll admit. Had a weird nightmare. You remember our conversation on my island a day or so after Tommy died right?”

Quackity’s eyes just widened, taking a shaky breath.

“Quackity? Are you okay?” Sam asked.

“I… I had a really similar nightmare. But you were all, like, wrong. Like it wasn’t actually you, even if it was really really close. You just looked really cruel and your teeth were sharper for some reason.”

Sam’s eyes widened, remembering the face he had seen in the mirror. Plus the nightmare sounded almost identical to his.

“What…. What happened in it….? Did you-did I want to kill Dream…”

“Yeah. I suggested it, but you just got so into it. You were scaring me. How did you…?”

“The same nightmare. How did we have nearly identical nightmares?”

Quackity’s eyes widened. Before he could respond however a voice rang out from outside.

“Come on, hurry it up! You have a lot to get done!”

Sam looked at the window, biting his lip. “Look, maybe it’s just the prison and knowing Dream’s on the loose around here messing with our heads, but whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like making the toons any angrier at us than they already are.”

Quackity shivered slightly remembering what happened on his ill-fated trip to Town Hall and nodded, following Sam down the stairs. But his mind was still racing. What had been with Sam being so weird in his dream, and how did him and Sam have the same dream? What was going on here?’And why did it feel like it was meant to be….

Chapter Text

“Hello again,” A familiar voice said.

Dream turned around to see Dr Madden standing at the entrance to his cave. Her black hat was the first thing that he saw before she pulled it up to reveal her greyish-green eyes.

“You’re back.”

“I am. How are you?”

“Good enough,” Dream said. He had been here for around a week and so far Madden had come every day bringing him food and bandages for his wounds. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to come inside?” She asked politely. “I mean it’s better than the cave and look at you, you’re wet…”

She wasn’t wrong. The cave wasn’t the best place to sleep in; honestly it was almost to the point he was missing his cell. At least it was dry and warm.

“Why don’t you wanna come out? I asked you that for the past few days but you always get quiet...” She sat now in the entry of the cave, looking concerned. “Are you scared of me?”

She really was a tender-hearted fool. Another point towards this not being home since any woman this trusting in his world would have been grabbed by traffickers long before this.

“Scared? I think that you should be the person to be scared.”

He was. She was right again. Though he supposed if she really was as tender-hearted and stupid as she seemed it should be easy enough to get her to think and do what he wants. He’d manipulated people smarter. 

“But I do have to admit I am scared. I'm worried that you might hurt me.” Dream said. He tried to summon some tears to his eyes to make himself look as innocent as possible. “ I was so sure that you might hurt me so much that I would rather stay in this cave…”

“Oh my. You must have been through so much. Please, at least let me show you my office.”

Dream smirked behind his mask. It was that fucking easy! I wasn’t even trying: what kind of stupid woman is she?!

“You promise you won’t hurt me even if I tell you things that make you seem like I deserve it….?”

Madden smiled at him as she held out her hand. “The past is the past: I would never hurt a truly innocent man.”

Dream nodded as he reached out for her hand. This will be a piece of cake. Just rest here, get her on his side, and then figure out a way out of this world. Maybe take a few resources with him if they turn out to be valuable. He smiled to himself as he thought of it. If the people are just as stupid as her, he’ll be back home before anyone would notice.

“So what is this place anyway?” Dream asked, looking around as Madden let him into her office.

“Well it’s my office,” Madden said. “My bedroom is upstairs though I don’t really have one downstairs…” 

“I mean like this server? Is this even a server? It doesn’t look like home,” Dream said, poking a table and glaring at it.

Madden looks at him in surprise before laughing “It’s not a server, silly. It’s another plane of existence~”

“Another place of existence? Right, and do you have any idea how I got here?” Dream asked, adjusting his mask.

Madden just tilted her head at him. “I thought you would know? I mean you seem to be someone of great strength.”

Dream smirked behind the mask at the compliment. “I am, but this was like nothing I’ve ever seen. One minute I’m chilling in that god awful cell and the next I’m being covered in weird light and then I’m just here.”

Madden covers her mouth in shock  “A cell?! Like a jail cell?”

“Yeah, my server turned against me and locked me up. I guess that’s one way to repay me for everything I’ve done for them,” Dream said, scorn in his voice.

Madden hummed in sympathy.  “Why would they do that? I mean you gave them everything that they ever needed...” She emphasizes that by tilting her hat.

“I did! Honestly I blame that stupid Tommy. Always blowing things up, causing trouble. I worked so hard to create a perfect world and for what?! for some snot-nosed brat to try to ruin it! And then I have the generosity to give him another chance and help him change and it’s thrown in my face! He runs away and tries to steal my discs!”

“Discs?” 

“These discs the kid gave me. Pretty much the second I got them he started trying to steal them back.”

“That doesn’t make that much sense” Madden mumbled. “ Although in my opinion, a brat like that doesn't come out of nowhere. There’s usually a source for his….affliction.”

“Probably his older brother. But he ran off and got himself killed so it’s not like I could do anything to deal with him.”

Madden looked at him, her gaze looking to Dream’s soul. He shifted uncomfortably as she got up in her chair “Do you want some tea? I got a couple of flavors in my cabinet.”

“I would love some. All I’ve had to eat for ages recently was raw potatoes. How messed up do you have to be to solely feed someone raw potatoes? Sam could have fed me anything on the server and he just gives me raw potatoes.”

“That does sound awful, and that Sam guy was your friend: you trusted him.” Madden said as she picked up the tins of tea flavors “So do you want vanilla or green tea?”

“I did. Honestly, Sam is the worst. Vanilla would be nice please,” Dream said.

Madden smiled as she poured the powder into the boiling water “You know I’m surprised that you never really recognized this world. Then again the Toon world and Minecraft world are two different planes of existence.”

“Toon world?”

“That was what some of the citizens called it. I like to call it the ink plane. The biggest sign of that is corrosive ink that will change into anything that you think of at will.” she said that she watched the kettle “But with the toons, I don’t think they would like you that much. They could tell everyone's sins just by looking at them. And those types of people get black and white mindsets of the world and don’t understand the nuances of the person.”

“That sounds like a lot of people back on the server,” Dream said. “Sure I’ve done some bad things, but I had my reasons. I think I’m a good person.”

Madden looked up from her kettle and turned towards him. “That is an interesting point of view~”

“I mean…” Dream said, stepping away from her. “I mean, I guess. But I mean back home it’s gonna be impossible to find someone who hasn’t done something bad. Besides maybe Tubbo but he barely does anything. He’s a pushover.”

Madden smiles at him and Dream immediately stops talking. There’s something about her smile that is off... like it was a moving mask. “So they lock you up for being a bad person, but they do bad things as well? That's pretty hypocritical to me.”

“Well, yeah.” 

“How unfortunate, I have seen those types of people all the time. They think that they’re good but they’re not. But sometimes there are ways of changing those types of people to the side of the light~”

Before Dream could even say anything, the kettle screamed. “Oh, the tea is done.”

Dream just stared at the woman from behind his mask as she started to pour the tea into cups. Between the grin and some of the things she had said, he was starting to wonder about her.

“You know Dream, if you want you, could stay here. You are still injured, and like I said before the world out there is very threatening. Plus, how do you know that the server is not here with you?”

Dream’s eyes widened behind his mask. He hadn’t thought of that. But something about this woman was starting to put him on edge.

“I could turn on my cameras and we can see if that was true if that makes you feel better?”

“You can do that?”

“I could.”

“Alright then, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Madden smiled as she led Dream into another room with several black squares on the walls. After messing with a strange black thing covered in what seemed to be black buttons, the squares suddenly lit up to show images of various scenes.

Dream jumped as he heard what sounded to be the familiar screams of a Wither.

“What the…”

“Oh my~ Cameras already caught something?” She smiled at the screen “That’s exciting!”

“What’s going on?” He yelled accusingly. “What are you doing?” 

“I’m not doing anything. this shows what’s happening recently in the town I was talking about.” 

Dream looked up as he watched several of his server members in combat with a bunch of weird things. It didn’t take long for Dream to realize his friends were hilariously outclassed. Techno was holding his own for now, but he wasn’t making any headway, and Foolish seemed to be doing okay, but everyone else was struggling. He took a bit of pleasure in seeing Tommy and Sam fall to their attackers, but couldn’t completely swallow the fear as Sapnap and George struggled against a group of people.

The creatures before him seem to have powers that he doesn't often see in a Minecraft world. Some of them could control the elements around them, some of them use shapeshifting beyond regular shapeshifters to contort into odd shapes, and some even manage to store their weapons in strange gemstones for them to summon at will. He jumped out of his seat and nearly ran out the door before Madden grabbed his arm.

“What are you doing let me the fuck go!” Dream said, trying to tug away but too weak to do so.

“You can’t go.”

“Why the fuck not?! I fucking hate them but no one fucks with what is mine!”

“Now Dreamer,” She says as she looks at him with what seems to be sympathy. “I said recently. I didn’t say it is happening now.”

“When did this happen? What happened to them?” Dream demanded.

“About a day or two ago~”

He backed away slowly as he saw the carnage.

“What are those things?”

Madden smiles as she holds her hand up as if presenting a discovery of a lifetime. “Toons! One of the most powerful creatures out there, they tend not to like outsiders in their little home. I wonder what they would do to them? I saw a few getting taken to this town only to become something similar to them.” She looks down ashamed. “I tried to save them from this fate but I failed every single time….”

“What?” Dream asked. “No, I have to find my server. I won’t let these fucking Toons take them from me!”

“I thought you hated them?”

“Oh no, I do hate them, and I want them to pay for what they did to me, but they are not those fucking freaks’ property! They belong to me!” He growled at the doctor.

“I see.” Madden looked up in mock thought. “I don’t think that often happens maybe once in a blood moon or something which is a couple of months from now~”

“What? What happens once in a blood moon?!” Dream demanded.

“Every blood moon there is a ceremony that would relate to throwing outsiders into an inkwell. I have never seen that type of process in person but based on what little I saw it was so painful-”
“What?! No, no, no, I can not let those freaks do that to what’s mine! How can I stop them?!”

Madden shrugs at him. “ I don’t really know. Months go by faster here than your world and you’re still injured.” She then looked away from Dream “And considering how stupid your server is, how do you know that they didn’t end up being convinced that it was a good thing?”

“They’re not stupid, not all of them. At least Techno should be smart enough to see through any of their lies.”

Madden just looked at him unconvinced as she turned towards her cameras. “We should check just in case?”

She turns on the cameras to show the server currently in jail cells. Purpled sticking his tongue out at the camera mockingly.

“Great, Purpled is here too. Punz is gonna kill me if he gets hurt.”

“Punz?”

“Purpled’s older brother. He’s also one of the few people on my server I actually like. We would work together, have been for a long time.”

“At least you got some people to trust.”

Dream nodded as he smiled “He is always there for me when I need him no matter what. I kind of wish he was here; he would've destroyed those toons before they even had a chance to scream.”

Just as he said that there was a sudden noise from the microphone. 

“Oh dear it seemed like it had picked up a conversation from earlier.”

“I’m not letting you run any experiments on me lady,”

“ Techno!” Dream yelled out.

“That’s your friend that you were talking about?”

“Yeah, it is. He won’t fall for their tricks.” Dream turned his attention back to the monitors.

“You know what I’m feeling a lot better, I totally don’t need a doctor I’m fine-” 

“There was an explosion and I lost them saving my son.”

“I see, What happened to your son?”

“That’s in my file, I’m sure. ”

“Files? What are they talking about files?And why is there a doctor there?!”

“Oh dear they must’ve already started brainwashing them! This is bad!” Madden panicked. “ They must have used that doctor to do something to them, probably lobotomize them, add a chip in the back of their neck?! Who knows what they did to them.”

“Well, even if you don’t trust us, don’t you think that we should be giving each other a chance. I promise we’re not going to hurt you.”

“….Ok, lead the way”

“Good! We’ll help you become better people in no time.”

With that, there was a blast against the computer cracking it as Madden leapt back in shock. 

“Dream….”

“I have to do something. What do I do to stop this?! How do I fix this?! Get them back!” Dream clutches fist I see begin to breathe heavily, glaring at the doctor. Who do these creatures think they are?! They are taking away what belongs to him! And what were those fucking idiots thinking following and trusting the same people who literally beat them up and brought them into a fucking prison brainwashed or not! Did falling down into this stupid world break their minds or something!? What the hell is wrong with them!?

He barely felt the doctor hold onto his hands as the feeling of calm (and… sadness?) began to spread all over him. “Breath, Dreamer. You need to use that brain of yours. You’re facing against very powerful people, and the server will never trust you after everything…”

“They won’t. They really really won’t,” Dream said, the weight of the situation hitting him at once. Dream was really glad he still had his mask on so Madden wouldn’t see the tears starting to well in his eyes. 

“I think I have one solution to the plan. It was something that I tested so that I won’t have anyone close to madness again and I need you to follow me for this.”

“Alright, lead the way,” Dream said.

Madden smiled at him as they walked out of the room they walked towards a staircase.

Why are they by the staircase?

“I need you to show you a fun little trick that I got.”  She took out a key in her pocket and placed it on the side. With one turn there was a click revealing a door.

Dream hums as he looks at the door “Impressive, now are you gonna show me that thing or not…”

“Be patient dreamer we’re getting there”

She opened the door revealing a staircase and proceeded to step down towards the room. Dream look on hesitantly before he follows suit after a few steps he turns around to see the place in front of him

It was a small room. There were a bunch of papers on its walls that seemed to be newspaper articles about different disasters. Some of them in the common language that he knew. There were different boxes all over the place filled with notebooks and pens. Next to those boxes was a small mattress that seemed to have gone through years of abuse to the point that stuffing was coming out of the sides with a raggy blanket that had more holes than the actual fabric on it. Underneath it was a circle that hums with a power that he doesn’t understand. Dream backed away confused as he looked around. Where is the weapon that she was talking about? Come to think about it, where is anything that could save the server from their fate?

“Why are we in here…” he whispered as he looked around for a weapon or something to defend himself.

There was a chuckle behind him, something that sounded a lot darker than he thought. “You know, I can’t believe that you believe that story I literally made up on the spot yet you ate it all up…”

“What? What do you…” Dream trailed off as he realized what she meant. “You lied to me. You manipulated me. No, no I’m not supposed to be the one manipulated, I’m supposed to be the manipulator!”

“Maybe so in your world but here? It’s a different story.”

Before Dream could say anything. she covers his mouth as she sticks a syringe in his neck “It was hilarious to see your reaction I can’t wait to see more of it when you wake up~”

Dreams try to struggle against her grip but he already feels weakened from Whatever is in the syringe. How could he actually believe that crap? Despite the fear within him there was a burning sense of anger that slowly grew at the woman who made a fool of him.

When I wake up she will have hell to pay.

Then everything went dark.

Chapter Text

Foolish sighed as he placed the last brick on one of the houses. “This is taking a lot longer than it would back home.”

“Yeah, but honestly I’m just happy to be building again. Haven’t had a real project to sink my teeth into in so long. I forgot how much I loved it,” Sam said, carrying some of the bricks.

“Speak for yourself bitch,” Tommy argued. “This sucks!”

Bugs rolled his eyes. “That’s the reason why we discourage you from destroying our houses: they’re not like in your world where you can just snap your fingers and rebuild a house or whatever you do to rebuild houses.”

“Mostly we can just build them in larger chunks, rather than placing one brick at a time,” Foolish said. 

“Also if you’re trying to punish Sam, I think it’s failing,” Puffy said, gesturing up to the creeper hybrid who had started humming to himself as he worked.

Bugs just let out a laugh. “Well at least you’re having fun.”

“I’m guessing that you guys destroy houses often,” Korra said as she bend a few metals for the stands.

“Ehhh depends on the person,” Quackity said. “I don’t think Foolish has ever destroyed anything until a couple days ago.”

“You’d be surprised,” Foolish said, forcing a grin.

“Techno, meanwhile, will destroy all you hold dear at the slightest provocation,” Quackity said.

“We kind of saw that” Catra snarked, pointing at a house.

“You all had it coming! You tried to kill me!”

“Yeah, only cause you blew up our fucking country once already!”

“Listen” Toby spoke up “can we not fight? It’s-”

“This doesn’t involve you kid!” Techno yelled. 

“Stop! You’re making Toby uncomfortable,” Bugs growled out.

“Alright fine,” Quackity said, rolling his eyes and returning to his work, but not before muttering under his breath in spanish. “ Fucking toons, getting involved in things they don’t understand.”

“ Bit of advice, if you’re gonna use spanish to insult people, make sure they can’t understand you,” A small mouse replied, suddenly appearing next to Quackity.

“ACK!” Quackity backed away causing him to fall off the platform he had been standing on.

“You okay Babe?” Sapnap asked, pulling Quackity back to his feet.

“Fine,” Quackity said, staring up at Speedy, who was now sitting on the edge of his platform staring down at him.

“Speedy, maybe don’t scare people standing on high platforms, we’re trying not to kill them,” Bugs said. 

Speedy just shrugged, before rushing back off.

Quackity glared at him as he ran off, before climbing back up onto his platform and returning to his work, even if it was a bit more cautious than before.

Bugs just watched as the server continued to work, occasionally glancing or glaring at each other, minus Sam who seemed completely focussed on his task, still humming to himself.

“Told you that the server doesn’t want to cause any more harm,” Minerva says scooting up to him with a grin.

“I’m still not sure about that, they still seem pretty unstable to me,” Bugs said.

Scarlett shrugs “We were unstable when we were younger and look at us! We’re totally fine.”

“Hey, hey guys,” Tubbo whispered to Fundy and Sapnap.

“Hmmm?” Fundy hummed, turning towards Tubbo.

“Come on, I wanna show you something,” Tubbo said.

Sapnap and Fundy looked at Bugs, who seemed too focused on talking to the rascals to notice, before slipping away after Tubbo.

“Tubbo, what are you trying to show us?” Sapnap asked, once they were a bit aways from the building site.they kept on walking until they arrive to the Townhall. Tubbo took a quick look around to see if anyone would notice before sneaky inside. Sapnap and Fundy look at each other worryingly before they could follow suit.

Fundy breaths quickened “Tubbo I know that it’s probably something very interesting but I prefer not going back to jail!” 

Tubbo then stop and  pointed out an object in  a room Something that none of them notice when they first arrive in Townhall for their interview. It was something that looked like an old deceptic well. Its stones were clean despite the cracks on it and some sort black goo seemed to leak out of it.There’s eerie feeling around it as if it was alive.

“What the fuck?” Fundy whispered, shivering slightly.

“Why is it leaking black goo?” Sapnap wondered aloud.

“Maybe it’s possessed?” Fundy suggested.

Tubbo looked through his items and took out salt and bits of gold.

“I don’t know, let's test that theory out.”

And with that Tubbo threw the items down the well as Sapnap touched some of the goo with a stick.

“Hey Fundy, do you wanna test it as well.” Sapnap handed him a stick

Fundy nervously looked at it before taking it and proceeded to walk to the well and put his stick deep down. Just as put his stick below, a voice cried out

What do you think you're doing trying to exorcise me?

The three suddenly jumped back from the well as they stare at it in horror.

“Dreamon?” Fundy asked, nervously holding his tail

No, but you’re the people that hurt the town.

Before any of the members could do anything, three black tendrils immediately wrapped around their necks. All three of them let out a choking noise before they were thrown out of the Townhall and landed in the middle of the town.

“Are you okay?”

Sapnap looked up to see the mouse from earlier looking down at him. 

“What was that thing?!” He yelled out as he quickly turned around only to see that the well is gone.

“She's... protective. Probably don't wander around  for a while until she forgets about the riot.” Speedy replied.

“You didn’t really answer the question,” Fundy pointed out.

“That was the inkwell.” Donald answered, “ She kind of made us…”

“Oh.”

“Was it always there?”

“She has been, now you should head on home,” Donald said.

“Wait what about our-”

But Donald interrupted him “The rest of your server has already finished up with the houses. I think you should go back to your house. Mickey is going to meet you there to discuss further actions to help you guys,”. With that he begin to push this group of three back to the house

”All right, all right!” Sapnap snapped “I think we know when we’re not wanted!” 

With that he walked away with Fundy and Tubbo following suit trying to ignore the stares behind them.

They walked in to see the rest of the server crammed into the house’s living room, Mickey, Bugs and a couple other toons standing there, and a small table between the toons and the server. Mickey gestured them into the room where the trio tried their best to find spots for themselves.

“Right, now that everyone’s here, we can begin,” Mickey said with a smile on his face.

“So what’s the point of this?” Sapnap asked.

Mickey sat down right in front of them. “Well it’s about you knowing your tendencies to be what the word…. evil?”

“What do you mean by evil?” Techno asked

“You seriously did not realize that maybe that your actions aren’t good?” Bugs said deadpan.

“It’s not like we do things for no reason,” Sam said.

“Even if some of those reasons suck?” Niki said, glaring at him.

“We’ve seen your files, and lost track of how many crimes you all have committed against each other,” Mickey said. “Lilo, bring in the posters please.”

One of Toons, a young girl walks in the room holding a bunch of posters, all rolled up in her arms. It was slightly shocking a girl her size could hold all the posters.

“Uhhh what are posters gonna help with?” Sam asked.

“What, do you think we’re seven or something?” Phil asked.

“Please just be patient.”

  With that Mickey laid down each and every one of the posters revealing crude drawings of the server members with red scribbles in the outlines, varying on how high it was depending on the person. The lowest only came up to about their knees, while the highest was seeming all the way up to the top of their head.

“Considering what we’ve learned about you this is your badness level,” Mickey said, gesturing to the red on each poster.

“What?” Karl asked.

“I mean seriously why is my badness level higher than Jack I mean what the fuck.”

“Technically Tommy, you’re actually one of the lowest people with this level,” Bugs pointed out.

 Tommy looked up to see all the other levels that the server members got. “Well that would make sense.”

“So what’s the point of this?” Sam asked, crossing his arms.

“So our plan is to help you guys learn how to be better people and not hurt others.” 

The server stared for a moment before they end up laughing.

“Holy shit are you kidding me?!” Quackity demanded.

“That sounds like one of the dumbest things out there, like how would that even work,” Techno said, rolling his eyes.

“Well, the plan is that will help teach you guys how to be better people so that you can go back to the server with more healthy mindsets. Your habits and lack of actual support it could lead to paths of awful self-destruction, especially when you got an echo chamber.”

Sam and Quackity both grabbed at their clothes in a white-knuckle grip.

“We don’t need to be better we’re fine just the way we are.” Niki crossed her arms.

“So what does that mean?”

“Look, your world might be all sunshine and rainbows, but in our world people need to defend themselves,” Niki said. “We’re fine.”

“Well , we’ll help you guys get an appointment with one of the therapists in town to help with some of your emotions and your mental health,” Mickey said.

“We already got Puffy,” Sam said.

“Even a therapist needs a therapist,” Mickey said kindly.

“Also, a license bought on the internet, does not make you  a therapist.” Daffy said not so kindly.

Puffy just frowned at that.

“Listen, it’s sweet of you guys to want to help us like this but we’re fine… We can handle our troubles like adults,” Phil said.

“Did you handle your troubles like adults? Did you?” Bugs asked, raising an eyebrow. “Is that what you call the other night?”

Most of the server tried to avoid his eyes. Jack just muttered, “I told you guys.”

“Look, we're not evil, we’re just normal people,” Sam said.

“Normal people don’t cut off their partner’s hands! Normal people don’t blow up an entire country full of people’s homes because their son asked them to stab him! Normal people don’t-” Bugs ranted but was interrupted by Mickey stepping between Bugs and the server.

“I think what Bugs is trying to say is that what might be normal for you, isn’t normal for others. And it’s not a healthy normal,” Mickey said. “We want to help you. All we’re asking is that you hear us out.”

Phil and Sam were both trying to avoid looking at anyone. Techno just rolled his eyes.

“I stand by everything I did.”

“You would,” Bugs said, rolling his eyes. “You’re still getting therapy. Or you can go back to your cell.”

“Fine,” Techno said, grumbling.

“So therapy, is there anything else you want us to do? Or can we go?” Jack asked.

“That’ll do for now I guess. But we have a lot of work to do,” Mickey said.

“What do you mean by that?” Tubbo asked “We’re not gonna cause trouble and we even consider going to therapy for a bit and then we find a way back home.”

“Therapy is just the start, and considering we still don’t know how you got here, let alone how to send you home you might be here a while,” Bugs said.

“We got people back home. Do you not think that they’re not going to question where we are?” Sam asked.

“We’re working as fast as we can, okay,” Mickey said.

“We’d probably be able to move faster if we didn’t have over half the magic users in town busy helping with repairing the damage from your little riot,” Bugs said.

“Again you shouldn’t have been talking about getting rid of us,” Phil said. “That’s rude, mate.”

“We weren’t! Oh forget it, there’s no convincing you people,” Bugs said, throwing his arms up, and moving to walk out of the room.

“Also question for you: don't people get concerned when you guys mysteriously disappear into your fucking “magical doors” ?” Tommy said 

“Not really. Me and the other head toons don’t go home much, too much to do, but the toons who do say that time doesn’t seem to move much if at all while they’re here,” Mickey said with a shrug.

“That sounds fake,” Tommy said. 

“Well it’s not. Anyway, like I said I think we’re done here for tonight,” Mickey said standing back up. “I know you all have been doing a lot of hard work today so I imagine you’ll all want to go to bed soon. We’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

With that Mickey gathered up the posters and headed for the door, most of the toons who had accompanied him following him.

Most of the server began to move out of the living room as well, Phil and Sam quickly closing themselves in their respective rooms. 

 Quackity meanwhile squared his shoulders and approached the head toons.

“So can I ask you a question?” Quackity asked.

“What is it?” Mickey asked, turning around, and stepping out of the way to let the other head toons leave.

“So hypothetically, if you get strange dreams that seem realistic what does that mean?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Like it’s someone that you know but it’s not…”

Mickey thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “I don’t really know: the closest thing is just when a new short or something comes in.”

“What?” Quackity asked.

“That’s the best way I can describe it. It's like a new memory except it’s a different version of me. They have the same personality as me and they do act like me. It's more like it’s a you that is supposed to be you in a different world.”

Quackity remembered the way the other Sam looked at him how almost excited he was to kill Dream.

“How does that work?”

“I mean it’s different for every person. I know some Toons who get nightmares  about what would happen if they stay…though if they do go back, they would go back to the spot that they were supposed to be until they get another chance to go through the door…”

Quackity try not to shake. “And what happens when your path is like your friend said ‘evil or morally gray?’”

“Well then you have to watch yourself do upsetting things,” Mickey said.

Quackity gives Mickey a forced grin. “Thank you, I’m gonna go now.”

Before Quackity could leave, Mickey placed a hand on his shoulder causing him to freeze. “Wait before you go, I just wanna ask: are you experiencing something similar?”

Quackity turn around and move away from him “No I-

“I mean you wouldn’t really ask that question if you or your friends haven’t experienced it.”

“I’m just asking  for a friend…”

“And that’s OK. I’m just checking since sometimes things like these are very scary, and you will need support for it.”

“From the therapist?”

“Yes but also your friends.”

“Really?”

“Sometimes the best way to help alleviate is with the people around you.”

“I get that you guys have this weird power of friendship bullcrap, but with a few exceptions, I don’t trust anyone in the server with my problems.” Quackity touched his scar with a huff. “I learned that lesson a long time ago.”

Mickey gives him a sympathetic look “Even if your list is low, try to talk to them. It will be good for you.”

Quackity wanted to laugh: this guy definitely pities them if he’s not fucking delusional. Who does he even think he is? Talk? Did he even see the server? They wouldn’t even talk if you held a gun to their head. But he just took a deep breath and just nodded at him.

“I will.”

“That’s great. I hope that you get better. If you need to talk about anything, we’ll be here.” Mickey smiled and began to head for the door again.

“When did you say you’re going to get us an appointment?”

Mickey turns his head before walking out the door. “Probably a few days to weeks from now. We’ll send some recommendations.”

Before Quackity could ask any more questions, the door was closed.

Quackity just sighed before walking back upstairs, towards his room, sparing a quick glance at Sam, Foolish, and George’s room. He could just hear Foolish talking quietly, and what almost sounded like sobs but he shook his head. Couldn’t be. And even if it is….He doesn’t wanna deal with it.

Quackity quickly prepared for bed, hoping he wouldn’t have the same nightmare again. Sapnap was already in bed, and Karl seemed to be getting ready himself.

“Good night babe, good night Karlitos,” Quackity said.

“Night babe,” Karl replied distractedly. Sapnap just muttered something unintelligible and rolled over.

Quackity looked up at the ceiling, nausea still crawling around him. Something is very wrong.

He smiled at the fear in his eyes. The way he seems scared of him as he tightens his grip on the Warden’s Will. After seeing him using fear against everyone around him, he finally felt the same fear that he caused within everyone else. Something is wrong…

“It’s simple, Dream. Alright? You’re gonna tell me all the knowledge you have in that fucking book or I’m gonna come here. Every. Single. Fucking. Day. To make your life hell,” he growled as Quackity held Dream down with his lone hand grip around his horn. 

“No stop I don’t wanna be here”

“That is exactly what I’m gonna do and I’m gonna fucking stick to it until you give me knowledge on that fucking book. Do you understand me-?”

Quackity gasped as he woke up from the memory. His hand gripped the rings on his hand.

His heart pounding from the events that he’s in his head. What was he doing there? How did he get the Warden's will?

He shuddered at the implications of it, especially what he knew from Sam. Did he convince Sam to give it to him, persuading him to allow him to wield it against Dream? Did he steal it from him? Did he k-

Quackity’s grip tightened on the rings as the thought came to his head. No, no, he wouldn’t have killed Sam. He wouldn’t kill his own dad. He would never sink to that low.

That didn’t calm him down though.

Quackity rolls over, hoping to go back to sleep. Before hearing a crunch under his bed he pulled it up to see a poster, decorated with monarch butterflies fluttering around a kind-looking woman with a bright smile. One of the butterflies, the biggest one landed right next to the woman that had a purple M written in cursive in the middle of it. 

Worried that you’re an outsider?

Wanting to be better after many years of trauma?

Then come to Dr. Madden's Psychology and Redemption clinic.

Free sessions for the first 100 people to enter!

Quackity stared at it confused What the fuck is that? A redemption clinic? 

“Hey, Karl…” Quackity said quietly, turning to face his fiance’s bed.

He looks around the room noticing that Karl wasn’t in bed.

He looks to the corner only to see Karl mumbling into his book writing something down.

“Come on, come on, why can’t you send us back home…”

“Karl?”

Karl quickly shut the book as he turns around towards Quackity. “Hey Babe,” he said nervously as he hold the book behind him. 

“You alright?” Quackity asked.

“I’m fine, what did you need?”

Quackity decided to drop it, he’d talk to Sapnap about what Karl had been doing in the morning. “This, I found this in my bed for some reason. Not sure how it got here.”

Karl gently took the poster out of Quackity’s hands, staring at it.

“Well I don’t really know much about the poster but maybe we can ask about it. I mean they did ask us to look for a therapist…” Karl said after a while.

“It’s just that it just kinda sounds like a scam,” Quackity responded.

“Quackity, have you ever been to a therapist often?”

Quackity just sighed that “ “That is true. And it did  mention free sessions.”

“Yep. We should probably tell the others about it it will get the toons off our tails, and maybe it’ll help.”

Quackity just stared at the poster. There's something off about it. The more he look closely at it. The monarchs look a bit dull as if its colors have been sucked out and the woman smile, despite showing joy, seems to be strained, as if being forced to.

“We should take our time with this. I don't want to jump into some random office with someone that I don’t know…”

“But we should at the very least allow everyone else to decide-I mean they did say that they’re going to give us a bunch of recommendations so why not have some just-” 

“I don’t, might just be the nightmare still messing with my head,” Quackity said. “This is the second night in a row I’ve had weird nightmares.”

Karl looks away from Quackity clutching his book harder than normal.“Nightmares?”

“Yeah it's like a twisted mirror of what’s going on like…” Quackity groaned as covered his face. “I don’t know how to describe it. Mickey says that it shows what could’ve happened or some shit but I don’t know he could be lying…”

“Are you okay?” Karl asked, resting a hand on Quackity’s shoulder.

Quackity stayed silent for a moment “No….”

Karl looked at his fiancé for a moment before sighing “Did I ever tell you about what I was doing?”

“What do you mean?”

Karl looked at his journal, his fingers twitching around it as he attempted to hand it towards Quackity. Despite his best efforts he couldn’t move to hand the journal to Quackity. 

“Karl, are you OK?” 

“I’m sorry, I can’t. I just can’t,” Karl said, trying not to cry.

“What do you mean by you can’t?” Quackity looks at him concerned as he turns towards him. “Karl what’s going on?”

But Karl quickly backs away “It’s fine Quackity I just need to go to bed right now.”

Quackity watched with concern as Karl crawled into his bed, eventually just sighing and rolling back over, hoping the nightmare wouldn’t come back. Thought this was something else he’d have to bring up to Sapnap in the morning.

Karl meanwhile was fighting to keep himself from crying. He felt pathetic. He couldn’t even fucking tell him a single thing no matter what he did. His head spins at many of the possibilities and times filling his head. One particular that stands out of him forgetting Quackity and seeing him losing him for good just because he couldn’t even fucking remember him and keep track of the ones he loves.

He just clutched at the journal, noting the bits of the poster that they were talking about was hanging out of it. The woman on the cover looks so nice. Karl just closed his eyes, his vision filled with monarchs fluttering around him as dread began filling his stomach.

Chapter Text

“Morning!” One of the toons called loudly from outside the server’s house.

“Ugh,” Sapnap groaned as he sat up and stretched. “I thought Techno said these guys weren’t early risers.” 

“Not surprising, Techno said it,” Quackity said.

“It's 8 AM?” Karl said, with a slight laugh. “It’s not that early.”

“How long have you been up?” Sapnap asked, looking over to see Karl, fully ready for the day.

“About a half hour,” Karl said, walking to leave the room. “I’ll meet you two downstairs.”

Sapnap and Quackity began to prepare for the day in silence but before Sapnap could leave the room, he was stopped by Quackity.

“Sapnap, can I talk about you? It’s about Karl,” Quackity said.

“What about him?”

“Look, has Karl been acting weird to you? I mean we haven’t seen each other in a while so I wouldn’t know but last night he was acting weird.”

“Weird? In what way?” Sapnap said, concern lacing his voice.

“Well for one thing I got woken up part ways through the night and Karl still seemed to be up. He was writing in that journal of his and muttering about sending us home,” Quackity said. “And then when we were talking he offered to tell me what he had been doing but then he just froze up. His arms were shaking and I thought he was about to start crying. He kept just apologizing but wouldn’t tell me why and just said he had to go to bed. I’m worried about him, Babe. I don’t wanna lose him. I don’t wanna lose either of you.”

Sapnap frowned, biting his lip. “He’s been pretty secretive about what’s in that journal, yeah. It’s almost like he can’t say what’s in it. Plus he’s been forgetting things. Quackity did Karl ever tell you about the country we were starting with George?”

“What? Y’all were starting a country without…”

“No! We wanted you there, Karl was supposed to tell you but I guess he never did. He’s been forgetting other stuff as well. I’m worried about him.”

Quackity turned to look out the window frown on his face. “I don’t think confronting him will help then. We’ll just have to keep an eye on him.”

Sapnap nodded. Both of them just looked at each other for a moment feeling as if they should say something else but unable to think of anything until they were interrupted by Sam knocking on their door telling them to hurry up.

“Alright everyone,” Mickey said once the entire server was gathered. The some of the server glances aside to notice that Minnie was nearby, watching. “Look, as a part of learning to be better people, today we want you going out and actually getting to know people. Explore town! Talk to people!”

The server just stared at him like they thought he was crazy.

“It’ll be fun! Plus you guys can go anywhere you guys want as long as you guys don’t try to destroy anything. Well almost everywhere. And we want you to talk to people besides each other, otherwise you’re kinda missing the point. Now go on and have fun!” 

“Can we explore those woods over there?” Purpled asked, pointing towards a fenced-off wooded area.

“No. That’s the creek. Those are some of the few untraumatized children, so no. You are not allowed near them. But otherwise go and have fun!”

The server looked at each other before the other head toons began to push them apart from each other. 

Eventually the server gave in and began to walk away from each other, going off in various directions.

“You can come home for lunch around noon! Bye you guys!” Mickey called out.

“What's with that guy?” Tommy whispers to Tubbo.

Tubbo just shook his head. “I don't know, Big Man…he seemed too…cheerful…” Tubbo frowned a bit as if in thought. “Yeah that’s the word, he’s too cheerful.”

Tommy's eyes narrowed a bit. Tubbo was right, the guy seemed too cheerful for someone who had to keep an eye on a bunch of people. Hell at least with the other Toons it seems like they were somewhat stressed or have any other emotions besides happiness. It's like he could never stop smiling just like… him.

“Ye-yeah like he seems really fake…”

“Also, do you really think that the town would even trust us after what happened?” Ranboo said nervously.

“I don’t know. I mean we’re not in prison so,” Tommy said.

Tommy looked around before catching sight of Minerva and calling out “Hey! Min! Over here!”

Minerva waved at him as she pulled along a few toons around their age. Among them was a few familiar faces.

“Min…” Dipper said.

“It’s gonna be fine guys I promise,” Minerva whispered.

“Yeah but still…”

“Like they’s cool but just follow me” She said as she begin to pull them along.

“Oh hi Milly.”

“We’re going to a picnic I was wondering if you wanna come, Toms”

Tommy stood there nervously as Stephen smiled at him.

“How are you doing Tommy?”

“I thought you'd  be a bit mad about the whole…” Tommy looked down at his feet “You know…”

Steven give Tommy a reassuring smile. “It’s all right, I mean it’s a good time for us to just talk about how you’re doing.”

“How I’m doing? What do you mean?”

“Just how you’re doing,” Steven said.

Tommy just looked around awkwardly. “Why do you need to know?”

“We can go somewhere else if you want”

Tommy nodded as he followed Steven.

“Where is he taking him?” Ranboo asked.

“Probably to the bench I think that they’ll be back in a few minutes,” Minerva said.

 They sat down for a few minutes before Tommy finally spoke up “You didn’t answer my question earlier. Why do you need to know…?”

“Just wondering how you’ve been doing is all.”

“Ehh well enough I guess. Stuck sharing a room with Ranboob but there are worse people to room with.”

Steven looked away for a second before asking “So Tommy… Did anything happen on the server?”

“Uhhh what do you mean?” Tommy asked. “I mean a lot of ‘stuff’ happened, I’ve been there for like almost two year.”

“It’s just the reason why I ask is how your reaction when I was asking to put down your weapon.”

Tommy darted his eyes away from him. “It's just that we’re just worried that you might force us to surrender.”

Steven looked at him, worried edge on his face before nodding “You don’t wanna talk about it?”

Tommy just stared at him.

“I mean if you don’t wanna talk about it I won’t make you, but that seemed a pretty extreme reaction to being asked to put down a weapon.”

“I… No, I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Alright.”

“Anyway!” Minerva said suddenly appearing. 

“OH-Minerva you’re here!” Both boys exclaimed

“Yep!” she said gently getting in between Tommy and Steven, “I was wondering if you guys would like to go on a picnic?”

“Sure that sounds fun,” Tubbo said.

“Great! Let’s go!” Minerva said, grabbing Tommy’s and Steven’s arm and drag them behind her.

Judy smiled at Sam as he came over to the prison “I'm glad to see you here andnot on the other side of the bars” she joked.

Sam just nodded as he looked at her. “So do you work here?”

“Occasionally I don’t often come over a lot, it's just me exploring the place with my partner.” She turns around as she opens the door. “You first!”

Sam stared at Judy for a moment before entering the door.

“So what are we doing?”

“We’re gonna be cleaning up the prison a bit. You guys left quite a mess.”

Sam frowned at the cells. Some of it was someone that thinks that he wished the prison could’ve been but another part of him feels like it’s too… lenient. 

“How did the designs work?”

Judy turned towards him. “What do you mean?”

“Like the bars? The material used to build the prison? how do you keep the prisoners in?”

“Technically it acts like a temporary container more than anything the actual prison. It’s more of the jurisdiction of our individual worlds.”

“Uh-Huh..” Sam mumbled, “So how do you guys manage to keep on with your peaceful existence? 

Judy gave him a blank look “What do you mean by that?”

“You’re telling me that no one ever invaded your town?” 

“It’s very rare and even then we’re good at defense.”

Sam raises his eyebrows “So…. Everyone in town is involved with its defense, right?”

“Sam, please tell me that you’re not trying to analyze whether or not we could be defeated?”

“I’m not, it's just I don’t get it…”

“What’s not to get? What’s the justice like on your server?”

“I mean there’s one prison. Pandora’s Vault. Big, dark, the main cell is surrounded by lava to help keep the inmate in. Raw potatoes for food. No sunlight.”

“Pandora’s Vault sounds awful,” Judy said.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked.

“The prison is in violation of so many rules plus don’t get why you thought it was a good idea to even do that?”

“Hey, most of those were Dream’s ideas.”

“You still built it.”

“You’re making me sound like some sort of monster.”

Judy just glared at him as if she knew that he’s not being truthfu.

“It’s not like I went in there saying oh yeah I’ll want to build an awful prison… I did make suggestions to make it better like adding steak, I wanted a courtyard for the prisoners all of that but he told me no and I of course for some reason went along with it,” Sam mumbled, turning to avoid Judy’s gaze.

“Why did you trust him before all of this?” Judy thought about it for a moment before her eyes wide with realization. “Was he your friend?”

Sam looks at her shocked “What?!”

“I mean why would you build a prison for him or enter the server in the first place if you felt like he was always evil.”

“No! we’re not friends.” Sam looks away “Not anymore…”

“So what was your life back at the server before things got nuts? Like before you became the warden?”

“Depends. I’ll admit the server was never overly calm. I considered leaving but well, Quackity found himself in the middle of a whole conflict and I couldn’t leave Quackity. He’s my son.”

“But in general?”

“It was nice. I miss it sometimes. Being able to spend lazy mornings just lazing in bed, messing with redstone as I want, able to hang out with Ponk.”

“Why can’t you do any of that anymore? Take a day off and do those things. Aren’t there other guards?”

“Technically? I hired Bad and Ant but well… They’re kind of possessed by an evil egg.”

“An evil egg? And you hired them?”

“They’re my friends. They’re two of the people I trust the most. Besides, it's not like Ponk wants me around anymore.”

“Why not?”

“They stole some keycards to the prison and… well when they wouldn’t give them back, I cut off their hand.”

“You what?!”

“You don’t understand! I had to keep Dream in prison! He had killed Tommy only to bring him back, he’s hurt so many people. He’s a monster. I couldn't risk him running free.”

“There’s better ways than becoming the monster to contain the monster.”

Sam looks away from her “ You’re making it sound harsh.”

“Because it is harsh. What, have you guys never had prisons in your world before?”

“I mean considering that the usual punishment is just throwing someone to the void then no I guess.”

“Your world sounds awful…”

“Hey, it’s home,” Sam said with a shrug. “It’s not like there’s really anywhere else to go. Until we ended up here we didn’t think there was anything different.”

“Still, don’t you wanna make your home better.” Judy said sternly.

“Of course.”

“Then why don’t you? You’re the warden, you can make the prison more humane now. You can’t exactly reattach your friend’s arm but still you can try to make amends,” Judy said.

Sam looks away from her. “I mean the prison still keeps people safe just the way it is. I don't like it but what else could I do?”

Before Judy could answer if there was a familiar cough of someone waiting

“Hate to interrupt the moral talk but are you going to help continue cleaning up?” Both turn around to see Nick standing arms crossed.

“Uhh, hi?” Sam said, waving slightly at the fox.

“Oh, uhh Sam this is Nick. He’s my friend.”

“Sam. Nice to meet you,” Sam said, reaching his hand out.

Nick nodded at Sam as he held his hand out. “Nice to meet you too.”

That was an awkward moment of science before Nick spoke up 

“So Judy you got any other plans?”

”Yeah! Sam you could come over to my house if you want?”

Sam nodded with a nervous smile “Oh-Sure..”

“Did you miss Mickey telling you to actually talk to people?” Scarlett asked, walking up to Techno who was sitting underneath a tree by himself in the park.

“I don’t like talking to people,” Techno said. “I don’t like interacting with people in general.”

“Introvert?”

“That’s a good way of saying it.” Techno rolled his eyes before looking away.

“So besides destroying governments, what else do you like to do?” Scarlett said, sitting down across from him.

“I don’t like destroying governments, I’m just doing what I know is right.”

“Okay then what do you like to do?”

“Why do you care?”

“Well my girlfriend and Toby are both getting pretty close with some of you guys so I thought I might as well get to know you too.”

“Yeah right, how do I know that the government is not trying to spy on us.”

“Oh no how dangerous, the head toons will know what you do for fun!” Scarlett said, sarcasm dripping from her voice, before laughing. “Dude, how the heck would they use that against you?”

“They’d find a way,” Techno said, before standing out to walk away. 

Scarlett just sighed. This was turning out to be harder than they had expected. She hoped some of the others were having better luck with getting the server to open up.

Niki and Jack walked around town as Toby followed. He hummed the loud as he played around with his aviator hat strap. Jack looks back frowning as he looks at the boy behind him. 

“Niki, is Toby going to keep on following us…”  Jack asked.

Niki shrugged as she noted the boy skipping along. “I mean he seemed rather stuck by you,” she teased.

“I know and I don’t mind it… i’m just a bit surprised that’s all…”

“About having your own little fan boy?”

Jack looks away from her. It’s technically true but turn down on why he doesn’t like it maybe it’s just how quick the boy attached himself to him. “I guess…”

“So what do you guys wanna do?” Toby asked.  

Jack just rubbed her arm “I don’t know?”

Nikki pat him on the back before kneeling toward Toby “Are there any places that you want to go to?”

Toby‘s eyes a lit up as he begin to shake. 

“There’s so many places that we can go to and do here!” Toby then reaches into his backpack and pulls out a map.  “We can go to the park and either take a hike, go on a picnic, do a scavenger hunt, I can take you to the library and show you all the books there  or I can take you to the art museum downtown or one of the restaurants or-.” 

Jack sighs as he begins to zone out from the monologue. Niki just awkwardly smiles as she does the same. How long would Toby keep on talking?

“-Or just we can go to the museum and look at all the objects and all the inventions like the portals ” 

Both woke up from their stupor. That’s new.

“Wait, a portal?”

“Yeah I can show you it if you-” Toby then stopped himself as it’s he remember something  before looking down sadly “Oh right we can’t go… but we can go to-”

“What? why not?”

“It’s under repairs now. Don’t worry it’s not because of you, it's just that a few weeks back before you guys arrived there was a little accident when one of our friends Entrapta accidentally destroyed a part of it so currently they’re repairing it.”

“Do you think that it’s still  possible for us to go there?” Jack asked

Toby thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. “Unfortunately not. I’m sad now,” Toby said looking at the ground before sitting down.

“Hey there could be somewhere else we can go. I mean you did mention the library.”

Toby not for a moment “Yeah do you wanna go there?”

Both nodded not like they have anything else to do.

Toby hummed as he led them to the library.

The doors open revealing the three of them.

“Welcome to the library guys!” Toby yelled out before shush was heard from the other people inside.

“Sorry,” he whispers as Niki and Jack quietly enter the room.

They stared, mouths wide open as they looked around the place; it looks more like a fancy manor than a Library with multiple paintings and statues all over the place. The one thing that sticks out were the occasional ones with green eyes and owls looking at them.

“Are you sure no one lives here?” Jack asked

Toby tilts his head “No? We designed it based on what everyone experiences and it sort of ended up creating this… Plus my mom helps a lot.”

“Holy shit….” Niki whispered “This is amazing…”

“Hello Toby,” a voice said. Both jumped as Toby turns around and smiles “Hi Ms. Belle.”

 Behind the desk was a young woman around 17 or 18 years old with brown hair tied up in a ponytail wearing a blue dress. She smiles at the group “So you’re showing some of the new people around the library?”

Toby nodded “Yep! And I suggested the library! This is Niki and this is Jack.”

Both wave nervously at Belle. She stood up and put her hand out towards the duo “Nice to meet you two.”

“Nice to meet you as well…”

Toby then tilts his head toward The corner “I gotta go, you guys. There a few books that I need to get.”

“Wait, you're just gonna leave us here?” Nikki asked, glancing at Belle nervously.

“It’s gonna be fine! I’ll be right back,” Toby said reassuringly as he began walking away “You guys can talk, get to know each other.”

And what that Toby was gone. There was a moment of silence as they stared at each other. There’s something off about her although it’s a lot more similar to Toby. 

“So how was your time here?” Belle asked politely.

“We’re doing okay, glad to not be in the prison anymore,” Niki said awkwardly.

Belle laughed. “ I guess that’s one way to feel about it.”

“I’m surprised that you weren’t suspicious of us,” Jack said.

“I only heard what happened. I was away back home when you guys actually arrived.”

“Oh…”

“I mean, usually when people decided to attack the town, they usually give us a couple weeks of getting used to them before they attack.”

“What, There’s a courtesy period?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you need a courtesy period…” Niki tilted her head to the side.

“Well people should get to know each other before they decide to attack…” Belle explain curtly, her blue eyes slightly narrowed.

The rocket duos shoulders deflate slightly at that “Oh…”

“Though I’m very glad that you decided to hang out with Toby, he is pretty lonely at the library…”

Jack tilted his head “Really? I mean don’t he hang out with a lot of kids..?”

“Not a lot of kids follow him to the library so he’s usually by himself,” Belle said.

Jack whines a bit, not liking the implication. 

“So what would the weird eye symbols be…” Niki asked, pointing at one.

Before Belle could answer there was a sudden crash behind them.

“Sorry about that I want to get a book for Jon… but I may have accidentally dropped a few,” Toby said.

From the corner of Jack’s eyes he noticed some of the books being neatly put into the shelves.

“It’s all right Toby, it seems like your friends are cleaning up after you,” Belle said as she kneeled down and patted Toby‘s head. 

“Why don’t you show them your little hideout?”

Jack narrows his eyes at Belle, unsure how to feel about how she talk to him

Toby nodded “Sure!”

Toby walked over to a small area and pulled away a rug, revealing a trapdoor. He cheerfully opened it, climbing down a ladder into a hidden basement, Niki and Jack following him after a moment of hesitation.

At the bottom, Toby was standing in front of a door, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He then pushed the door open revealing a small room with a bunch of books haphazardly spilling all over the place.

“So this is your hideout?” Nikki asked, looking around.

“Yep! Mom managed to create it for me,” Toby said, sitting on the floor cheerfully, Jack and Niki doing the same after a couple seconds of thought. The pair began to look around when Toby spoke up again.

“Oh, Nikki. Just to let you know there’s something in your hair.”

“Huh? What’s in my hair?” Niki said, reaching up to run her fingers through it, causing something to fall out.

“This thing!” Toby said, picking up whatever it was, holding it out to them.

Toby was holding a poster

Worried that you’re an outsider?

Wanting to be better after many years of trauma?

Then come to Dr. Madden's psychology and redemption clinic.

Free sessions for the first 100 people to enter!

“How did that get in my hair?” Niki said, confused.

Toby shrugged as he got up to get some books. “I don't know, who is Dr. Madden? Is she a friend of yours?”

“Never heard the name before in my life,” Jack said. Niki nodded in agreement.

“That's odd. Should we tell Ms. Belle? maybe it’s a new therapist in town.”

Toby gives them a thumbs up as he opens up the hideout door. “I got the books that I needed. Do you guys want to come out?”

Niki nodded, and the pair followed Toby back to the main library.

Toby smiles as he walks out of the hideout “And Martin already left some tea for us.” 

“Toby what are you talking-“ Jack was about to ask only to see on the library table was 3 cups of tea “What the…” 

“It seems like Martin was very considerate making up for what happened,” Belle said sipping her own tea.

Nikki looks down at the tea with a suspicious squint. “That’s nice of him…”

“I found one of my books,” Toby said to Belle as he sat down next to her. “It’s called a Wrinkle in Time, and they talk about stuff like Tesseracts!”

“That’s so interesting Toby, tell me all about them.”

Jack just watches as Toby explains to her whatever this Tesseract thing is with Belle responding by pinching Toby’s cheeks. What’s with this town and treating people who are almost adults like children? And why didn’t Toby seem upset by it? It seems like Niki notices it as well when she turns and spoke up.

“Don’t you think you’re being a little bit patronizing”

Belle turns to the two “Excuse me?”

“He’s 13 years old, he doesn't need to be treated like a little kid,” Jack said.

Belle rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what you consider an adult in your world, but here Toby is still a child.”

“Yeah but not-” Jack rolled his eyes as Belle went right back to what she had been doing. She obviously wasn’t going to listen to them.

“It's fine Jack plus I don’t mind that much.” Toby said before giggling as Belle patted him. “It’s nice.”

“If you insist,” Jack said, doubt filling his voice. He wondered what the others were up to.

Foolish just ended up exploring the city with Eret, wandering random streets looking at the various buildings.

“The architecture here is certainly interesting,” Eret said. “A very interesting mix.”

“Not really my taste,” Foolish said.

“Well no, you do tend to stick pretty closely to your Egyptian architecture.”

Foolish and Eret just laughed as they kept walking. 

But as they turned the next corner, the pair found themselves face to face with Korra and Asami.

“Ohh, uhh, heyyyyy,” Foolish said, taking a step back.

“Hello there,” Eret said, waving awkwardly.

“Hey,” Korra said.

“Hey, uhh, look, sorry about the whole, you know, trying to attack you thing,” Foolish said laughing awkwardly. “I kinda just got swept up in everything you know?”

Korra just raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“I was just scared. I was suddenly in a new place, I left my kids behind and then someone was telling me people were planning to permanently keep me away from them. I wasn’t exactly thinking straight,” Foolish said. “I hope I didn’t hurt you too badly?”

“I’ve recovered. Katara was able to treat the injury pretty quickly,” Asami said. 

“So, do you two have any particular spots in town you think we should see?” Eret asked. “We’re trying to do some of our own exploring.”

“Oh yeah, there’s a nice park over that way,” Asami said, pointing from the direction they had been coming from. “We’re actually just leaving there.”

“Yeah, either way you two have a good day,” Korra said as her and Asami walked off.

“Well that went well,” Foolish said, grin on his face.

“Yeah, I was expecting things to be way more awkward. Though I suppose you apologizing probably- oof,” Eret stopped as the wind suddenly whipped a piece of paper into her face. 

“What the?” Foolish said, grabbing the thing and looking at it. 

Worried that you’re an outsider?

Wanting to be better after many years of trauma?

Then come to Dr. Madden's psychology and redemption clinic.

Free sessions for the first 100 people to enter!

“Dr Madden’s psychology and redemption clinic? That’s certainly a name,” Eret said, after Foolish handed the flier to them. 

“Yeah,” Foolish said. “Where did that wind come from though? It’s been completely clear all day.”

“Who knows, this place is weird.”

“Should we throw it out?”

“Maybe? I mean the toons did say we should get therapy.”

Foolish just shrugged, and Eret decided to fold the flier and put it in their pocket. They’d figure it out later. For now she had a lovely day and a good friend to enjoy it with.

Sam frowned as he managed to slip away from Judy and Nick. They had been very nice at first but now Sam was socially exhausted and honestly just wanted to curl up and take a nap. He wouldn’t be surprised if others felt the same way. Based on the sun it looked a bit past noon so hopefully the Toons wouldn’t freak out about him heading back home.

Sam began to make his way back towards the house they had been given, doing his best to avoid any toons, though he did run into Phil and Techno at one point. He looked at them for a second before beginning to move again. Vaguely feeling them following him.

He saw a couple other server members, seemingly making their own way to the house as well. Guess he was right about others getting exhausted.

“What the hell?” He heard Quackity hear from just ahead.

Sam realized what Quackity was talking about the second the house came into eyeshot. The entire thing was covered in various fliers, all saying the same thing.

Worried that you’re an outsider ?

Wanting to be better after many years of trauma?

Then come to Dr. Madden's psychology and redemption clinic.

Free sessions for the first 100 people to enter!

“Is this some sort of prank or something?” Techno asked, picking one up.

“I don’t know, they keep on appearing everywhere,” Fundy said. “I found, like, three while I was out.”

“We ask a few people about it, and they gave us a look like we were making some fucking joke or someone was pranking us.”

“Should we clean them up?” Phil asked.

“I mean, will it matter that much?” Sam noted staring at the posters under his feet

“We probably should,” Fundy said. “I don’t want the Toons made at us for this if they think we did this.”

The server grumbled in agreement, working together to get as many of the fliers off as they could. It took a while, and they weren’t able to get all of them, but at least it was better than before.

After that was done, the server entered the house, most of them just flopping down in the living room either on the couch, chairs, or the floor. After a while, Phil finally piped up.

“So. what was with those fliers, mate?”

The fox shrugged “I don’t know, one ended up just appearing in my pocket while I was out,” Fundy said.

“I had a weird gust of wind blow one into my face.”

“You think that’s weird? I found one in my bed last night! My fucking bed,” Quackity said, kicking his feet as he lay on a recliner.

“How did one get into your bed?” Sam asked, “Did someone sneak into the house?”

“So these fliers are just randomly appearing around us? Cause one showed up in my hair earlier too,” Niki said, remembering back to what she saw at the library.

Techno then asked. “Do most therapy places have such weird names as that one?”

“I don’t think so,” Puffy said.

“I mean what do we-” Sapnap paused as he shifted in his seat, causing some sort of crinkly noise. The man reached behind him behind the throw pillow only to pull up another flier.

“Another one?!” Quackity cried out angrily.

“Okay, who is this Dr Madden and what does she want with us so much?” Phil grumbled looking at it.

“I’m not sure. Maybe one of the toons put these here as an option?” Foolish said.

“But didn’t the toons say that they didn’t know what we were talking about?” Sam said.

“I mean, free is free,” Tommy said.

“I don’t know,” Quackity said. “Something about those things is freaking me out.”

“They seem harmless enough to me,” Foolish said. “What’s the worst this woman could be capable of?”

Chapter Text

“So besides a whole flier fiasco is there anything that we know about this place here?” Quackity asked.

“Well they seem to really believe that if you’re thirteen, you’re still a kid.” Niki noted

“I mean technically yes, but what do you mean by that,” Sapnap said.

“We met one of them and they treated Toby like he was like a tiny child,” Jack explain . “Kept patting him on the head and pinching his cheeks.”

Puffy tilted her head, “Really? I mean from my perspective he looks to be ready for training,”

“Yeah thirteen is around when I started teaching Wilbur to fight,” Phil said.

Sam nodded in agreement. “Same with me and Quackity.”

“Speaking of Toby he also mentioned a museum,” Jack said.

“Museum?” Eret asked. Jack’s statement had obviously caught her attention.

“Yeah basically they have this museum but due to some incident with some portal they have to close it down,” Niki said.

“Wait Portal?” Sam said.

“You don’t think we could use that to get home could we?” Puffy asked.

“Maybe, we’d have to get a look at it though,” Eret said. “And if it’s closed it’s not like the Toons will let us just waltz in. We’ll need a plan.”

“And a good one. I mean like Toby said it’s closed right now and I don’t think any of us want to go back to jail right now,” Sam said.

“We’ll need some sort of distraction,” Puffy said, standing up and beginning to pace. “But something that won’t get the toons so mad at us they kill us or throw us back in prison. Does anyone have any ideas?”

The server was silent for a couple moments, but then Tommy’s eyes light up when he remembered what one of the toons said Don’t go to the creek

“Guys I was thinking what were the Toons' reasons forbidding us from  going to the creek,” Tommy said.

“Something about untraumatized kids,” Sam said. 

“Well maybe it’s a code for something?” Tubbo said. “Cause that seems like a pretty weird reason.”

“I mean only one way to see,” Tommy said, a mischievous grin on his face.

“Tommy this is a bad idea”

I mean I’m not gonna do anything I’m just gonna look over the fence for a moment and then if there’s any sound of danger I’ll quickly climb down and pretend that I was planting flowers or some shit

“I don’t know, it just seems like every time we do something that resembles something “bad”” Niki said with air quotes “They end up noticing us.”

“And plus I don’t feel like going back to jail because you decide to be an idiot” Jack growl 

Tommy just shoots Jack a middle finger as he continues to climb up. Only a few moments later he managed to get his head up towards The creek. He stared for a moment before he let out a sigh. Over the fence there’s a small creek with some kids playing along it. They look to be a lot younger than he is, some of them even around Michael’s age. Beside what seems to be a post where kids trade for items there’s nothing special about this place.

Tommy groans to himself of course it’s nothing special. The toons overreacted over something stupid.

“What’s over there Theseus” Techno asked

Tommy try not to cringe over that nickname, as he answers “Nothing much Tech, just a fucking playground”

“No secret facilities no mysterious place just a playground”

“I mean unless you count that trading tree thing nothing much”

“Why are they getting so worked up over a fucking playground?!” Fundy asks indignantly

“I don’t know, maybe they’re worried that we might hurt them or something?” Sam suggested.

“What do they think we are?! we’re not mindless savages,” Phil said.

“Well based on the way they're acting they seem to think that assholes,” Purpled grumbles.“Tommy get down from there, we can't really allow the toons to get angry at us again.”

“Shut up. Besides I still don’t see why we’re not allowed near the place,” Tommy said, rolling his eyes. “Just cause there’s a couple kids over there? I don’t buy that.”

He rolled his eyes as a few other members muttered agreement. Purpled then noticed some rustling by the trees. He freeze for a moment realizing what  could potentially mean, He scooch over towards Tubbo and tapped him on the shoulders 

“Purp what-”

He quickly covers his mouth and just shush Tubbo “Look from the corner of your eye don’t move” 

Tubbo narrowed his eyes before he also caught something from the corner of his eyes, something blue.

“I need you to tell Tommy to get down and pretend that none of this happened.”Purpled whisper harshly into Tubbo’s ear who nodded quickly

“Uh Tommy, big man…”

He groan expecting more warnings, “Listen Tubs it’s fine there’s no one around plus I’ll just say hi for a moment and then I will be off”

A few kids look up and notice Tommy coming down

“Who’s that guy?” one girl with a bird on her head asked, looking up at Tommy.

“I don’t know, I think he’s one of the weird people,” a boy with a large sweater said said.

“Why does he look so dirty?” the bird girl responded.

“Yeah he looks like a homeless person,” A boy wearing a green poncho said. “Or a hobo.”

Tommy’s eyes went wide at that that comment “Ok you little shi-”

Before Tommy could get all way over the creek, there was a yelp from a few other servers members before he felt a tug at the back of his shirt that pulled him back

“What did we tell you guys yesterday?!” Daffy demanded, holding the boy up. “I knew you all were bad but I wasn’t expecting you to go trying to get in the next day.”

“What was that for?! They’re just a bunch of kids!” Tommy said, struggling to get out of Daffy’s grip on his shirt.

“And we told you the rules!” Daffy responded, just tightening his grip and dragged Tommy off behind him, towards the house, while Donald ushered the rest of the server inside.

“What with you idiots and breaking every rule in the book” Donald growled

What would you guys being fucking dicks Tommy yell back.

“So…why can’t we go over to the creek?” Tubbo asked.

“You aren't corrupting actual children,” Daffy said with a frown.

“What makes you think-” 

“How would we corrupt-” Tommy began before being cut off.

“Take a good few seconds to look at your life since joining your server and say you haven't been corrupted.”Donald said

The server sat there in complete silence as they glared at the two.they don’t know what argument they could use against these assholes, but whatever it is, it probably wouldn’t convince them that they are not some corrupting influence.

“Can Michael at least go?” Ranboo said. “He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Donald looked at Daffy, who nodded toward him “Alright, but you can't go in with him.”

Ranboo smile as he nodded. “We get it.”

“But seriously if we see you guys over there again you’re not gonna see anything besides the inside of prison cells until we can send you home,” Donald said, as he and Daffy got up to leave.

“So the plan is to use Michael as a spy?” Phil whispered to Ranboo

Donald quickly turned around, “And none of that spy business. I heard you two.”

“How the fuck mate?!” Phil said as he closed the door behind him. “How the fuck did he hear that?! How?!”

“These guys get creepier and creepier the longer I spend here,” Techno said, crossing his arms. 

“It’s not like we’d hurt a bunch of innocent children. That’s like rule zero. Don’t hurt kids too young to fight back,” Niki pointed out. “We might have jerks on our server, but even the worst on the server wouldn’t do that. ”

“But in answer to your question Phil, no I am not letting you use Michael as a spy. I just think it would be nice for Michael to spend time with some kids his own age,” Ranboo said.

“Are you sure Boo?” Tubbo said. “I mean Dream is somewhere in this world, I don’t want Michael getting hurt.”

“I mean considering the way the Toons act I doubt that Dream would get near there,” Ranboo said calmly. Plus I haven’t fallen into my… state so that’s a big sign and a plus. He thought to himself.

“So do you think that Michael visiting the kids would at the very least  act as a distraction for a whole how to get into the museum problem?” Eret asked.

“You’re really interested in that museum huh?” Foolish said.
“I mean you heard Niki, there’s supposedly portals in there. We might be able to figure out a way to use one to get home,” Eret said. “No more waiting around, just pop open a portal and get home. Or at least to the server hub.”

“Let’s not forget those doors only lead to their servers and I’m not getting into some random server that I don’t know about,” Purpled said. “For all we know we’ll end up somewhere worse.”

“It’s at least something to look into,” Sam said, trying to defuse the situation.

“It’s worth a shot too,” Puffy said.

“I still don’t know about this,” Tubbo said. 

“Hey, Michael’s fast and he’s small. We make sure he knows to hide if he sees Dream before he goes and if he’s not back in an hour or so we go after him, no matter what the Toons say,” Ranboo said.

As if on cue Michael came into the door “Daddy what happened?”

“Well me and Papa found a new place for you to spend some time and explore. Meet some kids your age,” Ranboo said, kneeling down in front of Michael. “Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“Really?” Michael asked, “I get to go outside more?”

“Mhm,” Ranboo said. “But if you see a man with a green hoodie and a white smiley face mask you need to hide okay?”

Michael tilted his head to the side, confusion written across his face.

“It’s very important,” Tubbo said, kneeling down next to Ranboo. “That man is dangerous and while we don’t think he’ll be around where we’re sending you, we’d rather be safe and sorry. Do you understand?”

“Yes Papa,” Michael said.

“Alright,” Tubbo said, picking him up. 

“Will Michelle and the others come?” Michael suddenly said, wrapping his hands around his neck. “I miss them”

Tubbo jump in surprise before giving him a smile “We’re working on it honey plus we have to deal with some of the locals.”

“You mean the The two duck guys, the sailor one talks funny.”

Ramboo laughed “Yeah he is, they’re helping us with some things”

“Why would they be angry at you then?”

Both looked at each other before Ranboo answered “Because… we cause a mess with their stuff…and people don’t like it when you touch your stuff….”

“But-”

Ranboo begins to push Michael back to his bedroom. “Now go on Michael, Tomorrow is a new day and you’re gonna be making some new friends”

Michael looks at Ranboo skeptical but he continues to walk him to his room. Michael went into bed. 

“Are you gonna be okay?” Tubbo asked quietly as Michael got into bed.

Ranboo nodded. “Yeah I will.” He then closed the door looking down  with a worried expression on his face

“Ran…”

“You don’t think that they would-” Ranboo said, frown on his face as he turned to Tubbo.

Tubbo shook his head. “They wouldn’t, you know that you never break rule zero.”

“Yeah at least Michael will make some new friends while we deal with this. I’ve been worried about him since his argument with Foolish Jr,” Ranboo said.

“Me too.”

“Yeah!” Tommy comes up from behind them with a smile “And if they decide to break the rules we won’t hesitate to fight back.”

The other server members nodded as well, looking determined.

Michael hummed as he packed his lunch. He is very excited for meeting a lot of new friends

After he packed He looks at a drawing on the wall and took it down. It shows himself and a few other young hybrids smiling at the picture

He  stares forlornly at his drawing and holds it tight “ I'll be back you guys I promise.”

There was a knock at the door as Michael put back the picture on the wall.

“Ready to go Michael?” Ranboo said with a smile on his face.

Michael nodded, reaching up to take his father’s hand and walked alongside his father outside the house, pausing briefly to wave at Foolish and a few other server members .

The pair walked along the side of the fence until they came upon a gate.

Standing in front of the gate was a young boy looking around 10 or 11 wearing a Blue vest holding a staff and two other kids were next to him. A taller boy wearing an orange sweater and a young girl wearing a cape holding a weird looking sword with a tiny bird on her head.

“So you must be Michael?” The boy asked 

The piglin nodded, “Yep, what’s your name?”

“My name is Craig, Kelsey, Mortimer and JP.”

“Hey”

“Hi”

Chirp

“Alright Michael, you have fun okay? I’ll see you in a bit, okay?” Ranboo said, still smiling. 

“Okay daddy.”

“And remember what me and Papa said?”

Michael nodded again.

Ranboo eyed the other four kids before sighing and beginning to walk away, leaving Michael in the company of the other kids.

“So what do you guys do at the creek?” Michael asked

“Depends on what we feel like doing that day,” Craig said. “There’s plenty to do.”

“What was your Dad talking about when he asked if you remembered what he told you?” JP asked.

“Dads said if I ever saw a green hoodie with a white smiley face I should hide.” Michael set casually

“ Who’s that?” Kelsey said “Is it a monster?”

Michael nodded “Yep Dad and Papa say that he’s a giant monster that hurts people.”

“Really?”

“Yep. Dad, Papa, and Uncle Tommy had to face him a few times. He is a big green meanie wearing a weird looking mask that smiles a lot.”  Michael holds up his arms as if trying to be scary. “He also got sharp teeth and claws… he was in a prison to keep people away but he escaped and now wanders around.”

“Wow, is there any way to defeat this monster?” Kelsey said holding up her odds sword Michael tilt his head how could a sword fight if it’s like that? 

“How does your sword work?” 

“My sword?”

“Yeah, I see alot of swords and many are pretty pointy, yours are more circular”

Mortimer tweets angrily 

Kelsey shush him before smiling at Michael “Well this is a very special sword”

Michael freezes for a moment before he quickly comes now “ how was your sword made?”

“A long time ago as a reward for my bravery my father said that I can have a sword for me as a reward.” Kelsey explained “ so after a whole day of forging this sword was created!”

Michael eyes widen in awe at the sword

“So your dad let you have a sword?”

“Yep and ever since then I became a warrior.”

“That’s so lucky! Does your parents ever talk to any tricks to fight against “mobs?”” Michael asked

“Mobs?” JP said. “That’s a lot of people for one person to fight off. Are those common in your world or something?”

“What? No, I mean like monsters.”

“Monsters? Are there a lot of those in your world?” Kelsey asked.

“Yeah. Zombies, and skeletons, and spiders, and creepers,” Michael listed off. “There are also Endermen but Dad says they’re family so I’m not scared of them.”

“That’s pretty interesting, have you ever fought them yourself ?” Craig asked.

Michael shook his head. “No, Dads won’t let me outside much, they’re worried I’ll get hurt.”

“Don’t you have any friends?” Craig asked.

“Yeah! There’s Michelle and Yogurt and…” Michael trailed off and frowned as he remembered his fight with Foolish Jr.

“Hey, are you okay?” Craig asked.

“Yeah, I just miss my friends. Plus I had a fight with Foolish Jr before we ended up here. We never had a chance to make up,” Michael said.

“I understand that. But I’m sure the Head Toons and the other adults will figure out a way to send you guys home soon and you can make up with him then!”

Michael frown a bit before giving him a smile that sounds nice 

“Now come on! We’ll show you around the creek!” Craig said.

They push aside the bushes and Michael gasps as he looks out to the creek. Besides the creek was an entire community from a trading post where a girl traded items for different foods and snacks to  A biking park where a group of kids were riding bikes all over the place, a group of girls that Prance  horses and a group of Boy Scouts that seemed to guard around the creek.

Michael never sees such a community often at the server.

“This is amazing…” Michael whispered

“Welcome to the Creek, Michael,” Craig said.

“I never see something like this,” Micheal exclaimed “What kind of admin helps here?”

“Admin?” KP asked.

“You know who leads the place?” 

“Oh! That’s the Elders job. They give great, ancient wisdom in return for tribute,” Craig said. “They say they’ve been here longer than anyone.”

“Oooo”

“ So Toby, do you want us to show you around there’s so much great stuff like…” JP thought for a moment “We can visit the Horse girls”

“Or we can introduce you to the sewer queen and the sewer kids” Craig suggested.

“And then there’s the ninja kids. They got pretty good stories and could help you with some training” Kelsey said.

Michael just stared wide eyed at the idea of all the wonderful things in the creek.

Craig laughed slightly at Michael’s awestruck expression.

“Don’t worry we’ll show you everything. Come on, the horse girls are probably closer.”

Michael smiled as he followed the group. Maybe it might not be like Home but at the very least he can have fun. He can’t wait until he shows the others.

Chapter Text

Dream let out of gasp as he woke up He was lying on the mattress in that creepy basement Madden had shown him. He attempted to get up only to collapse. Quickly, he glanced at the side only to see that he was handcuffed to a fucking pipe.  Dream let out a groan. “Of course, this would happen; can't have shit with my luck,” he murmurs. Dream noticed how his heart began to pound in his chest as he evaluated the room around him. The door is right in front of him: he just needs to figure out a way to get out of the handcuffs.

Looking around, nothing jumped out at him. Madden hadn’t left him much in here. All that he could really see were the newspaper clippings on the wall. He narrowed his eyes at the plaque filled with newspapers before realizing those were not just newspapers… There are notes and letters too. He scooted closer as much as the handcuff allowed him to do. He leans in toward the first newspaper clipping that he sees.

Green guardian takes the cup of the 12th Minecraft championship

Dream raised his eyebrow a bit as he looked at the Newspaper picture. George, Phil, TapL, and Wilbur Soot, each wearing the championship crowns with smiles on their faces. His eyes then turn towards the date next to it: 2020.

“What the fuck?” Dream whispered, eyes wide. How did this woman have this? She wasn’t a player! Was she? But why did she have it?

There was a note next to the newspaper.

Possible Subjects to my plans; I need to evaluate more to see if needed.

Dream took a shaky breath. Okay, so apparently, this woman had been watching his server for a long time. But what plans could she be talking about? 

He done glanced at a letter nearby.

Rebecca, something is wrong with James. He's been acting so weird like he keeps on mumbling to the corner, talking about something in his head that’s bugging him like his server was tearing away from him. I’ll ask one of the admin nearby to check on him.

The note next to it shows a small smile. I remember him, he was a delight.

Dream began to shake a bit as he took a closer look at the quality of the letter. It had an aging yellow appearance.

Dreams' eyes quickly scanned over everyone in the newspaper clippings, photos and letters, each one revealing new, horrifying facts about the women. 

Not to mention the amount of newspaper clippings and notes pertaining to him and his server.  A couple more clippings about MCC, one about his duel against Technoblade, some notes and letters to, from, or about them. He noticed one note in Sam’s messy handwriting talking about the new server to Quackity, plus some messy fragments that, after Dream looked closer, were fragments of the medical records Ponk kept on the server. 

The worst part was some of the cruel suggestions next to them either insulting them or revealing plans that even made his stomach turn.

His eyes then laid upon a group of journals on the shelves. The spines showed different handwritings of names that made it clear that they belonged to different owners than the woman that trapped him down here.  A familiar magic that he knew resonated in these journals pressing and bent against the leather as if attempting to get out. A part of him wished that he was free just to see what was inside of them. 

Then Dream felt a hand on his shoulder. “I have the originals to read to you, if you're good.” He jumped up to turn to Madden behind him, who just smiled at him as if he hadn't read all the awful crimes she had done.

The anger inside him that was temporarily smothered by the fear was boiling over again. “What the fuck did you do?” 

“I see you decided to read some of my collection. See, I’m not entirely heartless, at least I left you with something to do. Unlike some people,” Madden said.

At that Dream let out a harsh laugh. “How much did you say was a lie back there? I mean I’m kicking myself for believing half the shit that you have fed me.”

“All that bit about the toons was a lie. Those fools are too soft to hurt anyone in anything that resembles a serious manner.”

“I noticed that from some of the words, but I was so busy focusing on the fact that they took what is mine…”

“After everything you’ve done, do you really think you still have the right to call them ‘yours?’ I’ve seen what you’ve done, Dreamer. I wasn’t lying when I said I’d never hurt someone truly innocent, but I know enough to know you’re not. Not in any semblance of the word.”

Dream growled at her “Oh, really you don’t know me! You don’t know any of them. What you just took a couple of notes and letters and suddenly you’re fucking expert!?”

“I think I do. I’ve been watching longer than you seem to think, Dreamer. I’ve seen so much of what went on on your little server. Exile, the L’manberg war, your plans for the prison, everything that happened in connection to it.”

Dream just glared at her. “So you're just an outsider spying on my server. You can’t even get yourself involved, you coward.”

“I had hoped I wouldn’t have to. That you would see the error of your ways in your own time. After what happened with Tommy I began to fear you wouldn’t. That you couldn’t.” The woman has something that almost looks like a concerned look on her face “So I took all of you. I hope that I will have the rest of the server here as well so that I can help them, but they landed there. So now I have to work on luring them here.”

Dream just stared at her, she sounds just like Sam except for being a lot more twisted. He shook his head as he smirked that doesn’t even fucking matter he already knows those types of people. The ones who think that they have everything under control.  “Well it sounds like you have a shit plan already. I mean you expected the entire server and yet all you got was a little old me.”

“You’re even crueler in person. No wonder everyone was willing to let you rot in prison,” Madden said calmly, pressing a hand to her chest. “Here I am planning to help you, and you insult me.” 

“You literally handcuffed me to a pipe.”

“You literally beat a child to death with a potato. Can you blame me for being cautious?” She dramatically turn away from him, as if she’s mimicking the reaction of fear “I’m just one woman; I was terrified you’d hurt me.”

“Okay, first of all, he had it coming, and second of all, you literally lured me to your stupid basement. I really don’t feel safe with you.”

“What exactly did he do to deserve dying, seemingly permanently? What, was he a bit too annoying? Is that such a crime that it deserves death in your brain?”

Dream just rolled his eyes “If it was just that I would’ve just ignored, him but he went against every single fucking rule in the server! He fucking forced my hand into this. The moment that I tried to give him a chance, he decided to spit on my generosity!”

“Ahh yes, giving him a chance by forcing his best friend to exile him, keeping him completely isolated by doing everything in your power to keep him alone, making him completely reliant on you, and regularly beating him? You call that generosity? In most people’s worlds, that’s called abuse. Might I remind you you were trying to get him exiled even before he damaged George’s house? Or the fact that George didn’t even care?”

Dream just glared at her. Who did she think she is? It’s not even like he could even convince her at this point: she seemed to be just as stubborn as him.

“Fine, you want the real reason? I was just toying with the brat.” He smiled a bit when he noticed how surprised she looks, “He was a great plaything. The wars were fun, but it was getting boring; I decided to up the game a bit.”

Madden stepped away, resting a palm against her face and frowning at him. “I know I seem harsh, but all I want is to help. You claim to want peace for your server, yes? I can help, help you all get along, help you all be better.”

Dream just rolled his eyes at her, “You sound like Sam.”

“Funny how you use that as an insult.” she murmured, caressing his horns. He quickly backs away from her when he realized that “He was once close to you wasn’t he? Close enough to invite him to the server in its infancy.”

Dream narrows his eyes at her,“How did you fucking know that…” He try lunged at her only to be set back by the handcuffs.

Madden stepped back, hands flying to her chest, her eyes grew wide in what looks to be fear.

Dream let out a laugh in what could be only described as anger and grief and excitement. “ Holy shit, you really are pathetic, I mean seriously, and here I was sitting there scared that you would hurt me, only to see that you’re nothing more than just a pathetic wannabe! I mean what you managed to get the best out of me once, and suddenly you’re just scared, I mean, come on, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

There was silence in the air as he took a deep breath.

“Listen, despite your stupidity, you do seem to have somewhat of the same goals as me, so I’m just gonna give you one chance: let me go, and I won’t kill you. You can even work for me to get them back. You act like I don’t care for them, but they already belonged to me the moment that they set foot on my server no matter how idiotic they could be.”

Madden just shook her head. “I knew you were going to be a handful, but I never expected you to be this bad. I’m trying my best to help you and your server, and you threaten me, insult me, and sit here and pretend like you weren’t just planning to manipulate me into helping you even before this.”

“Well, like I said before, you don’t know me. And it seems like you’re very inexperienced in this.”

Madden just stared at him, before it turned into a glare.

Dream just rolled his eyes “Do you really think that would-”

He stopped himself as he just stared at her eyes.

“You’re gonna tell me all the knowledge-”

There’s somebody in his ear… A voice?

“- or I’m gonna come here. Every. Single. Fucking. Day. To make your life hell.-”

This is ridiculous- where the fuck is Sam?!

Quackity being his kid or not he wouldn’t even let this happen, Hell he can’t even harm him in the prison! What the fuck is going on?!

“Sam!!!!” He’s backed in a corner; the only sound he hears was the sound of his own breathing as  Quackity glared at him. His face twisted into a cruel smile as he held the axe despite the fear in  his chest, there was a bit of stubbornness within him. He’s not  gonna give the book to him just to have it be abused.

“ I’m not gonna tell you anything!” Quackity just snickers as he circled around Dream . He noticed how his wings seem to be bigger than before, and his teeth seem to sharpen to fine points, and his remaining eye shows what he can only describe as a wave of righteous anger and excitement.  “You have no other choice. If you don’t want me here every fucking day, then you’re gonna give me the fucking knowledge on that book! I’m not fucking around, Dream! You’re gonna tell me.”

“SAM!” He was screaming in front of the lava despite the heat radiating from it being unbearable. Does this sound familiar? What’s someone in his place before that cried out for help?

“ You can scream for Sam all you want, Dream.”

Quackity yelled as he loomed closer to him.

“ How- There’s no way-! How did you sneak it in!”  Dream yelled at Quackity desperate for Sam to hear him. Quackery just growled at him as he shakes his head “Alright. Alright. You  know what? There’s been enough talking. There’s been enough talking, Dream.”

“Quackity-”    He was thrown to the ground with a large thun before he could say

anything. Quackity was on top of him holding the axe as he looked through his items showing several other sharp tools in there. “You’re gonna tell me, or we’re gonna do this the fucking hard way for as long as I need to do it.” Quackity closed the item box and he held up the axe above his head for a moment. A grin on his face savouring the moment before swinging it down.

Dream cried out for help. Yet no one came.

Dream gasped as he woke up from the scene. Phantom pain of the axe across his face. Looking around, staring up at Madden’s face. Tears threatened to come out of his eyes.

“What… What was that?!”

“A look of what was originally to be. Do you still think I’m inexperienced?”

“How did you…”

Madden shrugged. “It’s an ability that I have~. I know what happens next, and I know that if I don’t stop it, your server will die with everyone in it. You may not care about them as people, but you at least care about them as entertainment? Why allow the people that you like to die? I mean why else would you bring back a boy who is such a nuisance?”

Dream looks away, trying not to cry; he’s not gonna fucking cry. Despite that, he let out a small whimper. Madden cooed as she held his face, wiping away the tears. “It’ll be alright, I’m going to help you get better. Just let me help.” Dream just wants to pull away from her, but it …feels nice.  A warm feeling came to him as he leaned towards her hands.

“You’re goddamn lucky that I’m too tired to destroy you.”

Madden just smiled at him “We’ll see about that~.”

Chapter Text

Scarlett hums as she looks over the file again.  Her room is a bit of a mess with a charge showing each of the server members and their relationships. Each one had been represented by colorful strings but one person in the chart was at the center of it. A green monstrous figure wearing a familiar smiley mask. He is also in the file that she’s studying and he seems the main antagonist of the server. She expected him to attack the town by now or reports of missing people or at least something but instead it’s the same words that stick out to her each time she looks at it.

Dreamwastaken 

Whereabouts: unknown

Injuries: pending

She already got the stories about him, she knew about all of his crimes through these documents, Hell, she fucking created charts at this point. Yet she got nothing, not even a clue on where the hell is he!

She let out a long groan as she lay down on her desk. Her head is splitting as she looks up from her desk to see the drawing that she made of him. 

“Am I overthinking about it…?” she muttered. 

“I don’t think so.”

Her head quickly shoots up only to see Toby enter the room. He took a nervous step forward as he looked around the room. 

“I mean it’s a lot but it’s rather interesting,” Toby said looking at the poster. “Did you draw him? He looks amazing.” 

“Thanks, I was worried that you would think that I was some crazy conspiracy lady looking at this.” She said with her head still not off the desk.

“I mean that is true?”

Scarlett glared as she got up from her desk. 

“But that doesn’t mean that you’re crazy!” Toby quickly said, “just saying that it’s so much… Did you talk to the server about it?”

“Yeah sure, I should say that I’ve been obsessing over this guy for a while and I want more information about that guy. And I did all that in the several days that I’m supposed to be grounded!”

“I mean Toby got a point”

She whipped around those ghosts. “No one was talking to you Tim”

He shrugged before disappearing.

“So what are you worry about Dream or-”

“Geez I don’t know, Toby I’m not worry about the guy who hurt so many people and are now currently wandering around town doing who knows what”

Toby hummed as he stared at the charts and began to play around one of them. “You know, have you thought about asking someone else?”

“I mean you heard the server saying that he’s the worst thing since spoiled milk again.”

“I mean you don't have some of them…” Toby walks over and points to one line in the file ' rival of Technoblade'

“I mean that this means that he’s an enemy of Techno, or at the very least they're like rivals in the way where he doesn’t really care about him.”

“Well you don’t think that that may also mean that he’s a rival in terms of fun rivals and not mean rivals?”

Scarlet raises her eyebrow a bit.

“And it’s better than invading their privacy.”

Toby yawned, his eyes drooping a bit.

“Toby, have you taken your nap today?”

“No, I think that you would prefer it if you followed me.”

Scarlett stared at Toby for a moment before shrugging “Where are we going?”

Toby smile at Scarlet tiredly “You’ll see”

“Alright so do we have a plan to get into this museum?” Techno asked, looking over at the group.

“We have a plan for how to get in without getting caught but still no plan on who’s going in,” Eret said. “I’m going in, but we decided against sending me in alone.”

“But Eret is the only person who’s actually that interested in going in, so there’s still a lot of argument of who has to do it,” Sam said.

“Maybe we should just draw straws?” Puffy suggested.

“Might be the best bet,” Sam said.

“Hey, I think someone’s coming!” Tommy said, causing the server to scatter through the house, moving to act as if they hadn’t been doing anything.

Techno meanwhile just grabbed the book he had been reading and went back to the page he had been on, ignoring it as the door opened in the main hall behind him.

“Hey, Techno.”

He turned around to see a familiar face in front of him.

“Oh it’s you. Do you ever knock?”

Scarlett  smirked at him as she nodded. “You think you could answer some questions for me?”

“Maybe. Though I will say I’m a bit surprised that you’re alone.”

As if hearing that moment Minerva pops in.

“Ahh there she is. Is Toby tagging after you too or…?”

Toby yawns a bit as he enters the room.

“Should have figured. So what exactly did you want to talk to me about?”

“Dream. What exactly did he do?”

Techno rolls his eyes “Didn’t you ask that before? You got your answer last time… and most of us weren’t very keen on answering. Besides I don’t know why these guys locked him up in prison. I wasn’t there.”

“Oh, hello, are these the rascals you guys keep talking about?”

The rascals turned around to see Ghostbur looking at them.

Techno just signed. 

“What? Ohhh wait, was I supposed to stay hidden…?”

“It’s fine, Ghostbur.”

Toby‘s eyes widen as he  stares at Ghostbur “Hello…. You’re a ghost as well…”

“Yep! Would you like some blue?” Ghostbur held out a bit of something blue to the rascals.

“Sure!” Toby said, taking it and beginning to play with it.

“So is this your ghost Tommy was asking about?” Minerva asked.

“Probably. There’s also Glatt but… well not everyone seems to like him. I know Sam glares at him a lot.”

“Yeah well Schlatt was kind of a dictator and a jerk so….,” Techno said.

“You know I’m right here, right?” With that Glatt appeared behind the chair Techno was sitting on.

“No. Because you were invisible. Now if you’ll excuse me,” Techno said, closing his book and walking upstairs towards his room.

“So…,why do you guys keep them hidden?” Minerva asked, staring at Ghlatt and Ghostbur.

“You’re a bunch of strangers, you were throwing the rest of the server in jail, I thought it best if me and Loverboy here laid low,” Glatt said.

“Please don’t call me that,” Ghostbur said.

Minerva nodded as she walked away from the two. Meanwhile Scarlett just followed Techno “You’re very pretentious…”

Techno paused on his way to the steps. “No, I'm an introvert. And right now I don’t have the patience or the energy to deal with a bunch of people talking to me about things I don’t care about. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to my book and if anyone besides Phil tries interrupting again, they’re getting stabbed.”

With that Techno turned back to go upstairs.

Scarlett simply pulled Techno away from the stairs and tossed the book away.

Techno stumbles back and stared at the girl as if not knowing how to react to that

 “Listen I’m just trying to figure out whether or not this guy would hurt anyone here, and considering Toby’s recommendation you’re the only person who could tell me shit about him besides that he’s evil.”

Techno stared at her for a moment before he let out a small laugh

“You’re not gonna stop bothering me about it are you?”

Scarlet shook her head. “I need everything I can get to keep him from trying to kill us all or some shit.”

Techno then looks up at the other two “And you two are not gonna stop her?”

Minerva and Toby look at one another before shaking their heads.

He sighed “We worked together once to blow up L’Manberg during Doomsday. I know he got Tommy exiled and went lookin’ for him when Tommy ran off. He saved my life once when L’Manberg tried to execute me with no trial. Everyone else seems to hate his guts. That’s all I know. Can I go now? Or do you wanna make my migraine even worse first?”

Scarlett shrugged “That’s it…”

Techno picked his book up and went back upstairs, closing the door to his room behind him.

“Well that went well” Minerva said. “Can I go see Tommy now?”

Scarlett holds her head as she rubs against the side of it. “Ok, honey can I come with you?”

Minerva’s wings fluttered with excitement as she looks around the hall,  “ Now…Which one is his room?”

“I’m going to see Jack,” Toby cried to his sisters as he began to open up a door. 

“Hey!” A voice cries out as George jumps out of bed. Toby flinches back as George stomps towards him.

“Sorry about that, I'm looking for Jack,” Toby whimpered, curling up a bit.

“Well maybe you should read the sign first,” George yelled as he pointed at the tape on the top of his door that said his name along with Sam and Foolish. “And knock” and with that he slammed the door.

“Sorry” Toby whispered before he knocks at the next door

Jack opens it to see Toby scrunch up “Hey-”

Before Jack has anything Toby rushed to the room before the man can close the door he whispers which Jack did with a confused nod.

“So should we do the same thing?” Minerva asks.

At that moment Tommy open the door “You know there are better ways for me without busting through peoples doors?”

“Seems silly to me,” Scarlett said, looking at the tape on the doors. “Who wrote these? Their handwriting is terrible, I can barely read them.”

“How you doing, Tommy?” Minerva asked, as she enter the room

“Oh I’m just doing fine, you know just hanging out, being boys, ready to get the ladies,” Tommy said confidently. “The ladies love me, you know.”

“Which ladies?” Scarlet asked deadpan “I only see like two girls here?”

“Other ladies.” Tommy said, try not to blush “That exist,”

“Whatever you say Tommy,” Scarlett said with a smirk.

Minerva then bounce onto his bed with a mischievous look on her face

“Tommy I mean like what’s your actually doing~”

Tommy froze for a moment “What are you talking about?”

“Well I heard that you guys are planning to break into a museum.”

“How the fuck did you hear that? Does everyone in this town have magic fucking dog ears or something?!”

Minerva giggled “We’re very quick to notice shit out of ordinary.” 

“Plus you guys are loud.” Scarlett pointed out.

Tommy mouth open and close a few times like a gasping fish before you shakes his head “Well-we don’t need help or anything, we just going to just look around”

Minerva moves towards Tommy to the point of getting into his face.

“Tommy as your official sister is my job to help you whatever I can.”

Tommy made an uncomfortable noise as he backs away from her

“You literally couldn’t even break me out of jail, Min.”

“I made a promise.”

“So, here to hang out again? What did y’all do to piss off Techno?” Tommy asked. “Are you sure that’s smart?”

“Well he is being a bit a dick plus was the worst he could do?” Scarlett said.

“Murder you? He’s beaten Dream, he’s easily the toughest fighter on the server,” Tommy explained. 

“Well I managed to live in the woods all alone for most of my life so I think that’s evens out.” She grins in what seems to be excitement as her eyes for a brief moment sparkled in a red hue. “ I wonder if he’s willing to do a dual against me?”

“Scarlett.” Minerva said warningly “Don’t get too cocky, you already know that they hate it when we make a mess especially Minnie and Dad.”

As quickly as her excitement appears it quickly dies down at that. Scarlett looks away from Minerva “It’s not gonna be that bad it’s not like last time…” she murmured

At that  Tommy remembered how some of the towns folks talked about the mess that the rascals have caused at the tour. Something about a massacre.

“Please don’t kill Technoblade,” Tommy said. “That would be very unpog.”

“I’m not going to kill him…” Scarlett said “Just a couple of stabs here and there…”

“Fuck, no wonder we didn’t stand a chance against you people,” Tommy said.

Scarlett shrugged, “I mean, most of the people here are very experienced with attacks like these. I mean you’re not the first aggressive party here…”

“Then why is everyone so shocked with us?” Tommy asked, indignant. “ I mean why do you guys act like we are so shocking or some shit.”

Minerva just shrugs as Scarlet let out a harsh laugh. “Well you weren't expected… I mean most of the time when people appear here we kind of expect a house to glow. We see some door and then we wait for a couple weeks then boom they enter here,” Scarlett said. “You guys literally fell out of the sky, no door no exit nothing,well we do expect people to be not very trusting I think you guys are just how can I best describe it….”

“Nervous?” Minerva said.

“Paranoid, Min.”

Tommy turn red at that “We’re not that paranoid, we’re just cautious”

“Cautious to the point of building a super weapon-”

“Well.. what about those Hatchetfield people, how come they got a pass from not having a door?” Tommy asked.

Both girls heads shot up at “You met them?”

“No but Jack told us about what one of them said.” Tommy exclaimed.

“Well they didn’t attack town,” Scarlett said.

“We thought you guys were planning on keeping us here captive!”

“What proof did you have?! A couple of lines that are out of place? That’s pretty paranoid if you ask me.”

Minerva shakes a bit. “Guys maybe we shouldn’t-” But both ignored her.

“Plus that’s not getting into you guys‘s flip-flopping” Tommy growled.

Scarlett‘s eyes turn red at that. “What’s flip-flopping?!”

“I mean one moment you were our friend and the next moment you suddenly are on their side?!”

“Guys-

“They’re our family!” Scarlett cried out “What, you don’t think that we can be both your friends and care for our family?!”

“Well you didn’t tell us that your dad is a dick!”

“Dad is not a dick!”

Minerva quickly hold onto both of their shoulders as a calming feeling spread throughout the room

“Easy now guys, you guys don't have to argue.” 

Both of their shoulders  relax a bit as they look away from each other.

“All right,” Tommy said.

“Fine,” Scarlett said.

“So let’s change the subject. I mean tell me you still want to break into that museum…”

Tommy nod “I mean Eret is going to do it…”

“So you're just gonna stay home…” Scarlett noted.

“Maybe?” Tommy replied, starting to move downstairs. “We haven’t decided who’s going with her yet.”

“Ok…  Scarlett glanced at the desk, noticing a piece of paper. “So who is this?” Scarlett asked, looking at the poster. Minerva turns around and notices it as well. “It looks weird”

“Some therapist lady? I don’t know, her posters keep showing up in weird places. Quackity said one showed up in his fucking bed,” Tommy said. “Which is fucking creepy.”

“Heh…” Scarlett turns around “Never really heard of her, are you sure that is not some sort of scam…”

“I don’t know, maybe but she just keeps on appearing everywhere.”

“Have you told anyone?”

“I think someone did but they thought we were whether pulling a prank on them or someone was pulling a prank on us so who fucking knows,” Tommy said.

Minerva looks at it “There’s better ways  to advertise. No one likes spam…”

“I mean it’s not like we can do anything about it”

Scarlet crumpled the poster and  hold it up to the air facing the trash can. “Maybe try to figure out where they’re coming from… I mean the posters can’t come from thin air.”

Tommy stopped for a moment before his eyes lit up “Do you know what, you have a good…”

He quickly grabbed the poster from Scarlet‘s hand.

“Tommy?!” What he ignored as he grabbed a coat from the rack.

“Hey where are you going?” Minerva asked.

“Where do you think I’m going?” Tommy respond as he put on his coat.

“I have no idea,” Minerva said.

“Are you going out Tommy?” Ghostbur asked.

“Yep I’m going to visit that therapist lady to get her to stop sending us those  fucking posters!”

With that Tommy cheerfully slammed the door behind him.

Turns out the therapist lady was right next door, which made it slightly confusing on how the Toons didn’t know about her. Maybe they didn’t know she had started working as a therapist out of her house? Who knows. Though it took a bit of wandering around for Tommy to realize she was next door, not that he’d admit that to anyone.

He stood at the door for a moment looking at the sign. I mean it’s easy just to go and tell her to fuck off and then go back. 

Yeah… so why does he feel queasy in his stomach? He shook his head as he knocked on the door.

With that one knock the door suddenly opened much to his surprise.

“Hello there,” The woman said, a smile on her face. “Are you one of the people next door?”

“Yeah. Are you Dr Madden?” She looked like the woman on the poster but maybe that was just an actor or something.

“I am. Your name?”

“Big man Tommyinnit!” Wait why was Tommy answering and not telling her to fuck off? But the more Tommy tried to think about why he was there the harder his original intention became to grasp.

“Tommy. Well, were you here for an appointment? Come on inside.” Before Tommy could respond he felt himself walk into the building.

“I take it you saw my posters?” The woman asked, letting him into a comfortable looking room, going to sit down at a desk on one side of the room.

“Uhh yeah kind of hard not to,” Tommy said. “They’ve been showing up everywhere me and my friends go. One dude found one in his bed. That’s more than a little fucking creepy. Was kinda just hoping you could get them to leave us the fuck alone?”

The woman blushed “Oh no, I might have accidentally hit a sent all to your house…” She got up as she pat Tommy on the shoulder. “I’m so sorry that you went through that inconvenience.”

“Uhh does that mean you’ll lay off on the flyers then?” Tommy asked, tensing slightly from having a stranger touching him.

“Of course, of course It’s rather rude of me.” Her grip got tighter and before Tommy could say anything he felt himself relaxing.

 “Do you still want to talk? You don’t have to but I think that it would be cathartic.” 

Tommy blinked a few times at that “I thought I needed an appointment…”

“Consider it a courtesy for my mistakes.”

“I mean the toons did suggest talking to a therapist…” Tommy said. 

“And I am a therapist,”  She said with a smile.

Tommy felt himself calm down from his nervousness. What was the worst that could happen? The toons had suggested it, they’d probably just be happy he found one. Plus he had his sword on him, he could always defend himself if necessary. How dangerous could this woman be? She seem old enough to be his mom if not aunt, “Alright, yeah, let’s do this.”

The woman claps her hands and laughs “Fantastic! Do you want any tea or coffee? I got some in the fridge if you want? By the way my name is Dr. Madden if you didn’t get that from the poster…”

“I know it’s just.. never mind, are you gonna ask a question?”

“Do you want me too?”

“I guess so…” Tommy muttered.

Dr.Madden nodded at that before asking the first question “Now then, how are you doing Tommy?”

“I mean well enough I guess. Bit nervous with that green bastard running around but trying to keep myself calm.”

“Who is the ‘bastard.’ ”

“Dream. He’s a bastard and he’s green, so green bastard.”

“So what happened that caused you to call him a green bastard? That is such a vulgar name.”

“Tried to kill me several times? Tried to kill my best friend, stole and then blew up all my stuff multiple times, killed me just to prove he can revive people.” Wait why was he admitting all this to some random woman he just met? Though he supposed that was kind of the point of therapy… Tommy found he couldn’t really focus on his concerns, it was hard to be tense right now. Hard to think anything negative about Dr Madden when he have so many negative feelings about him…. 

“That sounds awful… Why would someone do that to such a lovely child? How do you feel when he hurts you?” 

“I mean, it fucking hurts. Death wasn’t exactly pleasant and neither was being beaten black and blue multiple times in exile. The revival wasn’t much better.”

She looked at him sympathetically as she leans in. “Why did no one help you? I mean I doubt that the server was just you two here was your best friend? Your family?”

Tommy looks away from those questions, “I don’t know. Sam’s a bastard, that’s probably why he wasn’t there. Said he’d protect me, obviously he didn’t. I’m not sure why Tubbo wasn’t around. I guess no one realized what he was doing. That or no one cared.”

Her eyes glow slightly at that, “That sounds like a horrible existence. It’s unfortunate how people would standby and watch as people hurt each other… especially a child.”

Tommy slowly nodded. Something seems off.“I mean it’s all well and good we landed here and it seems like everyone agreed that Dream needs to be stopped…”

“And if you haven’t landed here?”

“I dunno. I mean Dream was in prison. Might have tried to break in to try to kill him. I dunno.”

Dr. Madden got up from her chair and kneel in front of Tommy. Tommy leaned back from her confused. “uh… Madden?”

“Put down your sword, darling. It's very uncomfortable for me. You’re in a safe place.”

Tommy froze at that, every instant inside of him begin to raise the alarm at that. “What…”

“Tommy you need to put it down, it's rude to keep a weapon near you in a place of peace.”

“I don’t even have my sword out… It’s just in my inventory.”

Madden's soft eyes harden a bit as she repeats again this time firm “You need to put down the sword.”

Tommy felt ringing in his ears as his breath began to pick up speed. Why is she saying this? Is she supposed to know that he doesn’t like it?

“I’m not putting anything down,” He growled out summoning it into his hand. 

“Tommy, are you going to hurt me?”

Tommy just glared at her as he slowly began to take it off his lap and stand up.

“Tommy, are you angry?”

“Of fucking course I’m angry-”

“Tommy, your anger… it’s understandable when someone tells you to put your stuff down. That means they have power over you that’s what he did, right? he forced you to destroy everything that you got?”

At that suddenly Tommy felt the presence that was around him beginning to move forward and go inside of him, suffocating him. Everything around him became muffled and blurry except for her voice.

“Tommy I’m not going to hurt you, I’m not going to hurt you, you can’t take out a sword at random every time you get upset… Didn’t you hurt someone doing that?”

Did he? He felt as if he was choking, he couldn’t think. Had he hurt someone? When? What was happening? Why did he feel this way? He just wanted it to stop. He just wanted it to stop.

She took his hand and squeezed it softly. She looks at him with her eyes. She seems to worry for him, her soft blue eyes staring straight to his soul.

“You don’t wanna hurt anyone.”

“I don’t wanna hurt anyone…” He monotonously repeat back.

“Follow my breath and breathe in.”

She took a deep breath as she begin to breathe in before she breathed out.

Breath in

Breathe out

Breath in

Breath out

As if on cue, he began to follow along. He needs to calm down, he can’t have to sway when he’s upset. His heart began to slow down, and his grip on his sword loosen.

Madden smiled at him as she pulled her hand away from his.

“Now drop the sword,” she whispered.

He dropped his sword as he followed her breath. She’s right, it is rude. He shouldn’t have gotten upset. She’s not a threat.

Slowly Tommy felt himself sit back down in the chair.

“There doesn’t that make you feel better?”She said as Madden picks up the sword and tosses it aside into a room next to her office as Tommy watched, barely caring about it “Now that that’s over with are you gonna tell me everything that I need to know? Because I have a feeling that some of your friends and family are gonna come…”

“What do you need to know?” Tommy asked, feeling tired. His freak out had drained him.  

She smiled at him as she came up behind him placing both of her hands on his shoulders. He doesn’t feel scared. “Anything that you’re comfortable with.”

“I think it all started with the founding of L’Manberg…”

Chapter Text

“Doesn’t that feel better, Tommy?” Madden asked as she put away the teacups into the sink.

“Yeah, actually. I feel great!” Tommy said, standing up and stretching.

“Before you go, would you mind helping me clean up?” Madden asked.

Without even thinking about it, Tommy found himself walking over to where Madden was standing and beginning to wash the teacups as Madden went to neaten up the other things. He made sure to scrub it clean to make sure that it looks just as perfect as when the good doctor first got it.

He then felt a hand place itself on his shoulders, “You know Tommy, it was very brave of you telling me everything.”

“Thanks,” Tommy said, smiling, putting the now clean tea cups beside the sink to dry.

“I wonder if the rest of the server will be willing to talk considering how private they can be,” she looked away, her hair covering her eyes. “I don’t wanna intrude…”

“I think it would be a great idea!” Tommy said, with a grin on his face. “The toons did tell us all to get therapy.”

“They did, I wonder who would even come…”

The boy struggle as he begin to think about telling the server about how well his appointment went, and how they should check out the good doctor “Well…we’ll see!”

Minerva, Ranboo and Tubbo wait for him by the door as Tommy walks out the door, stumbling slightly as Tubbo tackled him in a hug.

“There you are! We thought she killed you or something!”

Tommy shook his head. “No, she turned out to be a pretty good therapist. She really helped.”

Minerva smiles as she pat Tommy on the back “That’s great! I’m glad that something good came out of this.”

Tubbo stared at Tommy for a bit and nodded. “I guess…”

“What made you decide to suddenly make an appointment? Did something happen?” Ranboo asked.

“I mean I was there, I was meant to talk to her about the fliers then she gave me some tea and asked if I wanna talk.”

“Well will she at least stop bombarding us with fliers?” Tubbo asked. “I found one in Michael’s room this morning. Which was kind of creepy.”

Tommy smile widen “Of course. She said that she accidentally send all the poster that she meant to put around town to our house by accident, she was so embarrassed.”

Minerva raises her eyebrow a bit as she takes a closer look at Tommy’s eyes. “Odd… you feel weird.”

Tommy tilt his head “What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t know, it's just weird,” Minerva said, frowning.

Tommy ignored her as he turned towards Tubbo and Ranboo “Are you thinking about visiting her as well?”

“I don’t know,” Ranboo said, frowning. “Something about this lady just feels really off…”

“You haven’t even met her.” Tommy said annoyed.

“We’ll consider it, bossman,” Tubbo said, “I mean she did help Tommy.”

“There you three are!” Sam said, walking over. “Tommy, where did you get to?”

“Therapy. What did you need?” 

“Wait, how’d you get an appointment… Oh nevermind. Come on we’re back to talking about the museum plan,” Sam said turning back to the rest of the server and rascals.

Tommy barely stifles laughter, noticing Toby sleeping in Jack’s lap.

“So apparently the rascals overheard us talking about our plans to break into the museum,” Phil said.

“Where’s Techno?” Ranboo asked, noticing the pig-hybrid was nowhere to be seen.

“Upstairs. Said he had a migraine,” Phil said.

Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Do you guys need any help with the museum? Because we know some shortcuts.”

“You’d be willing to help?” Niki asked. “And you’re not just gonna turn us in to your dad?”

“1. You guys need information to get home so theoretically that’s a good act, 2. I need to make sure that I can find anything to use against this dream guy and 3. We’re technically grounded.”

“What’s grounded?” Tommy asked.

“We’re not allowed to leave our rooms until we learn our lesson,” Minerva said. “We are supposed to go to school and then straight back home.”

“You are here right now though…” Sam said. “I’m guessing you’re not supposed to be here?”

Minerva raises an eyebrow while smirking “You’re gonna turn us in?”

“Hell no.” Sam said. “I don’t wanna risk pissing off your dad.”

The rest of the server nodded in agreement.

Toby murmurs something as he opens his eyes slightly “Why do you guys don’t like dad? He’s nice…” Toby went back to sleep as Jack awkwardly patted him. 

“Not from our perspective,” Niki said. “So back to the museum plan, who’s going with Eret?”

Scarlett thought for a moment,  “Well you need someone to act like a guide since the thing about this museum is it can be like a Maze.”

“Aren’t you gonna help us?”

Minerva shook her head. “We’ll be noticed quickly by anyone. Plus the Warners said that we are on a time limit of the night if we want them to stay silent.”

“Right. I don’t suppose this museum has any maps, does it?” Purpled asked.

“It does, but Toby has it. And I don’t wanna wake him up.”

“Should we wait until he wakes up…” Jack asked.

“Yep, he’ll probably wake up soon.”

Purpled sighed “of course he’s decided to go to sleep around this time.”

“Do you guys want me to give you some advice?” Ghlatt appeared what a smirk.

“No,” Quackity said.

“What do you got?”  Scarlett asked.

“Don’t encourage him, I’m still hoping he’ll go away,” Quackity said.

“It’ll be OK, maybe he will give us some useful information to help keep us  from getting discovered.”

Quackity just rolled his eyes, and leaned into Sapnap’s side, glaring at Glatt.

“All right then what you got?”

“You say that you’re not supposed to be out of your room right?”

Scarlett tilted head“Yeah…”

“My advice: hide now.” He said with a smirk before disappearing.

“What?!”

Just as she said that, there was a knock at the door.

“We know you’re in there.” A voice cried out from outside.

Both of girls’ eyes widen in horror “Shi-”

“How does he know we’re here?!”

Toby yawns as he quietly picks up his head “Huh?”

Jack ignored that as he held Toby in his arms “So does anyone got a plan?”

“As much as I hate to say it, he’s right, hiding is probably the best plan,” Quackity said.

Minerva looks back nervously at the rest of the server as the knocking continues. “What about you guys?”

“Minerva is that you?!”

Without saying a word, Quackity and Jack quickly grab them before dragging them to one one of the rooms. “Listen just stayed here and we can talk to him.”

“I mean like you said he doesn’t really like you that much”

“We’ll figure something out,” Quackity said, closing the door and rushing back to the sitting room.

“Is anyone gonna open the door?” The voice demanded.

Tommy quickly took out a pack of cards and throw them on the table “There! hopefully he won’t notice.”

Puffy took the moment to come to the door. “Oh we’re so sorry, we didn’t hear you.”

“I doubt that.”

Puffy opened the door revealing Bugs looking annoyed and tired.

“Alright, I know my kids are here, where are they?”

The server looks at him from their “Card game.”

“Kids? You mean the rascals?” Sam asked, looking at his cards upside down. “Haven’t seen them.”

“I heard Minerva’s voice. I know my children’s voices.”

“Well you could be mistaken, Mate” Phil said

“Maybe you overheard Niki or Puffy and thought it was Min,” Tommy said.

“I know my children’s voices, now where are they?” Bugs asked. “I am not in the mood to deal with your antics.”

“Well we’re not doing anything, we're just being model citizens.” Sapnap sad smugly

At that moment a noise from upstairs was heard, as someone upstairs started mumbling. The server looks up nervously.

“What was that?”

“Probably Techno,” Phil said. “He was taking a nap, trying to shake off a migraine.”

 Bugs nodded “Alright. Let’s say I believe you... where do you suggest  they could be?”

“I don’t know. Where do they hang out?” Sam asked. “Have you checked the woods?”

“Why would my children be in the woods?”

“I mean they were there when we first met them,” Niki said.

“Well they only go there occasionally. It’s good for them.”

“Well maybe they went again,” Puffy said. “Or somewhere else in town. This is a big town.”

“They don’t often go out… Plus I already checked the library and ask a few other people.”

There was another noise as a sound of a door begin to rattle against its hinges.

“The reason why I ask is because you seem to be their newest friends and they’re supposed to be grounded. They’re not supposed to be out at all.”

“Grounded?” Sam asked, feigning confusion. “Why would they ever be punished?”

“Do you not remember them trying to break you out of prison?” Bugs asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That seems so harsh I mean it’s only been a couple days, water under the bridge.” George said.

“That’s not how any of this works,” Bugs said. “ Plus Toby is supposed to have his nap.”

“What is he? four years old? He doesn’t need a nap. He’s like thirteen” Jack said.

“He gets tired easily.”

“Still thirteen,” Niki said. “Surely if he’s that tired he’ll just, you know, go home?”

As if on cue Toby came downstairs ignoring the stares and wide mouths as he yawned. “Daddddd?”

Niki just sighed. “Of all the times to be proven right, it has to be when I don’t want to.”

“There you are I’m not surprised if you manage the tire yourself out” Bugs said quietly as he picked Toby up. He then turned towards the server “So that was a fucking lie.”

The server just sat there awkwardly, trying to avoid Bug’s eyes. Sam moved slightly to be between him and the minors.

“Now where’s the girls?”

At that moment as well the girls rush downstairs “Tob-”

They stopped themselves as they stared at Bugs.

“Now what do you two think you’re doing here?” Bugs demanded. 

“We just wanna visit…”

“You know you’re supposed to be grounded. You couldn’t wait two more days?” Bugs asked. “What was so important you had to visit now?”

Scarlett looked around before she quickly answered “We were concerned since we are still lacking information about Dream and… we thought that if we ask the server for more information we can find him…”

Minerva looks at Tommy who nodded. “And Tommy recently found himself and the server a therapist to trust so… we were here to talk to him about what he thinks?”

Bugs just sighed. “Girls please… I know you’re just trying to help, but please just leave dealing with that stuff to me and the other head toons, please? We’ve got everything under control.”

At that point, Puffy got up “ Which is fine, but don’t you think that we should take responsibility for our own actions? I mean that’s always been the problem with us. We don't often take responsibilities so we decided to do that.”

Bugs narrows his eyes a bit “What are you saying?”

“We’re just saying that we think that we have a better time with our development if you guys don’t be so…”

“So what?” Bugs asked.

“So… well overbearing. We’ve barely had any time without at least one of you guys showing up to breath down our necks.”

Bugs raised an eyebrow.

“I mean should they have a chance without any of that?” Scarlett asked. “ like why not compromise.”

Bugs tilt his head a bit before laying Toby down on the couch and sitting next to him. “ What's your compromise?”

“You give us some space to actually breathe and do our own thing and we promise not to do anything bad. We’ll even stick with your whole ‘being a better person’ plan,” Sam suggested. “We’ll do some work to help you all. I heard your museum was damaged before we arrived, Eret runs one back on the server. I'm sure the two of us would be able to be of some help in putting that back together.”

Bugs nodded a bit “That would be nice. And you guys know that how?”

“Toby told us,” Jack blurted out “He was pretty upset that he couldn’t go.”

Bugs give them a smile “Well I’m willing to do that, but you guys have to be on your best behavior if this is gonna work. Also who are you seeing?”

“Dr Madden. Found some of her fliers and she seemed really nice,” Tommy said, smiling. “She’s great.” 

Bugs frowned, trying to place the name before shrugging. “Alright, at least you found someone. Though if any of you don’t wanna see her I can still send along a couple other suggestions, like Emily focus on kids around-”

“No!” Tommy suddenly yelled. Everyone stared at Tommy in surprise.

“No?” Bugs repeated.

Tommy Took a deep breath before he repeats himself, “No, I’m fine with her. Sorry about that.”

“That’s okay?” Bugs look at him confused  before turning towards the other members for more questions.

Ranboo looked over at Tommy and frowned, “You okay?” 

Tommy merely nodded as he listened.

“So are we not grounded anymore?” Minerva ask innocently.

Bugs chuckle “Well if you… don’t cause trouble for the next few days then I’ll think about it.”

“We’ll be on our best behavior,” Minerva promised.

“Alright, well we’d best be off then,” Bugs said.

“See you later guys,” Scarlett said as she and Minerva followed.

“Well that went better than I expected,” Sam said.

“Brilliant thinking on the museum rebuilding plan Sam,” Eret said. “Now we won’t even have to sneak in!”

Sam nodded with a blush.

“Well, I guess that’s everything we needed to talk about,” Phil said. “Unless y’all wanna keep playing cards?”

“I’d like to see Techno for a moment. I just need to talk to him if you don’t mind?” Ranboo said. 

“If you wanna risk making him more annoyed when he has a migraine, be my guest mate,” Phil said. 

Ranboo gave him a shy smile as he tapped Tubbo on the arm “Can you come with me?” He whispered.

“Are you sure? I feel like Techno’s a lot less likely to stab you then me,” Tubbo said, getting up to follow Ranboo anyway.

“I mean you’ll be behind me and we’re on a truce… Plus it’s something important, it's about Tommy…”

Techno sighed as he stared at the two “Let me get this straight, you’re worried that Tommy went to a therapist?”

“He’s been acting weird since he got back. He wasn’t even originally gonna talk to her, he just wanted to get her to stop spamming us with fliers,” Ranboo said. “And when Bugs suggested giving us the names of other therapists he kinda freaked out.”

Techno just chuckled “I mean considering him he probably got a crush on her or some something.”

“I don’t know man. Tommy does normally act like that,” Tubbo said. “Even when he is crushing on some chick.”

Techno tilts his head. “And you want me why? Because we didn’t leave on good terms.”

“Because, I don’t know, you’re tough, you're hard to push around, I thought maybe you’d be willing to help us check it out?”

“I mean I don’t know about being hard to push around,” Tubbo muttered.

Techno got up at that moment. “So let’s say I want to go. Would you have my back if anything went wrong?”

“What do you mean by-” Ranboo began.

“Listen, I’m not Tommy and I’m not gonna forgive random betrayals. Like I’m willing to trust Ranboo in comparison to you.”

“Betrayal-” Tubbo began before being cut off.

“We’ll have your back,” Ranboo said, stepping between Techno and Tubbo.

“Sweet, give me a few minutes and I’ll come with you.”

“Thank you,” Ranboo said, taking Tubbo’s hand and beginning to leave the room.

“You’re welcome, But we gotta keep it on the low.” Despite the tone there was a smile on Techno‘s face  “ We don’t want The bunny to get pissed that we attacked someone.”

“Of course,” Tubbo said, as he staring at Techno’s axe beside the bed.

Techno stared at the house in front of him as Tubbo and Ranboo look at the sign. 

“This seems to be the place…?”

“I guess so…I mean I don’t really get how it could be next-door.”

“Yeah, you’d think the Toons would know about some woman living next door to us running a therapy office,” Ranboo said.

Techno just continued to stare at the  sign as he tapped on it “Personally I see it as a good sign that means they don’t know every little thing about this place. I honestly found that creepy.”

“That is true,” Tubbo agreed.

“So who’s gonna open the door?” Ranboo asked.

Techno just smirked at them as he got near the door. I mean considering what we saw in the poster.  “I think I can handle a lady.”

“Techno, let’s not cause any trouble.”

“,I’m not I’m just gonna knock at the door geez.”

Techno then proceeded to do three hard knocks at the door. Despite that there was nothing.

“Huh?”

“That was a bit anticlimactic.”

“No there’s something wrong with this,” Ranboo said backing away.

Techno stare at him “I mean what’s so creepy about it she didn’t answer the door?”

“No, no, something’s wrong. Something about this house is wrong, I don’t like this,” Ranboo cried out. “I think we need to leave.”

Before Ranboo or anyone did anything the door opened, there was a sudden feeling of calmness and safety in the air.

“I knew I would see more of you guys soon.” The woman, Madden smiled at them. “Are you  all ok? I thought I heard panic…”

“Uhhh, Ranboo was just nervous about something or other,” Tubbo said. “You’re Dr Madden?”

“Yep” she said happily, but something about her smile seems too affectionate. “And you must be Tubbo and this big guy must be Techno~”

“Yeah. You’re this therapist lady Tommy saw?”

“Yes Tommy was an amazing patient, we got a bump in the road at the beginning but I managed to help him.”

“Yeah, he seemed pretty happy with how his appointment went,” Ranboo said, suddenly unable to remember why he had insisted on dragging Tubbo and Techno over here.

“Why don’t you guys come in? I got snacks and you guys can tell me all about your adventures.” She then stopped herself as she turned back toward the group. “Although it is a weapon free zone, as this is a safe space. Would you kindly put all your weapons down by the door?”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Tubbo said, stepping in and setting his sword down next to the door. Then despite some hesitation, Ranboo did the same.

Maddens turned towards Techno “ Techno dear?”  She held out her hand ”Your weapons?”

Techno narrows his eyes. The voice whispers to each other suspiciously.“I prefer to keep it on me.” Madden merely frowns at him and Techno begins to feel the pressure at the back of his neck. He understood very quickly that it is kind of dumb to keep a weapon on him. Plus it’ll be near the door so if something happens he can easily run towards it.

Techno sets his weapons down near the door and steps into the building after Tubbo and Ranboo. Madden kindly smiled at them as she closed the door.

Chapter Text

Phil took a deep breath as he flew up to the tree. There was a brief moment of calmness before he quickly went down to one of the branches. He groans softly as he touches the wing. It’s still sore, though admittedly, it could’ve been worse. He shuttered, remembering some of the damage on it from Wilbur’s explosion. Phil sighed as he just sat on the branches, staring out at nothing.

“What are you doing up here?” Phil jumped as Minerva flew towards him. “Are you brooding?”

“Just thinking,” he replied. “Looking for Tommy?”

Minerva shrugged. “I just want to Fly around for a bit, and you’re on my tree.”

“What do you mean I’m on your tree? I don’t see your name on it.”

“I wrote over there.” Phil looked around and in the middle of the park was a heart with a M shape in the middle.

“So maybe I am…”

Minerva nodded as she sat next to him. “I don’t often see you fly..”

“It’s not always easy,” Phil admitted. “Not with my wings as injured as they are.”

“Even before Donald decides to set fire to your back, they did look a bit broken….”

“I’m still a bit pissed at him for that, I mean he was trying to kill me.”

“That’s technically him when he’s being nice, you do not want to know what he’s like when he gets permission to kill.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Phil said.

They were a moment of silence between the two.

“Phil, can I ask you a question…?”

“Sure, ask away,” Phil said.

“I want to figure out a way for me and Scarlett to like rebel more or at the very least get some form of more freedom. And I wanna know if you got any advice?”

“Well I suppose that depends on what you’re willing to risk,” Phil said.

“I’d rather not get grounded again.” She said, looking at her fingers, " But, I wanna be just like you guys.”

“Hmm. Well I suppose part of that will be figuring out which limits you can push without your father getting too upset. Have you tried talking to him? Just tell him your concerns?”

Minerva nodded. “I guess so we do talk. It’s just… he’s really just wants us out of trouble, although it’s a bit hypocritical on his part considering the shit that he gets up to….”

“Hmm. Sometimes people can be hard to convince. You need to be patient. Plus, as I said, figure out which limits you can push and how far you can test them.” 

Minerva nodded “OK… do you wanna play a game?

“What game?”

“Well I point out houses and you guess and Vice versa” 

“I feel like you probably know all the houses in town, but sure.”

“Okay so what’s that house?” Minerva said pointing at a large manor with are large coin vault next to it.

“Some rich dude. Didn’t one of you kids say some McDucks are super rich?”

“Yep! He's really cool.”

“I guess he is….” Phil rolled his eyes as he looks around the houses.

“What about that house?” he said, pointing at an odd looking house with an owl like eye in the center of it.

“The Owl House, You may have met her during the riot.”

“You mean the lady that Fundy said threatened to eat him.”

Minerva laughed nervously “It was a joke mostly to scare him.”

The game continues as Phil and Minerva Point and guesses which house is which.

“So how about that house next our?” Phil asked as he pointed at the tan house

Minerva looks at him bewildered. “The storage facility? I've never seen that before?”

“Wow, you don’t even know that house?”

“I don’t know, I’m not an expert on this town.”

“I thought you were. I mean shouldn’t Tour guides know about The town that they are in?”

Minerva put her hands on her hips. “Well, they should’ve hired them instead of letting random people do it.”

Phil smirked at her. “Well a lot of people at the server did tours and they never made a mistake like that.”

“We’re were volunteers?”

“And so were we.”

They laughed as Phil looked at a house at the corner of the town.

“So what’s that house over there?” Phil said playfully.

“Oh that’s Tom Houston’s house he tutors us occasionally.”

“Ahh. Him.”

“Don’t like him?” 

Phil shook his head. “We got some disagreements….” 

Minerva hums in sympathy. “He can be like that.”

“You can say that again,” he mutters, then his eyes light up before giving her a mischievous smirk.

Minerva tilted  her head at him “Uh, Phil?”

“Minerva didn’t you say that you want some more safer ways to rebel~”

“So this is the museum,” Eret said, looking around as Mickey escorted her and Sam in to get started with their work.

“Yep, you can see the damage in the walls from Entrapta’s robots,” Mickey said.

“I can. This is a very interesting building.” Sam said, looking around, running a finger along a groove in the wall.

“Most of the marble walls have been replaced already, you two will mostly be working with the plaster ones,” Mickey said.

“Mind if we take a look around?” Sam asked. “Just see what we’re getting ourselves into?”

“Yeah sure,” Mickey said. “Just don’t damage anything. Here, you’ll probably need maps so you don’t get lost.” With that Mickey handed each of the pair a map.

Eret and Sam looked over the map. Eret pointed at one room labeled “magic artifacts” and raised an eyebrow at Sam. Sam nodded slightly.

“Alright, let’s get going,” Sam said, starting trying to follow the map towards the room Eret pointed out.

The pair wandered the museum, going a bit slower than Sam would like as Eret kept getting distracted by various things. 

“This is really quite fascinating,” Eret said, pausing to look at one thing that almost looked like a mix between a sword and an axe. “A keyblade huh?”

“Doesn’t seem like it’d be very useful for combat,” Sam commented looking at a old busted up camera. “Also we’re not here to sight see.”

“Oh come on, let me have my fun,” Eret said.

“Wait, I think we found it,” Sam said, glancing through a door into one room.

Eret perked up and followed Sam into the next room.

In front of them was what seemed to be pieces of a portal. Different pieces of Metal and Shrapnel were all over the floor.

“I guess this is the place?” Eret whispered.

“I’m not sure how this will be any help in getting home,” Sam said, kneeling down to poke at one piece of metal. “I’m not even sure how it worked before it was destroyed.”

Eret look at the desk. “I mean is there a journal or like a logbook?”

“That could be true,“ Sam said as he opened up a drawer. “ I mean it’s unlikely.” After a few moments of looking he found a small recorder in one of the cabinets.

“A Recorder?” Sam said as he looked at the device.

“I mean they do count as logbooks…”

“Should we listen to it?” Sam asked.

“Maybe? It might tell us something useful.”

Sam nodded as he turn on the tape.

-You know Toby always carries something like this right, something about his mother, the Eye listening in.  Like it’s fascinating, like no matter what, she can hear you and see you from anywhere, and she could tell Toby anything he needs to know…

Sam froze at that. What does the person mean by that?

Where was I-oh yes, I have been thinking about what Toby and the ghosts have been saying for a while. About different worlds, and how the fears try to get through them through a ritual before making the Head Toons stop it by accident. And that’s not getting into some of the inkwells talks about her girlfriend? Her partner? Data….

“That doesn’t sound like information about the portal, though it does sound interesting,” Eret said.

“But not helpful.”

But with the portal, we get to explore that. I wonder what is out there? But I should probably ask Mickey first. Last time I tried to do something like that it nearly destroyed my world….

“Okay that’s info on the portal but I don’t like the ‘nearly destroyed my world’ part of that,” Sam said.

Technically the universe but you know we’re only a small blimp compared to everyone here. So if our universe goes boom no one will notice except for our friends here…

“Universe!?” Eret said.

“That would be fucked up if no one noticed-”

“No I mean yes that would be fucked up but what do they mean by that? About the whole universe?!”

Sam just stared at the tape and shrugged. “I mean at this point I just don’t question it. We’re supposed to figure out how to use the portal to get home. I mean sure the Toons will be a bit pissed about us using the museum but they probably won’t mind that and we get to leave.”

“Sam. Sam. That thing was talking about destroying the universe. You can’t seriously be suggesting we risk that!” Eret said, grabbing Sam by either arm, unable to reach his shoulders.

“I know but maybe they fixed it also, what did they mean by an Eye goddess? That's something that I also wanna know? I mean they say that she is listening to tapes right…”

“You don’t think she’s listening right now… do you?” Eret asked, staring at the tape recorder in his hands.

“I don’t know I mean have we actually seen her?” 

A slight giggle come out of the tape recorder, causing Sam to panic and throw it at the wall ahead of him, over Eret’s shoulder. “WHAT THE FUCK?!”

You must be Toby‘s friends, how wonderful! Oh, so you should have seen my beautiful portrait in the museum that he made.

Eret just grabbed Sam’s arm while beginning to mutter a prayer to prime under her breath.

“What the heck? How are you? Are you the devil?” Sam asked, trying to put on a brave face.

What the fuck are you talking about, I’m just having a pleasant conversation with you? I mean I am technically the goddess of the fear of being watched and of knowing~ I know what you fear Sam and Eret~

Eret just turned and ran from the room. Sam stared after him for a second before running after them.

Where are you going~ I just want to get to know you two~

“What was that?!” Sam said after he and Eret had run a couple of rooms away from the tape recorder.

“The devil. This dang museum is haunted by the devil,” Eret panted out, trying to catch her breath. “I don’t suppose you have holy water on you, do you?”

There was another laugh in the room. They look up to see a Portrait of a woman wearing a green cloak smiling at them.

“Sam?”

“Yes, Eret?”

“I think we should run again.”

Bye bye~ you two.

Sam and Eret didn’t stop to listen, once again fleeing the room, trying to find their way out of the museum. 

“Uh Eret, Sam”  Both jumped as they screams. 

“Please don’t kill us, Spare us!”

“Uhh, I wasn’t planning on it?” Mickey said, raising his hands in an attempt to calm the pair down. “Are you two okay?”

“Your dang museum is haunted by the devil!” Eret yelled.

“The devil?” Mickey asked them “What are you two talking about? What happened?”

“There was a tape recorder talking about some “eye” woman and then the tape recorder started talking and I’m certain it was the devil,” Sam said.

“Eye…” Mickey sighed “Ohhh her…”

“I’m out! I am not working in a museum haunted by the devil!” Eret said. “I’m going back home!”

“That’s not the devil….That’s the Eye”

“An eye goddess that knows everyone’s fears? Sounds like the devil to me,” Sam said. 

“Ok…” Mickey frowned. “I’m guessing this means you’ve changed your mind about helping with the museum?”

“YES!” 

“Ok….”

Mickey looked at them concerned as he  walked them back to their house.

“Guys… don’t worry about her. Eye isn’t that dangerous. She’s creepy but she can’t actually do that much.”

Eret and Sam just eyed Mickey, disbelief written across their faces. 

“And how is Toby related to her….” Sam asked.

“She’s his mother,” Mickey said without thinking. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“What?!” Eret yelled .

“Toby’s mother is the devil?!” Sam demanded.

“She’s not the devil.”

“She’s an eye goddess?” Eret demanded.

“Yes?”

“Then she’s the devil,” Eret said, “Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be gathering some primebells.”

“No! Please don’t!”

“You have a goddess of eyes, the very things that hold all one's evil, and you expect us to believe she isn’t the devil?” Sam asked.

“She…not one…” Mickey says weakly.

Eret and Sam just glared, before turning to go inside, leaving Mickey standing outside who sighed as walk back home.

“Hey, I wasn’t expecting you two back so soon,” Puffy said as Eret and Sam closed the door.

“The museum is haunted by the devil,” Eret said.

“Pardon?”

“Eye goddess. She spoke to us through a tape recorder and says she knows all our fears,” Sam said. “She’s also apparently Toby’s mother.”

Puffy just took a shaky breath. “I see.”

Jack sighed. “Toby told me a bit about his mother. She doesn’t sound like the nicest lady.”

“His mother is the devil,” Eret said, frowning. “I wouldn’t exactly trust anything he has to say about her.”

“What do you mean?!” Jack said “What Devil?!”

“Once again. A goddess with a focus on ‘eyes.’ Sounds like the devil to me,” Sam said. “Plus she claimed to me to know what our fears were.” 

“I never heard of her?!” Jack said. 

“There’s an old story that eyes hold all of our evil,” Eret said. “They’re corrupt by their very nature. So a goddess of eyes?”

“Definitely not good news,” Puffy said.

“Ok…We don’t have like that stories in the Nether”

“They’re very common among wanderers,” Eret said. 

“Ok… Jack said “Maybe we should talk to him….”

“His mother. Is the devil. I do not trust that kid,” Sam said. “He’s probably plotting to bring about the end of the universe or something.”

“How do you know?!” 

“Did you listen to anything me and Sam said about what happened at the museum? This eye goddess started talking to us first through a tape recorder and then through a portrait and knew our names without either of us saying them and claimed to know all our worst fears. And this devil is Toby’s mother. ”

“I-so what do plan on doing to him?”

“Well obviously we can’t attack him,” Sam said. “Not unless we want to end up back in those prison cells. Or worse.” 

“So will you leave him alone?” Jack asked hopefully.

“We’ll see….” Eret said, before going upstairs.

“Honestly, after that excitement, I want a nap. I’ll be upstairs,” Sam said, before following Eret.

There was a knock at the door and a familiar hat appeared at the window.

Toby gave them a smile while holding a Gift basket “I'm here to apologize for my mother…”

Puffy’s eyes just widened. “How did you know about that?”

“My mom was bragging about it… where is Sam and Eret?”

“Upstairs. Sam said he was gonna take a nap,” Jack said. “No idea what Eret’s doing.”

Toby hugs Jack “Thank you and after this do you wanna hang out for a bit? I sort of took a nap on your lap yesterday.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jack said with a grin.

Puffy gives him a look as if telling him that’s a bad idea.

As Toby backed away from Jack, Tommy suddenly jumped out from behind the couch, pouring a bucket of water over Toby’s head “THE POWER OF PRIME COMPELS YOU!”

Toby blinks for a moment and turns towards Tommy “Heh?”

“Tommy what the fuck?!” Jack yells. “What was that for?!”

“My hat” Toby whimpered looking at his aviator hat “It’s wet… It will take hours to dry…”

“I heard what Eret and Sam said about your mother,” Tommy said, backing away.

“Oh my prime, why does everyone believe that nonsense?!” Jack asked.

 “It's all right,”  Toby said, putting his hat back with a smile. “It happens sometimes, it's an accident.”

“Come on Toby, let’s go,” Jack said, grabbing Toby’s hand and dragging him out of the house.

“It’s Ok, Tommy, we’ll talk!” Toby yelled out.

Tommy merely narrowed his eyes then he closed the blinds.

Toby looked at Jack as he mumbled to himself. 

“Jack, I'm literally OK. I'm a bit wet but I just need a change of clothes or the sun will get rid of the wetness.”

“I’m just worried about what else they’ll do. For some stupid reason everyone else seems convinced your mother is the devil,” Jack said. “Something to do with eyes holding evil or some shit.”

“My mom is the goddess of the fear of being watched so technically she is a harmful god but she’s not that bad…” Toby looks at his bag and opens the front of it. “I just need to make sure that she doesn’t cause any trouble..”

“How much trouble can she cause?”

Toby blushes as he looks at the recorder in his hand “You got no idea…”

Minerva stared at the buckets of water and paint on her shelf as Phil looks at them.

“So these are all your supplies?” Phil asks.

Minerva nodded excitedly. “Yep, This is everything we need for the prank!”

“So what exactly is the prank?”

“We’ll paint the fence with spots, Plus he doesn't smile a lot unless with his girlfriend or son, so this will cheer him up!”

Phil rolled his eyes “ok….” He said as Minerva happily took out her phone.

“Plus I already told  Scarlett  and…!” Minerva's smile dropped a bit when she saw the message in return. “And she couldn’t come, she’s busy.” 

“Oh dear.” Phil hummed sympathetically as a pick up a paint bucket

“Yeah I think she is working on the final diagram of Dream’s location . But that’s OK.”

“She’s really dedicated to that, isn’t she?”

“All in the service of our home…. you work for him at one point right?”

“Not for him, though I’ll admit I worked with him once. Our goals aligned, I’m about as fond of him as the rest of the server.”

“And what was your reason? I mean Tommy didn’t mention that you guys destroyed L’Manberg…”

“We did. They tried to execute Techno with no trial, put me under house arrest for nothing except being his friend. At the time I blamed them for Wilbur’s death.”

“Wilbur? I never really heard of him.” Minerva thought back to the happy ghost who was smiling at her and made Tommy laugh and the file that talks about a ghost being Phil’s son, “I mean, isn't that Ghostbur?”

“No. Ghostbur may look and sound a bit like my son, but he isn’t Wilbur. Just a remnant.”

Minerva tilted her head as she picked up another paint can. “I mean…. He sounds like an actual person. Plus maybe he’s like a twin to Wilbur, different but still a person.”

Phil's feathers flutter as he slammed the paint bucket to the ground. “I was there when Wilbur was born, I think I’d know if my son had a twin.”

“I mean he doesn’t seem like a remnant to me. Plus Tommy likes him…”

“That doesn’t make him my son,” Phil said.

Minerva looks away “I'm sorry… it’s just, isn't it a bit unfair for Ghostbur?”

Phil turned away, “He’s not Wilbur. I will regret the decision I made that day for the rest of my life. Ghostbur is just a reminder.”

Minerva awkwardly just carried the paint cans as she stared at him. On the one hand she could continue and try to get him to see that maybe a part of his son did survive, or maybe it’s just better not to push this. “Well… we don’t have to talk about it. We could still paint the polkadots on Tom’s fence…”

“Let’s go then.”

Minerva nods as they silently walk towards Tom’s house. It looks like what one would expect from a house in the suburbia but there were hints of a small happy life. There were toys on the front lawn and colorful chalk drawings on the sidewalk. She looked up and smiled as she noted the way the chimney bellowed smoke. “ Phil, do houses in your world look like that?”

“Not really. A lot of the materials you have we don’t have. Plus each house will look different depending on who built it.”

Minerva humas she got on her knees and began to open the paint. It was a vibrant green inside with its brush sticking out like a sore thumb. “So what did you do most of the time besides anarchy stuff?”

“Read mostly.”

Minerva nodded as she began to paint on the fence. “What kind of books? I mostly read a few books but Scarlett and Toby are the bookworms of the family.”

“Depends on my mood honestly. Don’t tell Techno I told you this but he has more than a slight soft spot for romance novels.”

Minerva giggled as she nodded. “I won’t. Also, are you going to paint as well?”

“Sure.” Phil opened his own can revealing a Crimson color coming out as he began to paint his own spots as both of them continued. Phil suddenly stopped to realize something. It seems like he had forgotten the most important rule of surviving in this world: Make sure you don’t get caught.

“…Minerva you did make sure that he’s not here before doing this right?” Minerva merely nodded as she focused on her painting. “He’s usually teaching at the high school so I think that he might be there.”

Phil  slowly stops himself as he continues to stare at her “When does he teach?”

“Between eight and five on Mondays to Friday I think he has lunch around noon but it’s fine.”

“Minerva it is noon!” 

Minerva finally stops painting as she turns towards Phil. “It’ll be fine! I mean I haven’t seen him yet but he could be late.”

“What are you doing?” A voice said behind them as both stopped, eyes wide in realization as they looked up only to see the man in front of them. He was wearing a flannel shirt with a red beard. 

“Nothing?”

“So is there any reason why you’re carrying paint to my house?

“We’re going to paint the fence of your house with spots Mr. Tom.”

Tom crosses his arms as he nods at that “Ok…why do you wanna paint my fence with polka dots?”

“Because we wanna make you feel better,” Minerva said quietly.

“Uh-huh… Minerva, that's nice of you, but that’s not a very good way of doing that.”

Minerva shook her head and she looked down. Phil narrow his eyes at Tom, he hated that guys tone, always fucking pretentious. 

“Listen I have suggested to Minerva that your house would be a good target for her stupid little prank,” Phil said. 

“Don’t take credit for my work, I was the one who caused the prank!” Minerva yelled out.

Tom nodded before turning towards Phil “So you hold yourself responsible for what happened?”

Phil rolled his eyes as he nodded “ Yep”

Minerva groans as she stomps on the ground “Phhhhhhhillllll! Tom it’s not his fault!”

Tom sighed as he knelt towards her. “Phil and I need to have a chat.”

“But,” Minerva quickly looked at Phil before turning towards Tom. “But he hates you,” she whispered.

Tom just nodded, “ I think I’ll be fine, now go back home.”

Minerva sighed as she flew up into the air as both men watched as She disappeared into the trees lines.

Phil and Tom stare at each other for an awkward moment before Tom says “What were you going to do with Minerva?” 

“I think that Minerva made it pretty clear on what we were trying to do,” Phil said.

“I’m just checking…”

“What did you think I was going to do?”

Tom shrugged “I don’t know, Destroy my house? I just don’t want you to drag Minerva along to whatever bullshit that was happening.”

“Come on we made one little mistake and suddenly were the most dangerous people here what the fuck?” Phil asked. “Then again not surprising you’d think that, you did decide to declare us all too corrupted after one conversation with me.”

Tom gave him a hard stare. “ I had to admit I was a bit hasty at that moment, but based on what we know about you, we don’t know whether you guys would be dangerous or not. Especially considering the fact that you blew up an entire city.”

“I had my reasons for what I did.”

“What kind of reason?”

“Do you want a whole list? Let’s see, they tried to execute my friend with no trial, they put me under house arrest just for being friends with him, also did my file not mention the whole anarchy thing? Plus I blamed them for my son’s death.”

“I get upset about most of that, but the thing that I don’t really get is how is it their fault for what happened to your son? I mean the only thing that we got was that your son is here, but the rest is incomplete.”

Phil clutches his fist as he struggles not to punch this guy. What’s with this goddamn town and believing that Ghostbur is his son? “My son ended up in a very, very bad place.” Phil growled, “And From what my son wrote to me in his letters, one of his so-called ‘friends’ was in charge when it happened.”

Tom raised his eyebrow  “Did you confront them about it?”

Phil stopped himself at that moment “What…”

“ Considering that you just arrived When everything was in chaos, didn't you talk to them after the event to figure out what’s going on? Or to confront them with the truth that they’re lying?

“Wilbur wouldn’t lie to me.”

“Well maybe he did or maybe he was talking about someone else. How do you know for certain that what was told by one other person is the full truth plus there could be some misunderstandings.”

“I trust my son.” Phil said angrily. 

Tom sighed “And why not everyone else before all of that? Why didn’t you ask some of your friends in that “ Syndicate” or something, didn't some of them come from L’Manberg?”

“Niki doesn’t like talking about Wilbur.” Phil crossed his arms tightly as he glared away from the man. “She won’t talk about Wilbur. Ranboo wasn’t there. Who exactly would you suggest I ask?”

Tom took a moment to think “I mean wasn’t Tommy or your grandson Funny? Fundy? Whatever his name is there.”

“I had my reasons.”

“You keep on saying that yet you only gave out a reason why you blew up L’manberg and not why you’re not willing to talk to the people who are close to Wilbur?”

“Because I don’t trust them. I didn’t have a chance. Before I had even finished dealing with the fact that my son was dead in the first place they were suddenly putting me under house arrest and trying to execute my friend. So apologies if I don’t entirely trust most of the people in L’manberg’s version of events.”

There was a moment of silence between the two before Phil sighed.

“Now if you excuse me I’d rather go back home rather than talk to you, mate.”  Phil spat out before flying off.

“Ok…” Tom nodded as he walked back to his house. See you later, Phil.”

Phil simmered as he tried to ignore the increasing pain in his wings.

“Hey, Phil…” Minerva said as she followed Phil.

“Hey Minerva,” Phil said wincing, his wings missing a beat briefly.

“I heard everything that happened back there…” She sucks her mouth awkwardly. “You really don’t like Tom.”

Phil sighed “No. No I don’t.”

“That's too bad, he’s really nice once you get to know him. He even occasionally reads to us when we come over.”

“Good for you, I’d still hate him even if he was the god of life.”

Phil landed with a whine as he began to walk while Minerva continued to fly while following him “Don’t you think that you should at least show the others the letters?”

Phil glared at her “Like I said to Tom before, I don’t trust them.”

“Well didn’t you guys go on some sort of truce shit?”

“Yes. So I won’t fight them, doesn’t mean I’ll trust them.” And with that Phil proceeded to almost run from her.

Minerva at that almost slams herself to the ground and Rush after Phil  “Well don’t you think you wanna cross reference?  I mean who do you think would be so responsible for Wilbur‘s accident or whatever happened  like what reason would they have to want to hurt someone that they care about?!”

“Well I don’t know, they didn’t save him! How would you know about what it’s like to lose someone that you care about?!”

Minerva stops at that “What do you mean by that I mean I get that Ghostbur isn’t your son but then where is he?

Phil just stared at her as he began to breathe heavily. 

There is a bit of a pit in Minerva's stomach but she continues.

“I mean where is Wilbur then?” Minerva asks again ”What happened to him then? I mean there’s only so much that we could know what happened to him-.”

“BECAUSE WILBUR IS DEAD!” Phil yelled. “HE’S DEAD! WHAT PART OF THAT DON’T YOU PEOPLE GET?!”

There was a stunned silence  as Minerva stared at him “Dead…but”

“Yes! Where do you think Ghostbur came from?! We don’t call him ‘Ghostbur’ for fun!”

Minerva stared at him, “ I didn’t know…. They just say that your son is Ghostbur…”

“Well he’s not, unless the files count his ghost as him,” Phil said. “He’s dead. I’ve tried to bring him back and it didn’t work. I wish everyday I could go back and save him.”

“What about the others?” Minerva  questioned weakly. “I mean they got to be upset as well and Ghostbur seems to be his own person….”

“I don’t know. I haven’t really talked to anyone about it…”

Phil suddenly felt a sudden pressure around him and looked down to see Minerva hugging him tightly. “Maybe you can talk to them now. I mean you’re here now and the point of this is to talk to each other and try to rebuild…”

“I… Maybe.”

Minerva let him go as she held out her hand “Do you wanna go back, or do you just wanna sit here. We don’t have to look at houses or do anything, just sit here?”

“I… think it would be a good idea to calm down before I go back.”

Minerva nodded as she sat by the tree  trunk with Phil‘s are following. There was a quiet moment of  respite between the two watching as the birds sang.

Techno opens the door as Tubbo walks holding a sleeping Michael, who is covered with face paint as he wears the backpack filled with balloons and books.

Puffy looks out from her book surprised. “There you are? Where were you three?”

Techno just nodded as he passed by Puffy and just walked to the kitchen. Puffy blinked for a moment.

“Uh….Techno…?” Puffy questioned as she watched him taking out a pot and filling it with water. 

“He’s ok,” Tubbo said. “He's just making tea.”

“Where did you three go? You just disappeared out of nowhere. Me and Sam were concerned about you and Ranboo,” Puffy said to Tubbo. 

Ranboo just smiled. “We’re fine, We just picked up Michael.” he patted his son's body. “He’s sleeping.”

“You’ve been gone a pretty long time for picking up Michael.” Puffy put a hand on her hip, tilting her head to the side. “And why did you take Techno with you for that?”

“Oh, we visited Madden!”

“You did huh?” Puffy said. “How did that go?”

“It went wonderful, she really helped with our problems.” Tubbo grinned.

“I see,” Puffy said. “You three are getting along now? Just like that?”

Tubbo shrugged, “Madden said next time everyone should come.”

“Uh huh. I see. If you’ll excuse me I’m gonna go upstairs,” Puffy said, turning to walk upstairs and knocking on Sam’s door.
“Sam? You awake?”

The door opened to reveal a tired Sam looking lost.

“Sam? Are you okay?” Puffy asked.

“Huh? Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” Sam looks away from her.

“Sam I say this with nothing but care in my heart, but bullshit.”

“Puffy please, I don’t want to talk…”

“Alright, alright. Just promise me you’ll rest if you start feeling sick or something, okay?”

Sam just nodded as he leaned on the door. “Where’s Tommy and Ghostbur?”

“In Tommy’s room. Think Ghostbur wanted a nap.” Puffy bit her lip, reconsidering if she wanted to tell Sam about her concerns with his current state. But who else would she talk to? Phil might be concerned about Techno and Ranboo, but Sam was the most likely to share her concerns about Tubbo

Before Puffy could say anything, there was a piercing scream that day.

Puffy ran towards Tommy’s room, weapon drawn, hearing Sam rushing after her. “Ghostbur?!”

“What’s going on?!” Sam asked, as Puffy threw the door open. 

Ghostbur was in the corner of the room shaking as if he was crying, mumbling something about friend and a train station. Tommy was right next to him, hands on his shoulder looking concerned. On the other side, though reluctantly Ghlatt was next to him too, for the first time look almost upset.

“Ghostbur? What happened? Are you okay?” Puffy asked, walking over to kneel in front of him.

“It hurts….it hurts.” 

Ghlatt quickly looks only to see Sam and his worried eyes turning to a hardened glare.

“I… I should go,” Sam said, before fleeing the room, looking pale.

“Of course you will, fucking coward.” Ghlatt mumbled before turning to Ghostbur “Listen snowflake it’s just a dream it’s not gonna be that bad.”

 “Yeah, it’s gonna be okay.” Tommy said well, trying to mask his confusion at Ghlatt 

“Wait, I don’t understand, why were you glaring…. Now's not the time,” Puffy said. “Ghostbur it’s just a dream I promise. Can you try to breathe for me?”

Ghostbur begins to take shaky breaths. 

“There we go. Okay now can you name five things you can see for me?” Puffy asked.

“Ok….I see Tommy…Ghlatty….you…Bed…Window.”

“Good, good,” Puffy said, struggling to remember the next part of the exercise. Was it touch or smell next? Did it matter? Would the first part be enough?

Ghlatt sighed as Ghostbur slowly stopped shaking. “I'm glad that you arrived. I mean, it wasn’t good.”

“What happened?” Puffy asked.

Tommy just looked around nervously. “I don’t know. He was laying down next to me while I was trying to figure out The stories of The Eyes my friend told me about, and then suddenly Ghostbur began to cry out and shake talking about…” he looks down. “…Dream.”

“I see. I think it was just a bad dream then,” Puffy said. “There seem to be a lot of those going around.”

Ghostbur shakes his head. “It’s not a bad dream it’s real!” He began to hold his head out and began to wail again. “I was with Tommy, we were going to kill Dream to keep him from using the book…”

Tommy turned pale “What…”

Ghlatt nodded as he Took a swing of his drink “That sounds about right… I saw some of it.”

“But none of that happened!” Puffy said. “We’re all here, we’re all safe. You’re sitting right here in front of us, Ghostbur.”

“Yeah,” Tommy quickly said. “I mean it didn’t happen.”

Ghostbur just looks up, tears dripping from his face causing steam to come out.  “I died… Sam didn’t save me…. Tommy said it was going to be OK… then…Then…”

Tommy's throat turned right in realization as Puffy stood there in shock. Ghlatt was crossing his arms, looking away for the first time, seeming empathetic. “Take your time, you don’t need to tell them…” he muttered.

“I had to.. I don’t want anything to happen.”

 “What is it?”  Tommy whispered except a part of him did know.

 He knew the moment that Ghostbur mentioned himself dying. There was only one thing that it could mean.

“Dream brought Wilbur back and he thought of him as his hero…”

Chapter Text

Phil walked back towards the house with Minerva by his side.

“Thanks by the way, mate.”

“Hmm?” Minerva said, turning towards Phil. “What for?”

“Listening. I didn’t realize how much I needed to talk about some of that until it was pouring out of me. Plus for giving me the space to calm down, a lot of people on the server might not have done that.”

“You’re welcome. Scarlett said that it’s a talent that I have.” Minerva said with pride.

Phil chuckled, “I bet she did.”

“Hey Min! Hi Mr. Phil!” A voice called from behind them, the pair turning to see Toby grinning and waving at them, Jack by his side.

“Hi, Toby!” Minerva kneels before the boy as he hugs her “How’s your day?”

“It was quite fun with Jack, although there was a bit of an awkward beginning, but I think we can fix that!”

“Awkward beginning?” Phil asked. “What happened?”

“Tommy poured a bucket of holy water over his head. Sam and Eret had a run-in with his mom who’s apparently an eye goddess-”

“And most of the server assumed she was the devil?” Phil asked.

“Yep.”

“The devil?” Minerva asks “That’s just Aunt Eye, she’s a bit of a bitch, but not a devil.”

“It’s sort of a cultural belief. Basically due to the eyes only seeing the material world in front of us, a lot of wandering groups came to believe that eyes were naturally corrupt and held all of one’s evil. It’s normally a bit more nuanced than that, but that’s the basics of it. Some people tend to think of it more in terms of ‘if you solely focus on your perspective, you’ll end up hurting others’ but some take it more literally. So, it’s not overly surprising they’d hear about an eye goddess and assume she was a devil.”

Minerva just stared at them for a moment, before her eyes drooped.  “And do they fear the knowledge that comes from that, and also the feeling of being watched?” she said deadpan.

Phil’s face twisted for a moment before he shook his head “Don’t think that’s normally part of the story?” Phil said. “I’ll admit I’m not entirely up to date on a lot of the stories…”

Minerva shrugs. “I don’t know. Either way it’s not very surprising, it happens occasionally.” And with that she knocks at the door.

Foolish opened the door, his normal golden shine seemed to dull a bit and his eyes have rings around it.

“Oh hey you four! We’ve been waiting for you and Jack to get back Phil.”

“You have?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, we’re trying to get together for a big server-wide talk. Afraid that means you’d better head out you two,” Foolish said, turning to Toby and Minerva for the second part.

“What do you mean by that?” Toby said, “We could help.”

“It’s better you not,” Foolish said. “Sorry, but we’d rather have this be server only.”

“Is it that bad?”  Jack whispered.

Foolish looks at Jack for a moment before nodding 

“Shit…”

Minerva whined a bit before she took Toby’s hands. “Well if anything went wrong, you got a number.” Minerva takes out a number in her pocket and hands it to Phil. “I didn’t  know whether or not you got a phone or something but I think this is just a good idea…”

“Thanks? What’s a phone?” Phil asked.

“It's the ringing thing at the corner of the room where you talk to people. Do you guys have something similar?”

“We’ve got our communicators,” Jack said, pulling his out of his pocket.

But Minerva looked down at the base before nodding. “Yeah like that, except less like a Tamagotchi.”

“What’s a-” Phil began before being cut off by Foolish.

“Thanks. We’ll call if we need anything.”

Minerva nodded as she and Toby reluctantly leave but with them throwing worry glances at the degree of them as Jack and Phil enter the house.

It was quiet…

Immediately when Foolish was talking about a server-only meeting, Jack was expecting a screaming match to be occurring or a fight. Instead, as the trio entered the sitting room most everyone seemed to be sitting in silence. Sam was curled up in one corner, staring at the wall next to him. Most everyone else was sitting closer to the center, Puffy standing up and pacing across the floor.

After a few moments, Jack opened his mouth.

“What happened…?”

No one answerd. Techno just quietly came back to the living room with Tea and almost mechanically set it down as he sat next to Phil looking tired

Quackity just turned to him. “Have you had any odd dreams?”

“Odd dreams?” Jack asked.

“Dreams that seem real, like you’re actually there,” Puffy said.

“No, not really,” Jack said. 

“That seems an oddly pointed question,” Phil said, crossing his arms. 

“Lately couple of people happen to have odd dreams and it fucking people up…” Tommy mumbled

“Several of which seem to be shared between people,” Quackity explained. “I know the first night in this house, me and Sam seem to have had the same dream.”

Sam glanced out at the rest of the room before staring a hole through the wall.

“Is… Is he okay?” Jack asked.

“M fine,” Sam murmured, barely loud enough to be heard.

“I’d take that as a no,” Quackity said.

“And you say that a handful of people only get those dreams right?” Ranboo asked. “Maybe it’s just stress since you know we just landed into a new location and we’re all stressed out…”

“No, no it was real,” Ghostbur said. “I know what I felt.”

Tommy and Ghlatt began to try to keep him calm as his breath became shaky.

“We’re all stressed though,” Puffy said. “And that wouldn’t explain why people seem to be having the exact same dream. Even down to tiny details.”

“Weird stuff happens,” Phil said casually as he sat next to Techno. “Maybe they’re guilty about something.”

“What would Ghostbur have to be guilty about?!” Tommy asked, pointing at the ghost.

“Mate, it’s just a theory.”

“I actually asked one of the toons about the dreams after I had my first one. Mickey said something about seeing what would happen if we hadn’t ended up here. I didn’t say anything because at the time I thought he was pulling my leg or lying to me. Now I’m starting to question it,” Quackity said.

Techno let out a silent laugh. “You really decided to trust him with his words. Even if it is true I doubt that it’s similar to your case”

“Ahh yes, take me outright saying ‘I didn’t say anything because I thought he was pulling my leg or lying’ to mean I took him at his word. Because that makes fucking sense,” Quackity said. “Can you maybe try listening to someone who isn’t you for once in your fucking life?”

Techno just rolls his eyes. “I can’t be at the very least skeptical?”

“No, I’m saying you don’t get to sit here calling me gullible for believing something I didn’t fucking believe!” 

“Listen!” Tubbo came between the two. “Whether or not it’s true or not, we should have at the very least considered that this happened the moment that we entered this house!”

“I mean that’s true but why would they give us some house that would give us horrible nightmares?!” Niki yelled.

“I don’t know? As some sort of sick punishment for the riot?!” Sapnap yelled. “At this point, I don’t even know! this place is fucking weird and the moment that we thought that we have a way home there was a sudden fucking God that guard the fucking museum!”

Eret and Sam both shuddered remembering what had happened at the museum. 

“But where would we go even if it was true? We’re stuck here,” Eret whispered. “Consider what Mickey said, we might need to ask for more information.”

“And how do we know we can take his word for it? I mean like Sap said it could be some cruel twisted punishment,” Karl pointed out.  

“I don’t know… but he seems to be telling the truth…”

“Maybe they’re just punishing the people who’ve done something really horrid?” Niki suggested, glaring over at Sam.

“Once again, Ghostbur,” Tommy said forcefully. “The toons don’t even know he exists!”

“They do seem to think he’s Wilbur though”,” Phil said, remembering his conversation (argument?) with Minerva.

Ghlatt just groan “Maybe that’s the fucking punishment, you fucking dingus. Because they thought Ghostbur is Wilbur, they put up a dream where he died at Dream’s hands because Sam for some godforsaken reason decided to leave him to die!”

Sam pressed himself further against the wall at Ghlatt’s accusations. 

“Not surprising, he cut his supposed partner’s hand off for key cards that didn’t even work!” Niki called out. 

“And left Tommy with Dream to die in the prison,” Ranboo said, before continuing when he saw Tommy wince. “Sorry Tommy, forgot you don’t like people mentioning that.”

“That’s OK, but Sam wouldn’t have done that, he fucked up but he wouldn’t have left Ghostbur for dead…” Tommy looks at Sam with a look almost pleading for him to tell them that they’re wrong.  “You wouldn’t…”

Sam did his best to look anywhere but at Tommy, blinking rapidly to fight off tears gathering in his eyes. The room was tilting and he felt as if his throat had swelled shut.

Tommy's eyes widen as he backs away “No…”

Techno just scoffed “Tommy why are you even surprised at this point? He’s basically another government official. They’re all the same.”

“Okay we held this meeting to figure out the dreams, not gang up on Sam,” Foolish said. “Yelling at Sam isn’t gonna do anything.”

But Sapnap interrupted him “Well it pretty much seems like half the shit that went wrong started with him.”

“Seriously Sap? If anything most of the shit we’ve gone through started with fucking Dream!” Quackity said. “Do I need to remind you all who actually killed Tommy? Or did you just forget that part?”

“Well how did Dream even get even close enough to even kill Tommy?” Sapnap yelled back. “Listen I get that it’s your dad-”

“Yeah, he’s my dad and I’m tired of seeing him blamed for shit he didn’t fucking do! He’s not all powerful inside the prison as much as some of you people seem to think!” Quackity interrupted, throwing his arms in the air.

“Now everyone calm-” Puffy began before being cut off by a thud from the corner.

“Sam? Sam!” Foolish cried out, rushing over to where the creeper hybrid had collapsed. 

“Ant… oh I thought you were supposed to be at the station with Bad…” Sam murmured, face scrunched up.

“Sam, Sam this isn’t nap time,” Foolish said, shaking him, trying to wake him up.

But before he could continue there was another collapse as panic noises came from the side of Foolish.

“RANBOO!” Tubbo screamed, as Ranboo slumped forwards, Techno barely catching him before he slammed his head into the table.

“What’s going on?!” Niki yelled.

“Everyone stay calm!” Puffy yelled.

“Calm?! We had two people just randomly pass out! Why should we be calm?!” Karl yelled.

Just as Karl said that, Techno suddenly fell over, hitting the floor with a thud, only causing the panic to grow.

“Okay this is bad, this is bad,” Karl said.

“I’m starting to feel a bit dizzy,” Sapnap complained, leaning back against the couch.

“Okay everyone just sit down and try to stay calm,” Puffy said, voice wavering as she lowered herself to sit down, leaning against the side of one of the chairs. “We can at least ensure no one hits their heads…”

Most of the server followed her instructions, panic growing as more people dropped. Sapnap followed by Tommy. Then Niki, then George, and so on, panic growing as people dropped into unconsciousness. 

Eventually Puffy found herself the only person still awake, looking around as tears streamed down her face, looking over the slumped over forms of her friends. Would it take her too? What was happening?

Puffy sat on the floor for a couple minutes waiting for whatever had claimed her friends to come over her too, but nothing came. Eventually Puffy pushed herself to her feet, looking around the room. But despite her trepidation, she felt no signs of passing out. 

Puffy’s expression hardened as she looked down at Foolish, his face portraying clear grief at whatever was appearing in his dreams. 

“Don’t worry Foolish, Papa will figure out what’s going on and find out some way to help you. I promise,” Puffy said, leaning over to brush a gentle hand over the side of his face, before standing up, gently making her way out of the room, and rushing out the door.

Jailbreak: Ranboo POV, Stream begins

“-Get Michael back from Eret and everyone.” Ranboo was in the middle of a Basement and Sam was holding his Warden's Will, staring at Ranboo with a look that is a mixture of manic, stress and interest. He doesn’t know where those words come from but all he knows is that he just hopes that it works. But he found his heart sank when Sam chuckled. It seems a lot darker than Sam’s regular laugh, similar to how a creeper would have sounded.

“ No… I don’t think you need to worry about Michael right now at all. I’m sure he’s fine. I think you should just worry about heading to the prison with me.”

 Ranboo's heart dropped at that moment,  The vault… He just found himself here, ignoring how long ago he would’ve longed for that to happen to keep those that he loves safe. He barely listens to what else Sam says before he points his trident at him.  “-and I don’t want to talk about them until we’re in a nice and, uh… secure place to talk about it.”

A part of Ranboo wants to argue, but a larger part of him already knows that he lost. Before he even knows what happened he drops his arms to his side as he holds his head down. 

“ Alright.”

Stream ends-next: Niki Nihachu and Philza talk before jailbreak

“Cause… Even for him, this is a lot. I mean look at the size of this thing!” Niki felt herself nodding as she looked at the prison. She doesn’t know why she feels this way; she just knows that she wants to break Dream out? She hated him and didn't want him to be locked up so many months back.

Because you’re always a follower

But she felt herself nodding along and responding “ I know…!”

Phil laughs nervously as he looks at the structure. He doesn’t know what to even make of it. On the one hand, he doesn’t like Dream and barely even trusts the man. But on the other hand, he got a favor from Techno and that means breaking him out, even if it feels off. “It’s the most secure- There’s a reason why Dream has been stuck in this thing for literal months and months and months. I ju-” He sighed not knowing what else to say. Niki looks at him sympathetically as she reaches her hand out to pat him on the back before feeling herself pull away.    

“ How do you think the ch- the server will change once Dream comes out?” She asked.

Phil tears his gaze from the prison as he looks at her. “I don’t know. Maybe… maybe things will just stay the same because not as many people wo- would talk to him? I- The-The problem is when Dream gets involved with people….he…” Phil remembered the destruction that he caused, the destruction that he helped cause, but still shook his head. This is just for one favor, and then they will never have to deal with him again. ”I’m not-I’m not a hundred percent-You know, Techno had a favor- had a favor that he needed to repay.”

Niki nodded, trying to ignore the part of her screaming how wrong it was. “Yeah…”

“ But I’m still…I can’t-really get over what Dream has done to people on this server.” Then why is he helping, Phil thought. He’s his own person he’s been his own person for years why is he following along again? What he knows is that it never causes anything good.

Niki nodded. “ I know… And who knows what he’s gonna do? He has the revival book.”

Phil inhales sharply. “That’s true.”

“ Oh well. We can just… hope. We’ll have Techno’s back,” Niki said.

Phil just looks at the prison as Niki continues. “ That’s all we can do. We’ll have Techno’s back. He will know.” Does he know, or does he only know the stuff that makes him feel better about himself? Nikki ignored that thought as she and Phil got back to the horses. It's all for a good cause, plus they can just put them back if he caused any trouble.  It’s just for a one time thing and then they will never have to interact with Dream again.

Stream ends-next:Technoblade POV: jailbreak of Dreamwastaken 

Admittedly Techno can’t help it be creeped out by how much Dream changes.  He sort of got that dream after a couple months in prison hell he was there but why did he look so weird.

“ Alright, but the sec-” Techno begins before turning to Dream. “-the alarms gonna go off when I do this, so we’re going to have to act fast, okay?”

“ Well, yeah!” Dream says. “How- wha- how- what do I-how am I gonna get- Wait. What will- what’s the plan after this? What’s the plan after this?”

Techno rummages through his bag as he begins to speak. “Listen, I got an ender chest, alright?”

“ Okay.”

“ I got stuff for you in the ender chest, also you’ll have access to your own ender chest. Convenient mechanics.”

“ Okay.”

Techno exhales before continuing to speak “Okay, the thing is Dream. Ranboo is also in prison. And I’m breaking him out as well. 

“ What?!” Dream demanded, shock coloring his voice.

“ So, you’re gonna have to- you’re gonna have to help me out with that.”

“ Wait, why is-?” Dream began before muttering “Oh, God.”

“ I have literally no idea why Ranboo’s in the prison, okay? It just- yesterday I just saw Sam… kicking him into the prison or something. I tried to stop him- I wasn’t fast enough, alright?” Techno felt rage burn through him. Ranboo was innocent, he wouldn’t hurt anyone, why would Sam lock him up?!

“ Oh, God,” Dream groaned.

“ Alright-] I tried to- I tried to do the ‘du du du’ and it just didn’t- it didn’t work. It didn’t work,” Technoblade said, briefly mimicking Dream.

Dream snorts. “That complicates things…”

“ If you were- if you were there it would have been different.” Techno just shakes his head. “Forget it, anyways, my fire resistance is running out and I actually don’t have that much, so uh.” and with one flick of the match A fire appeared on the match “Here we go!”

Dream backs up. “Oh, God.”

“ Hope this doesn’t kill my dog-!”

Techno lights up the TNT, pressing himself against the furthest wall. The blast throws Apollo into the lava but he’s unharmed due to his fire resistance. Techno checks over the damage: half of the wall imprisoning Dream is destroyed.

“ Okay!” Dream says inspecting the opening “Oh, there’s nether-”

A loud alarm interrupts, blaring through the cell, almost drowning out their voices.

“ Oh-” Techno says, startled.

“ Oh god,” Dream said, rushing out of the cell. “Okay, um-”

Techno let out a sigh “Okay, okay.” He looks out towards the opening “It’s time to go!”

Suddenly Techno blinks and he’s outside with everyone outside screaming. Where is Ranboo- wait how did he get outside? How do you know that Ranboo was with him? He just know that Ranboo was outside, they were running with Connor and now they’re outside Techno backs up a bit as he eyes widen at the side Sam was holding Ranboo, along with Bad, his sword pressing against the boy neck staring at him with a glare so hard that if looks could kill Techno would’ve been a stain on the ground.

“WHAT!? WHY ARE YOU TAKING OFF YOUR ARMOR?!” Techno yelled for once the dialogue in his head actually matched what was coming out of his mouth.

“Just give me everything.” Sam said, completely monotone.

“ NO! KEEP THAT ON!”

“ He has Michael.” Ranboo said, resigned to his fate.

Techno thought he heard Dream screaming at him to get away but his eyes were only trained on Ranboo who looked almost scared yet resigned?

  “ Techno, I’ll kill him.” Sam said his anger came into his voice more and more as he pressed the sword against Ranboo‘s neck causing Crimson to come out.  “Bring me Dream, Technoblade. I only want Dream! Everyone else is free to go.” Sam doesn't know why there wasn’t a pit in his stomach, usually he hates when this happens, he just doesn't want things to come to this! Why isn’t he listening?!

“ Wha-?”

“ Tell him to come back! I just want Dream; I don’t care about anything else, Techno,” Sam said.

“ Literally- literally, What do you- what do you have against Ranboo? WHY? What did he do? Why is he even in jail? I don’t understand-!”

“ Ranboo’s just my hostage…! He’s just a hostage here,” Sam said. But why was he a hostage? Sam himself didn’t seem to know. Dream had no care for the kid.

“ But why was he in jail?!” Techno demanded, internally screaming Ranboo’s innocence.

Ranboo lets go of the picture, letting it gently flutter to the ground. He gestures at Techno to take it. A shout from Dream makes Techno spin around, caught between two spiraling situations. Chose you fool which one is more important to you?

“ TECHNO! WE GOTTA GO!” Dream screams out

“ That’s really none of your business. I want Dream.”

“ NOW!” Dream yells, fighting to ward off Sapnap.

“ Dream, get over here!” Sam orders.

“ Dream! Dream, I gotta save Ranboo!” Techno yells back at Dream.

“ Dream, come on. I’ll- I- Come here, Dream!” Sam says, before holding his sword out, pointing at Ranboo. “Or he dies.”

“ Techno, he had this,” Ranboo said, growing. 

“ What?… What…?” Techno didn’t understand what was happening. But, he did. He had met Michael, he knew Michael. Wait he did….? But when?

“ BRING ME DREAM!” Sam roared.

Techno tries to approach Ranboo but stops when Bad aims his bow at his head. Ranboo’s eyes flicker down to the photograph. Techno follows his gaze. He hastily picks it up and stuffs it in his pocket. Dream loops back to him.

“ I DON’T CARE IF HE DIES! TECHNO, WE’RE GOING. NOW. GO, GO, GO!” Dream yelled.

A part of Techno was stunned to hear that from his rival, but the rest of him was just focused on his friend “ I’M NOT LEAVING HIM!” Techno screamed back.

“ I’m tired of waiting.” Sam adjusted his grip on his sword, continuing to point it at Ranboo.

Dream began to tug Techno away. “GO, TECHNO, GO!”

But Techno wouldn’t move. “I’M NOT LEAVING RANBOO!”

Dream was getting desperate. “WE GOTTA GO!”

Everything was too much: the sounds of the wither screaming as they tried to destroy the prison, the sound of the other members shouting and screeching as they attempted to stop Dream from leaving but for some reason Techno couldn’t do anything he was just frozen.

Like a fucking coward

“ I’ll- I’m gonna kill him! He’s dying! He’s going to die!” Sam called after Dream.

“ Hey, guys. Can we please stop that-?” Connor began, but backed away as Techno approached. 

“ Whose this horse? Stop, stop- I- I’m on this horse- I’m-” Dream said.

“ I am going to kill him!” 

Techno just looked up at Sam, “Sam, Sam, listen, listen. That whole keep-”

“ Technoblade, tell Dream he has to stay or he’s dead.” Sam was towering over Ranboo, completely solid in his plan. 

But that didn’t stop Techno from trying to dissuade him “Dude, Dream doesn’t care!”

“ DREAM, GET OVER HERE!”

“ Dream does not care. You have the wrong hostage! I CARE!” Techno cried out. 

“FINE!” Sam growled having enough of this does he have to do this to get people to fucking listen! “He’s dead!”

Before anything could happen there was a sudden sound of slash and everything around Techno quieted as he stared at the scene Red and green blood was dripping from Ranboo’s Chest as the sword came out from the other end.

Ranboo‘s mouth opened and closed for a moment as he looked up fear and despair appeared on his face before it went slack and he collapsed onto the floor. His eyes still staring out at Techno still pleading for help.

 “ NOOO!” Techno screams as Bad and the other members continue to yell but the only thing that Techno saw was those red and green eyes blankly staring at him. Techno just screams as he jumps onto Sam wanting to strike him down to try to ignore the voice in his head that’s just laughing at his pain. That for some reason had the audacity to use his friend's mouth against him.

This is all your fault, this is why you always lose everyone you care about. What a selfish man Who cares only for himself 

He sees Ranboo, his blank dead eyes just looking at it, mocking him. Techno barely even had a chance to do anything as he was being dragged back by someone, Phil? Nikki? Dream? screaming.

Stream ends-next:Tommyinnit encounter with Dreamwastaken

Tommy was trying not to shake at the figure in front of him. He tried to figure out how this was possible. How is he here? This is not real, this is not real! This just gotta be a bad dream.  
“ Hey Tommy.” Dream giggles as he holds up the axe of peace “Welcome back to exile! You’re back at home!” He looks at the ax, seemingly admiring the craftsmanship “Look what I have!”

“Give me that axe. That’s not yours. You can’t hold the Axe of Peace,” Tommy said, trying to get his voice to stop shaking.

Dream just shrugs “It wasn’t yours either.”

 “ Yeah, but I earned it”.

Dream just tilts his head to the side in amusement “Oh, how’d you earn it?”

He stand tall look at him in the eye and say fuck you he thought to himself as he raise his voice.
“ I earned it by fighting for- for doing the right thing, Dream…!”

His voice and merely die down as Dream takes a step close, Tommy notices how his mask seems to fuse with his face. The only thing that even shows that there’s something behind it was his growing green eyes and The bits of dark and blonde that seems to have fused with a black tar like substance.

Tommy quickly raised his shield and backed away “Stand… stand back.”

“I’m not gonna hurt you…” Dream coos. “Yet…”

“ Why… You’re meant to be in prison. It’s a top sec- You- you’re not-!”

“Okay, but I’m out. I’m out! That means I’m meant to be out. I earned it,” Dream said cheerfully as he took another step forward seemingly savoring the fear coming out of Tommy.

“You didn’t earn anything. You stole, you manipulated, you- you- you k- you killed-! Dream-! One of the last times we were here you killed me just to prove a point! You- You haven’t earned anything!” With a quick moment of his hand Tommy summoned his axe. “Stand back, alright, I’ve got my shield up.”

“Maybe I’ll kill you again!”

“Don’t- No, you won’t.”

“ And then I’ll revive you,” Dream said creeping forward “

and then I’ll kill you again”

Dream stepped closer.
“and then I’ll revive you,”  

Another step.

“and then I’ll kill you again,”

Even closer now. “and then I’ll revive you,”

If he got much closer, Dream would be touching him.

“and I’ll kill you again!

“ No, you won’t!” Tommy yelled, swinging his axe at Dream. “No, you fucking won’t!” Tommy then began to scramble back.

Dream was able to knock the blow away easily. “ Don’t hit me…” 

Why was this happening? Why was this happening?! None of this should be happening!

“Tommy, I’m going to make every day for you a living hell… on this server.”

Tommy's heart stops for a moment as he gripes the axe harder. “No, you’re not. No, you’re not!”

  “I’m not gonna let you die!” Dream giggled again, the green glow almost consuming his eyes. “I’m not gonna let you die!”

Tommy shut his eyes tightly, as if trying to wake up 

“This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening.”

 “ I can bring people back!”

“This isn’t happening…”

“ You’re living forever! You’re going to be immortal.”

Tommy’s eyes snap open. “You brought me back- But you can’t, Dream! YOU HAVE TOO MUCH POWER!”

“You’re going to be immortal just for me to fuck with you every single day, Tommy.” Dream exclaimed gleefully before switching at Tommy who managed to quickly get away.

“WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY, AND YOU HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY, DREAM!” Tommy yelled.  “You’re a bastard! You- you used the powers you have to hurt people, not for good! You’re just the big bully, alright? And this is just the school cafeteria.”

Dream’s green eyes flashed at that “ Okay”. Dream  said calmly before that sickly playful tone returns. “How about- l don’t you experience, maybe, maybe uh-” Dream cocks his head. “Maybe a thousand years of the afterlife, Tommy?”

Dream strikes Tommy with the Axe of Peace. A scream tears out of Tommy’s throat. He scrambles away, trying to block off the next attacks. 

As usual Tommy you always brought shit like this to yourself I mean what do you think would happen 

Dream remains dangerously calm.

“ Come on, why don’t you experience it? Come here, Tommy!”

“ AHH! NO! NO! HELP-” Tommy yelled as Dream managed to hit him.

“ Oh, Tommy! You wanna die?!” Dream half laughed.

Tommy took a sharp inhale, fighting off panic. “NO! NO! NO! NO!”

Dream’s laugh rings in Tommy’s ears as he turns to flee. He sprints inland, past Mexican Dream’s grave. Throwing a quick glance over his shoulder, he’s terrified to see Dream chasing him.

Okay, now Tommy was fully panicking. “ Holy crap- What the fuck- Why are you actually-?!”

“ TOMMY~!” Dream called out with a wide grin. “Are you telling me- Say hi- Say hi to, uh, JSchlatt for me, Tommy.” Dream laughed at that one.

“ No! No! No! L- Let go of me!”

Tommy tries to throw his pearl but a slash to his legs makes him tumble to the ground and roll over himself. Dream’s axe buries into the ground where he had been standing. Tommy jumps to his feet, glaring at Dream from behind his shield.

“You can’t do any of this, Dream.”

“ Tommy.” 

“ What?”

“ Who’s gonna stop me?”

Tommy stumbles backwards, drawing his own axe.

“ Who’s gonna stop me?!”

Tommy’s axe scraps over Dream’s armor, missing skin only by an inch. Tommy tries to attack him again, but Dream has his guard up. He spins around instead, resuming the chase, his breath quickening.

“ Alright, alright- You know-?!”

Dream’s voice filled with disappointment as he spoke “0Don’t fight me, Tommy. Don’t fight me.You think you can kill me? I have full netherite! I’m the most powerful man on the server!” Dream’s voice rose as he ended his bragging.

“ Dream, you can’t- You’re meant-!”

Dream cuts Tommy off “Whether you like it or not! They had to lock me up in an entire prison built just for me!”

“ How did you get out?” Tommy demanded, terror filling his voice and every inch of his body. His thoughts slowly begin to feed him the implications of what that means. Was their victory against Dream….a lie….

“ C’mon!”

“ I’ve got another pearl still,” Tommy said, throwing it.

Dream just shrugged “Alright. I have plenty of pearls. Whatever you have, I have more, Tommy.”

Tommy lands in a nearby river, breaking the surface at the same time Dream appears right in front of him. Startled, he clambers out, pushing boulders in the way. Dream easily walks past the barricades, following Tommy to a snowy tundra.

“ Woah! What the fuck’d you do?!” Tommy said, beginning to hyperventilate. “Okay. Don’t-! Leave me alone, man! Leave me alone! This isn’t fair, Dream!”

“ Oh Tommy, come here~” Dream said, his tone low.

“ You can’t- you can’t be back on the server, you can’t get away with this!”

“ Come here, Tommy~ Why not?!”

“ People are gonna know this time, Dream! They're gonna know that you did this!” Tommy called out, continuing to navigate through the snow.

Dream just rolled his eyes “No, they're not! And everyone’s gonna think I’ve changed, Tommy, while I make your life a living hell.” 

Because everyone always look down on little old Tommy, who is always the troublemaker, who is always the one who get betrayed and hurt, who is the real cause of why the server went to shit

Tommy shook his head. Why was any of this happening? Sam was meant to keep Dream in prison. Sam had promised! 

Sam always breaks his promises. Remember how he promised he’s gonna be keeping you safe yet here you are with a white streak to show his mark on you  

“ No- not- I can’t go through it again, Dream. Oh, what the fuck-?!”

“ Oh Tommy~” Dream said quietly.

A ravine opens in front of them, a deep gash in the landscape. Tommy clumsily jumps across it, latching onto the stone slope to save himself from the long fall.

“ Oh, you messed up that jump up!” Dream said, voice full of fake concern, quickly catching up to Tommy “Oh, hey Tommy… ” Tommy Suddenly found himself into darkness as Dream seem to stretch out and grab him by the store and pulled him towards his,  his wide impossible grin seem to grow even wider

“How about I kill your new little New sibling as well I mean what’s their name again~ Millie little Billy Millie thinking that she can get so close to Tommy it is not knowing that anyone who did always ends up dead.”

no no no no no no no no no no no no

At that moment, Tommy kicks Dream in the face and just continues to run as Dream continues to rant and rave about how he’s going to kill him, how he’s going to hurt everyone he loves, how no one cares about him.

He just wants to go home, how is this even possible? He’s trapped this is fucking hell this is fucking right just continue to run and hide as Dream continue to chase him for the rest of his life?!

How could things get so wrong?

All he wanted was just to hang out with his brother and nephew and Tubbo. Play around his fucking discs. How does it end up being like this, how did he end up here?! He just wants to go home.

….He just wanna go home….

…Why does everything hurt…

…He thought he saw those damn green eyes flash…

Tommy…it’s time to wake up….be free from this timeline

Tommy opened his eyes, tears streaming down from his face.

“Tommy….”

Tommy took a shaky breath as he tried to get up only to fall back down his bed, his eyes unseeing as tears continued to come down.

“Don’t cry” The voice said as a hand began to gently wipe the tears from his face.

“Wha… What?”

“You were having a bad dream.” The voice said

“Who…”

“Hannah…Webby said you were trapped.”

Tommy just weakly blinked. It was a girl, about Toby's age with two braids and a baseball cap. Despite her innocent appearance, Tommy felt a fear grip his heart. “Please don’t send me back” He begged quietly.

“We’re not,” Another voice said, this time more familiar. “I never seen those fevers last this long…”

“Steven….”

“Hey. Glad you’re awake. Hopefully that means everyone else will start waking up soon.”

“What happened?”

“You got a snapshot of what’s gonna happen in your world. Or at least what would have happened if you had stuck around,” Steven paused, humming in thought. “Or at least that’s what we think it is? You guys are different from us so who knows, maybe you all can change it?”

Tommy just shook his head “Things never changed…” His eyes widened with sudden realization at one point in the fever. “Where’s Min-!” He barely managed to croak before he began to cough.

“Minerva’s fine,” Steven said. “Everyone’s safe and sound. None of what you’ve seen has happened yet.”

“No! Dream is going to hurt her! He’ll kill her! And try to revive to kill her again just because-“ Tommy barely even had the time to finish before he just wailed in fear.

“Dream isn’t going to kill Minerva! Trust me, Minerva can hold her own, and Bugs isn’t gonna let anyone hurt his kids. Look, would it make you feel better if I see if she can come over and visit?” Steven offered, gently resting a hand on Tommy’s arm. 

Hannah smiles as a sense of calm comes to the room. “You’re safe.”

Tommy just weakly nodded “Fine…”

“Just rest you guys won’t get any more”  Hannah said “Webby said that you guys won’t get it for a while after that.”

As Steven and Hannah leave the room, Tommy just stares  up at the ceiling, remembering what had happened. Dream escaped. Sam had failed. Again. Ranboo is dead and Niki, Techno and Phil help Dream escape… Tommy wants to feel something, anger,despair, fear but…he just feels numb and hot. Tommy’s turn to his side as he heard the door open. He just hoped that would  never happen.

Chapter Text

Most of the time, when a server member got a sick day, they’re usually alone. The only people that come and visit them are friends and family. As in one or two people. So most of the server was very surprised when following their mass black out, the toons were in and out of the house taking care of them. 

“I mean, it’s very upsetting to see something like that. I mean usually when something like this happens at worst it’s like 45 minutes but almost 3 hours? You poor things.”

“We got you several different treats and such. I hope none of you guys are allergic to nuts but just in case you are, we got you some chocolate chip sugar cookies and many others. Hopefully that will help!”

“So what kind of movie do you watch? Do you have any favorites? We got a bunch of Disney movies, Road runner for some reason replaced all our other movies with his cartoons.”

“What about Space Jam?” 

“We don’t talk about that.”

It was all more than a little overwhelming for a group that’s used to being left to take care of themselves when they weren’t feeling well.

“That was a lot…” Puffy whispered as she sat next to Sam. She looked at the dozens of gift baskets and items around his table. Each one with colorful drawings and cards telling him to get well soon. “Are you doing all right Sam?”

“Shouldn’t you be checking on the others? Ranboo or Tommy?” Sam asked.

“I mean considering the fact that everyone has been surrounding those two, it’s a lot harder than you think,” Puffy let out a nervous laugh. “I mean I never saw them this concerned for us… personally I thought they hate us.”

Sam just hummed, reaching over to pick up one of the cards. Hey Sam, I heard what happened and I’m sorry for what happened in there, but just know that that  version of you doesn’t represent who you are in your heart, despite what many might have said. I hope things will get better!

Sincerely Judy Hopp + Nick Wilde

Sam just stared at the card for a moment trying to hold back the tears in his eyes. 

“Sam….”

“ I never wanted that…” Sam whispered “… I never want to kill him…” 

“And you haven’t. Ranboo is alive. Ghostbur is still here.”

“But it is still my actions…” Sam curled up into a ball as he let out what sounded to be distressed clicks. “ The worst part is that I could understand what led that- like- I just want them to just listen in for a plan for once to fucking work! I didn’t know that he didn’t have any more lives. I didn't know that he wouldn’t… I just know that he got involved with Dream, why did he…”

“I don’t know,” Puffy said, resting a gentle hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I don’t know.”

There was a knock at the door as what seemed to be a nurse stepped in.

“Are you Mr. Sam?”

“Yeah,” Sam said. “What do you want?”

“I'm here to talk to you. I'm the hospital's therapist and they recommend that I come in and check on you.” The woman steps out to reveal a woman with brown hair that has bits of gray and grayish green eyes “So Ms. Puffy, if it's OK with you, can I have some alone time with him?”

“Yeah, sure.” Puffy stood up. “I’ll be back to talk to you later Sam.”

Sam weakly waves at her as Puffy closes the door leaving him alone with the woman.

He stared at her for a moment before sighing “What do you want?”

“I'm here to help you.”

“Help me? With that?” Sam asked.

The woman gave him an eerie smile. “Everything especially your guilt I see that you have so much regret in you~”

Sam looks away from her annoyed “You already heard about what happened… listen I just wanna be a-”

Before Sam could continue he ended up staring at her eyes which seemed to change into a light shade of blue. “Are you going to reject me, Sam? Are you going to reject a chance of full redemption and perfection?”

“I…” Sam felt his throat closing up as he continued to look the woman in the eyes, unable to tear his gaze away. “I don’t…”

“Everything will be OK Sam, just trust me… It’s unfortunate what you have seen, but that’s what happens when you don’t strive for the best self that you become… The best self that you imagine was merely a rabid dog... not the perfect warden like you seek…”

Sam just nodded. She’s right. He saw the person that he was in that vision? Prophecy? He didn’t do the right thing. His actions didn’t lead to Dream coming back to jail, it just led to an innocent person dying and Tommy being in danger again, everyone being in danger… and it’s all because of him.

“How…?” He whispered “Tell me what I have to do…”

The woman smiles as she closes the door as she puts up the do not disturb sign. “It will take us a few minutes, don’t worry~”

“Minerva you’re crushing me.” Tommy coughed as the girl squeezed him tightly, her  wing seemingly covering him.  

“I’m sorry, but it just sounds so awful Tommy!”Minerva said with worry creeping up her face.

“I mean, it wasn’t pleasant. But I’m a big  man, I can handle it.” Tommy said, but he could tell with the look in Minerva’s eyes that she doesn’t believe him.

“Do I have to kill him?” Minerva asked.

“I mean…” Tommy said.

“I could if you want to, I mean forcing you to kill him yourself is awful, and I could do it.” Minerva‘s eyes turned red as she thought about each of the terrible things Dream has done to Tommy.  “I got some skills, and that I can stab him! Or I can  carry him up to the tree so high and then make him fall! Or I can create an Infinite Plinko!”

“Sweet prime that’s intense,” Tommy said, eyes widening.

Minerva‘s grin widened “Well an asshole like that deserves the most intense punishment. Oh, so it’s scientifically proven that if in pieces then they can’t come back after you burn them!”

“Is it? I don’t know much about science. That’s more Tubbo and Sam’s thing.” Tommy frowned at the mention of the creeper hybrid.

“Is there anything you want me to do with Sam as well?” Minerva frowns a bit as she thinks about it. “He’s a bit more difficult. He's a bastard like you said but not like Dream like…Kuvira!”

“Who? Who’s Kuvira?”

“Oh yeah you are not from those areas…” Minerva raises her hands as she explains a story.  “She wanted peace where she came from, but the way she did it was very wrong. She nearly took over the earth kingdom and created a super weapon that hurts a lot of people, but Korra managed to stop her. She has very good intentions and she does care about some people but the way she went about it was wrong and she ended up hurting people in the process…”

Tommy nodded. “What are you suggesting for Sam?”

Minerva let out confused coos. “I don’t know… maybe two hours in the Plinko to think about what he did... but the problem is that with the exception of the Dreams he hasn't really done anything wrong yet… at least not involving what happened to you.”

“Can we punish people for things they did in dreams?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

Tommy sighed as he looked out of the window. 

 Tommy, do you hate him?” Minerva asked “Do you hate Sam?”

“I don’t know.”

“How much do you think it was his fault? Because Sam was an idiot but there were other players in the mix that’s kind of the reason why I was a bit reluctant. I kind of want to send Phil,  Techno and Nikki to my Plinko this time for a couple weeks to months depending on my mood.”

“I don’t hate them.”

Minerva tilted  head at that “Why not? they’re the ones who freed Dream in the first place.”

“It’s complicated.”

Minerva leans towards him. “What do you mean that it’s complicated? I mean it seems pretty straightforward to me. They broke him out, Sam fucked up with Security along with his guards and killed your friend, Dream hurt you…”

“Oh don’t get me wrong. I hate that green bastard with a fiery passion. But Sam, Techno, even Phil and Niki, they were my friends once upon a time.”

“Friends don’t hurt each other like that… Friends don’t free their friend’s abusers from prison… and friends don’t kill their friend’s friends.”

“I don’t know. I mean, I haven’t exactly told everyone about what Dream did to me in exile. I have trouble talking about it.”

Minerva slowly nods at that “I get it…. But they still know that he is trouble and would hurt so many people…. Yet they still did it, why?”

“Like I said, it’s complicated. I’m angry at the idea of Techno doing that, but…” Tommy sighed. “I guess I just don’t want to believe that they’d do those things. Any of them…”

There was a moment of silence, Minerva sat there trying to process it “ “most of the time those things actually happen… and usually when people get back home they usually get stuck in the positions that they were meant to be from… I don’t want you to go back just to be scared again… I don’t want anyone to hurt you just out of some preconceived notion of who you are or because they just want to…” Minerva looks away “Especially if they are supposed to love you as family.”

“In that case I don’t think putting Sam, Techno, Phil, or Niki in the plinko is gonna do anything.”

Minerva stared at her hands “You don’t think so?”

“Not if we’re just gonna end up stuck in the path you’re trying to punish them for.”

Minerva stood still before she nodded, “So what do you think is the best course?”

“I don’t know. Hope we can find a way to prevent it all from happening?”

Minerva leans next to him “ I guess so… just promise me you’re not gonna get hurt and if you need anything and they can’t provide for you… I'm here…”

“Thanks Min.”

Minerva smiled before she saw a woman pass by and there was an odd feeling about her like something radiating in emotion. Minerva heard Tommy say something but she just absentmindedly nodded as she placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“I’ll be right back Tommy. I need to check this out,” she said reassuringly as she got up and began to follow the woman. She barely could hear Tommy telling her goodbye as she walked behind the woman. She had to, no…she needed to find out who she is. As Minerva continued to walk forward, the woman took what seems to be a passing glance behind her before sharply turning towards one of the doors and slamming it shut, putting up a barrier between her and Minerva.  She quickly followed her through, but looking around the woman was nowhere to be seen. “Huh,” Minerva said as she looked around the room. “Where did she go?”

Techno stared at the gift basket and get well soon cards on his desk and he felt bile come up from his throat. He doesn’t know how to feel about it. If the toons have given them the type of gift at one point, he would have disregarded these trinkets as something to tempt him to the side of the government or just the toons being weird again. But this time a part of him doesn’t even feel like he deserves these items. Not after what happened. Techno holds himself trying not to remember what happened, trying not to remember the sickening sound of the slice and trying not to remember the blank eyes of Ranboo just staring at him. Techno covers up a sob as he covers himself in a blanket. How to even talk to anyone in the state? He is supposed to be the mighty Technoblade, not a pathetic sad sack.

“Hey, Techno.”

Techno groans as he grip his blanket tighter and just as he thought that his day is at its peak at the worst day of his life.  He pull his head out of the blanket to see Scarlet holding a fruit basket. 

“How are you doing? I heard about the whole three hour vision thing.”

“Fine.”

“You sure don’t sound it.”

“I’m. Fine.”

“You know, you don’t have to pretend to be okay when you’re not. I’ve heard a bunch of stuff… and I have seen Ranboo…”

Techno looks away from her. “Are you here to fucking taunt me or something tell me that you’re not surprise that I would cause the death of a friend.”

“It wasn’t your fault though. You didn’t stab him, how would it be your fault?”

“I was supposed to protect him, he was under my protection.”

“You’re only one person, Technoblade. You can’t stop everything.”

Techno almost threw himself up in anger “ “I’m supposed to be one of the strongest people out on the server, like, people fear me! I managed to destroy nations, decimate armies, and was one of the strongest people to play at MCC! It’s my reputation that keeps the ones that I love saved and guess what? As it turns out it means nothing!”

Scarlett blink for a few times before grabbing his hand. “Well maybe you don’t have to be the biggest nightmare that people fear. You can be just Techno.”

“You’re very optimistic.”

“Or maybe you’re just pessimistic. You’re only one man Technoblade. Even if you’re a strong one, you’re still just one.”

Techno just glared at her, “I don’t get you… like you’re one of the most annoying people here, yet at the same time you are concerned for us. Like you’re just like your dad. It’s just pick one, do you hate me or do you think that I’m cool?!”

“I don’t hate you Techno. And for what it matters, I don’t think Dad does either. We care about you guys.” 

“Then why do you get upset at us?!” Techno yelled.

“Because you keep doing things that hurt us and others? We can care about you and get mad at you, you know?”  Scarlett yelled back. “I mean do you not know how that works? I can still get upset at you and still want you safe and healthy…” Scarlett slapped her head.  “God, I shouldn’t yell, you're still going through that shit so you’re just probably lashing out because of that…” 

Techno just rolled his eyes. “I don’t need any of that… I don’t need a pity party…”

Scarlett just sighed again. “You’re not gonna let us try to help you, are you? Are you at least gonna listen about getting therapy?”

Techno sat there silently. “Technically yes…” 

Scarlet blinked in surprise as he continued.

“I mean, I wasn’t meant to get there, but I went to a session with Tubbo and Ranboo, and it helped and I was calm for a bit and that was before the whole stream happened…”

“Well if that helped, maybe go see her again?”

Techno nodded. “I guess so… I just… I just don’t often trust others to keep their word...”

“I mean if she ends up lying to you you can always like, find a new therapist,” Scarlett pointed out. “It’s not like once you find one you have to stick with that one for the rest of eternity.”

Techno just weakly smiles “I guess… Can I ask a question.”

“Sure”

“It’s about the others. Is Ranboo ok… same with Phil and Nikki?”

“I think so. Ranboo’s a bit shaken by what happened, but we’re doing our best to help everyone recover.”

“That's good, it's just… I just don’t get it.”

“Get what?”

“… Like Ranboo shouldn’t be in his last life… what even happened…”

Ranboo tried to take a deep breath as he held Michael tightly. He’s alive, he’s alive, what happened back there wasn’t real, It’s just a vision he didn’t get stabbed by Sam. He didn’t die, Michael was in his arms, he didn’t see Dream with a smirk as he carried TNT to the prison.

Michael looks up to him worriedly as Ranboo continues to breathe heavily, tears threatening to come out of his eyes, causing steam to come out of his face. 

“Dad, are you OK…”

“Yeah, yeah I’m okay, Michael. I’ll be okay,” Ranboo said.

Tubbo entered the room, his hair only revealing bits of his eyes which looked almost numb as he sat down next to him. There were a couple moments of uncomfortable silence before Ranboo decided to speak up. 

“Tubbo, how are you doing?”

“I just visited Tommy, he's OK…..Minerva is a bit protective.” Tubbo said quietly. 

Rambo and Michael Look at Tubbo worriedly as he just sits there silently, Michael crawls towards his papa and hugs him.

“Michael, what are you doing?”

“I’m trying to make you feel better.”

“It’s all right Michael, I’m fine… I just don’t know how to feel right now…”

“Tubbo… I'm okay. What happened there was just a Dream it was…” 

“It was supposed to be what happened,” Tubbo whispered.

“Yeah but it didn’t work-”

“Ranboo!” Tubbo cried out. “I-it’s just… you died and Michael was taken and I didn’t even know it until hours later… My best friend was put in danger and I didn’t even know…”

Tubbo looked away from Ranboo. “I should have paid attention to the signs!”

“Tubbo there were no signs it was just like a freak accident!”

“But still! That shouldn’t have never happened, you shouldn’t have been hurt! Michael shouldn't have been kidnapped!” Tubbo yelled. 

“Dad, you gotta calm down… I’m right here” Michael said, hugging him tighter.

“We’re right here Tubbo,” Ranboo said, putting a hand on Tubbo’s shoulder. 

“Still. Having to experience all that even if it was just a dream…” Tubbo sighed, leaning against Ranboo’s side. “The things I’d like to do to Sam right now…” he growled. 

“But Sam didn’t do that. At least, he didn’t do all of that. I’m still angry at Sam as everyone else over what happened before, but he didn’t… but he didn’t kill me or take Michael.”

“ Also Why would Uncle Sam hurt me?” Michael asked.

“I don’t know Michael, I don’t know,” Ranboo said. 

“How are you feeling?” Dr. Maheswaren asked, opening the door. 

“I'm all right, I’m just hanging out with my family.”

“Okay, I’m just checking since these types of visions usually cause high fevers and stress.”

“Well we all already had a lot of stress,” Ranboo said, forcing a laugh.

Dr. Maheswaren looked at him and nodded. “I'm wondering if you guys have any other symptoms to report on and how long has this been happening before this?”

“I’m pretty sure for both of us, this has been our first weird dream like that. Definitely our first black out,” Tubbo said. “As for symptoms, not really. Still kind of mad at Sam for what he did in the vision or dream or whatever it was, but I think that’s just me.”

“Understandable,” Dr. Maheswaren said.  “It’s common to have a lot of emotions after something like that, especially if it’s from someone who hurt you or someone that they care about.”

“Yeah so how did this happen like the whole vision thing why does it happen….? I get that it’s like the possible future but why?”

“I’ll admit I don’t think anyone knows entirely why it happens. Something to do with the inkwell? Sorry I can’t give a more solid answer.”

Tubbo tilted his head “But we’re not part of the inkwell.”

“But you’re in town, and all of town is made out of ink, so it will likely still have some effect on you all.”

“Like how? I don’t think we are ‘ink…’ Plus what’s even the point of the inkwell doing this? I mean I guess you don’t know, but doesn't anyone get theories?”

“I’m sure someone does but I’ll admit I’m not entirely up to date on any of those,” Dr Maheswaren said. “You’ll have to ask someone else for any solid theories.”

“Fine…” Tubbo mutter

 “So where is Sam? I haven't seen him all day…” Ranboo said, “Then again, I’m not surprised he will be in his room all day.”

“Yeah. Tubbo isn’t the only one angry at Sam for what happened in those visions,” Dr Maheswaren said. “I'll go check on him. Press the button if you need anything, OK?”

Dr Maheswaren walks towards Sam’s door as it opens with one of the nurses coming out. “Oh, doctor! I did not see you there~”

“Yes, who are you?”

“Oh my name is Dr. Fine.”

“Dr. Fine? I don’t recognize that name, are you a new hire?”

The woman nodded “Yes, Madame. I was here to check with Sam. He was distressed for a bit but I made him better…”

Dr Maheswaren just raised an eyebrow. “I see. Well if you’ll excuse me I’d like to talk to Mr Awesamdude myself.”

“All right, Madame…”  Dr.Fine walks away, a small smile appearing on her face.

Dr.Maheswaran Took a deep breath as her heart finally stopped. Why does she feel scared… it’s just a new hire, I mean what’s so scary about her? She knocks at the door.

“Mr. Awesamdude…?  But no one replies. 

Maheswaren raised her eyebrow “Awesamdude… Sam?”

After a moment of voice finally comes up. 

“You can come in…”

“Are you okay?” Dr Maheswaren asked, opening the door. “I know Dr Fine said you were stressed about something.”

Sam was looking out the window holding what seemed to be a flower… A Black rose. “ Yeah, but she made me feel better. She talked to me about what happened and then she had to go…”

“I see. And you’re saying you’re feeling better now?”

Sam gives her a soft smile. “Yes….”

“Well, besides stress, are you noticing any other symptoms from the black out? Any fever or anything?”

Sam continued to stare at the rose barely even listening to her.

“Sam…”

“Mild fever,” Sam answered. “but it’s nothing…”

“Sam, are you sure you’re okay? You’re not acting like yourself.”

Sam just smiled again at her and she felt that odd feeling that she felt when meeting with Dr. Fine. As if something was off about Sam but for the first time she felt something familiar about it.

“Did Minerva visit you earlier? Before Dr. Fine? Or with her?”

Sam shook his head. “I…” Sam automatically twitches for the first time she notices that his dark green eyes seem to become a bluish color for a while before changing into a light green. “Minerva did it for a couple minutes, and then she said goodbye….”

“I see,” Dr Maheswaren said. “Did she say anything?”

Sam tilted his head as if in thought. “Keep an eye on me. She was worried about Tommy, and she was thinking about creating a…Pilko….”

“Right, I'll need to talk to her later. And possibly Bugs. Sam, I’m going to be entirely upfront with you, are your species’ eyes supposed to change color?”

Sam shook his head. “I don’t think so? But possible.”

Dr Maheswaren hummed. “And you’re positive you’re feeling okay? No dizziness or fever or anything?”

Sam glared at her. “ I. am. fine.” He growled out his eyes turning a bright orange.

“Okay…” Dr Maheswaren said, backing up. “I’m gonna go talk to one of the others, you just rest.”

Sam’s eyes finally turned back to the light blue as he blankly smiled at her. “I hope you have a wonderful day.”

Dr. Maheswaran smiled before turning to leave the room, gently closing the door, before frowning.

“Okay, that was weird.”

“Hey, Miss Maheswaren! How are you doing” Minerva said, passing by her.

“Well enough. Minerva, did you say or do anything to Sam when you were visiting him earlier?”

Minerva looked at her confused “No…why…”

“He was acting weird when I was talking to him…” Dr Maheswaren said. “If it wasn’t you… Hmmm I’ll have to ask if anyone else has run into this ‘Dr Fine’ woman who talked to him before me.”

Minerva tilted her head. “You mean that weird woman who passed by me…”

“Possibly. Did you see where she went?”

“She went out the door from the hospital. She felt weird to me and I tried to follow her but she was too quick….” 

“Hmmm,” Dr Maheswaren frowned. “Something tells me that woman isn’t actually a new hire. I’d still like to talk to one of the other server members to see if some of the things I noticed with Sam are strange or normal for him. Do you know where Puffy is? I’d rather not stress out any of the server members still recovering.”

Minerva nodded, “Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on Tommy. And let’s just be careful, because something odd is happening and I don’t like…”

“Agreed.”

Chapter Text

“You have to admit, Dreamy, despite that little bump in the road for them with the whole stream of your jailbreak, they seem to be really willing to see me. I mean, then again, compared to you, I managed to help them!” Madden said happily as Dream sat on the bed, his arm still chained to the pipe. 

“What exactly are you planning to do to them?” Dream growled out. He’s fucking tired of this shit, and his arm is fucking hurting.

“I’m going to make them better.” Madden said cheerfully. “I even talked to Sam. He is so delightful, once you get through his little shell.”

“Sam? Delightful?” Dream said. “You have worse taste than I thought.”

Madden raised her eyebrows. “I thought that you were friends with Sam. Don’t you remember the times where he seems happy or decent or actually has something in his mind that is not my fault?”

Dream just rolled his eyes behind his mask, facing away from Madden. “Why are you even down here? Just to gloat?”

Madden raised her eyebrow “Well I thought that you’ll be interested in the progress of your server. I mean can’t a doctor explain the progress of their patients to someone who cares about their health? Don’t you care about your server’s health?”

“They’re fine. They don’t need your help.”

Madden tilted her head. “Why not?”

“Because we don’t? My server was doing just fine until you showed up and dragged us away from our home. If you really wanted to help us, you’d send us back.”

Madden strurugged “Considering the fact that your entire server had a mental breakdown the moment that they have seen those streams,  I would hazard a guess that your server is not okay. I mean what makes you even think that you’re gonna be OK after everything you have done? What do you think that just pretending with a happy smile would make everything bad go away?”

“I had everything under control. Everything that happened on the server went exactly as I planned it.”

“Well what’s going on in your server now? I mean you guys have been away for like almost 3 to 4 weeks… then again the Minecraft world time could be different from here… For all we know, you’ve all been away for years.”

“I don’t know. You’re the one who dragged us here lady, why didn’t you think about that?”

Madden rolls her eyes. “I'm merely a human,Dream. I am not an omnipotent god. You seem to think that people around you should be omnipotent. I wonder why?”

“You’re the one asking about what’s going on back home, as if it’s my fault I’m not there.”

“I’m just asking because I’m just wondering what could happen without you. Would your server do? Would everyone have to work together to keep it safe? Would the admins coming investigate?

Dream’s eyes widened at the realization that the other admins would likely come to investigate. What would Styx do to the server members remaining if he found out everything that happened? Was there anyone back home

“I’m not very surprised if a server as imperfect as yours would’ve been destroyed,” Madden continued casually as if not explaining an awful concept of any inhabitants considered dangerous would’ve been killed. “Unless some are considered too useful, which case, They would be sent to their stupid little academy…”

“No. No,” Dream muttered under his breath 

“Why are you so upset? I thought that the admins are so kind~” Madden questioned, kneeling in front of him.  “Plus it’s rare for something like that to happen.”

“They’ll kill us all!” Dream suddenly jumped up scared.

“What makes you think that they will kill you all? I saw some of them and they looked so happy especially the Captain, he look so wonderful with his little family-”

“You stole his son! He’s not gonna be very happy when he arrives to find his son gone!”

Madden laughed. “Come on, he seems so nice; he barely even swears for calling out loud…” She sat down next to Dream, who tried to weakly squirm to get away. “I mean, what awful things have you done to get you to fear such a man?”

“He’s killed people, lady! He’s the flipping Styx, everyone with a brain fears him!”

“But then why would you hurt his son? Surely with someone with that type of reputation, why risk someone like Tubbo?”

“Well I didn’t know he was Styx's son when I invited him! Plus I didn’t even do most of the shit to hurt him. I wasn’t actually gonna kill him, it was just a joke to get at Tommy!”

Maddens raises her eyebrow. “Wait, so are you going to kill Tubbo and lock Tommy up, or are you going to not kill him and just force Tommy to give up his discs? How does that work?”

“I was just trying to teach Tommy a lesson. You know, the kid kept blowing stuff up, destroying other people’s builds;I was just trying to help him learn better. Threatening Tubbo was just a way to do that,” Dream said.

Maddens quietly nodded. “Didn’t you and your mother blow up other people's stuff? To frame Tommy?”

Dream just froze up. “I mean. He had done it previously. Yeah, you know but Tubbo wouldn’t listen to me when I said there was a problem-”

But Madden interrupted him. “But you just admitted that you have been framing him and Tommy didn’t do any more of that, right? Like when did he stop doing that? And when did you begin to frame him?”

There was a moment of silence as Dream just stared at her. “Dream” Madden said, her voice raising a bit. “When did he stop and when did you begin to frame him?”

Dream jumped at that. 

“I- I don’t know- if he sort of stopped around Pogtopia… After Manberg….?”

Madden just glares at him, her eyes narrowing as red comes to her eyes. “Dream, are you telling me that you’re punishing him for something that he has stopped for almost how many months?” She said quietly. 

“Well he blew up George’s house and that was him!”

Madden held her hand up. “No no no, that is an exception. I mean like before you frame him? When?”

“You can’t just-”

Madden just pressed her face against his face.

“When?”

Dream shut his mouth and just glared at her. “Why would you even care what happened!”

Madden narrows her eyes as she suddenly slam her hand against the pipe causing it to shake and pull against Dream’s arm. He presses his lips together not to let out a whine or scream. “Don’t you fucking DARE raise your voice at me.”  Madden said calmly punching against the pipe, causing it to rattled. She quickly grabbed Dream’s arms as she stared at him. “ Dream, I don’t want to discipline you. I want the truth. The full truth, not whatever half bakes lies that you can make up on the spot.”

“He went against my control. Him and his dang brother-”

Madden slammed her hand against the pipe causing that painful jolt to come for his arm again. “You didn’t answer my question. When?”

“I told you, before the L’Manberg revolution. He kept griefing stuff. Him and Sapnap stole all my stuff. And then he and his brother claimed part of the server as their own. Part of my server.”

Madden raised her eyebrow as she put her hand down. “And how many months was that?”

“I don’t know. Like one or two?”

“ One or two what?” Madden's hand shot out and it tightened her grip on his arm.

“Months. You’re the one who said months.”

“ That also means ‘how long have you been there’, since it’s your fault not understanding my questions? I say how long and when not how many months.”

“He’d only been there like two years when you dragged us here.”

“I find it odd that you would frame him for something that he hasn't done for a while and your server just believes you? Not even a question?”

“Like I said, he’d built up a reputation. People were expecting him to get back to his old antics.”

“He's a teenager, he's supposed to grow out of them, not have it forced out of  him. Otherwise it’s not very healthy, and all you’re doing is fucking with a impressionable mind, especially one as interesting as him.”

“Exile wasn’t that bad.”

Maddens giggled At the absurdity of the statement.  “He nearly jumped off of a tower to kill himself. Could you imagine one of the admins coming over and seeing that little display? You are already scared. Imagine what would’ve happened if ‘Styx’ Found out…” She smirks as she notices the almost worried look on Dream’s face. “He was very suspicious the last time you guys had MCC…. December 12th, I believe…”

Dream could remember the events clearly how quiet Tommy has been, when he’s not perfectly masking it with his smile, the way Tubbo barely even talks to Tommy unless necessary and the Captain’s questions towards him during the breaks. 

“I just wonder if it wasn't even all worth it. The only reason why you succeed in the world is because no one cares. No one cares about you or your server…. It’s almost sad.”

Dream growled as he attempted to pull out the chain again. “I will end you…”

Madden rolled her eyes. “I'm sure you will.”

And at that moment, it struck at 3 o’clock as Madden jumped up from her seat.

“Oh, I got to go Dreamy,” Madden called as she grabbed a black coat.

“What are you doing?”

She gave him a smile. “Well I have to visit some patients. I mean a lady had to look her best when helping.” She showed herself off wearing a nice brown dress and pink high heels that complement the black coat.

Dream just rolled his eyes. “ I thought you were supposed to be a doctor.”

“And I thought you’re supposed to be a good admin.”

And with that, she slammed the door causing some of the items in the rooms to rattle including the pipe. Dream let out a moan as it continued to rattle against him he instinctively pulled it back causing it to move forward. Dreams' eyes widened as he pulled at the pipe as it continued to loosen. He let out a laugh as he grinned. 

Fucking finally.

“Are every single one of you guys feeling better?” 

The server nodded, voicing their affirmation.

“No other symptoms? Or any sudden side effects?” 

“Nope, I think we’re all good mate,” Phil said. 

The red haired nurse looked over the checklist and smiled. “All right you guys will be free to go but you guys have to be more careful…”

“What do you mean by ‘be careful’? I mean it just happened,” Fundy said. 

“Yes but stuff like that doesn't happen often, unless under specific circumstances.”

“I mean, we were kind of ganging up on Sam when he passed out, so maybe less screaming at each other?” Puffy suggested.

“Maybe, but anything that also triggered it? What were you screaming about?”

“How much of a dick he is,” Niki said.

Sam surprisingly doesn’t look upset at that, his blue eyes just glancing at Niki from a moment.

“Anything more specific than that? Because if it’s about that I doubt that in the entire group would’ve been knocked out?”

“We were talking about the other weird dreams people had been having, and I think everyone got a bit stressed out when Sam suddenly passed out with no warning,” Puffy said.

The nurse told her head as she took out several pieces of paper. “Maybe you guys should write it down.”

The server just stared at the paper.

“What the heck is that for?” Tommy asked

“Goofy suggested that you should write down all the stuff that happens in your dreams and then send it to them by the end of the week since you guys are still in recovery.”

“Is that necessary?” Technoblade asked.

“It might help us figure out what happened and how to prevent it from happening again.”

“Or at the very least if something like this happens again the damage will be minimal.”

Puffy sighed as she grab the paper “We will”

“OK, do you need any help with bringing any stuff to your home.”

“We’ve got it.” 

“All right I hope you have a good day” The nurse said as she walked out of the room leaving the server in the room to grab all their gifts.

“So, is anyone considering writing everything down?” Puffy asked.

Most of the server stared at Puffy for a moment before shaking their heads.

“we’re not gonna write about our feelings Puffs.” Ghlatt groans

“Didn’t think so. Are you sure? I mean if it stops this from happening again, wouldn’t it be worth it?”

“I mean you saw how some of them reacted to some of the stuff revealed…”

Tommy said “Plus Minerva wants to put a lot of people in the Plinko…”

“That… does not sound pleasant,” Foolish said.

“I don’t think so either… I mean she didn’t really explain it before she went out to follow some random woman…”

“A random woman?” 

Tommy gave Tubbo a look. “I don’t know, she just followed her and then she walked back saying that she couldn’t find her and just stayed for the rest of the time before Bugs picked her up.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing to be worried about,” Sam said as he stared out the window of the room.

“Yeah right, since when do you make any decent decisions…” Phil muttered.

Sam just continued to look at the window as if that didn’t bother him. “I know that I’m imperfect, but I hope that I can change myself. I am not a savage you know…”

Puffy frowned. “Of course not,” Puffy said, sounding uncertain. “Anyway, does everyone have everything?”

Tubbo showed off the amount of gift baskets and souvenirs in his arm. “ I believe so.”

“Great, let’s go.”

The server walked out of the door carrying each of the gift baskets and get well soon cards in their hands, looking forward, trying to ignore the side eyes and whispers in the corridors. 

“Tommy, are you gonna be alright?'' Minerva said as she stood next to Scarlett and Toby. “Same with you two?”  she said this time directed towards Tubbo and Ranboo.

“We’ll be okay. We’ve been through rough shit before.”

Minerva just stared at the rest of the server “Huh. And all you guys promised that you guys are not going to hurt each other right…?”

“ Min…” Toby said quietly, “That’s not a good time to say that.”

“We’ll behave,” Sam said quietly. Puffy and Foolish just glanced over at him, frowning.

“Good, otherwise I’ll send a lot of people to the plinko.” 

“Minerva, we told you multiple times that it is not viable” Scarlett replied deadpan, before turning towards the server. “Listen, just rest… don’t do anything stupid.”

“When have we ever done anything stupid?” Technoblade asked. “Besides that one time.”

Scarlett rolls her eyes “ Just don’t.” she said bluntly.

“Well that went well,” Jack said, looking at a card, and covering his eyes. “I mean it’s a lot but at the very least it’s over.”

“Hopefully,” Tubbo said. “I really don’t want another mass blackout session.”

 “Well it seems like we made a lot of friends,” Michael said. “They gave us all presents!”

“I mean, that could just mean welcome or something.”

Michael tilted his head “But why now to do so?”

Ranboo nervously looks at Tubbo as if asking for help. But He quickly stopped himself as he quickly turned away. “ Well they might just be a bit late with the presents…” he said with a nervous smile.

“Getting a bunch of presents together for so many people can take time, that might have delayed them,” Puffy said gently.

“Ok” Michael chirped as Sam open the door 

“You can all go first…” Sam said quietly.

The server filtered in, most ignoring Sam, though Puffy, Foolish, and Quackity all threw Sam concerned looks.

Sam closed the door as he walked upstairs, ignoring everyone. Ranboo waits a moment before quickly following holding Michael Who yawns.

Puffy sighed, watching Sam go, frown on her face.

“Everything okay Captain Pussy?”

“Well enough Tommy,” Puffy said, forcing a smile.

Tommy look at Puffy for a moment a worriedexpression on his face appeared. “are you OK from the whole-”

”Tommy!” Ghostbur interrupted happily “look at this new toy they got me!” In his arms was a blue sheep doll that seems to be handstitch by someone “One of the girls give it to me and it look like friend.”

“That’s pog!” Tommy exclaims as he turned around to look at it.

Quackity took that moment to tap on her shoulder. “Hey Puffy, can you please help me with something upstairs? I mean I got a lot of baskets and I want to put them somewhere.”

“Yeah, sure, but why not ask Sapnap or Karl?” Puffy asked. 

But Quackity gave her a look .“I’d rather it be you…” his tone changing is something else a lot graver.

“Sure, lead the way,” Puffy said, letting Quackity go upstairs ahead of her.

“Okay so I’m guessing this isn’t about the baskets?” Puffy said quietly once they were upstairs away from prying ears.

“ No. I mean, have you noticed how odd Sam is acting… I mean…” Quackity groans “Am I the only one who is just a bit frustrated about the way everyone’s been treating him? I mean Tommy I get it, same with Ranboo, but everyone else…”

“I understand. Foolish is concerned as well. Right now though I’m more concerned with how he’s acting. I mean, I don’t know about you but I don’t think Sam’s eyes are supposed to change color like that.”

“Same. I’ve been with Sam for years and not even once his eyes change color…. I mean did you notice anything weird happening when you were with him…”

“There was this one woman claiming to be the hospital’s therapist who asked to talk to him. I think that’s when he started acting weird. I mean prior to that he was stressed out and upset by what he had seen in that dream or vision or whatever it was, but he wasn’t acting like this.”

Quackity hummed as he knocked at the door “And didn’t Tommy mention Minerva following some strange woman…?”

“He did. Think they’re the same person?”

“Possibly, I mean the fact that Minerva even felt anything weird about her when she’s very used to some of the weird shit here says a lot.”

“Yeah,” Puffy said. “She looked sort of familiar though…” Puffy tries to remember the woman but everything about her is very fuzzy and so wrong. She groans as the memory gets more fuzzy except the one thing that sticks out: the smile the woman shows as if excited. Puffy‘s eyes widened with realization “Wait Quackity do you know if any of those fliers we were getting constantly thrown at us are still laying around?”

“ I think of you but I think most of us throw those away…

Before Quackity could answer Sam opened the door. His eyes were gray and the phone was in his ear, his face was blank as listening to some far off tone

“Hi Dad, need anything?” Quackity asked, “Everything going alright?”

Sam ignores it as he walks back to the room still listening to the conversation.

“Umm, Sam, everything alright?” Puffy asked, walking over to him gently.

Sam then holds the phone out for Puffy, his gray eyes seemingly turning back to their dark green tone. “It’s for you, captain.”

“Oh, I see,” Puffy said, unable to help but feel anxious as she took the phone from Sam. Sam just stared at her as he nodded and walked towards the other end of the room as Quackity watched nervously watch Puffy.

“Hello?” She asked, holding the phone up to her ear.

Captain Puffy I presume~

“Who is this?”

Suddenly there was a buzzing coming out of the phone and everywhere as the woman answered. Sam thought of me as Dr.Fine, but that was just the name that I used temporarily. I just explained to him that my real name is Dr.Madden.

“You… What did you do to him?! What did you do to Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo?!” Puffy cried out as the buzzing continued to filled head the woman giggling, Everything will be OK~

Puffy begins to shake, Learning out a silent scream as the buzzing begins to overwhelm everything as the woman continues to speak, telling her to calm herself down and just to listen to her.

Quackity’s eyes widened as he attempted to reach for the phone only for Sam to grab his arm.

“What?! Sam?! What are you doing?! Let me go! Sapnap! Foolish!!” But much to Quackity‘s horror the door was closed and there was a chair against the door.

 “It's gonna be fine. She just wanna talk,” Sam said monotonically as Puffy suddenly went silent. Quackity would hear some of the buzzing and some of the words that were being said.

-I can help you make up for all your mistakes, Puffy. Everything involving your little duckling-

“Puffy! Whatever she’s saying, don’t listen to her! Sam let me go!! SAPN-!”

But Sam quickly covered his mouth as Puffy set the phone down and turned towards Quackity. Her bright green eyes showed the same grey tone as Sam.

Quackity struggled against Sam’s grip, but was unable to do anything against Sam’s strength. Puffy walked towards him as she just stared at him, holding the phone, not caring that the bottom half fell off the shelf causing it to be dragged by the cord.

“The good doctor wants to see you now.”

Quackity tried to scream as Puffy pressed the phone up his ear and the buzzing spread to him, Consuming him, Taunting him as it poke In his head as if studying him. Quackity tried to scream again but….

Are you Quackity?

He just listens as his arms drop to his side.

Sapnap pound at the door as Karl and Foolish stand alongside him, looking just as worried.

“Quackity what’s going on?! Quackity?!” 

When there was no response Sapnap tried to open the door. When that failed, Sapnap backed up, before slamming into the door, shoulder first, knocking the door open only to see Puffy, Sam, and Quackity all standing around with empty expressions on their faces Staring at a phone.

“Q? Babe?” Karl asked quietly, stepping into the room.

“Papa?”

“What’s going on? Babe why were you screaming?” 

All three snap their heads towards the group in sync

“Uhhh, guys?” Sapnap asked.

“The good doctor would like to speak to you,” the three said in unison, voices void of any emotion, the door closing behind them.

Maddens let out a sigh  as she went down to the basement. God she shouldn’t do this so often. Phones are convenient but so tedious. She sipped tea as she brought down a basket of food. She hoped that Dreamy wouldn’t mind a beef sandwich with chips. He seems so skinny. Plus, she’s in a good mood. 

“Dreamy~ are you hungry?” She asked. “ I got you some delicious beef sandwiches. I mean you did complain about having potatoes, so I think that a little bit of meat will be good for you.” 

But there was no answer, not even a snide response, just nothing.

She raised her eyebrow, as she turned on the light. “Dreamy… It’s rude not to answer-”

She stopped when she looked at the scene. The place was a massive mess: Books and items like rope and bottles thrown across the floor, some of the newspapers ripped to shreds and pulled down, some of the admin books being taken from the shelves. The books, surprisingly, despite the chaos of the room, neatly lay on the bed as if someone was reading them.

Madden’s eyes widened at the empty space where the pipe was as realization set in.

“How…” Then there was a silent whoosh as She turned around, revealing Dream, eyes glowing bright green,  holding a large vase. 

“Dre-”

Before Madden could even say anything else, he smashed it down against her head causing her to stumble before collapsing onto the floor, blood dripping out of her head. Dream looked down at the woman and let out a laugh. Now she’s going to learn a lesson about fucking with him and his server. He could do whatever he wanted with her. He could just snap her neck, torture her, or maybe kill her, or revive her over and over again as a lesson in fucking respect. Dream took a deep breath as he looked at the rope on the floor. First, though, he has some actual questions to ask

Chapter Text

Scarlett knocks at the door of the server's home. She was taking a deep breath as she looked over her shoulder showing Minerva and Toby holding large posters.

“So, you think that they’ll listen to my theory?” Scarlett asked.

Toby and Minerva nodded.

“I mean it’s the best theory I’ve heard suggested, and they did seem pretty curious,” Minerva pointed out. Scarlett smiled at the two.

“Thank you guys.”

She knocked at the door again but there was only silence. 

“Huh? Are they not home?”

“No they've got to be home,” Toby said. “I mean, they’re not allowed to leave, and this is a good opportunity to check on them.” As Toby noted that, Minerva took a step forward before she took a quick step back. She yelped as she took another step back, holding her head, and dropping the posters down on the floor.

“Minerva?!” Scarlett cried out, rushing to her side.

“I’m fine, it's just…what’s with the loud buzzing that hurts my head?” Minerva groans as she looks up. “Plus there’s so much red….” Toby glances at Minerva worriedly before pressing his ear against the door. His eyes widened and surprised at what he heard.

“I hear buzzing too.”

“What are they doing?” Scarlett said, pounding on the door again. “Guys you better not be getting yourselves into trouble again!” As Scarlett begins to pound at the door Minerva squints her eyes and begins to concentrate. The flickers of Blue begin around the area and seemingly press against the red but she lets out another yelp as it pushes back against her.

“Don’t you guys see that?” 

Scarlett looks at her confused, still pounding against the door.

“See what?” And just as quickly as a buzzing began, Minerva noticed the red vanished in the air and the door opened slightly.

“Huh?!” Scarlett said, jumping back from a vacant-looking Sam.

“Mr. Sam? What was going on? What was that buzzing?” Toby asked, walking up to him.