Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Foot Soldier woke up with a jump, he got out of bed and put on a shirt, then flopped back onto the bed, trying not to wake anybody up.

"Had a nightmare?" TV Head asked, woken up by the noise of the springs in Foot Soldier's mattress.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Foot Soldier asked, fighting back a yawn.

"Yes you did, but don't worry, it's fine, I would have had to get up anyway to go pee." Replied TV Head.

"Oh, sorry about waking you... at least it wasn't a total waste of your sleep." Foot Soldier said with a slight laugh.

"Could you two try and be quiet, I finally managed to get to sleep after hearing what Super Brainz and 80's Action Hero do at night for a hour or two. I really should ask Dr. Zomboss if I could swap rooms with someone so I'm not right nextdoor to those two lovebirds..." All-Star said sleepily after stumbling into the room, "the very least you could do is shut your door."

"I was just going to go to the bathroom." TV Head replied with a sigh that made it seem as if he knew that tonight wasn't going to have much sleep for anyone.

Sorry, I woke up because I had a nightmare... it was one of the ones that seem like they are real, but then something... off... happens. I was shot with my own gun in that nightmare, I heard someone pick it up, then turned to look in a mirror that appeared, but before I could see who it was I was shot through the chest. I could see a yellow bullet with some purple blood on it fly out my chest and fall down to the ground. The scariest part was that everyone was acting like themselves. I woke up right before my face hit the floor, but I fell down onto my knees, then had a hand on the floor, the other on the exit wound. Then my arm buckled and I saw a quick flash in the mirror, it was the flash of a camera, the person who shot me took a picture of the crime." Foot Soldier said, nearly about to cry, tears forming in his eyes.

"Oh, sorry that you have nightmares." All-Star replied, stumbling towards Foot Soldier and sitting down on the foot of his bed, looking at the camo print blanket, then at TV Head's static print blanket. "Are you ok now?" he asked to his friend.

"Yeah... but I don't think I can go back to sleep after that." Foot soldier replied, stretching to try and stop a yawn from escaping.

"Maybe Scientist might be able to help." TV Head said as he walked out of the room, headed towards the bathroom.

"That's a great idea, I'll go knock on his door and wake him up so I can sleep, that wouldn't be too selfish." Foot Soldier replied, walking out of the room towards Scientist's room.

"I'll tag along," All-Star said, "Scientist is less... weird... when I wake him up. It must just be in the way that I knock on his door."

When they got to Scientist's room All-Star knocked on the door, waking him up. He walked to the door and opened it, still a bit groggy and wanting to go back to sleep. "What is it this time?" he muttered.

"Foot Soldier had a nightmare and can't fall back asleep." All-Star explained.

"I've got something that will fix that, my cousin, Chemist, is always trying to find new drugs, most of them are narcotics, but sometimes he stumbles across ones that are pharmaceuticals, he calls this one nightmare begone. It gets rid of nightmares, by making the nightmare that woke whoever ingests the drug a recurring nightmare that one occurs once a night. If you were to know what the recipe for it is you'd think that Chemist just took out a periodic table and made some words useing the elements, you'd be correct, he spells out curse words to see what effect they give. He once drank pure sulphuric acid to see what kind of trip it gives, it gave him a trip to my doorstep, and then I just dragged a heal station towards him and let it run, he. When he regained the ability to talk he apologized for his lapse in judgement. I didn't care cause he was alright." Scientist said while mixing together chemicals in precise amounts. When he was done he poured the liquid into a plastic cup. "Here's the concoction, now drink it and go to sleep."

"Okay... I guess it's the best option I have..." replied Foot Soldier. He drank the surprisingly sweet concoction and went to bed. All-Star went to his room and passed out on his sports print blanket. Scientist went back to bed and fell asleep as soon as he put his test tube print blanket over himself, and TV Head walked back to his room and fell asleep quickly.

Chapter Text

Foot Soldier looks behind him to see TV Head aiming the Unkind Rewind at him. "H-hi there TV Head, why are you aiming at me? I'm not a plant." he said, then TV Head fired at him. When the shot connected Foot Soldier woke up and almost had a panic attack seeing Yeti Imp on the foot of his bed. He whimpered and started crying softly, waking up TV Head.

"What's wrong?" he asked, confused as to why his brother was crying.

"Get away from me!" Foot Soldier replied, shock filling his body, he couldn't stay quiet and cried loudly.

All-Star walked into the room concerned at the crying. "What happened?" he asked.

"A nightmare." replied TV Head.

"Argh, me hear crying, what be thar trouble?" Captain Deadbeard asked. He had his hook pressed against the wood of the doorframe.

"T-TV H-Head sh-shot me in a nightmare." Foot Soldier stuttered out between sobs. Scientist walked into the room, and put a hand on Foot Soldier's shoulder as if to say everything will be alright. Super Brainz walked into the doorframe carrying a sleeping 80's Action Hero in his arms, before returning to his room after seeing that the situation was being handled. Electric Boogaloo, Rustbolt, and Electric Slide all looked into Foot Soldier's room to see the situation being handled. "Thanks Scientist." Foot Soldier said, wiping away tears.

"No problem." he replied. Then everyone went back to their rooms and went to sleep, except Scientist, he was searching for a way to stop drug induced recurring nightmares, but fell asleep in front of his computer.

Chapter Text

Foot Soldier looked in the mirror to see the Z-Mech right behind him, before he could react he was shot through the chest, the mirror shattered as he fell forward, slicing further through himself on the laser coming from the robot. He woke up with a start and groaned loudly in exasperation, this was the third night he was woken up by his nightmares. "I wish I never had nightmares like you." He said to TV Head who looked towards him emptily.

"You have no clue what's going on in my mind, I've had to hold myself back from murdering everyone here. My mind is filled with dark thoughts, I'm not trying to one up you, but nightmares are nothing compared to what my mind is capable of showing me." TV Head replied in a droning monotone, only wavering at the last bit.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know that's why you didn't want to hold knives, I'm sorry for calling you a coward, your braver than me... I only have nightmares, I don't want to think about what you dream of." Foot Soldier replied, a single tear dropping down his face, trailing behind a streak of moisture, lightening the rotten flesh it travelled on.

"Don't cry, I don't blame you for anything you've done wrong, everyone makes mistakes." TV Head replied, trying to cheer up his brother. He patted Foot Soldier on the back firmly.

"Thanks." Foot Soldier replied, a small smile returning to his face. He glanced over at the doorframe and saw Electric Slide, and her adoptive dads, Electric Boogaloo and Rustbolt, who were holding hands, standing behind her.

"See Slide, there are no plants around, just Foot Soldier crying in his room for a reason currently unknown, can we go back now, I want to go back to sleep." Rustbolt said, unenthused that his adopted daughter dragged him and his boyfriend out of bed because she heard crying. He was tired enough that the lights in his eyes weren't glowing, and he moved in a glitchy, disjointed way.

"Rusty, she was genuinely concerned that a plant could have decided to attack while we were sleeping, it's a valid reason to drag us out of bed, after all, she still hasn't gotten the hang of those electric bracelets we made for her. It was safer for us to tag along, what if a Torchwood had attacked, that wouldn't have ended well if she had gone to investigate alone." Electric Boogaloo replied, small zaps of lightning arcing off him.

"Yeah but there was nothing Boog, why should I loose valuable charging time just because someone was crying." Rustbolt replied, getting fidgety. "Speaking of which why were you crying?" He asked Foot Soldier.

"I had a nightmare then TV Head told me how dark his thoughts are." Foot Soldier replied, a deadpan look on his face, eyes staring far off into the distance.

"Well, I'm going back to bed." Rustbolt said, turning to walk back to his bed to charge.

"Wait Rusty, your gonna pull my arm off if you keep moving that fast, I can't run that fast." Electric Boogaloo replied, his arm pulled to it's limit, a hint of pain in his voice.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't rip off your arms on purpose, now would I Boog?" Rustbolt said as he pushed Electric Boogaloo against a wall, careful not to hurt his boyfriend by pushing him into a wall too hard. he then wrapped one of his arms around Electric Boogaloo's back. Rustbolt then leaned towards Electric Boogaloo, whose face was turning purple from blushing at Rustbolt's romanticism. He kissed Electric Boogaloo deeply, his free hand trailed up Electric Boogaloo's face and dug into his hair. His pupils were now hearts, and Electric Boogaloo's googles were fogging up, heart shaped sparks shooting out like fireworks. Electric Slide looked over to see her adoptive dads passionately making out, she then turned away, a slight hint of disappointment washed over her face. A metallic plodding approached, following a scurrying set of footsteps.

"What in the-" Imp started to say, before Cookies the Gargantuar interrupted him.

"Are you my Imp?" he asked.

"No, I am not, I have told you that many times." Imp replied, the Z-Mech agreed with him in dial-up. Suddenly the Smash plodded up towards Cookies.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop asking random Imps if they're your Imp? Your Imp is probably still in Weirding Woods." he replied. "Its's what," he looked down at his wrist as if to check the time on a watch, "the middle of the night, go back to bed Cookies, you're drunk."

"Go choke on a singular grape." he replied, a look of contempt shredding across his face as he walked back to his room, escorted by the Smash, the Z-Mech and Imp.

"Ow, Rusty, that hurt, why did you do that?" Electric Boogaloo said, rubbing the side of his face after the band of his googles against it because of Rustbolt.

"To get your attention Boog, you got way too unfocused." replied Rustbolt, who had a smirk on his face that spoke volumes. "Let's go back to our room, there's nothing here."

"Alright. Slide, it's time to head back, Rusty is getting crotchety." Electric Boogaloo said with a slight laugh in his voice. All Rustbolt could respond with was punching Electric Boogaloo's shoulder gently, then picking him up and carrying him like a sack of potatoes, walking back to their room, Electric Slide following behind not wanting to deal with the fact that Rustbolt has a cruel sense of humor and will lock the door if she wasn't inside quickly enough.