How the world works

18

They look around. The party is genuinely spooked by the interior of the vault. It takes very little time to find the elevator and Sam operates the redstone so it'll go down. They fit as many on it as they can. Niki, Quackity, Ponk, Foolish, Puffy, Eret, Fundy, Sam, and Hannah manage to cram themselves onto the 3 by 3 elevator as it depends slowly. The rest of them jump through the hole, their armor taking the brunt of the damage for them. They're greeted by another vast room. But this one is different. 

A copper bird cage is in the corner, colorful paints splatter the bottom and an unmade bed in its center. 

Item frames line the walls. Techno walks up to one and pulls free the ax inside. The ax of peace. Almost everyone finds something of theirs is here. Pets, weapons, books. As everyone claims their possessions and putting them safely in pockets or ender chests. 

Hannah finds a redstone door and opens it, peering into it. It looks like it goes outside because it's a very dark forest. Must be later than she thought. Leaving the door open, she turns and finds a Llama. Her Llama!

So many pets are here. From parrots to llamas to fish and dolphins. Even horses and a few axolotls! Dogs and cats too, of course. And about half of them were Hannah or Sapnaps. Of course, Sapnap wasn't there to see them. 

Just as Technoblade was releasing his horse from its pen, a voice called down from the hole in the ceiling through which the elevator descended. Dream.

"You shouldn't be here." He calls down, as if administering a warning. Maybe he is.

Immediately, a dozen arrows were aimed at him. He laughs and jumps, hands in his pocket, to the bottom. He's in full armor and seems to be unarmed. 

"You're lucky you only tripped one wire. Any more and you would have some dead hostages to rescue. My ender pearl stasis chamber triggered just as I was heading back, too." Dream says. No one replies, but over a dozen sharp things are pointing at him right now.

"Oh please. We all know I'm not stupid enough to come down here without leverage." Dream stares down Fundy, who is directly in front of him. From his pocket, Dream produces a button.

"The second my thumb comes off this button, everyone I'm holding captive will die." Dream announces,holding up the dead man switch. Checkmate. 

"So what do we do? We can't kill you, you sure as hell can't kill us. Did you think that far ahead?" Quackity demands, adjusting the grip on his ax.

"Oh, I have a plan. You'll do what I say because my spawn is far far far away and if you step out of line, people get hurt. After I let the button go, I can take a few of you out too before I am overcome. And I'd be the real winner here. Who wants to lose a life?" Dream threatens, pulling out a sword with his other hand. Ponk steps forward, unexpectedly. 

"I don't care. If its us or them, I choose us. They'll understand." They say wistfully. Then ponk produces a sword and swings. Dream nimbly dodges and counter attacks, stabbing them in the shoulder, running them through. The sword sticks out of Ponks shoulder and Dream throws them off of it and to the far wall.

"Like I said, I have near nothing to lose here." Dream says.

"So, what. You want to lock us up too?" Eret demands. Dream shrugs a bit.

"Fine then. Do it." Says someone no one expected. Technoblade.

"What?? Technoblade, you're literally an anarchist! You cant actually be fucking-" Quackity begins but Techno actually pulls his sword on him.

"He has Phil. He has Tommy. He has our friends. He has Sapnap, don't you care? What would you do if he had Karl too? Would that be enough?" Techno yells. His voice had a higher pitch than usual. It almost sounded like it cracked midway through. And are those tears in his eyes?