Blood Vines | (Skephalo)

"It said I would have a happy ending!"

The crater of L'manburg withered with red vines, banging against the glass placed over them in an ill attempt to break free. The abandoned old log houses sat lonely near it, standing as memories of a nearly forgotten past.

Niki got down from her horse as she looked at the clearing red sky and moon, facing towards the distance to see a sky-scraping vine covered tower.

"I hope they're doing well..." Niki said under her breath, turning to the others who had arrived just a bit afterwards.

"So you know the plan, right?" Niki pulled out and lit up a soul torch from her bag, the blue lights attracting the vines to the glass under her.

"Are you still sure that's a good idea?" Ranboo carried some buckets of prime water they had gotten when they stopped at church prime.

"Hopefully. Now-"

A familiar laugh filled the air as the group looked around, searching for where it was coming from

"You have nowhere to run now, Tommy!" The others looked at their side to Dream, who was riding a horse, running at him.

An arrow shot through the air, landing on the hoodied man's head. Blood dripped down his head as his horse stopped running. Sam followed around into the corner after, shooting a weird metal band with his crossbow.

"Dream?" The blue eyed teen looked at the smiling man, his smiling still beaming as blood dripped down his face and mask.

The metal band opened up, clamping itself to Dream's neck as the man fell onto the floor, breathing heavily while the arrow disappeared and reappeared in Sam's hands.

"Sam... You killed him..." Ranboo stared at Sam, who looked at him back with no emotion. The others backed away slowly, watching as the man got off his horse and checked on the blond.

"He's alive. Just, in a bit of pain. All I need to do is...-"

Sam moved Dream a bit of his blood on the glass, alerting the vines immediately as they shot through the glass floor, grasping and reaching for Dream's unconscious body.

"Oh... Oh no." The vines spit and multiplied and lengthened, causing Sam to start backing away, taking Dream with him. He stared at Tommy and Ranboo, whispering a silent word as they both nodded.

Tommy poked at Niki's armor.

"I don't think we're safe here right now." Niki looked at him, looking back at Sam and nodded. Holding up her torch, she looked at the darkened red sky, worried.

"Phase two, we need to retreat for a moment." She took a look at Foolish. "You can travel fast. Alert Tubbo at the docks to give us more time." Foolish nodded and ran back to the horses, getting his out and riding away into the trees. "Now everyone, get off the glass floor.

Ranboo and Tommy swiftly ran off the glass, following Niki herself. Worryingly, she stared at the lanky man standing in the middle of the glass wearing red and blue glasses.

They hadn't talked much since their fight over killing Tommy back at Snowchester.

She felt like killing Tommy was worthless since everything and everyone was at stake and there was no point holding grudges if everyone was moving on from everything at the same time.

Despite the uselessness of it, Jack still felt that all his fuck ups, despite being a kid, were unforgivable, and would rather not work with Niki than give up on his 'dream' to kill the little shit.

And here they were, on the final war, supposedly side by side, in a silent feud filled with nothing but the cold breeze, the scent of blood and a fight of expressions, posture and vibes.

Niki felt the coldness of the night settle in as she passed her torch to Tommy, and walked to the edge of the ground near the grass.

"Jack, please step off the glass." Sam looked at the two as he held Dream in his arms, the vines still scrambling to get him.

Jack only moved slightly to look at her, eyeing her with an annoyed look on his face.

"And if I don't...?" Jack turned around fully, facing them all.

"Jack, you know it's dangerous. Come to common ground right this instant!"

"You're still acting like we weren't fighting just months back." The breeze became heavier, their cloaks and coats flapping in the wing.

"Jack..."

"You're acting like you didn't try to nuke Tommy. You're acting like you've been his friend since forever. You're acting like you were never on my side!" Tommy looked at her, shocked. Niki covered his face, her worried expression changing to that of a pissed one.

"Your thinking is rash and you're risking everything for nothing, Jack. What's the point of holding such a grudge if we're all moving on from this hellhole anyway?"

"Not when I finish what I started." He knelt and threw his hands through the glass floor, cracking up where he was standing as he simply held onto the edge of the glass, blood dripping into the vine abyss.

"The egg promised me it'd kill him." His face twisted into a sinister creepy smile. "It told me that it would take care of everything." His grip loosened. "It said I would have a happy ending!"

"Jack! No!" She ran down to try and save him, but was stopped as a bunch of vines formed a figure resembling that of a hand hand and grabbed his legs, pulling him and the piece of glass he was holding onto down into the crimson darkness.

The floor cracked up to where she was standing as she swiftly skipped back into the main ground.

Taking a small breather, she took a look at the other two. Ranboo looked traumatised, Tommy looked at her, disheartened and betrayed.

"Tommy... I..."

"Not the time. What's that weird thing emerging from the glass though?" Ranboo pointed at the glass floor, which was starting to be covered from the otherside in blood.

The others looked bewildered as the ground around started shaking, blood staining what one could see from above the glass floor as an abomination broke through, screaming as what was once her good friend and partner in crime Jack was the very core of his malice and hatred maxed out with blood spilling through the vines that covered his back.

"I AM ENDING THIS NEVER ENDING GRUDGE, ONCE AND FOR ALL." White blades sprung out of his arms of what used to be his sword, Jack directly staring at Tommy as more arms that seemed to belong to Jack broke through different parts of the glass.

"Get on your horses and run!" The others climbed onto their horses hastily, Sam arrived to their side of the ground from another path on his horse. Dream sat unconscious behind him.

"We need to go. We don't know what this monster is capable of and close range is probably the worst type of combat to defeat him with." He eyed the monster sternly. "Follow me."

The group didn't have much of a choice; they followed the green haired man down the path, hoping for the best as the Jack monster started getting up from underneath the glass floor.