"I really hate it here," Reverie whispered nervously.
"You've said that six times already," Techno hurled back and, although he was facing away from her, Reverie could practically hear him rolling his eyes.
"Oh, forgive me if I'm not fond of a dimension that is the literal embodiment of hell," she snapped.
Something cold brushed against her neck, which was highty contrastable against the sweltering atmosphere of the Nether. With a gasp of alarm rising to her throat, Reverie flinched away and turned to see that it was Tommy who had given her a fright. He reached out a second time and touched her hair, his eyebrows furrowed.
"What the hell did you do to your hair?" he questioned, his voice ringing with disgust. "It looks like the distant cousin of a split-dye."
Reverie felt heat rise to her cheeks, which she could thankfully blame on the boiling lake of lava that was swirling below the bridge. Reverie wasn't sure what she had been thinking when she agreed to let Techno dye her hair.
Reverie recalled staring at her reflection, her face contorting into a grimace of disgust. Techno had dyed the undersides of her hair pink, leaving her natural layers of brown to drape over the top.
"Techno dyed it," Reverie answered. "He made the dye from flowers and some other stuff that I don't even want to know the names of."
"It looks shit," Tommy said bluntly.
"I think it looks cool, and you have no idea how far I had to go to get those pink flowers," Techno argued, then he pointed his sword up ahead. "There's the Community Portal."
Technoblade's new sword was impressive, with a shining blade and perfectly crafted handle, but Reverie had grown so accustomed to seeing him wield his axe that to see him hold any other weapon was strange. That was why they were passing through the Nether—to sneak into L'Manberg and retrieve Techno's confiscated weapon, hopefully without being seen by anyone.
The last part of the plan was thwarted instantly upon their arrival in Dream's kingdom. As soon as the trio stepped out of the portal, emerging onto Dream's land, they were met by Ranboo. He stood still and tall like a guard some five feet in front of the portal, almost as though he had been expecting their arrival. The moment she saw him, Reverie drew her sword, and a perplexed expression unfolded on Ranboo's face.
"Is this your normal way of greeting people?" he said, a hint of laughter hidden within his voice.
Techno carefully placed his hand on the blade of Reverie's sword, signalling for her to lower the weapon.
"It's alright," Techno assured both her and Tommy, the matter of which had yelled extremely loudly upon seeing Ranboo. "He's on our side."
"Well, I wouldn't say that," Ranboo chimed in before Reverie and Tommy could start asking questions. "I'm on no one's side in particular. I want to help all of my friends, and Tommy is my friend, just like Tubbo is."
Reverie's eyebrows flit upwards.
"A friend to all is a friend to none," she said, then she turned to Techno. "Are you sure we can trust this guy?"
Techno nodded with certain finality. "I'm sure."
Reverie allowed her scrutinising eyes to sweep over Ranboo once more, before, shrugging, she put away her sword and stepped forwards, holding out her hand for him to shake.
"I have a feeling we got off on the wrong foot," she said, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
"Well, you certainly made an impression on me," Ranboo chuckled.
Tommy still held a firm grip on his sword as he eyed Ranboo suspiciously, which was understandable. Ranboo was a member of the Butcher Army and, up until a few second previous, Reverie would have considered him an enemy as he stood firmly at Tubbo's side.
A friend to all is a friend to none: Reverie had learned this the hard way. Although she spent the majority of the Revolution as a double agent, she eventually had a reckoning when she came to the realisation that Dream was most definitely on the wrong side of history. One day, Ranboo would have to choose a side too, and just as Dream had told Reverie so many lifetimes before, being netural was not a choice when it came to war. Not wars of this magnitude.
"I'm here to escort you to see Tubbo," Ranboo explained, his eyes dancing between Reverie and Tommy.
Reverie's pulse quickened at a rapid pace and she felt her mouth grow dry. She rounded on Techno.
"I thought we were sneaking in and stealing the weapons back," she chastised. "You never said anything about negotiations with Tubbo."
Techno arched an eyebrow. "Suddenly being a pacifist is a bad thing?"
Truth be told, Reverie wasn't ready to see Tubbo again. The last time she laid her eyes upon him, he was only a sliver of the brother she had once known. It reminded her too much of Dream, and how he had changed to the extreme that Reverie could no longer recognise him. It was too much for Reverie to cope with.
She trailed behind the others, the point of her sword dragging through the hard ground. Unexpectedly, Tommy whipped around, a teasing grin plastered on his moonlit face.
"So are you trying to be Wilbur, Techno or Dream? Because honestly, I can't tell."
This elicited a shout of laughter from Techno, meanwhile Reverie merely rolled her eyes. Tommy was obviously referring to the fact that Reverie now had particoloured hair of brown and pink, as well as the fact that she was wearing Wilbur's beanie and the piece of green fabric from Dream's hoodie was wrapped around a singular, thin braid that lay against the rest of Reverie's hair, which she allowed to fall free.
"Oh, very funny, Tommy," Reverie drawled, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Focus on the mission, not making my day worse."
Even as he sauntered with his usual display of sprightly confidence, Reverie could tell that, behind the curtain that masked his true emotions, Tommy was nervous. This was understandable and Reverie greatly sympathised with the boy. Tommy had not seen Tubbo since he was exiled from L'Manberg, and Reverie knew that this experience was going to be just as harrowing for him as it was for her.
She wanted to reach out and offer him words of consolation, but she knew Tommy would not appreciate being made vulnerable in front of Technoblade and Ranboo, so she held back.
Tubbo was waiting by the edge of L'Manberg, stood by the water next to the bridge that separated Dream's land and that of L'Manberg. As per usual, he was donning his suit, and Reverie made note of the fact that, today, he had not bothered to shape his hair to hide his horns from view.
As the group that followed Ranboo drew nearer, Tommy and Tubbo's gazes locked and they each froze. Reverie saw several different emotions unfold on Tubbo's face in a matter of mere seconds, but she managed to pinpoint anguish and utter shock.
"I'm so confused," Tubbo said with sheer disbelief, his astounded eyes still firmly fixed on Tommy. "You're alive?"
Tommy's expression hardened and he slipped his sword onto his belt.
"Where have you been?" he said. Try as he might to keep his tone stern and demanding, it was not difficult to miss the way Tommy's voice quivered with emotion. "You exiled me and then you didn't come to visit me once."
"I did come and visit you," Tubbo countered in a confused mumble. "But—but you were gone and—"
"Remember when you exiled me?" Tommy interjected, his voice dripping with malice.
"Yeah," Techno stepped closer to Tommy's side. "Remember when you exiled Tommy?"
"I do remember that," Tubbo responded, momentarily glancing towards Technoblade before focusing his gaze on Tommy once more. "But I also remember when you died."
At these words, clouds of confusion formed within Reverie's mind, shrouding all coherent thoughts. She looked to Tommy, hoping to seek answers from him, but he appeared to be just as bewildered as she, what with his furrowed eyebrows and slightly pursed lips.
"Died?" Tommy repeated shrewdly. "Clearly, I didn't die."
"But I—I went to visit you and you were gone," Tubbo said as though this were the most patent thing in the world. "Everything was blown up. I thought you were dead."
Reverie felt her blood run cold. "Blown up?"
Tommy turned to her, his face suddenly stricken with anxiety, and lowered his voice as he muttered, "Look, can we talk about this later?"
But as Tommy turned around to face Tubbo once more, Reverie seized his wrist, holding him still. As she so often did, Reverie was assuming the worst. The horrifying part was that her assumptions were usually accurate.
"Tommy, did Dream try to kill you?" she asked, her words passing her lips in nothing but a whisper, a warm breath against the crisp air of the night.
"Later," Tommy gritted, but Reverie didn't need vocal proof. The fickle hints of nervousness swirling in Tommy's eyes said enough. Feeling sick to her stomach, Reverie let Tommy's arm fall as disturbing visions of Dream blowing up Logstedshire in an attempt to kill Tommy flashed through her mind in a grotesque blur.
"And now you're with Technoblade?" Tubbo sounded hurt, betrayed, and an unwanted flurry of pity towards her brother whirled within Reverie.
"Well—well it's a temporary team-up," Techno rushed.
"Mutual interests, and all that," Reverie added, earning a nod of confirmation from Techno.
Tommy took one step forward, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Technoblade, and he firmly stated, "Yeah, I am."
Reverie was sure she saw Tubbo splinter and break behind his crystal blue eyes. Unlike Tommy, who had taken a step forwards, Tubbo stepped backwards, the blood draining from his cheeks at an alarming rate.
"Tommy, he—he killed Quackity," Tubbo's voice quivered as he spoke. "Technoblade killed Quackity."
An uncomfortable shiver ran down Reverie's spine as she winced. Quackity's lifeless body, bathed in blood, was an image she had tried to push away, lock in a box in the deep caverns of her mind. He had been laying still on the floor of the cave when Reverie entered in a desperate scramble to reach Technoblade. She remembered his ghostly pale face, splayed clearly against the dark grey of the cave's floor, and the thick blood that stained the rock. Reverie had bent down, trembling all over, to check Quackity's pulse. She couldn't find it.
Although tears of grief sprang to his eyes, Tommy still drew his bow and aimed an arrow at Tubbo's chest, making the president gasp in alarm and Ranboo unsheathe his sword as a warning.
"And you tried to execute him," Tommy snarled. Tubbo opened his mouth to protest, but Tommy continued malevolently. "Don't even try and lie to me. I can still see the gallows."
It was true. From their position on the edge of the water, the gallows were clearly visible in all their haunting glory, and half of the severed rope that Techno had helplessly dangled from was still hanging down. Yet again, Reverie shivered in discomfort. Something told her she would have nightmares about Techno's attempted execution for years to come.
"He would've died if Reverie wasn't there, you monster," Tommy spat.
Reverie could see Tubbo now, caving in on himself, the weight of his actions that had been suspended above his head for so long finally crashing down upon him. That, Reverie realised, was what distinguished Tubbo from Schlatt. Tubbo felt remorse, Tubbo understood that his actions had consequences. Tubbo was a good person that bad things had happened to.
"Look," Reverie began, wanting to sway the topic of conversation to save Tubbo any further pain. "We just came for Techno's weapons. Give them back and we'll be on our way."
Negotiations ensued in which Tubbo informed Technoblade that Fundy was in possession of most of his weapons, but he, Tubbo, had the pickaxe and the crossbow, which he sent Ranboo to retrieve.
Thunder cracked overhead as an unpredicted downpour of cold, heavy rain started. Reverie was not pleased about the fact that she was going to be wearing a sodden woolly hat for the rest of the day, and the idea of wearing wet jeans made her moue.
To her relief, Ranboo was hasty with his task of retrieving Techno's weapons and returned in a few short minutes. He handed the goods to Tubbo, who in turn passed it over to Technoblade. The pickaxe and crossbow were then strapped securely to Techno's belt.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Mr President," Technoblade concluded, but Tubbo's attention was focused elsewhere. He was still staring at Tommy as though he was seeing a human for the first time, and in turn, Tommy was surveying Tubbo with mingled apprehension and sorrow.
"Come on, Tommy," Reverie said gently, placing her hand on the boy's shoulder. "We should go."
As they walked away from L'Manberg, Tommy kept casting glances over his shoulder towards Tubbo, who was still stood by the edge of the water. He was now a mere speck of pallid flesh in the distance, but still, he watched as his best friend and his sister turned and walked away from him until they were entirely out of sight.
They walked back to the Community Portal in silence, Reverie and Tommy deadened by their mutual senses of grief. Reverie could not stop thinking about the fact that Dream had blown up Logstedshire and, although Tommy had not confirmed that Dream tried to kill him, his silence spoke loud and clear.
Reverie thought she had finally made some sort of progress when Dream saved her from Fundy's sword, because not so long ago, Dream had held his own sword to Reverie's throat and accompanied the action with a threat to take her life. Now, however, she wasn't sure she had made any progress at all.
She wanted to scream with frustration. She was so sick of being unsure about everything. Could Dream be saved? Could Tubbo be saved? What was the Egg? What did it want? And what in the world did it have to do with Reverie and her mother?
So many questions, so little answers, and a sense of foreboding inside her told Reverie that she was running out of time to find answers.
The trio hiked the steps that led to the Community Portal, halting at the top when they saw him. It was no surprise to see that Dream was donning his Netherite armour, equipped with his terrifyingly lethal sword. Reverie knew well enough that one strike from that blade would be more than enough to kill someone.
"Shields up," Tommy said, and Reverie and obeyed the command with a sour taste in her mouth. She never thought that she would be scared of Dream, that she would have to protect herself when she was around him, and yet time seemed to change everything.
"If I remember correctly, you're not supposed to be here, Tommy," Dream said, his silky tone injecting a rippling sense of unease right into Reverie's veins. "And Techno, I told you to keep her out of the kingdom."
"I have a name, thank you very much," Reverie hurled angrily.
Dream leaned on the hilt of his sword and Reverie had to summon a great deal of strength to bite back shouts of laughter as she imagined the sword loosening from its planting in the ground and Dream falling over.
"Tommy, I got one of your discs from Skeppy," Dream informed, his low tone of voice awfully taunting. Reverie noticed then that the arm that wasn't leaning on the handle of his sword was tucked neatly behind his back, and when he brought his arm around, the trio could see that he did in fact have one of Tommy's discs.
Next to her, Reverie heard Tommy draw in a sharp breath.
His grip on his sword was so tight that his knuckles turned white. "Give it to me," he gritted, his jaw clenched. "Now."
Dream let out a daunting string of wicked chuckles. He strapped his sword to his belt and began idly twirling the disc around in his hands, his mouth, the only visible part of his face, twisted into a deranged smile.
"You screwed me over Dream," Tommy continued acidly. "You manipulated me."
"Tommy, I was the only person who visited you, I was the only one who was your friend."
Reverie drew her golden sword and mimicked Dream's action of resting on the hilt.
"I'm also starting to feel like our entire relationship was a ruse and you were just manipulaing me the entire time, so, I'm gonna have to stand with Tommy on this one," she said, her voice oddly conversational for such a weighty statement.
Dream let out a series of chuckles again and, knowing that she herself had caused such a formidable sound, Reverie shifted uneasily on her feet.
"Oh come on now, Reverie," Dream simpered. "You know I love you."
It seemed as though Reverie's soul had been sucked right out of her body, because Dream had never said that to her before. Maybe their nightly rendezvous in the forest and stolen kisses in broad daylight as they hid behind walls and doors in the castle spoke louder than words ever could, but to hear the phrase fall from Dream's lips, especially under such circumstances, she felt as though every bit of air had been knocked right out of her lungs.
"Don't you love me?" he added, his voice seeping inside Reverie's head, echoing painfully throughout her mind.
She attempted to swallow down the harsh lump in her throat, but the action proved to be futile as her mouth had grown too dry.
"You don't love me," she countered, fighting back the trembles of her voice. "You love the idea of loving me, because if you truly loved me, you would have chosen me over power."
"I didn't choose power over you, Rev. I wanted to share it with you," Dream said. He began to move forwards, taking slow steps, and with each inch he moved, Reverie's heart beat a little harder. "You could've been the Queen, Reverie. Can you imagine that? All the power, all the glory, and we'd still be together. You could still have all that, all you need to do is say the word."
He outstretched his gloved hand to Reverie and, in a flash of lightning and single slashing motion, Techno drew out his sword and swung it. Had Dream's reflexes not have been so phenomenal, Techno would have cut his arm clean off.
Reverie's chest heaved as her breathing grew heavy and uneven. Dream turned to Technoblade, his smile of provocation still painted on his lips.
"Protective, are we?"
"She can protect herself, but unlike me, she's not willing to kill you," Techno seethed dangerously.
Dream's smile faded and it would not take a genius to figure out that he had rolled his eyes beneath the ceramic mask.
"I saved your life, Techno, and this is how you repay me?" Dream said, turning his back on the group and ambling away towards the portal once more. He was confident enough in his own abilities to trust that, were one of them to strike him while his back was turned, he would still not be able to be beaten. This only made Reverie more riled than she had been, and she was sure Technoblade and Tommy shared her feelings.
"You didn't save me," Techno hurled. "Reverie did."
Clacking his heels together once, Dream sharply turned around, his hands and Tommy's disc tucked behind his back. Evidently, he was growing bored of speaking to Techno directly, because he promptly changed the topic of discussion.
"Alright, Tommy, listen," Dream began, any witticism that was laced through his voice only seconds before completely gone. "You're going to come with me, or I'm going to destroy your discs."
For the second time since they stumbled upon Dream that day, Tommy's breath hitched. Looking at him, Reverie could see it in his face, in his eyes—he was helpless.
"Well that's gonna be a bit of a problem, Dream," Techno interjected, stepping in front of Tommy, his sword held aloft. "Because this guy's with me."
A bolt of lightning split the sky, followed by a loud rumble of thunder, illuminating Dream's mask in a sinister blue glue. Heavy raindrops continued to pummel against the ground, glossing the stone that the group stood on.
"Are you sure, Techno?" Dream hummed.
"I am sure," Techno stated with firm finality, casting a glance over his shoulder at Tommy. "We're working together for our own mutual benefit, and I can't have you taking him away before I complete my objectives. Unless, of course, you want to call in that favour."
Reverie felt as though her nerves had been set alight.
"What favour?" she and Tommy said together.
"Oh no, I actually have something in mind for that later," Dream said as he began to walk away. "I guess this is it for now, Tommy."
Another surge of rage coursed through Reverie. She was in disbelief that Dream thought he could simply jump in, cause fear and chaos, and then stroll away with no consequences.
As Dream walked by, Tommy latched his hand around his wrist, and as quickly as Techno had drawn his own weapon, Dream unsheathed his Netherite sword and pressed the point of it against Tommy's throat.
"You know what, Dream?" Tommy said, and Reverie was in awe of how he could remain so calm and valiant while being held at the point of a deadly weapon. "Go fuck yourself."
Dream ripped his hand from Tommy's grasp, a firm scowl etched onto his lips, and he looked to Reverie. "I meant what I said."
Reverie considered Dream for a few short moments, inhaling and exhaling slowly as she done so, before turning around and following Techno and Tommy as they stepped through the Nether portal.
AUTHOR'S NOTE !
hi there :) i hope you're
all having a good day/night!
there's just something i want
to talk about real quick.
i read and appreciate all
of your comments, even
if i don't respond to them
all and i've seen that a few
people ship reverie x techno,
which is totally cool. people
are allowed to ship whoever
they want to ship. you can
ship rev x techno, rev x niki,
rev x wilbur — whatever you
like, it doesn't bother me.
if anything, i take it as a
compliment. i think it's
cool that people are getting
so engaged in my story
that they've started
analysing the relationships
of different characters
and shipping characters
outside of the main couple.
however, i don't want to
give anyone false hope.
reverie x techno is not
going to happen in this
story. it is still strictly a
smp!dream x fem!oc.
if i had any intentions
of switching it to a
smp!techno x fem!oc,
i would have put that
in the description so
people would know exactly
what they were reading.
after wilbur died, i wanted
to give reverie a new
and strong friendship
so she had something to
hold on for, and that's
why she and techno are
so close.
anyways, that was just
something i wanted to
quickly clear up :)
stay safe out there everyone!