Behind The Screen | dreamwastaken

Chapter 18: Dream vs Crunch : Fate of the Future

Trigger Warnings : Blood, Gore , Descriptions of Violence, Cutting , Strong Language, Gun Violence, Physical Abuse, Physical Violence, Temper Tantrum, Mentions of Suicide, Mentions of Self-Harm, Hostage Situation, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Gender Disadvantage, Mentions of Hospital

Are you ready? Grab your snacks... because this will be a big one.

The tension shot through the roof between the two rivals, the storm that enveloped around them created a dark intense ambience and atmosphere. The two warriors in a war of numbers, their scores tied 10 - 10, both of their minds filled with the desire for the sweet taste and feeling of victory. Building their stance, eyes stared sharply at the other and mouths sealed with mighty sternness and filled  with determination

"Dream." Jake spoke up simply, an evil-looking grin plastered on his face. His set of teeth shined dimly amidst the gloominess of the weather; it seemed that he wasn't at all worried or startled at the fact that his past crimes were literally blown out of the waters by Dream, who was basically just another pending victim in his reign of terror.

Dream was a little bit intimidated by the 22 year old piece of shit, that was standing right in front of him, having a murderer's smile and look painted all over his expression. Sure he did want to stop the tyranny, who knows what will he do after if he finally neutralizes the threat that is himself.

He would probably move on to bigger content creators like Mr.Beast or Pewdiepie, and no one wants that to happen and those are his YouTube inspirations idols as well, so he wouldn't even let this nasty human being lay a single finger on them. He will make sure that everything related to Jake's evil power will end with him altogether, no one else shall go through the torment and pain that Hailey and him went through with a demon hellspawn within a human named Jake.

Although as it was evident from the video footage, Jake knows how to kill people and he knows how to handle firearms since he did blast a cap into Hailey's skull. He has to constantly remind himself that this was not a joking matter and he should not let his guard down at any moment in time. He can risk dying today if he's not careful enough so no mistakes shall be made on his end.

"Jake." Dream replied back, malice and venom dripping off every word that came out of his voice box. "Or should I say... murderer.., Mr. Waffles?" the blonde cheekily corrected, beaming out his own creepy smile in an effort to make Jake feel at least a bit pressured. In which, he succeeds as Jake gulped down a chunky gob of saliva that was building inside the walls of his mouth, rain mixed with beads of sweat ran down his face.

The brown haired Brit seemed a bit shaken up upon hearing his own prior YouTube channel name, in fact he had a tons of old abandoned channels and soon the Minecraft-based channel named Crunch will also be a part of them, once he was done with this particular job.

"So you found out... phenomenal if I say so myself.." Jake clapped his hands slowly, sarcastically commending Dream for his nosy detective skills. He thought that if Dream wasn't inclined on solving the mystery he was given to one day by a news article that randomly popped up on his computer, perhaps he could've extended his time living on this planet.

However since that is definitely not the case as of now, in his opinions, Dream had just cut short almost 90 percent of his time living in this wonderful yet hellish paradise called Earth.

"Oh really?" Dream let out a small little snort, although still remaining his harsh death stare and stern look. His green emerald eyes drilled holes through those blue cerulean eyes of Jake, before letting out a long exhausted sigh.

"To be honest, I never even thought that you would come this far." Jake taunted, a smirk gradually forming and growing on his face; Dream hated that signature expression of his, whenever he took a quick glance at that awful forbidden smile, he wanted to bleach his eyes clean and his teeth would grit and gnash together until the point that it starts to hurt.

"Well I also never thought that I would accept someone like you into my team." Dream snarled, his hands slowly forming into a pair of fists as his anger and rage was beginning to overflow.

"But you still did, didn't you?" was quickly added by Jake after Dream spoke, continuing on with that stupid sheepish grin on his face.

"I guess I did, and I still regret it as the day I accepted you in..." the blonde barked back, venom squirting out of every word that left his vocal box. His breathing quickens as the bottled emotions that he had held deep inside within his heart began to pour itself out after 3 months of hiding; he would never allow the feelings that he possessed to be exposed to anyone but since things are going down quickly, maybe it is about time to let that compressed air out of the balloon.

The more he stood there, staring at the guy who essentially had ruined his life in the eye, the more the urge of punching Jake hard in the face worsened. However, after exercising a good amount of self-control and emotion bottling, all thanks to the 3 months of being left alone where he would always resist hurting himself with a pair of scissors; he was able to channel out all of the violent thoughts from his brain. His hands that were tightened into a crumpled fist released out the tight lock that his fingers enveloped around.

He took a deep breath, in order to calm himself down a notch; it would be best for him to approach the threat with a calm manner and Dream did just that as he takes an inhalation of air before using it as a stepping stone to voice out his communication.

"Why?" Dream blurted out quietly as his left hand travels down to his pockets as if he was grabbing for something. Jake stared at him rather quite confusedly, he had a grasp on what Dream was implying but he always wanted to make sure what he was dealing with before attacking, couldn't risk anything especially in this kind of situation.

"Mind turning up your volume?" Jake answered the Floridian's question with another question, he watches Dream groaning in annoyance at his stupidity, before regaining his own composure, going in for another attempt of an interrogation.

"Why? Why did you all of this?" Dream asks again, this time explaining himself clearly for Jake to compute with his dumb blob of a brain. Jake snickers in response as he turns away, facing the edge of the railings, leaning his body on the barrier that protected him from falling into the swirling current of the river down below.

"and why should I tell you, blonde bitch?" the murderer fought back, still trying to hide his intentions although he knew it was useless since it was explicitly shown in the video, so he didn't understand why Dream is still asking about the matter.

"because... I am your victim, might as well at least spill the truth on why you did this to me and the others in the first place, British fuck." Dream spat, mumbling his cursing at the end underneath his breath; even though he was given a pretty huge chunk of Jake's intention and motive which was clearly his insane lust for money, he still needed a bit more information about the whole story, in case if he survives and gets away. He can file this to court with the video footage and Jake will finally get what he deserves. Punishment behind steel bars, locked away from people and money.

Jake considered the thought of telling Dream everything, contemplating on whether or not should he really do it or not. This is Dream, he's thinking about and he's known to be quite a survivalist and genius but that's only in the realm and spectrum of the video game called Minecraft, NOT real life.

It should be fine as long as he silences Dream quick enough.... right?

The brown haired British boy let out a big deep sharp exhale before nodding in agreement, he stares into the distance, the dim LED billboards on the buildings shining through the grey fog and droplets of rain from the other side of the river.

"I will start... at the very beginning..." Jake began as his face darkens down, looking down below blankly at the zooming and crashing waves against the tide. A lightning bolt struck in the distance, which was followed by the sound of an echoing roaring thunder almost like it was signifying and building the tension, the chaos and the insanity that will be visiting the city of Orlando, Florida and it will be because of their blonde superstar resident and a British murderer clashing forces against each other.

(15 years ago)

20th March 2006, Central London, United Kingdom

It was a normal cloudy day in Central London; the weather was quite chilly and windy, but it didn't stop the people of the area to come out and about, taking strolls around the wonderful city.

In an apartment building within one of the rooms that had a clear gorgeous view of the London Bridge held a little 7 year old boy, excitedly viewing a YouTube video on his father's computer. The boy watches intently as the action of the video play out on the screen; the little guy was clearly super mesmerized by it, to the point that it concerns both of his parents, who were standing behind him. Both of their stares were filled with concern and disappointment over their son's huge obsession with video games and content creation.

The brown-haired boy giggled in amusement when a funny section of the video came up, oblivious to the judging looks that his parents was giving him, holding his school backpack with the assigned homework from school left untouched alongside the F graded test papers crumpled on the floor of his room.

"Frank we really need to do something about this..." Emily Anderson, the boy's mother, worriedly whispered, as her gaze continued to lock on to her beloved son. Her soulmate, named Frank can only nod in agreement and response. Don't get them wrong, they loved to see their son happy but if his happiness starts to affect his education and / or life, then both of them had to step in between it.

Despite knowing exactly what to do, they were too afraid to do anything since last time they tried to intervene... it didn't go so well.

"Jake sweetie... time to go to bed." Emily said softly, peeking her head into her son's room who was still burning his eyes in the dark with the bright white screen of his computer. The 7 year old Jake, groaned silently but he made sure that it wasn't audible to his mother, otherwise he might get his computer taken away for a few days and he didn't want to go through those hellish hours ever again.

He tried to block out all of his mother's advice of going to bed for school tomorrow, he didn't want to go to sleep; he wasn't tired so why should he? Jake continued watching his YouTube video, not noticing that his mother had gone downstairs to fetch some assistance from his father, and the only person that can actually scare him at the time was his dad.

"Jake." Frank said sternly, his voice was dangerously low and it was low enough to make Jake's eyes and attention divert away from the clip he was watching to stare at his father with frightened eyes as if he was trying to kill him on the spot.

"Go to bed, Jake. You have school tomorrow." his father simply instructed, despite knowing that his son won't be cooperating that easily, and it always had to come down with the act of threatening to confiscate his treasured device : the computer.

"NO!" Jake screamed childishly, on top of his lungs which would definitely wake their neighbors next door. The 7 year old boy grabbed the nearest object and tried to throw it at his parents, although his little flailing arms can only cover up so much distance, before the object fell to the floor flat with an audible thump, landing not even meters away from his body.

"JAKE!" his mother gasped, shocked at the attempt of violence their son tried to inflict onto them. His father was equally as taken aback although he kept up his stern demeanor, hiding the disbelief underneath of guise of intimidation.

"I WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH BEHAVIOR, YOUNG MAN!!" Frank practically reamed at him, walking over to his computer before switching the device carelessly, unaware of the damage that he had done to the monitor and his son's emotional well being. Screams of bloody murder echoed throughout the night as Jake's parents tried their best to put Jake to sleep, which is by letting the child cry his eyes out until he falls asleep out of exhaustion.

The ear piercing screeches and inhuman sounding screams rang loudly throughout the night, as Jake thrashed around violently, crying for his beloved computer. It was almost like that he loved his computer ten times more than he loved his own parents, and that particular thought began to form into both of Jake's parents : Frank Anderson and Emily Anderson

It took a good 3 hours of putting up with wailing and crying of an internet addict, before all of the commotion subsides into thankfully a deafening silence. Both of the awake Andersons sighed in disbelief; Frank pinching the bridge of his nose in disbelief whilst Emily buried her face into her hands, still thunderstruck by the fact that their son tried to through stuff at his parents to keep them away. This kind of temper tantrum was every parent's worst nightmare that they can expect from their kids.

"I never thought our son would be like this, Emily.. really never thought of this possibility until now." Frank mumbled, rubbing his temples in frustration and Emily, couldn't agree more. Were they expecting this kind of parenthood when they announced to everyone that they were expecting a baby? Not in the slightest.

17th April 2007

A year had passed and things still weren't looking the greatest for Jake and his undying love for the internet and social media, as it was reported to his parents on a school orientation day by the headmaster of Jake's school himself.

"So... uh Mr. and Ms. Anderson, I've called you on this very evening to give you a rundown on your child, Jake Anderson's learning progress, and needless to say as you may know, it is not going very well." The headmaster greeted before beginning the introduction of presenting how Jake had scored on his first semester of Year 2. Frank Anderson and Emily Anderson were already stressed out by introductory paragraph, they knew that Jake and education aren't a match made in heaven since kindergarten and that fact seemed to still carry itself into primary school.

"Here is Jake's report book, his test scores are on the left and his individual rankings for each subject are on his right." The headmaster said, adjusting the glasses on his face before pulling out a document folder and a blue report book from underneath his desk; the parents quickly took both of the items and opened up the first page, which contained their son's personal information such as birth date, gender and age.

They skimmed over a few pages before finally getting to be revealed to their son's grades and scores, neutral expression turned into widened eyes and jaw dropping shock or disbelief. Oh the grades were horrible, Jake received almost a D for almost every subject, some even dipping down to all time low F and the highest grade that he got was in Art where he scored a B+. Other than that, the scores were all notoriously awful.

His individuals rankings, as expected, aren't as good either; each year holds approximately about 100 students and for Jake, he managed to score a few 100s, not in a good way, of course. He would be ranked either from 80 and sometimes all the way down to the deep end of last place. The best he got was 57th in Arts and Technology.

"I'm so sorry to see your son fail like this, but we have tried every single method that we could and he's still not getting any better." said the headmaster pitifully, shaking his head softly as some of Jake's grades caught his eyes' attention. His job was too help youngsters to succeed in learning, but he seemed to be unable this particular young boy, who seemed to have a weird obsession with technology and media services as the day before when he decided to talk to the young boy personally, he had brought scribbles of his plan to become a content creator super star.

"He ranked the lowest in Mathematics and Science, both very crucial subjects, out of all students in the year. His other subjects' performance are quite atrocious as well such as English, Music, History and even Sports." the headmaster slowly listed all of Jake's infamous accomplishments or should they say failures. Emily Anderson painfully listened to the school's headmaster whilst trying to keep in the urge of breaking into tears, Frank rubbing her back softly in an act of comfort.

"If his GPA doesn't improve or gets better in this semester.... we are afraid that we will have to expel him from the school entirely as provided in our guidelines in the school handbook that we handed out on the first day of school."

The words struck both of the married couple like thunder in the present day, their heads can't wrap around the fact that they were told personally by the headmaster that if their son doesn't improve, he will be out of school and that means that Jake will have to find another school.

Gasps escaped from both Frank and Emily's mouths, more than beyond flabbergasted upon being slapped with the sudden warning, although they later accept the information with emotionless expressions.

"Perhaps taking away what he loves as an exchange for a good grade might help?" the headmaster proposed up an idea, but in both of the parents' heads; they knew that that will only make the situation even more worse than it is now.

After a few more minutes of talking to the headmaster of the school, both Frank and Emily left the school orientation with only one feeling in mind : speechlessly shocked

28th July 2011

Following the years filled with screaming and yelling about computer addiction, Jake was doing significantly better when compared to his early years; which is still not that great but his parents would chalk it up as better than nothing. They had busted their asses off trying to get Jake to learn and focus on the lessons given by his teachers, and supervising him whilst doing homework assignments and projects. Few tutors were also a part of this long process although needless to say, they all gave up on Jake due to his desire to learn and stubbornness.

Although his love and passion for the media never died or fade away from his heart as he had carried it with him even with him being led astray from his computer, the fire was still burning bright as it was 5 years before.

He LOVED being in the media, he loved leaving comments on posts and wishing that the comment he had left would gain a bit of attention since he would die for a few minutes of fame in the spotlight and he would always drool over the fact that content creating will lead to some extent of stardom.

Stairway to stardom was his ultimate wish come true...

That is why education wasn't his main priority for most of the time as he was more focused on his online media-based career, which only required finger movements and the ability to speak confidently on camera; he was trying to be a famous content creator and social media influencer. It sounded easy on paper so nothing should be a struggle right? That was where Jake was wrong.

Even though his efforts were notably increased, his slow start caused him to fail numerous application tests for any high school standards. His parents were greatly disappointed, they envisioned a new smart and clever generation of theirs; not this kind of child who doesn't want to do anything related to education or anything that would possibly make him a better person other than sitting on his ass all day, staring at a bright screen 24/7.

Jake argued with his parents a lot on this particular matter, and to be honest he doesn't quite understand why. In his world, being a social media influencer makes him a better person; he can literally motivate someone to do something such as pick up a forgotten retro video game and play it, since that counts as helping someone right?

"Mum! I want to be a content creator, I don't understand why you are so angered by that..." Jake sobbed out, wiping away the angry hot tears furiously as he stared down his mother; who was pinching her nose bridge in stress. They had gone over this so many times, and every time they argued about content creation, it would often end up with nothing and they spent minutes arguing for nothing.

"Jake. That content creation will get you nowhere... you need a real job like a computer programmer or even an engineer! I've repeated this so many times already!" Emily Anderson tried her best to calmly explain the logic behind the whole matter over again, although it was clearly evident that it never worked and that logic will never enter Jake's head or will he ever try to understand what his parents are trying to explain.

"But being a content creator IS a job Mum! People make riches out of this, look at Pewdiepie for example, he is making millions!" Jake fought back further, still remaining adamant about his claims and that was the last straw plucked for Emily Anderson. Jake had finally drove her mad with his redundant beliefs of how great and superior content creation is, she didn't have anything against it but she wished that her son would try something else greater than making videos all days, gaining little to no money. It wasn't a future that she wanted for her son, but he doesn't seem to be on the same page with anyone who tried to persuade him.

"ENOUGH!" a loud stern, throat-straining yell casted the whole apartment flat into a silent halt. Jake looked up at his mother, she had a scary face plastered on her usual cheery one; it was Jake's first time that he was ever been terrified of his mum. His skin sent goosebumps all over, and each strand of his hair stood up instinctively upon the sudden raise in volume.

Emily let out a heavy sigh before slowly shaking her head in what is obviously disheartenment, she gave her son one last exhausted stare before speaking up for one last time, declaring that she was thoroughly done speaking about this topic as she couldn't do anything to change her son's mind and dreams.

"Do what you want. I can't control you anymore, you are not the son that I used to know." she hissed, her tone was dark and icy cold. Her expression was extremely tired and fed up with all of the shit she had to endure for the past 5 years, putting up with the same old problems with her son.

Frank had gave up on Jake 2 years ago, but she still stayed for her son. She believed that she could change her little son's mind into doing something greater and better such earning a degree, applying for a major occupation. Now... she wasn't so sure anymore

Emily didn't speak any further after that and Jake can only say nothing but letting silence fill his mouth with for once no rebuttals coming out of his mouth as he watches his mum retreating back into her with a door slamming shut which was later accompanied by the sounds of muted sobs behind closed doors.

Jake felt something gnawing at his heart, a stinging pain that bounced off every system in his body; for once he was feeling somewhat guilty for his actions, even though he did want to be a content creator, he didn't want it to ruin his relationship with his parents and that bond is already sliding on very thin ice. If only he felt guilty like this 5 years ago then perhaps things wouldn't have gone the ways it did.

His dad gave up on him years ago and now it was his mum's turn to give up on him as well; they were painting out his future days as if it will ever happen a perfect successful that they envisioned for their son, only for him to splash black paint all over the beautifully drawn image illustrated by his parents. He had ruined his own family, tore everything apart like a carnivore crazily ripping parts of meat, for the creature to put the delicious chunks of food hungrily into its mouth.

From that day forward, in his heart and mind as he sat alone on the living room couch listening to his mum's crying through the walls, he swore to himself that he will make a lot of money to prove his mother and father wrong and maybe they can be the same old happy family all over again like they were during 1999 to 2005.

Upon the so-called genius idea that he had come up with in the spur of the moment, he quickly hopped on his computer before creating his first ever channel on YouTube without any hesitation whatsoever. He was destined to accomplish his newly created life goal, in order to make amends for his sins, although little does 12 year old Jake knew, that things will be going downhill and it was all because of this certain decision that he made on a whim at the dead of a troublesome night in London.

That night, a channel was created; a channel underneath the name of SyrupyWaffles

30th September 2016

Jake got hired for a part time job as a toilet cleaner and janitor for a pizzeria, after failing continuously to get into a high school, being paid about 20 dollars by the hour. He earns about 3000 dollars a year, in which could only afford a headset with a crappy microphone built in with it but nevertheless Jake was happy with his choices of how he is spending his money.

He went back home quickly after his shift, setting up his equipment before sitting down in front of a built in computer camera to begin recording his first ever video of his life. After few hours of recording and editing the video, he posted his first ever video on to the social platform called YouTube, doing a let's play on Call of Duty, like a typical beginner would do.

The video performed quite poorly, but that always tends to happen when you're just starting a new career. You just need to make yourself stand out amongst the rest in the community of content creators. The video got about 70 views in a week, although it wasn't much but at least it is a start up on a long-term goal that he was more than determined to achieve.

It was the start for a 17 year old British teenager who had a burning passion for making videos on social platform. Nobody would have thought that this innocent little desire would transform and spiral down into something beyond anyone's expectations and control.

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"Well that is when I thought, things were going up from there, but instead things went south really quickly." Jake explained to Dream before stopping himself, releasing a mournful sob which took Dream completely off guard. Never in his life would he thought to see the day where the cold hearted Jake would remotely come close to crying, and yet here he was in the middle of a rainstorm witnessing the rare occurrence happening right in front of him.

"You crying dude?" Dream asked gently, funny how he was still being nice and caring after all the things that Jake had done to him which was anything but nice. Jake shook his head vigorously as in an attempt of brushing away the tears that was forming in his eyes. He couldn't bear to break down into tears right in front of Dream, his biggest nemesis in his life. It would be more than awkward to act all tough only to crumble right at the end of the story, although he's doing a very poor job of hiding those unwanted emotions.

"The fuck you're on. I'm not- not doing anything. Moving on..." Jake spat, awkwardly fixing himself up by clearing his mucus filled throat, shortly continuing on his telling all about his troubled past without any suspicion whatsoever.

"I was posting video after video, but it wasn't gaining much traction at all and after a few weeks passed, I was starting to feel lost. I didn't understand why my videos were doing so poorly whilst the big stars can do it so easily, earning that cash every day." Jake continued explaining, whilst Dream kept looking behind him for whatever reason but it doesn't seem to mind Jake that much, as long as he wasn't doing anything that was going to cause him loads of pain.

"I was getting more and more defeated about how I wasn't making any money at all, and that I was failing my own life goal." Jake whimpered, sniffling through his now stuffy nose probably because of how long he has been standing in the rain and the coldness of the wind. Although it was nothing compared to how Dream is doing currently.

That fever he had 3 days ago still hasn't gone away, due to the lack of self care he had been applying to himself and not to mention that he had walked in the rain about 2 days ago but the weather was more forgiving than today. The storm was straight up pissed at the Earth today, pouring what feels like thousands of liters of rainwater. He was practically freezing underneath the heavy rain and strong winds, now he wished he had just stuck to his normal hoodies rather than the trench coat that he was wearing.

"and then came... the day that I will never forget... 31st August 2019." Jake muttered bitterly, his face twisted in disgust as a sensation of pain and guilt dug into his chest, crawling back to his heart; devouring the troublesome British boy with overwhelming emotions as he remembers the date clearly of the day that his whole life and world took and drastic dark turn and essentially shaped who he is today.

31st August 2019 , Los Angeles, California, USA

After a few more years of grinding and luck on the platform called YouTube accompanied with the moderate amount of profit he makes by sweeping the floors and brushing toilets, Jake was able to afford a small little apartment across the pond in the States. He was more than thrilled to be moving out from his parents' crammed mini flat, no more judgement and no more dirty looks will be given when they are still stuck over there in Central London whilst he was staying in a more freer apartment in L.A.

At that point, he had been living in his new apartment for almost 2 years now, and every single time he was due to pay rent, it would always be over the deadline for a few days up to a couple of weeks due to his lack of money that he was producing since he had to quit his job of being a janitor back in London. He should've stayed with his parents and earn more money there, rather than coming to the US and having to pay rent that he can barely afford.

Jake was understandably stressed out and very much defeated about how his channel is performing, it was not good and he still did not understand why his channel wasn't doing so great whilst others were just soaring high above him in flying colors. He doesn't know what he was doing wrong... but whatever he was doing wrong, it needs to be fixed almost immediately since he's only miles away from facing complete bankruptcy.

Each day he tried pushing multiple videos a day to perhaps gain more attraction and let his name be heard for his dedication to the channel, but every time he tries it seems to fail endlessly without any drastic changes or improvements to his non-existent reputation.

When Jake thought things couldn't get any worse than this, he was quickly proven wrong on one afternoon on the last day of August when he had received a phone call from his father back at the United Kingdom.

Stopping the recording on his built-in computer camera, he picks up the phone in a flash; he hasn't spoke to his father in ages and very rarely does he call back to his parents, to get an update and rundown on how they are doing, normally only on holidays. Despite having a rocky relationship with his parents from the very beginning, his heart was still kind enough to somewhat frequently check up with his parents. Although little does everyone in the world knows, that this caring Jake will soon transform into something no one would have expected..

"Hi dad! How's mum? Haven't heard from you lot in a while!" Jake cheerfully greeted over the phone, his mood was highly chipper as he was trying to hide the pain of poverty that he was currently facing. Frank Anderson said nothing for quite some time, only letting his deep inhalation and exhalation of  shaky breaths answer back at his son. No one need to tell Jake that something was wrong because he knew that something is definitely wrong, after all he was always the one to call his parents, not the other way around.

"Jake.." his dad spoke after what seemed like 3 minutes filled of silence and static, his voice was hoarse, tired and shaky at once. Through the line, Jake can also hear faint conversations  going on in the background and a lot of leathered shoe heels colliding what seemed to be marbled floor which would signify that his dad was somewhere outside and in some kind of facility.

Only one word can make Jake's body send chilling shivers down his spine, already he did not like the way his dad was speaking; never in his life does he ever see or hear his dad using a voice tone that screams of fragility, defeat, exhaustion and even the sense of loss, all of which aren't good on their own to begin with and having all three aspects at once, was just crying out for trouble.

"Y-yes?" Jake stuttered nervously, his hands rippling out of control in anxiousness. "Your mother..." Frank continued with the sense of sadness still evident in his voice, " your mother just had a stroke."

The Brit felt his heart sunk to the floor he was standing on with his feet, a hole seemed to be drilled through his entire body as the sentence his father had said, circulated around his head, like a loading screen cursor that never stops spinning. A stream of bile raised up quickly in his throat, followed by an urge to vomit.

"Your mother had a stroke out of excessive stress... she was worried about you Jake, worried sick about how your life is going... she cared more than you did. She always checked your bank account on a daily basis, seeing if the number ever went up and whilst it did, it moved ever so slightly when compared to multiple drastic drops." his father explained in detail as Jake stood frozen, his mind frazzled and baffled around the horrendous thought of his mum having a stroke, he tried his best not to imagine the picture and the situation unfolding in his hand.

"She's in high risk conditions, although she can still recover but I'm not sure if she will ever be the same after the process of recovery..." his father began whimpering, sniffling interrupted in between his speeches, quivering in complete fear and it was an understandable. Who would want their soulmate to have a condition that only less than ten percent recovers from completely without any minor impairments to the point of body paralysis? No one, that's who.

"Although that's one thing, the other problem is... the payment. The total cost of her treatment is 2200 pounds."

If Jake was somehow not shocked at the fact that his own mother just got a stroke and is presumably in a hospital bed by now, then the statement of the prices should probably do the trick for him, as he had never ever heard something more expensive than that in his life.

"and I only have so much in my bank account, and judging by your consistent drop in money, I don't think it can afford the treatment cost even if we combined all of our money together, which means that she will die within the next 10 hours if left untreated." his dad spoke truthfully, confessing that he can't afford the payment either, so no need to talk about the possibility of Jake paying for it. This particular personality wouldn't change either way as evident almost 2 years later with what he had done to Dream.

All noises and voices seemed to be so distorted to Jake, he wasn't really sure when the line was cut or when did his dad hung up as he was still wrapping his head around the fact, that his mother was going to die because of a stroke left untreated and he can't do anything but to stare at the clock on his wall endless, numbly counting away the remaining seconds his mum, Emily Anderson, has left on his this Earth.

Unknowingly, a teardrop slid down his face as the he watches the arms and the pendulum ticking away the precious time like sand in an hourglass. He hated how useless he felt, here he was being all stupid about being a content creator determined to make loads of money out of it like he was some kind of prodigy that would instantly break and cheat the system easily.

All those expectations that he held tightly with him throughout the years of growing up into a teenager was slowly slipping away from his fingertips, he doesn't understand why it went wrong as he knew himself that he had potential into being a social influencer and yet he couldn't for who knows why.

Chalking up all of his failures, it lead to a conclusion filled with heartbreak, and whatever strategy or plan he had in his mind didn't matter in the slightest, it was all going to be futile and a big waste of effort. He was too late to try anything now, if only he had just focused at school and education years ago, then maybe his mum wouldn't be stressed out to the point of having a stroke and now disappearing away from his and his dad's life.

If all wasn't too late and he was still able to achieve his goals in time to save his mother's life... it was just a fool's wishful thinking.

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"My mum passed away that very night." Jake said, wiping a tear that was sliding down his face with his gloved hands, "For the first time in my life, I felt broken, completely awful. I let my mum and dad down, now I was the cause of a death.." he whispered mournfully as he looked above through the grey storm clouds, he can still feel his mother looking down at him disappointedly, probably for all he had done.

"TWO deaths." Dream corrected him, he still wasn't going to let the Hailey Rivers' case slide on by that easily. Sure it was still understandable that he couldn't do anything when his mother was dying due to his poor choices in life, but what isn't understandable or should be is that of Hailey's murder; that poor girl didn't have anything to do with all of that shit he threw around in his family so why was she caught in the crossfire of all the madness and ruckus that Jake had caused?

Furthermore why was he himself also dragged into the mess Jake made?

"Hmph... cheeky bastard." the brown-haired boy remarked, letting out a little chuckle before continuing on with his almost finished backstory.

"After that day, I haven't heard anything from dad since. It has been over a year after the incident and not a call or even a text was sent." the Brit muttered bitterly, a sob managed to escape his throat before he quickly suppressed the wretched ugly sounds of his throat. Couldn't make himself look to bad, can he?

"Then about a year later... I met her, a female YouTube superstar by the name of Hailey Rivers."

When the topic of Hailey Rivers was brought up, the soaked ill blonde American was instantly intrigued, this is what he needed to hear most about, entirely due to the fact that he can use this as evidence and claim in court. Dream didn't care what his motive was anymore as it is clear by now that he was lusting for stardom and money. He was going to send Jake into prison, no matter what gets in his way.

"She was the only one, that was remotely nice enough to lend me some of her income when I joined her friend group. We met in a little coffee shop on the outskirts of L.A., and I believe that we bonded right then and there."

As Dream listened to Jake's story of how he insisted with Hailey on getting paid by her whenever he's in her videos to the point that she started to get annoyed, an odd taste came over his mouth, it tasted quite bitter although the real funny thing is that there wasn't even anything on his tongue, maybe its due to the fact that he knows what happens to the nice and generous Hailey... poor soul.

Or perhaps the story that Jake told was quite bittersweet... he had been that kind of person before; sitting in class thinking in his mind endlessly about what he wants to do, never paid any attention in class and he sometimes fail. But what he does differently is that he TRIES to do BETTER, unlike Jake who never attempt to even improve himself which lead to him into destruction of his life, to the point of pawning off youtubers for money, before killing them off entirely just to get what he wants.

"When I got my first load of payment, it was the most money that I held in a while. She was so generous, that's when I thought I found the one career that I can settle in as... as Hailey's friend and colleague." the Brit chuckled at the statement coldly, as he knew that everything that came after the first payment was going to contradict everything that he hoped and dreamed of.

"I felt on top of the world at that point, I can pay my rent happily without any remorse and then I had this feeling... I wanted even more." Jake turned around to face Dream once again, this time he had a crazy ill look on his face as if his mind was beginning to touch the dimensions of insanity.

Dream instantly took a step back from the sudden change of emotions on Jake's face, the contrast scared him. Moments ago, he was crying about his mum's death and now he was grinning like a jackal over the thought of money; it was crazy how simple things like paper currency can drive a human this far gone into the world of madness.

"I begged for more and more money, became more demanding until she refused to give me anymore... I was so driven with the lust of money and was beyond mad when she denied my request." the Brit growled, his hand tightening into a mighty fist ready to punch something or someone even. The violence that he had with him ever since his childhood was still with him to this day. Somethings just never seems to change no matter how much time had gone by.

"So I booked a ticket to that bitch's house, bought a gun and shot that cheap ass whore in the head. Yes, you heard me correctly... I murdered her before stealing all of her money from her bank account transferring it all into mine." Jake finished with a fit of hysterical laughter, at that point Dream was quite terrified as he gulped down a lump in his throat, Jake was certified insane at that moment; he wasn't a human, he was a psychopath homicidal lunatic.

"So when I investigated that case, you actually followed me, Bad, Niki and Techno to the beach and attempted to kill me there by pushing me into the ocean?" Dream quizzed, tilting his head questioningly as he watches Jake laughing away at his "sweet" memories of murder. The Brit nods earning the confirmation of identity of the mysterious attacker that had attacked on the pier that evening. It was Jake all along. he should've known...

"-yeah... couldn't let my story be released into the public can I?" Jake said as the laughter subsides, his voice returning to his normal evil malicious tone.

"Speaking of, before Hailey met her sad end, I also got a hold of your friend BadBoyHalo. Since I saw that you, Dream, were also blowing up pretty fast. If I get to be your friend, it was easy money... am I right?" Jake taunted, beaming out a very cheeky and slappable smile with both of his hands flipping Dream off, only adding more oil to the fiery rage that Dream bottled in.

"You fucker." Dream spat simply, two words but it was still effective to get a chuckle out of the madman, wiping away the raindrops that was dampening his face.

"Am I wrong though?" he asked back, a question that Dream couldn't deny either. After Jake joined Dream's circle of friends, in which he regretted deeply, he had gotten more famous as time passes by whilst he was slowly becoming irrelevant to everyone and his friends. Jake had basically replaced Dream's place for a big time gap of 3 months, doing collabs with other famous creators, participating in events that Dream would normally sign up for. He was basically the temporary Dream for November - January.

"No but still... whether how sad or miserable your backstory is, it is NOT a valid excuse to take someone's life and end it before they can even finish it themselves. It is not right lawfully and morally." Dream criticized, teaching a simple lesson of right and wrong to Jake although he really doubt that the things he say would affect him as a whole, maybe due to the fact of how he looks like he was going to kill him either way, but that didn't really fazed Dream as he wasn't going to just let himself get killed that easily.

He was the Dream for crying out loud.

"Nice words again Shakespeare, but it won't matter anyways." Jake released himself from leaning against the barrier before slowly advancing towards the blonde American himself. Dream's heart skipped a bit as Jake drew himself closer without a warning, and it seems that he was holstering something behind his back, possibly a weapon; most likely a gun.

"Since I don't want to be stopped here, so all I need to do now... is to erase you from existence. Then no one will know what I have done... and I'll get away once again. It is my job, and I will be done with it once I get rid of you like I did exactly with Hailey." the brown-haired Brit explained, his voice dripping with malice. His gaze locked onto Dream's vulnerable eyes, using the method of intimidation to scare Dream.

"Your time in this world is short and sweet.." Jake grinned, as the object in his hand was revealed, metal clicked in his hand as he was aiming the thing against Dream's head. It wasn't anything but a fully loaded revolver handgun.

"Oh really? You think I'm the only one who knows?" Dream blurted out, causing Jake to stop dead in his tracks, lowering his gun down puzzlingly. What was Dream saying? There's someone else other than him that knows about his dirty crimes?

"We all know that's wrong, isn't that right officer?" Dream questioned, pulling out his own secret weapon. Jake's face paled in shock; all of the shuffling behind his back that the Floridian has been doing all this time was actually his phone, on the line with the local police and he had essentially exposed himself, admitting to all of the crimes he had done.

"Copy that, Clay. We will be sending some of our forces your way according to your phone's GPS. Try and restrain the target as long as you can." the dispatcher said over the phone, Dream gave the guy a hum in confirmation before hanging up the line with the police. He exhaled in relief... salvation and justice was coming...

In Jake's perspective, he went from being all tough and confident into beyond scared straight, if he was younger; he would definitely be pissing his own pants right at the moment.

When all seemed to go according to his plan, Dream outsmarts him yet again and this time it was his biggest play ever.

Dream had tricked him into revealing everything and reasons about why he is the he way is, including all of the crimes he had done to the police force and now they were all out to arrest him.

In sportsmanship, he couldn't be mad at Dream even in the slightest; he did play dirty first with manipulating all of his friends against him, so it was only fair and reasonable for Dream to play dirty back in an act of revenge and justice by calling the authorities; charging him with harassment, attempted harm on him, murder, and unauthorized money transaction.

It was the ultimate ticket to hell.

"Well fucking played, blonde little shit." Jake commended, slowly clapping his hands in a sarcastic manner signifying that Dream had done well in fucking messing him and getting his ass handed to the police, stopping his evil way of getting money.

"Since our friends, the police are coming our way. Let's do something fun for the time being shall we?" the Brit says, pulling out something else tucked away in his trousers' pockets. Dream's vision was quite blurry due to the pounding headache that he has been incredibly silent about rather than groaning in pain relentlessly and also because of the growing thick fog and rainfall, constantly obscuring his peripheral vision.

Before he can make out what Jake was doing, two distinct objects were tossed by the Brit towards his way; one of the items fell with a heavy plop whilst the other was near silent although it sounded quite metallic. Kneeling down to the ground, he picks up what appears to be another revolver handgun and a short combat knife; good thing he brought gloves as he had already envisioned that the situation might get a little nasty.

Dream's prediction was further proven when he looks back at Jake and the Brit was holding the same setup, same revolver and same knife with only the difference is that he probably has more ammunition than he has with his only full chamber containing just 6 bullets.

"You've done this before haven't you? PVP? Heard that you were a master of it?" Jake commented, twirling the knife smoothly in his hands and loading the gun with a full chamber of bullets, showing off his experience with weapons.

Dream gulped down nervously, yes he was quite good at PVP but that was Minecraft, a game where they hit each other with virtual axes and crossbows; he was definitely sure that that didn't apply to guns and knives of the real world.

He had no ounce of experience with these realistic weapons whilst Jake clearly had quite some training from who knows where, putting the blonde Floridian into a massive disadvantage and somehow he needed to use that disadvantage into this last duel and battle in the midst of a thunderous rainstorm in Orlando, Florida.

"Dodgebolt... this is all familiar grounds for you, should be easy enough right? Dodgebolt but its Dodgebullets instead." Jake laughed at the comparison whilst Dream cringed at the joke he cracked, it wasn't even funny nor was it the time for some light humor. He was literally going to put himself into danger just for the sake and safety of others.

However, as long as his friends are safe, he is willing to sacrifice everything he has to prevent Jake from ruining their lives further even if it means dying today.

They always say that before you start a war, you need to really know what you are fighting for and what Dream is fighting for is the safety of everyone. If Jake gets arrested, no other people will have go through what he had endured for the last 3 months.

A long and winding, pain twisted journey was about to come to an end with a final duel in the middle of a heavy rainstorm.

"Sure. If you think this is the right way to deal with shit is violence then go off because I'll go all in for all you've done to me, to Hailey, to all of my friends and to the media." Dream declared, as he clicks the hammer on the revolver, the cylinder spinning into a flute with a loaded bullet; the metallic weapon releases an audible pop. His left grip on the knife tightened at the handle, putting it underneath his arm.

Pushing aside all of his sickness and conditions, he puts up a mighty warrior stance. For all he has endured, all of his efforts that he always considered useless might have meant something after all, as it lead him to where he is right now, today; an opportunity to finally fight for his future; to start a new era of his life.... the comeback arc.

"Since we start all of this together... we're going to finish it together." Dream spoke coolly, as he aims down the sights towards Jake on his gun.

A lightning bolt flashed across the city of Orlando, the sudden white and black flash painted both halves of their faces with a small curl of their lips tugging it up into a creepy smile.

Both Dream and Jake were determined, armed to the teeth with their guns and knives... both fighters stared at each other face to face, without any movements performed. They had one desire and goal in mind, with both of their scores tied... they needed to win for their own future.

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When it comes to driving, Bad had never been so unstable with it; however that changes when your friend is literally putting himself into danger by facing off a cold blooded murderer on his own, that is the only exception.

Bad's grip on the steering wheel was trembling, shaking with anxiety. His body, filled with the sensation of panic swarming around his chest like bees when their hives are under attack. The car will sometimes wave side to side due to Bad's unsteadiness and freaking underneath the immense pressure that the Dream Support Team were put under.

The weather was a perfect comparison on how turbulent their minds are right now, it was a whirling storm of emotions that included guilt, sadness, anger and pity. They still can't believe that they turned a blind eye to Jake for so long to the extent of 3 whole months!

Worst part is that they have ignored Dream throughout that time, the so generous 21 year old that essentially boosted their careers into where they are right now currently and this was how they treat him back? It was more than unacceptable.

Sapnap's attention was locked onto the GPS that contained Dream's exact location, guiding Bad through the slippery roads of Orlando, unluckily for them the stormy weather seems to cause quite a bit of a traffic jam as they were being forced to be frozen in place at every stop light and intersection possible.

"Oh come on! Another red light?!" Tommy complained in the backseat frantically, and for once no one argued back in annoyance from the young loud British teenager complaints.

They all agreed unanimously that it was wasting significant amounts of their time into reaching Dream. It was almost like fate and destiny didn't want them to see their friend ever again as if it says that they were not deserved the pleasure of saving their friend or seeing him ever again.

"We're running out of time man!" Techno yelled as he began freaking out on how slow they were travelling. He has been keeping track how long they've been out driving in the rain on his phone.

According to the clock on his phone, it has been approximately almost half an hour, and the longer they are stuck in traffic, the less likely they will able to arrive in time before Dream gets presumably killed by Jake and judging by the state of the traffic, it seems like they won't be arriving in time if it keeps up like this.

"Dude we're fucked if we don't get there in time." Sapnap spoke up above the clouds of silence that had devoured the whole atmosphere of the stationary vehicle.

"YEAH WE KNOW SAPNAP!" Niki yelled at the complaining Texan boy, rather harshly. She was clearly frustrated about everything that had happened in front of her eyes in the last week. Just the thoughts and memories of it made her head pound as if it was about to combust into a million pieces.

After calming down from her outburst of temper, she quickly mouthed a sincere apology for her explosion of emotions before her gaze turned towards the gloominess outside.

Similarly like Dream, she had always loved the rain but this time it wasn't that enjoyable when the fact that your friend might die today is constantly bugging on your mind.

In actuality, everyone can say the same; even if they had tried to stay as calm as possible, none of them really could do such a thing. Maybe other times but just not this time when Dream's life is on the line and that line is wearing thinner and thinner.

"But when we do get there, what do we do Bad?" Sapnap turns to ask Bad, who's attention was locked on the ticking numbers of the stoplights, it was almost like counting the seconds they had left to save Dream.

"Bad." Sapnap called again, as Bad seems to be unresponsive at the moment. He understands that Bad needs focus on driving, but he's also technically the leader of the group as he was often the one to make the calls on what to do. Surely he also had one for this right?

"Bad!" Sapnap raises his voice as once again Bad doesn't answer him, however, seconds later he gets what he wants except not in the nicest way from Bad.

"I DON'T F-  I don't know Nick.. I really don't." Bad let out a fiery introductory before realizing his tone and changing into his more usual soft voice although it couldn't the worry, concern and the absolute panic that was running around in his blood and body.

Great. They don't even have a thought out strategy and they were also running out of time. It was looking pretty bad for Dream and his support team to win this whole war, as the chances dials down into lesser and small fraction of probability.

Maybe it really is the end...

"Wait are those police cars?" Tubbo suddenly pointed out, catching everyone's attention to lock at the said cars. To the left of their vehicle, are two police vehicles parked at the side of the road and like every single piece of police property would have, next to the cars were four officers, talking into their radios, possibly with their commander on what job they are assigned to do.

A lightbulb seems to spark up a light in Bad's head, he had quite an interesting idea. What if they ask what the officers were doing at the moment and if it wasn't a rush, maybe they can possibly drive all 8 of them to their designated location, since they can all acquire special pardon with the sirens of the police cars, signifying is taking place.

It would be much faster to hike a ride with the officers rather than driving there themselves, as who knows how many more stoplights were ahead?

Bad quickly redirects his vehicle into a nearby parking lot, before exiting the car rushing over to the officers, the rest following in quick pursuit.

"Officer!" Bad yelled from quite a distance away, immediately gaining the notice of the four officers. They all looked rather perplexed at the surprising company of 8 people, coming towards them without any warning.

"Yes? How can we help you on this very rainy day?" One of the officers stepped over, taking the role of questioning.

"What kind of case are you assigned to right now?" George quickly cuts off Bad before he can say a word, knowing that Bad would come up with an essay long excuse just to ask a question.

"Uh... right now we have an arrest to do of a British man at a riverside park, who claims to have been the murderer of a famous youtuber and the cause of death of his mother." The officer explained rather quickly as they were also in a hurry. The case's details was strikingly familiar to them so a follow up question was expected to be asked from the 8, whose hopes were starting to brighten up once again.

"and who was the one who made the call?" Wilbur questions, as of all them hopes that the officer's response would be ' a 22 year old named Clay'

"The caller was someone at a riverside park by the name of Clay. Is that all you have, because we are in a hurry, the suspect has weapons-"

"CAN WE GO WITH YOU?!" The 8 screamed at once, taking all of the officers by surprise. They were not expecting an loud booming uproar immediately after telling the ID of a caller.

"Everyone this is not a joking matter, it is a very serious assignment that should be handled in professional care-" the officer tried to reason, putting up his hands in defense, although the looks on their faces doesn't seem like they will be taking no as an answer.

"But that's our friend who made that call, he's putting himself in danger! Please let us come along, we want to see him again..." Sapnap pleaded almost whimpering at the end of his sentence. His plea made the officer contemplate on whether or not he should let 8 of the caller's friend come along the ride to an arresting of a murderer.

It was super dangerous and they would never bring randoms to the site, but after hearing Sapnap's hopeless pleading, they weren't so sure anymore.

The officer looked to his 3 colleagues behind for some help deciding, and quickly he receives speed nods from all of his fellow officers.

"Let them come along, Luke." one of them spoke up. Officer Luke nods back before letting 4 each into the vehicles.

George, Sapnap, Bad and Techno goes on one whilst Tommy, Tubbo, Wilbur and Niki goes on the other. They had practically crammed themselves into the backseats before quickly ushering the officers to hurry up and get going since they are wasting valuable time at the moment.

The red and blue light flashed above and around them in a circular motion, followed by the whirring sounds of a police siren ringing into the dark grey sky, echoing throughout the vicinity.

The vehicles began moving and already everyone can sense and see the distinction of speed when compared to riding in Bad's vehicle, it was miles faster.

The flames of hope that had nearly been put out by the raindrops of doubt and defeat, lit ablaze brightly in their hearts once again, perhaps they still do have a shot at saving Dream, now that they have the police force on their side. It's only a matter of time to see if whether or not they were just in time to save him or will it be just too late.

-------------------------

The two stood and stared at each other blankly yet their eye were locked together fiercely, weapons tightly gripped in their hands. Both of them were nervous to make the first move, despite both being confident into ending each other's journey.

"Cmon what are you waiting, too scared you little pussy?" Jake taunted, spinning the knife playfully and efficiently in his hands as an attempt to set Dream off into lunging full force at him. Then when he does charge at him, he will just move aside and land a nice little slash on his back, easy simple tactics for a free first hit.

Dream did in fact get a bit pissed about Jake's audacity of calling him a coward when he doesn't even move an inch as well, so he couldn't say much out of that big fat mouth.

His feet was about to move in for an attack out of rage when a certain phrase and quote flashed across his mind.

' The wise warrior avoids the battle; fight not unless the position is critical.'

Sun Tzu's words rolled back into his head as a warning and how careful and strategic he should be rather than using plain brute force to fight. Just like in PVP, he wouldn't go in all guns blazing, that would just result in him getting easily critted, he would have to approach slowly but menacingly. The gun in his hand was now his crossbow, and the short knife in his left hand was the axe, and his arms were the shield itself.

If he can implement the skills and strategies he trained endless hours in Minecraft, into real life, perhaps he would stand a chance at winning.

"How about you start first, why do I have to do it? Are you that much of a pussy that you can't even throw a punch?" Dream retorted, smiling widely as he curls his index finger inwards in his attempt of angering Jake.

He had used this kind of offence before at the welcoming party, the power of words would always come out on top than the power of violence.

Shortly, it proves its effectiveness as Jake's head began boiling in fury, never get to exercise the ability of self-control; he lets out a screeching yell as he charges at Dream with his knife.

Green emerald eyes was then filled with calmness, replacing the fear inside, Dream simply moves to the side, dodging Jake's lunge perfectly. His envisioned the fist strike as an axe swing, strafing to the side he would perfectly avoid the attack.

The Brit stumbles over as he falls onto the wet damp grass and earth, his face staining with the nasty moist brownish black gunk. Rage ascended sharply in his blood veins, how dare Dream dodge his strike?

"Not bad, you American piece of shit!" Jake let out a quick triumphant laugh before unexpectedly shoots a bullet out of his revolver. The sudden blast impact startled Dream, he wasn't ready to start dodging bullets after all he doesn't possess some kind of John Wick-ish agile movements so he was more likely to get hit by the bullets more than anything.

Upon the quick burst of light from the revolver's barrel that flashed a blinding light into Dream's eyes, the blonde instantly moved out of the way and miraculously the bullet trimmed the edge of his shoes. He envisions the gun bullet like an arrow shot from a crossbow, it would probably the same speed in Minecraft also.

A zap of heat seemed to lightly toast his left foot, his heart skipped a beat as the thought process of him almost getting shot in the foot settles into his head.

Looks like Jake is really trying to kill him off before eventually escaping afterwards although whether or not all of his money will be transferred into Jake's bank account, is another story that Dream wouldn't be sticking around to see the end of it.

Dream tried putting a defensive stance; however he was a bit too late to react as Jake immediately charges tackles to Dream to the ground right after firing his shot.

The speed of everything that is happening was too fast for Dream to comprehend so unfortunately he was now pinned to the ground by his nemesis, who was lusting to slaughter him into pieces.

Falling to the ground, both his knife and his revolver bounced out of his hands and out of his reach, stripping him bare of any equipment to protect himself.

"Time to die, DreamWasTaken!!" Jake yells as he raises the blade above Dream's chest, aiming the knife to where his heart is located. The blonde's breath hitched in his throat as if it was his last one, he was going to die if he doesn't do something right now.

'Fight not; unless the position is critical.'

Dream quickly scans everything that he can do, in order to escape Jake's tight lock that he was inflicting on him with his whole body. He couldn't kick his nuts anymore as there was no room available for that act of resistance.

Although his throat was bare of any protection, quickly after realizing a weakness in Jake's killing position, instinctively his hand crumped into a tight fist before the punch travels up to Jake's neck.

Dream jams his fist onto the Brit's throat, the force colliding with his jugular was strong enough to knock Jake back away off of him, giving Dream just enough time to recollect his strength and his weaponized belongings.

Jake stood up in a flash, growling like a zoo animal before aiming his revolver at Dream one more time. Dream power slides to a nearby wooden bench, hiding behind it and utilizing his surroundings as his cover.

Sounds of gunshots echoed throughout the riverside park, bullets flying by and puncturing through the pieces of wood of the bench. Despite having some experience with firearms and shooting, Jake manages to absolutely miss every shot that he took whilst Dream stood still, crouching behind his new cover.

"Think you're so fucking smart?" Jake scoffs, brows scrunched up against each other as he reloads a new full chamber after wasting 6 bullets shooting at Dream's shoe and wood before running off to somewhere else, relocating himself to get a better angle.

After a moment of off-putting silence, Dream peeks his head out of cover, his eyes dilating around frantically as he realizes that Jake had vanished into the thick fog and rainy weather.

A gasp escaped his lips as he had lost track of his enemy, spinning around in circles, paranoid at the fact that Jake can literally be anywhere in the thickly fogged park.

His heart accelerates as the fear of getting attacked suddenly kicks into his systems. Lips tremble, panicking uncontrollably in the rainstorm as his body refuses to move from the spot he was standing.

Unfortunately as Dream looks around if he had listened more carefully, drowning out the sound of heavy raindrops, he would have heard the sound of grass rustling behind him with footsteps drawing dangerously nearer.

"Looking for me?" a voice unexpectedly popped up from behind Dream's back. A sharp gasp was released from the blonde's mouth before what feels like a blunt object slamming against the back of his head.

Dream grunted, as he was knocked over by the sudden force battering against his head. Jake had successfully snuck up behind him, performing a perfect sneak attack using the grip of the gun to hit Dream's head with, like trying to split open a watermelon.

Jake laughs in amusement as he rolls over Dream's body with his feet, kicking him in the stomach for extra damage. He didn't care if Dream was covered in bruises or contusions, as long as he can silence Dream's voice for an eternity.

Jake grabs Dream's coat collars before gripping at his blonde hair, slamming his skull against the wooden bench multiple times.

Dream was helpless as he was being physically abused by his enemy, the constant banging pain inflicted against his head was way worse than any headaches or migraines he ever had in his lifetimes.

Dream slumped on to the grassy grounds of the park, after Jake decided to show some so-called generosity by stopping the head concussion torture.

From the top of his blonde hair covered head, Dream feels a warm stream of liquid trickling down his face and it was certainly not the rain. What kind of rain feels warm and comes red in color?

"Already bleeding? You are more of a wimp than I thought." Jake spat, chuckling darkly at the struggling Dream laying exhaustedly on the ground. At first, he thought that Dream would be quite the objective to take down but judging by how the Floridian is already bleeding down from his head after one beating, perhaps it would be much more easier than he had anticipated and feared.

Dream felt weak, he had followed everything that the knowledge of Art of War, to not fight when its not critical; then how come it feels like he was losing to his own enemy?

"That's the best you can do? Fucking weak ass prick..." Dream barked, trying to pick himself up from the ground, patting off the mud and dirt staining his prestige black trench coat.

Wiping away the blood flowing like a river from his head smearing some of it onto his hands, he wasn't ready to give up and he will never give in even if his body disagrees otherwise.

During the head banging he had received, it seemed to have shaken up a fantastic strategy in his mind. An effective idea that doesn't even involve moving his fingers even an inch.

"A bit ballsy coming from a bleeding fuck like you ay?" Jake clapped back, cracking his knuckles loudly in a sign of saying that 'I'm ready to kill you some more'

"Yeah, I'm always to be quite the cocky individual." Dream proudly claims, rubbing his stinging bleeding temples. His face drew a cocky smile, pretending not to be in massive amounts of pain unlike the reality of the situation, where his body was aching in every single bone.

"You really think that this would make everything better?" Dream questions the murderous Jake, who was definitely taken aback by the sudden return of interrogative questions.

"Why yes... if you're gone, my life will be ten times easier." Jake answered, suspicious of what Dream's real intention really is with the question.

"I don't think so..." Dream shook his head, smiling smugly, " I called the police and they are on their way right now, if you kill me then get caught. Not only will you get charged with one murder but TWO first degree murder cases which according to the state law of Florida... you will be sentenced.... to death without parole."

Dream laughed and laughed and laughed, if Jake ever kills him especially in the state of Florida, he will be going down with him no matter what.

All he needs to do is to wait out the clock and pray that the police will arrive any time soon.

"You!" Jake gritted his teeth upon hearing the consequences of his actions, causing him to be in a fit of shock for a moment, long enough for Dream to take on the offensive role.

At lightning speed, he delivers a nasty left jab planting it directly into the centre of Jake's face, knocking the knife and revolver out of his hands before tackling him to the ground using his high school rugby skills to lock the Brit in place.

"Hey! What the f-" Jake blurted before getting shushed by Dream instantly. "No need to talk, you'll talk later at the police station when they arrive."

"Like I'm going to let that happen fuckface!" Jake spat, quite literally as he spat out a shot of saliva onto Dream's face in order to escape his grasp since apparently enzyme interaction and throat jamming is a fair trade off when it comes to escaping someone's tight lock on you.

"Ew what the fuck!" Dream cried as he wipes away the slimy liquid from his face with some assistance from the rainfall. "That's for all the times your pets pooped and pissed on my face!" Jake reasoned, roaring with laughter at the surprising face and expression of Dream, he should've captured it on a camera so perhaps he can use it as a memorial when he gets rid of him.

Jake grabs the knife that had fallen onto the ground, immediately continuing to lunge at Dream; he had just realized that there was no time for paying each other quick sarcastic remarks and full bloated conversations, the police will be here anytime soon and he'll have to run away eventually so he'd better get the job done or else he might be just the trouble that could literally end his life.

Dream tried to dodge the oncoming attack but what he didn't expect is to have Jake , firstly miss his swipe before grabbing onto a piece of his coat stopping himself from falling on his face for the second time. Jake smirked maliciously, knife gripped tightly in hand as he eyes out which part should he slice open first.

'How about his wrists?' he thought, after all Jake knew that Dream must've been so miserable for the past 3 months to the point that he needs to at least had cut himself once. Hailey did it so there's no question why Dream wouldn't follow her closely in her dark path.

Jake presses the sharp metallic blade against Dream's skin; the familiar cold sensation of metal pricked at Dream's skin once again, sending shivers down his spine. He remembered clearly that night when he was such a mess that he had begun doing something that he swore to himself that he would never do it again. Cutting himself.

However, he found himself in a situation with a knife pressed against his wrist with Jake doing the services for him.

Jake stabs into Dream's right wrist dragging down the blade, piercing the blade deep into the blonde's skin, instantly after the nasty sound of flesh ripping, crimson liquid came spitting out of the old wounds that had been under the covers for quite some time. The Brit turns to the other wrist, mimicking the same action he did to Dream's right wrist, slitting it open until he sees that sweet red blood flowing out of his veins.

Dream winced but held in the screams of pain, as he grabs the knife by the blade further injuring his hand in the process before pushing Jake away, quickly taking a quick slash onto Jake's arm in an act of self - defense. Jake, who had been barely touched or injured when compared to Dream, screamed in pain as if he had been struck by a thousand lightning bolts.

Blood flowed out of his wrists more quicker than before, the pain was awful, that is to describe at the very minimum.

With the knife out of Jake's grip once again, the Brit turns quickly for a hard small rock in between the tiny blades of grass, hurling the projectiles at Dream, although he swiftly dodged the incoming small solid cannonballs. Picking up the rocks that Jake hurled back up, he throws them back at the Brit, landing a few shots with his aim, once again thanks to his high school rugby practices.

The hard solid projectiles hit Jake in the stomach, leg and right cheek which left a purpling bruise slowly forming on his face. The Brit grunted in pain, grabbing the other knife that laid on the floor, presumably the one that he had gave Dream earlier,  before throwing the much more dangerous projectile his way.

Dream's breath hitched in his throat as his vision detects a flying sharp object aiming towards his neck. Without wasting any time, he swiftly ducks underneath the knife, letting the knife plant itself against the tree that was standing behind him. The blade softly brushed against the strands of his blonde hair

Realizing that using normal ways won't work against Dream, he'll have to rely on his revolver and shoot him to hell with it. The brown haired boy quickly scans for one of the two dropped handguns, speedily fumbling in pockets he drew out his own revolver. Dream's eyes widened at the switch up of attacking methods, dashing rapidly to intervene Jake from firing. It was risky but it was the only to counter the attack.

Jake aims down his sights, his finger itching against the trigger as Dream runs full speed in front of the gun. The murderer smirks as his target was all in his sight, ready to be caught in his crossfire.

Dream braces for his life as he rushes to grab Jake's hands, preventing it from shooting a bullet out of the barrel. He had experience with running so he was pretty fast to get to Jake although was his reflex fast enough to prevent his fingers from firing though, that's another question?

*BANG*

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Was that a gunshot?" Niki questioned instantly , greatly startled upon hearing a loud blasting impact in the distance. It was so loud that the noise waves managed to puncture through the vehicle; she initially thought at first that it was a firework but with the foggy atmosphere and rain, the sound of the explosive would've been much more suppressed, furthermore there is no reason to light one today.

The others were also fairly that the sound that they had just heard was a gunshot possibly fired by either Jake or Dream, but it was more likely to be Jake who fired the gun.

"This is Deputy Brennen, shots fired, I repeat shots fired." Deputy Brennen reported to the station on his radio, requesting some reinforcements to be behind their tails. So it was  a gunshot as it was confirmed by the deputy himself.

It only made the Dream Support Team swim around in even more worry, if they weren't already filled with concern. Tubbo and Tommy silently wept as their hopes of seeing Dream ever again and alive was slowly diminishing into nothing but wishful thinking. Wilbur tried his best to comfort the two, wrapping his arms around the both of them although he himself also couldn't help but to feel absolutely perturbed, his heart was ringing crazily, bouncing off the walls of his chest.

Niki was also quite terrified to what might happen to Dream, especially after getting notified that a literal gunshot had been fired at the scene. Her breaths shakily exhaled, meanwhile taking only short inhalations. She was only mere miles away from having a full blown panic attack about the whole situation, in which she's trying not to have one since that couldn't make the atmosphere any lighter.

In the other car, George, Sapnap, Bad and Techno were doing equally as terrible in terms of emotions. Sapnap and Bad begun freaking out, to the point that one of the officers had to gently ask them both to try and calm down as much they possibly can, in which they didn't even bothered to do. George silently prayed for his mistakes and for Dream's safety and protection meanwhile Techno was sitting there, muted as if he couldn't talk; however deep within his mind, it was a jumble of emotions; worry, panicking, and simply not calm in the slightest.

The combination of Techno and unchill seems so alien to each other, as his personality behind the character of pig hybrid was also the signature chill expression accompanied with that iconic monotone. Yet here he was, remaining expressionless although his mind was completely out of line, eyes dilating around with concern and helplessly pleading to anything that Dream was safe.

"Are we almost there yet officer?" Bad frantically quizzed, tears slowly escaping his eyes at the thought of a dead Dream, lying in the rain all alone. Clothes drenched with water whilst blood flowed out of his mouth and his body were infested with deep cuts, wounds, bruises and abrasions; a disturbing thought for such an angelic character.

"Judging at this speed, ETA should be around 10 minutes." the officer that was driving calculated quickly in his head. All of 4 of them exhaled in relief, their breaths released hints of excitement and cherish although the taste and the undertones of worry still lingered in their heads.

10 minutes was a short yet long period of time when factoring in all of the aspects in this certain predicament. 10 minutes was quick enough for them to arrive at the riverside park, although that same period of time is still quite plentiful for the both of them to perform extreme actions on each other that could potentially lead to fatal consequences.

Hopefully with the time that they were given, they won't be buying to tickets to see an absolute carnage aftermath of a duel that took place.

Everyone was hopeful yet doubtful of Dream's chances of survival, if only they had gone up to his room earlier maybe they wouldn't cutting it close with time that is slowly ticking away, adding to the pressure and tension.

They just hope that they won't be seeing a dead corpse of a blonde American boy laying lifeless in a pool of blood.

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Jake's finger pulled the trigger which would release a bullet flying out of the barrel; however, luckily enough Dream was fast enough to aim the gun into the sky. The bullet zooming up against the stream of raindrops, and successfully not hitting anyone at all.

Dream tried to steal the gun away from Jake, although the Brit doesn't really agree to hand over his lethal toy that easily as another shot fired out of the chamber, this time planting the bullet into the ground as if that will ever grow into a tree.

Their scuffle caused them to stumble all the way to the edge of the railing barriers, where the swirling current of the river laid right next to them, just a few inches away through the metal railings. The wind howled wildly, the rain poured endlessly as the weather was still forming quite the storm.

"Why can't you just let me do what I want?!" Jake screamed on top of his lungs, a lightning flash conveniently lashing out its light right as he finished. Dream scoffs as he tries to wrestle the gun out of the clearly insane murderous psychopath.

"You think your mother would be proud of this?!" Dream retorted back, receiving a hard headbutt after the question had left his mouth, falling to the ground and releasing his grip on Jake.

"Don't you ever talk about my mother like that!" Jake threatened, putting the barrel of the gun right down on Dream's forehead, guaranteeing a bullet buried deep into his head if he's not careful on what he says next. He will either get to live on a bit longer, or have his head be filled with lead instantly.

"I know my mother, she is p- proud of m-me for wh-what I do." the Brit stuttered out, he seems to become emotional whenever his mother was mentions, looks like he never got over the fact that his mother died because of his incompetence to learn and study in order to gain money. Dream shook his head at the nonsense that Jake had sputtered out.

"You think? A logical mother would be proud of her son, for MURDERING SOMEBODY?!" Dream reamed at Jake at his highest volume, startling Jake enough into snatching away his revolver, unloading the rest of the ammunition inside before tossing the firearm away.

"I know you're not good at education, but this is common sense for crying out loud, Jake!" the blonde berated almost like he was Jake's parent scolding him for his relentless actions.

The sounds of hiccups and sobbing became more pronounced as time went on, it seems like Jake was so lost, he looked pitiful even Dream felt kind of sympathetic despite being mortal enemies.

"You don't think your mother would be crying, breaking into tears because what you've done, Jake?" Dream reverted back to a more softer gentle voice tone as he slowly reasoned with Jake although afterwards he would be wishing that he had never used this kind of voice ever again with a murderer who was certified insanely crazy.

"Do you think that your mother wanted you to save her life with money that you don't own? With money that you gathered by homicide?" Dream puts his hand on Jake's shoulder, he knew he was being too soft for someone who had ruined his life for the past 3 months to the point that he needed to quit being a content creator but he believed that everybody deserves the chance to restart.

Although he wasn't sure that Jake deserved it; his mind is still contemplating about that one but shortly later he will be given a clear answer to that question.

"Your dad would be equally as disappointed, I can assure you that much. Heck he might even follow your mother into heaven after hearing the fact that his beloved son had turned himself into a money-lusting monster that kills people for the desire of high green numbers." Dream explained as he stares at his watch periodically, patiently waiting for the long awaited sirens to be heard whirring in the distance.

He hoped it would be soon since he doesn't how much longer he can hold up with a mentally unstable murderer.

"What do you know about my fucking family?" Jake hissed bitterly, shooting a glare at Dream coldly albeit it doesn't seem to bother the American that much.

"Of course!" Dream puts his hands up, and the same way he did with his voice, " I don't know your family at all, but you also don't know about Hailey's family though you decided to murder her, not factoring about how her parents would react! It's not like they would be crying at her grave with sorrow painted on their faces on how unfortunate it was for her daughter to pass away so soon. I'm sure they wouldn't be doing that!"

The sarcastic reasoning seemed to annoy Jake, as it was harshly true. Dream didn't know about Jake's family, but Jake didn't know about his or Hailey's family either and the fact that he made his way out to shut down one of their lives and make his super miserable without factoring in the fact that both of their existence had an effect on other's people lives and especially when in comes to Dream and Hailey, it was millions of people.

"I just wanted money... to avenge my mother's death so I can make her proud of me!" Jake confessed, as remnants of his troubled past began paining him once again. Still to Dream, it was not a valid excuse to murder someone and make his life miserable.

"You could have when you were a child in 2006-2011, but instead you threw those opportunity out of the window, staying all stubborn and claiming that it will make you successful." Dream said as the light headedness began to seep in, he had completely forgotten about how his head was bleeding, alongside the slashed open cuts on his wrists by Jake. He must've lost blood quickly for him to be this nauseous.

"Well you are successful, so why the hell can't I?" Jake argued as he eyed out the wooziness that suddenly overtook Dream's expression, the Brit couldn't but smirk as his enemy was starting to show sounds of bleeding out.

"Did I ever say... I- that I was successful from the beginning?" Dream muttered as his eyelids began to feel a bit heavy as the world continued to spin. The urge of vomiting was severe and the worse thing, it was going to be combined with all of the other million things he has been diagnosed in the past week.

"I never said that I was booming and rising up in fame right after I posted my first trapping video. I slowly climbed out whilst trying to figure out what makes videos to be viral. I mastered the craft on how to work as YouTuber and then my plans were successful because of my efforts." Dream wheezed out, as his breathing began to transform into sharp whistling noises, which signifies that his systems were slowly being shut down one by one due to the amount of blood he is losing.

Jake pretended to listen and understand by nodding at times as he slowly watches Dream's condition worsening and worsening as seconds goes by.

He thought it would be way more fun to watch someone succumbs to the effect of death underneath his very feet when they collapse onto the ground, desperately breathing in and out for air to continue on living. Begging for help from anyone who was the closest as they were afraid to die, before their frantic pupils slowly stops in motion before growing into a paused frozen state for a while until their whole body goes limb.

Being emotionally vulnerable just to have Dream weaken down his defense was all according to his master plan, he was the manipulative mastermind as he had successful tricked Dream into feeling all sympathetic for him, not knowing that he was only wasting his own time as the red rose blood proceeds to empty out onto the green grass below.

"Thanks for the advice Dream, I really mean it. Although you looking rather a little spaced out there, don't you think?" Jake begun with a genuine tone before switching back to a mischievous one, his lips curling up to form one evil smirk as Dream's eyes widened in shock at how he had fell for his  well thought-out trap.

"You... fucker." Dream cursed breathlessly as his strength was gradually failing on him. He couldn't believe that he had fell for Jake's trap, this is what he gets for giving people too many chances to improve themselves when in the end, they end up not changing at all as seen clearly demonstrated by Jake, who still had his murderous intentions of killing Dream. The Brit's hands were already travelling to grab the fallen knife from earlier into his grasp.

Dream slumped backwards in disbelief, he couldn't that he was fooled by this British idiot and yet Jake succeed in doing so. It was one of those rare instances where Jake outsmarts Dream in the long run.

"You were always the one to outsmart your hunters but looks like I am too smart for you to even try to trick me.." Jake complimented himself, playing with the knife in his hands before pressing the blade gently against his neck, pushing the tip carefully into Dream's skin. The blonde winced at the metal pricking at his skin.

"But what fun does it have if I kill you right now?" Jake says, releasing the blade from Dream's neck, letting him to breathe more freely rather than the shallow inhalations he took earlier.

"Because." The Brit grunted rather sternly as he eyes out a more plain clean slate on Dream's body. "I would rather watch you die painfully, a slow death."

"BECAUSE." Jake suddenly screamed, raising the knife in the air before slashing Dream across the stomach in between each dramatic screech of a word in a sentence.

"YOU. DO NOT. DESERVE. TO BE. SUCCESSFUL. WITHOUT. ANY. STRUGGLES. IT. IS. NOT. FAIR!" Jake's voice breaks as his volume reaches up the maximum, the knife was quickly colored with Dream's crimson blood.

A total of 13 knife slashes were inflicted onto Dream's abdomen, blood splashed out, staining his black trench coat with a big mess of red paint.

As Jake goes in for another slash, Dream catches the arm wielding the knife preventing it the blade from even touching any further, 13 knife slashes are enough for a healthy(?) daily consumption.

Dream wrestles the knife into his own hands, following up with own series of slashing. Swipes of fury landed 7 times on Jake, in the arm, across his chest and even landing a crit with a downward cheek slice.

The rainwater stung the open wounds of Jake and Dream, but the pain was the least of their worries; one still had the intention of murder and the other had the goal of putting the enemy in prison.

Unlike his SMP character, where he was the villain imprisoned away from the others, in real life he was the main protagonist of the story.

Just like the protagonists on the SMP, they suffer through plenty of problems and wars to be at peace. He did as always, he suffered through harm to this day, in order to avenge defeat.

Perhaps he was destined to be put through a path filled with deadly thorns and nights full of violent storms, but with him he always did something that Jake could never replicate, no matter how many times he would stab or slash him, or even take away his life.

He never gave up. ( I know some of you would do a Rick Astley reference, I know you, don't even try and ruin the moment)

After all the things he went through, no matter how much it sucked he fought through it all and never gave himself into the darkness around him and the puppeteer that was controlling the strings of life like marionettes.

"You fucker, you dared slicing my beautiful sculpted face?" Jake growled, smearing some blood of his cheek wound onto his hands. So not only is he a murderous money lusting scumbag, but he's a murderous money lusting scumbag that is filled with himself.

"Yes I do dare, mister Jake Anderson." Dream replied, giving him a bright beaming smile.

"You little c-nt come here!" Jake storms towards Dream, giving him a forward punch knocking the blonde back against the tree. Using the nails on his hands, he pecks at Dream's bleeding head tightly, powerfully bashing it against the tree.

"DIE. DIE. DIE." The Brit chanted as he grins, slamming the back of the blonde's skull into the stump of the tree.

"GO. FUCK. YOURSELF. ALL THE WAY TO HELL." Dream grunted through his teeth as he endured the excruciating pain inflicted inside his head. Fumbling the knife in his hand, he lands a stab into Jake's stomach, the blade piercing through the brown-haired boy's clothes.

As Jake bashes, Dream stabs; each other trading painful blows in hopes of getting through each other's defences.

Dream lands another sharp puncture into Jake's abdomen, this time powerful enough for Jake to release him from the iron grip he had on his bleeding head, the knife stuck in Jake's wounds

As Jake stumbles back tending to his knife wounds, Dream quickly charges right after him, kicking him in the same place he put his knife into the Brit's stomach, driving the blade even deeper into the wounds.

Jake coughed violently, his mouth flowing out with blood as he caresses the handle of the combat knife. It would be painful to pull it out but it would even be more painful if he left it in there especially it will be a burden when he tries to escape.

With one deep breath, and a bloodcurdling scream that followed, Jake gains up all of the courage, pulling out the weapon out of his bloody abdomen, bits and chunks of his intestines gluing itself to the steel blade.

A second later, Jake uses the knife to slash even more wounds at Dream's stomach, adding a fourteenth and fifteenth slash before getting kicked away once again.

Out of the blonde Floridian's mouth came pouring out blood like a water tap, he falls down to the floor in great fatigue, the grass slightly itching the wounds he had gotten.

Jake, who was slightly less injured than Dream, with his fists curled into a ball knelt down to give him some more punches square to the face.

Dream was too weak to even move, the major blood loss had affected harshly and now he couldn't even defend himself when Jake delivered the first meteor strike to his face.

With each punch that landed, it seemed that it brings back a treasured memory that will forever be buried in Dream's heart.

"Die." Jake shouted as he lands his first of many punches that may follow.

'Hi! My name is Pandas! What's yours?'

Second punch.

'Alright Dream welcome to my staff, I'm BadBoyHalo and this is GeorgieHD!'

Third.

'Dream! Dream! Do your shoes need shining?! DREAM! Do you need coffee?-'

Followed quickly by a fourth and fifth

'Dream. DREAM. DREAM!! My friend don't get hit by a train!'

'Dream, my friend, meet Wilbur , Tubbo and Niki!'

Such great memories that had been implanted in his brain, 2 years of happiness that had quickly passed by within the sands of time that had been blown away.

Those thoughts seemed to numb all of the pain from the rest of the strikes that had followed. His face a was painted a deep red purple, a big bruise creating on his left side of his face, although he couldn't feel a single a thing.

Jake had fallen back off of Dream after his never ending series of punches, he had released so much of his rage and frustration after piling it up for 15 years.

"Why won't you fucking DIE?!" Jake screamed, his voice breaking within the rainfall as he tends to his now bloodied fists, looks like he had hit Dream a little to hard to the point that his knuckles cracked and splitting out some more blood.

He had used so much energy and stamina just to kill Dream, to the point that he was panting uncontrollably. His respiratory system was beginning to exhaust itself.

Jake was angry and confused, how was Dream still alive? He had took a lot of hits like nothing happened to him at all even though his appearance doesn't say the same.

Dream, badly injured and bleeding, only gave a soft bitter laugh in response. He glanced up to look at Jake's bleeding face, as he devilishly smiles.

"If you want me to die..." Dream muttered, grabbing him by his jacket collar tightly. Jake was startled by the blonde's sudden death grip, it felt like his neck was going to break by his tight grip.

"Then let's die together."

Suddenly gathering all of his remaining strength, he stands up, legs wobbling as he does, before began running towards the edge at full- speed, fastest his weakened feet can carry him.

"Wh-WHAT ARE YOU?!" Jake frantically questions Dream's sanity, as he wriggles relentlessly to get out of his hold.

"I AM... DREAMWASTAKEN." The blonde American screamed before jumping over the railings that barricaded them from the swirling river, dragging Jake down with him. If Jake wanted him to dead, then let him and Jake die together.

Like he said before, since they started all of this together, they were both going to end it... together."

Dream took a leap of faith, throwing Jake in first before he also falls into the strong current of the river. An audible short scream and a loud splash can be heard in Dream's ears before he too let the current of the stream drag him into wherever he ends up.

In that very moment, a particular question popped up in his head, a question asked by a stream viewer 5 days ago...

"If everyone except you is hanging off a cliff, and you can save only one person.. who would it be?" George read the question upon taking huge deep breaths and gulps of milk, as he tries to down the hot wings that had been the star of the stream.

Dream contemplated in his head for a while, listing off everyone with their important significance to him and after a quick moment of silence, he remembered he gave an answer that shocked everyone on stream and all of the viewers.

"Jake." He said, confidence lathered his voice almost as if he had carefully planned this answer for a long period of time.

At first, cries of disbelief filled out his downstairs living room as all were thunderstruck by Dream's answer, everyone thought it was likely going to be George, Sapnap or Bad who would be selected as they were all his closest friends.

Although his answer may appear at first glance a bit odd, it was quickly explained with his follow up reasoning.

"Because I'll jump down with all of you... together." softly said by Dream, and the whole stream seems to come into a quiet halt before a roar of cheers and claps replaced the muted atmosphere.

It was the perfect answer to convey that he would rather die for or with his friends than saving just one. An answer with reactions that had never faded away in Dream's precious treasured memories.

Looking back now, he realized that this is almost nearly the same scenario, just with the changes of that he was jumping down alongside Jake, possibly getting rid of himself and the villain that control and power over his friends.

Like an infectious parasite or the Egg on the Dream SMP, and he was the vaccine to the nasty disease. It was time to disinfect this sickness from his friends and anyone that is vulnerable or at risk of being a potential victim of this evil tyranny.

Dream smiled wholeheartedly as the grey raining sky was slowly getting further away. If this exact situation happened at a real cliff, this would probably be the choice he would have taken.... as well.

*SPLASH*

--------------------------------

"We're here. Be careful, target is very dangerous so we advise you to stick with us at all times or don't if you trust your chances of survival." The driving officer announced as he parks the vehicle into a vacant spot.

Instantly panic rose in all of the 8 Dream Support Team members, they were about to confront Dream and Jake, if both of them are still alive that is.

What were they going to see? A complete bloodbath with the both of them in absolute nasty bloody states or will they see one of them alive but heavily injured whilst laid on the ground, rain washing on their face, fully unconscious.

These were the thoughts that kept circulating around their minds as they cautiously entered the riverside park, trailing slowly behind the armed officers.

Clouds thundered, flashing bright lights within the big masses of condensed water signifying what seems like the calm after the storm.

The park was suspiciously quiet after literally having heard a gunshot moments prior before they arrived, so it makes no sense for both Dream and Jake to seemingly vanish into thin air without a clue or trace.

"This is Lucas Brennen, all quiet at this side. How's the other side going, over?" Lucas Brennen spoke into his walkie talkie, communicating with other two officers from Tommy's group.

"Heard Lucas Brennen, this is Michael Wallister, dido over." One of the officer's voice transmitted through the static and rain, claiming also that there's no sight of either the blonde Floridian or the brown haired Londoner.

"His GPS still says that he's still here though." Sapnap checked, pointing his finger to his screen. The flashing red dot was still stationery, signifying Dream's presence at the location of the riverside park.

"Sorry sir, but GPS only tracks the phone not the owner. Possibly it can only track the phone that had possibly fallen during the midst of fighting. It doesn't guarantee where the owner really is, if he's not carrying the phone 24/7." Officer Brennen explained, his face was still professionally stern yet expressing a bit of pity when explaining how the GPS tracking mechanics really work.

It was rather harsh to break someone's expectation, but sometimes they just need to accept the truth that they might have been too late in the end.

Nevertheless, they advanced over to where the GPS had last tracked Dream which lead them to where, on the ground, Dream's phone laid forlorn. The screen's surface building up a little pool of water, after being left in the rain for quite some time.

Techno decided to pick up Dream's phone instantly, preventing it from being damaged. The phone was lying in the grassy areas, now the real question is... where on Earth is the owner of the device, Dream?

"Wait." George paused as something seems to catch his eye. Everyone turned to him, before facing the direction his eyes locked on.

"Isn't that..." Techno's voice quivered as he seems to realized what that is. "That's blood!!" Tubbo's voice suddenly shrieked from behind, startling everyone.

The other group had caught up and needless to say they were horrified at the scene. There was blood everywhere, almost like someone had done an art project and spilled red paint everywhere. Most notable things are the wooden bench where the seats were punctured through and some blood dripping down the sides.

The nearby tree was also pretty gnarly, mostly the stump where there was a red circular imprint plastered onto the tree; however it can not compare to the grass that they were standing in.

Blood seemed to be scattered everywhere, splattering all around in a radius of 5 meters although they obviously couldn't determine by their naked eye whose blood it was, unless they were an android that can sample the copper scented liquid by tasting, they stood no chance.

There were also two revolvers lying on the ground, each one remaining a pretty good distance from the other one although no one saw the firearms that were hiding in the tall strands of grass.

"This is gnarly.... I feel like I want to puke." Tommy gagged as although he had done extreme things like tank shooting before, realistic blood was something that his nose couldn't handle.

"I instruct you to puke outside this certain vicinity as this whole park has now become a crime scene and later we will have shut the place down." Officer Brennen advised, pointing at the garbage bins back at the entrance.

After several minutes of pointless searching and scavenging, their motivation began to deteriorate as all of their efforts in finding the both of them, or rather just Dream is a lost cause.

All 4 officers sighed at once, looking at each other, reflecting on how useless their efforts of trying were. Using their gazes as communication, the police had came to a silent agreement, turning over to face the hopeless 8 individuals who were all on the verge of tears over their friend.

"My apologies and condolences, but we can't find Clay or Jake anywhere and until we can do so, we'll have to label these two as MIA for now." Officer Michael Wallister broke the news to all of the Dream Support Team members.

"No... no no no no.." Bad shook his vigorously in disbelief, Dream couldn't be missing, he was just here wasn't he?

"NOOO!!!" George and Sapnap screamed on top of their lungs, slumping down onto their knees and silently sobbing over their friend who was now labelled as missing in action.

Tommy, Tubbo Wilbur and Niki felt like a weight had been added onto their shoulders, weights so heavy that they wanted to let their legs give up on all attempt of standing. All of them just wanted to curl into a ball and cry themselves to sleep, hoping that all of this was just a scarring nightmare.

However, it wasn't dream land they were roaming, it was the dimension of cruel reality that they were living in.

It was all of their faults that Dream was depressed, it was their fault that they fell for a manipulative mastermind's perfect plan and it was all of their faults that Dream disappeared with only his phone left behind, to serve as a memory.

"I'm sorry Dream... I'm so fucking sorry..." Sapnap cursed underneath his breath, his voice barely above a whispering tone.

Was sorry even good enough for what they had done to Dream for the past 3 months that had came by? Some would definitely say no, but some would also say yes.

Were they worthy enough to deserve forgiveness or are their mistakes just as unforgivable as Jake's crimes of murdering someone and ruining Dream's life just for money?

"GEORGE?! NIKI?! NICK AND BAD !?!" Dream's voice yelled, echoing in their heads. Oh gosh... the guilt was already seeping in, devouring their minds in the clouds of darkness. They can even hear Dream's voice in their heads, they were starting to hallucinate.

"TECHNO, WILL? TOMMY?! CAN YOU STOP CRYING AND ANSWER ME FOR CRYING OUT LOUD?!!" the blonde's voice was realistic too real even, like as if he was right there with them, yelling at them angrily, calling for their attention and none they gave him.

"ARE YOU DEAF?! I'M NOT DEAD IF THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE THINKING!" his voice grew closer like he was trying to run towards them in a desperate attempt of reaching out.

Wait... what did he just say?

"Dream?" Sapnap's breath hitched in his throat as he finally considered the thought of looking up from the ground to see if the voice they were hearing all this time was actually idea.

Quite a stupid thought process sure, but could you really blame them for thinking that they were losing their sanities because of the guilt that had begun attacking them?

Upon looking towards the direction they heard Dream's voice, of course they saw their one and only... Dreamwastaken. Completely drenched and bloodied, stumbling towards them with what seems to be a limping leg. Ran down his face was streaks of crimson blood oozing out of his head as a result from the bench and tree bashing moments earlier before they all arrived.

"DREAM!!" All of them exclaimed loudly, more than happy to see their blonde haired friend still alive but not looking pretty well, it didn't matter as long as Dream survives they were more than pleased than anything else in the world.

"YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOTS!" Dream shouted first thing after receiving their warm welcomes, eyebrows scrunched and creased on his forehead looking rather furious and angry. It wasn't that he didn't want to see them, don't get him wrong, he absolutely would die to see all of them once again but he did say explicitly on the tape he had recorded that 'DO NOT COME AND FIND ME' and yet they didn't listen to his final plea and came here anyways, putting themselves in massive danger especially when he doesn't know if Jake had survived the current or not.

When his body hit the swirling waters, his body temperature came tumbling down to a freezing climate, he was lucky enough that he managed to be washed up underneath a wooden walkway pier, otherwise who knows where he could end up, heck he could've drown due to the chilly temperature of the river.

"WHY YOU ARE HERE?!" Dream screamed, voice cracking up after the massive amounts of volume he had used.

"What kind of question is that?! You think we're going to let you risk dying alone?! Have you gone insane Dream??" Wilbur quizzed loudly, not understanding Dream's logic in the slightest.

"It's too dangerous! Jake's a full blown murderer, let me handle this on my own!" Dream retaliated, giving out more reasons that still doesn't make any sense to anyone who was listening.

If Dream knows that he was going up against a crazy criminal, what was he thinking that makes him believe that he can handle a murderer on his own.

He wasn't exactly bulletproof nor immortal, so he was equally putting himself at risk like how all 8 of them decided to come and risk their safety for Dream.

"WE WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" Niki snaps, screaming the loudest her voice can allow her to do so. Dream flinched at the rise of voices that argued back with him, never in his life did he expect Niki of all people to yell at him.

"We didn't want our last encounter to be that argument in the living room..." she whispers as tears ran down her face, actually all of them had tears running down their faces. For the thousandth time, guilt had made its way, crawling back into Dream's heart, it made his guard drop as he looked pitifully at his crying friends, he just wanted to keep them safe, he didn't want to hurt them and make them cry again, but as always it seems to fail no matter what he does.

"Sorry I-... I didn't mean to yell." Dream tried to fix himself, although his rage and frustration was understandable didn't any apologies to be followed. His friends didn't listen after all when he clearly pleaded in his final message, so it was not a surprise for Dream to be in a state of shocked anger . Still he feels the need of apologizing even though it was completely unnecessary.

If Dream had spent a little less time apologizing for faults that wasn't even his and rather spend a little more attention to the noises around, he would've, again, notice and heard someone else creeping up behind him, that someone who had took a quick swim in the river but miraculously survived due to his luck from holding onto a piece of a wooden pier plank, returning to the man who had thrown him in, this time with a fucking burning vengeance.

"DREAM! BEHIND YOU!" Tubbo cried, warning Dream to quickly dodge out of the way. Dream gasped as he quickly spun around, sensing immediate danger behind him. Jake, completely soaked from the rainwater and cold river, had came back to deliver Dream another reunion gift of a knock out punch to the back of his head with a hardened rock.

Dream gurgled out an unintelligible grunt before falling to the ground, knocked out cold as blood continuously exits his body, it won't take long until he finally succumbs to the effects of bleeding out to death. He was just almost at Death's door, only miles away from knocking at the gates to let purgatory welcoming him.

Jake grins maliciously as he stares at Dream's unconscious body lying on the ground, as warning shots from the police officers' firearms began taking place.

"Jake Anderson! Put your hands behind your back and surrender or else we will have the right to shoot!" Officer Wallister commanded, pointing the gun at the culprit that had started all of this bloodshed.

"DREAM!" Bad gasped at the bleeding frozen body of Dream, blood oozed like a fountain from the sides of his head.

"JAKE YOU FUCKER!" Tommy roared, letting the rage get the best of him, if only he was a bit older and stronger, he would've crushed Jake underneath the heels of his shoe, he swore to himself he would do such things.

"Oh boy! Looks like we have some houseguests interrupting our little party eh Dream?" Jake nonchalantly and calmly says, nudging Dream's motionless body with his dirt covered shoe showing loads of disrespect to the poor blonde.

"It's not a laughing matter, sir! Put your hands to where I can see them!" Officer Wallister repeated his order, although it only earned a laugh out of the Brit and no hands up in the air, behind his head.

"Who are you to be the one COMMANDING ME?!" Jake shouts as he throws the knife precisely into the crowd of officers and Dream's friends. All 12 people standing there, opposite of Jake, instinctively ducks, hoping the thrown blade doesn't hit any of them.

"BINGO!" Jake exclaims before a fit maniacal laughter burst out of his nasty mouth, which would only signify that he had at least someone. They opened their eyes and looked around, luckily none of Dream Support Team members were hit, although they couldn't say the same for the officers.

"LUKE NO!" Deputy Brennen shouts as he tends to the bleeding officer, knife impaled through his head. "OFFICER DOWN! I REPEAT OFFICER DOWN! WHERE THE HELL ARE THE REINFORCEMENTS?!" The police began mindlessly yelling into their radios, their confidence was drastically quavering after seeing the target absolutely destroying one of their men with only a single knife throw.

"Now now, let's not get too violent shall we?" Jake calmly says as he walks over to one of the fallen guns, dropped by the officer. A 9mm pistol stood firmly in his grip, he admires the gun model for a brief moment, polishing the debris on the weapon before cocking the safety lock off, loading the bullets into his newly founded toy.

"All of you, could've survived without no harm inflicted like poor Dream over there..." Jake spoke up, walking freely in circles, enveloping around the frightened 8 teenagers.

Their instincts were to run away, but under the role reversal of Jake heavily supervising over them with a gun in hand and those pair of icy cobalt eyes, it made their legs stand completely frozen still, not a muscle even dared to move.

"Now you officers." Jake turned his attention to the 3 remaining officers, that were still cradling their fallen colleague's corpse. He aims the gun at the 3 officers, firing a bullet blindly, hitting Deputy Lucas Brennen in the shoulder, who let out a small yelp upon getting shot.

"FALL BACK!" Officer Wallister commanded, assisting Lucas into escaping out of the park temporarily. They decided it was best for them to wait out for the reinforcements to arrive, and then they will rush in all at once when they are more stacked in terms of number, not strength and confidence.

Now that the police force had retreated back temporarily, the 9 remaining people left stranded in the park was now all under Jake's control. He smiles creepily in a gentle tone at the conscious 8, not paying any attention to the unconscious Dream who was still lying flat cold on the wet ground.

"Now... who should I begin with?" Jake stated, releasing the used up bullet out of the gun. A little smoky trail of heat was released from the gun's shooting barrel. All of them shivered, gulping down their throats anxiously as Jake puts the firearm dangerously close to their personal spaces.

Even if they outnumbered Jake 8 to 1 in this situation, the fact that he had a loaded pistol in his holster made them stand not a chance at surviving or let alone fighting Jake themselves. He can shoot blindly even and still he would've taken all of them down with only one clip of ammunition.

"You were all once my puppets, top tier I should commend you all for. So sad to see my show crumble into such failure." Jake went off, spitting out some bullshit about how they were once his puppets, actually it wasn't bullshit; it was quite the ugly truth.

"Piss off, avaricious dickface." Sapnap hissed, not thinking what would happen when he swears at a murderer who is literally armed, threatening to harm them.

"Such brave mouth you have, Sappy Nappy." Jake commented, reacting to the Texan's boy cute little remark as he walks over to him before pushing the gun right up against his temple.

"You want to say that to my face huh? Loud and clear, speak up~." the Brit dared, his finger getting itchy on the trigger. Sapnap gulps audibly, the audacity of cursing at Jake had suddenly vanish out of his body especially when he was threatened by a man wielding a weapon.

"Scared now?" Jake let out a small chuckle over the deafening silence that left Sapnap's mouth, removing the pistol against his head before walking back to the front. "Fucking pussy.." he mutters whilst walking back.

"Enough talk." Jake fires another bullet into the sky, as another threatening act. "Who would like to be the first one to go?" he asks, somehow expecting an answer out of that kind of question, perhaps the tiny intelligence that he had in his puny brain made that absurd thought up since as any sensible human would do.. no one volunteered into being the first one executed by the hands of Jake.

He had already claimed two lives; Hailey Rivers and Officer Luke, none of them were interested into being the third victim announced dead, lying in a pool of blood, pictures taken by the news and have it be on a daily newspaper headline.

"How about you? Your face reminds me of Hailey and its bringing back quite the nostalgia." Jake proposes, pointing his gun towards the only person that can possibly remind Jake of Hailey, that person is unfortunately, Niki Nihachu.

Unlike Dream, who was only a bit threatened by Jake's force and power, Niki felt tremendously intimidated by the murderer who was prancing towards her with the intention of wiping her blood across his hands.

She felt completely powerless, mostly because she really was powerless, practically unable to do anything but to run, which was not possible because she will be shot dead instantly the second she even take off sprinting. About 3 seconds she would live, she noted numbly.

Jake began blabbering about the various ways he wanted to make her scream for her life, as the rest of them watches helplessly, him torturing her until it reaches the point that she begs him to kill her, in order to put her out of her misery.

It was quite the disturbing thought and she tried her best not to pay attention to the inhumane ways and plans Jake had in mind, instead staring at her unconscious Dream, who was still out cold from that powerful rock blow to the head.

She wishes that Dream would wake up and spring into action, saving them all from this psychopath, but who knows when he will be up again, heck he can even be dead without them even noticing.

Funny how, the person they unintentionally left to rot in the dust alone for 3 months was now the only person that can potentially save their lives from being cut short by the rounds of lead loaded in a gun.

Another Disclaimer: This next short sequence contains physical assault and hostage taking, both really messed up and horrifically disturbing topics. Again if you are sensitive, you might want to skip the next few paragraphs. I'll signal with a 'End of Disturbance' when it's over.

Jake's nasty finger crept towards Niki's wrist, and quickly she swats the hand away with an audible loud smack. The Brit was quite startled by the unexpected retaliation before beaming out a toothy grin on his face. "Nice effort, you bitch!" Jake bellowed, that kind of effort only rewarded her one thing only; a nasty powerful audible slap to the face. Upon the hard hitting impact, Niki quickly lost her balance falling to the floor in result. She gently touches the area of her face where it was harshly hit, a stinging sensation pricked at her skin once her finger came in touch at her face.

"HEY! YOU LITTLE-" Almost everyone except for Techno and Bad were ready to storm Jake at once, suddenly wanting to go against all odds with a loaded gun, they just couldn't bare to see such violence inflicting onto their friend, Niki. Hitting women, slapping in their faces, if anyone doesn't know what abuse is, this is exhibit A exploring that topic.

"Don't you dare come close~" Jake taunted, as he quickly pulls Niki up from the ground before putting into a tight headlock, gun pressed against her head, threatening to pull the trigger if they dared come even close to him. He figured that he would do the say thing, if the police reinforcements ever arrive.

He was taking a woman as a hostage, he was torturing women just to gain advantage of men. It's sick.. it's cowardly...

Taking Niki as a hostage, the situation had reverted back in favor of Jake once again. Rain and thunder intensified in its frequency of flashing and falling, and so did the tension in between Jake and the rest. Dream still laid on the ground unconscious, oblivious to the danger just mere feet away from him, if he was wide awake, he would've jumped and saved everyone already no questions asked, but since that's the case. Bad and company will have to some kind of way to save and release their hostage friend from captivity.

"Oop. Forgot to turn off the safety lock." Jake mumbled, as he takes a bit of a chill pill whilst he was trying to put the gun into fire mode, in which didn't take long for him to do as seconds later, a metallic clicking sound echoed in Niki's ear clearly, signifying that her end was near.

"DREAM HELP!" Niki screamed, beginning to understandably freaking out over the fact that she was about to die. Loud yet weak sounding screams of help and desperation came out of the German girl's mouth, hoping that her voice was enough volume to make Dream stand up again and save her at the minimum. She doesn't want to die, especially at such a young age of only 20.

"Losing hope to the point that you're begging your unconscious friend for help?" Jake smirked laughing uncontrollably at the desperate attempts of living, although rest assured in his mind, Niki will die no matter what. He continued to laugh away with the thought of killing a third person in his life began to form a little nice image of the carnage, not noticing the hands of an unconscious man, regaining the senses that he had lost temporarily.

"Everyone say goodbye to Niki Nihachu... she will be missed." Jake announces proudly, as he was finally ready to do the killing, earning a third murder underneath his belt and the victim of honor was going to be Niki.

All of the rest closed their eyes in the inevitable murder that was going to take place, as soon they will bare witnessing the horrific image of Niki's corpse lying on the floor dead, blood pouring of her mouth with a bullet hope implanted onto the side of her head. If only a miracle would happen and Dream woke up saving everyone once again...

END OF DISTURBANCE

THWACK!

"Everyone say goodbye to Jake Anderson... and he will definitely not be missed by anyone." an American accented voice popped up after a nasty crunch of something colliding that was definitely not a bullet going off.

Perhaps a miracle really saved them as they reopened their eyes and was greeted with the sight of a bloodied wounded Dream, a bloodied rock in hand and fallen over Jake tending to his new head wound and Niki bare of any newly created bullet holes punctured through her skin.

Dream panted severely from the sudden wake up call, it was good thing for him and for Niki that he had woke just in time for him to intervene the execution before the gun went off. Otherwise, the result would've been quite the predicament when he wakes up later.

Dream had saved Niki's life by just the skin of his teeth, his heart skipped a beat whilst doing so. If this visit, if he can even call it that anymore, caused someone to get hurt or even die, he was so sure of himself that he would never stop blaming himself until the day he dies.

Niki felt her life flashed before her very eyes as Jake was about to go pull the trigger, a tear and a whimper escaped at that moment before a sudden release of tightness occurred, she was momentarily confused as to what happened as the surroundings around got quite warm against some fabric.

But when her head registered what happened, she was more than glad that the situation unfolded the way it did.

"It's okay, you're safe, Niki. I got you. OH THANK GOD!" Dream breathlessly whispers, pulling Niki close into his grasp tightly against him in order to assure himself that he didn't lose anybody.

Her heart was still beating, that's a first sign of living. It was beating rather at a vivacious staccato pace, probably due to the rush of adrenaline. Her face flashed a rosy red which means that her blood is circulating normally.

Everyone was still alive, everyone was still here.... everyone was fine...

"POLICE! We're coming to help!" sounds of distant yells came from the entrance of the riverside park, the sound of salvation and guaranteed protection rang loudly almost as the yells muted all of the rain and thunder that the storm was cooking up.

"..ARGH!! DREAM! YOU FUCKING STUPID LITTLE ASS!" Jake roared as he slowly finds his balance to stand, the gun still in his hand and this time he was ready to open fire. Dream's face paled in horror before he knew what they all needed to do : RUN

"Everybody fucking go go go! RUN OUT, RUN OUT!" He quickly commands, and almost instantly every single one of his friend began booking it as fast as their legs can to the exit of the park, where the police are they ready to take them into safety.

Dream ran alongside of them, although stopping by to grab a fallen revolver on the floor at the corner of his eye. Despite the little detour he took whilst grabbing the revolver, he himself was pretty fast and agile so it makes for the slow start he had.

"NO! GET BACK HERE! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU ALL!" Jake gives them all a chase, he wasn't going to let them go easily.

He had ruined Dream's life and now Dream was about to ruin his whole career and life at the same time in one day. He couldn't let that happen or at least let him kill who had caused him the most pain in the past week or so.

Either Dream himself or Niki because she apparently has a resemblance scarily close to Hailey Rivers and it brings back bad memories he suppose.

He fires the gun as he ran towards them at full speed, sounds of bullet zoomed past with the whooshing sound of the bullet going against the wind current in earshot range. Some of the bullet nearly hit some of them like Wilbur who was flying at front and George who was kind of stuck in between the middle, making him an easier target to shoot.

Tommy and Tubbo screamed bloody murder as they ran as fast they can towards the entrance which was slowly getting nearer and nearer, although they were close to Wilbur who was fairly ahead so they weren't at risk of getting caught in the crossfire that much.

However, the ones that are the most at risk are coincidentally the people whom he had recently tormented, tortured and or threatened to kill which were Dream, Niki and Sapnap.

For Sapnap, he was lucky that he was in between Techno and Bad, so he wasn't an easy target to hit although at the tail are Dream and Niki, one having a slower start and the other just not as fast like the others.

Jake figured quickly in his murder filled head that if he was to pick off at least a victim, he would either go with Dream or Niki who were trailing behind the group. Dream was being significantly slower due to his injuries and not to mention the massive amount of blood loss during their scuffles and battles severely exhausted him from any strength left in his body. Analyzing the situation, it would be best for him to provide all of his friends some cover fire since he was being very slow.

He turns around to aim, only to see that Jake was also aiming back, although at someone that wasn't him. His emerald eyes narrowed down, squinting his pupils to clearly see who Jake was really aiming for.

The sights he was locking down was relatively in his direction although a bit to the left which would be... Niki. That bastard is trying to pick her off since if Jake can kill one of his friends, then he'll probably kill himself afterwards out of the pure guilt which would be killing two birds with only one stone.

Dream had known and studied Jake's behavior silently after the past 3 months, he knows how the Brit thinks and the only goal that the brown haired 22 year old ever has in his tiny mind is that to cause as much pain as he can to affect him negatively.

Nonetheless, Dream's breath was caught in a gasp as he realizes speedily that Jake was intending to kill Niki instead, without any hesitation, he strafes to the left, going in to shield the bullet from hitting her.

*BANG x3*

Three shots fired consecutively and time seemed to slow down in Dream's and Niki's world as the both of them fall to the ground after Dream's attempt of shielding. The blonde American falls on top of his German friend, quickly giving everything a quick scan before anything else; no blood was visible to him and her expression seems not to be scrunched up in massive pain, which would mean that he was successful in protecting Niki. He saved her life once again, twice in a day.

He will always be there to save the day.

He went from making her cry unintentionally multiple times a day to saving her life twice in the same day and hour.

Jake didn't care what just happened only factoring in that both of his desired victims are now both slowed down on the ground, trying to get back up at the moment. It was the perfect time to execute them both with his handgun, right here and right now.

Jake pulls the trigger without any remorse seeping into his head in the slightest, although little does he know that.... *click click click*

"Wha- NO, NOT NOW NO NO NO" Jake frantically panicked as he pulled the trigger several times in a row vigorously yet nothing seems to blast out of the shooting barrel, he checks the clip magazine and lone and behold, he was indeed out of bullets.

Dream getting weaker and weaker by the second as the blood in his body was running out, spun around onto his back as he discovers that he was presented with the golden grand opportunity to stop the tyranny and the villain... for once and for all.

As Jake fumbles with his 9mm pistol, out of Dream's pockets and in his hand came... his own revolver that Jake given him way back when they decided to start the ridiculous duel they held.

It was never used nor fired and Dream was more than certain and confident that he has a full chamber of 6 bullets in his gun.

Dream's face forms a weak smirk and smile as his powerless arms and hands shakily aims down at the Jake who was finally cornered at a dead end of his journey.

"GAME OVER... JAKE!"

*BANG! x6*

The first bullet went through his right hand, puncturing through the flesh completely leaving a see through hole in his hand, the gun dropping from to the floor from the immense amount of pain registered in Jake's nerve.

The second bullet quickly followed hitting Jake's left shoulder, knocking him back a centimeter or two and then came the third bullet which went straight for his other hand, the left in case if he tries and do anything with other on, better safe than sorry right?

The fourth bullet missed completely although it was quickly saved by the fifth and last bullet which took out both of his legs, not only taking down his balance but also essentially preventing Jake from dying or escaping as he intentionally left out the vital parts, for him to survive and endure the punishment in prison that he so much deserves.

As he watches in what seems like dramatic slow motion, Jake falling to the ground from the six blasts of gunshots delivered by him

"AHHH!!" Jake screams out in pain, as Dream takes his own revenge by basically immobilizing every limb in his body, preventing him from running or even worse escaping. Jake falls to the ground, bleeding notoriously as he feels iron grips pulling his arms behind his back before cold steel metal cuffs were placed around his wrist locking them tightly together.

"Jake Anderson, you are arrested for unauthorized transaction, attempted murder, homicide and breaking and entering, intentions to harm." Deputy Brennen sternly reports as he puts the cuffs tightly behind the British murderer's back.

"YEAH GET FUCKED!" Sapnap shouts, taunting the now British convict pulling a middle finger at him, before Jake was gradually shoved away into the back of a police car.

His face finally painted with guilt and reflection, but it was way way too late to beginning feeling those kinds of emotions especially after all he had done.

In his head, he was thinking about something else that for once wasn't about ruining Dream. What will his fate be like in prison?

"WOO! FUCK YEAH!" Tommy celebrated, extreme happiness evident in his voice; a complete polar opposite to his emotions earlier, scared of dying and furious at the individual that brainwashed them completely.

"SAYONARA, IDIOT MUFFINHEAD!" Bad bid goodbye, releasing out a word that would probably the most vulgar that he would be saying all year, calling Jake an absolute idiot.

"FUCKING ROT IN PRISON, YA SHITEBAG!" Wilbur cursed, cupping his mouth to make his voice loud and clear above the pitter pattering of the rain. "TECHNOBLADE NEVER LOSES, NOT EVEN CLOSE! CRUNCH MORE LIKE CRINGE!!!" was quickly added obviously by Techno, mimicking his Wilbur's action of cupping his voice as they watch the police car, carrying Jake, taking a left curve before disappearing from all of their sights.

"DREAM!" George shouted merrily, running down to where Niki and Dream were still laying on the ground, Tubbo accompanying him, jogging alongside George with a smile that radiated out sunshine and rainbows, contrasting the gloomy rain and thunder that controlled over the vast grey sky.

Niki, still processing over everything that had just happened in the heat of the moment, for her it was the most chaotic 3 minutes of her life.

Niki was taken as a hostage by Jake first, came close to losing her life if not for Dream saving her with a rock clutch. Then they had to run as fast as they can to the police at the entrance all the whilst getting shot from behind by Jake who was aiming for her.

Next thing she was knocked to the ground by Dream, before witnessing the blonde absolutely unloading the chamber and the bullets into the Brit's body after that the police came and everything was back to normal.

If no one understood everything that she had explained mentally then it wasn't a surprise since it was absolutely hectic and chaos reached its limit today.

"Niki! You're alright?" Tubbo asks her worriedly, as he pulls her up from the ground. She gave a nod of confirmation before following it up with her usual bright warm smile. Tubbo exhaled in relief, she was okay and she was fine, mostly thanks to Dream.

Speaking of Dream...

"Dream! You did it! You got Jake arrested, he's gone now." George giggled as he drops to the ground and reeling Dream in for a tight hug on the ground. He had just almost lost his friend today, it was lucky that they came in time otherwise it might have gone the way that all of them had feared.

Although there is still a worry that gnawed at George's chest, it was the fact that Dream was being silent and unresponsive to all sounds and calls, almost like he was super exhausted that he slept or passed out right then and there.

"Dream." George called, nudging Dream softly, then instantly his careless smile transformed into a bit concerned neutral look as the blonde had gone dangerously silent ever since Jake was arrested.

"NIKI YOU'RE BLEEDING!" George hears Bad gasp a few meters away, he looks over to see everyone looking at the woman's outfit that was slightly covered in crimson liquid that can only be blood in this kind of scenario. Niki was a bit confused yet majorly concerned like George was.

"Guys, I'm fine.. although this blood isn't mine..."

The sentence that had been uttered thunderstruck George as he begun piecing together the puzzle. When they were running a first initial set of 3 gunshots blasted behind him, but he didn't look back to see who it was from, he only saw the 6 rounds fired from Dream.

Then he came back, Dream an Niki were lying on the ground... the mysterious blood on Niki's shirt and that she claimed it wasn't hers. Crossing out every possibility except for one.

With shaky frightened hands, George removes his hands from the hug that he gave and to his suspicions... his hands came away a dark red.

The Brit panickingly turns Dream's body over and shock horror bestowed upon his very eyes. Surprisingly he doesn't scream like he always do, only a sharp gasp was heard from the 24 year old Brit, before his surroundings began an uproar of gasps and panicked commotion.

"DREAM!" "OH MY GOD!" "NO!" were common phrases that left everyone's mouth for the next 15 seconds, everyone was shocked to see Dream in such a state. Already seeing the blood trace, oozing down his head and the bruises he was covered in and not to mention the sliced up wrists but what shocked them the most was the new bullet wound on his abdomen, blood bursting out of the injury severely.

Dream coughed softly, blood pouring out along the vibrations of his throat. They all stood, blood ran cold as they are witnessing their friend in such a messed up state beyond belief.

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING, SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE!" Niki screamed as she quickly applies some pressure onto Dream's wounds. Bad panicking with vibrating hands, dials the hospital hotline immediately requesting for some medical assistance ASAP

"We'll be there as soon as possible." The hospital dispatcher replied before hanging on the call, now all they needed to do is to hope that Dream doesn't bleed out before the ambulance arrives and before he arrives at a hospital to potentially receive a blood donation.

Dream's eyes was slightly opened although they looked lifeless as if he had already passed away, all sounds were either muffled or distorted. He tries to breathe but his nose welcomed no amount of air in, instead blood replaced the air instead. Whether he would choke on his own blood first or will he succumbs to the various wounds on his body is a choice that only his fate would determine.

But what is for sure is that... from now on, there will be no more of Jake in his life. He got rid of the evil demon that had been controlling his life for the past 3 months, banishing the darkness into a heavily secured iron barred cell and to Dream, THAT... is what matters most.

No more Jake means no more suffering.... which would also disinfect every single member of his friend circle. He had achieved the goals that he wanted to do before ending his life literally. He had solved the mystery of Hailey Rivers and had revealed the troubled story of Jake Anderson to his friend who would then reveal to the whole world and let that monstrosity be heard.

"D__am!"

"P_es_! S_ay aw_k_!"

"Don't _eav_ us a__ne!"

"D_e_m, I s_ear do _ot di_!"

"D____! St_y f__ me! Do_'t l_av_ me a_on_e pl_as_...'

He can faintly hear the breaking voices and the heartbreaking cries of his friends over his body, he wanted to move but his lack of strength wouldn't let him do such a thing. It was no use... he was going to die wasn't he?

At least he saved Niki... saved her life from being taken today in this gloomy dark day, taking a bullet for her was less painful than to see her lying on the floor in a pool of blood, coughing up blood in the same state as him right now. He couldn't imagine the emotions he would feel at the sight of that... it would be utterly horrendous and scarring. Him taking the bullet for Niki was the best solution and choice he had ever made in his life, he saved someone from dying, whose life was worth more than his.

Faint whirring noises of what he can only assume is the ambulance's siren coming to escort him to a nearby hospital drew nearer and louder in his distorted auditory system. Next thing he knew, he was picked up onto a gurney, funnily enough he couldn't feel anyone grabbing him at all, looks like his nerve was also beginning to fail.

The last images he saw was the blurry vision of the paramedics, the bright ceiling light of the ambulance and a few of his friends who seems to be Niki, George, Tommy and Tubbo hiking a ride to the hospital with him.

The rest probably was escorted to the police station for some questioning.

Before his eyes darkened down into pitch blackness, his face drew a tiny weakened smile as he knows in his slowly beating heart that his journey called life was probably going to end today, but he'll never forget the things he had done before he dies.

Saving his friend's life, catching a criminal and bringing justice to Hailey's parents.

Whether he comes out of the aftermath, either dead or alive, there was a fact that would never leave his heart... whether he was dead or alive.... he was free.

Those were the last thoughts that sparked in Dream's head before his body and mind gave into the darkness, his eyes drifting away closing shut to the surroundings around him.

For 3 months, he never gave up and never stopped fighting against the odds that he was given...

and after 3 months of pain and effort.... he finally stopped fighting...

Leaving the fate of his future be determined and decided by whichever way the winds of life blow...

Dream : 11 Points (Victory)

VS

Jake (Crunch) : 10 Points (Defeat)

First to 11/Best of 20