TW: SWEARING, YELLING, VIOLENCE, PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE, ALCOHOL, UNDERAGE DRINKING
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"So... Dream," Schlatt said in a questioning manner. Ranboo stood like he always did, tucked in the corner. I don't remember when he first started coming to these sessions, but I'm certainly glad he's here. He was all I had in this hell hole.
The voices had not shut up the whole time I'd been here, the only time they toned it down a little was when I looked at Ranboo. But of course, I couldn't just stare, Schlatt might send him away, and then I'd really be alone. I look back at SChlatt.
"What about him?" I sass, the voices mumble uncomfortably and make my ears ache.
"You trained together, yes? I wanna know, who was the best?" he asked and sat on the chair beside me. My nose was suddenly inflamed with the smell of cigarettes and too much cologne. I look away from him and try to answer as vaguely as possible.
"It was Dream or myself, George and Sapnap were also incredibly skilled but we knew them too well," I reply.
"How do you think that made Sapnap and George feel?" What was this? Therapy? I knit my brows together in confusion.
"They never seemed to care particularly much, it made Sapnap more competitive but that was all," I say. It was the truth, I saw no harm in telling him this.
"Now, Y/N, what did we say about lying?" I whip my head around and look Schlatt in the eye.
"I'm not lying," I defend.
"Oh really? I heard that George and Sapnap hated how you two always won, they were rather bitter about it," Schlatt said.
"You're lying," I spit the words at him.
"If I was lying, would I have this?" Schlatt whipped a small piece of paper from his pocket.
It was a photograph of George and Sapnap. They were huddled close together and wore serious expressions. I noticed they were wearing their training gear too and were standing somewhere on the prime path in SMP territory.
"That proves nothing," I say. It was the truth, the photo proved nothing besides the fact that George and Sapnap were talking about something they didn't want others to hear. But my conviction wavers when Schlatt starts chuckling. My determined expression falls to one of hurt. Would Schlatt lie about that? It made sense that they were bitter about their losses.
"Doesn't it?" Schlatt says. Suddenly, I have no idea what to believe. Schlatt barely ever lied, he just asked lots of questions. I don't remember him ever hurting me, but where else would the bruises have come from? Maybe the guards?
I look down at my hand and my expression twists with every confusing thought I think. I should speak out, but something tells me that's a terrible idea. What Schlatt says couldn't be true. But I don't know that. What he said made too much sense. I try my best to stop thinking about it.
"Here's a question I've wanted to ask for a long time Y/N. Does Dream love you?" I open my mouth to answer but no sound comes out.
I don't know.
"Since you're struggling to answer let's look into some factors, shall we?" Schlatt clapped his hands together excitedly and stood up and started to pace in front of me.
"He kidnapped you, stole you from L'Manburg and your new family. He then proceeded to blow up your home when he knew full well how much it meant to you. Doesn't that suggest that he didn't care for you?" I can't protest. He was right, if Dream cared about me he wouldn't have done those things. But then why was he kind to me? Why did he listen if he had no motivation to? Why did he heal me and keep me healthy and safe?
I feel tears prick behind my eyes. I blink them away, I can't cry here.
"And when you stayed in Pogtopia, Y/N, instead of going home. That proves that you knew he didn't care for you. Don't you think that you would have gone back to him if you truly thought he loved you? Maybe deep down, a part of you knew the truth, he wanted nothing to do with you."
But that's wrong!
"It's not true!" I yell abruptly making Ranboo jump a little. I catch his gaze and send him an apologetic look.
"Oh, but it is," Schlatt takes out another photograph and walks over to my left side. I watch in amazement as he unbuckles my left wrist and presses the crinkled paper into it. I look up at him questioningly.
"Just this once," Schlatt says. I unfold the photograph with one hand.
It was a photo of Dream, he was wearing his mask and was standing on the docks. He was with a woman, she was smiling. She looked like a pretty porcelain doll. Even though the photo was black and white, it was clear that her lips were red and plump and her hair was a beautiful honey blond colour and tumbled gently down on her delicate shoulders. She was leant in closely to Dream with a hand on his shoulder. There was nothing about Dream's stand that he was opposed to the woman. In fact, he seemed to be interested, looking directly at her face with his head cocked attractively to his right side.
"If he loved you, would he be standing like that with another woman? If he loved you, would he have at least told you she existed?" Schlatt said. I gasped back a sob and felt my tears escape.
I dropped the photo on my lap and used my free hand to wipe my tears. Fuck.
He never loved me. He didn't give a damn shit about me. The thought drives a chasm down the middle of my heart. I don't even notice the purple serum being injected into my other arm until my body starts to burn.
~~~~ Tommy's P.O.V ~~~~
I sit on the side of my bed with my fingers laced together. My leg bounces anxiously and my mind races too quickly for me to keep up with it.
I'd moved into the 'dream team' house with Fundy, Niki and Tubbo. As soon as Y/N went missing George invited us to stay, Dream, like the green bastard he is, didn't like it at first but then saw the benefits of having all of us in the same place. We all got to work and built a new upstairs section for our rooms. We made quick work of it since we all knew how to build.
It was the same as the other upstairs area just facing the other way. Bedrooms on the outside wall and the hallway shared a wall with the other upstairs everywhere. We were above the kitchen and the other rooms were above the living room.
I press the palms of my hands into my knees and try to distract myself with the ache. I've been searching for more than a month now. It's only become harder to find Y/N, it was alright before but now winter has set in and it snows almost everywhere. We don't have the gear to stay out in the snow long enough to get much farther than we already have. How the fuck can we have nothing when it's been this long.
It's been so long that both George and Sapnap moved out. Dream's alone on his side of the house now, not that he's here much anyway. Bloody Gogy is a king or some shit and Sapnap were whisked away by Quackity to some random place called El Rapids.
Tubbo's been faced with a lot of shit since he became president. I want to go over there and help him, but I just can't. I'm not strong like him. He powers through everything and comes out with a big dumb smile on his face. I don't regret becoming his VP, I want to support my best friend. But I'd be a dick to consider myself a real part of the cabinet.
"Tommy, breakfast is ready if you want some, it will be cold soon," Niki knocks and speaks softly from behind the door. She's been like an older sister to all of us, looking after and doing everything around the house and shit. We tell her that she doesn't have to stay here and that she can come out and search with us if she wants to. She'd be a really good asset, but she always says that we need somebody to come back to, or else we may not come back at all.
She wasn't wrong about that. I sigh and drag my feet as I walk out of my room. I walk down the hall to the ladder. We couldn't be fucked building stairs so we made a hole in the floor and nailed a ladder to the wall in the dining area.
I jump off before I reach the bottom and land clumsily on my feet. Fundy is sitting at the table with papers in his hand, no doubt reports for Tubbo.
"I'll be going to L'Manburg after breakfast, gotta get this stuff done," Fundy waves the papers around sarcastically and rolls his eyes. Niki puts a plate stacked with bacon on the table and another with eggs.
"Do you know where Dream is, Fundy?" Niki asks, her brows are furrowed together in thought.
"He hasn't been back for a while, and I have no fucking clue," Fundy said and shovelled some bacon into his furry face.
"Where the fuck is he," I say to nobody in particular and wander over to the kitchen bench and sit down. Niki puts a plate of food in front of me.
"Eat Tommy, I know you haven't been eating properly, if you want to keep looking for Y/N you need to be able to face the cold outside. Besides, Y/N would want you to be healthy," she says. I grumble my protests but am easily swayed but what she said. Y/N would want me to be healthy.
I've barely taken a bite when I hear the front door slam open and shut making all of us jump. A cold gust of air flows into the house from outside and Dream strides into the room. His cloak is covered in snow and his boots are leaving water on the ground. I was about to yell at him but then I saw the parchment in his hand.
"I've done it," he says seriously and walks over to a clear space on the table. We gather around and he rolls out the paper for us to read. It only takes a few lines for me to get what it was.
"A letter from the Dark Army?!" I exclaim. Dream nods.
"I'm going undercover, maybe I can find something about Y/N's whereabouts from them," Dream talks quickly and stutters through his worths. He was either excited, nervous or cold, I decided he was all three.
"Dream that's mental!" I say and slap him on the back making some snow fall onto the floor.
"I'll be here less often, I'll be moving around a lot between towns. They specifically assigned me to L'Manburg because of my connections Dream?"
"Dream we don't give a shit about what you're doing as long as you get us something!" Fundy says and I laugh loudly.
I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time, hope. We were one step closer to Y/N. Niki hugs the three of us and tells Dream to take off his coat and boots. Fundy complains about needing to write another report for Tubbo and I'm too excited to eat. I can't wipe the grin off my face.
~~~~ Dream's P.O.V ~~~~
I smile behind my mask as I tuck the paper into a drawer in my room and lock it with a key. I stash the key in Sapnap's old room. I can feel my body ache from the long hours of travel on foot through the snow and my eyes are heavy from my lack of sleep. I couldn't care less, for the first time since the war we have a lead on Y/N. We're going to find her. I'm going to get her back.
I bolt back down the stairs and slip on my boots and cloak and dash to the stables on the other side of the house. I instinctively run to Spirits stall but stop short when I remember. A pang of sadness cuts through my bliss. Spirit wasn't there waiting for me.
I walk slowly and round the corner and see the horses eating. Percy and Spots happily munched on hay wearing thick winter blankets to keep them warm. But Spirit wasn't in the end stall, and she would never be again. She was killed by the whithers. Without Y/N riding her, she was vulnerable.
She was killed instantly by the explosion. I could barely look at her body when we found it. I stumble back a little at the memory and go into Percy's stall instead. He barely looks up from his hay as I saddle him. Every move I made was unfamiliar, I wasn't used to Percy like I was to Spirit. I can barely remember a time without Spirit. She meant a lot to me, but I couldn't let anybody know that. I lead Percy out of the stall and ride as quick as I can through the snow to L'Manburg.
****
I knock on the door and impatiently open it. I see Tubbo hurriedly stashing something in a cabinet behind his desk. It looked like some sort of bottle. I choose to ignore it and hurry into what happened.
"Tubbo, they've accepted me into Dark Army ranks," I say and close the door quickly behind me.
"Dream that's great news! How did you manage?" he asks innocently.
"It doesn't matter, you know Seth Black?" I ask.
"Yeah?"
"He's my 'boss', he's a ranking lieutenant of sorts for the army,"
"The bastard! I knew I should have kicked him out the minute he strolled up here with his stupid cart and charming smirk and-"
"Tubbo you can't get rid of him," Tubbo stops his rant.
"Why not?" he asks bluntly.
"I'm working for him, if we cut him off the Dark army will know I'm not really on their side," I say. Tubbo sighs and runs his hands stressfully through his hair a couple of times. He huffs and takes a deep breath pushing his emotions aside.
"Do what you have to do to get Y/N back. I need to get back to my presidential work," Tubbo says irritated. Just then there's a knock on the door and Fundy sticks his head in. Tubbo beckons him inside with a wave of his hand and Fundy walks in and puts a large stack of papers on his desk. Tubbo's shoulders slump and he sighs.
"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," he says. I leave the room but don't close the door all the way. Through the crack I see Tubbo go back to the cabinet he hurriedly shut when I entered the room. He pulled out a bottle and poured some liquid into a short, fat glass and took a sip. His face crinkled up in disgust when he did, but he had another sip anyway and started discussing L'Manburg's economic stability with Fundy.
I sigh and shut the door all the way silently.
~~~~ Y/N's P.O.V ~~~~
I lounge on my comfy leather couch and stare into the fireplace. It's been a few days but I can't get the photograph of Dream out of my head. When was it taken? Who was that girl? Does she know me? Why don't I know about her?
I let my thoughts race and the voices laugh distortedly in the back of my mind and try to distract myself I go back to the names I was listing in my mind.
Badboyhalo, a literal demon but the sweetest being I'd ever met in my life. George and Sapnap, two of my best friends, but I don't know if they ever actually liked me at all. Quackity, part of the revolution and a friend to pretty much everyone. Technoblade was a traitor, he was my best friend but he betrayed me. I couldn't be happier that he ran away. Philza was Techno, Tommy and Wilbur's dad. Tommy and Tubbo were my best friends, two people who I'd always rely on. Wilbur was the evilest man I'd ever met, I hated him with everything in me. He was never kind, he never cared, he only wanted power and in return, karma paid him accordingly. I'm glad he's gone. Fundy and Niki were the sweetest people I knew, and although I didn't know Jack very well, he has been Niki's friend for a long time. Antfrost works for Dream, I hadn't met him properly but I'd seen him around sometimes. And then were was Dream.
I don't know what to think about him anymore.
A knock on my door disrupts my thoughts and quietens the voices in my mind. I smile broadly and Ranboo tentatively sticks his head into my room.
"Come in Ranboo!" I call and I see his eyes light up when he sees me on the couch. He slips inside, his tail swishing happily, and takes a seat on the couch next to me.
"How are you?" I ask smiling. Ranboo smiles back and gives me a thumbs up. I giggle and pick up the book that's been sitting on the small table in front of us.
"Wanna start?" I ask and Ranboo nods.
"You or me first?" I ask and Ranboo points a finger to himself in a shy manner.
"You can go first don't worry about it!" I say and cross my legs and face Ranboo. I open the book to the page I had marked with the Allium flower he brought me.
It was an Enderian language book, one-time Ranboo visited he brought the book with him. He held it out to me but wouldn't look me in the eye. Like a child who thought they were going to get in trouble with their parents. He pointed to the book and then himself and I eventually worked out he wanted me to teach him English. I agreed on the condition that he'd teach me Ederian. He happily agreed and we'd been working on it ever since.
Enderian was tricky, sometimes I found it nearly impossible. But Ranboo was so patient with me and we always laughed together so it didn't matter how many times I got things wrong. The good thing was that Ranboo could understand English, I just needed to teach him how to speak.
"Ok, give me something!" I say enthusiastically making Ranboo laugh. He thought for a second before speaking.
"⊑⍜⍙ ⏃⍀⟒ ⊬⍜⎍?" he asked. I lit up immediately knowing what it was.
"How are you?" I repeat back and Ranboo nods encouragingly.
"I'm very good thank you for asking Mr Boo," we laugh and keep going.
"⍙⊑⏃⏁'⌇ ⊬⍜⎍⍀ ⋏⏃⋔⟒?" Ranboo questioned me.
"What's your name?" I said a little unsure, but Ranboo quickly nodded telling me I got it right. I smiled and asked him to keep going.
"⍙⊑⏃⏁ ⎅⍜ ⊬⍜⎍ ⏁⊑⟟⋏☍ ⍜⎎ ⏁⊑⟒ ⍙⟒⏃⏁⊑⟒⍀?" Ranboo said. I bite my lip, I wasn't quite sure.
"What do I thinks of something?" I guess and Ranboo nods. He gently pulls the book forwards and spells out what he said with the translations
"Oh! What do I think of the weather?" I say and Ranboo smiles and nods.
"Sorry, I'm not very good at this," I say shyly. Ranboo frowns and shakes his head and pats my shoulder comfortingly. Ranboo then spelled out something with the book.
"You're doing really well," he spelled.
"Thanks, Ranboo," I say and we swap to English.
"Do you want to start with A?" I ask and Ranboo nods.
"Ok, so A makes a few different sounds. Ah, ay, aah, age, and a few others. But once you get those four the others are super easy," I say. We'd done A before and Ranboo seemed to like it the most so I thought we'd start there. Ranboo nods determinedly and sits a little straighter.
"Ok, try ah," I say.
"ah?" Ranboo says back.
"Yeah, that's right! Try ay," I encourage.
"ay!" Ranboo says confidently making me laugh. We go through all the A sounds and he nails them perfectly.
"Let's do E," I say. Another easy one that Ranboo seems to get. We go through all the vowel sounds before we decide to stop. He struggles with O and U but other than that he was nearly perfect. It must be really hard, his mouth was built to ours. He seemed to have more teeth and his jaw was a lot bigger too. His face was built for Ederian which must make English really hard.
"I think we got sounds, is there anything else you want to do?" I ask closing the book.
"☊⏃⋏ ⍙⟒ ⎅⍜ ⋔⊬ ⋏⏃⋔⟒?" Ranboo tests my ender skills.
"Can we do your name?" I guess and Ranboo nods. I smile broadly.
"Yes of course! So Ranboo. Just go slowly, it's the ah sound and the oo sound mostly with a buh in the middle," I explain. Ranboo nods and furrows his brow thinking hard about the sounds.
"R-Ran..." He trails off.
"No, keep going! It sounds great!" I say and lean forward excitedly.
"Ran... Ranb- Ranboo?" he says and I cheer.
"Yeah, you got it! You said your name!" I'm so excited I jump up and stand on the rug.
"Ranboo!" Ranboo says again and I clap. I sit back down next to Ranboo and give him a big hug which he happily returns with a chuckle.
"Can we do my name?" I say. Ranboo nods and we pull the book out. He spells it for me on the page and then says it to me. I try to repeat it back but get stuck in the middle and frown. There's a sound that I can't get past so we eventually leave it for another day. I'm putting the book away when guards open my door.
"What do you need?" I ask confused. I'd already seen Schlatt today.
"Schlatt wants you to have dinner with him, this isn't an invitation you can decline," one of the guards says roughly.
"Should I know anything else?" I ask trying to work out why Schlatt wanted to see me again.
"Dress nicely," the other guard says.
I nod and thank them and they leave us. I sigh and put my hands on my hips and turn to Ranboo whos' equally confused.
"Well, whatever that means I guess I need to actually choose something that looks good," I huff and fling open my closet door. I'm immediately daunted by the unfamiliar fashion laid out in front of me on the racks.
I look back at Ranboo who was now looking at the books on the shelves.
"Can you help me choose? I don't understand dresses," I say. Ranboo uses the book and tells me that he doesn't know much either but he'll try and help. I smile and thank him and go into the closet and shut the door to change.
A/N: choose one of the three dresses below! You can imagine something else if you want <3 Credits to Tobi Fashion and Donnée par dieu
After a lot of trial and error, Ranboo and I pick a dress that will probably work. I slip on some heels and try to arrange my hair so it covers my boney shoulders. We see the sun starting to set outside and decide now is probably a good time to go.
I take Ranboo's arm and he leads me down the winding long corridors and the elevator. We walk until we come across two grand spruce doors. We share a nervous look before pushing the heavy doors open.
The room is mostly dark. The room is lit by a glittering Redstone chandelier and fireplace in the centre of the wall on our right. The table sits in the very centre, it's long and daunting. Schlatt sits expectantly on the other end.
"Y/N, my dear, come take a seat. Ranboo, scram!" he gestures to the seat at the opposite head of the table. I look at Ranboo, he gives me a reassuring pat on my shoulder and leaves the room. I take my seat at the end of the table and cross one leg over the other.
"Why have you asked me here Schlatt?" I ask and Schlatt clicks his fingers. Two servants appear from the shadows of the room, one pours me a glass of red wine, the other pours Schlatt whisky. I don't touch my glass, Schlatt swirls his around and takes a sip.
"I wanted to drink with you," Schlatt said and had another sip. The whisky must have been strong because it made Schlatt start coughing. I stared at the wine glass, it was perfectly polished and the wine looked very sophisticated. But it was easy to hide poison in wine, the smell and flavour of the wine were easily overpowering. Schlatt finished coughing and wipes his mouth with a napkin.
"It's no secret my health is shit, to put it bluntly. But, it's a wonder what Ederian blood can do, some say it's the solution to all the world's problems," Schlatt hummed and leant back in his chair.
"Oh go on, if I was going to poison you I would have done it already, don't be an idiot," he said. Fuck it. I took the glass daintily in my hand and sipped. I felt the cool red liquid splash over my mouth and slide wonderfully down my throat. Best alcohol I'd ever had.
"I can't believe you've managed to put up with that place for so long. L'Manburg and the SMP of course, horrible places. I'm sure you know that already though,"
"The people were always kind to me,"
"Except for Dream and his friends eh?"
"You're wrong! They're good people and they protected me!" I protest. Schlatt drinks from his whisky.
"You know I'm right, stop twisting the truth, always so defensive with you, Jesus Christ. After everything, they did to you, and you still defend them. Can you think of one good thing they did that didn't have some kind of evil intentions?" Schlatt put his glass down. I open my mouth to give an example but shut it quickly when I struggle for a memory to come to mind.
I go through memories I had with all of them, none of the ones with Wilbur were true, they were all twisted. He never cared, not even once. George and Sapnap had secretly disliked me and Dream was a twisted mess that I just couldn't straighten out. But even through it all, I knew instinctively I had to defend them.
"You can't find anything, can you?" Schlatt says. I look down and take another stressed sip of my wine. Schlatt chuckles, his evil laugher echoes through the nearly empty room.
"I'm many things Y/N, I'm cruel, I'm brutal and I'm evil, I'm not afraid to admit any of those. But there is one thing I am not, and that is dishonest."
I raised my eyes and our gazes locked together. Schlatt smirked and raised his glass before drinking. I raised mine uneasily and took a big gulp.
~~~~
HELOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A little less intense chapter after the hell we've put Y/N through! The next chapter will however be intense again but it will not be as intense as the previous few chapters.
I'm thinking about giving Y/N a little bit of an appearance transformation... Comment what you guys think it should be!
I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL MORNING/EVENING/DAY/NIGHT <3<3<3<3
Remember to hydrate!!!