Dream a Nightmare

/perspective shift Dream

Dream floated above the trio as they celebrated, smiling. They had done it. Three weak people with hardly any equipment had taken on the superpower on the server. And they had won. 

Of course, it wasn't ever here. In fact, Dream had a sinking feeling that it would never be over.

Sure, they had won. This time. But what happened when the other Dream came back? Surely, in a world with infinite lives, nothing they could do would stop him

...

Right?

Why, then, was TommyInnit so happy? Why was Tubbo so proud? And why was Sapnap shouting with joy?

Of course, it was a great accomplishment to stop the strongest person on the server. But just how much did it truly matter?

Dream didn't know. He only hoped that, when the other Dream inevitably struck back, it wouldn't be so hard that TommyInnit couldn't recover.

Was that truly what he hoped? After all, didn't the other Dream have a point? He took TommyInnit's discs to punish him for wrong. Surely that wasn't so terrible?

As long as he didn't get carried away with the conflict. Maybe Dream was on the wrong side.

Maybe.

And yet.

That look. Tubbo's face. TommyInnit's. How was it possible to be so happy? How? Could he possibly not know that the other Dream would be back?

That wasn't it. TommyInnit wasn't stupid, however much he may seem it sometimes.

Something snapped into place.

A memory.

Dream remembered seeing Tommy grin like that before. Where had that come from?

Had he known TommyInnit before? In his past life?

What had his past life been? And why was he brought here? It would make sense if he was drawn to something familiar after somehow returning. If that was so, then it was possible this place was very similar to his original life, perhaps even identical. Of course, he could be wrong. He shouldn't assume this was anything like what he had experienced before. Not that it mattered much. He couldn't remember anyway. But helping TommyInnit felt right. If only he was more solid. He probably could have assisted with the fight against the other Dream, too. Although there was certainly an advantage to being ephemeral, like he was. Namely, being able to see things others couldn't. Now, if he could speak to TommyInnit, then he would be even more helpful. The best he had done was to give TommyInnit a vague sense of unease.

TommyInnit had bid goodbye to his friends, and Dream followed him as he skulked around the server, searching for a hiding place for his discs.

It didn't seem like he had a specific plan, as he snuck around in circles for a while before choosing a place to hide them. He clearly didn't have much of a sense of subtlety, though. He looked extremely suspicious, as he kept looking over his shoulder, and scurrying back and forth from cover to cover. If anyone had seen him, they would have instantly known something was wrong.

Fortunately for TommyInnit, no one did see him. He crept beneath a hill and dug into it, then placed down a chest, looking over his shoulder furtively as he placed the discs inside, then he filled the hole back in with dirt, leaving no evidence of his tampering.

Dream didn't really understand why he didn't put the discs in his ender chest. Maybe they didn't have one on the server yet? The other Dream certainly had had netherite armor, and a rather distinctive look, too, so they had gone to the Nether already. Or, at least, the other Dream had. Perhaps it was simply a matter of no one having gotten around to making an ender chest yet.

Or selfishness. It was possible that someone had made one, but they hadn't made it public for everyone's use. That was possible.

In any case, there didn't seem to be one, at least not that TommyInnit knew of. So, he placed his discs in this hidden chest, and then logged off.

Dream didn't understand this mechanic. What did it mean to 'log off'? Dream had seen it before, and felt some strange hazy memory of doing it himself once, though he didn't associate anything with the memory. TommyInnit seemed to have simply disappeared. Where did he go? It wasn't sleeping. Sleeping was something different.

Dream shrugged, and started to float aimlessly over the hub, and then he spotted something.

The other Dream.

With a piece of TnT in his hand.