𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 | 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙬𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙣

[ s e q u e l - t h i r t e e n ]

sage's pov

I shot Eret a dirty look as we walked out. He was trying to set Dream and I up.

"You gonna give that back to me?" I asked jokingly, looking down at our locked hands.

"Depends, do you want it back?" He teased. What was he trying to do? Uncertain what to say, I changed the subject.

"How's your head? Did you and Ranboo make it back alright?" I asked.

"Yeah. Everyone was worried sick after you didn't come back with us." He said.

"Worried for my safety or worried that they wouldn't get out of here?" I asked.

"They care about you more then you think, Sage. So do I. We all know you were in pain- are in pain." He corrected himself. "And the more you beat yourself up, the more you push everyone away, the worse it's gonna get."

I remembered what Dream, or myself, or whoever it was told me in The End. I remembered what I asked myself. Was I meant to be alone?

No, I wasn't. The reason I had caused all that destruction wasn't because I felt alone, it was because I pushed everyone away. It was my fault, and this was my chance to fix it.

"I know." I said quietly after a long moment moment of silence. "I pushed people away. I pushed you away."

Maybe I wasn't so lost anymore.

"It's okay. You had your reasons, you were hurting." He gave my hand a squeeze. "So, does this mean no more treason?" He asked hopefully.

"Yeah. No more treason." I laughed for the first time in a long time.

"And maybe this also means that we could.. start over?" He said more seriously. I stopped walking and turned to him.

"Hi, I'm Sage." I held out my hand for him to shake it. He smiled.

"I'm Dream, pleasure to meet you."

* * *

"Pretty long hunting trip you had." Schlatt said to me, his mouth set in a straight line. I nodded, focusing my mind on things other then The End.

"Yeah. Pretty unlucky, most of the herds moved South." I said. He nodded, still looking unconvinced. "Did I miss anything?"

"No, everything ran smoothly." He said.

"Good." I nodded. "That's good."

I walked out of the room, trying to escape his gaze. It was obvious that he knew, he wasn't an idiot and neither was I. I gripped the bookshelf next to me, feeling suddenly busy.

We planned to escape on the 17th, exactly three weeks after I came back, to give time for everyone to prepare and lay low for a little bit.

"You and your friends are terrible liars, Sage!" He called from the other room. I rolled my eyes. It was almost as if he had accepted the fact that we had an escape plan, and it scared me that he was so calm about it.

"No clue what you're talking about." I said. I heard him scoff.

"Yeah, I think you got a clue." He said as he walked into the same room as me. "And I won't be as lenient this time."

My vision went black, and my hearing faded as I landed on the ground. He had poisoned me.

I woke up surrounded by obsidian. I quickly stood up desire my blurred vision and groggy state and pressed my body against the iron bars locking me in this tiny cell.

"What the fuck?" I yelled, slamming my body against the bars angrily. It was no use, I had mining fatigue. I looked up as I heard footsteps getting louder. Schlatt stood in front of the bars.

"Let me out of here." I said, my teeth gritted as I rattled the bars slightly.

"Hmm, no." He said. "I'm not letting you off the hook this time."

"How long as it been?" I asked nervously, praying I hadn't been out for too long.

"It's over, Sage. They left. You're stuck here." He smiled devilishly before walking back down the hallway and up the stairs. I shook the bars even harder, yelling after him. But it was no use. They left me.

I spent days there, sitting in the corner of my cell in misery. Was the rest of my life going to be spent in an obsidian cell?

"Come with me." Schlatt said on what I expected was the fifth day in this shithole. I eagerly left my cell, not bothering to resist against my handcuffs. All I cared was that I would get a change of scenery.

"Sit." He ordering, shoving me into a chair in the middle of the room.

"What is this, interrogation? Pretty unnecessary, you can just read my goddamn mind anyways." I scoffed. He glared at me before flipping a lever, and the faint sounds of pistons were heard until they were extremely close. A separate room was brought down, shielded by thick glass. Dream was sitting inside.

"Dream?" I said quietly. "W-why are you still here? Why didn't you-"

"We didn't make it, Sage." He said, defeated. "Are you okay?"

"Listen lovebirds, no time for chit-chat." Schlatt said. He flipped yet another lever and the obsidian walls were replaced with magma blocks, the heat immediately filling the room. Schlatt left as I broke into a sweat. The room only got hotter, my feet burning under the hot floor below me. My breathing became rapid, trying to fight the overwhelming heat. Dream watched, looking absolutely helpless.

"Dream, please help." I said quietly, a few tears slipping down my face. "It hurts..."

I watching as Dream struggled to break out of his restraints. He also and handcuffs, his hands tied behind a chair.

"I'm trying!" He said. "Just stay with me, I'm gonna get you out of there." He said.

"He's gonna kill me.." I sobbed, "I can't hold on much longer, please help!" I was practically screaming at this point. If I died here, I was dead forever. One last life.

"Dream, you need to find a way to get out. Get the others out, get far, far away from here. Don't wait for me." I said. "I don't even know if I'll live through this, just promise me that you will."

"I'm not just going to leave you, Sage!"

"If you love me you'll do it!" I cried. He stopped struggling for a moment, looking at me with a pained expression. I felt myself starting to slip out of consciousness, the heat unbearable. Then the heat stopped. I was too weak to even open my eyes, but I already knew that Schlatt didn't intend to kill me. He intended to torture me.