That one time I woke up in prison

Chapter 10

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"So that's it," Karl finished his explanation, "I know that's not much, but I have some ideas already, and I think I know where to start in getting more info."

The time traveler put a hand to the side of his head, wincing. The newest jump hadn't been too kind to him, even though it really shouldn't have been a big deal; it wasn't that far back, and he hadn't even gotten killed or anything. And yet he still ached as if he'd been wringed out. His mind felt loose, shaken up like he'd been through a tumble dryer.

As he looked up at his companion, he couldn't help but let his brow furrow. What was his name again? What had they just been talking about?

The time traveler opened his mouth to ask, but felt the words die on his tongue. He received a concerned head tilt in return.

"Karl? You know where to start in getting more info?" the ex-prisoner prompted, visibly fidgeting.

The boy in the spiral jumper felt his mind click into gear again.

"Oh, right," he muttered, shaking his head a bit to clear it more, "I want to go visit your vault thing, off in the mountains." When it was clear he needed to explain a bit, he added, "The one where you tried to murder Tommy and Tubbo?"

Receiving only a look of horror in return, the time traveler simply groaned in annoyance, "I keep forgetting you seemingly don't remember anything from the past like eight months!"

"I'm telling you I'm not lying about it, I seriously don't remember!" Dream protested, though he was ignored.

"Let's just go visit the vault. But I do have to possibly hijack some info first."

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The bandana-wearing boy didn't think the pain had lessened at all. And yet here he was, because there were more important things to do than mope about his failed relationship.

"Ey, Snapchat! Turbo!"

The boy looked over his shoulder at the call, giving a small grin when he saw the fox. "Finally you're here."

The anthropomorphic fox rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Yeah, sorry, I got a bit distracted."

"Weren't you the one who decided the time for this meeting?" the bee-loving boy pointed out beside him with an accusatory glare, though he was smiling. "Now, what's this about getting the Dreamon Hunters back together?"

Fundy nodded quickly, "Right, right. Well, you remember back when we discovered there was a Dreamon attached to Dream, and we went ahead and did a whole ritual to dispel it?"

"Well yeah, that was basically the first major case we did!" The bee-loving boy confirmed. Sap remembered them telling him about it later.

"We failed." At Fundy's words, both of his companions' smiles faltered. "The Dreamon was attached to his mask , not technically to him."

The bandana-wearing boy felt himself pale. "His mask? But I had that with me for days ."

The fox immediately snapped his eyes to his friend, "You've had contact with the mask? When was this? When was the last time you had it?"

" ... Maybe like a few days ago? I had the mask in my room for about a little under two weeks, I think." It was hard to judge which of the three members were more panicked now.

" You kept a Dreamon with you for two weeks? " Tubbo's expression contorted with anxiety, "What happened during those two weeks? What effect did it have on you? Did you black out at all? Can you still feel its influence now?"

"Woah woah, chill!" the bandana-wearing boy waved his hands in surrender, "I'm not sure, I didn't really notice anything unusual..." he couldn't help but trail off, his eyes widening as he remembered. The argument felt like it was lifetimes ago, but it had been no more than a week.

"Sap?"

"Oh," came the strangled realisation, "that explains the outbursts."

Fundy and Tubbo glanced at each other worriedly.

The fox cleared his throat, "Do you mean... the argument that caused your fiances to be... well, ex- fiances?"

He simply nodded. The bandana-wearing boy startled slightly as he felt something slide down his cheek; he hadn't noticed himself tearing up.

"Well that wasn't your fault, was it?" the bee-loving boy insisted, "It was the Dreamon! If you explain what happened, I'm sure they'll listen to you!"

Sapnap shrugged helplessly, "I'm not sure they will. I said some really bad things to Q and Karl - I even..." he took a shaky breath, "I don't want to apologise to Karl only for him to flinch when I go to hold his hand."

Fundy's eyes widened, "You hit him...?"

"Nonono!" he waved his hands quickly, panicked and eyes wide, "I didn't hit him! I just lost control over my fire for a second and..." he trailed off guiltily, looking at his hands like they'd betrayed him.

His companions took a second to breathe, before trying to reassure him again.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, Snapchat!" the fox insisted, "Just talk to them."

The bee-loving boy nodded before dropping to a serious expression, "Unfortunately, that'll have to be a bit later. We have to deal with the Dreamon first."

He decided that he'd have to shelve his failed relationship in the back of his mind for a later time, for the sake of the mission, "Right. If the Dreamon was there all along, what does that mean for Dream ?"

Tubbo considered this for a few seconds. "Well, in the worst case scenario, he's completely gone after the failed ritual and the Dreamon has complete control over his body even if the mask isn't being worn, and best case scenario, your Dream has been unconscious during the last 6+ months. What are we thinking, boys?"

Sapnap immediately piped up, "I talked to him just before Techno got him out. He didn't have his mask on, and he seemed really scared and confused. He had no idea about what was happening on the server, or where he was. He even asked me what the Revival Book was!" Then he added on, guiltily, "I thought he was just trying to manipulate me and George again."

"It's okay, you couldn't have known," he was quickly assured by the bee-loving boy, "but that does give us the high likelihood that he was being genuine; and that he's conscious without much influence of the Dreamon."

"But it doesn't explain why Techno still broke him out if he was innocent," Fundy pointed out, "but maybe Techno just didn't know the Dreamon was gone - or that there was a Dreamon in the first place."

The bandana-wearing boy slowly nodded, "Yeah that seems likely, the Blade probably wouldn't have known, would he? Since they couldn't really contact each other while Dream was in prison."

They all considered this for a bit.

"First course of action is to get the mask, and see what we can find out about this specific Dreamon." Tubbo started.

The anthropomorphic fox nodded, "Ponk has the mask right now; we can get it off him."

"And then we need to find out where Dream's hiding, and work out how to deal with him." Sapnap finished, as the others nodded along.

The bandana-wearing boy hesitated for a second, "This means we can get our Dream back, right? The one who doesn't hurt kids or start wars? The one who... cares about me? About us?"

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The enderman hybrid didn't quite know what to say when they walked in to find that wretched mask in their house.

"Tubbo?" The bee-loving boy quickly looked over his shoulder at his partner, "Tubbo, what are you doing with that?"

"Oh, hey," he looked back to the mask, "I'm a bit busy; you probably won't remember but I once told you about that Dreamon Hunter thing, yeah?"

The enderman hybrid simply eyed the mask suspiciously. "I don't remember that, but okay."

Tubbo shrugged and set his attention back on the smiley face mask for a moment before his Communicator pinged. He picked it up and scanned the message. "Crap, need to head off for a minute; Tommy's stealing my idea of building dicks on the prison roof and I can't let him beat me."

Ranboo snorted with laughter, though they weren't surprised at their husband's antics.

As soon as they heard the front door shut behind the bee-loving boy though, the air suddenly seemed a lot colder. The enderman hybrid's laughter faltered, dying down almost instantly as a shiver ran down their spine.

"Huh," they murmured to themself, "that's not too reassuring."

They looked over to the mask, and just let their eyes bore into the ivory plastic. Static hummed in their ears.

They weren't sure when they crossed the room. They weren't sure when their vision became a blurry haze of purple. They were only aware of their hands tightening around cracked plastic, and then there was only one thought in their mind.

:)

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"Dreamon Hunters?" the beanie-wearing boy raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Yep; it's Tubbo, Sapnap, and I," the fox confirmed, despite the visible wince of his companion at the mention of the bandana-wearing boy, "and we discovered there was indeed a Dreamon latched onto Dream's mask."

Big Q didn't give much of his attention, instead opting to keep breeding the cows in his farm, but he hummed in vague acknowledgement.

"Which means Dream's behaviour all this time was likely complete Dreamon possession," the fox persisted, still not getting any reaction, so he decided to focus on something else, " and very recently , Sapnap had that same Dreamon-mask with him for nearly two weeks !"

That got the beanie-wearer's attention. "What are you saying, Fundy?"

" Wow, you definitely have the server's priorities in order ," the anthropomorphic fox muttered under his breath, receiving a poisonous glare, "Sorry, what I'm saying is, your ex may have been influenced by a Dreamon during the argument that uh, led to him being your ex in the first place."

The boy didn't look up for a while, he simply kept his eyes on the cattle.

Eventually, Fundy prompted, "So?"

"So what?"

"So??" the fox persisted, "Aren't you gonna try to talk it out?"

The beanie-wearing boy looked up at him, eyes cold and expression apathetic, though there was clear hurt behind the wall he put up, "Remember what Schlatt said to you in response to you calling him out right before he had a heart attack?"

He felt his throat constrict. He fucking hated those words; couldn't bear to think of them again. He managed to choke out a response though, wrapping his arms around himself tightly. "Yeah? What of it?"

"Do you forgive what he said, even though he was probably high off his ass?"

"Fuck no," the fox growled, still feeling the white-hot anger as he screwed up his snout, "I don't give two craps what his excuse was; it fucking hurt."

A moment after the words left his mouth, the fox understood, letting his jaw fall shut again in silence. The beanie-wearing boy simply nodded, needing to say nothing more.