The Blinding Light of Sunrise: The Las Nevadas Arc - AU Short Stories

Chapter 19.5 Battle For Kinoko Kingdom Part 2 - George, Sapnap/Karl

"That was quite a trick you played on Sapnap," Purpled said, tearing off a piece of drumstick with his teeth.  "Cold as f-ck.  It was a thing of beauty."

"Of course," George said, slicing his steak.  He shoved a forkful in his mouth, just glancing around the room at the guards.  "I really don't know why he thought I would betray my oldest friend for him and Karl.  You aren't keeping him with Karl, are you?" he asked, as though only vaguely interested.

"F-ck no!  And give them the chance to plan an escape together?  No, we've got Karl under guard in the castle."

"Good."  Not good.  They were supposed to be kept together.  He was going to have to come up with a new plan.

Purpled took another large bite, clearing the bone.  "Dream will be happy to see you, come tomorrow."

George nearly dropped his fork.  "What?  Is he coming back here? So soon?"  

The idea of seeing Dream in only a few hours after so long filled him with an unsettling mixture of terror and elation.  He desperately wanted to see him - not Dream as he was, not the man who'd become so dangerous, so violent and cruel they'd had to lock him up, not the man who stood silhouetted in fire as ash and smoke curled around him - but Dream as he remembered him, as his best friend whom he'd built the Community House with, who he'd fought beside.  A man who, the whole of the wreckage of Kinoko Kingdom testified, no longer existed.

Purpled shook his head, leaning his chair back so it rocked precariously on its two rear legs.  "No,  you'll be going to him.  I've had strict orders that if we found you to send you directly to him."

George fought to keep down the nervous shaking in his leg.  "What if I hadn't wanted to go?"  

"That would've been annoying for me."  Purpled drank from his cup and grimaced.  "This stuff is sh-t."  He dumped it on the floor.  It trickled down the cracks between boards until it reached the door where it mingled with the puddles of rain water that had seeped in.  He coughed.  "How the f-ck do you stand all the rain and damp in the air?"

George took a sip from his own cup.  "You get used to it."

"You'll like Las Nevadas.  Have you ever been there?"

"Not really."

"It's in a big desert, the air is so easy to breathe, not like this heavy sh-t.  Just a touch of salt from the sea.  It almost never rains or snows, unless it's scheduled to.  F-ing paradise compared to this mushroom infested mudhole."

George gave half a smile to hide his offense.  He happened to be quite proud of his part in this mushroom infested mudhole.  "It sounds like you can't wait to go back."

"You'd better f-ing believe it.  Now that we've got Sapnap, once Drista gets back from the executions, I'm home free.  No more backwoods babysitting."

"What's going to happen to Sapnap?" George tried his best to sound nonchalant as he asked.

"Punz reported that he fought together with Quackity and Tubbo.  The law is clear what the penalty for helping Quackity is.  But, you know Dream, he'll probably give him a chance to recant during the trial.  He'll never believe his old friend's really against him unless Sapnap says it to his face."  

"The trial?"

"Yeah, at Las Nevadas.  Probably send him with you.  I assume you can handle him for the ride.  I mean, in theory."

George's mind was whirring.  Making connections, recalculating plans. "Yeah, just give me a few guards.  Two would probably be enough."

"You won't need them.  Sapnap's not going to give you any trouble."  Purpled leaned in and beckoned George to do the same.  "I've had orders from the high judge to arrange a little accident for him if we ever caught him."