Neutrality Order (TomBoo)

W.C. - Chapter 1

This time when Crow Father stepped into Tartarus, he had his own demands on the meeting arrangements.

He would speak for as long as he wished.

And he would speak about whatever it was he chose.

The fright that Dream gave the entirety of Tartarus, other inmates included, had them agreeing to most anything to the person who took the man down not once, but twice.

Crow Father followed the guards down the hallway he could almost walk through by memory by this point and stood at the front of the door gathering his thoughts and collecting his emotions before the light indicated he was good to go in.

Same as the last few times, Dream was seated bound tightly in the chair, this time with a few more bindings from what Crow Father could remember. The man smiled when Crow Father walked in, it looking almost friendly and inviting rather than wickedly mirthful. "A suit this time, Crow Father?" he commented. "I'm flattered."

Crow Father resisted the urge to roll his eyes, walking over to the chair provided and sitting down. "I'm sure," he replied. "I got a call last night at an ungodly hour. Not exactly something I want to have, you understand."

"Apologies," Dream replied, actually sounding minimally sincere. "I was simply privy to something with Search and admittedly lost control a bit. I'm sure by this point you have an inkling of what exactly it was." His eyeless sight seemed to hone in on Crow Father. "...no, not an inkling, is it? You know exactly what it is that put me in such a good mood."

"Yes," Crow Father said. "I do." He said nothing more about specifics, lest someone overhear and possibly report Hawks to the Commission. "...I asked you before, but I want to really ask again. Do you approve of what they are? What they're doing?"

Dream seemed to think for a moment. "It's a very difficult thing to really form a black and white opinion on, isn't it?" he finally said. "On the one hand, I found and raised Ranboo with a certain method. He was psychologically stuck on an 'itch' to scratch whenever he wanted to hurt something, and I pushed him to act on those urges as he wanted. A bit underhanded, yes, but one cannot rule the entirety of the world with things like scruples keeping you from dishing out the final blow, yes?"

Crow Father scowled. "...that's disgusting," he hissed.

"Yes. But that's not to say I raised him up to be nothing more than a killing machine. I let him make his mistakes and suffer the lessons for them. And like the bright child he was, he did indeed learn and grow. Of course, children need hobbies, so I allowed him to indulge in whatever he pleased. Quite a chunk of his allowance was always spent on video games, but he learned to think in terms of gameplay, so it panned out in the end anyway."

"...you said you actually came to care for him. Was that just rhetoric too?"

"No. I really did grow fond of him as the years went on. He did possibly become the progeny I never truly got around to having naturally, and his genuine care of me outside of my prestige and power was a comforting newness. While I never did love him as I would have my own child, he is still the child I took in and raised, his own bloodline and my backhanded attempts on your emotions aside." Dream smiled softly. "You know the very thing I speak of, don't you, Philza? About Tommy."

Crow Father's hands clenched slightly. "...yes," he said. "Tommy had become the most precious thing in the world to me, something I didn't realize until I felt you threaten to take him away, in Kamino Ward."

Dream's smile turned somewhat sheepish. "It was implied that I would simply kill you and leave him without a master," he admitted. "Though, what a stroke of cruel fate it would have been if you failed and I managed to pull him into my clutches as well. But that is neither here nor there. We are now both here, our boys out doing their own work together, taking up the mantle that we as old men have left behind...albeit in a way even I didn't see possible."