The Stage is Set

Chapter 24: The crying DayDream pt.1

Cry Baby - Melanie Martinez

Error shakily places the glasses on. The warning creates a deep fear of the power handed to him. He blinks in surprise, nothing happened. He looks down at the key placed in his hands before looking around. The others nod back at him, ready as they'll ever be for this adventure. Error grips the key tightly before walking to the door with a star. Nightmare grips his spear tightly, he's never used one before, and he hopes he doesn't have to. He steels his nerves, adjusting his grip on his weapon and squaring his shoulders. He tries to block out the cries of his brother, hearing them will only push him to rush. Rushing can lead to losing his friends or his brother, he can't afford for emotions to take control of him again. He needs to bring his brother home. He needs them all to come back home safely.

Dream grunts, refusing to give into Shattered's deal. Never, would Dream ever even think about betraying his friends and family. The chains around his arms in his prison rattle. It's a prison he's made for himself, to keep himself safe against Shattered. A forcefield meant to keep him in and to keep others out. Dream growls at Shattered as he walks around the bubble of his creation. Shattered marvels at Dream, staring at him as if he was a prized exotic animal. One he can't wait to see slaughtered before devouring. Dream feels tears of anguish drip as he feels a pulling sensation on something. His aura tries its best to stay in one form, one shape. He no longer has a body, and he will not give in to Shattered. Shattered had offered him one, in exchange for his soul and title as the guardian of positivity. Dream would have to be an idiot to say yes. He would rather have half a soul and no body than give in to Shattered because he knows. He knows exactly why Shattered wants a body. Why Shattered craves his whole soul and title, he isn't stupid enough to endanger the Multiverse he calls home. Dream struggles to sit up, he tries to pay the two ghosts no attention. He knows one of them well. He knows them from what Bani had shown them not too long ago. He doesn't know the other. The other he is wary of. What if one of them is a delusion? A sheet waiting to be thrown over his eyes so he slips up. He can't risk trusting any of the two ghosts. Nor can he trust the being in front of him.

It would be a foolish decision.

Dream is not a fool. Not anymore.

He needs to find a way out, either to find Blue or to help Blue find him. The image of the crushed room fills his mind, and he lets out a sob at the painful stab at himself. What about his brother? He needs to make sure that his brother is alive. He can't fathom a world without his brother. He can't do his job without his twin. The negativity swarms in his being, near his soul, burning him from the inside out. He cries out in anguish as he continues to further his spiral of self-destruction. Shattered watches on in amusement and wonder. The thought that Dream may just break himself makes Shattered purr in delight. Dream could burn himself away to nothingness, just with his thoughts. The curiosity in Shattered is almost enough to make him want to see it happen. Shattered steps through the forcefield with a grin. All that positivity, just sitting in front of him. A meal to make him stronger. He almost drools at the thought of becoming so powerful. Dream glares up at Shattered with a snarl.

Shattered squats down in front of him, lifting his skull to look Shattered in the sockets. Shattered's brow bones furrow as he smiles down at the pitiful guardian. "You seem to replace your brain with your heart." Dream growls as a hand tries to cup half of a soul, trying to pull it out of the core of his being. Shattered loses his smile as he quickly retracts his hand from the burning sensation that Dream's being gave him. Of course, pure positivity would wound him, he needs just a bit more corruption of that pureness to devour Dream. Shattered stands up with a scoff. "You take things so hard," Shattered shoves Dream's skull towards the floor with a giggle. "And then you fall apart~"

Dream screams out in pain as he feels himself being stretched in ways he never imagined. His arms are a foot away from his body, only connected through a hair's width of his aura. His legs are detached and his head is on the floor looking up at his body. He screams again as his aura sizzles with Shattered's touch. Without a body, Dream can't handle anything touching him other than positivity. He mourns for his brother, how he desperately wants his brother to be here. To hug him and hold him close. To comfort him. Anything to go back to simpler times. He wants Blue too. He wants Blue so badly. Just to carry him away. He doesn't want to be here. He wants to go home. He wants to forget. He doesn't want to know any of this. He just wants a simple life he knows he can never have. He cries with a broken scream as Shattered pushes his boot into his back. Yet, he remains firm.

Dream will not give Shattered what he wants.

Even if Shattered can give him everything he wants.

Nightmare covers his mouth as he hides behind a pillar. He squeezes his sockets shut as he tries to block out his brother's screams. Suppressing his aura has gotten so much harder being so close to his brother. He wants to beat the shit out of Shattered but by catching the power oozing off of the beast, Nightmare knows that he is not strong enough. Killer looks away, he doesn't want to look. Dream never deserved this, not after everything that has happened, not after everything in the past. Cross sheds tears as he pulls his scarf up to the lower half of his face.

Hallucination cups Dream's face, holding it close as he coils around Dream's form. The ghostly figure takes hold of Dream's mind. He holds it out and taints it. Painting new memories, and new hallucinations over what he sees now in front of him. Hallucination taps his fingers against the form of Dream's cheekbone. "Someone's turning the handle to that faucet in your eyes." Hallucination licks the tears off Dream's face, causing Dream to snarl at Hallucination. Hallucination pulls away, curling a finger under Dream's lower jaw. He smiles as they hold eye contact. "They're pouring out, where everyone can see."

Hallucination pulls away from Dream, causing him to fall forward with a snarl. His magic reacts to the negativity, curling in on itself before becoming toxic positivity. Nothing of what Shattered needs or can have. It's pure toxicity. Dream pulls on his chains, crawling as close as he can toward Hallucination. His eye pips now a velvet black again amber sockets. Dream pushes his arms as close as they can get toward Hallucination's neck, wanting nothing more than to strangle and snap the vertebrae. Telling himself that he's justified. There should be no reason to hate, no reason to mourn Hallucination. For it was deserved. That Dream could savor the feeling of the other dusting by his hands. Dream falters when Hallucination flickers and becomes his brother. Sweet young Nightmare when they were still six. Dream cries out to his brother, so happy he's still alive. He doesn't stop to wonder that he's standing where Hallucination was, it's his brother.

He'll always trust his brother.

Dream calls out to him, grateful that he's still alive, thankful to the creators that saved him. A pulse of toxic positivity forces Nightmare to recoil away from his brother in disgust and fear. The pure amount of gaslighting Dream is doing to himself. He doesn't know when it started, but he knows it's been there for longer than they all think. Nightmare feels pangs of shame and rejection from his brother. Pushing away, pushing out all the negative thoughts he has. It makes Nightmare wonder if his brother is ashamed of him. For being the opposite of what he is. For being Nightmare. For guarding negativity. Nightmare looks at his staff as more shame bubbles in his soul. Is that what he is? A disgrace that even his brother doesn't want to admit? To the point of poisoning his emotions with toxicity? He shakes his skull, no, Dream wouldn't want him to think that way. Dream loves and adores his brother.

Nightmare just needs to have more faith in his brother.