Dahlia - The Flower Of Betrayal. || SBI Hero AU

-CHAPTER TWENTY THREE-

Everyone who still could move in that moment stops in their tracks now too.

The man, Sap—more formally known as Sapnap, one of the only other villains who never needed a cover name because he was strong enough to evade being captured—leaned on Techno and Wilbur's shoulders, grinning devilishly at the three youngins, who stared wide eyed not at him, not at the two statue-like heroes, but behind all of that. That voice.

Wilbur and Techno were terrified, and they couldn't even see him.

Ranboo and Tubbo were terrified and they hadn't even met him.

But Tommy?

Scared wasn't the right word. Neither was relieved, though. He wasn't happy to see him, he never could be, but this was what he wanted, right? This was where he was going.

Home.

Back to the man who took care of him his whole life.

Back to Dream.

He felt like he was face to face with death himself, and was scouring for any resemblance in the man he once knew. No longer was there a fondness in his eyes, and no longer was there any trace that he had once cared about this man dearly, like a child looking up to his father—because that's practically what Dream was to Tommy.

There was a dull stare in the kid's eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky, not on the man himself. He couldn't look him in the eye, he knew he couldn't. Unsaid words built up inside of his chest, begging to be free—either in whispers or screams, it didn't matter—but he wasn't sure what any of them truly meant. He felt it, though, creeping out of the sky, reaching towards him through the sounds, the scents, the colour that filled the air. They held a tight grasp against him, restricting his every movement.

He wasn't even sure if he wanted to move, or if he just wanted time to stop so he could get a break for once. The latter was enticing, like a sense of freedom he never had, but somewhere in the back of his mind, buried beneath his deepest and darkest thoughts and feelings, he knew that no matter what he did, he would always live in paranoia of what was to come.

The paranoia of going home.

"Dream," Tommy finally says, the first one to speak.

He watches the smile grow on Dream's face, the familiar pity-filled smile that Tommy always fell for. Today Tommy catches it.

"Theseus," Dream responds, smiling and taking a step closer. Tommy retreats one just as big, and pulls both Tubbo and Ranboo back with them. They stagger behind him, glancing between themselves and the others. Tommy, however, doesn't take his eyes off of Dream.

"You're here for me," he starts, shaking his head slightly. "Not them." Another step forward and another step back. "Let them go, and I'll go with you."

"That's what you said last time, Theseus. And the time before that."

Tommy's breath catches in his throat. Dream had a point. He had kept running. Every new chance at home, at life he had gotten, he'd foiled and ran away from. And if he came with Dream this time, to save his friends, would he stay and deal with the fact that he was never going to have a real family, a real home?

He'd try.

"Please. They did nothing." He gestures to Ranboo and Tubbo, who watch him and give him a sad but thankful look.
It wasn't entirely true. The two were guilty by association. They kept Tommy hidden, helping him escape from reality, from the man he was supposed to be staying with to keep everyone safe.

And Techno and Wilbur? Certainly not nothing. Getting in the way of every single one of Dream's plans and every past mission he'd gone on, that's not nothing. Dream hated them for it, it seemed.