< 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 > (Discontinued)

{Chapter 9: Challenge}

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With a flick of your wrist, you sent the knife flying into the target. Blueberry jumped a little as the shiny object sailed past his skull, just barely missing the tip of his beloved scarf as it implanted itself into the wall. The knife was just barely off-point, but it still made you fairly pissed that you'd been training all this time and you still couldn't hit it on point.

"Maybe you should take a break?" (Y/N) suggested from across the room where they were training with Ink. The latter would toss attack after attack at your counterpart, keeping them on their toes. Their golden scarf whipped around as they dodged.

Despite yourself, you felt the tiniest prick of pride as you watched (Y/N) practice dodging. They never were cut out for fighting, which put them especially on end for the upcoming battle.

Oh, yeah. There was that.

You angrily threw another knife at the target, feeling that you were just wasting time here. "If (Y/N) isn't ready," you scowled, "maybe we should just leave them behind."

"(N/N)!" Dream exclaimed, his stance almost faltering. You didn't see why he needed practice. The guardian was what, a thousand years old? Then again, he had spent much of those years cooped up inside of his own universe with Nightmare.

Speaking of which...

"Do you have any sort of readings on where Nightmare might be hiding?" You asked, trying to sound as uninterested and apathetic as possible. In all truths, you were crumbling and screaming and overall dying inside over him. Why? (Y/N) was supposed to be overly pathetic for someone, not you. (Y/N) was the one that was supposed to be tripping over themselves to hang out with Dream at any time possible.

As if on cue, (Y/N)'s feet crossed themselves and collapsed on the floor. You snorted, though you immediately quieted down once you saw the dirty look Ink gave you.

"Let's do that again (Y/N)," Ink chirped encouragingly, holding out his hand to help them up. They gladly took it. "You're getting better."

Just to practice your aim, you sent a purple laced knife just over their (H/L) (H/C) hair. They jumped as it plowed through the wall, showing no sign of slowing down. Ink looked like he was just about ready to murder you. You just gave him an innocent look.

"Is everything alright in here?" A voice called from the doorway. You all turned to the door where Dream was standing. (Y/N) visibly relaxed, their lips pulling up into a soft smile. You rolled your eyes, but there was this other burning feeling in your chest that you couldn't extinguish.

(Y/N) nodded. "Yep. Everything's going fine, if you count (N/N) trying to kill me over and over again."

Dream gave you a tired look, and you held up your hands innocently. "What? It's not their fault that they're such an easy target."

The guardian sighed and shook out his arms. "I have a plan to get to Nightmare."

Your eyes subconsciously opened a little wider, your cheeks flushing just at the thought of him. "You... You do?"

He rubbed his hands together, suddenly looking very excited. "You and (Y/N) will have to go to sleep again, and I'll have to connect all of our dreams together. Blue can come with us. We'll need all the help that we can possibly get."

Although unspoken, you all knew that this was a fairly good plan. It had been weeks since you'd last taken Dream to the mind of his brother, so you had no idea how he could have changed. Or how the parasite had changed.