Three Fates Entwined | Dream Team

Chapter Thirty-Three

Dream walked along the sidelines of the arena. It was empty, deserted, barren, whichever adjective you wanted to use to describe the place.

The last time he had been here, he was a completely different person. Before, he had been completely confident in his abilities as an assassin. He knew that he was a better fighter than most of the people around him. He knew that he would stop at nothing to get his task done.

He had been the best of the best. No matter who his target was, no matter how far away, he would get them.

At least, that was what it had been. Before George happened.

Semi-consciously, he glanced down at his hand. Instead of uncomfortable bandages, all he saw was smooth skin. All healed.

Dream made his way down to the arena. By the looks of it, it had been recently used. He had seen a lot of people milling around the camp when he arrived, so that was no surprise.

Everyone had made way for him, same as they usually did, nobody asking any questions about where he had been. They didn't know what he had been through, or how much he had changed.

I wonder how Sapnap is doing, he mused as he glanced around to see if there was anyone around. And George, too.

He wasn't too worried about either, though. Sapnap was a really good warrior, and George had improved a lot since the first time Dream had met him.

As long as they didn't do anything stupid....

Why am I thinking about them like this? Why am I worrying?

No, stop. This is fine. They're your friends.

Dream sat down on the ground and put his hands up to his head. All his thoughts clashed together in a swirling storm, whirling around him angrily. George and Sapnap are my friends. George isn't your target anymore. It's natural to worry about people that you care about.

He stood up again. "Come on, Dream," he muttered to himself. "You're here for a reason --- quit getting all distracted."

The last place he had seen Peligro was in the field of boulders. He was sure that his base was somewhere nearby, and though he had never taken the time to look around for it, he was going to this time.

It was easy enough getting back to the field. Dream weaved in between the large rocks, making his way to the biggest one at the very center. He gripped the rough surface tightly and hefted himself up onto it, standing up on the top. It was high enough that he could see the entire field, but he couldn't see anything suspicious in the distance.

His mind flashed back to the last time he had stood in that field.

"I have a very important task for you, Dream. One that I only entrust to the best of the best. That means you."

Peligro had entrusted an important task to Dream, but Dream was sure that it was Peligro who had sent assassins after him to mess him up.

But why?

If Dream wasn't as good of a warrior as he was, there was no doubt that he would've been dead. And why send an assassin after Sapnap as well? If Sapnap had died, it would've been easy tracing the death to Dream.

Dream sat down on the boulder and frowned. What would Peligro gain if I died? He'd need to find someone else to finish the task, since there was no way that Peligro would kill the royal family himself.

But... if Dream died, Peligro would lose a valuable helper. However, if Dream died, then Peligro would have one less adversary to worry about.

He gritted his teeth. Peligro never meant for Dream to succeed. If he did, it would be beneficial, but in the end, he, too, was supposed to die.

That bastard.

So this was all in his master plan. Either I kill the royal family then die, or someone kills me, then kills the royal family later.

This doesn't make any sense.

Dream rubbed the bridge of his nose. Nothing made any sense anymore. Peligro wanted him dead, but he also needed him to do his dirty work for him. So why try to kill him?

"I'm gathering up people as we speak, to cause a ruse and distract the king. That is all I will do."

A distraction.

The only distraction I got was Sapnap, and I didn't even end up playing him as a distraction to my advantage. He became a distraction for me.

But Peligro did have a distraction to use. And as Dream thought about it, it made more and more sense to him. He was the distraction. He distracted the prince and a majority of the knights, and the time before and after his attack, he distracted the entire castle.

A day and a half. Plenty of time for Peligro to work his mischief.

Dream gritted his teeth and pounded his fist down on the rock. He couldn't believe that he had been used by Peligro against his will without even knowing it.

So what was Peligro doing then? What did he need that extra time for?

It felt like his whole world was threatening to break down around him. Nothing made sense, and one possible chance led to a whole new world of confusion and possibilities.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. All he needed to do was calm down and get his thoughts straight. Calm down? How do I calm down? I---

Friends. Right, friends are calming. Well, most of the time.

His mind flashed back to a story Sapnap had told him before. It was just a short anecdote of something that had happened just the day before the two of them had met. Something about an old man and a fruit stand? It was the thing that the man said that stuck with Dream.

"Your line of fate is tangled. Bad things will happen."

Sapnap had laughed about it when he had told the story, but Dream knew better. And now, he knew what the old man had meant.

Bad things already happened, and they would continue to happen. That was for certain.

For the tangled part... the man was right. The fates of Sapnap, George, and Dream were stuck together. Tangled. Enmeshed. Intermixed. Whatver you wanted to call it.

Interweaved. Linked.

Entwined.