/perspective shift Dream
Ranboo walked for what seemed like a long time, but in reality Dream knew that it could have been almost any length. There was no sun, and no moon here. It was just black. No way to tell time, or distance traveled.
Eventually, they reached something with color. But they did not reach it in a conventional manor. Instead of walking up to it, as most people do, in most places, it simply appeared around them at one point.
This place wasn't very impressive, but after so long in darkness, almost anything would be startling. It was a simple white room, but the immediate and absolute shift in color alone caused quite a shock. In the center of the room, there was a table. The table was made out of an end portal, with warped planks filling in the center.
Sitting at the table, there were four people. Philza, Wilbur, Tubbo, and Tommy.
Dream's breathing stopped. Tommy. The real Tommy. His Tommy.
/perspective shift TommyInnit
Tommy took in a sharp gasp. Dream was here. Dream. He was here. He had known that Dream would be coming, but he had though that he would be prepared.
He was not.
Tommy felt broken inside. He remembered when he was in exile. He remembered when Dream had escaped from prison. He remembered the discs. Tubbo. Wilbur. Technoblade. L'Manberg. And even though he had had a while to get used to the feelings, when he saw Dream, all of them returned immediately. He felt petrified.
Tommy stood up from his seat. His head pounded along with his heart as he stepped towards Dream. Dream seemed equally overwhelmed, or at least close to it. When they were standing right in front of each other, Dream raised his hand up, and touched Tommy's face.
"Tommy?" Dream asked shakily.
"I'm here," Tommy said, his voice worse than Dream's.
"Tommy?" Dream asked again, his voice breaking down even more.
"Yes, Dream," Tommy said. "It's me."
"I'm sorry," Dream said. His hand on Tommy's face began to tremble terribly.
"I forgive you," Tommy said, his voice breaking.
The two of them hugged each other, repeating their lines, over and over. "I'm sorry." "I forgive you." Over and over. Like a broken record. "I'm sorry." "I forgive you."
Eventually, Philza rose from his place. He walked over to them, and hugged the two of them together. And then Wilbur came over, and hugged them as well. Then Tubbo joined in. The three newcomers all joined in with Tommy.
"I'm sorry." "I forgive you." "I forgive you." "I forgive you." "I forgive you."
And then,
"I'm sorry too."
It was Tommy. The five people break up.
"I know that I caused it," Tommy began.
"But I finished it," Dream said, not even letting him finish.
"Actually, I did that," Tubbo clarified awkwardly.
Dream looks at him, and smiles sadly.
"Not quite," he said. "You remember, it was technically Jack. And Jack..."
"Jack hates you," Tubbo said.
"Exactly," Dream said.
"Hold on," Tommy said. "You knew about the nuke?"
"Of course," Dream said. "It wasn't exactly inconspicuous."
"I suppose," Tubbo said doubtfully. "But you were imprisoned while I built it."
"That doesn't mean that I didn't get information," Dream said, glancing over at Ranboo.
/perspective shift Ranboo
Ranboo watched the group hug, and then break up and start talking. He mostly ignored them, until he felt Dream's eyes on him. He shivered. While he was alive, that gaze had haunted him. Dream. The mastermind. The one who had commanded him. The one who had destroyed him. The Nightmare.
After his death, Ranboo had known that Dream could no longer touch him, and that had comforted him.
But then he had watched, from the side, while the thought of Dream being free had destroyed another mind. He had watched Tommy succumb to his paranoia, to his insanity. To his own personal Nightmare.
And he had longed to help. He knew that he couldn't do much, but he could do something. At least something, anything to ease the burden.
And he was stopped. Every time he pushed, he was pushed back. Every time he moved from his position as a spectator, he was shoved back into it. He was powerless once more.
No sides. Only people. That was what he had wanted. But it was not to be.
Dream was a person. But he was also a side. His own side. Any alliance was temporary, as Ranboo had learned. Tommy and Wilbur and Tubbo stood for freedom, as they claimed. But freedom from what?
'Not freedom from authority,' Technoblade's voice whispered in his mind. 'They created authority. They brought government.'
Ranboo had hidden himself from that truth ever since he had met them.
"We are all of us a broken disc," Ranboo sighed quietly, casting his gaze over the people assembled in the room. "We are all broken, inside and out."
Then two more people entered the room.