Chapter 1

"Will!" I cringe, preparing for the natural disaster that goes by the name of Tommy Innit. I breathe in through my nose and breathe out as I slowly turn around. I see the person in question jogging down the stairs of the 'Prime Path', a wooden and somewhat destroyed path that can lead you almost anywhere in the main city, if you follow it for long enough. Tommy makes his way down the stairs, that are on a rather sharp decline of large hill, looking back over his shoulder every two steps.

"Hello Tommy," I call, waiting halfway down the stairs, perhaps the child could prove as a useful distraction from my ever-moving thoughts.

"Hey Will, uh could you, maybe uh help…" He stutters, eventually getting distracted by every movement and sound around us. I tilt my head waiting a couple seconds to see if he would continue his sentence.

"Tommy, I have places to be you know." I drawl, it was an utter lie but if I could frighten him with the prospect of leaving, maybe he would actually speak.

"Right! Well, I need Tubbo, have you seen him?" Tommy squeaks, straightening his horrible posture, a poor attempt to appear masculine, looking me in the eyes for the first time since this odd encounter had started. I hadn't had much to do with Tubbo, but him and Tommy seemed quite close and he seemed nice enough.

"Why?" I inquire.

"Well Dream's being a bit of a dickhead so…" He says, seemingly puzzled by the fact that I care. I smile slightly and decide that Tommy needs my help, not Tubbo's.

"Come, walk with me." I say leading Tommy up the stairs, back the way we came.

"What, why?" Tommy hesitated against my hand on his back. I smile down at him because even if Tommy doesn't know where he is being led, he trusted me enough to tentatively follow anyway. "Well Will, maybe not- "

"Now, now Tommy, the only way to conquer your fears is to face them!" I interject, this child needs my mighty wisdom it seems. We make our way up the stairs and onto the plateau at the top of the hill. Tommy's house pokes out of the top of the hill, a rudimentary cave turned home. The hill has been manually flattened and most of Tommy's house is underground anyway.

"If you have a bully in your life you just have to go at them head on and- " My speech is disrupted by an odd shape under his signature red and white shirt. It was circular with a smallish hole in the middle. It had odd ridges,

"Tommy, what's under your shirt?" I ask.

"It's a disc, Mr. Soot!" A smug voice echoes out of Tommy's house, and out of the darkness comes a man in green with an ever-happy mask covering his features. It was a simple white mask, with a simple smile etched into it, but the way Tommy reacted, flinching, and backing off, and the way my muscles went slightly stiff, shows that what comes with the mask strikes fear into people hearts.

Dream exited the house and climbed onto the roof with scary agility and sat comfortably, like he had no care in the world.

"A disc?" I query, why did Tommy care so much about this disc, what was its purpose?

"Yes, and if you don't give it up, Tommy, your discs aren't the only things that are going to get it." Dream threatens, what he was talking about was not obvious to me, but it was clearly an effective threat. Tommy somehow loosens and tenses at the same time, a sign of terror and defeat.

"I- I can't do that Dream!" Tommy exclaims, trying to muster a façade of confidence and nonchalance. Dream leans towards us, slightly tilting his head. It was menacing, at the least.

After a beat of silence, I ask,

"What's going on Tommy?", turning to the child but keeping Dream in my peripheral vision.

"Well, you see, the Big Man, Big D", everyone stopped for a second, thinking about the words and how they could be taken out of context but then Tommy continues on.

"Uh, anyway, Big Man Dream here is a coward and is trying to take my prized possessions, my beautiful discs." Tommy spits out the words but Dream just laughs. It's a humourless laugh, it's unsettling. I shiver but turn my attention to a figure, running up the stairs of the Prime Path, taking two steps at a time.

I hear Tommy gasp and then try to smother it. Tubbo appears at the top of the steps, panting but grinning,

"I'm here!" Tubbo grins at Tommy but it slowly fades as he looks behind us and at the menacing figure on the roof. Tubbo slowly walks up to Tommy and I and looks up at Tommy. The difference between the pair would be funny in a different situation. The loud, tall blonde and the shorter brunette with an odd affinity for bees.

"Hi Wilbur! Hi Dream." I smile kindly and then look up at Dream. One of the greetings is obviously warmer than the other. Seemingly unphased Dream answers with an overly happy,

"Hi Tubbo, are you here to formally surrender your remaining discs with Tommy?" Dream's smile is evident in his voice as he mocks the two. Tommy scoffs and pulls the disc from under his shirt, I notice that it's has a skinny rope looped through the middle of the disc and tied around his neck, like a necklace.

"Tommy watch it." I warned, "You can't take him- "

"Wilbur, it's three on one, we can beat him!" Tommy assures me, he's excited and overly optimistic. Dream laughs at his odds, which Tommy thinks are even. I try not to look doubtful, but Dream hops down from the roof of Tommy's house and pulls out his shield and an axe in one smooth movement and my heart plummets.

"Sounds like good odds to me." Dream says calmly, fidgeting with his axe. He's probably been waiting for a fight, itching for one. I nervously adjust my shield; I've never been a fan of armour and I am not a fighter. I have my ender pearls though, so I at least have an escape.

Tubbo nervously adjusts his armour and tommy grips his sword, knuckles going white. There's a standoff for a minute, eyeing each other off, then Dream strikes. He throws an ender pearl, and it explodes in front of me, revealing a very close Dream.

He grabs me by the arm and throws another pearl from his endless backpack of horrors that teleports us both across the plateau. It's tactical to go for the one guy without armour, but this feels more personal. He raises his axe above his head, and I raise my shield to deflect the attack, but the blow pushes me onto my knees. Tommy and Tubbo then start to react finally and as they rush to defend me Dream whispers,

"Stay down."

And so, I do. I figure there's no point in arguing with a man who could easily take my life. He nods in approval after I don't move and goes back to the two boys who are running at us. Dream fights Tommy and Tubbo easily, the skilled fighter dodges around them with ease slashing at them. They're precise cuts, to damage but not to kill, scarily accurate and well thought out.

Dream's smart, always looking ahead and at the future. He is a clever leader, I'll give him that, but the fear he uses to rule was… not right? It's something I've been thinking about. He keeps everyone in line, in tight restraints. Maybe we need to change something, we need freedom from our 'neighbourhood tyrant'. We need a place to emancipate.