Dreamcrash

Twenty Three: Come Home

I've heard that in space, no one can hear you scream. That it's silent. Right now, it's so silent a pin could drop a mile away and we would all hear it. It's just me and Dream, looking into each other's eyes. I smile, truly smile, for the first time in days. Dream stares at me, no emotions on his face, and when he speaks, he sounds angry, sad, and annoyed.

"Hello Night."

"Hey bro. I'm here to take you home." I hold out my hand, ready for Dream to take it. He reaches up for it, and I'm so excited, I'll be with my brother again at last-

And then he slaps my hand away.

I pause, shocked. Dream glares at me.

"I'm not going back." His voice is stone hard and colder than ice. It gives me chills. This isn't the Dream I remembered.

"Wh... what are you talking about? Don't you want to go home?"

"No, I don't," He says fiercely. "I'm not going back."

"Why?" I ask. "Don't you want to go home to the village and play with the townspeople and be with me again?"

"No, I don't want to go back to the village of people who were using me, and I certainly don't want to be with you," He snarls.

"Why? I'm your brother."

He pauses, observing me, then continues. "So you don't know?"

"Know what?" I ask nervously. I don't like where this is going.

"That when you took the apples- yes, I know it was you," he added after seeing my expression. "You also took my powers. You took everything."

I freeze. I wasn't aware of this.

"You took my powers, my title, my positivity, everything. You even took the villagers away, I heard them say they wanted you more than me since you're so positive."

"Dream, I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"You didn't know?" He shoots back. "And you didn't think you should run your plan past the person who controls the positive apples and knows more about them than you?"

"I just didn't want to worry you."

"Oh, so that's the reason?" Dream yells. "So that's the reason you turned away from me, and suddenly seemed so cold and nervous all the time?"

"Dream, I'm sorry. Let's go back to Star Village, and I can explain everything."

"No. I already said I'm not going back. So why not explain everything here?"

I look at him and nod. "Sure. I'll tell you everything. The whole reason I pulled back was to protect you. When I crashed, I saw the future. If everything continued on the path it was, I would end up taking the black apples and eating them. It would corrupt me, and I would kill everyone. You would take a golden apple and try to stop me. I would nearly kill you, you would just barely escape. After that, we would fight on and off, as I tried to destroy AUs and you fought to protect them."

Dream doesn't respond, looking slightly conflicted. Now he would understand why I took the golden apple and he would come home with me, right?

"...And you didn't think this was something you should explain to me?"

Okay, he has a point. "I didn't want to worry you."

"YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS GOING TO HELP!?! LEAVING ME IN THE DARK LIKE THAT!?!"

"Dream, I wanted to protect you! I thought-"

"I wouldn't mind, since I'm always so positive? You thought I'd be fine with this?"

"Well... yes! You've always wanted me to be more positive, and now I am! And we wouldn't have to fight or anything! We could be together!"

"No, we can't. Not anymore. You can't fix this, Nightmare. You can't change this."

"Please, let me at least try! Let me make it up to you! We'll find a way to get your powers back, and we can go home-"

"There's no way to get me my powers back," He said, voice quiet but cold. "The tree is burned down. You have the last golden apple in your Soul and we can't get it out."

"I bet we ca-" I stop as Dream's words register in my head. "Wait, how do you know the tree is dead?"

Dream gives me a cold look that says all the answers. I feel chills run up my spine and shock runs through my bones. "You did it?"

"Yes, since we didn't need it anymore. Or should I say you didn't need it anymore."

I stay silent, nor sure how to respond. Dream, of all people, burned down the tree? He was the last person I expected to kill our mom. It scares me, thinking how cold and distant he is all of the sudden. But maybe he can still change, maybe we can go back to how it was. "Come on, let's go home. Let me make it up to you. Let me be your brother again," I plead.

Dream looks at me. "I said no and I mean it. Now could you please leave."

"Dream, please-"

It's instant. Before I can react, Dream has a knife in his hand pointed at my neck. I stop midsentence and feel my powers instinctively prepare to defend myself.

"Let me rephrase. Leave now before I mess up that face of yours."

I back up. "Dream..."

"Stop," He said. "Stop calling me that."

"Why? That's your name."

"It's not anymore. I'm not some daydreaming, naive, Guardian of Positivity anymore. I'm not Dream anymore."

"Copper!" A voice yells in the distance. Dream looks towards it and grimaces.

"Not convenient timing..." He turns back to me. "Nightmare. Leave. I mean it."

"Yeah Night, we should probably get going..." Seed says.

"No," I respond. "I'm not leaving without my brother."

Dream looks me square in the eyesockets. "What brother?" 

I stop, taken aback.

"Dream's gone. He died a while ago."

I don't respond. I don't need to. My face, my aura, everything about me speaks for me. 

"You lost your chance, Nightmare. NOW GET OUT OF HERE!" Dream leaps at me, swinging the knife. Before I can react, a vine wraps around my foot and Seed teleports me to a different area of Comettale. I collapse on the ground, feeling tears starting to form. Seed pops up next to me a moment later, looking at the ground.

"I'm sorry," He said after a minute of silence. "If I had known..."

"It's fine," I respond instinctively. At the village, whenever I had a bad day, if Dream noticed I seemed more down than normal, he'd ask if I was fine. I would always say 'Yes', so he wouldn't be worried. But now he's not in my life anymore. I was being selfish and only thinking about myself, now it made me lose the person I cared about most.

"This probably isn't what you want to hear, but I know what it's like. I had a sister once, and after she..." Seed trails off as I look at him. I didn't know this. "...To be honest, sometimes I'd prefer her to have stayed dead than how it is now."

I get what he means. If Dream was gone for good, maybe I could get over that. But with him alive and hating me? I don't know how I'm going to live with this.

"So don't say it's fine. It's not fine."