Hideaway: A Dream SMP AU

2

The festival was going great... as far as the others were concerned.

Tubbo forced himself to smile, to play the games, ignoring the sharp metal blade burning a hole in his pocket.

But where was Dream?

Tubbo's hand unconsciously slipped into his pocket, fingering the knife he'd brought.

The cabinet wanted him to kill Dream.

So he would.

For L'Manburg.

For himself.

For Tommy.

***

"We're going to meet with Ranboo."

Tommy barely had time to register the words before Techno was invisible, and moments later Ranboo was heading towards him, arm at an awkward angle, as if some unseen force was dragging him. Which, of course, was exactly what was happening.

Ranboo crouched down beside them, his mismatched eyes gleaming with worry. "We can't talk here. Let's go into the cave." He pointed to a cavern mouth on a nearby cliff.

They walked through the cave and found themselves in an open-air hollow in the cliff.

Techno reappeared, his potion running out. "We need intel. Any state secrets?"

"Well, um, we're having a festival right now, you know that. Um... we created games. Um..." Ranboo trailed off.

"JUST TELL US WHAT'S GOING ON!" Tommy snapped suddenly, surprising even himself. He wasn't sure what came over him. He was just so tired— tired of fear, tired of not knowing anything.

Ranboo raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, okay! We're having a festival, people are there, it's kind of just to show unity, and... and stuff. You know how it is, governments showing off by doing random festivals and everything."

Just to show unity? If I actually believed that, I'd be an idiot.

"Everyone's going to be there. Eret's there, Jack's there, Ponk, Nihachu, everyone in the cabinet... oh, and Dream's coming later. He said he'd be a little bit late."

"Dream? Dream's coming?" A shiver of... of something ran down Tommy's spine; suspense and terror and surprise, along with a tremor of suspicion. The way Ranboo said Dream's name... he wasn't imagining the shift in tone there, was he?

Ranboo nodded. "Yeah, he's going to be coming. He's actually saying that he's going to be respecting L'Manburg as a country for the first time. So that's going to be... interesting."

Interesting. There was no denying the way Ranboo said the word, as if it had several dark meanings and he didn't want to say any of them.

"What does that mean?" Techno demanded, picking up on it as well.

Ranboo shrugged. "It means he's actually going to respect our laws, which is... interesting."

That word again, and still no definition.

A theory hit him suddenly. "Are the old laws of L'Manburg still intact?" Tommy asked, more sharply than he intended.

"Yeah," Ranboo confirmed.

"No armor is allowed?"

"Yeah."

Tommy's hand drifted towards his sword hilt.

A slow smile spread across his face.

He knew Tubbo's plan now. An assassination. Murder under the guise of peace. Cruel and efficient, perfectly plotted— Tommy wasn't sure if he should be impressed or scared that Tubbo had thought of it.