I Had Strings, But Now I'm Free (Dream SMP)

The Drunken Ram

tw: swearing, depictions of a heart attack, mentions of violence/threat

(A/n: New cover and new banner art pog?)

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The group emerged from the trapdoor. The man in green first, then the set of Blades, and finally the blonde child. Technoblade whirled around, hearing rustling in one of the nearby bushes. He noticed Eret's sunglasses from among the leaves, gesturing towards himself for them to emerge.
"Eret, Tubbo, you can come out. We have an agreement, here."

The bushes rustled again, Eret peeling himself away from the thorns cautiously. His gaze travelled past Techno at the masked man, who stood with his hands raised in surrender. Eret glanced back to the bush, Tubbo carefully extracting himself from the brambles to follow him. They made their way towards the others gingerly, well, Eret did anyway. The moment Tubbo saw Rain, he sprinted towards her and grabbed the girl in purple in a hug. Rain was surprised initially before scooping him up to hug him back.
"I'm glad you're ok, Tubbo." She said into his ear. Tubbo hummed in response, tightening his grip slightly before the woman put him down.

They turned to their former captor, who still held his hands up with Technoblade holding a sword in his direction.
"Come on, Dream. Take us to Schlatt." Rain hissed. Dream's only response was a nod before he spun on his heel and began walking. The group behind him followed him closely, constantly watching his every move. Techno held Rain's hand the whole time, making sure he didn't lose her again. You could say he was paranoid, but nobody would blame him after what had happened at the border. And especially with the fact they were following just behind the man who had separated them in the first place.

Dream and the group emerged from the outskirts to the main expanse of Manburg land. Techno sighted Wilbur, Fundy and the rest of Pogtopia surrounding what remained of Dream's forces, crossbows up. Wilbur turned his head at the sound of footsteps, relief evident in his features as he made eye contact with Rain and Tubbo. He was wary of Dream though, holding an arrow in one hand and his bow in the other.
"Wilbur. We need to talk." Dream stated as the man in the trench coat approached. Wilbur seemed to pause in front of him, glancing back at Techno and the rest of the group for any visual cues. The group behind the masked man remained silent, only shooting Wilbur looks of concern or empathy.

"About what?" Wilbur asked briefly, his gaze flicking back to the masked man. Dream looked past him at the Manburg defense force, hands raised in surrender and their armour engraved with dents and fractures.
They weren't in any condition to fight, Dream knew that.
Thus, he decided to go forward with the surrender he had proposed to Technoblade.
"Can you...can you tell your guys to stop pointing guns at my men?" Dream cleared his throat. Wilbur glanced back at the Pogtopians surrounding the Defence force, contemplating his options. He eventually made up his mind, turning around and shouting at the group to lower their weapons.

He was obviously met with exclamations of "Why?" To which he replied with "Just do it."
Tommy approached Techno and Rain's side, Tubbo just behind him. Rain turned to look at the blonde boy, his blue eyes icy as he looked at her.
"Wilbur better not be making a deal with the devil right now." He commented, turning back to Wilbur trying to calm the Pogtopians. Rain sighed, knowing Tommy could very well be right. She suddenly felt Techno squeeze her hand slightly, looking up at her brother, she saw his eyes cloudy with worry. He was staring down at her, his lips pursed slightly to reveal his pointed teeth. Rain squeezed his hand back, giving him a reassuring smile and turning her attention back to the masked man, who had stepped forward to stand by his men.

"I...I thought fighting with Schlatt would be good. I gave him full Netherite armour and weapons and stuff. But, now I see I was wrong to try fight for him." Dream monologued, his head flicking around everyone, especially the "Rescue group" who joined the rest of Pogtopia cautiously. Dream's masked gaze turned to Wilbur, raising his hands again.
"We would like to surrender...and ugh, it's because Schlatt is an idiot." He stated, biting his tongue as he admitted his fault.
Wilbur snorted, "Yeah, how long did that take you to figure out?"
"I said the same thing!" Rain's voice echoed towards him. Wilbur turned around and burst out laughing, the rest of Pogtopia seeming to calm and chuckle after the situation turned light-hearted.