Chapter Text
Together.
Together, forever.
That was the plan. It was written in stone and parchment that you cling to now in a dusty and half collapsed building. Most of the items in the room had been waterlogged a long time ago. But as your nearly see-through hands lifted the paper closer to the sunlight you remembered the ache that you felt as you had written those words as a child. How foolish you were.
However you did keep that promise at the end of it all. Even as you, dead and haunting the world forever until further notice, stare with silvery white eye's at your family- you kept your promise. You were still together.
"Y/n?" Tommy mumbled, sloshing through the knee deep waters that flooded the living area of the community house. "You alright? Ghostbur asked to make sure you hadn't touched the water, says it'll hurt a lot." Tommy peered around your arms, eye's catching the writing in your grasp as you tucked the piece of paper back into its place within the leather bound journal you had found it, guiltily snapping it shut as you turned to face the young blond.
"Yeah, I'm alright just-" you motioned to the mostly unsullied bookshelf behind your corporeal form. "Trying to make sense of it all. Are you absolutely sure I was a fighter when I was alive? I feel like I should be able to wield a sword. My hands feel-" Tucking the journal under your arm, you showed your open palms to the teen. "-rough. Strong. Like they would carry everyone away from harm."
Gently, Tommy wrapped his hands around yours, avoiding obvious parts of your fingers that seem to have been dipped in yellow dye, to give them a reassuring squeeze.
"Absolutely! You were amazing Y/n!" The young boy beamed up at you and you couldn't help but feel that slow rhythmic thump in your chest again. Ghostbur said those were heart-echoes- remnants of your humanic body's nerve memory. You had no clue how that transferred to a non-physical body but.. It did! Somehow...
Now that Tommy mentioned it, you had been floating for an awful long time with your limbs up over the water and it was getting tiring... Floating ever so slightly towards the door, almost like a mermaid in water, you guided Tommy back out through the house and onto the not-quite-sunken pathway that lead to the ruins of L'manburg.
Today was.. Tuesday! You looked towards the right towards a tall hill. You could hear the construction from here, Philza was working on something. No one would tell you what. The grass on the hill had only just started to regrow from Doomsday, quietly you mentioned to Tommy once again as you began your hike to a forest path that Tommy insisted you followed- daisies- that you hoped whatever they were going to do wouldn't disturb the plants regrowth there. Tommy, as usual, assured you it wouldn't and to not mind them whatsoever.
But why did it always hum and sound like some animal was being torn apart over there if it wasn't hurting anything?
The daisy path lead you away from the city, down away from the usual cobblestone paths and big buildings and back into what felt nicer- woods. Little white flowers danced as you passed their small groupings. You wondered if you danced.
"Tommy... Did I dance?" You echoed out, your own voice mostly foreign to yourself. But there was no response, there was only tree's and the wind. You turned, panicked at the sudden loss of your companion. "Tommy?" You called out again, a bit more panicked this time as the forest around you became dark at an increasing rate. You turned again, you felt a sword in your hand and the sharp wind on your face. The thick, humid air around you felt like it was pushing in from all sides, you thought your ears would burst from the pressure.
Then there was a scream, it was your name followed by a plea for help. You screamed yourself, rushing forward through the woods as your body acted on its own as if it was rehearsed.
"Tubbo! I'm coming!" You bellowed from the night, bursting through the branches into a clearing. There you saw Tubbo, cornered onto a stump by a zombie that clawed at his chest before he fell limp. You felt boiling hot tears trickle down your cheeks before they sizzled off into steam. You plunged the sword forward, hitting your mark directly. Looking up into the face of what you once perceived as an undead creature the dawning realization hit you like a shovel, it was Dream. His mask cracked and bloody like his hands as he pulled an axe from the cavity he left in Tubbo's torso.
Dreams hand gripped your blade as it hummed and violent flames erupted from where he touched as he pulled the weapon further into himself, pulling you closer to the mask.
"You failed again."
Then, from seemingly no where, he withdrew a book. Flipping it open to the middle he simply pushed it into you. Then you lost your vision.
---
First you saw white, a numb shaking feeling moving you from side to side until you came to complete consciousness within the vast void you know as the Between. Not quite dead, not quite alive. The inky floor was your bed, a cradle in a vast sea of emptiness.
Though, you weren't alone currently seeing as someone had their hand on you and was shaking you awake. Blearily, your hands rubbed at your eye-sockets until hands pulled them away and you were greeted by the face of Schlatt- protein shake in hand- with a concerned expression just leaving his pale features.
"You're awake! Good, you were screaming again and it was interrupting my morning workout vibes. Get on outta here, it should be early noon in the over world. I'm sure those idiots are waiting for you." Schlatt pulled you to your feet, brushing of small globs of ink from your shoulders and wings.
You chewed on the inside of your lip, fighting the urge to tell Schlatt about your dreams. You tried it once but he didn't really care, said they were only dreams but you knew they were more. Were they memories? Were they the future? You couldn't tell- however it was best not to dwell on it for too long. Maybe he was right, dreams are dreams and should be always treated as such.
You gave the goat-man a quick hug that he 'unenthusiastically' returned, eyes rolling as he mumbled 'yeah yeah c'mon ya big sap' into your shoulder before letting you go.
"Have a good workout Schlatt." You waved goodbye before stepping towards the curtains not far away to travel back to your alive friends.
The over-world was sunny today, presumably very hot but it felt more like a cozy warm to you. The breeze was too weak for you too feel unfortunately, but the sounds of the tree's and bushes rustling together told you all that you needed to know about the environment today. The plant life seemed to be doing fantastic going towards L'manburg, though the desolation was still glaringly obvious from the sheer amount of leveled buildings there were.
It was a Tuesday if you remembered correctly, which you usually did now a days.
Not far from the curtains tear was the wooden pathways that you were somewhat familiar with by now. Gliding forward you began to try and find any signs of where your family and friends had gone to now.
Eventually, passing many buildings and craters in the path, you heard loud chatter from around the bend. Silently you continued on, though a bit faster at the idea of seeing Tommy and Tubbo after that horrid nightmare.
Tubbo spotted you first, waving you over to himself and the small group of boys who had gathered in a tight circle.
Floating to rest just above Tubbo, you peered down into the rotation to spot a little note in Tubbo's clutches. Green ink...
"Dream will be waiting for you to kill you!" Jack, one of the newest faces you've met here, shouted at the two boys before him. Tommy scratched at his chin, sighing in discomfort.
"I- I know, Jack. But.." Tommy's eye's flicked to you. "We can bring Y/n! Yeah! Dream wouldn't even think about hurting us with Y/n there!"
The others were... Less convinced. Jack looked to you for barely a moment before his eyes squeezed shut before he looked down at the floor uncomfortably. "I... Don't know Tom, I mean they can barely remember Brittany-"
"Bertha." You corrected, eyes sharpening at the young lad. "Her name was Bertha."
Jacks eye's widened before nodding quickly, "Yes, sorry, Bertha- uhm. Well, can you... Even touch objects anymore? Ghostbur doesn't usually touch corporeal things..."
To answer the question, you gently reached down to the note Tubbo held between his fingers, snatching it to read it more closely before handing it back to the brunet. Jack made a noise of acceptance as his shoulders relaxed.
"And to clarify, Dream wasn't scared of me- he was afraid of what I could do." You floated down to the point you could feel the slight pressure of the dirt bellow your feet. Ranboo raised an eyebrow as he leered down at you.
"Doesn't that mean the same thing?" The ender-being tilted his head slightly at you as you shook your head.
You took a deep breath as you began to explain, "Not quite, with Bertha in my hands I was nearly unstoppable. With a weapon like her I almost single handedly killed the bastard. Without her however... There is only so much I can do against him. I lost my upper hand. So unless we catch him with his pants down there is no way he'll see me as a threat unfortunately."
The troop nodded at your statement, Jack more so.
"So see, he won't flinch without them having a strong enough weapon. It's a no go Tommy-" Jack was cut off by Tubbo handing a compass to the aforementioned boy.
"We're going." Tubbo stated, no longer bothering to continue the argument and instead turning on his heel to walk away, presumably back to his home.
Well. This ought to be interesting.