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When Punz woke up, the very first thing he did was look for Dream. He was on his feet, panicked, breathing heavily, desperately needing to find-
Dream.
Who was Dream again?
Punz felt something trying to ensnare his mind, trying to pull something precious away from him. Fuck no. Absolutely not. He grabbed tightly to the first thing that sprang to mind-
A face, smiling, for real. Wholehearted and warm. Not a mask. Not back then. Not around him. They were younger then. The face was laughing as Punz chased them. Punz remembers a fond anger. Something about putting a bunch of beetroots in his bed. It didn't even make any sense, but then he finally caught up, even with the other cheating by using his wings and-
That memory grounded him, and from it he pulled the rest. Growing older. The horror of L'Manberg. Fucking Wilbur. The wars. Sapnap and George leaving. The prison. Sam's betrayal. Punz and Dream standing together at the end. The two of them. Still there. After everything. Still there. The plan, set in motion at long last. The plan they'd given up so much for.
Right.
The plan.
Punz opened his eyes again. He was okay. He could remember now. Not everything, but the important part. His role in the plan.
Carefully, Punz took stock in himself. He was okay. Nothing in his inventory, but he could fix that up pretty quickly. He'd need to get an Ender Chest pretty soon. The books should be in there. If they did everything right. If it really worked.
More importantly, Punz needed to find Dream.
That was the plan, after all.
See, there'd been... issues on the last server. The last version of the server. Things had broken, not just relationships between the people on the server, but fundamentally. Ever since that fucking prison.
Servers were pretty hardy things, they could take a lot of damage and keep going. Admins were much the same way. But there's a limit for both, and if one went down, the other would too. Between the damage to Dream, and the damage that had been done to the server itself... in those last days, Punz hadn't been sure if they were going to make it or not. If they were going to be able to see it through or get consumed by the void.
In the end, there'd only been one real option. A full reset. They'd experimented with the death book enough to know that no matter what they tried, it couldn't fix the damage done to Dream's body. Not enough for him to be able to bare the brunt of the damage done to the Server. So, if they couldn't revive Dream, then they needed to kill and revive the server itself. It was a lot more likely to come back whole.
It'd been a gamble, but everyone had pulled through with their parts. Tommy and Tubbo were both idiots and set off the nukes just as planned. Punz had had the book ready to go and tossed it at the last possible second. Ranboo was safe in limbo as a backup, just in case things went wrong. They hadn't known if this was going to work, but what information they could find told them a few things.
First, it was risky. Second, that only one person could remember the prior server. Whoever threw the book would remember. Nobody else would.
Punz and Dream had debated which of them should remember, but ultimately there was only one choice.
It wasn't just Dream's body that was damaged by the prison. It was his mind too. There wasn't a single night he didn't wake up screaming. Mental wounds would hurt the server as well. Those wounds were a risk. One that they couldn't afford.
So that left Punz, standing at the edge of a cave in a brand new world. With a singular mission; find Dream, stop history from repeating itself.
Get it right this time.
And that was exactly what Punz intended to do.
The first steps were routine. Get the basics. Food, water, some basic armor and tools. Just iron. He didn't need anything fancy yet. A bow that had a nice spring to it. Some arrows. That was all.
After that, Punz was left with a far more daunting task. He was alone in a big, open world. And he needed to find Dream.
Right.
When they'd talked about it, Dream had been hopeful that they might spawn together. But just in case, in case Punz couldn't find him, Dream had told him to ask a moth for help.
Honestly, Punz still wasn't sure if that had been a joke or not. He knew that Dream liked the insects. That Dream had always had moths around him, and liked to talk to the insects. But Dream also just liked animals in general. And after he'd said the whole moth thing, Dream had let out a barking laugh, and Punz hadn't thought to clarify until-
Well, until now.
When he was sitting and staring at a moth on a flower and debating how insane he was about to sound.
Thank god nobody else was here.
"Hi, this is kind of awkward. Do you happen to know where Dream is?"
The moth, a dark orange with lighter gray spots in its wings, regarded him judgmentally. Or maybe Punz just felt ashamed for talking to a moth in the first place. Still, in for a penny, in for a pound and all that.
"I'm not- I'm supposed to protect him. He asked me to! So this time, this time it'll be better. I won't let him get hurt this time. For- for everyone. But I promised him and- and I'm going to keep my promise whether you help me or not!"
Great. Punz had just yelled at a moth. He was losing his mind. Maybe he needed to get a dog or something before he found Dream. Just as he was about to give up and turn away-
The moth took to the air, doing a few circles around Punz, as if sizing him up. Then the little moth took off over the meadow, clearly moving with intent.
Well- okay.
Punz hesitantly followed along. It wasn't like he had a better idea.
For nearly three days, Punz followed the moth. It was pretty easy to keep pace. At night, the moth would find a spot to rest, and Punz took that as his cue to set up a quick camp. When the moth fluttered around his head in the morning, that meant it was time to go again.
Three days i, and Punz was starting to wonder if this was just limbo, if he was doomed to following a moth around searching for something he'd never find, and then-
"Tommy! Come on! Give me a hand with this!"
There was no mistaking that voice. Far off and echoed as it was, Punz would recognize it anywhere.
Punz’s feet moved before he could think, running for the voice. He crested a hill top, and down below in a valley there was a little cottage starting to take shape. Just outside the house, struggling to drag a log, was a figure, although not quite the one Punz had been expecting.
Realistically, he should’ve foreseen this. Dream’s memories were gone. He wouldn’t have any reason to hide himself. Still, it was shocking to see Dream with large black scaly wings and horns on full display. The wings in question were beating furiously as Dream managed to get the log another half foot.
Punz almost leapt down the jagged slope to go help his Dream, but a second, grating and unwelcome voice gave him pause.
“Just give me a minute! Hold on, you’re always in such a rush! It’s not a speedrun!”
It came from across the meadow, and was followed by Tommy darting into view to help grab the log. Dream responded, something teasing that made Tommy laugh and almost dropped his end. Punz couldn’t make it out at this distance though.
The two of them maneuvered the log into place, secured it, and then rushed off towards the woods again. Punz could only catch bits and pieces of their conversation, but he heard Tubbo’s name in there at least once. So he was around too.
This hadn’t been what Punz was expecting to find but it was… good. For now at least. Tommy and Dream seemed friendly, they seemed happy, and some small part of Punz was relieved that Dream hadn’t woken up alone. That there were already people looking out for him.
The problem was that it made Punz’s job harder. He needed to keep Dream safe. Originally, he’d been hoping to wake up near Dream, explain just enough, and then whisk him away to someplace where it could just be the two of them. Safe and sound. Obviously, that wasn’t going to work now. Dream had already bonded with people, and Punz didn’t want to pick any fights. If Punz tried to introduce himself now, if he tried to explain he was here to protect Dream, then it might be weird.
Plus, Punz wasn’t sure if he could remain civil around Tommy and Tubbo. Not after all he’d seen them do. What they’d allowed.
For right now, the smart thing to do was stick back, and keep an eye on the three of them. Punz could do his job from a distance. It was easy enough when there wasn’t any sort of immediate threat around. If he needed to get involved, then he could do that once he had a better grasp on himself, better gear, and a better idea for how to approach them.
“Thank you.” Punz said, to the moth who’d lead him here. Because it only felt right. The moth didn’t acknowledge him. It just fluttered down into the meadow to feast on the flowers there. Because, well, it was a moth.
It took a week for Punz to get a nice hidden base set up. He split his time between following Dream when he left the safety of the clearing, and working to get better materials and gear. Luckily for him, Dream seemed to stick pretty close to his house, at least for the first while. Picking off monsters around the area was easy. Few wandered near, and really only creepers were of concern. Punz could do a few quick rounds near dawn and clean up any that lingered in the sunlight. The moth that led him to the cottage was still hanging out nearby. It minded its own business, but was always somewhat close. If Punz looked for it, he’d see it.
There were little things. Dream had found some chickens on the third day, and built them a little coop with some help from Tubbo. It wasn’t a bad coop by any means, but the chickens appeared fond of escaping. So, when Punz saw a few of chickens slipping out, he quickly snuck into the clearing to spook the birds back in. The disgruntled birds clucked and huffed, but returned to their coop without too much of a fuss. Punz patched up the little hole that they’d managed to sneak through, and that was that.
The next day, Punz had been keeping a close eye on Dream and noticed for the first time that the man wasn’t walking quite right. There’d been a chill to the air that morning. And Dream kept moving to rub at his left leg.
Right. That one had been badly mangled back in the prison. The reset had clearly done a lot for Dream’s health, but it hadn’t fixed everything. Faint scars still lingered, and apparently, his leg was still acting up. Every now and again, Punz saw him stumble. That wouldn’t do.
This was a bit of a harder problem to solve. Punz couldn’t just leave potions by the doorway, and potions might not do much. If a reset couldn't fix Dream's leg, then few things could. But Punz couldn’t just do nothing either. He was sick and tired of doing nothing.
After considering the problem, Punz slunk off into the woods to find a good, hefty stick, and whittled it down until it was the right size and shape for a cane. It was still rough, it had to be. Rough enough to look natural, but still the perfect shape and easily smoothed down into proper shape. That was step one.
Step two was actually getting the stick to Dream. In the end, Punz just left it near the house. Not too far from the woods, but close enough to be visible. Tubbo was the one who spotted it the next day, and his eyes lit up. It seemed Punz hadn’t been the only one who’d noticed Dream struggling. The cane was taken into the house, and the next time Punz saw Dream, it was in his hand, now with a polished surface and designs carved into it.
The day after Punz left the cane was the very first day that the moth who’d led him here landed on him. It was only for a few moments, but it touched down on his shoulder. Approving. Or maybe just familiar with him now. Or maybe just a moth doing its own thing. He still wasn't entirely sure.
For that first week, protecting Dream was an easy task. It got a bit more complicated on the 8th day though.
Or maybe complicated wasn’t the right word. Maybe it was. Punz was a lot less concerned about the terminology and a lot more concerned with the three skeletons currently cornering Tommy against a cliff’s edge.
Tommy and Dream had gone out on an adventure together before dawn that morning, Punz had arrived just in time to see them leave. Obviously, his job was to protect Dream, so he followed behind from a safe distance. Far enough that he wouldn’t be spotted but close enough to keep an eye on them. Just in case.
But Punz had gotten distracted by some sweet berry bushes that he’d spotted. And he’d assumed that Dream and Tommy would be alright on their own for a few minutes.
In fairness, he was half right. The two of them had found a dungeon close to the surface right as Punz had been getting back into range. The morning light was still weak and unable to burn monsters, which made the dungeon a lot more dangerous. Dream had been more than capable of taking down the skeletons near him, Tommy on the other hand had done okay, but had managed to drop his shield and was currently panicking. If Dream could see, then Punz was sure that Dream would help him, but Dream had glided down into the dungeon itself to take out the spawner. That left Tommy alone. Or at least, Tommy thought he was alone.
Punz had a bow. He had a clear shot. Tommy was too panicked to see him. If Punz didn’t act, Tommy would die. Or at least get seriously hurt.
Part of Punz whispered that he should just let whatever happened next happen. Punz's job was to protect Dream after all, not Tommy. Besides, Dream would be better off without Tommy. Right? He'd be Safer. Tommy was behaving himself for now, but who's to say that he’d keep that up? What if he started shit again. What if he tried to kill Dream again? What if-
“Fuck- Help-” Tommy was right at the edge of the cliff. He was flailing with his sword, but there were three skeletons and one of him.
Taking a deep breath. Punz drew his bow and sent a single shot into the skeleton closest to Tommy. His arrow hit right between the skeleton’s armor and broke the spell that kept the bones animated.
That was all it took. With one skeleton down, Tommy was able to dart through the opening and get to the treeline for some cover. Dream was climbing out of the dungeon to help him, and they made quick work of the remaining monsters, leaving them free to claim the dungeon loot. Tommy never even looked to find out where the arrow had come from, leaving Punz in the clear. He was able to slip close enough to overhear what they were doing.
Each of them dug through a chest. Tommy found a bucket and some gold. Dream on the other hand had a much more interesting find.
“Hey! Look at this! I think it’s a music disc!”
Punz found himself tensing, instinctively. He’d wiggled himself a little closer, so he could drop down if he needed to-
“Oh! Nice! We don’t have a jukebox though.”
“We can make one, eventually. I think I remember how to do it. We’ll just need to go mining for some diamonds first. Then we can see what this sounds like!”
“Fuck yeah! Tubbo’s gonna be so jealous that he was lame and stayed at the house.”
“We could give it to him as a surprise? I bet he’d like it.”
Their voices got quieter as the two moved towards a connecting cave system, intent on going hunting for diamonds. Punz needed to follow them, but-
The moth that had been loyally following him fluttered up to land on his nose. Punz couldn’t tell what it wanted, so he just spoke. Quietly, so as not to be heard by anyone else- at all? Did the moth count as a someone? Punz felt like it might now. He might need to give it a name. Was that rude? Hope seemed like a good name. Dream had mentioned it a few times, but never explained who it was. Maybe this moth was Hope? And they'd managed to come through the server. That sounded good enough to him.
“I just- I wanted to let him die. I really did. After all that shit- but-” God, Punz was so fucking glad there was nobody else here. “But. That’s not what this is. Dream wanted to start over. He wanted a better world. And- and he trusted me. He trusted me to be allowed to remember. And- and if I let Tommy die, I’d be breaking that trust. I think. So I had to.”
Hope considered his words, and then crawled off his nose, down to tuck itself under his armor. A safe spot. So that it could go with him into the potentially dangerous cave. Uncaring about the emotions Punz was wrestling with. Really though, Punz didn’t need a response. He knew where he was going. Even if the path was a little unclear at times.
Punz had once promised to follow Dream anywhere. No matter how dark or dangerous. Even if Dream didn’t remember him anymore, even if Dream didn’t remember their promise, Punz still intended to keep it. That was more important than anything else. Dream had wanted a reset. A fresh world, with all the old sins wiped away. Following him to that new world meant Punz needed to leave old grudges behind.
“Alright buddy, you’ve got a point. Let’s get going before we lose them.”
With Hope hiding under his armor (and possibly chewing on his shirt), Punz made his way down into the cave, following his Dream, just like he had before and just like he always would.