Dream a Nightmare

"How foolish I was. Consumed by a hate that burned mountains," Technoblade said with a sigh. "Consumed by a hate that would never go away.

"Until it did. Until that one day. The day that saved me. The day that destroyed you. Doomsday.

"Dream decided to wait to attack. I disagreed. But I understood why he gave them time to prepare on Doomsday."

Technoblade nodded at Dream. But Dream was grimacing underneath his mask. Even Technoblade didn't know the full measure of his plan. Even Technoblade did not know how cruel he would have been.

"After we destroyed L'Manburg, and Dream sang his song, I knew that L'Manburg would never come back. I could feel it in my bones. I knew, deeper than even if I had been through it already. So I retired again. I hung up my sword. I tended my animals. And I thought. About what had happened. About what I had done. That was when I stumbled upon a truth. Violence is the only real universal language. I can speak that language, and I can speak it well."

Technoblade nodded to Tommy.

"That was another thing that I told you," he said. "Remember, when Tubbo died."

Tommy narrowed his eyes at Technoblade, but he didn't say anything. Tubbo didn't respond, aside from looking uncomfortable with the topic.

"But one of the things that I didn't realize then," Technoblade continued. "Is that every time that I speak that language with a tyrant, it does nothing. Sure, I may kill them. But what does that accomplish? Nothing. There will always be another to take their place.

"Unless."

Here Technoblade paused.

"That was where I got the brilliant idea to kill god. Start a new world order, and all that.

"Then I got trapped with Dream, and then I freed him, but all of that's a different story. The important thing is what happened after. And what happened was that the being without color approached me again.

"It told me that I was needed elsewhere. It asked about the note. If I was serious about what I wrote. I said that I was, and it asked me to come with it."

Technoblade shook his head.

"Most people would have written that in jest. They perhaps might have responded yes to any questions of whether they actually meant it, but would have balked at the chance to actually go and do it. But not me. I was serious. I followed him to an arena. He wanted me to beat the champion. I did. Easily. But for the first time in a long time, there were no spirits. No one urging me to do something over another, no one always pushing me to violence. It was peaceful.

"And then I learned the truth. This world is a simulation," Technoblade said. Everyone who had been following along with the story was abruptly jerked back to reality. They all stared at him with open mouths, questions on their tongues. But not the first other Dream.

"You shouldn't have told them that," the first other Dream said uncomfortably. "They weren't supposed to find out."

A few eyes flashed to him, but they quickly refocused on Technoblade when he began speaking again.

"This self merged with my other-world self," Technoblade continued. "And I became the potato god. I was the man who conquered all of Earth, I was the mean who beat Dream in a fair 1v1, but I was also the man who ended L'Manburg. It was all me. And I was myself. After that, I killed god, and came back here."

"That sounds more complicated than you made it seem," Dream said cautiously.

Technoblade smiled wearily.

"Maybe," he conceded. But I don't really want to go into it, and it doesn't matter."

"That brings us right to where we need to be," Philza said, clearing his throat. "Dream, we are going to send you back to the SMP."