Dream a Nightmare

But, unfortunately, this happiness was soon ruined. After a while of peace, with a few small conflicts here and there, there came a player. One who was the opposite of happiness. TommyInnit. Dream could see no reason that he did what he did, aside from one: He wanted chaos.

The other Dream imprisoned TommyInnit, but he just escaped. He banished him, using something called "commands". Dream did not know how this word related to what the other Dream was doing. He did not think he had known anything of the sort before. Here, this other Dream was powerful. More powerful than anyone had any right to be. Unfortunately, TommyInnit kept coming back. But the other Dream just kept removing him again. How was it possible to have so much power? Dream knew that this power that the other Dream now wielded was theoretically infinite, although he didn't know how he knew.

Finally, after a few minutes of this, the other Dream was entirely fed up. And so was Dream. How dare this child come and ruin his peace? For what? There was no purpose. Only to cause suffering. So, the other Dream did something. Tommy was somehow capable of returning after death, again and again. In fact, that was how he kept getting back. Dream did not understand this. He had thought that everyone had limited lives, but from the way TommyInnit used his, that wasn't true at all.

Dream strung a few strange words together, and TommyInnit was gone. There was peace again.

Unfortunately, that didn't last. Soon, TommyInnit was back. He professed to be returning with no intentions of mischief.

Dream didn't believe him.

And, of course, TommyInnit did have intentions of mischief. But fortunately, he only destroyed a few more things before stopping for the night. 

When it happened, the next problem did not come from TommyInnit, though he was involved. Only one small conflict had occurred before TommyInnit came. And that was between Ponk and Sapnap. Ponk had blown Sapnap's house up, so Sapnap had burned down his tree. 

When that conflict flared up again, it grew past just those two. Ponk enlisted Alyssa to help him take revenge, in the form of burning down Sapnap's house. In response to this retaliation, Sapnap got TommyInnit to help him. TommyInnit didn't come easily, but once convinced, the two of them were enough to kill Ponk and Alyssa.

The other Dream shared Dream's vision of a perfect paradise. He didn't want TommyInnit, or anyone else, disrupting that. So the other Dream had decided to do something about it. Unfortunately, he was not strong enough to take on TommyInnit. When he tried, he was quickly killed. In his time spent in peace, TommyInnit and the others had been gearing up for a fight. Brute force wouldn't work, not as he was now. There had to be a way to stop him. It wasn't right that he was doing this, with no consequences. There was no official government. But if there was, it was the other Dream. He was supposed to be the strongest person in the world. You didn't fight him. No one did. No one but TommyInnit, apparently.

Dream didn't know how to feel about that. Surely it was the right thing to do, to keep TommyInnit under control. Right?

But there was a problem. And Dream didn't know what it was. Every time he saw TommyInnit, his heart ached a bit, but he couldn't remember why. He knew, faintly, that something had happened before he had gotten here with himself, but he didn't know what it was.

He remembered tears. Pain. Not physical. Why was he here? Why weren't there others like him?

A focus. A purpose. Dream smiled, though no one could see it. He was floating over the other Dream, who was sitting on a chair, spinning a sword in his hand, growling sorry to himself.

This was it. The Nightmare. He could see it, forming over the other Dream's head. A darkness, tinged red. Representation of blood, perhaps? Only barely impressions right now, but it would bloom soon. This darkness was dangerous. What form would it take? He knew that he knew, but he couldn't remember. Something must have happened to his mind when he came back.

Back.

Back from what?

Death. Yes, back from death. He didn't remember how, but here he was.

He had a job to do.

And that job involved TommyInnit.