Chapter Text
Dream couldn't help but reach for where his sword would be in his inventory as he and Tommy are escorted through this giant testing facility, led by a stranger claiming that all of his past was simply a government experiment in alternate universes, that the reason he was here was due to him running away from a correctional school. He stared across the room warily to see Tommy, the younger looking just as out of place and confused as he felt.
He looked back on how they got here. He and Tommy had found a book in Karl's library a couple loops back that caught their eye. It talked of time loops and how they were stopped. Most of the book was knowledge they either couldn't decipher or already knew, but their was one spell in the book that they messed around with and proved to be useful. It let them choose when the loop ended and certain other factors like their appearance, but mentioned that a loop after this spell activated things would be different from any before. They had shrugged it off, but it seemed the warning had some merit after all.
He was interrupted from his thoughts by them finally arriving at the exit of the building, the guard that accompanied them leaving. Dream felt Tommy standing behind him as he assessed the situation. Despite all their humor and pranks throughout the loops, having to face war, conflict and doomsday left and right had left them with honed instincts and an almost paranoid level of caution. Especially in a loop like this, where all their plans and notions of control were thrown out the window.
When Phil Watson first saw his youngest son after seven years, he was expecting alot of things. He knew that the kid would likely hate him for sending him away. But what he was not expecting was a traumatized teenager with more scars than one could count, his once golden hair and vibrant baby blues now a dirty blonde with with white streaks and his eyes now a shade of dull turquoise that reflected someone centuries older than his seventeen years.
The teen stared at him from behind Dream, looking as if he was a stranger rather than his own father. The many multicolored vials and full set of armour the boy wore confused him, and his resemblance to Dream was straight up creepy, but he was just happy to have Tommy back in one piece, albeit looking like he'd been to hell and back.
When his best friend returned, Sapnap was expecting alot of emotions. One he did not expect, however, was this utter rage filling his body as he looked at the state of him.
Scars covered the majority of visible skin, more likely present behind the cracked mask covering half his face and black hoodie with a strange symbol. This was already bad, yet what made it worse was the fact that these looked like no accidents. This was a man in his twenties, yet he looked more like a war veteran. Sapnap would find out who did this and when he did, it was not going to be pretty.
Stepping out from behind Dream as the older continued to stare at the group across from them, Tommy couldn't help but stare at the strangers who had the faces of people they knew. Each looked a mixture of guilty, confused and enraged. The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife, the silence thick and nearly suffocating.
"So....how's the weather lately?"
Dream facepalmed.