A very general outline of how this AU's Staged Finale goes down:
So Tommy swings the Axe of Peace. And instead of turning into golden dust like a respawn, Dream shatters into pieces of light. The axe catches on Dream’s core crystal and basically knocks it so it hits the ground behind Tommy, in the middle of the gathered server members.
“What the fuck?” says Tommy.
“Language!” from Bad.
“That’s a core crystal. Dream was a Blade?” says Punz. He steps closer to the core crystal on the ground.
“Don’t touch that!” says Sapnap. He also steps closer to the core crystal on the ground.
“Chill. It can take up to three days for a core crystal to recover enough to be Awakened again.” But Punz steps back.
“Dream can’t be a Blade.” Says Sam. “Are you sure that was Dream?”
“Of course if was fucking Dream! You think I don’t fucking recognize how he fucking fights?” Tommy again.
“But if Dream is a Blade, who was his Driver?” Tubbo.
The problem is that Blades, socially, are seen as extensions of their Drivers. Most people expect that, if a Blade is doing something, it is because their Driver told them to. Anyone who has interacted with Skeppy on a frequent basis (and is aware he is a Blade) knows this is nonsense, but ingrained prejudice is strong. Tommy and Tubbo being mostly clueless about the Blade system actually puts them at a better point for recognizing Dream’s agency than anyone else.
Sapnap is having a breakdown. He thought he understood his friend, and then he thought that he didn’t understand his friend but that was okay because Dream was a bad friend. Now Dream is a Blade and some things are making sense but more things aren’t and actually his friend is for-real dead now. Not dead as in a canon death, dead as in the Dream that existed just stopped the moment he was returned to a core crystal. If it is Awakened, the New Dream will be similar but will not be the same person. The last bit hasn’t really hit him yet.
Antfrost and Bad have both been corrupted by the Egg at this point. They are surprised about Dream being a Blade, but are pushed by the Egg to want to bring Dream’s core crystal back to it. The Egg has a hard time infecting Blades, and only got Skeppy by a combination of lingering influence coming from Bad and long-term direct exposure. It is aware that any Blade in its power that reverts to a core crystal will reAwaken without the corruption, and has plans that revolve around trying to corrupt Dream’s core crystal itself.
HBomb, Jack Manifold, and Niki are mostly satisfied that Dream is not going to be a Problem any more. They are content to leave at this point. Niki did guess that Philza was a blade, and since Techno contacted her prior to the confrontation, she does inform Techno (who she thinks is Philza’s Driver) about the situation with Dream.
Callahan is worried about the situation. He wants to know who Dream’s Driver was. As a Blade himself, he is aware that a Driver does not absolutely dictate what Blades can/cannot do. However, a Blade’s relationship with their Driver does greatly impact how they see the rest of the world. Callahan is also aware that a Driver does not necessarily have to be on the same server as the Blade, seeing as his Driver Alyssa is off-server.
Ranboo is staying quiet. He and Punz are staying out of this discussion. Punz makes an excuse to leave early, and dips out while making motions to or saying something about Dream’s core crystal, which is still on the ground. Ranboo is hovering around, acting hesitant.
Sam also wants to know who Dream’s Driver was. He is currently the Warden of Pandora’s Vault, and while his behavior has not reached the point where it would in canon-timeline after overseeing Dream’s imprisonment, the signs are already starting. Sam thinks that Dream should be reAwakened and that they need to be careful about who Dream’s new Driver is to make sure that Dream is a Good Person in his new life (Sam is advocating to be the new Driver).
Puffy agrees that Dream needs a good Driver to be a better person in his new life. She thinks Sam is a good person for that. Eret weighs in at this point and mentions that Dream was a citizen of the Greater Dream SMP and might be better with them (this is part of Eret’s quest for reconciliation, as well as a bit of power-hunger. Eret is a weird character). Puffy says that Sam would be better because Dream shouldn’t be around/have influence in politics. She says Dream probably shouldn’t go with Bad or Antfrost for similar reasons. At this point, Eret leaves.
Tommy wants to know what the hell are they talking about. Why is Dream a rock? Why are they trying to revive Dream at all? It’s like they think that Dream isn’t a wrongun’.
*Blade system is explained to Tommy*
Okay, so the New Dream will look exactly the same as Dream. And act exactly like Dream. And you think it’s okay to wake him up because he won’t have any memories? Tommy calls Doubt with lots of cursing. Bullshit Dream was doing it on orders. It was only Dream demanding Exile. It was only Dream during Exile. Yeah, Doomsday was Dream + Phil + Techno, but Dream wasn’t getting puppeted by either of them. And if Dream was a Blade, why didn’t Dream ever use any of his Blade powers? None of them even know what his Soul Weapon looked like. They don’t know what his element is. Even healer Blades have some weak attacks, and he didn’t use an of that shit! Maybe Dream should stay a rock.
“What the fuck, Tommy,” goes Sapnap.
“Maybe Tommy should reAwaken him,” says Tubbo. The issue is that Dream hated Tommy, right? If Tommy is Dream’s Driver, then that can’t happen again. Dream will help Tommy, be his friend. After all, Dream was nice in the beginning.
Dream will be Tommy’s friend sets Tommy off. “Dream was never my friend and never will be!” This is lingering trauma from the emotional manipulation from exile. Meta note, the relationship between Tommy and Dream would not be healthy at this point.
“Dream should stay with someone who was actually his friend,” Ponk disagrees. Giving a Blade to someone who was their enemy seems ethically dubious.
“Sapnap,” says Quackity.
“Not Sapnap,” says everyone else.
“Fine, George then.”
Sapnap, who is still having a breakdown and is processing 1000+ things and just realized that George might have been Dream’s Driver, based the fact that he re-met Dream as George’s friend and also George’s weird behavior around the dethronement, “Not George.”
“You should leave Dream as a rock,” Tommy repeats.
“I still think it would be better if he stayed with Sapnap,” says Quackity. This is partly to support his fiancé and partly because he thinks having a Blade in his sphere of influence would help his plans. “What do you think, Ranboo?”
“Um, Karl?” It sounds shaky, and the pronunciation is weird. Ranboo leaves.
People present: Tommy, Tubbo, Puffy, Quackity, Sapnap, Antfrost, Badboyhalo, Ponk, Awesamedude.
Karl is friendly. He is minimally involved in server politics at this point (since El Rapids is mostly forgot about in comparison to L’Manberg, and L’Manberg is a hole in the ground). He is Quackity’s other fiancé, so this is still a good solution for Q. Tubbo likes Karl. Tommy is kind of “eh” about it, but he also thinks that Dream should not be reAwakened at this point. Everyone else talks over him. Sam is okay with Karl, but he would prefer to have Dream as his Blade.
“Sapnap, can you bring the core crystal to Karl?”
The core crystal is Not There.
Everyone freaks out. Sapnap demands that everyone empty their inventory. Nobody present has the core crystal (or they are pretending they don’t. Sapnap isn’t sure how much he can trust them). When was the last time anybody remembered seeing it? Well, that was when Punz pointed to it and left. Okay, so Punz doesn’t have it.
Who left?
Ranboo, HBomb, Eret, Niki, and Jack Manifold.
On the Nether side of the portal, EW!Ranboo drops Dream’s core crystal into Punz’s hand. Even if someone were to come through the portal now, they wouldn’t be able to see them. Punz was actively pushing aether into his passive powers, rendering the two of them completely unnoticeable. Once Punz has the core crystal, he steps back. EW!Ranboo completely loses track of him as he leaves.
EW!Ranboo scribbles the basics of what happened in his memory book, Dream tried to kill Tommy and Tubbo. We rescued them. Dream is a Blade and they are fighting about who Dream’s new Driver will be. I am worried about the outcome. Then he gives control back to Ranboo.
So everyone goes into the Nether, and they see Ranboo standing there putting away with his memory book. Ranboo says, “What happened?”
“Ranboo, can you empty your inventory?” The core crystal is Not There (anymore).
Ranboo apologizes to Tubbo, “I’m sorry. Thinks were very stressful. I don’t remember what happened at the confrontation.”
Three days later, Punz Awakens Dream as his Blade. “Hey, buddy. You doing okay?”
“…Resonance feels different from George. It’s weird to have a comparison.”
Results of Staged Finale:
Punz is not under suspicion for having Dream or helping Dream before he was killed. Ranboo is also not under suspicion. Dream has been reAwakened with all his memories (the experiments worked!). They can now continue further experiments in peace. Everyone at Staged Finale is now very suspicious of each other. The idea of someone on the server can just pull a Blade with Dream’s fighting skills, unknown powers, and the blind loyalty of all New Blades out of their inventory unnerves people. Tensions are high, but most people are reluctant to get into actual fights for the moment because what if.
Dream is avoiding the SMP in general, but if someone does see him he can just say “I have no idea who you are, got to go.” There is a greatly reduced risk of immediate attack as long as he pretends to be an amnesiac new Blade if he is discovered.
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