an equal trade - FIVE

                                    

                                          
Word count: 900.

Dream gingerly pressed the cleanly cut stone button on the pristine quartz, then stepped back from the portal to the exit hallway's chokepoint into the room.
He wasn't able to finish the small journey before the Warden's voice echoed sweetly through the chamber, "Welcome back, Dream. Escaped prisoner o' o' one."
He took a deep breath, "Hello." He stood as tall as he could in his netherite, reminding himself to not be afraid . Because in the end, things will turn out well.
They had to.
The obsidian gate crackled awake, nearly startling Dteam.
"Come in, if you will."
Dream stared up at the top center of the portal where he knew a camera was embedded. "No. You will come outside."
"No, Dream. I'll-"
"Come outside. You can bring whoever and whatever  you want. I'm here for negotiation," he drew out a pearl, holding it in clear view as he twirled it.
The crystalline eye was cold in his warm, trembling fingers, grounding.
"Fine," Dream heard a smirk in the word, "But be careful of what you ask for."
"I know, Sam," he nodded, forcing his fingers to unwrap around the enderpearl. Calm.
He could do this.
"Warden," the man snapped back. "I am your Warden."
Breathe.
"Not right now, you're fucking not," he replied brazenly.
Dream was collected, and Dream was calm. 
"I will be, in a few minutes."
Dream was not on the verge of pearling away like a coward.
A moment later, the Warden stepped out of the glassy violet mists, an emerald-lined netherite trident in one hand and a white-wrapped hilt under the other.
Then another figure crackled through- but it was not Ant or Bad. The figure was familiar, no, the figure was-
Quackity.
"I knew setting up one of those pearl-stasis thingies was going to be useful!" the duck strode to stand besides the Warden, asserting his authority proudly with a grin.
Ice crawled up his ankles, crystallized up his legs, fractured across his spine.
"Q-Quackity?" he nearly whispered, his hand clenching tighter on the cool, reassuring aura in his hand. "What the fuck are you-"
"I told you, be careful of what you ask for," the Warden grinned, his viridescent eyes piercing him.
"I... am," Dream uttered, heart palpitating, struggling to keep his expression even. Calm. "I know. I... am being very careful. In fact, I know exactly what the fuck I want to happen, and if you even attempt to harm me or anyone while I'm here, I'll pearl out before you can fucking blink."
There was a plan.
Quackity finally nodded, "So you're here for Punz."
He just couldn't show attachment. Fuck.
How the fuck is he supposed to do that when he's literally here for Punz- for an attachment?
"I... am. So I am." The answer was simple: he didn't necessarily have to. "But how about we make a deal?" he took deep breaths (Punz had always reminded him to breathe).
"What deal?" the Warden replied, still smirking. As if he still had the upper hand.
...they couldn't have installed a trap inside this entrance room, right?
That didn't matter. 
"I won't use this pearl if you swear- if you swear on god- on- on fucking DreamXD that you'll tell the rest of the server that I'm fucking dead- create whatever story you want, but make it fucking realistic. And you'll free Punz." 
There.
There wasn't peace because Tommy didn't have the peace of mind that he was dead. So let him have it.
Two birds, one stone.
"Then why would I be guarding the Prison at all then? Why would Quackity still be visiting you?"
He flinched at the second sentence, curling his fingers around the pearl. He didn't miss Quackity's grin at the motion.
Dream responded coldly without missing a beat, "Quackity doesn't need to visit me."
The Warden (not Sam he's not Sam anyone) glanced at Quackity, who eventually nodded, "Very well."
"Alright," the Warden affirmed and dipped his head before Dream could speak. "I-I swear on DreamXD that, on the condition that you give me every possession you have on your person right now, I'll tell the server that you're dead and free Punz. We- bought you back into the Prison, and you burnt yourself alive in the lava."
He'll be fine for a few days. And it wasn't as if he hadn't done that a million times. "Sure. I... I accept to these terms on the name of XD."
"Awesome!" Quackity burst with a Cheshire grin, "Great- that's great to hear, my friend."
"Of course."
"The pearls, if you may?" a pearly netherite-clad arm extended.
Dream looked down at the pearl, swirling like a whirlpool in an ocean. His last escape in his gloveless, uncovered, scar-ridden hand. It was all he had on himself.
Extending the hand that held the object towards the Warden, he looked back towards the glittering sky, the white splatters of paint soon to be replaced by purple tears, the faraway black canvas by smooth, inky obsidian.
The Warden plucked it from his palm along with the rest of the offered stack. "That went simpler than how I thought it'd go."
Dream ignored Quackity's dry chuckles, stepping towards the billowing dust and warmth from the portal, twining his hands around each other in the absence of the gentle frostiness of the enderpearl.
"-that's left we need is the revive book," Quackity was musing as he stepped out of the portal in cadence with the Warden, his stiff leather shoes echoing through the otherwise silent chamber.
Dream drew backwards towards a corner, "No . "
"Oh," he smirked, "We didn't promise that we'd stop the visits did we? And again, you could also tell us today, no harm done to anyone ."
"You know that's- that's not going to happen," he replied unsteadily, and now his bones and flesh felt flimsy, his breath faltering at the edge of an endless cliff. 
Then the Warden took his wrist, pulling him towards the portal, and Dream allowed him without a thought, stop jarred through his bones.
The purple smoke consumed him.