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𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 : 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭

Her heart broke. Shattering in a million different pieces and as everything that happened over the last months came together, a single tear escaped her eyes and she broke off her stare with Eret.

When she looked in front of her, she saw Dream himself making her way over to her.

She tightened the grip on her sword and swung forwards, trying to maintain the distance between Dream and Tubbo and her.

Eris could hear angry shouts from beside her but they all blurred together as she only focused on keeping the defenceless teen behind her safe.

The masked man blocked Eris' hits seemingly with ease as he slowly approached, their axe and sword clashing with a metal cling.

The young brunette swung her sword at Dream one more time, but he caught her blow with his shining axe, the two weapons now pressed against each other in a struggle for power. Time seemed to slow a bit as they stood there in front of each other. The lonely tear on her cheek slithered its way down as she stared at the two black dots, refusing to break eye contact.

Then the single tear finally fell down her chin, onto the ground, and Dream pushed forwards once more, taking Eris by surprised and making her stance falter.

Subconsciously she stepped backwards, the distance between her and Tubbo now almost non-existent, as the younger teen looked terrified, leaning against the wall helplessly.

Eris made for one final blow, swinging her sword forward with all her might to push the masked man away from her, and surprisingly she succeeded. He tumbled backwards slightly and the small victory gave Eris another kick of energy and she pushed forward, skilfully swinging her sword at her attacker to create more distance between her and Tubbo.

"Eris!" A voice screamed from behind and Eris whipped her head around, almost dropping her sword onto the ground. Sapnap had Tubbo practically in a choke hold as he had a dagger placed against his neck. The brunet looked terrified as he stood on his tippy toes to prevent his throat from being slit, holding onto Sapnap's hand desperately.

"Put your sword down." A different voice commanded from behind Eris, and she looked around again to see Dream staring down at her.

The brunette looked around, weighing her options. But as she took in the situation and surroundings, she lowered her weapon. In one corner of the room George had disarmed Fundy, who looked in pain as he clutched his side. On the other side, there was Wilbur and Tommy, held under watch by Eret. Wilbur still had his arm under the blond's shoulders, but this time he had to completely support the boy's weight as he was unconscious. He held Tommy behind him slightly, shielding him as he glared down at Eret who had a sword pointed at them.

Eris dropped down her sword. It clattered to the ground with a nasty ring as it came in contact with the stone floor. She put up her hands and pushed the iron object aside with her feet, desperately hoping Tubbo would be let go.

Then he laughed. Dream let out an almost maniacal laughter, making Eris flinch as she looked up at him, hands still risen slightly in the air.

"You really thought it would work out, huh." Dream whipped his head around to look at Wilbur, who returned the gaze with the same glare he had given Eret.

The masked man laughed again, clapping his hands together in amusement before making his way to the exit of the room. He turned around when he reached the stairs for a moment, "Get them upstairs."

For a short moment a deafening silence overtook the room. Eris let out a shaky breath as she fully lowered her hands.

"Catch." The words alarmed her and Eris had just enough time to notice Tubbo being shoved in her direction, who let out a yell of pain. She barely was able to catch him, almost falling to the ground with him, but once she caught him she quickly took him in her arms.

As he clung onto her like a monkey, she looked up at Sapnap, who held a taunting look in his eyes. Almost as if it was a payback to what Eris had done to him.

They were left no time to recover as the revolutionaries were being shoved out of the dark space, Fundy in front with George behind him. After that Wilbur who carried Tommy up the stairs. Eret walked behind them, a sword still raised in defence. Eris walked behind him with Tubbo under her arm as she stared at the back of the head of her dearest friend with a heavy heart.

Once they were outside, they were ushered into a small clearing. Fundy was shoved to the ground first. Wilbur got to put down Tommy on the grass, who was conscious now, before being forced down onto the ground as well.

Eris and Tubbo trailed behind as Tubbo had a difficult time keeping up the pace.

Eris expected to be thrown down as well and readied herself to make sure that the younger brunet wouldn't be hurt in the process, but instead a harsh hand pulled her away from Tubbo and she yelled out as they were separated.

She looked up and watched as a dagger was placed against his throat once again, but this time by George. He whimpered slightly.

An arm wrapped around her shoulders and she was pulled back even further as now a dagger was placed against her throat as well. Normally she would have fought, find any way out of the situation, but she just couldn't do it. She simply could not find the mental or physical energy to do so.

"Woah-, woah-, what's going on." Wilbur questioned, sitting up straight as he looked up at the position Eris was in.

"Well," Dream started. He stood half a metre away from Eris and had his arms crossed around his chest in such an arrogant manner that the younger brunette had to stop the urge to scoff, "I want L'Manberg gone, don't I?"

Eris swallowed and winced as the small movement caused her throat to press against the blade even further, causing the tiniest bit of blood to flow out.

"I have for you an ultimatum, Wilbur Soot." Dream continued, "A revolution cannot exist without one of two things. A heart. And a soul."

He gestured to Eris when he said the word heart, and to Tubbo with the word soul. And suddenly the things Dream had spoken to her when they fought each other made sense, but before she could continue her train of thoughts, Dream spoke up again, "So for you it is the decision, which you would consider more valuable."

Wilbur glanced at Eris, his eyes void off emotion, the perfect poker-face, "And what happens if I refuse to make a choice."

"Simple. I kill them both."

Eris looked up at Dream at the statement before looking back at Wilbur again, pleading for him to return her stare.

And so he did.

"Let Tubbo go."

Eris sighed and closed her eyes, relief washing over for the smallest moment at the thought Tubbo would be okay.

But the three word sentence evoked strong words from both Fundy and Tommy who shouted at Dream and Wilbur.

"You fucking bastard! I will kill you if you hurt her!" Tommy screamed, almost rising to his feet. His words were slurred and he stumbled down again. To add to that, Tubbo was thrown down to the ground as well, dropping on top of Tommy.

Eris looked on, but she mentally and physically couldn't move, she was stuck in her own body, trapped.

Dream laughed once again, the joyous laugh so misplaced, that it shut everybody up.

"This was far too easy. Thank you so much Eret. Without you this would have been a pain in the neck."

As he tauntingly spoke the words, he patted Eret's back almost brotherly. In reply the tall brunet stiffened and looked down.

"You bastard, Eret. We trusted you." Tommy shouted from the ground, his icy blue eyes glazed over with furious tears, "I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you fucked up! You fucking traitor!"

"I farmed with you for hours.." Tubbo spoke softly, holding himself up with his good arm.

Eret didn't reply to the pained words and instead looked up at Eris, who looked away as soon as their eyes met. Hatred and hurt filling her mind.

"Well," Dream started, clasping his hands together once more, "It's good to know you sometimes can make the right choices, Wilbur."

Then, without any warning, Sapnap, who held Eris in her place, dropped the blade from her neck, only to slam the hilt of the object against her head.

She immediately toppled forward as her vision swayed. Everything seemed to become a blur as different colours danced before her eyes, before a darkness was placed over her eyes. She was not unconscious however, even when she appeared to be.

She could still make out voices and shouts, but those were far in the distance, way too far in the distance for her to reach.

A floating sensation ran through her as she thought she could feel arms around her legs and back, but those too seemed surreal.

After a while she tried to open her eyes when reality seemed closer to her, and she could swear she had them open, but still her vision showed nothing but a murky darkness.

Then the floaty feeling changed as she was placed on top of something, something unknown but familiar at the same time. Then mixed with a static noise she could make out the sound of a horse. She was sat on a horse.

A presence appeared around her and behind her, making her flinch slightly in her blurred and unsure surroundings. The presence caught her in her spot, as what she thought to be legs trapped her against the side of the horse while two arms rested on her thighs to keep her in place.

She tried to move out of the position, but her body did not seem to react to it much. A panicked breath escaped her lips before her head started to throb and she was forced to lay her head against the presence that held her upright, closing her eyes again as she this time completely lost her conscious.

When Eris woke up again, everything hurt. From the throbbing sensation in her side, to her stinging cheek. From her burning fingers, to her splitting headache. But none of those seemed to be comparable to her shattered chest that seemed to shield an empty void.

She opened her eyes slowly, before quickly shutting them again as a beam of light shot into her eyes, fuelling her already excruciating headache.

A hitched breath left her mouth as she tried to calm down. It took her a good minute before she dared to open her eyes again, this time making sure she shielded her eyes from the light above.

When she opened her eyes and let them get adjusted to the space around her, she realised the light hadn't been bright at all. A dull lamp hung on the ceiling, painting the small room around her with various shades of equally dull colours.

As she scanned the space, she came to the realisation she was placed in a small bedroom. Only containing a small wooden closet, a table with a matching chair and the bed she was placed on. There were also two doors and one small window, placed on the opposite of the room from where she was.

Eris slowly sat up from her lying position, wincing at the pain that came with the movement.

Confusion overtook her for a second as to where she was, but quickly everything came back to and she scooted to the corner of the bed, pulling up her knees to her chest.

A numb sensation overtook her body as she took everything in. But all she could really think about was Eret.

She couldn't believe it. She didn't understand. Every word he had told her, everything had been a lie to gain her trust, to turn a blind eye to most-likely a lot of red flags. How couldn't she have known?

Eris wrapped her arms around her pulled up legs and rested her chin on her knees, breathing shakily.

She sat like that for what felt like hours, with nothing changing. The only thing that did change was the light in a small window on the other side of the room had gone out. Signalling that indeed, some time had gone by, but how much she didn't dare guess.

A harsh knock on the door pulled Eris from her numb stare, flinching slightly at the sudden noise.

In came the masked man, his shoulders pulled back in the same arrogant manner as when he defeated the revolutionaries. In his hands he held a platter with a bowl on it.

"Good, you're awake." He said, putting the wooden object down on the table, before looking back at the brunette who hadn't moved from her spot on the bed, "Is your head okay?"

Eris clenched her teeth ever so slightly at the caring way he said those last words, before breaking eye contact with the two dots and turning her gaze to the wall she had been staring at before he entered.

Dream huffed stepping in her line of vision to interrupt it, cocking his head slightly, "What are you looking at?"

Eris didn't reply. She didn't even shift her gaze, as she now stared at the dark green cloak Dream wore.

"You look pretty shit." Dream commented.

Eris didn't reply.

"Why aren't you talking back?" The masked man asked impatiently, taking a step forward. The movement was obviously meant to threaten the brunette, but she did not react, in any way.

"You're always so damn cocky and annoying," Dream continued, taking another step forward, "What happened, cat got your tongue?"

Once again, Eris did not reply. The only form of reaction being her slightly shifted gaze, to the other side of the wall, away from Dream.

A rough hand grabbed Eris' chin and forced her to tilt her head, "Look at me."

She didn't comply, looking slightly off to the side. She just did not have the energy to do anything. She wanted to sleep.

"Look at me, damnit!" Dream shouted, gripping her chin tighter. Eris could feel the fingers dig into her skin and she looked up at the two dots as a shaky breath escaped her lips. The pain of the pressure on her chin pulled her out of her numb daze slightly.

"Good." Dream said slowly, the position of his mask shifting slightly as he seemed to analyse her face. He wanted to say something else, but before he could another knock was heard at the door, earning Dream's and Eris' attention.

"Yes?"

The wooden door opened slowly, squeaking slightly as it did. Dream let go of Eris' chin as he turned to look at the person that stood in the doorway. The tall figure was immediately recognised by Eris and she swallowed, her stomach turning.

Eret took a step into the room where he stood awkwardly, refusing to make eye contact with Eris as he instead looked at Dream, scratching the back of his neck as he spoke up, "Uh, George said he needed your help."

Several emotions hit Eris like knives stabbing her chest repeatedly, the pain in her heart suddenly unbearable, but still, she couldn't do anything.

That was until Eret met her gaze for a split second, before quickly looking away again. It was like a flip was switched in her mind. Suddenly the thunderstorm of emotions Eris felt redirected into one single lightning bolt; anger.

She launched herself forward, past Dream and shoved Eret back, his dark eyes widening at the action.

"You fucking traitor!" The brunette screamed as she punched his chest with all the power her weak and injured body held, "I trusted you."

A wrangled sob left her lips as the emotions she had put away, had come back all at once. She hit his chest multiple times, earning noises of mild pain from the tall brunet, before pushing him to the ground.

He did nothing to fight back, taking every punch with glazed eyes.

The anger and pain Eris felt in that moment overtook every limb of her body, sending her in some sort of autopilot as she kept on hitting and punching her, what she had believed to be, best friend.

That was until a set of arms lifted her from his body, pulling her back.

"There it is." Dream laughed as he pulled back Eris' arms, making sure she couldn't hurt Eret any further, "Thought you lost your spark there for a second."

Eris struggled in his grip as she cried, "I hate you! I fucking hate you!"

Eret stood up wobbly as tears fell down his eyes. His hand reached up to his nose, only for it to stain red with blood. He took the words silently.

"You were my best friend! I trusted you!" Eris sobbed, stilling in Dream's tight grip slightly as her headache suddenly became unbearable.

Another sob escaped her throat as she continued to scream at Eret, who stood there frozen. Her vision became blurry and she had to close her eyes to stop the excruciating throbbing of her head, before finally collapsing, her thunderstorm of emotions going down with her as she fell unconscious.

____
A/N:

emotions go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

sorry for taking quite long to update- it's just that writing doesn't come as easily to me as i wish it would. i sometimes lack the motivation to do so, even though i completely plan on finishing this story (as i've planned out most of it). i just need to come in a better writing flow? something like that.

anyways tysm for the support on this story. 6k reads may not seem like a lot, but the comments i've been getting are so kind and motivating- they're probably the reason i'm still writing lol. so thank you so much for all of that!

what did you guys think of eret's betrayal? i put a lot of time in making it more believable and giving it more character. so i really hope you guys like it, even though it hurts lol

anyways

you matter,
blue