It was over, it was finally over. Every sacrifice every death every tear and all the blood that had been poured into this one goal to save not just the universe but every universe and everything else. The angle of double death was dead, Lord English had been slain. Davesprite could hardly believe it, he hadn't joined the fight expecting even a chance of victory. It was a battle he had planned to lose.
He watched from up in the air as the ghost army celebrated, people were hugging some were kissing and the loud celebration from everyone blended in into one single unintelligible sound. Proudest of all looked Vriska, she looked to be the only one other than himself that was quiet. He had no idea how she had managed kill Lord English. Some shenanigans with some magical artifact that did all the work.
Not that it mattered how they did it just that they had somehow done it despite all of the odds being stacked against them. He had nearly died several times himself, he knew he should be happy to have survived let alone even having managed to be a part of this victory but it all felt bittersweet. Things may finally be over but things could never be normal for him.
He wasn't Dave he was Davesprite. He was a sprite, the game may be over but what future was there for him? He was forever a part of the game just as any other creation of sburb was. He would be a living reminder to every one of the horrors they all had to go through. He wasn't even the real Dave anymore, just half a Dave. He had long since served his purpose now he would forever just be the weird bird Dave.
He had planned to die in this battle. One final sacrifice after he had given up so much to give some more hope of victory. One of his wings were still damaged beyond repair, half of it cut off by Noir. He had given up being a human and become a sprite just so he could be of more help, he had left his timeline behind to save this one. He had left Rose behind, the last person from his timeline now he was the only who remembered.
He had sacrificed being Dave. He didn't like being called Davesprite, it stung every time he was called that. He already knew he wasn't really Dave being more but being called that was adding salt to the injury. Yet he had never bothered correcting anything about it because he believed it to be true as well. That was his name now no matter if he liked it or not.
Being killed here would have been a fitting end, one final sacrifice that finally ended with the ultimate sacrifice of his life. It might finally put an end to the memories as well, that god awful sound of lava and turning gears that he couldn't get out of his head. Yet here he remained, watching people he didn't know celebrate. Of course he recognized many of them, many were other versions of his friends or the few trolls he had met. He had asked around but none had been his original friends from his timeline. Another reason why he had come to this fight, the hope to find them in the army as well but they weren't there.
There were so many ghosts and dreambubbles that it might as well have been an infinite amount. The hope to find them had been small but it was there and he was left with an bitter disappointment. Now both without them and remaining alive he was lost without a purpose. All he could do was watch as people celebrated and as someone else flew towards him. A troll in a godtier outfit that his sprite knowledge immediately recognized as a Maid of Time, and with those horns there was only one person it could be.
"What are you doing up here moping? Don't you want to celebrate with everyone else?" Aradia's mouth didn't move from the wide smile she had as she spoke. It really looked kind of creepy but from the things he had heard about her creepiness seemed to come naturally too her. Davesprite shrugged before looking down to the mass of ghosts, seemed like the dreambubble had been shifted to something more fitting to celebrate on while he wasn't paying attention.
"Just taking a moment to chill out for a bit" When Aradia didn't respond and just kept staring at him with those weird big troll eyes he continued. "I mean that shit was kind of fucking crazy forgive a guy for needing to take a breather. Not that I need to breathe on account of being a sprite but I need to clear my thoughts calm down a bit or whatever. Not everyone just gets excited by this stuff"
He had a feeling that Aradia didn't believe him, as if she could see right through him and know what he was thinking about. Maybe she could read his thoughts or something, some trolls did have weird abilities after all. "You don't look very happy, heard you were looking for someone earlier, didn't find them huh?" As Aradia spoke for once her smile seemed to go down a bit, not as wide as before.
"Cant keep a secret long here can I? Yeah I was looking for the people from my timeline, but really I'm fine just need to be alone for a bit after that mess of a fight" Aradia did not seem to get the message as she remained where she was in front of him or maybe she just didn't care. Davesprite was hardly in the mood to have people come asking a bunch of questions, few had gone through the same as he had and the few times he had tried to talk about it no one understood and he had never spoken to Aradia before.
She seemed to be in thought for a moment before he smile widened again and all he could do was try and stop himself from sighing. "There's a lot of dreambubbles out there and even more ghosts. Lord English destroyed a lot of them and killed a lot of ghosts as well but paradox space is a big space they are probably still out there somewhere in a dreambubble. Many ghosts who couldn't move on are out searching for their friends, if its that important to you that you cant be happy after we won maybe you should consider searching as well"
And with that Aradia left, her fairy wings carrying her back down to the ghosts where she joined up with another troll that he didn't recognize. She left him with only more things to think about now, searching through all of paradox space could take an absurd amount of time without any guarantee of success. But he was a sprite, he didn't age he could keep going forever. He had done so much for everyone, maybe it was time he did something for himself.
He looked up to the edge of the dreambubble, the edge of them always looked like they were glitches in reality. Like if he accidentally glitched out of the playable area of a game and came across the world border. He could just go back and enjoy the rewards of sburb, the new universe that was going to be created. Yet there he would always be Davesprite, if he finds the ones from his timeline maybe he can just be Dave again.
So it was decided, he gave one last look to the ghosts below before flying off, from what once had looked like an orange figure in the sky from below turned into a small dot and then disappeared as he flew through the edge of the dream bubble and into the eternal darkness of the furthest ring. He pushed his shades against his face more securely, he had no interest in seeing any horrorterrors out here.
What once had been endless darkness now consisted of thousands of colourful dots as far as the eye could see. Each one another dreambubble and there were millions if not billions more that he couldn't see. He realized now that he was likely never going to meet the alpha version of everyone again, he had a lot of problems with them but they were still his friends. Jade was probably going to miss him at least.
He felt bad for just leaving her there but she still had the real Dave and he hadn't exactly left her on good terms anyways. Breaking up with her for his own insecurities, but that was also why he knew he had to leave. Even if they would all accept him as a Dave he would never accept himself as one as long as he was with them. But with the ones from his timeline maybe he could finally let himself just be Dave.
So he flew over to the closest dreambubble and searched, he looked for any John's Jade's or Rose's. He asked around if anyone knew of the specific version of his friends that he was looking for. It was five months before he found someone that had met one of them. A troll who he had learnt to be one of the many doomed Karkat's claimed to have met a John who fit the description he gave. But it had been so long that he did not remember which dreambubble. And with how many dead John's there were it was impossible to know if it wasn't just someone who had suffered a similar fate.
It took another two years for him to find the next hint of their existence. He spoke to a group of two trolls who claimed to have met people who had that exact description as he said. That had given him hope. Sure there were plenty of Johns and Jades out there who could probably fall under the same description as he gave but his Rose? Who else would have been stuck in a doomed timeline for four months with only a Dave? It had to be her and if that was her then the others must have been his John and his Jade as well. But just like the first time they said that it had been long since they had met them.
"How long ago?" Davesprite spoke with a lot more nervousness in his voice than he was used too, the stoic voice he usually did to hide his emotions having cracked. Never before had he been so certain that someone must have met them. The olive blooded troll thought for a moment, scratching at her chin before shrugging. "A year purrhaps maybe more. Me and Terezi met them in a memory of my land there were some other people there as well" Nepeta seemed a bit sorry for not being able to help much but gave a small smile anyways in hopes that what she had said will help at least somewhat.
"Alright cool thanks" A year ago, that meant they were alive. It had been almost two and a half years since Lord English had been defeated if they had been since just a year ago that meant they had survived his rampage across the dreambubbles. He had a real chance at finding them. "You wouldn't happen to know in what direction the dreambubble they were in is? They are probably long gone but probably not a good idea to be moving away from where they have been"
It was a slim hope that they would even remember that, most ghosts move sporadically between dreambubbles or sticked around the same couple of ones but he was blessed by a moment of luck when she spoke again. "Oh we met them somewhere in that direction I think, they travel a lot so they are purrobably not around there anymore but maybe you will find them close to it" It was hardly the best tip for finding them, it still left millions of potential bubbles to explore but it was better than anything he had gotten yet. Better than anything he thought he would get.
His wings flapped excitedly, bird instincts was something that he found hard to control. And excitement like this lead to him flapping his wings wildly, something he had almost forgotten he did. He hadn't been all that excited for a while. "That helps a lot actually, id say see you around but this will probably be the last time we meet and if it isn't we probably wont remember each other. So uh yeah il continue looking" Great way to make a goodbye awkward, he decided not to stick around any longer and quickly flew away and out of the dreambubble. Now in the direction he had been pointed towards.
Now that he knew what direction he was supposed to go in he no longer flew in a straight line between the dreambubbles. Instead visiting all the bubbles that were close up together just to make sure he wouldn't miss them. It made it take longer, a lot longer really duplicating the amount of dreambubbles he was visiting several times but he couldn't afford to accidentally miss them. If he did he might never find them. He had gone too far to give up now, he wondered what it was like in the new universe. Did they miss him? Did they actually care if he was the real Dave or not and just wanted him to be there because he had been their friend as well? He would never know now.
Maybe it had been a mistake to do this, he could have pushed himself a nice niche with the alpha version of everyone. But if he had stayed he would forever have to live with knowing that he could never meet his John his Jade or his Rose. He felt a lot more conflicted about this now than he had when he first started this. The only thing keeping him going this path being the hope that with his old friends he can truly be happy again. And that he had gone too far now to give up.
Davesprite hated LOHAC. He hated it with a passion just as burning as the lava the planet was covered in. But some dreambubbles were memories of it so he needed to search in those as well. He doubted there was any reason why they would ever want to visit such a dreambubble but there was a chance he might find them here and he can't ignore that. Not if he wants to increase the chance of him accidentally missing them. He would have to deal with that awful sound of the gears turning. A sound that he remembered all too clearly.
He had avoided being on LOHAC for as much as he could in his timeline. Spent more time on Derse or any other planet then. He couldn't deal with the sound, the warmth it felt suffocating. But to learn everything he could about sburb before leaving he needed to spend a lot of time there as well. It didn't help how many dead Dave's he had seen in that land when he came back to the Alpha timeline. How many Dave's had died and been forgotten about?
They all became just a number, not who had died anymore but how many had died. He remembered many of them, at least the ones he had seen or found dead himself. Someone had to remember them after all, they may be ghosts in the dreambubbles now but it felt wrong too him for so many who were no different to the Alpha Dave to just be forgotten about. But that was the life of a timeplayer, they were all aware of the risks. He was aware of the risks after all, and he was Dave as well no matter what people called him.
Seeing your own corpse was not a sight that was easy to forget, even if that corpse was technically the corpse of a time clone of a person who he is also a time clone of. Sometimes he wished that he wasn't a timeplayer. That he was an aspect that didn't have to worry about such a delicate yet overwhelming thing. It often felt like he was too small to know as much about time as he did, as if it was not something humans should ever know.
Davesprite's eyes were full of both fear and shock as he lay on the ground at the edge of a dreambubble. There was a horrorterror outside. A small one but it was one nonetheless. A horrible mass of black flesh and slimy tentacle with more facial features than one should have. He hadn't seen it, the eternal darkness outside combined with his shades made it impossible to see them. Something he was more than thankful for, he wasn't interested in being driven mad while he was still searching.
He may not have seen it but he had felt its presence, it had been close far too close for comfort. Close enough that in its presence he could feel what it looked like despite never touching it. Despite not really understanding what it looked like. He felt like he wanted to puke but he couldn't because he hadn't eaten anything since before the battle with Lord English. Sprites didn't need to eat but that didn't get rid of the feeling.
He had curled up against his tail, he couldn't get that awful feeling of that creature away from him. It felt as if it was watching, as if it was looking through the dreambubble directly at him. He didn't have the courage to take off his shades and look out of the bubble to see if it was really looking at him. If it was it would only make things worse.
He felt like crying, it had been so fucking long. As a time player he was good with time, very good with keeping track of time but it had been so long that he couldn't keep track anymore it had been so long. It hadn't just been years it had been decades by now maybe even longer. He hadn't even scratched the surface of how many dreambubbles there were.
It was too late to go back now. What would they even think of him if he went back? Oh he abandoned all of them to find other friends and when he failed he came back begging for their forgiveness? Or would they even remember him at all? Maybe one of them remembers him as that weird bird Dave that was around for a while and disappeared. He was such an asshole, his selfish search resulted him in abandoning those he knew without a word and now he was suffering from the Karma of it.
The horrorterror was probably out there to deliver even more righteous justice against him. Tormenting him more than he had already been by his loneliness. Maybe this was the end for him, being driven mad by the gaze of a horrorterror. A fitting end for him really, he had spent his time on Derse unknowingly preventing himself from having to listen to their whispers and instead all of those whispers had been directed at Rose. And that was his fault as well he realized only now.
This was karmic justice that had finally caught up with him full force and now he had to suffer the consequences. He was never going to meet his old friends again, not even the ones he had met in the Alpha timeline. This was the end for him a sad and pathetic end as his mind gets destroyed by the mere presence of a being he can never understand.
"I know your kind is curious but can't you see you are putting him through immense pain? Find someone else to bother" The voice was barely audible to Davesprite, like a whisper in a rock concert. But the horrorterror withdrew as requested and soon enough that feeling of unending dread and being watched disappeared. He was breathing heavy still but he was calming down and then he looked up to see a person. A dead version of Rose was standing there.
The two looked at each other for a moment inspecting each other. "Hm well you certainly ended up looking interesting as a sprite. I like the feathers, they suit you" Rose smirked at him as she offered him a hand which he grabbed as she pulled him up. His wings beginning to flap again as he began to fly. Davesprite was at a loss for words he could barely understand what had just happened, had this Rose just talked away an horrorterror?
"Don't say you don't remember me Dave, I have been waiting for you for a very long time" Her hand squeezed his and that's when it hit him. This was it, this was his Rose. Standing on a dreambubble with a memory of Derse was Rose. The same Rose he had known for so many years, the same Rose he spent four months of real time in a dead session and many more months of slowed down time and time travel. The same Rose he had been looking for and searched through paradox space itself just to find.
She was standing there right in front of him. He could hardly believe it, it was a miracle that he wasn't crying tears of joy. "Is it really you? I'm not just fucking hallucinating here am I?" She laughed at that before shaking her head. "No I'm really here and so are you. We all missed you a lot Dave, what took you so long?" Her tone was in a teasing voice but all you could focus on was that she said we and not just her. "Are the others here as well?"
She didn't say anything, she simply nodded and turned around started to walk as he followed, still holding her hand. They came to a small park in Derse where he saw two people sitting on a bench talking. John and Jade. His John and Jade. He could barely keep himself together as Rose took him towards them. Just a moment ago he thought he was doomed and now he had finally done it his search was finally over.
John and Jade turned to look at the two as they heard the sound of footsteps and the flapping of wings. Both of them looking quite shocked at the sight of Davesprite. "It seems as if the fourth member of our group has finally come back" Both John and Jade and stood up walking up to the two as they stared at him in shock. The group remained silent for several moments until Jade spoke up.
"Dave? Is that really you?" He wasn't sure how Jade's voice could be described, it was both happy and nervous with a hint of sadness. She really was unsure if it was actually him. "I am at least I think I am. If your Dave spent four months alone with Rose in a doomed timeline then im-" Jade cut him off with a hug, he had never had a hug as tight as that before. "Dave! Its been so long I didn't think id ever get to meet you again" Jade was crying against Davesprite no Dave's fluff of feathers on his chest.
"Yeah, I didn't think I would either" Davesprite smiled, a genuine smile for what felt like the first in a very long time. "Well I never lost hope! I've been waiting for you for so long!" John suddenly joined in on the hug as well, hugging both him and Jade as Dave wrapped his other hand around him as well. Dave looked up from the hug and saw Rose looking at them all with a smile, he opened up his arms again and she chuckled before approaching and joining in on the hug as Dave hugged all three of them at once.
He started using his sprite powers to fly instead of his wings as he instead wrapped his wings around them. Surrounding them in a fluff of orange feathers he hugged them all as tightly as he could. There were laughs there were tears and for the first time in so long he felt truly happy. Finally he was Dave again, not just a copy not just an extra he was just Dave to his friends and he couldn't be happier.