"Brother, I stand in my gallery and hold your sigil. Please come through."

"I am –ha!– in the middle of something right now."

The being dressed all in white blinked, unimpressed, "I am worried about your safety, please come through."

"Just… need… to kill them all…"

Dream of the Endless, no longer known as Daniel Hall, sighed in exasperation.

"Twin brother I am in my gallery holding your sigil, and I summon you."

"Don't you- stop that! Shit! You, kid, if you win this match in my name, I'll make ya my apprentice!"

There was a fervid screech, and finally, his brother passed through where his portal portrait was.

Death of the Endless, pretty much still Daniel James Fenton, was spat out of his portrait and landed headfirst on the floor of the Dream Lord's gallery.

"Hello there, twinsie dearest." Danny deadpanned, crossing his arms as he glared up at his twin brother.

It was a curious thing, their twinship. Daniel Hall and Daniel James Fenton had both been born the 3rd of April of 1990, effectively making them the same age, but Daniel Hall had been in the womb for almost two years, making him technically older in existence, and Danny Fenton had been born premature.

Now, Death had already been there when Dream had first come to exist, because everyone had the potential to die long before they could even dream for the first time, so that Death had been Dream's senior. But, this was a different Dream and a different Death, and the current Dream had taken his position in 1993, whilst the current Death had done so in 2023, giving this Dream work seniority.

Then again, this Dream had been a toddler when the position was given to him, and this Death had already been thirty-three, a whole adult by that point.

In the end there were too many factors to tell who was older than whom but since Desire and Despair had chosen to be twins, why couldn't they?

"Hello, little brother." Dream smiled down at him.

Knowing they wouldn't reach a definite conclusion didn't stop them from bantering over who was the older brother, however.

"I saw you had been summoned to the Waking world and through the eyes of one of your invokers, noticed you were nonplussed. I'm worried, brother."

Ah, yeah, he might have knocked a kid out cold with his presence. It happened. And- she got better!

"That was two hours ago, baby bro. Having trouble measuring time in the Living world again?" He teased even as he held up a hand to be helped up.

"Au contraire, Death. I know just fine how long it's been but I also know you can take care of yourself amongst a crowd of teenagers, powered or not. Alas, you took your time, and I grew restless."

Dream lifted his brother up and got a snort and a friendly shoulder shove as a reward.

The brothers stood next to each other on Dream's balcony, overlooking his Kingdom. Well, Dream stood, whilst Death sat on the railing, with his feet hanging down, back in his human living form as a 33 years old adult.

(He was already dead long before he became Death, so there was no need to kill him a second time. The fact that he was alive and could choose to be so whenever he wanted was of no consequence. It was more likely one of the reasons he had been a perfect pick for it.)

Danny broke the silence, "They couldn't have done anything to me, even if they had tried. You know that." He threw a pebble at the far-off lake and saw it skip endlessly.

Dream didn't look at him. He didn't need to have his predecessor's memories of his entrapment to know what it had done to him. Even after the incident with the Dream Vortex, he had been proud and unyielding. Arrogant.

A human lifetime of imprisonment later, and as soon as he was free, he started planning his demise.

"Poorly done?" He asked instead.

"No, not at all," Was his twin's answer, "The circle was perfect, so was the chanting, and if there weren't any trapping mechanism that was there on purpose. This one kid had a journal, the one who had the idea to summon the concept of Death to their dorm, filled with the knowledge we took with us when we left."

He wasn't talking about Dream, because Dream still walked the Waking world and interacted with humans in a more regular basis than his predecessor. It had been Death who, tired and grieving, had chosen to step away from the living, and only show himself to collect them and guide them to their next step; and as the King of Ghosts, he had taken all ghosts, spirits and shades with him, freeing them if they were trapped, helping them move on if they were still hesitant, and forcibly dragging them if they refused to stop wreaking havoc.

And he hadn't been the only one; Heaven had finally stopped it's wayward angels from going to Earth and, as Death would put it, "fucking shit up", and the souls that resided there could no longer be summoned either.

Same thing with Hell; the gates had been closed so that the damned could only enter, not leave. There were no more demons making deals and messing with humanity anymore.

"That shouldn't be possible. You made sure to kill all that knowledge in the Waking world.

Death sent a glare to his brother. He had not 'killed the knowledge', he had just taken it to his castle in the Ghost Zone, where only the dead resided. Shut up.

"And they won't see it in their dreams, either." He chose to say.

"Never." his brother reassured quickly. The Dreaming would not inspire anyone in ways that could harm any of his siblings.

"Yeah, I thought as much," Death huffed with a smile, "There was a…" He continued, knowing better than to use the word 'thing' when referring to someone that could think and feel. "… a being attached to this kid's soul. It- he is something neither Didi nor I had ever seen."

He let his words remain in the space between them, and knew his twin was seeing them written out in the air in front of him. (Much likely in comic sans, the asshole.)

"Not in a physical shape, at least."

His brother said nothing, and only watched him reach revelation on his own even if it still was in his realm. He could be an ass patient like that.

Danny thought about it, looking for the words to explain his mind to the collective subconscious of the multiverse.

"That being is a bridge, for knowledge on us, not just us Endless, but many non-mortals, on our realms, how to call us, how to find us, how to appease us… how to trap us."

This time he did see the words hanging between them –and it was comic-fucking-sans–, a bright toxic green that read trap. He put a hand on Dream's shoulder, squeezing reassuringly.

"He didn't put the trapping sigils, and they wouldn't have stopped me in this form." Even after becoming an Endless, that little trick of his didn't stop working. Things meant to contain the dead had no power on him when he chose to be alive, and vice-versa. He could get his siblings out, too, should they need it.

He wouldn't sit idly whilst he knew he could help. He could protect.

And, if anyone tried to go and tell him of rules and limitations, he could kindly point them to his Obsession and how it predated his duty as an Endless, how it had been part of him for almost a decade, and how the change in his nature had not managed to override it from him, no matter how much it tried.

Not wanting to continue with that topic, Dream said instead, "Did you have fun? Annoying or not, it's been a while since you spoke with someone your age who still had a heartbeat."

On cue, rings of light swept Danny up and down, turning him back to his ghost form, looking fourteen years old, right before his growth spur, with baby fat still on his cheeks and, if he lowered his guard long enough, sometimes he still moved like that hunched, awkward teen still discovering who he was.

"It was cool, actually! Most 'these kids were nice, and they had a bunch of cool video games; is not like any of them were a real challenge, but new competence is always welcome. Their universe didn't have DOOMED, though, even if they are three centuries after the game was invented, but I fixed that, so I think they'll be okay." He said, knowing damn well he would be going back soon as the war started, to collect several of the people they loved and admired. "I may have won at DDR, but that girl sure got the Spirit Award." He turned a mischievous smirk at his brother and found him grimacing and holding back a sigh, which only got Danny to laugh out loud at him, his smile so wide his eyes were half-closed in joy.

"Things are changing." Danny said as they stared at the night sky, this time from the Waking, Living world where they had been born, four thousand and fourteen years ago.

"They always do." Dream was a prime example of that.

"You know I fuckin' hate chess analogies-" And he did, so much that the last time he had touched a chess board had been to throw it at Vlad's annoying face. "-but… ugh, the pieces are being set, something's gonna make a move, and we'll have to face this new… board." Danny scrunched up his nose in distaste. Fucking analogies. "And we need to move, too," he continued nonetheless, "we gotta be ready, 'cause if what's coming next is what I think…" He didn't finish his sentence, because he genuinely didn't know how it'd all turn out. People would die, but they always did, as for the rest…

"Brother, please speak plainly."

But Death couldn't, he didn't dare voice his concern here in the presence of both Father Time and Mother Night and speak it into reality. He wouldn't fuck it all up again, when it was the ones he loved whom suffered the consequences. It had always been that way.

So he chose his words carefully.

"… the mascaraed will fall, there is now a bridge between what we tried to hide, and them. I don't doubt there are others across the multiverse-" connected, drawing the others to themselves, "-it's just that-" I haven't been there, I haven't paid attention, I stopped protecting them, "I didn't notice before."

"And when the game board is changed," Dream continued in his brother's stead, knowing how his thoughts spiralled, "if we don't adapt to the new rules-"

"We adapt."

Dream blinked, and turned to fully look at his twin brother.

Even still in his ghostly, Endless form his eyes were their icy blue, and they didn't have that bright ethereal shine of their own, but instead reflected the street lamp next to their bench, the full moon above them, the stars in their mother's body and the stars on Dream's own eyes. Danny's blue eyes shone with the world around them, alive.

There was no question in those eyes, no hesitation. This was something he was willing to speak into fact, into truth, unshakable.

They would adapt, because the other option was the end, everything and everyone leaving, everywhere. Danny locking the door with key and-

Being left behind, alone and Endless, please don't, I don't wanna, don't make me-

"We adapt." His brother echoed, his eyes human and green, a sign of affection, an oath of support, with their parents and anyone that cared to see as witness.

Danny breathed in again, not needing but wanting to, and rested his forehead on his twin's shoulder.

"We got preparations to make. I may have already started. Let's go, bro."

Under their Father's watchful gaze, two Daniels stood and left the quiet park of Amity and prepared for the future.

FIN