Nightmare openly endorsed Schlatt, even giving him his own crossbow.
After he shot Tommy with it, it was quite clear that the speeches had been train wrecked and were not going to be fixable. And it was even more clear that Schlatt had no intentions of allowing them to continue peacefully.
Once they reached that conclusion, Wilbur, Tommy, and Quackity all retreated together into the white house. They barricaded the door with stair blocks, and after Schlatt continued to break them down, they finally decided to retreat.
Breaking out through the back wall, they ran.
And Wilbur made the worst decision of his life. He decided to include Schlatt, along with Fundy, on the ballot.
Dream was frozen. As votes flooded in, he sat on the edge of the podium in a stupor.
Just to end conflict... They made this concession?
How could Wilbur call himself a ruler at all with that mentality?
But perhaps...
Perhaps it was necessary. After all, who would vote for Schlatt?
No, someone would have to be an idiot or trying to cause destruction to do that.
In reality, there was no plausible way that Schlatt would be elected. Unless.
Quackity wasn't going to win the election. At this point, there was little doubt, though it might be close, that Wilbur and Tommy were the only right choice to make.
Dream's heart rate spiked.
No.
He wouldn't.... Would he?
Dream watched with dread as Wilbur offered to combine their votes with Quackity's to make sure Schlatt didn't win. And he watched as Quackity refused.
Really, it made sense. In such a joint government, where was Quackity's power? He had no endorsements, currently not even a running mate. He would get the short end of the stick in regards to real power. And the last thing Quackity would want is to get so close to power and have it taken away, especially if it was taken in such a way that the people who had stolen it were able to claim they had done him a service.
Dream himself would not have accepted such a deal.
But who would?
Schlatt would.
And that sort of deal is exactly what Quackity offered. In exchange for redirecting all of the votes he received to Schlatt2020, Quackity would be Schlatt's vice president if they won.
This was calamity.
Everything that the members of L'Manburg had worked towards was about to be destroyed. No, worse. It was going to be given to Schlatt. The one person you would not want to have power was going to have all of it.
Dream didn't know what to do. He couldn't change the outcome. He couldn't do anything. Once more, he was a spectator to disaster.
Why was he brought back? Why, if not to fix things? So far he had done nothing to help.
This was torture. Nothing but torture. His mind was being twisted and forced to fit inside a keyhole that someone else had created to unlock suffering.
What good was he? None. He, Dream, was useless. He couldn't even fight.
Dream turned around and walked away.
What could he do? How was this happening? It was like when he...
Wait. A memory. Dream grasped at it, desperate for reassurance.
What he found was exactly the opposite. When he had driven Tubbo to...
Oh, no.
How was it similar? Wasn't he in control when he had tortured Tommy? Or was he not?
Was it better or worse if he hadn't been in charge? And did it even matter?
There was something going on on this server. Something that went past the conflict. Something that was older than L'Manburg, more bloody than war.
What was it? And how did he stop it?
Those were answers that he would have to find himself.