Ch. 9 In-Techno-gation

"What the flip?!?" Quackity chorused Tommy's previous question in confusion as Tommy, now no longer concerned with what happened, awed at his no longer broken window.

"My window!" Tommy ran to the four-by-four, hugging it. Dream, who realized his mask was still on the ground and was also in a sort of daze, grabbed the precious porcelain and hurriedly put it back on while the others were distracted. His anxiety was already sky high from what had pursued earlier, so he wasn't gonna let any chance of feeling safer go to waste.

The others didn't see anything, too focused on the fact that the admin not only somehow has the ability to control time now, but also just saved his enemy, the others minus Techno and Philza that is. While everyone else had been too shocked to notice, Philza had been very observant of the situation, and had simply noticed it as he took note of what happened, while Techno honestly didn't care about much of what was happening until his brother was being thrown through the window. Though, he was sure Tommy had contributed somewhat as to why it happened in the first place, so he wasn't too upset. Despite them both being prepared, they both felt the pang of shock in their chest's when he saw the innocent child's tear stricken face. Perhaps it was because of how pale his skin was or the shocking green of his eyes, but the most surprising thing to the two was how young he was.

You see, the only people to have seen Dream's face before he died were George, Sapnap, and Puffy. Not even Bad saw his face. So no one knew anything about his appearance or age unless he told them.

They knew he was younger than he once was, but from 21 to what looks to be 9? Techno stood, taking everyone's attention. As always, the Blood God put everyone on edge as even his impeccable posture yelled danger. Dream wasn't as scared a she was when he first met him since he felt oddly comfortable with the hybrid, but he still felt very scared, and the adults attitude did little to ease his anxiety.

"Okay, I think it's time we settle this meeting. I have things to do and places to be," he said with a slight grimace. Everyone just nodded in agreement. The second Techno moved everyone knew this meeting would be over in ten minutes, no matter how many questions remained. He just had the overwhelming authority over crowds, possibly due to his status of being a god of blood.

With a sigh, he gathered his thoughts carefully yet quickly, blocking out the multiple voices in his head the best that he could. They cried in grief for the lost friend. Most of the voices cared deeply for the admin, which was one of the main reasons Techno opened up to him in the first places seeing the ghost's form now made him pity Dream. It was sad what the former admin had became.

"First," he looked directly at Dream, the ghost shrunk back in response. Fear was evident in his posture and Puffy reached out to hold him, but Sapnap gently held her back, knowing this didn't concern them anymore. This was between Techno and Dream now. "How old are you?" Everyone did a double-take. Mumbles of questions burst from the crowd, confusion painted on most's face. Why would he ask that? Don't we already know he is 21? Were some of the resounding thoughts. Although others were also curious, as they had actually payed attention to when they stated he was younger than before. It was clear to a lot of them he was younger than an adult, little did they know of his real age however.

"I- Ummm I don't...." Dream looked to Puffy, also confused as to why this is being brought up. "I don't know if I can answer that correctly... I don't remember many birthdays after my eighth one..." He awkwardly shrugged it off as he avoided eye contact with the intimidating god. Techno thought it over for a moment. This might be a good chance to ask Dream if his childhood, understand more of why the admin had changed so much.

"What is the last thing you remember before dying?" Techno took a step closer to Dream, having a clear path to him as a few people shuffled out of the way when he first spoke. He was still several steps away from the ghost, but Dream could practically touch the callous aura emanating from the god.

The small ghost, struggling to keep up with his questions as fear started to over take his fast paced brain, stammered a bit. "U-umm, I was six and... no I was nine and umm my dad had- wait no that was a long time ago I remember something recent but what is it?" By the time he was done, it was clear he was talking to himself. Memories bounced across each other in his mind, jumbling into one another like the balls in a ball pit after a child jumps. Nothing good came to mind, which scared him most of all. Sure, life had gotten much better with Puffy a his mom, but in any memories she was in, she was always too busy to play with him, or having to watch her other adopted son, foolish, who was too small to watch himself.

Techno almost, almost, grunted and told him to get to the point, but he stopped himself from being impatient out of respect for the younger admin. "Okay let me make this easier for you. Do you have any bad memories?" He asked passive-aggressively.

"Y-yeah," the apprehensive ghost replied meekly.

"Okay, any good?" Techno took another step towards the boy, making sure to not falter in his steps or appearance, which was nothing short of confident. He knew that this was to best approach for any interrogation, never showing weakness to the enemy. Perhaps he did get a bit ahead of himself however, not considering Dream now being a child and not the enemy.Dream froze for a few moments in thought. Like a picture, he stood statue-still until he snapped out of it with a slight shake and tilted his head a bit before replying, "I don't think so..."

Soon after though he jumped, making everyone else jump as if they were on high alert, which they were, and spoke quickly as he remembered something finally. "Wait! I remember Mama Puffy picking me up from the funny police lady! That made me really happy!"

At that point, nobody knew what to think. It's only been two minutes of Techno-interrogation and the only carbon-copy question in everyone's mind is "What the hell?"

After a moment, the oblivious child got the hint that he might have caused more questions than answered them, so he tried to clear it up, only to make things more confusing without even knowing.

"Wait, t-that came out wrong! Well, no it didn't but that's not what I meant! I-I just really liked it when Mama Puffy let me live at her home 'cus it was a lot more fun there! I got to play outside with Night a lot and eat three big meals that were really good every day! Oh, we would also get to go with Mama on trips sometimes, and that was really cool 'cus I got to meet new people." As he spoke he fumbled around with the clock, struggling to remember some of what he was saying.

Wait Night? Who is...

Techno took another step closer, intrigued by the possible orphan. "What powers do you have?" He looked down at the shrinking boy.

"Ahh... I'm not so sure... I know I can teleport but I don't know what happened with my clock..." He meekly replied. Techno was hovering above him, giving him almost no room to run away, as the ghost looked as if he'd flee at any moment.

"Okay, last question. Who is Night?" It was more of a demand rather than a question, but Dream himself had no idea who he was talking about. So instead of answering, he looked to Puffy, but Puffy looked just as confused, if not scared. She had never heard of Night, she barely knew of Dream's past. As a child he was closed off and never chose to talk about it. The police officer that had been fostering him had recommended she get him a therapist, but he had insisted he didn't want to talk about it, saying he was okay now. She still took him to a professional of course, but after a week of therapy, they told her that all he did was sit on the couch and stare off into the distance day dreaming. Any conversations held were basic conversations that held no indication that he was traumatized.

This confused the ones who knew of his background, but Puffy was none the wiser, so she pulled him out of therapy and life resumed as normal. Now hearing of this mystery second child, she was confused. She, at first, assumed the boy was an imaginary friend, one made up by Dream since he didn't have many actual friends as a kid, but the name sounded so familiar. She couldn't place it but she knew that kid. But from where? How did that connect to Dream. She began to grow worried that the situó they were in was much worse than they though at first.

"I- I don't... I don't know..." Dream said just as confused. "I remember playing together a lot. He is my best friend. He is super duper strong and protects me from-" he stopped himself before he revealed too much. Some people had left by now, not finding it their business to watch. It dwindled down to about 13 people, a much more comfortable group for Dream to be open with since he knew a majority of the people, but still made him feel overwhelmed and scared.

"Mama? Who is Night? I know he used to eat food with us and stay over a lot..." Dream ventured, floating over to her. Techno just stood still, watching as people nearby shuffled away, too baffled to really consider talking or doing much else.

"Duckling... Who is Night?" She asked, a mixture of terror and confusion mixed on her face. "Mama... I-I don't know," He replied, tears welling upon his face. The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a sword, and Dream, being a kid, was absorbing most of this tension. He felt as if he'd messed every up.

Like a rope snapping, everything unpaused. Dream started to wail and slowly faded from view as Puffy lunged towards him, instincts taking over and everyone else snapped out of their daze.

Where a moment ago, people were barely breathing, now people were almost everywhere. The previous panic set aside, the wail of a broken child unnerved them, so they simply backed up and processed it, others joined Puffy in her attempt to comfort the child.

It was only when they heard the silence that most of the gears in their brains started turning. "Duckling!" Puffy cried out as she searched for the now transparent ghost. But no reply came. The remaining members began looking around the room for the ghost before realizing he must've left through the walls. Techno wasted no time in looking around, knowing Dream enough to guess he would've fled if given a chance. Being closer with Dream allowed him to find out that Dream had severe anxiety; he thought that as a ghost, he wouldn't have any negotiate mental problems, but it could be that baby Dream was just naturally shy and developed his extravertedness through aging and experience.

"Welp, that's one way to make an exit," Techno stated, now standing by the open door, slamming it behind him.

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