Archive of Our Own ^beta

Magnus isn’t sure how it happens. One moment he’s laughing, tugging Alec close to his side as he opens a portal and the next moment he’s… here . Wherever here is. 

“What the hell?”

The first thing that Magnus registers is that Alec is still beside him. The second is overwhelming heat . 

Everything around them is stifling. Magnus can barely breathe for how hot and humid it is. It reminds him of hell. Literal hell. 

But this isn’t any hell dimension he’s ever visited. He looks around finding fog and red and lava . Where the fuck have they landed?

Magnus reaches over, taking Alec’s hand in his own. Their eyes meet, the seriousness of the situation sinking in. “We’re not alone,” Alec murmurs, his body tense, his hand going to his belt but coming out empty. 

“What the hell?” A man wearing a green hoodie and a white mask makes himself known to them. “Did your portal link up with mine? Shit. I thought I’d have more time before you got here.”

“What?”

The man freezes, finally taking them in. “Wait, you’re not the hunters.”

“Hunters? Who’s hunting you?”

As Alec continues talking with the masked figure, Magnus reaches within himself. Panic flares through him as he realizes he has no magic in this place. Fuck, he feels incredibly vulnerable, flayed open and useless. 

The portal behind them begins to brighten and waves of magic radiates from it. “Fuck,” the masked man grits out, his body going tense. “Follow me. I’m part of a tournament. I’m not saying this to brag but I’m one of the top runners. There are five hunters trying to kill me before I can defeat the dragon. It’s a whole thing. I can explain all the details but I gotta do it while we run .”

Magnus’ eyes meet Alec’s for just a moment before they’re both chasing after this masked man. “What’s your name?”

The man looks over his shoulder and despite the mask obscuring his face, Magnus can tell he’s smirking. “Dream.”

“Lovely to meet you, Dream,” Magnus says as he runs. Sweat already dots his brow, this place being uncomfortably hot on top of having to run . “I’m Magnus and this tall, dark, and broody man is Alec.”

Before Dream can respond, a loud, angry snort comes from nearby. “Shit,” Dream hisses out, pausing only long enough to pull off his helmet, tossing it to Alec. “Put this on. The piglins will attack you if you’re not wearing gold.”

“ Gold makes them friendly?”

Dream just shrugs, going back to running. “I try not to overthink things that keep me alive.”

Magnus tucks his golden necklace into his shirt, making a note to make sure it does not come loose while they’re here. Wherever here happens to be. 

Behind them, Magnus can pick up a few voices. Would they try killing them because they’re teaming up with Dream? Would it be better if they switched sides? This is all so complicated. How did a drunk portal turn into this ?

Dream pulls out a pickaxe from his backpack. He doesn’t look back as he begins digging a path inside the wall of red. The three of them duck inside and Dream patches the hole behind them, giving them a place to hide. 

“This will only buy us a little time,” Dream tells them. “They have a compass that points them in my direction so soon enough they’ll know I’m hiding in here. Normally, I would tell you two to get lost or keep your distance but we’re in the nether . Even with hunters tracking me down you’ll be safer with my help.”

“The nether? I honestly thought we were in some sort of hell dimension.”

Dream tilts his head as he digs. Everything goes bright as lava pours in through a hole Dream just made. He’s fast, fixing the hole with rock before going down another way. “Technically it is. In this world there are three dimensions. The overworld, the nether, and the end. Right now we’re in the nether to find blaze rods and ender pearls which will help us get to the end.”

“What’s in the end?” Alec asks, ducking in the tunnel and listening carefully to Dream’s words. 

“That’s where the ender dragon lives. Once I kill her, it’s game over.” Dream pauses, looking over his shoulder. “By the way, how the hell did you get in here? This is a closed server, there shouldn’t be anyway for another person to download themselves in.” Then he murmurs, “Callahan is gonna get so much shit for this.”

“I have no idea who Callahan is but I can assure you it isn’t their fault,” Magnus says. He reaches out, touching one of the red stones that seemed to be embedded with golden specks. This place is beautiful in it’s own terrifying way. “I’m a warlock where we come from and it would seem my portal truly did sync up with yours. I’ve never heard of something like this happening before and I’m not sure how we’re supposed to get home.”

The red stone breaks away into a wide opening. The air is different here, foggy and deadly. Magnus chances a glance over Dream’s shoulder, seeing giant pillars of white that looks strangely close to a ribcage. A shudder goes through him. 

“This is a soul sand valley,” Dream murmurs, taking a step out. As Magnus follows, a shocked noise leaves his lips. His feet feel stuck to the sand as he tries to walk. “It’s okay, you’re just naturally slow in this place. We’re heading that way,” he says, pointing out a large, black building ahead of them. “I want to get us a stash of fire resistance potions, just in case.”

Alec nods towards the lava falling from the ceiling. “In case of that?”

“Exactly.” 

A whoosh goes past Magnus’ ear and he turns in horror, seeing a skeleton walking towards him. His hands go up and push out, but nothing happens. “I hate not having my magic,” he says, grabbing Alec’s arm and tugging him to the side, both of them dodging another arrow. 

“Do you have any weapons?” Alec asks Dream, holding out his hands. 

“Here. Please tell me you’re good with a bow.” Alec smirks as he takes the bow which shimmers with pink magic. “It’s enchanted with infinity so you only need this one arrow.”

Alec takes the bow. He looks more comfortable now that he has a weapon in his hands. He pulls back the string, the arrow just as magic as the bow itself, before letting go. The arrow flies true, hitting the skeleton in the head. Magnus expects it to fall down dead but instead, it simply vanishes, leaving behind a single bone on the ground. 

“That was--” 

Dream just shrugs, leading them closer to the towering black building. It looks ruined and there are so many pig people walking around. “This is called a bastion. I need to find the gold blocks inside and use them to trade with the piglin.”

“You trade with them?”

“Yeah. I give them gold and they give me random items. They shouldn’t be angry but if you see any of them wearing a black shirt and holding a golden axe? Run . They’re strong and mean .”

“Got it,” Alec says with a nod, his brows wrinkled in concentration. Mangus can tell this soul sand is frustrating him. If only he could activate a rune that would help swiften his steps. 

Dream pulls a bucket from his backpack and it radiates heat. Magnus realizes with a start that it’s filled with lava. Letting out a long sigh, Dream turns towards them. “This is going to be intense. It might seem cruel but you have to remember that the mobs in this world are all NPC’s. They’re programmed into the world, okay?”

“Okay?” Alec stretches out the world, his brows wrinkled. 

Things are starting to make sense to Magnus though, things clicking into place. It seems this is some sort of virtual reality world. These hunters and runners download themselves into the world for sport. 

Dream digs into the wall and they make their way into the bastion. Oinks and grunts hit Magnus’ ears. He breathes deeply and wishes he hadn’t as the smell of sweat and grim and rot hits his nose. As they wiggle their way through the wall, a groan comes from his right and his heart rackets against his ribs with fear. 

“That’s a zombie pigman,” Dream explains. “They’re harmless as long as you don’t hit them first.”

“I’ve seen a lot of things in my time as a shadowhunter,” Alec murmurs, eyeing the zombie pigman, “but this is unnerving.”

Magnus makes a noise in agreement. Dream is already digging through the walls, pulling out blocks of gold from places that make no sense to Magnus. There’s a chest nearby and curiosity gets the best of Magnus. 

Opening the chest has Magnus finding some armor that he quickly pulls out. Soul speed boots they say along the bottom, the metal shining. There’s also some golden carrots, a block of gold, and a crossbow. He picks them all up just in time to hear an angry cry. 

“Shit,” Dream hisses out, running to Magnus’ aid. “They hate when you open their chests.” The bucket of lava makes more sense all of a sudden. Dream drops lava onto the creature and it screams as it alights with flames. 

“I’m sorry,” Magnus starts to say but Dream just holds up his hand. 

“Don’t. I should have warned you, that’s on me.”

“I think I’m getting the hang of this,” Alec says, gesturing towards the blocked off area he’s made. “I have a bunch of those pig guy things in here. Can you trade with them now?”

“Yeah, this is perfect,” Dream says, running over and handing some gold to both Magnus and Alec. “You two trade with them and pick up everything they give you. You especially want ender pearls and fire resistance. I’m going to go through and check all the chests.” Dream nods towards Magnus. “Do you have a weapon of choice?”

“My magic,” Magnus says without even thinking before frowning. “But obviously that’s not something I can use here. A sword will do.”

“I’m on it.” And then he’s bounding away, leaping from ledge to ledge and climbing up into different layers of the bastion with ease. It’s obvious by the way he moves that there’s a reason Dream is a top runner. 

Magnus turns towards the area filled with piglins, putting his hands on his hips. He stares them all down. “Alright,” he says loudly so they can all hear. “You all better give me exactly what we want or so help me I’ll let Dream come back here and cover you all in lava.”

With that, Magnus and Alec start handing out pieces of gold. He’s not sure if he’s just extraordinarily lucky or if his speech really helped because they start getting exactly what they need. He gets some beautiful blue blocks that look harder than stone, he gets these round, eye looking spheres that he guesses are ender pearls, and he gets a bunch of pink colored potions that must be fire resistance. 

“ Whaaat ?” Dream comes back and even with the mask in the way, Magnus can tell he’s shocked. “You’re kidding. They’re gonna think I have a hacked client with how good these trades are!”

“I don’t know what that means. Magnus threatened them with lava and they gave us what we wanted,” Alec explains like it’s obvious. “Have you tried that? Telling them you’ll use your lava bucket if you don’t get pearls?”

Dream shakes his head. “No. One time a ghast shot the piglin I was trading with though.”

“Did that… help ?”

“Nope,” Dream says, picking up the pearls and shoving them into his bag. He pulls a weapon out, tossing it over to Magnus.

Magnus catches it, admiring the shine of it which he has come to learn means it’s enchanted with some sort of magic. “This will work nicely. Thank you.”

Whooosh

Dream’s head snaps up just as another arrow flies towards them. They’re too slow, caught completely by surprise. A pained yelp leaves his lips as an arrow embeds into his shoulder.

“Magnus!”

Dream is moving, leaping up towards the lone archer. “They’re here! We gotta move! Out the way we came! Now!”

Magnus tugs the arrow free, throwing it on the ground before running. Adrenaline makes the pain barely there, unable to focus on the throbbing because he needs to get the fuck out. 

Just as Magnus is pulling Alec through the wall outside the bastion, Dream drops down from somewhere . His breath comes out in pants and he’s tugging them into a different direction. 

“You’re not safe! I’ll lead them away from here.” He points them in a direction that’s opposite the soul sand valley. “Go that way, keep going until you find a fortress. Please be safe. I promise I’ll come find you.”

Before they can respond, Dream is running. He dodges another arrow.

“Don’t you dare dig into that wall, Dream!”

“He’s jumping! He’s jumping.”

“This way!”

As the hunters yell and chase after Dream, Magnus and Alec slip away, running in the other direction. 

“This feels wrong,” Alec says, his eyes scanning their surroundings. The air around them turns a green shade and suddenly there’s some sort of grass below their feet and trees stretching over their heads. 

“I know, darling. I’m not someone to turn away from a fight or giving a helping hand but this isn’t our fight. We’ll find Dream again.”

Alec raises his bow, shooting an arrow towards a large, snorting pig coming their way, it’s tusks gleaming with fresh blood. He shoots it two more times before it finally dies, leaving behind a pork chop.

“I’ll never get used to that,” Alec murmurs, picking up the pork chop and putting it into his bag. 

“Alexander! Look!”

Their steps slow as they break through the trees, a towering deep maroon fortress in front of them. It would be intimidating at the best of times but now, in a place that’s unknown this is downright terrifying. 

“Shall we?” Magnus asks, holding out his hand for Alec. Alec takes it, giving him a squeeze, nodding in response. 

They find an opening, stepping inside. Their boots click against the bricks below and Magnus’ stomach quivers with nerves, wondering what sort of monsters are lurking inside. 

“Magnus? Alec?”

A relieved sigh leaves his lips at the sound of Dream’s voice. Their steps quicken as they run up a stairway, coming out into a wide opening. Down one walkway is a weird looking cage, the opposite direction is a long walkway that seems to lead to no where, that’s where Dream is coming from. 

“I’m so glad you’re both okay.”

“You too,” Magnus says. “What happened to the hunters?”

“I hit one of them into the lava before losing the other four.”

Magnus looks at him in shock. “You killed one of them?”

“Well yeah?” Dream continues moving down the walkway towards the weird cage thing. “How else am I supposed to get away?”

Alec grabs Dream’s wrist, stopping him. “I thought the hunters were real people.”

“They are. But hunters are allowed to respawn. They’re fine.” Alec lets go, nodding. “They’re my best friends. I’d never hurt them for real ,” Dream explains, taking out a diamond ax as he steps up to the cage thing. It seems to spark to life, three monsters crawling out of it.

Magnus takes a step back in surprise, watching as Dream begins fighting the monsters. When they die, they drop a weird golden rod which he quickly picks up and tosses into his bag. “I need a few more of these and then we’re gonna head back towards the portal.”

There’s a rattling behind them and in sync, Magnus and Alec turn. A towering black skeleton is barreling towards them, a large sword in hand. Magnus moves quickly, hitting the thing with his sword, watching in shock as the skeleton flies backwards away from him. 

Ah, that must be the enchantment on here. Amazing. 

“Careful! Wither skeletons will kick your ass if you’re not careful,” Dream calls out. 

An arrow flies past Magnus’ shoulder just as he swipes again. Between the two of them, they take down the skeleton with ease and instead of a bow or a bone falling to the ground, there’s a black head. Magnus picks it up, looking it over in his hand for a long moment before sliding it over his head. 

“What do you think?”

Alec makes a face that makes Magnus chuckle. Even in the midst of all this chaos, he’s glad he has Alec by his side. 

“Oh Dreaaaaaaam !”

There’s a lone hunter in the fortress with them. Dream is busy fighting these weird blaze monsters, so Magnus gets an idea to help keep the hunter off his back. 

“Sapnap? Where are you?”

“Over here George!”

There’s two of them now. They have to move fast if they wanna keep their element of surprise. They make their way to the staircase they saw earlier. After making a few strategic holes in the floor, they wait for their moment. 

These hunters are reckless. They chase and run and go without being careful of their footings. “George! This way!”

One of them runs down the stairs and Magnus jumps out. “Aahhhhhhh!”

“What the fuck! This wither skeleton has an enchanted sword! Sapnap save me!”

Magnus swipes his sword out, hitting who he guesses must be George. The knockback of his sword tosses him backwards. Alec uses one of those blue, shining rocks, placing it down so George ha no where to go except straight into the hole in the ground.

“Nooo!”

“What happened? George? George where are you?”

Sapnap comes running through the fortress. He sees Magnus and instead of questioning it, immediately takes out his ax. Magnus tries to duck but isn’t quite quick enough, getting a hit to his upper arm. He hisses in pain. Before he can react further, an arrow is hitting Sapnap in the back. 

“Shit,” Sapnap hisses turning around to see where the arrow came from. That’s the perfect distraction for Magnus to do the same thing he had done to George, using the knockback to push Sapnap into the hole as well. “Fuuuuuck!”

Magnus looks over the edge, finding a pile of random items floating on the ground below. They must have died from the fall and respawned. Whatever that means. 

“Are you guys good?”

Magnus finds Dream hanging from the side of the fortress. “We’re good. Just took out two hunters.”

“Which two?”

Alec answers, “Sapnap and George?”

Dream shakes his head. “Idiots,” he says but there’s obviously fondness in his voice. “Let’s head back to the portal. We have to get back to the overworld and start making our way to the stronghold.”

“Do you think we need to worry about the other three hunters?”

“They’re probably closeby,” Dream admits. “Can you follow my path down?”

Dream uses blocks to make a sort of staircase, leaping from ledge to ledge until his feet are on the ground. “I really wish I could use my runes,” Alec murmurs, stepping out onto the first ledge and jumping down. Magnus follows behind, swallowing thickly as he foot slips just once. He looks down, knowing that fall would not be good. Thankfully, Dream put the steps close enough together that even Alec and Magnus could follow. 

“There he is!”

“Just give me some space ,” Dream whines, picking up some speed. “At this point we just need to run. We’re so close to getting back to the portal.”

They run through the green grass and hog filled area, stopping only once to kill one with a bucket of lava. Dream quickly eats the cooked pork chop before running some more. 

They pass the bastion filled with pigmen and zombies. Magnus shivers again at the sight of them, thankful that they gave such good trades. 

An arrow flies into the back of Magnus’ shoulder, making him stumble. 

Pain lances through him. But it’s not just his shoulder. 

“Magnus!”

Fire. The heat nips at his shoes, crawling up his legs. He looks down, realizing he’s stumbled right into some lava. Oh gods. Oh no. Fuck! It’s bad. It’s so bad. 

And then suddenly it’s gone as the smash of glass hits his ear. 

“Thank fuck for those potions,” Dream murmurs. “Your luck with the piglins saved your life.”

Magnus’ hands shake and he takes a deep breath, getting himself under control. Alec grabs him around the waist, putting his nose against his cheek. They take a moment just to be. They’re okay. They’re getting through this. They’re going to fight until they’re home. 

“Where are they? I can’t see where they’re shooting from.”

“Here,” Alec murmurs. He turns away from magic, listening closely. He pulls out a golden arrow from his bag, points, and lets it loose. A moment later, there’s an outline of someone above them, sneaking on the cliff. 

“How did you know how to do that?”

Alec shrugs. “I shot one of those hog things earlier and made it light up. I figured it would be the same with people.”

“Amazing,” Dream says. “If they’re up there, let’s cut through the soul sand valley. They’ll hate that.” As they hit the brown sand of the soul sand, Dream pulls out some blocks. He jumps into the air, drops down a block, and leaps onto it. He does that over and over, making a path for them that won’t slow them down. 

Magnus remembers the enchantment on his boots, stepping into the sand just to try it out. Instead of feeling weighed down and slow, he speeds across the ground, passing Alec who's leaping from block to block. 

The shimmering of the portal comes into view and Magnus races towards it, smiling so wide his cheeks hurt. 

“I cannot wait to get out of this hell dimension.”

“Me too,” Dream says with a nod. “The nether and the end are always the most stressful.”

“So we’re heading to the overworked?” 

“We should be, yeah. But hurry they’re still on our trail.”

All three of them crowd into the portal. The purple magic lights up, brightening until it’s hard for Magnus to keep his eyes open. Magic dances across his skin, a familiar feeling that brings a smile to his lips. 

There’s a moment where everything goes blurry, his head swimming. He blinks rapidly as his stomach flips. As the room slowly stops spinning, Magnus takes a step forward. Once his feet are on solid ground he looks around. 

“This is not the overworld,” Dream murmurs, his voice sounding embarrassed. Magnus looks over, finding a tall, lanky kid wearing black ‘Florida gator’ sweatpants and a white t shirt. 

“Dream?”

“My real name is Clay, but yeah, I’m Dream. And we’re in the real world. What the hell is going on?” Dream asks, running his fingers through his messy hair. 

“Our portals linked?” Magnus offers, wincing slightly. 

“This is our home,” Alec explains, gesturing at the loft. “Are you from New York?”

“We’re in New York ? Fuck. I’m from Florida!”

After Dream gives them his exact address, Magnus opens up a portal, this time completely sober and of sound mind. He knows without a doubt what’s on the other side. “Thanks again,” he says, touching Dream’s shoulder. “Without your help there’s no way we would have made it out of there alive.”

“No problem. This feels like some made up fanfic or something,” he says, letting out a wheeze of laughter. 

“No one would you believe you even if you felt like talking about it,” Alec says, giving Dream a pointed look. Dream raises his hands in surrender. 

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on telling anyone about this. They’ll just think it’s an elaborate story to cover up some controversy anyway.” Dream smiles, walking towards the portal. “If you ever wanna try Minecraft the way it was intended, let me know,” he says before walking through the portal and finding his way back home. 

Magnus closes the portal, letting out a deep breath. He’s bone deep tired after everything and ready to face plant into his bed. Alec’s arms wrap around him and they hold each other. 

“That is not how I thought our night would go, darling.”

“Me neither.” There a long pause before Alec is adding, “but I gotta admit it was a little fun.”

“Right? I think we should look up this Dream guy and see if he really is the top runner or if that was just something he said since we didn’t know better.” Alec smiles, kissing the top of Magnus’ head before they head to their bedroom, pull out their ipad, and start looking up ‘Dream Minecraft Speedrunner’. 

-The End-