After a while, Dream woke up. He didn't remember what time the battle had taken place, but it was noon now. Dream slowly took stock of his mind and body.
His head was still pounding, but the memories were gone, for now. But Dream had no doubt that they would be back. What could he do to stop them?
Nothing. He had to learn how to endure. There was no other way.
If Dream couldn't control himself, then he wouldn't be able to help Tommy.
All he could do was to go back and watch, and help where he could. Now that he had time to gather ingredients, Dream could make more potions, and stay invisible all the time.
He hesitated. Was that really what he wanted? To be invisible? Unseen, never trusted?
It didn't matter. It was how it had to be. He couldn't just reveal himself...
Could he?
After all, why not? A card hidden...
But that excuse wasn't strong enough anymore. And Dream now knew that it was just that: an excuse. Nightmare already knew about him. Since that was the case, why did it matter who else knew?
Dream decided to go out and help.
What else could he do? He couldn't spend any longer pretending. He would act according to his motivation. And his motivation said to keep Tommy safe.
The members of L'Manburg spent a long time rebuilding. Tommy was determined to fill in the hole from the blast block by block, but eventually even his stubborn will bent beneath the force of pure convenience, and they just filled it with water, although sometimes Tommy would get a whiff of nostalgia, and he would spend the next few hours gathering dirt and working to fill in the newly created lake from the bottom up. Whenever Dream saw him working, he would swim down to the bottom of the lake and start to place dirt.
Dream wasn't sure if it helped, but it seemed to. The people of L'Manburg began to accept him more as time went on. They rebuilt their nation on stilts above the water, as though it was always meant to be a lake nation, and Dream was there.
But it hurt.
It hurt Dream, and it hurt Tommy. Dream could see it in his eyes, feel the darkness slowly eroding his will. The same that ate away at his own soul. He had seen it in Wilbur's eyes, before he had died.
Before Ghostbur. Every smile, every laugh, every carefree sentence that the ghost said wrenched Dream's heart. Ghostbur hadn't kept Wilbur's memories. He was a soul unbound. And Dream envied him. If this was what death meant... But no. Dream knew that Wilbur was now a shade of what he once was, if Ghostbur was really Wilbur at all.
There was so much uncertainty. Whenever they talked about the old days of L'Manburg's glory, sometimes Ghostbur would be confused, other times wistful. And Dream felt the same thing.
Ghostbur was nice to Dream, nicer than any of the other members of L'Manburg, at least at the start. He had never known Nightmare. Never seen the destruction he could cause. When Ghostbur had arrived, he had seemed to think that the lake was natural, at first. After being told otherwise, Ghostbur frowned and asked why anyone would do something like that.
The only response had been a few looks and, from Tubbo,
"I don't know, Ghostbur. I don't know."
What had happened to those days, those carefree days when there was nothing to hold them back except for their own imaginations?
What had happened to Tommy's happiness?
And what had happened to Dream's?
In the end, Tommy decided to do something about it.