This was it.
Everything from gaining their independence to now was coming to a head.
And Dream was terrified. Sure, he hadn't done much. He hadn't needed to. And he still felt as though he was playing right into Nightmare's hands.
Disaster would come. And it would come in the form of one person.
One or more, depending on how alliances went.
Dream sat on the stairs at the edge of the podium. Wilbur went up in front of the fence post that served as a microphone stand, and he began to announce the totals.
In fourth place was Fundy's party, with around nine percent of the votes. Although it wasn't much, it was more than Dream had expected.
In third was Schlatt's, standing at sixteen percent.
And second?
Second was Quackity's. Thirty percent.
Wilbur and Tommy had won.
Except.
Except for Quackity's deal.
With them combined, Schlatt had fourty-six percent of the votes to Wilbur and Tommy's fourty-five.
They had been so close. All of this for nothing?
Dream's heart sank. It was over, wasn't it? All of their work for this nation, for independence, gone with one cruel deal. Their sweat, their blood, their tears, vanished with a word, swallowed up in misery by a handshake. A word from Schlatt and they would be banished forever.
And Dream had no doubt that that word would be given. Heartless were the men who now ruled over L'Manburg. And even if they were allowed to stay, Dream knew that Wilbur and Tommy no longer had a place here.
As WIlbur and Tommy walked down to take seats among the crowd, backlit by the cheering of Schlatt and Quackity, and shocked silence from the others, Schlatt took the podium.
And he spoke.
"Well. That was pretty easy," he said. It was clear from these first words as president that nothing Schlatt did was going to be for anyone but himself. There was no mercy in his tone, even in his words. There was no flattery, no facade of good-heartedness. But he wasn't done, not even close.
"And you know what I said, the day I got unbanned from the Dream SMP?" Schlatt continued. "I said things are gonna change. I looked every citizen of L'Manburg in the eyes and I said, 'You listen to me, this place will be a lot different tomorrow'. Let's start making it happen!"
Silence, still silence. No cheering, nothing. Until Schlatt spoke again.
"My first decree as the president of L'Manurg, the emperor of this great country, is to revoke the citizenship of WilburSoot and TommyInnit. Get them out of here! You're no longer welcome! Leave!"
And that was it. Their great nation, gone. And they ran. What else could they do? And they were chased.
Jschlatt continued over the chase, "Until further notice, WilburSoot and TommyInnit are merely a memory of L'Manburg, a relic of the past, a reminder of the darkest era this country has ever seen, and I guarantee you all, dear citizens, tonight that changes! We are entering into a new period of L'Manburg, a period of prosperity, of strength, and of unity! It all changes! This is the beginning of my rule!"
Wilbur ran as quickly as he could. Barely surviving a shot from a crossbow, he was able to drink an invisibility potion and almost escape. But he was found, and shot in the back as he waded through a small pool to get out.
Wilbur had lost his second life.
Tommy, meanwhile, had run in a different direction, towards the main territory of L'Manburg. He used a tunnel that Tubbo had built for worst-case scenarios to escape from L'Manburg's territory and those who would kill him while they chased down Wilbur.
Dream didn't know what to do. He followed Tommy through the tunnel, sprinting along by his side.
It was truly over. Unless they killed Schlatt or somehow convinced him to have another election, they would never again be a part of L'Manburg.