Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Name: Phil [REDACTED]

Subject number: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED]REDACTED] [REDACTED] 

Age: 25

Training: 10 years, 3 months, 27 days

Date: 1/1/[REDACTED]

Mission: Recovery- Bore-Drill, Barney, Minnouski, Excess Noxesium

Breifing: Alan Columbus

Received the GDL Certified Presentation

Fitted for Thermal Flight Armor 1541

Magenta Suit acquired

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

Opened hatch doors

Read Terms Of Service

Entered drop zone at Alpha Base 

Oxygen Renewal Chamber activated

Entered drop zone Beta Base

Oxygen Renewal Chamber activated

Core Drill sensed

Suit reached maximum temperature threshold

Entered Airlock

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

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[REDACTED]

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[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

Returned to Base on the surface

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

Given compensation:

• [REDACTED] $ per day of training
• [REDACTED] chunks of land
• [REDACTED] personalized elytra’s, with [REDACTED] enchantments.

Subject left base

Return: Never

Classification: NA

Notes: Sasha

Phil has shown extreme growth that had benefited us greatly. As his training started from a young age, his development was geared toward the ability to withstand high heat and the G forces required to reach the Core. His skill with the elytra has gone beyond any other trainee’s, partially because of his upbringing and partially his innate ability that will benefit him in the real world. 

I’ve never seen any higherups read past the first sentence of notes, so rest assured that no one will have read this far. Phil, if you’re seeing this, I wish you well. We captured you for four years simply because of your innate skill with the elytra and ability to withstand massive amounts of heat. I'm so sorry that we took 10 years of your life. 

Find your son’s Phil. If only to apologize for not being able to take care of them in the beginning, or tell them about Kristin. They need someone. I hope I was able to give you some solace in our chats and talks. Please don't go after the people of the company if you're looking for revenge. Many were brought into this unknowing of what happened. Stay safe.

Chapter Text

“Who’re you?” A man stands above Phil on the land next to where he spawned in. 

“I’m Phil.”

“And you’re a player all the way out here?” The man, (perhaps teen) says incredulously. 

“I mean, you’re out here too,” Phil replies. He puts his wooden ax away and gives his full attention to the person in front of him. The guy looks young and very tired. His clothes are rumpled and he’s staring at Phil with suspicion, taking stock of who Phil is and what he has.

“That's cause everyone hates that I’m better than them.”

“What are you good at?”

“I can hack. Brought myself back to life a good couple of times.”

Phil’s eyes widen with glee. “That's amazing! Do you know where we go when we die then?”

The man snorts, then looks Phil up and down again. Despite the suit and harsh glare that's clearly appraising the man, Phil doesnt shy away, simply tilts his head in question when he’s done. Almost in a challenge. 

His eyes seem to say: ‘Do I meet your standards’

Slowly, the man sticks out his hand. 

“Jschlatt. People call me Schlatt though.”

“Well, Schlatt,” Phil says merrily, shaking the man’s hand. “We can make pink doors out of this wood.”

~~~

They get along well. Schlatt is clearly curious about how Phil knows some rare things but is clueless about some of the simpler stuff, but knows enough to not ask. They make their home in a cave, with a pink door. They craft diamond swords that can double as shields, and raid pirates and castle ruins and even the moon at one point.

They acquire Lawn and tear down political leaders, making a name for themselves as they lead a revolution and end up just pillaging another realm, not wanting and of the power they fought for. Instead, they leave it in capable hands. 

They fight through the moon at one point, making their way up to it with lits of ladders. It’s rather disappointing, only mobs there and like one good item. But on their way down, Schlatt does end up forgetting he’s wearing frost walker boots and dies. Phil almost panics, but then hears Schlatt’s voice telling him about the hacking he’s doing. 

They don't talk about the tear tracks on Phil’s face just as much as they don't talk about how the frost walker enchantment suddenly only works if your touching ground already. 

They get glowing bread and backpacks to carry loot and find out how to fly. They adventure farther out, finding a mystical sheep that they befriend, and accidentally overthrow another government. 

Phil dies too.

They’re not together, but Schlatt knows about it by word of mouth. Then he gets a voice in his head of a rather amused Phil, saying he’s hacking in too. 

They don't talk about Schlatts rumped suit just as much as they don't talk about how Phil knew how to hack. 

Soon after, they sit on their lawn looking at the sky just in silence. The air is frigid in the snow biome, but they have their insulated armor and plenty of torches on hand. 

Phil interrupts the night. 

“Did you find it?”

Schlatt side-eyes his friend squinting. “I didn’t lose anything recently did I?”

“No no no.” Phil chuckles. “When you left your town you were looking for something. You didn’t say if but I don't think you would have stopped here if you didn’t figure out a way to get it. Did you find it?”

“Oh.” Schlatt pauses. It stretches on a bit longer than comfortable, but Phil is patient. 

“How did you know that I found what I wanted before I even knew I wanted it.”

“Instinct.”

Phil smiles at the barking laugh that erupts out of his friend. Schlatt lays down next to Phil, his hands behind his head and legs splayed out just like Phil. Time passes before Schlatt askes his question. 

“Did you have something you were looking for?” 

“I suppose. I needed a distraction before I faced reality.”

Another pause. Phil can almost feel Schlatts worry that he might leave.  

“When are you going back to reality then?”

“Soon I’m sure,” Phil says gently. “ I need to find my old world. But we’ll meet again soon. By the end of harvest season at the latest.”

“And you know this from instinct?”

“And facts this time.”

“Fuck off.” Schlatt laughs, punching Phil in the shoulder. It’s a heavy blow.

“There’s going to be a tournament coming up. Flyers for participants will be up soon. You won’t be able to hack but you can win one I’m sure.”

“Before the next season?”

“Yep. Ten Mondays, ten Tournaments."

“Train me?”

“Fuck off Ill be competing against you for them.”

Another pause. Phil continues speaking.

“I need to go to the nether before the tournament. To find what I’m looking for.”

“The Nether.” Schlatt’s tone is disbelieving. “If you want to get there and back before the tournament you need to start now.”

Phil sighs out, letting out another comforting hum.

“I have time. Tonight’s too peaceful.”

Schlatt lets out a chuckle, standing up and heading back inside. 

“What a crazy man.”

Phil and Schlatt do meet again at the singing up for pairing off for the tournament. Schlatt tries to subtlety ask Phil to team, but Phil points him in the direction of another, insisting that it would be better for Schlatt to join him. 

He’s young. His clothes and crown come off as either snobbish or rich, and his piglin features seem out of place. He’s not boasting about his win though, like Vikkstar, and doesnt have a mob of fans like Dan TDM. He’s looking over the paperwork carefully, not having signed yet. 

This gives Schlatt the push to just go and ask him to the team, rather than put out his feelers for whether or not he’s good. If the guy thinks enough to not trust Keemstar blindly and has Phil's seal of approval, it’s probably a good bet to team with the piglin hybrid. Maybe he can win this. 

~~~

They don’t win. They do end up spawning withers though because the anti hacks aren't perfect yet, and Technoblade is interested. 

~~~

Phil is absent next week, with Technoblade offering no clue to his whereabout either out of loyalty or lack of knowledge as well. Phil isnt there the next week either, or the week after that. Techno wins two of the three times Phil’s gone.

Phil comes back just to team with another teen (Schlatt confirmed that Techno is 16). This one looks younger and has some babyface still. And traces of the void. 

Phil introduces him as Wilbur Soot, and while they don't win, they definitely have fun. Wilbur is actually pretty funny, just like Phil. Schlatt hangs out with him, Phil, and Technoblade after Phil and Techno break the previous records, only to find out that Wilbur and Technoblade are Phil’s sons. One Netherborn and one Endborne, as if that exists. 

Wilbur tells Schlatt that he was born in a glitched bedrock above the spawn of the end. Ever so often he would get items to expand his area. He talks about how ‘Milo just ended up in Endlantis’ and doesnt understand, but does get to have fun with him more. 

He reveals that he’s only 14, and Phil’s saddened face is forgotten behind Wilbur's exclamations of “same”.

Wilbur and Schlatt conquer global warming together and learn about some things Wilbur can do by accident. He turns the whole world into blackness, while still having the same properties. Eventually, the two of them get invited to Carson's place, ‘Live’, and live there for a bit. They meet with Techno and Phil again, even though they only showed for two days. 

Carson makes everyone leave eventually. 

Phil asks Techno and Wilbur to come with him to find something, and they say their goodbye before parting.

So Schlatt Drifts.

Chapter Text

Technoblade was heavily regretting ever doing a face reveal at this point. 

He still thinks that people who made a huge deal out of it when they got some followers were stupid and that no one on earth cared, but he kinda does. It's his face after all, and deciding to go to one of HyPixel's colleges while having a big and steadily growing following isn't a good idea in hindsight. 

He knew from the moment he applied that he didn't want to dorm with someone. If that meant needing to build a house from scratch off campus he would, and he had the money to spare at this point. His small fortune in hot potato books was nothing to sneer at. Luckily, he was offered the opportunity for a single dorm right off the bat and Technoblade jumped at the chance. Sure it was probably only because he was famous, but he did turn down everything else in the email. 

It still wasn’t really enough though.

People still recognized his name. I mean, he was topping most leaderboards most of the time. He also still showed off his Pig Rank before he figured out how to hide that on campus, so his unusual name in bright pink tipped-off anyone who didn’t follow any leaderboards about his standing. 

And from there the rumors only grew. 

Techoblade could tell that most of the student body thought they were being sneaky about anything they were doing, but they were all pretty shit about it. I mean, people don't suddenly stop talking every time someone enters the room, leading to a really fucking uncomfortable silence. And it was very suspicious that there were a lot of transfers into his class, leading to every single one of his classes being completely full a week after he joined. He even took a class on animal companion statistics, which when he joined only had 4 people besides himself. Then a week later it had 30 people in there? Very obvious. 

Dream was also being very obvious. There was only one person who never spoke, did well in classes, didn’t take anything PVP related, and smiled pityingly at Techno when they crossed paths. Techno was very tempted to flip him off the third time this happened, but he didn’t want to blow his cover so he just stared in hatred, only to be met with a wink. 

The staring in hatred thing probably didn’t help the rumors too much either. 

People could find every accomplishment he made very easily, even if it wasn’t at the top and proudly deployed in the many hallway leaderboards. And Techno was on the leaderboards enough that people did look up every single thing he had done. 

It became glaringly obvious that techno was extremely determined. He has the top spots in many, many categories. The first always being in PVP, be it 1v1 or 4v4 or even 1v4, Technoblade almost always came on top with ease. And then came more of the unusual ones, but things that if you thought about it a bit, made sense. It made sense that if Techno was really determined and good at what he does that he could top the leaderboards in the Halloween minigame tournament. Looking a bit deeper you could see the focus he was able to bring to it, with the conviction that he will win. 

And then there were the odd leaderboards, that most people saw as a joke. But Technoblade has farmed 600 million potatoes, and he’s a solo player. He also is ranked third in pumpkin harvesting, and 6th in spider kills. That's something that takes sharp focus.

However, it all boiled down to his PVP skills. Over 1500 win streak. He’s beat Dream. His Minecraft Monday wins and MCC coins. He was deadly. 

He was deadly and going to school with a lot of people who would never be able to dream of getting close to the leaderboards. 

So people were obviously scared of him, just as much as they were interested in him.

And Technoblade could tell. Which wasn’t a bad thing on its own. He didn’t go to college to make friends, however nice it would be to talk to Dream in the hall and not immediately get him revealed. Or you know, talk to anyone in general. It really only became a problem when he went back home. 

His family of 5 were proud of what he has already done just as much as him taking on writing in college, and really just want him to be happy. Which… is kinda hard for Technoblade as a feared college student with no social skills. 

So when he goes back home for a weekend about a month after school started, he is dreading the questions he’ll have to answer. He loves his family, and his family knows him well enough to not ask too much of him and they put trust in him to talk when he needs to and only push minimally when needed. But he hasn't seen them in a month and he has nothing to say about what he did while he was gone.

He did get a rare drop, but he already told Phil in a text so the whole family probably knows by now. The one exciting thing he did. Great. 

Before he knows it, he hears a loud shrieking laugh and he finds himself relaxing at it for once. By the time Technoblade is done thinking about how tired he is to physically relax at his younger brother's laugh, there are four bodies piled around him, very loud and very warm. 

Phil is farthest away, and therefore the only one that Technoblade can actually see because Wilbur helped the two youngest attack him before jumping onto his younger brother's back as well. 

Phil is wearing his outside hat, as Techno expected, and is giving a soft smile at the scene. The child clinging to his left arm digs an elbow into his side and Techno is forced to look at gremlin children 1 and 2, along with gremlin adults. 

“Tech-no-blade!Tech-no-blade!Tech-no-blade!” The three of them are chanting out of sync, with Tommy’s blond hair obstructing Technos's direct view of the elbow in his spleen. Techno knows that it’s there though. Looking a bit to the right, Tubbo is still on his feet, arms around Techno’s waist, and grinning up at the college student. Tubbo's head barely reaches his waist, a bit concerning for the 7-year-old. Techno gives a soft smile back though through the chanting and runs his free hand through Tubbo’s hair in greeting before pulling him a bit closer. He’s the quietest one after all. 

Speaking of noise, there is a very loud growth clinging to his back that while he can handle it, the man is like 3 years older than him and really needs to act like it. 

“I’m requiring all feet to be on the floor for greetings. Tubbo hello thank you for not attacking me the moment you saw me. Phil, how’s the elytra?” 

Phil lets out a snort at his greeting, trying to pull a now shouting Tommy of the man. Tommy is very upset at Tubbo for being greeted by Techno, even though it’s Tommy’s fault. Tubbo isnt making it any better though and just sticking his tongue at Tommy in defense. 

Wilbur hops of Techno after a tight squeeze and helps Phil remove the Tommy-sized growth. It’s the first look that Techno has of his older brother, and he’s honestly kinda overwhelmed. He looks really happy.

“Is SMP Earth doing okay?” Techno asks, squinting at Wilbur and still hugging back Tubbo. Tommy is still shouting to be let down. When he is, he mirrors Tubbo, and the 7-year-olds have a fight using old faces and squeezing Technoblades hands at varying levels. 

“Oh, it’s practically abandoned at the moment. I'm on Dream’s SMP primarily now, and it’s honestly what I was hoping for SMPEarth.”

Techno nods at his older brother, acknowledging both that he’s glad Wilbur is happy, sad that SMP Earth wasn’t quite right, and asking for more information later. Wilbur nods back in understanding before Phil pulls out the elytra and fireworks, gaining everyone’s attention. 

Tommy pleads with Phil for another firework as Tubbo struggles a bit in putting on his own elytra. Techno bends down and helps his youngest brother with a smile that fades when Tubbo is done and gets into the air with Tommy. Only Wilbur sees it though, and makes a mental note of it.

The house is as full as it’s ever been, and really as quiet as well. The family wasn’t known for either its good sleep schedules or its quietness at night so this is a treat. 

It’s probably mostly due to the three sleeping figures sprawled out in the living room. 

The house was big enough for everyone to have their own rooms, and a few office spaces as well for Phil and Wilbur, so they decided to just make a section of the living room completely cushioned. It was easier than trying to figure out seating for two very tall men, two rambunctious boys, and a slightly smaller man. It worked in everyone’s favor though, as can be seen with Tommy, Techno, and Tubbo. 

Wilbur and Phil share a look over the three bodies. Unsurprisingly, Tommy takes up the most space, sprawled out completely, and not touching anything but the cushions and his throw blanket. Tubbo is between two of the bigger pillows, and also sandwiching in Technoblade between the two of them. He’s curled around his blanket, still sitting up slightly against one of Tubbo’s cushions.

He’s exhausted, and from what he’s let slip about what’s happened in the last month it’s not a surprise. In low voices, Wilbur and Phil talk about what they can do about it, leading Techno into actually sleeping with his younger brother, comforted by the fact that his family would help without him needing to explain. 

The two days and one night he has with his family was unsurprisingly good. Technoblade was able to sleep well, and still get his homework done between playing and training sessions with the youngest twins like promised. Techno tries to act like he did before he left, but habit still makes him stay in his room more often, along with being constantly on guard.

Technoblade is proud of himself for at least not alerting the younger brother though, who are very happy to have him back. 

The weekend ends both too soon and not soon enough, with a rather loud send-off at the station again before Techno sighs and relents to spending another hour with the family and getting back to Hypixel via portals. They end up in a parkour minigame, spending time jumping from block to block. Techno hops on the official MCC parkour as well for about ten minutes with his brothers as spectators as he manages to do a sub ten run, and only fall 6 times in total.

All too quickly, Techno is waving again, and throwing some potatoes at his family, he heads back to college. 

During the ride back, he is nicked so nobody comes up to him. It's a small Mercy before he heads into college where everybody is staring at him. It feels like it's only moments after he steps off of the train platform that there are eyes on him.

It's a late Sunday night, and most people are out and about doing the last things before the majority of the school returns to their classes the next morning. Just in order to get to his dorm, he seems to pass through the entire student body. By the time that he's able to walk inside his door, he already feels drained.

He did take Phil's advice however, and he had no classes in the morning before 10 am. His dad had mentioned beforehand that although it felt like taking an 8 a.m. class would be easy as he had to be at school by 7 the years before, it was hard enough as it is waking up at 10 for a 10: 45 class. Especially with the amount of sleep he was probably going to get tonight.

His Monday classes were actually his easiest. He only had three classes, and all of them were elective classes. His first class was simply a lecture he recorded and was usually half asleep. After a quick bite to eat he headed to a second-class where he was noticeably more awake. His last class was analyzing top players, and he always found it not only interesting but also something that would help him along the way.

On this specific Monday, his last class was just finishing up the final group assignment. Group projects usually weren't is fun, but this one was at least manageable for Technoblade. His project mates didn't slack off and actually seemed to enjoy the project as well, just made things easier. However, it was still a group project and as the last bell rang Techno could almost feel the relief that relaxed his shoulders.

Giving a quick, but polite goodbye to his classmates, Technoblade almost ran for the door. His plan was to get a quick snack from the food area or the vending machines and then maybe do some soft training or even some parkour. Dream was able to slip ahead pretty easily; he didn't want to fall behind from his green friend.

As he reached the door his plans quickly fell apart. Even without opening the door, he could hear some very familiar yelling coming from the hallways. It was something no one else in the school would be able to recognize. Techno hesitation in front of the door taking a deep breath trying to prepare himself. He found himself taking the same steps that he would do before a 1v1, slow breaths to steady himself and face his opponent. 

In this case, his opponents were his brothers.

" Tommy!" Wilbur's voice rang out." That's not his class! He's in room 301. "

With the fear that his brother entered an awkward situation, Techno opens the door. The hallls were fairly full like it would be at the end of the day. Everyone was looking at the strange trio. Wilbur had a bright yellow sweater on and a small child on his hip. Turbo was practically vibrating in Wilbur's arms but still calmer than Tommy who was running to and from the doors interrupting classes. Hot anxiety pulled in Techno stomach and on instinct he let out a loud exclamation to stop Tommy.

"Gremlin!"

Techno winced as his low voice seemed to reverberate through the hallways, which were way more quiet than usual. The student body was more focused on other things namely the small children and Technoblade actually speaking for once. It felt like he could almost feel their judging thoughts. It was pushed to the back of his mind however when Tommy jumped directly for Techno.

With one arm occupied with his school books, Techno made a desperate grab for Tommy using only one hand and managed to secure Tommy to his torso with his one arm. It was pure Instinct, and if you ask Techno how he did he probably wouldn't be able to tell you. 

Wilbur had finally caught up to Tommy and by extension, Techno. Without saying a word, Wilbur and Techno switched Tubbo with the notebooks and laptop he had in his left arm, in only a way older siblings can. 

Tubbo smiled up at him, a bit too wide, almost like he was showing his teeth.

Techno let out an exaggerated gasp, and shifted the squirming and babbling Tommy with ease. 

"Did you lose a tooth Tubbo?"

Tubbo smiled for real, clapping his hands together. 

"I did, I did! I woke up and it was gone!"

"Dad said he probably swallowed it!" Tommy cheers, hanging off Technos right arm." We looked and looked and even changed his blankets but it's gone so the tooth fairy won't come. Not like my first tooth! I'm going to get 20 pounds from her!"

Wilbur and Techno share a look, trying to fight over who will be the one to bully Tommy through a series of blinks. 

"You're not a big boy though Tommy cause you haven't even lost a tooth yet."

Tubbo beat them to it. 

"Tubbo why would you say that!" Tommy exclaims, looking very hurt for a kid his age. Through experience, Techno could see his smile though. "No no no, actually you're right. It's because I'm a big man! I'm not a boy."

"Whatever you say, Tommy. Tubbo says, smiling at his brother, clearly not believing what he says. Tommy seemed to accept it though and didn't immediately start talking. 

Technoblade became increasingly aware that they were in the middle of the third floor of his college, in a highly frequented hallway, with a bunch of people staring at the family. There was probably a phone or two out, as Techno was un-nicked so his brothers would recognize him a bit easier. 

Wilbur seemed to notice the attention and got the family on track again. 

"Phil had to go check on some farms in the empire today, and the boys missed you even though we spent the whole weekend together so I figure it was worth asking if you wanted to do some training for us."

Wilbur's smile gave him away, but Techno played along, keeping his voice steady for the onlookers. 

"I suppose we did just relaxed this weekend. What were you thinking? I was going to head out and do some parkour if you guys wanted to join. I could find a map that would be okay for the boys."

Predictably, Wilbur's face screwed up in disgust at the mention of parkour, even as Ttubbo and Tommy cheered enthusiastically at it. 

"However fun that may sound," Wilbur says carefully, throwing a look at techno,  "I was thinking that we could do the mini-games here because we can decide how much effort we want to put in."

Techno hides his own face of disgust at the mini-games, but relents eventually if they only do party games 1 at the smaller boys pleading. 

Walking off campus with Tommy on his shoulders and his hand in Tubbos, Techno smiles at Wilbur in thanks, who raises an eyebrow in return and shrugs. 

Time to get his brothers the high score of the day. 

Chapter Text

Together, they heard the stories of the Realm Rulers. 

Wilbur held onto his dolphin skin blanket, trying to stay awake to hear the stories of how the Ender King grew greedy. He would sprawl out on the floor, fidgeting to fight off sleep and learn about the ancient magic that the Ender King used to steal what wasn't his. Techno would sit on the armchair next to the fireplace, his piglin ears flopping excitedly when the Blaze Queen was brought up. He listened to her story of dying for the hope of a peaceful world, and still forgiving the Ender King for all his misdeeds. Tommy would jump headfirst into his father’s lap, asking for stories of the unknown third king of the overworld.

Phil would smile at Tommy, and then at Tubbo who would always tell Tommy all they knew of him. That he and the Blaze queen were in love and wanted a way to connect their worlds so they made portals. Then the Ender King got jealous that the queen was taking away his closest friend and created his own stronghold. Then he wanted more and tried bringing their realms into his. 

“The Blaze Queen created her fortress where the Ender King ruined her land. She then traveled through an obsidian portal to fix her beloved’s land with her own realm. With our Overlords knowing, she used the last of her power to stop the Ender King, killing his dragon in the process.” Phil ran a hand through Tommy's hair again to settle him. 

“Dying and guilt-ridden, she fled through bedrock to the overlord. She told him what his friend had been doing, and that he killed his dragon to knock some sense into him.”

“And he did?” Wilbur yawned from the floor, almost too close to the fireplace for Phil’s liking. 

“The overlord did what?” Phil questioned, not understanding his son's sleepy train of thought. 

“The Ender King decided to stop?”

“Ah.” Phil gave a small smile. “No one knows. As the Blaze Queen died, the overlord put her body in its rightful place. He then broke all the portals to the Nether, making it hard for anyone to get to. He went to the strongholds that the Ender King made as his portal, and covered them in earth or water, and made the end even more difficult to get to. You would need items from the Nether that were hard enough to find on its own.”

“Did it work?” Techno said from his armchair. His legs were over one of the arms, his torso on the other, and faced toward his brother, making sure he didn't fall asleep into the fire. Phil smiled at him, knowing it was for the other’s benefit to keep the story going. 

“If he kept going, it didn't work. The overlord eventually gave most of his power over the realm to villagers, who ended up being adventures like us. He assumed a human body and went to the Nether to get the materials to enter the end. When he made it to the end, he dug up both the Ender King’s First Dragon and the Ender King himself. He died upright on his throne, alone because of what he did.”

“So he's dead?” Tubbo pipes up, blunt as ever. “The overlord turned into a human along with the other adventures so he dies adventuring.”

“Some say he's still alive today, guiding and blessing others with the power he builds up. Some think that he found his peace in the area where the Blaze Queen fixed his land and is with her in death. No one knows for sure.”

“Well, that's shit,” Tommy swears from Phil's lap. The man himself bursts out laughing, and even hears a few chuckles from Techno as well. Tommy, not understanding what happened, smiled big and kept ongoing. “No one knows? That's not even an ending!”

“For a ten-year-old, you have an… acquired vocabulary,” Wilbur mutters, waking himself up slightly to get himself into his bed. 

“Thanks!” Tommy chirps, clearly not knowing it's a bad thing. 

“I wanna find out what happened to him,” Tubbo says from Phil’s side on the couch. “I don't like that we don't know how it ends also.”

“I mean, he's the best one so he needs a happy ending!” Tommy exclaims, nodding along to what Tubbo says. 

“The Blaze queen was clearly the best,” Techno argues from his chair. “she's the one who did all the fighting.”

Wilbur pipes into the conversation, standing up and moving to his bedroom. “The Ender King was the most developed character though. He felt betrayed so he fought for what he wanted, and ended up hurting his friends and regretting it.”

Wilbur waves from the doorframe, almost inside before Phil speaks out to him. 

“Why do you think he regrets it?”

Wilbur turns, his hand on the doorway for stability. He blinks slowly at Phil, tilting his head a bit. 

“I think he did make it through somehow. I mean, one of his stories is about his wiping out cities of people and turning them into valuable endermen. But endermen are the only mob to spawn in all three realms. Clearly, he did that to make up for it. To give his builders and his pearls to everyone.”

Wilbur nods as if he's agreeing with his own statement.

“It's what I would do at least.”

Phil smiled, waving goodnight at him before trying to wrestle Tommy and Tubbo into their respective beds. He interrupts one of Tommy’s rants with a question he hopes will settle him down from trying to fight Tubbo who's looking in the furnace for food way past dinner time. 

“Why is the overlord the best character?”

“He's the main character! The one the whole story is about! So he's the best!” Tommy exclaims, jumping off his bed onto Tubbo’s face first. 

“I don't think that the overlord is the best, just that I don't like how we don't know the rest,” Tubbo says, walking in the room after getting some bread. 

Phil pauses, considering his next words before shaking his head as if to dispel his thoughts. 

“Well in order to be able to train tomorrow so you can go and find out more about the overlord, you need to get enough sleep. Bedtime boys.”

Tommy pleads up at Phil, who is trying to be a good parent. He raises an eyebrow that shuts down any argument. Phil is sure that they will probably stay up until they pass out talking, but they can all take a break from the harvest tomorrow. 

Phil checks on Wilbur, who's asleep on his yellow covers next and on some papers as well. Phil stifles a snort, and carefully takes off his son's shoes, and gets what looks like sheet music out from under him and onto a nearby jukebox. 

His last stop before the night is over is Technoblades room. A torch lights up the bottom of the door so Phil knocks and opens the door when there's no immediate answer. 

Techno is staring idly at the wall, eyes unfocused and Phil sighs, stepping into his son's view. Techno refocused slowly but wasn't all too startled, which Phil silently cheers for. 

“Are the voices growing too much?” Phil asks, not pointing out the look of shock on Technos face, and settling on a gold block techno has in his room for some reason. 

“They… How’d you know?”

“Your mother had them too. She was Netherborne, unlike most players, which is why you have piglin ears and tusks. She was blaze rather than piglin though.”

“But…” Techno gathers his thoughts, clearly trying to focus but too easily distracted. “Don’t Tommy and Wilbur have the same mom like me? Why don't they have this stuff too?”

“I assume it's because you were Netherborne too. Tommy takes a lot after me, and he was born in the Overworld. Wilbur was born in the end actually.”

Technos look of surprise brings a smile to Phil’s face, which was downtrodden at the thought of his Wife. 

“That should be able to happen. Aren't the only things that spawn there Endermen?”

“Well, the First Ender Dragons children do too. And any endermites living in pearls we throw don't die in the end. But I think that Wilbur might have some changes coming in the future. His realm won't be showing itself until later I think.”

“How do you know?” Techno questions. 

“I can just sense it.”

“Must be a dad instinct,” Techno mutters, shooting a smirk Phil’s way when he lets out a cackle. “Do you think I'll have changed later on too?”

“Probably. Phil considers the gold block. “The voices will get stronger. You might not be able to handle fighting also, because piglins are passive until their pack is attacked. So you might not be able to stand will and Tommy’s fights anymore. You might get more attachment to gold as well if this block is anything to go by.”

Phil stands up, stretching his arms from sitting so long in the living room and here. Techno doesn't look too bothered by his father’s last words, knowing that when he asked Phil wouldn't sugar coat it. He touches Technos head goodnight and is almost out the door before Techno sounds out a question that probably isn't meant for him. 

“Is the Blaze Queen my favourite because I’m Netherborne?”

Chapter Text

Wilbur was the first. 

He was good at server hopping, keeping track of old servers he could never return to. It was almost instinctual, the way he knew when he needed to leave. People were quick to help a poor orphan to look good, but no one wanted to keep one. He would join and they would fit him out in leather or even iron armor, and given some cooked steak. He knew when he asked for too much, and always left moments before there would be retaliation against him. 

Wilbur knew to go to kids first, to try and make friends with them. Adults would see him as their kid’s friend and let him survive far longer than if he was some random boy. He was able to tell just from a glance around spawn whether or not he would be welcomed. If there was nothing, he wouldn’t be noticed, but he would need to start from scratch. An enclosed spawn in a building meant that he needed to leave to his back up. A spawn that was decorated, but not in a building meant that he would have a bed for a week, and time to learn about where he was headed next. 

You always ask for food first, no matter your hunger level. Never ask for armor or weapons, and only in desperate times should you ask for materials that would make these items. Be kind, shy, and start by looking messy, getting dirt under the nails. Understand that he is only alive because people want to prove that they are good to their friends. That they are kind enough to take on a whole human until they run away again. 

Wilbur was the first to join this server.

The next three seconds went like this: Wilbur saw the sunlight, meaning he was outside and didn’t need to run immediately. He closed out of the queue for the next server he would try, and the tree servers after if they were all enclosed. There was only one person here giving Wilbur the first impression that it was a small, vanilla survival world. Someone starting out and wanting independence. Then he saw where he was outside. 

Right in front of him was a towering building, creepers falling almost constantly. Behind the build, he would make out what looked to be iron Gollums falling from a floating… thing. There was a rather inhumane gathering of cows, on a small grass platform in the middle of the ocean behind him, and a section of sand obviously meant for turtles. 

Then he noticed his health. 

This was hardcore mode. There was no going back if he died here. 

In a panic, Wilbur tried to leave the server, going anywhere. The last server that was about to spawn trap him. The next server he had in mind for if he had to leave quickly, for exactly this situation. 

It didn’t work. 

Wilbur would later be a bright red, releasing that he wasn’t typing in the IP address box. He didn’t notice in his panic.

But this Wilbur didn’t know that. This Wilbur thought he was stuck here. This Wilbur knew that a creeper would kill him at even full hearts if he had no armor on. This Wilbur saw the steadily setting sun and accepted his death.

Wilbur was the first to get into Philza Minecraft world. It surprised the world owner, as he thought that he made it almost impossible to get into. The only way anyone could enter is by randomly guessing the IP. 

Phil was so assured no one would enter he didn’t even have a welcome chest with spare armor, food, and weapons. It was obviously something necessary, as in hardcore you could be instantly killed from a single creeper explosion. 

Phil was in the nether, on the roof. Almost 30 thousand blocks away from spawn, and no way to tell even what time it was. He always thought that clocks were useless, but now it was the only item he wished he had. 

His assurance that no one would join had him putting off a chest at spawn that many hardcore players took the liberty to make for just this situation. He himself had one in his first world, even though it was never used. Checking his coords, he knew that even if it was early morning he wouldn’t make it back to spawn in time for nightfall.

His heart churned as he made a double chest, depositing everything he had in it. It would be a pain to get back, but he knew he could do it in a moon cycle. This person didn’t even know that they were entering a hardcore world. As he stuffed his best armor in the chest, he repeated to himself that it wasn’t cheating if it was to save someone’s life and that it was most likely even hurting him.

Wilbur was the first reason Philza hacked in his world. 

Tommy was the second, funnily enough.  Years down the road, you would look at the family and you would think that if Wilbur was the first, it was Technoblade that was found second. After all, Phil seems the closest with techno, going on adventures with just the two of them. And Technoblade had trust in the older man that no one else did. No one else trusted Phil that much, and no one else had Technos trust. 

Which makes it more painful to know that Tommy was the second to enter Phil’s world, no less than a fortnight After Will. 

At this point, Phil had not only gotten his armor back but had also fitted out Wilbur in full diamond (his request) and had placed another armor set at spawn with a simple sign. Something he was glad for when Tommy joined. 

This time, the two of them were closer to the coordinates of spawn. In fact, they were at the creeper spawner, with Phil showing Wilbur how to make rockets out of the gunpowder. 

Phil was admittedly suspicious of this. In the five years he had been here, and ten in total on a hardcore world, he had only had two random people guess where his world was. Two joining so close together was a 1 in a million for RNG. 

He was more or less right to be suspicious of this. After all, the notification sent them both looking at who joined, but the user sent Wilbur diving for spawn. 

Apparently, Wilbur had taught this boy, TommyInnit how to server hop. Tommy knew what to look for and how to stay safe because of Wilbur. Hearing this, Philza was put on edge. It didn’t make sense. 

He was proud of his ability to not show it, however. He gained the trust of the kids and learned that Tommy was looking for Wilbur. He and his brother had been separated (at least he assumed brother. Tommy made it clear that he hated ‘Tubbo’ but was desperate to get Wilbur’s help in finding him). Tommy found the last world Wilbur joined and had immediately entered as well, looking for help. 

For how the two of them interacted, Phil was prepared to need to convince Wilbur to let them help Tommy. Wilbur agreed after what Phil thought was an obviously fake sigh. Tommy was overjoyed, and turned to Phil loudly exclaiming that Philwould be a dick if he didn’t help as well. 

Wilbur was horrified, quickly telling Phil to ignore Tommy and that Phil wasn’t responsible. However, Wilbur’s protests died down when he noticed that Phil was shaking with silent laughter, almost unable to stand up. 

Wilbur was the first reason Philza hacked in his world. Tommy was the second. 

Tubbo was the reason he left his world for the first time. 

A hardcore world had the ability to go idle just like any other server, but Phil had no reason to leave. He almost always had something that needed to be worked on, so it made no sense to leave. 

But a kid needed his help. 

Phil would easily admit that he was rather sentimental for any creature. He had saved many mobs and used a frankly ridiculous amount of name tags, so it’s frankly no surprise that he would do so much for someone he hadn’t met. 

A voice that sounded suspiciously like his late wife reminded him who was asking for his help. Reminded him that Tommy was the one who looked like that. Asked him if he could say no too much that involved…

Tubbo was easy to find and hard to get back. He and Tommy had stayed on a server for too long, the king had heard of the squatters and sent for them to be held on trial for stealing their resources. Tubbo forgot to set up the next world, and Tommy was the only one who escaped. 

Wilbur knew both of the kids, something that Phil had expected. Wilbur would joke about hating them and them being embarrassments but Tommy and Phil shot knowing looks at each other afterward that Wilbur deliberately ignored. The old man jokes had gotten… well… old pretty quickly, but he could ignore it when Wilbur and Tommy burst out laughing. 

It was chaotic, but nothing Phil wasn’t prepared for. Tommy knew where Tubbo would have been taken, so it took more time to get enough armor for the four of them than the actual journey. The three of them joined the rather large server, Tekkit, with a dizzying speed common to spawn travel. Phil was worried that he had forgotten the feeling and would need time to adjust like most people. He recovered just as fast as the two boys, who shot him surprised looks as they walked out of spawn to get iron.

Tommy brought them to the left of the first village, going around the outskirts to not be seen by anyone. A kid shot a wave at Tommy from a window but didn’t get anyone when Tommy saluted back. Within no time they were nearing the castle, Tommy veering them to the back where he found out the dungeons were kept. 

Phil tried not to think about how Tommy knew. 

In a world of potions and enchantments, Phil prided himself on his ability to get by without fancy gear. He needed to leave his netherite and weapons in his old world, and they were getting by on leather from some cows Phil found and the spare iron ore in a cave entrance. But he didn’t need an unbreaking 3 ax to get through the door, or a potion of strength to knock it down. 

Phil stored the lockpick he made out of an iron nugget in his inventory as the door swung open. His- the kids were surprised but saved their delight for later. They searched the cells one by one and gave a guard a scare until Phil knocked him out with a swing of his wooden pickaxe. 

Tubbo was nearby, seemingly the only one in here. Phil unlocked the iron bars, letting Tommy race into the room and crush his friend in a hug. Wilbur ran his hand through the small boy’s hair, and quietly introduced Phil. The four then worked their way out of the cells. As soon as they were out of the dungeons, Phil gave Tubbo his server IP and they left for good. 

The three of them were always welcome on Phil’s hardcore after all. 

Wilbur was the first reason Philza hacked in his world. Tommy was the second. Tubbo was the reason he left his world for the first time. 

Techno was an enigma. 

Wilbur and Phil had been invited to the MM championships as a team, something Phil was baffled at. Not only because he didn’t know how they got the recognition, but also because Wilbur was so young. He was 17 at this point, but Phil had let Wilbur decide, not wanting to tie him down. Wilbur did go and even decided to make his own server with the connection he got from it.

Many people were invited, along with Technoblade who actually showed up for it, something Wilbur was very excited about. Phil’s had a rather eventful first meeting with the man (“the boy!” his mind shouted. “The child!”). Within a moon cycle, they had claimed most of the server. Wilbur was fuming, but he still gave Phil a smile, showing he wasn’t too upset. Phil knew it was a good way to show the mistakes Wilbur had made, making it fun but still show what he had needed to do. 

The fire that burned in Technobalades eyes was familiar, something that Phil never wanted to let go of. Something that reminded him of the only woman he ever loved. It took energy sometimes to be away from techno, to let him go and risk everything he needed it. It was reminiscent of his mother. Of Phil. Technoblades parents.

Humans had learned that matter could not be created or destroyed, and the same went for magical powers. 

After the rulers of the other dimensions died, Phil knew it was time for him to leave as well. But he needed something to do with his magic. The ender king’s magic drifted, leading to the bloodline of the ender dragons and endermen. The blaze queen used her dying energy to make sure people would be able to move from each dimension. 

Although Phil couldn’t die, he knew it was time for him to give up his magical power. SO he used it on the people to see his wife’s last gift. To use the ability to travel through space. The mindless villagers could give birth to people as cognizant as Phil himself, and they would soon be more common than villagers. They could harness Phil’s ability to make potions and enchant, but only by using the dimensions. 

To enchant you needed to learn the end language, and to make potions you needed to gather nether materials. Phil was careful in this using the majority of his magic to keep it constant. However, after he used all he could, it still wasn’t everything he had to give. He created servers for more space, and difficulties to use up as much as he could but it still wouldn’t be enough to drain him. It wasn’t enough to let him rest with his wife. 

So he created his children. He made a child with all the love he had for his best friend. He put in his friend’s love of music, his sharp tongue and witty thoughts. His defiance, his yearning for freedom. In another child, he put his love for his wife. Her skill with weapons and hate for authority. Her fiery passion mixed with determination to do whatever is in the realm of possibility. Her tactic-filled brain. In the last child, he gave everything he had left. Adventure, playfulness, love, revenge hate. He filled the third child with everything he could.

The last decision almost was a bad one. He had too much left to give. If he gave any more, the child would be selfless to the point of destruction. He would be more concerned about others than himself and waste himself away for other people. He had to stop. Phil wouldn’t want that for anyone, so he used the raining power he had to make a server that the three of them may one day find him on. 

He had no more of his godly power. He had enough magic to have himself age like a normal human, hopefully getting all his children on the right path. Gather them up where they are supposed to be and tell them about before. He would sit in his own world until then, with the same high stakes the villagers use to have. He didn’t have enough of his godly power to give himself more than one life. 

But he watched as the end child was born, close to the age of his nether sibling. They prospered and fought their hardships, their lifelines leading to Phil. Tommy was born later, as the time Phil took trying to make sure he would not be destructive had taken a toll. Tommy found his friend; found his tubbo, and Phil regretted not planning things out more and splitting his power between the four of them. Tubbo was his son in every other way, even though they had no longer met. 

They would all meet. Tommy would annoy Techno into brotherhood on Hipixel and would introduce Tubbo to Wilbur and Phil. Techno would find solace with Wilbur on SMP live, after meeting in Minecraft Monday. Tubbo would welcome 4 new winners of MCC with a smile and a party popper, immediately bringing techno into his pseudo-family. 

It was all connected. He would know of Techno before them, and Techno would join their family last. Wilbur would be born on a glitched bedrock in the end. Schlatt would team with Techno first before Phil and Wilbur teamed. Before Techno and Phil teamed. Everything was intertwined and worked out just as he had expected. 

Just like how his final life would be used to protect them from what he did to the Dream SMP. 

Chapter Text

“Tubbo_?”

Tubbo managed to open the door to his classroom in HyPixel seconds before the administrator said his IGN. Rushing to his seat, Tubbo ignored the disapproving glare sent his way, knowing that technically, he was on time. This year his admin was pretty strict, but still knowledgeable about what she does. At the beginning of the year, she talked about how she was a mod for DanTDM when he was in his prime, but she quit because she didn’t have enough time for it and ended up here.

Tubbo_ was a solid middle student in HyPixel Public School. Every year, everyone got a test to see where you placed until you passed the test. Most people were out by the age of 20, but there were some in their thirties still in classes about the world.

There were, of course, still people who didn’t even know that there was a test or even a place to meet other people, staying solely in single-player worlds. Usually, when they ventured to the Multiplayer worlds they were pretty far behind everyone else but managed to do it much quicker. 

Tubbo_ had a pretty average grade? He supposes? If you looked at his transcripts, you would be surprised to see that he tested out of Redstone and world edits fairly early on and that learning the Enchantment Table languages was very difficult for him. But he never felt too bad being in remedial Enchanting. Tommy was still in Basic Geography.

Tommy was in private classes though. He got his ranking on HyPixel last year, so this year he was able to be in classes with people like Purpled and Quackity, and in the same halls that Technoblade and WilburSoot walked down. 

Tubbo was extremely excited for his friend. They were both trained by their older brothers, but Tommy was actually able to use it and push forward while Tubbo was happy to stay in the regular classes and just be dragged along by his brother whenever he could. Tommy was getting pretty famous. 

I mean to be fair, when Techno took college classes after they got some recognition, Techno came home completely anxious and depressed because everyone knew him or hated him so if Tommy talked about how the most feared person was actually chill and farms potatoes to help his family, it humanizes him a bit. No one wants to own up to giving a chill guy anxiety because of their stereotyping. 

Unfortunately, a lot of the time people didn’t really believe Tommy when he talked about Techno and Wilbur being not only brothers to both of them but close ones as well. Tubbo didn’t really blame them though, Tommy didn’t make it that believable. Most of it was pretty true, but even if you saw them living in the same house and all, you would need to actually understand their dynamic to understand that what Tommy talks about is really true.

Even more, unfortunately, he usually brings Tubbo into it as well.

Not that it’s a bad thing. Honestly, Tubbo is a bit grateful for it even because it means that Tommy won’t leave him behind, and grow too big for him. I mean, Tommy has a youtube rank and is in special classes because of it. Not that there is anything extra, from what he talks about. It’s just that they put them in the same circle as other big people to get more recognition. 

They still whisper to each other during class when they can, along with going home together and even eating lunch together whenever they can, usually in the music room they both have a class in. 

It's the best part of the day, their lunches together. No one else is really in the music room during lunch, and it can be just the two of them. It doesnt hurt that they also have free range of the grand piano at the front of the class to fuck around on without getting told off by the teacher. 

Tubbo was usually the first one in the classroom, both because he was closer, and because Tommy usually got distracted by other people in the halls. This time is no different, with tubbo give a quick smile and nod to his music teacher getting his own food. He settles down on the floor next to where the tubas are held and pulls out his communicator to see if anyone messaged him. 

Shooting off a text to both Techno and Wilbur about being at the house tonight for their hangout, Tubbo pulls out one of his granola bars to munch on. He sends Tommy a random swear (this time just bitch) that lets his brother know that Tubbo was in the music room. Almost as soon as he hits send on his whisper the door opens. 

It's a rather heavy door, meant to keep the sounds of 30 or so kids playing and singing extremely loudly, so Tubbo doesn't even bother to look up at Tommy until he actually opens his granola bar. Taking a bite, he looks up and promptly chokes on the bar, shocked by not only multiple faces but not recognizing any of them.

At least, not recognizing them beyond the fact that they were the same age and in similar classes. The point is that Tommy definitely wasn't there, and Tubbo might be a bit socially awkward but he could tell that they weren’t here to just sit in the music room for lunch. 

Later, Tubbo will tell Phil that the “stalked forward ready to go in for the kill” because he grew up in a house with a bunch of drama queens, but the end result will still be the same no matter how dramatic Tubbo tells it. 

The boys immediately walk to him, at first just asking him if Tommy and he were actually related, and when Tubbo confirmed, they started apologizing about being related to a liar. When Tubbo explained that Tommy wasn't actually lying about who their brothers were, they turned scathing. 

Tommy showed up at probably the worst time. He wasn’t late or anything, probably earlier than some times, but he still walked in on three people calling tubbo worthless. 

Needless to say, in less than an hour, all of their parents were called for instigating a fight. Tommy blew up, and no matter how good he was at PVP there were still rules and restrictions. And he was up against 3 others. 

Tubbo and Tommy were motioned to sit in office chairs as their dad came to sort things out. Phil is the first to arrive, as he probably was just mining. The other three kids’ parents haven't even answered their communicators yet. 

Phil knocks on the door to the already cramped room, hosting the principal, the music teacher that stopped the fight, Tommy, tubbo, and the three other kids. The principal decides to just have the meeting in the far less cramped waiting room, sacrificing any privacy they might have had. 

It's rather lucky though, as everyone has a perfect view of Technoblade, Ph1lza, and Wilbur Soot making sure TommyInnit and Tubbo_ were okay.