Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wilbur is dying. There's no possible way to sugar-coat it. Wilbur, his brother, is dying. 

It gets worse every day and Techno is forced to watch as Wilbur gets progressively thinner, an IV the only way he can get nutrients now as his throat caves in on itself. He's forced to observe as Wilbur's flesh turns black, decomposing even as his brother's lungs desperately cry out for oxygen (the decay had started with his fingers and the tears wouldn't stop as Wilbur lost the strength to pick up his guitar, lost the skills needed to strum his usual beautiful tunes). Was made to sit uselessly at Wilbur's side as his brother wastes away. 

Wilbur was suffering the effect of withering. There were two ways to receive the life-threatening poison. One, was to be unfortunate to come across a wither skeleton in the Nether. The other was to be unfortunate to come across the villain Killer Queen late at night. Wilbur hasn't set foot in the Nether in almost a decade, he had happened across Killer Queen recently though and-

There is no cure for the withering effect. If one is affected by it, the best you can hope for is an easy and peaceful death (there is no such thing as an easy and peaceful death when dealing with the withering effect, every heartbeat forces the poison to travel your entire body again and again and again. And every beat was a promise of pain as your heart weakened again and again and again). There is no cure for withering, not really, but there was a hero who could counter it. Its why Killer Queen had only become famous in recent years, until a few years ago there was a hero that would heal everyone Killer Queen used their ability on, but…

"Tommy," Wilbur gasped, reaching out blindly once again (Techno offered his hand, even though it wasn't the hand Wilbur wanted. Wilbur squeezed his hand tight, even though he'd rather be holding the hand of a small blonde teen).

Techno had plotted out that hero's death. 

Techno had watched that hero be reborn.

Techno had burned that bridge for his whole family.

(At the time it had felt like success, now his heart is filled with nothing but regret.)

"He's not here, Wil," he'll never be here because of Techno. "You'll just have to make do with me."

"I… want to apologise to him," Wilbur coughs and it causes his whole body to shake and lift off the bed (Techno is positive Wilbur just lost hours of his life thanks to that cough alone). "I need to apologise to him, before… before I die."

"No need to be dramatic, you won't die," he is dying. He's basically a living corpse at this moment, but Techno can't acknowledge that. He can't. "And Phil is looking for him, this very moment."

"You should look for him too," more life ending coughs tumble past his lips, "Phil's old. He'll miss something due… due to bad... eyesight or something."

Techno laughs at the attempt at humour.

(His laugh is weak and far more watery than he ever wants it to be.)

"I thought he'd prefer Phil finding him than me," Wilbur grimaces at his words, like he's just thought of something incredibly unpleasant (and he has. Techno had just referred to something none of them like to think back on, not anymore (how had Techno ever felt proud over what he had done?)). 

"Coward," Wilbur says and it's meant to be vicious. Biting. But Wilbur is too weak to argue, each breath Wilbur takes makes this wheezing sound like a balloon deflating, it doesn't stop Techno from flinching.

"Tactical," Techno denies, keeping his voice even. "It makes sense for one of us to research back home while looking after you, and the other physically searches. Be grateful, I'm the one who stayed back. I'm the best cook in this family."

Wilbur hasn't eaten a single meal in over a month, and even then, he had only managed single bites before having to repress the urge to throw up.

"We'll see," Wilbur says it in a way that means he doesn't believe Techno's bullshit (says it in a way that makes Techno's chest feel light with false hope, there's a promise for tomorrow there. A promise that can't be given with the withering effect tearing down every part of Wilbur's body). "You owe him an apology."

"I know," Techno's not actually sure he knows, he was following the only logical path, but he does know he's willing to get down on his knees and beg for his forgiveness. Hell, he'd kiss Tommy's feet, if the annoying hero asked it of him. Anything for Wilbur. For his brother.

"You owe me an apology," Wilbur says and well… Techno had technically apologised to Wilbur hundreds of times already, but he's never really meant them. Never needed to mean them until now.

"I'll apologise to you every day until we die," Techno vows.

Wilbur snorts.

"Don't think I'll be getting many apologies then," the joke makes Techno whine. His heart shattered that little more since this all began (every day since Phil had flown Wilbur back home in this state Techno's heart has broken more and more).

"Don't say that," Techno grits out. "You're gonna live until your eighty and you're somehow gonna legalise marriage between humans and animals so you can marry a fish, like a nerd."

"We're criminals, I don't need to follow any laws. Sally and I are going to elope next week and have lots of salmon babies," Wilbur has a smile pulling against his lips despite himself. "You'll be an uncle before you know it."

"I'd be a dreadful uncle," a statement more than anything. Techno has proven time and time again that he doesn't care for many beyond Phil and Wil (and that has proven to be ultimately detrimental to his family, hasn't it? If he had… just been able to trust his brother's judgement that little more, they wouldn't have been in this predicament). 

(He was right to not trust Wilbur's judgement. He had believed Wil was too blinded by his fondness of Tommy to truly evaluate a potential threat and he was right. Tommy was a hero, they were villains. They had fought each other in costume numerous times and Techno's ultimatum was the thing to reveal that. Tommy hadn't willingly revealed that he had been keeping dangerous secrets from them, Techno's strategies were the catalysis for the truth being revealed. Tommy wasn't their friend; he was their enemy.)

(He was wrong to distrust Wilbur's judgement. Wilbur had always been better at judging people than Techno, was always better at getting the right person on their side. Wilbur was picky with his choices, but the choices he made were always spectacular, it was worth Wilbur sacrificing hundreds of nobodies until he found the next perfect addition. Tommy might have been a hero, but he was a powerful hero, a powerful asset and he was loyal. So painfully, painfully loyal. When given the choice to leave the hero organisation or reveal the secret identities of Wilbur and his family, Tommy had decided to leave. To roam and hide, to remain neutral so as to never betray his hero allies or the villains he had accidentally befriended. Tommy wasn't their enemy; he could have been their friend.)

"It's all that orphan slaying," Wilbur's next set of coughs strain his vocal cords (almost completely ridding Wilbur of his most passionate hobby. Music. If he wasn't playing the guitar, he was singing. Only he wasn't, because Wilbur was dying to the withering effect from Killer Queen. Dying in a way that could have been so curable, if Techno had reached out to Tommy. If he had trusted Wilbur and befriended the child). "Did- didn't prepare you- for… for child rearing."

"Maybe you should rest your voice, Wil," Techno nervously suggests, it's a… cruel thing to suggest. All his brother is capable of doing right now is talking. He's stuck in bed with fingers that don't respond properly and a body that's failing him. The only thing that hasn't completely failed him yet is his voice (but even that won't last too much longer. Wilbur… Wilbur should have been dead weeks ago, but the best medics villainy can afford and Wil's desperate desire to see Tommy one last time, had kept him going). 

"I'll… rest my voice... once I'm dead," Wilbur jokes, but… 

It sounds too honest to be a joke.

"Wil-"

"I want Tommy," the words are quiet, they're not whispered because they're a secret (Wilbur has been loud with his wants of Tommy joining them) or because Wilbur's voice is failing him (though it is), they're whispered because it hurts Wilbur to say (even after all these years he wants that annoying teenager back in his life, even after all these years of guilt he hasn't given up on the loudmouthed teen). 

Techno had run off the high of being right about Tommy, had run off the high of Wilbur choosing family over an outsider, had run off the high of spilling blood, for months before he really thought about it. Before he over thought it and started to… feel a little… more than exhilarated. It was Phil who pointed out that his blatantly obvious happiness over the Tommy situation was hurting Wilbur, he'd have probably dismissed anyone else for saying so (who would dare claim to know his brother better than he did?). But he listened and he observed and… realised Phil was right. Realised he had hurt Wilbur in a way that his brother couldn't recover from. Realised he had forced his brother into a situation he shouldn't have been forced into, realised he had hurt his family so horribly. He had felt so… guilty (but only for Wilbur, never for Tommy. He couldn't even say he felt guilty about Tommy now when they needed the kid).

He had fucked up and he didn't know how to fix it. He still doesn't. Years later.

"I know," Techno sighs, his voice no louder than his brother's (he never was one to talk over others, but it felt more important now that his brother was struggling to speak).

"I need Tommy," Wilbur hisses, and he says it in that possessive way he does when he's talking about Phil or Techno (when he's talking about family).

"I know," Techno agrees, because although he doesn't agree with Wilbur's implication (Tommy is not family), it is true. Wilbur's only chance of survival is if they can find and convince Tommy to help. They all need Tommy back.

"Techno. You need... to bring him back," Wilbur tries to glare at him, but Wilbur can't stop his eyelids from falling shut. Sleep hitting his weak limbs fast. "For me."

"Anything for you, Wilbur," and they're words that should be true, but they aren't.

It wasn't 'anything for you, Wilbur' when he argued against Wilbur getting close to some street kid he found. It wasn't 'anything for you, Wilbur' when Techno forced Wilbur to choose Tommy or Techno. It wasn't 'anything for you, Wilbur' when Wilbur fell back into a spiral of depression after his choice was made. Maybe Techno had never kept his promise of granting his family the world, he hopes… At least this time he's able to keep that promise. That he can deliver Tommy safe and soundly to Wilbur.

(Something tells him he'll be failing his family one last time…)

----

Techno wasn't lying when he said it was strategically sounder to have him at Wilbur's side. They needed someone to analyse the data they currently have about Tommy's location, and they needed someone actively searching. Techno was the better analyst, he'd already been able to locate Tommy a couple times, and Phil was the better seeker, not only did his wings cover longer distances faster than Techno's feet could, but his eyes were sharper than the average human. This was the best plan and Techno wasn't taking his job lightly. He had barely slept this last month or so and he never stopped analysing. Never stopped working. 

It wasn't enough. Not for Wilbur, who had gotten progressively spiteful and desperate the longer he went without Tommy. Not for Phil, who was struggling to keep a smile on his face the longer and more fruitless his flights ended up being. Definitely not for Techno, who expected more from himself, who expected perfection. 

Techno's research had been shockingly easy at first. The ex-hero has a whole social media account dedicated to sightings of him. People would message about rumoured sightings and send in photos they took, some people went as far as trying to physically follow the ex-hero, like he was some storm to chase (in a way Tommy was like a storm, only more powerful, more devastating). Hours spent going over the account had brought up their first problem (and it surprisingly wasn't about how cultish the social media account was). 

Not a single picture had Tommy on the ground.

There were no pictures of Tommy's boyish grin, or his fluffy windswept blonde hair. There were no pictures of the teenager that often curled in on himself because he hadn't quite grown into his lanky frame. There were no rumours about a loudmouth teen that had wormed his way into the hearts of his unexpecting prey. All there were, were pictures of a sky (sometimes a beautiful night sky with the nebula bright behind it, sometimes the baby blue sky only just being lit by the morning sun's rays, sometimes a sky being torn apart by dark ominous rain clouds). The only consistent thing in every picture was the ball of light in the middle of each photo. 

The ball of light was obviously the focus. The ball of light that due to photo quality would sometimes appear to be a blur that looked reminiscent of a shooting star and other times was so detailed you could count every feather. The ball of light was Tommy. Flying high above them all and… in all the years he had been on the run, all the years he had been hiding, he hadn't touched the ground. 

Maybe if he cared about Tommy, maybe if he had a connection to Tommy like Wilbur had, Techno would feel worried. In theory (in practice it seems) the kid could survive an eternity without food, sleep or water, but it probably wasn't healthy. When Phil had flown in the sky for too long Techno forced him to relax his wings, to take a break so Techno could preen his wings. When Wilbur fell into bouts of depression and couldn't find the strength to stand up, Techno was there to make sure he ate enough, to make sure he drank enough, to keep him alive and going until he could manage it on his own again. Tommy had none of that. For years now he had been alone.

(And there was a time Techno would have gleefully claimed it was Tommy's own fault. That he shouldn't have kept secrets from those he wanted to keep.)

Techno doesn't care about Tommy though, so he doesn't care about all of that. All he cared about was figuring out a way to ground Tommy, to get close enough to drag him back to the earth after years spent away.

The first plan had been Phil. Phil was a master at flying, had years of experience on Tommy. If anyone could knock him out of the sky it would be Phil. They just had to find him, so Techno had worked hard.

Wilbur wasn't too bad back then. His fingers still obeyed him, there was only an ache in his limbs. Something easily disguised as arthritis. Wilbur had insisted on helping, Techno had done most of the work.

He had Tommy's entire journey over the last few years plotted out to see if there was some pattern (there wasn't, the only thing Techno could tell for sure was Tommy would fly above one city before moving to the next city over, either following the paths below through the day or the glow of the nearby cities lights at night). He had worked out Tommy's average speed (Tommy had proven to be able to shoot across the sky at incredible speeds but was more often than not seen flying in a lazy straight line, no rush to his movements. It made his average speed… unreliable, though Tommy only ever seemed to fly faster when someone was chasing him… which is what they were planning to do…). After days of research, after covering the walls with maps and charts, Techno had figured a couple of potential routes for Tommy to go.

Wilbur throughout the planning had been panicking over the photos on the social media account (he was struck by lightning in this one! They can't post that! That has to be against some of the website's rules! Look at him! He's in so much pain!). Needlessly speculating (we don't know how his powers work exactly, what if he has to die for them to activate? I'm not killing him. Not again). And eventually choosing which of Techno's potential routes Tommy could be heading (it's not like you know the kid. You made it abundantly clear you didn't want him in our lives).

Wilbur had managed to guess right (and make no mistake, it was simply a guess no matter what Wilbur says. Tommy's flying was random, he wasn't flying with a purpose that could be predicted even if you knew the kid). 

Phil had flown out, following Wilbur's suggestion, and found the kid listlessly flying on.

Techno and Wilbur had been listening through a comm unit. Both sure of their dad's success. 

No one expected Tommy, loud boisterous Tommy, Tommy with a thousand burning quips, to just silently fly… higher… than Phil could reach. They had listened as their dad yelled at Tommy for understanding, for one simple conversation. They had listened as no one else's voice howled back, not even in some angry burst of disbelief (that… was probably the first moment Techno acknowledged he'd messed up when it came to Tommy. The silence was jarring, Phil's agony filled cries were jarring; Wilbur's near silent sobs were jarring. His world was being forcibly shifted and Techno wasn't happy with that. He fought against it tooth and nail, he's still fighting against it with every piece of strength he has left).

They didn't succeed that first time. Tommy had flown higher than Phil could manage. Phil's wings almost freezing and his lungs struggling with the high altitudes. His weakened wings couldn't keep up with Tommy's powerful flaming feathers. His lungs were no match against a person who couldn't die. They only admit to failing when Phil had fallen from the sky, wings too busted to move (thankfully he could still stretch them out, allowing himself to glide down to the ground).

They had failed but they tried again (they guessed wrong this time; Tommy was on the other side of the country).

And again (turns out Phil couldn't fly faster than a person who had flaming wings, the fire gave him too much of an advantage).

And again (surprise attacks could work, Phil had caught Tommy off guard (Wilbur had tensed at the primal screech Tommy released as Phil's talons sunk into Tommy’s flesh) but fighting someone who can instantly heal and put themselves on fire… Phil had almost been burnt alive… another failure…).

And again (Tommy had changed his direction last second, heading to a town over rather than the one they were waiting in).

And again (they had stationed pilots in other cities, hoping the more people were seeking, the higher chance they'd have at succeeding. Yet even the most durable and fastest planes and helicopters they had available stood no chance against such a bird of prey).

Everything was just… not going well. Not at all. Honestly it would be easier to find Tall Tales, a vigilante with time travelling powers, and force him to rewind time. To go back and stop himself from throwing Tommy away. To convince his past self that they needed Tommy on their side, even if it was temporary. Of course, Tall Tales was rarely ever in the era you needed him in, and Techno would not change his mind once it was made and yet… that impossible scenario was more realistic than… this.

That impossible scenario made more sense than watching his brother slowly and painfully die. That impossible situation made more sense than watching his dad beat himself up every day after failing to reach the antidote that is barely in sight. That impossible situation made more sense than everything going on with Tommy. 

Techno… just doesn't get Tommy. He never wanted to understand Tommy, so he hadn't tried, but now… The endless flying, the silence… it doesn't really feel like Tommy is living. And yet the Tommy he had reluctantly met in the past… he had been so alive. Bright and cheerful and… how did that become this? Sure, Techno's decision all those years ago was meant to mess with Tommy's life (was meant to end his life actually), but… becoming this didn't make sense. If anything, Techno was expecting anger, was going to bow to Tommy's every whim if that was what it took to get his brother back to health, the silence didn't make sense. 

Techno didn't care about or for Tommy, but he needs to know why he's different. It's these differences that aren't assuring Techno that he'll be able to convince Tommy to save Wilbur and he needs his brother to be OK.

He needs it.

He needs it like he needs to breathe. His family is his everything. He couldn't care less about the rest of the world, he'll watch it burn if he must, but his family? They mean more to him than anything. He can't let Wilbur and his relaxing tunes and calloused hands go. He can't let that hand that always reaches out to him, despite everything, go. Techno's hands are bloody (he prefers them that way) and Wilbur is one of the few people who take those dripping red hands into his without flinching. Techno is not made for endless solitude. Techno is not made for losing. He needs to win this fight against Tommy (for Wilbur… for himself).

He needs to.

There's a knock and Ranboo shuffles in the doorway. A piece of paper clutched tightly in his hand as red and green eyes stare down at it intently. They've been sending Ranboo with any updates, even though Ranboo has his own work to deal with, because they know Techno won't kill him even if he's delivering bad news. He hates that they're sending Ranboo though, because it's unfair to Wilbur. Ranboo always sends the other into fits that aren't good for his health. 

("You can't be serious right now," Wilbur mutters, a bubbling fury growing with each word. No one but his family (and maybe Tommy) would ever notice. Wilbur was always good at hiding his emotions.

"Why? Is it so hard to imagine me being someone's mentor?" Techno tries to joke, tries to ease Wilbur's anger before it turns to something vicious.

"Yes," Wilbur practically hisses. "Mr. Orphan Killer, it is impossible to imagine you being someone's 'mentor'."

The words… hurt more than Techno would like to admit. He… was actually looking forward to mentoring the kid he had discovered, he thought he'd be doing something good for both him and the kid. It was rare he'd reach out to another person. He thought his brother would encourage him…

"I know I'm not the best at social interactions, but even I could teach a kid how to not get himself killed," Techno reasons (he pleads, because he wants his brother on his side, he wants his brother to believe in him). 

"Can you? You're in the business of getting them killed usually," Wilbur spits and- oh… that's what this is about. It's about Tommy. Again. 

"You agreed to his murder," Techno is not kind in this matter. This isn't something that should come between them. They're brothers and Tommy is nothing. "And he's not even dead. Get over it."

"I am over it," Wilbur's glare is a clear sign that his brother is lying.

"Oh, I can tell. What with you bringing it up almost every other day," Techno rolls his eyes.

"I wouldn't bring it up every other day if you didn't keep trying to make decisions that remind me of him. Why are you allowed to bring someone into the family and I'm not?" Wilbur's words were a hiss, and they may be brothers, but Wilbur was prepared to sink his claws in. To hurt Techno (like Techno had hurt him).

"This is different. I'm not inviting him into the family, I'd be his mentor and we were able to find out his entire background. Ranboo's harmless," he just doesn't understand how his brother continues to fail to see. Tommy was a threat. Tommy continues to be a threat, seeing as they failed to kill him (well… was it really failure, when his sword sunk so easily into the weak flesh of Tommy's neck?). 

"No," Wilbur says. 

"No?" Techno repeats. Blinking.

"No," Wilbur repeats and… it's just one word. A single word that… shatters… something in Techno. If… if this isn't something his family wants, he can't go against it, just how Wilbur couldn't go against Techno's wants when it came to Tommy. Their family was everything and they'd do anything for each other.

"You want me to kill him?" Techno asks, and… he'd do it. Even if the thought of red and green staring up at him in horror is something that would haunt him. Even if the thought of Ranboo taking that final breath is something he never wants to think about.

"Oh, no. That would be too easy, and it's not as if Ranboo's done anything to deserve death," the unspoken 'like Tommy' is ignored. Tommy knew what dangerous game he was playing and now he had to live with the consequences. "Niki was looking for new employees. Ranboo would flourish under her guidance, don't you think?"

And… he should have suspected it. Wilbur was always one for mind games, liked to torture his prey, unlike Techno who found little joy in the hunt (he just wanted things to end as quickly and smoothly as possible). Of course, Wilbur would dangle the what-could-have-beens in front of Techno, they worked close with Niki, he would see her (and Ranboo) daily. He'd see the kid he wanted to train, he'd watch him learn everything Techno could have taught him, he'd be reminded of the promise he's going to break (he knew better than to make promises, but he had promised to be there for Ranboo, thought his family would never turn down his request).

"Ok," Techno agrees. Doesn't argue against the decision. Doesn't give a half-hearted 'Niki will train him well'. He just accepts his fate. If Wilbur didn't want Ranboo around, then Ranboo wouldn't be around. Family came first.)

Techno spent all the time since then avoiding Ranboo. He wasn't even the one to let Ranboo know he wasn't going to be mentoring him anymore. Leaving that to Niki to spin however she wished. And it was alright.

It wasn't great. The few times he had to talk to Ranboo were awkward, like when they first met. The few times he saw Ranboo make a mistake and longed to teach the kid the correct way to do things was a bit of a problem, he had both Niki and Wilbur interfering before he could accidentally give constructive criticism. He wanted to be Ranboo's mentor, but he couldn't. And that was the point. Wilbur wanted Tommy as his little brother, and he didn't get it. It was petty and selfish, and Techno allowed it, because Wilbur was his brother. Because he loved Wilbur. 

But the constant reminder of what Ranboo represented when Wilbur was hacking his lungs out in their hospital wing… wasn't pleasant. Wasn't welcome. Maybe Techno should try to stop scaring everyone, stop being an intimidating figure, just for Wilbur's comfort. Just so Wilbur doesn't have to be face to face with Ranboo and their failures.

"The report?" Techno asks, keeping a strict and steady voice. He can't break his promise to Wilbur, can't be anything but distant with Ranboo.

"Uh. Right…" Ranboo moves from foot to foot (Techno wants to reassure the kid). He shuffles papers around, crinkling their neatness (Techno wants to encourage the kid to have the confidence to answer). "So… I don't think there's… really… a good way to say it… but… uh… well…"

"Just speak already," Wilbur grumbles, getting a full sentence out more smoothly than Ranboo, even with his slowly closing throat.

"Right! It's just… Phil… fell. He's fine! He was seen to instantly and the doctor assured everyone it was just exhaustion, but… he might not be able to use his wings for a few weeks," Ranboo explains, looking everywhere but the brothers in front of him. "The doctor said he should have rested his wings weeks ago."

And suddenly Techno feels great about everyone being so intimidated by him, he doesn't think he'd have been able to keep a calm head if Ranboo wasn't there. He wouldn't have been able to stop himself from storming out to fight every enemy they've ever acquired if it wasn't for his brother so close to death beside him.

Wilbur makes a noise. It sounds like what his laughter was, long before this slow death. Long before Tommy entered their lives.

"I told you, you'd have to… go out," Wilbur chokes out amongst the life halting wheezes.

And well… It looks like everything is up to Techno. Techno who can't fly. Techno who hates the kid they're looking for. Techno who would do anything for his family.

The next morning, the internet is going crazy. Social Media trending with all kinds of tags and a humble Tommy hunting account being spammed with numerous messages and photos. Spontaneously, across numerous city skylines a single message was spelt out amongst the clouds.

Theseus

Meet me where we first fought

The Blade

Chapter Text

Tommy doesn't think anymore. He could, if he was willing to, but thinking comes with a lot of consequences he doesn't want to deal with. 

First there'd be the acknowledgement that he's not doing too good. He'd have to take note of the fact that his body has been constantly regenerating itself for years now. Every time his wings falter because they haven't stopped moving once, rejuvenating flames set them ablaze to make them as good as new. Every time his stomach starts eating itself, every time he's about to starve himself to death, flames suffocate him as they bring his body back to peak physical health. Any illness he catches, usually colds, are quickly swept away as though he was never ill. This all sounds good, well… kinda… constantly starving yourself to death wasn't exactly a 'pog' thing to do, but… he's constantly brought back to peak health. He should be fine.

He's not.

No power is without its drawbacks and his is pretty fucking annoying. To keep his body going, he keeps being brought back to the last state of physical wellness. He's still physically the same 17-year-old he was when he entered this state (some would probably argue he was mentally the same age as well, seeing as he wasn't exactly allowing conscious thought to disrupt his flight). Tommy's always hated being treated like a kid and here he is… still a child as the rest of the world ages on. As the rest of the world leaves him behind.

(He thinks he should let them carry on. To leave him until his tale has become myths no one believes in and then he can swoop down and start over. He can become someone worthy of love… or at the very least someone that doesn't deserve to be backstabbed. He doesn't need to be someone important; he just wants to be loved.)

Second, if he leaves this state of mindless flying, he'd have to… sort out his problems. First there's the hunger and… he doesn't really feel like throwing up as his body remembers how to be human (was he ever human?). Then he'd have to deal with memories rushing forward (he's blanked them out for now, but they'll rush back when he's less bird brain and more human and a part of him is sure the memories will come with guilt. He's probably unintentionally taken down a few planes with all the flying he's been getting up to). Of course, the worst part of being a waking working human being is figuring out… What now?

Tommy had been living the life. He had a career that was the envy of others (he was a superhero! How cool was that?!). He was popular (he had so many friends, when he needed to call someone, he was forced to scroll through hundreds of contacts, and they all genuinely liked him). He was comfortable in his life (being a popular hero meant he was paid incredibly well, he had too much money, more than he knew what to do with. So, where he did spend a lot on fun things and saved a bunch, he gave even more to charity). The only thing he was truly lacking was a family, parentless and all that jazz (then he met Wilbur and even that seemed like it wouldn't be a problem for much longer. Maybe… maybe he was being too greedy, wanting a family on top of everything else. Maybe that's why his life was brought down in flames. Maybe it was karma or a taste of his own medicine. He had burned many things to a cinder in his lifetime…).

He… doesn't know where to go from this. Tommy can't hit rock bottom, his wings would never allow for it, but what is there for him if he continues flying up. He's as high as the stratosphere will allow and he… he almost wants to break the norms of humanity. To fly endlessly through space.

(Would it all be empty? Not a single thing between the spaciously placed planets and stars? Would he meet other life forms out there? Would he die? He's as vulnerable as any other lifeform, he just gets brought back to life. Would his body explode (implode?) in space, only to regenerate? Or would space be too much for his abilities? Would he be grasped by thousands of cold unrelenting hands that force him down and down and down until there's nothing of him left? Is there anything left of him now?)

Let's say he manages to get himself eating like a normal human being again, let's say he gets his mind thinking a single coherent thought that isn't fly, fly, fly, let's say he figures out what he wants to do now. He couldn't just go down there. He couldn't just live his life. The choices he made years ago, back when he was more human, have ruined his chance of living peacefully now.

Wilbur, fucking Wilbur Soot, was a villain. One of the worst villains their world has ever seen. Only trumped by the villains he worked with in the Syndicate. The Blade and The Angel of Death (Techno and Phil… he had had dinner with all of them. Introduced to them through a family meal Wilbur had organised) and they had killed him. Or tried to (some days it really felt like his life had ended after that blade pierced the flesh of his back, most days he felt the phantom edges of the blade like it was a missing third limb that was meant to comfortably form from his back). 

And you know… the worst part? The worst fucking part was Wilbur had fucking stabbed him as Techno watched without knowing he was a hero. He could understand the Syndicate wanting to off him if they discovered his secret identity. Hey! He wouldn't even hold it against them. He was a hero, one of the best heroes (the best hero). But they had no idea. Tommy had watched as their faces morphed into shock as Tommy's wings flared to life as he brought himself back from the dead (the blade had pierced him straight through the heart, it would have been a quick death if he was anyone else).

"Theseus?" Wilbur had asked, shocked. 

"Yeah! What the fuck was that about?!" Tommy screamed back, panicked.

Neither had explained, but a fight had broken out. A fight that spilled into the streets. A fight that drew more heroes and villains and eventually it became painfully obvious who Tommy had befriended (who he almost thought of as family).

It was heart-breaking.

(Not as heart-breaking as his literal heart being torn in two.)

(Not as heart-breaking as the fact he still wanted to make Wilbur laugh at stupid jokes. Not as heart-breaking as the fact he ached for Techno's approval. Not as heart-breaking as the fact that he longed to curl up under Phil's wings and chirp nonsense at him. He really was pathetic. Was literally stabbed and killed by these men and he still thought of them as family. It was probably some weird bird shit. Mama birds threw up in their babies’ mouths and pushed them out of the nest all the time and still they were forgiven. Birds were stupid. Sometimes he wishes being a phoenix had some better drawbacks.)

It wasn't only the villains that were preventing him from returning. Oh, no. Sure, they wanted him dead, sure their morals were so low they'd threaten others to make him do things he didn't want to, but it wasn't like the heroes were any better.

He'd been a hero; he'd been a part of that society. He was told time and time again that he was irreplaceable. He'd been their friend, the person they could rely on for healing, back up and transport. And all of that had been tossed down the drain for a single mistake that was hardly his fault.

Tommy liked to talk, loved to hear the sound of his own voice, and yet even as people congratulated him for his win against the Syndicate. At finding and fighting them while off duty. Tommy hadn't cheered or celebrated. He'd been sulking as he filled in the necessary paperwork. 

There was paperwork for everything in the hero agency. Like thousands and thousands of potential forms that could be necessary. More were added every month as heroes stumbled into more and more problems as the world gained more and more powers. Just a couple months prior to Tommy's death by the hands of Wilbur, a new form had been made about marriages. Tubbo, Tommy's best friend and hero duo partner before everything went to shit, had been on an undercover mission and had accidentally gotten married in a bid to keep his identity secret. He hadn't been able to keep track of the documents on his marriage or find the guy he married after his mission was done, nor was he legally of age to marry without an adult’s consent, and five different forms about marriage were added to the thousands already in place.

Tubbo had spent a few months at the time trying to get the forms in order. He hesitated to fill in the one about divorce, he argued it wasn't like they could do anything with the marriage registry being God knows where.

Tommy after that fateful stabbing had to fill in a few forms. The first a form about his secret identity being compromised. The next, a form about discovering someone close to him is a villain. And the next… a request form… a form to put him off of cases that involved the Syndicate. Then he went through the painstaking case of filling in a report of everything that happened. 

The next time he entered the hero agency it wasn't with cheering at his success, it was to be quietly escorted to an interrogation room. He had followed without resistance. He had no reason to worry, Sapnap, a senior hero to him, had discovered one of his fiancés was a villain and other than questioning, rearranging missions and some data protection stuff, he had been allowed to remain a hero. He was still happy.

Tommy had not been ok. 

He doesn't like to think about the interrogation room.

He had been there for months.

Begging-

Begging-

Begging-

For something. 

He doesn't like to think about it (so he doesn't, he has that choice).

The heroes are just as bad as the villains, and he can't stand being near any of them. And yet they control everything. How would Tommy ever be able to live a peaceful life with the two of them controlling things from both sides of the same coin. 

(He can't, so he doesn't. He flies high above them all. No worries breaking through his numb mind. He chooses to be less human, so he can be peaceful. All he wants is peace.)

As he should have realised long ago, he never gets what he wants. Not for long at least.

It starts on a peaceful day. He's been flying (like he has every second of every day for the last few years) with the rising sun. There's more traffic in the air than usual, but it's easy to ignore. They're not actively trying to engage with him, after all. They're not chasing or trying to fly ahead of him (like anyone would ever be as fast as the Big Man himself, hadn’t someone tried to prove themselves faster than him recently though?). It had been a pleasant day, like all his days were.

He flies through clouds. Clouds are cold (like everything else up here, Tommy was the only physically warm thing for miles, but even he forgot that most days), but these are… kinda neutral in temperature. The most unique things about them are that they taste like ozone and carbon dioxide and that they're very low to the ground (or maybe Tommy was higher in the sky than he thought, it wasn't like he thought all that often anymore after all).

He decides he's either a moron or some posh wanker paid for some plane to leave some smoke trail behind them. He doesn't care either way and keeps flying. 

All he does is fly.

Only…

Maybe not today.

He comes across smoke trail after smoke trail. All in different cities, towns and villages. All perfectly at his height no matter how low or high he flies. Some he witnesses being written out, others have already faded by the time he breaks through them, ruining them.

A part of him wants to worry about the messages he's destroying, a part of him wants to gleefully add to the messages with his own flames, a large part of him finds this all awfully suspicious…

He tries to shake the suspicion. He wants to be comfortably numb. He doesn't want to feel anything. But… he's curious and he's worried and it could be nothing… he could just be paranoid.

He decides if there's another message, he'll read it. So, he moves on to the next town over and… there is. He steels himself. Not letting all his emotions rush through, just allowing enough of his mind to return to being human so he can focus on the words. And…

There's an E! He recognises that letter. And look there's two of them in one word (and oh! He knows words, words could be awesome). 

Me. 

That's a word he recognises.

And me leads to him understanding meet and-

Oh! Messages should be read in order (but the first word looks so hard to read. There's more than one s and this letter that curves like a smile- and he really doesn't like smiles- and a t. 

Oh! His name starts with a t. Tom-

Theseus

The first word is Theseus. He's Theseus. Or he was Theseus. He's not anymore.

(He doesn't want to be ever again.)

His mind shuts down and he flies.

Flies faster than he ever did before. The unread message shatters with the force in which he flies. People in the town below yell as there's a sudden change in air currents and the sky in which the sun was already setting gains a second setting sun as Tommy burns furiously bright as he disappears into the horizon.

Messages are bad.

Smoke trails are bad.

He wants to avoid them, but he can't.

Whoever is paying for them is persistent. And they're constantly filling the sky of every city, town and village he visits. He's shot far across the sky to different counties and countries, and nothing changed. They're haunting him. Urging him to read.

(But he doesn't want to return to being the unlovable Tommy. Doesn't want to return to being the fuck up. The unwanted. The mistake. He just wants to remain a safe bird. A safe untouchable bird.)

It's days though. Days of torture. Words that make his wings wobble like they're running out of steam. His name in the sky. He can recognise it without meaning to now. It's his fate to return to the earth beneath him (even though he wants to dance among the stars).

Eventually he caves. As he was always going to. 

(He's weak. He's always been so very, very weak.)

He stops in some no name village. Far away from society. He hopes he can hide his reaction here (but he knows it's wishful thinking. Small villages always wanted to brag about something, always wanted to experience the thrill of something new. What's more thrilling than an ex-hero having a breakdown?).

He braces himself. Then reads. It's not easy, for his rolling stomach or his half bird brain.

Theseus

Meet me where we first fought

The Blade

Well fuck. The Blade is after him. The man who watched his murder with something close to glee or pride or confidence. Tommy had never been good at reading Techno's expressions, but he had looked like a cat with a full bowl of cream.

He… he should ignore him. Ignore the monster who saw a child and agreed that murder was the best policy. He knows he's not welcome and he doesn't want to be. Not anymore.

Family. Friends. He wasn't designed for them; he knows that now. He was a phoenix. He was meant to live alone for the rest of eternity. The best he could manage was maybe warming someone up on a cold night, he shouldn't expect anything more for his life. Especially for The Blade.

Though… for all The Blade's faults (of which there are many), for all Tommy hates the man now, there is one truth he knows for sure. Techno doesn't want anything to do with him. He wouldn't message Tommy on a whim. He had to be desperate to reach out to him. Basically, pulling his hair out.

Tommy can't care for his murderers (he can't), but he can be curious what's made them so desperate. And… well… if they wanted to use him for something, if they wanted anything from him… he could just laugh in their face. There was a reason he was one of the strongest heroes. That hadn't changed with him being out of commission for a few years.

If Techno makes one wrong move, Tommy can just burn him to a crisp.

(If he could bring himself to do it. He wasn't a hero anymore, but he didn't think he was a villain either. He was just… nothing.)

(Nothing is all he should be.)

----

Nothing is going to come of this. 

Techno knows it. He knows it. Tommy, that frustrating brat, was fond of Wilbur, was fond of Phil (you know before the whole attempted murder thing), but he had no connection to Techno. Techno hadn’t allowed it, and he was right for not allowing it (Tommy was a hero), but that made things awkward when Techno was the only one in commission and they needed the brat on their side. 

He’s spent days and nights pacing on the rooftop he had first fought Tommy (first fought Theseus), not daring to leave just in case Tommy turns up. He’s spent hours on his phone, some random lackey (usually poor Ranboo) coming periodically to bring him food and another phone charger, he’s killing his battery but that doesn’t matter. What matters is he alone has to run the Syndicate and he alone has to find Tommy. He’s constantly working right now. 

Phoning up the numerous pilots he has around, constantly renewing the sky messages he’s made for Tommy (and numerous pilots had to be threatened to keep working, and to work how he wants them to). Phoning to keep the Syndicate up and running like it always should be, they can’t let the heroes take advantage of their current problems after all. Phoning up Wilbur to keep him company even as Wilbur struggles to talk back more and more (and Wilbur can’t be dying. Techno refuses to be on some decrepit rooftop while his brother fades out of existence). He phones the doctors to check on both Phil and Wilbur’s health (it had taken longer than Techno would have liked to have Phil brought into the same hospital as Wilbur, but they’re safe now. Together under the Syndicate’s protection).

Techno is tired, but he hasn’t given up. He has no idea if Tommy will arrive (from all the information he’s scoured online, it’s questionable if Tommy has even read the messages, he’s thrown all over the world), but if Techno has to physically go up and pluck Tommy out of the sky; he will. 

(He’s already looked into the logistics of creating a rocket ship fast enough to keep up with Theseus. If he throws enough money away and kidnaps enough of the world’s brightest engineers, he’s sure he could have it made by the weekend. He’s already been making a few phone calls and knows the exact schedule of twenty rocket scientists. It would be so easy to pluck them off the street.)

Maybe… Maybe he should just do that. As a precaution. As an option. Tommy wouldn’t answer a message from him. He hates him. But if Techno physically restrains him? Then Tommy will have no choice. 

He’s about to send some messages out when he hears a sound he’s heard his entire life, or well… what he considers his entire life.

Phil had found Techno when he was nine years old. He'd been doing alright, you know for a nine-year-old with only a bloody knife to his name, when Phil came and promised him everything. Somewhere to eat, people he could trust, a place he could sleep without having to wake up every five seconds to make sure he wasn't being betrayed. It was strange at first, but Techno fit in pretty quickly. He became family, learnt that family would do anything for each other, to protect each other, he eagerly joined Phil as a villain. After Techno and Wilbur joined Phil (... their dad), it wasn't long until they were suddenly an organisation. Making ranking systems and missions that were appropriate for each rank. Making sure all their members were compensated and worked towards an aspect of villainy they wanted. Techno has no idea how their small family became the leader of a corporation (but however it happened, it's probably what made them more protective, more possessive. They didn't want to waste time on anyone that wasn’t family, especially when potential traitors were lurking around every corner).

It's because they've gone through all of this together (taking down corrupt organisations, arguing their workers’ wages and compensations, taking bullets meant for each other). It's because he's gone his whole life beside Phil (those first nine years were nothing. Meaningless. He can hardly remember the cold streets and harsh beatings and he's thankful, because they don't really exist). It's because of Phil and all he's done, all they've done together, that he recognises the sound of wings beating. 

Feathers rustle. Air currents change. Someone lands with a thump.

"Your landings still suck, eh Theseus?" Techno asks, not turning to look at the brat yet (the brat that could ruin everything, the brat that could fix everything).

"Shut the fuck up, Blade," there's a cough there, Tommy's throat sounds rough and dry. "I'd like to see you do better."

The arguing is familiar.

Techno never gave Tommy the time of day, but he always made time to banter and mock his favourite heroes (his favourites, of course, being the ones that easily succumb to bait. Skeppy had been a favourite before he retired, the diamond man always screaming and asking for time outs when he was losing; one time he had thrown money Techno's way in the hope of slowing the villain and his bloody blade down. Dream was always a pleasure to rile, the Teletubby-wanna-be hated when someone didn't understand him fully, so would argue with even a villain to make sure his opinion was understood. And Theseus, Theseus who was either too young to be on the battlefield or played the part of a child to trick his enemies, howled at the injustices of the world. Sometimes his screaming words would ripple against the surface of a serious problem, but before the kid could dive in, could understand what was truly wrong with the world, he'd dip back out. Blaming the wrong things, the wrong people. Always so close to a truth that would shatter his world). His favourites were always more challenging than the average hero.

Techno could still always win against them. It's why he doesn't instantly turn to face Tommy; he has nothing to fear.

(Only he's terrified, that's why he doesn't turn around, too scared to see eyes which are gleeful they tell him they won't help him save his brother. Not after all Techno has done.)

"So," Techno starts, looking out over the city, the city they have fought in time and time again (there are helicopters circling above, searching for the ex-hero and villain's meeting, that's all they've done since Techno first released his message. Circling like flies. They haven't found them yet, if only because they have a guy on their side that can cause illusions. No one will find them unless Techno demands it).

"You desperately need my help," Tommy cuts in, zero fear (but why should he fear Techno? Techno can cut him down time and time again, but Tommy can just stand back up. They've done this song and dance before. When the immovable meets the unstoppable, neither truly win). "Which is why you should be super accommodating to me. I could just fly off and never come back again."

And Tommy could. Just like Techno had left him choking on a pile of his own blood time and time again. 

"What do you want?" Techno questions, huffing.

"Lots. I'd want to have never been stabbed in the back, I'd want to have lived in ignorance of the lies being fed to me, I want to continue my flight. But let's start with something you can manage, eh? A meal," Tommy snaps his fingers and despite himself Techno looks over.

Tommy has always been a scrappy waif of a creature. There was a lack of muscles, so much so, that Techno never would have believed the kid was a hero. He knew now though, his muscles were thin, long, designed for speed and not strength. That the kid's frame hid secrets, such as wings that had always been hidden beneath layers and layers of clothing. It must be a shock to know that Techno had seen the kid and thought he was a threat, but… Tommy's bright blue always shone with mischief and his grin when Techno asked about his past was manic. Every laughter and bit of joy Tommy used for his misdirection had put Techno less at ease. Made him worry and obsessively do background checks, only to find nothing. Nothing. Nothing was worse than something, nothing meant there was something to hide.

(And there had been something to hide, and Techno was right Tommy was their enemy and yet here they are…)

The stick-like figure from all those years ago is painfully the same, but now… now large wings of reds, oranges and golds hang from his back with pride. Now mischief filled eyes and secret grins are subdued, there were no secrets to hide anymore. The whole world knew Tommy's backstory now. The whole world was observing him, waiting for Icarus' inevitable fall. 

(They'll probably be waiting forever at this point.)

"Sure. You look like you can use a meal," the words come out… mocking- no teasing- no… questioning? The words… come out and Techno doesn't know who he is meant to be interacting with here: Theseus or Tommy. 

Tommy takes it in stride though. Grinning so wide his cheeks are a second from splitting.

"The last meal I had was that shitty bowl of cereal my blood got caught in, you know as your brother stabbed me through the back," and it doesn't matter what Tommy says, it doesn't matter who Techno is interacting with, this is the closest they've gotten to success. Tommy is here, listening and oh so close to healing his brother.

(Do this for Wilbur. You promised him the world, it's time to deliver.)

"What do you want to eat?" Techno asks, pushing his pride and hostility away (he can't let them surface, not now).

And that's how Techno ends up sitting opposite Tommy on the roof as the kid is surrounded by three different fast-food bags. Techno had to send Ranboo to purchase them and each time he had returned with a new offering, Tommy had sent Ranboo a weird look before diving into his latest bag of food. Right now, Techno had the pleasure of watching Tommy shove two chicken nuggets, three fries and a mouthful of coke, all from McDonald's down his throat. A half-eaten Burger King burger rests in a wrapper before him and Techno is pretty sure Tommy is about to reach for another bite (even with his mouth full), so he intervenes. 

"I need your powers," Techno admits, cutting straight to the chase (he wasn't Wilbur who could string tempting words together or Phil who spoke in hushed comforting words, all he had was blunt and brutal honesty… he usually made it work).

(He had to make sure it did this time.)

"Of course," Tommy says around his mouthful of food. "There's no other reason you'd approach me."

The way Theseus says it… it makes Techno want to actively disagree. To start up an argument, for argument's sake, but… why should he argue with Tommy over his usefulness. The hero was infamous for his ego, he knew how valuable he was. How even after years of being missing his hero friends were still trying to reach out to him. Still trying to baby the idiot.

(It would only get worse if they could see him here. See how much of a child he still looked after years of being away.)

"So, you'll help?" Techno asks, not bothering to disagree with Tommy's assessment (what was the point? It wasn't like Techno cared for the brat).

Tommy pauses. Contemplating Techno's words.

"I'm not in the business of helping people without question anymore," Tommy says, reaching for a KFC drumstick, twisting the bone in his hands as he looks for a good place to start. "Had my hero license revoked, don't you know?" 

Techno hadn't known. He was under the impression Tommy still got along well with the heroes even after everything that happened. In interviews the topic of Tommy would always pop back up and the heroes would always fondly talk of the kid and leave international messages asking Tommy to come back home. That they know the stress of the situation was getting to him, but that they were still there for him. That they missed him. There was never a bad word spoken, there was never any mention of Tommy losing his license. In fact, the heroes always talked about how they were looking forward to the kid coming back and working with them again.

As Techno contemplated this, Tommy takes a bite of his drumstick, uncaring of the way juices fly away from him, covering his clothes, sliding down his chin and fingers and flying towards Techno (his cape is going to need to be disinfected, but it usually is after nights like tonight).

"What do I have to do?" Techno asks, because he was already this deep. He was buying food for a kid he hated, he was playing nice with a kid he hated; hell, he was letting the grubby teen splatter him with KFC juices. There was little he wouldn't do.

Tommy hums, slowly eating his fried chicken without giving Techno answers. Techno is… patient though. He'll wait forever if he has to (he doesn't have forever though, Wilbur hardly had any time left. Maybe he should just grab Tommy and drag the kid back. He doesn't look strong, but Techno knows never to underestimate the brat, he always had been cleverer than anyone gave him credit and-).

"You must be desperate to come to me. There must be no one else who can help, it's probably an illness or an injury no one else can heal, right? But you're clearly fine and I don't think you'd come to me if it was your own life at risk. So, it's probably Phil or Wilbur, you'd do anything for them," Tommy reasons and… Techno understands Tommy has more information about his family than the average person, so it shouldn't be a surprise that he's guessed what is going on, but… Techno isn't that predictable, being predictable was a death sentence (and the only life on the line right now was Wilbur's and that is unacceptable).

"How-" He cuts himself off. Not risking revealing anything incriminating.

"Well," Tommy continued around another mouthful of chicken, like Techno had fully voiced his question. "The only other reason I can imagine you approaching me is because you want to try killing me again. To finish off the job from last time, I am unfinished business after all. But… I don't think you'd be feeding the person you're trying to kill."

Techno doesn't know what to say, so he says nothing (it was always frustrating how Tommy could be both an idiot and clever).

"Seeing as you're not being very forthcoming with information right now, let's go with the one-of-your-family-members-are-dying-and-you-want-me-to-fix-them-up route. It's a bit much to ask of me, innit? The person you've killed hundreds of times in your secret identity and once in your civilian identity. It's a bit much asking me to come here and expecting me to help you, isn't it?" Tommy asks and…

Techno can't help but look across the rooftop. He could almost imagine the blood stains that are surely still there, he's sure he can see the burn marks from the struggle that took place here years ago. Their first meeting had been as villain and hero, as you can imagine it hadn't ended well. They'd fought, Techno had snapped Tommy's neck and Tommy had managed to melt one of the edges of Techno's indestructible blade. Techno had left the body on the rooftop, fully expecting to see a news report on the new hero that died and the investigation taking place. Only… there was no news report and a few months later, Tommy was back on the scene like nothing had happened. Taking all of Techno's life ending blows and getting up time and time again. No matter how many times he died he came back good as new. Techno's blades… less so.

Maybe it was horrible deciding the meeting place to be here, the place where Techno had first killed Tommy, but… well no one else knew about this place (the news kept talking about the presidential house, the second place the two of them had fought). It was a memorable place for the two of them without Techno having to label the area with neon signs. His word count for sky messages was also limited (and no matter how much he threatened he couldn't extend it anymore; he'd already pushed the limit apparently). This was the best place they could have met, even if he could almost imagine the kid sprawled against the rooftop with his neck at the wrong angle. 

(Despite the rumours Techno doesn't like killing. He doesn't think anyone should like it, but it was necessary. And the kid was a hero, the kid wouldn't leave him alone, death seemed like the only way to stop him following him (a shame death couldn't keep Tommy down). And where he still wanted nothing more than Tommy to be nowhere near his family, even he can admit every death he makes Tommy experience makes him feel sick. He sees the blonde hair and the wings and all he can see is Phil on the end of his blade. It's horrifying. Unsettling. It haunts him most nights. And still, he kills the kid, using the valuable moments death provides to separate his family from the hero.)

"What do you want?" He eventually asks, because… there's no reason to bring up their entire past. No reason to explain his thoughts to Tommy. All he can do is whatever Tommy asks of him. All he can do is try for Wilbur.

"There's only one thing that would even make me contemplate helping you," Tommy says, and Techno has to swallow down his suspicions, his worries, his doubts. He needs Tommy to help him. He needs some kind of hope.

"What?" Techno asks, resists saying ‘anything’, he can't trust Tommy, he can't promise anything; Tommy would take advantage of that.

The grin sent his way, says Tommy was already going to take advantage of this situation. And the one-word Tommy spews out next fills Techno with a sense of dread and confusion. He… hadn't expected this.

"Beg."

Chapter Text

There were many things Techno was prepared to do when he decided they needed Tommy if they were going to save Wilbur’s life. He’d offer his life, he’d owe Tommy a favour, he’d give Tommy every last penny he owns, he’d let him take over the Syndicate, he’d willingly hand himself over to the police, he’d do just about anything the brat asked for. Of course, he’d never show his hand and reveal all that, that wasn’t good for bartering, but he’d do anything in a heartbeat (and didn’t that just build up his hatred towards the little brat when they were trying to ground him, the fact some ex-hero held his life in the palm of his hands and didn’t even care). But beg?

He’d do it. He’d drop down on his knees and worship the ground Tommy walked if it meant his brother would live. He'd write the brat books filled with sonnets that praised him if it meant his brother would live. It was hardly a problem. Maybe a little humiliating and he’d have to suck up his pride, but… well he’s been sucking up his pride this entire time and it wasn’t like anyone else was around. Tommy hadn’t asked him to beg in front of anyone else, hadn’t asked him to break into a studio and broadcast his pleas live for the whole world.

(But if he had to? He would. Gladly. And if they’re being honest here? Techno is already begging for Tommy’s help; Tommy is just asking for him to voice it. To have him announce their reality out loud.)

“You want me to beg?” Techno double checks, he wants an affirmative that this is all Tommy wants. 

“For me to contemplate helping you, you have to beg,” Tommy grins like it’s the worst thing he could possibly ask of him, and it is, but not for the reasons Tommy thinks. 

It’s dreadful, because this isn’t a promise that Tommy will help him. This isn’t an exchange that will assure his brother’s survival. This is just an agreement that means Tommy will hear him out. This isn’t a guarantee that his brother will be alive by the night’s end. It’s so cruel to tease him with such a promise.

But Tommy’s glee comes from the fact he thinks he’s making Techno pull off some act that Techno couldn’t stomach. He can understand why Tommy would think that way, Tommy doesn’t know him and as both The Blade and Techno people always see him as some stoic tank who thinks too highly of himself. As though he’s not the one calling the retreats, as though he’s not always cracking jokes that make Phil and Wilbur laugh, as though he doesn’t care for his family. It’s a reputation he’s accidentally cultivated, but it’s not true. So, where Tommy thinks he’ll bow for no one and is aiming to hurt him, it’s so far from the truth.

He hates governments, but he’ll bow to them if they’d save his brother (he almost did, when he tried striking a deal with Dream over the elixirs that the hero agency kept secretly stored away, only to discover it was a trick. That the hero agency had run out months ago and they hadn’t restocked since. Dream would pay dearly for the false hope he had instilled in both Techno and Phil. He’d pay dearly from trying to trap him in a terrible deal).

But honestly? Begging? That's nothing. Through negotiating with Dream, it had felt like Techno was willingly putting a collar on that was tightening every second, with a leash that was shortening even quicker. He's glad they had enough forethought to research their enemy, even through such dire situations (if they hadn't… Wilbur would be dead, and Techno would not be himself).

Really though… even if it isn't a guarantee, the promise that he'll listen and think it over just from begging… it's juvenile. It's childish. It's so… Tommy.

Tommy had been 16 when Wilbur introduced them (he was 13 the first time Techno had killed him). He was loud, brash and laughed with a voice that didn't sound like it had quite reached puberty. He was youthful, it's why they called him Child, despite being a teen. He wasn't… a welcome change in his family's dynamic, but it had been refreshing to have someone with energy and bright smiles around (that feeling had lasted a week, until Techno had discovered Wilbur hadn't put the kid through the usual security checks everyone has to go through. That feeling had lasted two weeks, until Techno had found nothing in Tommy's background, a ghost that shouldn't exist, not even a birth certificate to his name). 

Whatever Tommy's request is… it can be managed. Techno can pull through.

"How do you want me to beg?" Techno asks, clarifying everything so they can speed this transaction up. So, he can provide Tommy with this moment of entertainment, so Techno can receive his brother's safety.

Tommy's eyes widen like a deer caught in the headlights. He hadn't expected Techno to agree, that is clear. Tommy really doesn't know Techno all that well.

(But then, Techno doesn't know Tommy all that well. He had expected violence or flight, not a conversation with slight undertones of mockery.)

"Oh… uh…" Tommy hesitates, splutters as he tries to come up with something. Techno thinks for a moment of helping the kid, if only so he can control the humiliation directed towards him, but… with the way the kid is stuttering Techno is almost positive, anything Techno comes up with would be worse than what Tommy's sometimes clever, usually slow, brain can figure out. So, he waits and watches as an obnoxious blob of grease runs down the kid's chin. "You know… just beg…?"

Techno almost wants to sigh; he does roll his eyes. The kid just… doesn't- the kid just isn't good at this. He really was a hero, great for swooping in at the last second to save someone with some smug one liner, before flying off like nothing else matters. Like getting someone out of a fire is the end of his hero duties. 

Techno hates heroes and their continual ignorance. He, as a villain, has done more for his victims than the heroes (even the ones he kills, he makes sure their families are cared for and that their funerals are exactly as they desired). He's a villain, because society is a corrupt mess (because Phil had reached out to him), it needs to be taken down and he'll do anything to destroy it (because Phil wants it gone). He wants to keep his family safe. He wants society to be better, so he does help out where he can (if only because Phil dreams of a world that’s better, if only because Wilbur whispers about the injustices of the world; if only because he wants the world to be the one his family envisions). He never lets any of the victims of their fights struggle, getting them money and the medical equipment, they need (even if heroes undeservedly steal the claim for the help he provides). 

He's not unnecessarily cruel. Only cruel to those that deserve it. It's why he knows what it's like to be on the other side of someone begging for help. It's why he knows what a sincere beggar would say. It's why he knows what the person listening to the grovelling needs to hear and see.

It's with a heavy heart that Techno kneels down on the ground below him. His knees hit the concrete roof hard and where he's willing to do a full dogeza, to fully prostrate himself, he keeps his head up and his eyes on Tommy. Unwilling to make himself that vulnerable… yet. He will if he must, but for now he keeps his eyes up (and presses down the amusement as Tommy's eyes comically widen, not expecting this). 

"Tommy," he starts, keeping his tone even, removing all the stress and frustration out of his voice. He'd try at sincere, but it might be too much for the brat in front of him. 

"Tommy, the greatest person you've ever met," Tommy interjects and… he is sadly forced to obey Tommy's every whim here.

He doesn't even sigh as he repeats Tommy's words back to him. Doesn't even repeat them exactly as Tommy said, saying 'you've ever met' instead of 'I've ever met', barely restrains himself from being an annoyance to the most annoying person he's ever met. Just says the words as honestly as he can and moves on. 

"Tommy, the greatest person I've ever met, I need your help. You're the only one that can help me. You're-"

"The strongest, smartest and funniest person around?" Tommy interrupts.

"All of that," Techno agrees, easily. "And more. You're so vibrant and cheerful. Always willing to help where others would just refuse. Always helping with a smile on your face. And… you're so pitifully stubborn."

"That last one didn't sound like a compliment," Tommy whines, his previously wide-eyed stare, narrowing.

"Take it as one. I'm trying to be honest here. I thought it'd be better if I didn't lie," honest compliments would be sweeter, Techno had thought. They'd win Tommy over easier.

"You thought wrong. Lie for me," there's a fire behind Tommy's eyes that Techno hasn't seen for years. A fire that promised Tommy would get his way (a fire that had terrified Techno when he had no guarantee which side the kid cheered for in the super community, a fire that terrified him as Wilbur begged both him and their dad to let Tommy be a part of them, a fire Techno never wanted to see again).

He swallows. 

He hopes the gulp wasn't audible or obvious.

"What did you want me to lie about?" This is for Wilbur; this is for Wilbur.

"I want- That you- Lie about-" The kid has something in mind, Techno can see it in the brat's achingly blue eyes, but… "Never mind. It's stupid. Get back to begging."

And maybe it's a stupid idea to disagree. This is one less thing to concern himself over and he doesn't care about Tommy, but… He can't risk not answering one of Tommy's wishes. Not when his whimsy is what holds Wilbur's continual life in the palms of his hands.

"What did you want me to lie about?" He repeats (a small part of him is reluctantly curious). "My voice and actions are yours to command."

(Temporarily.)

Tommy hesitates again. The uncertainty isn't a familiar look on Tommy's face, Tommy isn't one to question if he's making a bad decision. He'll charge in without a single concern over his health (most likely because he can't die. Why fear death, when it is something you're forever above?). It's something that's always frustrated him about Tommy (something that was painfully obvious to Techno when he had met Theseus and then later when he met Tommy. They're a danger to themselves and everyone around them. Tommy won't crash and burn, he can't, but everyone around him? They'll suffer. They'll fall. They'll die). 

(Techno hates Tommy.)

"I want you to lie about me being family," Tommy says, and the hesitation is understandable now (it's also equally as obvious why Tommy decides to jump off the metaphorical bridge: Tommy truly lacks a single brain cell dedicated to survival).

Fury is the first emotion Techno feels. Overwhelming fury. An anger that can't be restrained by any natural means. He wants to throw a knife at Tommy, have the blade land perfectly between his eyeballs. Even if he can't kill the kid, he can make him suffer-

Tommy will never be family. Wilbur might have led the kid on (and that was another source of frustration, why did Wilbur continue to break all their rules for family when it came to Tommy?), but Tommy wasn't welcome. Techno had made his feelings obvious. Wilbur might have laughed, and fake cried every time he and Tommy joked about being brothers, but Techno was always quick to stop it. Quick to make sure Tommy knew he wasn't family, that Techno didn't want him there. Maybe if Wilbur and Tommy had listened, their fate would have ended up different. Maybe Techno wouldn't have killed the kid, maybe all of them would have remained ignorant to each other's secret identities and Techno wouldn't need to beg for the ex-hero's help.

(No, he’d just have to beg for a hero’s help.)

Behind the anger, slipping between his tightly gripped fists, is another feeling. A feeling Techno doesn't want to feel (a feeling he knows Tommy would hate to know he's feeling, which is why he probably allows it to fester): pity. The kind of emotion that makes one drown before caving in and finally doing something they’ll probably regret. The kind of feeling that is condescending to feel in actuality, but… it really is a pitiful situation.

Tommy, an ex-hero with unimaginable power and opportunities, still seeks out a family from the people who had murdered him. Still wished to be called brother by the person who had snapped his neck on their first meeting and encouraged his brother to end it all on their last meeting. It's so pitiful and stupid that he almost wants to mock the brat. Almost wants to belittle him and make him realise the realities of the world. Only…

The kid knows that's fantasy. It's why he asked Techno to lie to him. Requested something Techno would never indulge him with, because family is important to Techno and he'd do anything for family and he wouldn't do shit for Tommy (only he's doing everything for Tommy, everything Tommy wishes is his because he is the only person that Techno knows can save Wilbur). It's pitiful, but… it's hopeful (for Techno; can someone who really hates them want them to pretend to be family? Can Tommy truly neglect and ignore Wilbur's health?). 

Techno hates the idea of Tommy being family, but he can pretend. Just for a second. Just for Wilbur.

"You kno-"

"I'm sorry," Techno cuts whatever Tommy was about to say off. He looks down. Away from Tommy and stares at the grim ground he has become well acquainted with over the past week of waiting for this opportunity. He tries to imagine it's not Tommy here (that's hard, blue eyes piercing him), tries to imagine it's Wilbur (that's harder, his dear brother is dying in a hospital bed). He focuses on saying what he'd say to Wilbur. He'd always apologise to Wilbur, if that's what he needs. If Techno was ever in the wrong.

The silence is damning (there wouldn't be silence if Wilbur was here, there'd be either a fond or annoyed roll of his eyes as Wilbur dragged him back onto his feet and forced Techno to praise his music for hours on end (Techno would love every moment of it)).

"I'm sorry I was a terrible older brother," he's laying it on a little thicker than he would for Wilbur (because this isn't Wilbur and Wilbur doesn't need a reminder that they're brothers, though he never says no to a little reminder everyone now and again). "I should have considered your feelings more. Been there for you more. Shouldn't have pushed you away."

"Shouldn't have killed me?" Great way to break the immersion Tommy, Techno would never kill his brother. But…

"Definitely, shouldn't have done that," it's what Tommy wants to hear and it's true. He's spent the last month and a half (kind of) regretting it, he can't deny it was the wrong move to make. Even if they had no idea at the time how bad an idea it would become. "Should have protected you like family would."

“I don’t exactly need protection,” Tommy laughs, and Techno wouldn’t agree with that. Not fully. Tommy might be strong enough to stand back up after every single hit, but the fact that he gets knocked down in the first place isn’t exactly a good strategy. It isn’t strength. It’s just Tommy has an endless supply of determination. If anything, Tommy needs protecting from himself. 

It’s not Techno’s place to say though. Tommy doesn’t want him to disagree with the statement and Techno doesn’t care about Tommy. In actual fact, Tommy’s complete disregard for himself and his safety has led to this moment. Tommy’s confidence has led him to jump into this meeting, has given Techno the chance to exploit the kid.

"You are the bigger man," Techno agrees and… he says it because it's something he knows Tommy would want to hear (he may not have liked the kid, may not have wanted the brat around, but he had given him a chance at first, he did pay attention while looking for deceit and even if he hadn't… it was hard to ignore Tommy's insistence that he was a 'big man'). Maybe it's because it's such a Tommy thing to say, maybe because they both know Techno wouldn't ever say those words willingly, but something about those words makes Tommy sigh. 

"Alright, I've had my fun, get up," Tommy says, and Techno does. Watching as Tommy fidgets; awkward as they leave that once in a lifetime fantasy behind them (Techno's not a religious man, but he thanks every god imaginable that he can stop acting like Tommy's older brother. That… that hadn't been a pleasant experience). "I'll hear you out, as promised, what do you want to use me for?"

Tommy asks in such a pointed way, reminding them both of the situation they're in. It's not something Techno needed reminding of. He'd happily take Tommy by the scruff of his neck, force him to Wilbur's side and make him heal his brother right now, if it was a possibility. If there wasn't a literal flight risk, he'd do that. If he knew Tommy couldn't just dive off the edge of the roof right now, he'd do that. 

"Wilbur is dying," Techno admits, not even remotely sorry that he just wants to use Tommy and that Tommy knows that. "It’s withering. It's been over a month, and I don't know how much longer he has left to pull through; can you heal him?"

"Withering? For over a month?" Tommy questions. He doesn't look impressed (Techno was hoping for concern, that those 'brotherly' feelings Wilbur and Tommy shared would come through here).

"He's in pain. Really suffering," he's begging for those brotherly feelings to start taking root, to start meaning something for once. "He needs you more than anything. Just-"

"If you're trying to trap me, at least do your research first," Tommy narrows his eyes, huffs, shoulders drooping. "But, well I shouldn't have expected any better from you. You really think I'm that stupid."

It's… not the reaction he was expecting at all.

“What do you mean?” Techno asks, nervous (because he can’t ruin this shot. He can’t).

“Withering kills you within hours. A week at most. No one survives a month with withering damage,” Tommy scoffs, but that isn’t true, because Wilbur has been dying for weeks. He has been in bed suffering and that isn’t a lie. Techno has been able to do nothing but help make him comfortable. “Like if you’re trying to trick me or whatever at least make it believable. There’s no one with as much experience with withering as me.”

With that Tommy turns. His wings flare out, after he snatches the leftover bags of fast food up, and Techno knows from Phil that that’s the prime position for taking off and-

“You said you’d hear me out! If I begged, you’d hear me out!” Techno howls, he can’t let Tommy just go. He can’t-

“And I heard you out and what you’re saying is bullshit,” Tommy snarls and-

Techno knows it’s stupid. He knows it’s foolish. But he can't just let Tommy go, he can't just let Wilbur's cure slip through his fingers. So…

He summons one of his weapons.

It's ironic, in numerous ways really, that this is the weapon he draws out.

Techno's abilities are odd, but incredibly useful in certain situations. Any bladed weapon he holds he can choose to become a part of him. When it becomes a part of him, he can summon and dismiss it at will, to such an extent that metal detectors can't sense them, making him the most dangerous villain for undercover missions. The weirdest and most confusing part of his ability is when a blade becomes a part of him, it becomes indestructible (almost indestructible, one flame has proven to be able to melt his blades). It makes no sense, because there's nothing about Techno that is invulnerable, but his weapons become stronger and sturdier. Research and experimentation hadn't yielded any results or answers, so he just shrugged and accepted it as the way of the world. Experimentation had revealed it was only certain bladed weapons he could use though. The only kind of long ranged weapon that worked were knives and he tried to minimise using them due to the number of blades he lost from throwing them. He was stuck as a close distance fighter; he couldn't deal with long ranged battles. Well… not until one fateful conversation…

(Wilbur sat down on the couch, practically wrapped around Tommy. Wilbur looked like a boa constrictor with Tommy as his prey and… it wasn't too far off from the analogy. Only… Tommy was content in Wilbur's arms. Happy to be constricted and restrained. Enjoying the comfort of a currently false older brother.

This meeting was planned, a set up really, a way to gather some hopefully useful information about the kid.

Wilbur wanted Tommy to be family, wanted him to be his brother, but they had nothing to go on with Tommy. No birth certificate, no report cards from school, nothing. They had to rely on information Tommy gave himself, but… he claimed he was an orphan and yet there was no orphanage to back up the claim. He claimed he had graduated from school and yet there were no certificates. Tommy claimed he had an apartment all for himself and even that they couldn't find proof of (even though they had entered the apartment themselves). Tommy was an impossibility. One they should just cut ties with and yet…

Wilbur had begged and pleaded and… Techno wasn't giving in. If they had to kill Tommy to keep their family safe, they would, but he'd give Wilbur a chance to prove Tommy was harmless. He'd give Wilbur a chance to see if Tommy would accept their villainous roots. And that's what this evening was. A test of sorts.

They sat watching TV as Phil cooked dinner, knowing that a news report about the Syndicate would be playing soon, had arranged for it to. Wilbur had dragged Tommy into a hug to make sure there was no escape when it started and Techno sat in an armchair opposite, observing every detail. The news report would be the first test. A test that allowed them to gauge Tommy's opinion on the Syndicate.

It started without fuss. Tommy hadn’t reacted positively or negatively to the news report, almost like he witnessed these same reports every single day (and maybe he did, for all Techno knew the kid was an avid watcher of the news). It was strange, but not the strangest response he’d seen to these kinds of reports (honestly watching Wilbur cheer for every battle Techno and Phil had been in was more awkward, especially when Wilbur had been involved in the fight himself).

The oddness came in when Tommy had critiqued the fight. 

It was your average superhero- supervillain fight, by which Techno meant it was a moment of uncontrollable destruction that no one should reckon with. On the screen The Blade and Dream were fighting. Dream was a hero that shouldn’t have been on the field really, his powers weren’t publicly known, but supposedly they weren’t fit for active hero work, and yet Dream still came out every evening to patrol with a massive arson of weapons to choose from and a quick wit that made him annoying to stab (that made him fun to fight). 

The news report showed how Dream led The Blade on a wild goose chase. A dangerous game of cat and mouse playing out for all to see. Whenever The Blade got even a smidgen too close for Dream’s liking, he’d use an explosive on a car, or some uprooted path so the debris would fly towards The Blade, and he would be forced to stop and cut the obstacle in half before resuming his chase. 

The dangerous game of tag went on until backup entered for both sides. The entire time Tommy had watched the fight without blinking. Wilbur raised a brow at Techno, a question in his eyes of how they wanted to ask Tommy’s opinion about the news report, when-

“The Blade’s kind of an idiot, isn’t he?” Tommy snickered, snuggling deeper into Wilbur’s hold (as though Wilbur would never hurt him, as though Wilbur wasn’t one of the most dangerous people on the planet). 

“Oh?” Wilbur asks, amused (the gleeful expression he shoots Techno’s way is ignored, he wasn’t raising to the bait a literal child shoots his way). 

“He’s been at this for some years now, right? You’d think he’d have some long distant attacks by now,” Tommy criticised and… 

Fair. It was fair criticism. Techno had tried to trick his powers over the years by giving himself bows with razor sharp edges, or muskets, but his power refused to see them as bladed weapons, so he couldn’t join with them. Couldn’t make them stronger. Couldn’t have them eternally at his side. He was stuck with close combat, unless he wanted to lug bags of obvious weapons with him everywhere. 

“The Blade has a motif though, right?” Techno questioned, not explaining his powers to some kid that had the potential to ruin his family.

“Motif?” Tommy had questioned and Wilbur had laughed, squeezing Tommy reassuringly. 

“Theme. He’s saying The Blade has a theme of bladed weapons, right?” Wilbur explained and Techno expected Tommy to deflate when he understood he was wrong or yell some nonsense as he was wont to do. Instead…

Tommy had lit up. Grin large like he was some genius everyone went to for plans and ideas and-

“There are long ranged bladed weapons though,” Tommy says, as though he’s enlightening their lives with the information he seemingly has.

“The Blade has thrown knives before,” Wilbur agrees, amused.

“I was thinking more like those whip swords you see in video games; they’ve got to be based on something real, right? And if not, they should be easy enough to imitate, you see all kinds of weapons from villains and heroes. Something with more reach would stop the Blade having to spend hours against enemies that should have only taken a few minutes,” Tommy argues and Wilbur snickers as Techno rolls his eyes.

“If it was that easy, I’m sure The Blade would have done so,” Techno had said. Ending the conversation with no more information gained. With no more information discovered about Tommy. Other than…)

Tommy’s ability to analyse fights, which made a lot more sense now and… well, it turns out Tommy wasn’t completely wrong with his evaluation of Techno’s abilities. Techno hadn’t thought to look into whip-like weapons, when his weapons had to be bladed, but Wilbur had decided to investigate after everything Tommy had said and… 

The whip blades seen in video games were beyond their capabilities, at least for now, the mechanics that made them fall apart into numerous sword segments never came together as smoothly as they did in video games, but there was a sword whip already in existence. The urumi.

A blade of Indian origin. The hilt of the blade was exactly what you expected of a sword, with a cross guard, knuckle bow and decorated pommel and yet the blade… It was a long flat blade that was flexible like a whip. The average urumi’s blade length would be about the size of the wielder's arm and would have numerous blades attached (three blades being the most common, though some went as high as ten or more), and yet some urumi swords had less blades, some going as low as one, and lengthening the blade; one sword Techno had seen spanning three metres long. They were unusual, and Techno wouldn’t really know how to wield one, and yet…

His ability had accepted it as a blade. 

His ability wouldn’t accept whips with blades added, or whips made of metal, and yet it had accepted the urumi. It… was a new weapon Techno could use to surprise his enemies. A weapon that would take him out of only close combat fights, though… Techno hadn’t had the chance to show off his skills with the weapon yet. He had spent the years since discovering the urumi perfecting and mastering the weapon and now…

Now he was going to use it against the person who had unwittingly given him the idea of the weapon. 

Ironic.

Tommy’s wings push down, his feet leave the ground and-

The urumi’s blade is tempered and red in colour, like all of Techno’s weapons. Something about them becoming one with him made them bleed a crimson red and sharpen to the finest point they can. The hilt is golden, and emeralds shine bright at the end of the pommel. 

A twist of his arm, a flick of his wrist and-

The blade strikes forward, landing true. His aim perfect and-

When you think of a sword whip, you probably assume the weapon will curve around someone, you probably imagine a weapon that is more whip than sword. That is not what the urumi does. It is a blade that is flexible and thus needs a different strength and fighting style than a normal blade, but at the end of the day it still pierces and that is what Techno aims to do. That is what Techno succeeds in doing. 

The urumi shoots forward and the blade-

The blade slices straight through Tommy’s calf, through muscle and bone, halting his escape from this conversation. Forcing Tommy into accepting the inevitable fact that he will heal Wilbur (Techno can’t have this go any other way).

Only… that’s not going to be easy. It isn’t going to be easy at all. Tommy is no normal hero. He’s Theseus and-

Theseus is no idiot; despite the fact he easily plays the part. Theseus isn't weak, there's no other hero who has survived after Techno has got their hands on them (did it count as survival when he just died and reanimated each and every time?). Theseus can get out of a simple blade stabbing him, he can burn it and melt the blade away (somehow, Techno is unaware how, no one else has ever succeeded to), Theseus can then just fly away. But Techno has one advantage, just the one, if he gets Tommy close enough…

In all his years of fighting Theseus, he had noticed one thing that would give him an advantage. When Theseus died there was a small delay in Theseus reanimating. Techno had grown used to killing Theseus and using those few minutes to either escape or do whatever he had been doing before Theseus had tried to interfere with his work. If he had to continuously kill Theseus and drag his corpse over to Wilbur, he would.

(Wilbur could complain all he wants, but the both of them had killed Theseus (and Tommy!) before, what was one or ten more deaths between friends?)

So, with his potentially stupid plan made. With the plan that could ruin everything, or at the very least anger an already weakened Wilbur, he uses all of his strength and pulls the urumi back.

Theseus is not a weak hero; he pulls against Techno's tide. Screams and curses Techno out. Brings the flames to his wings (and the feather singe pretty reds, yellows and blues, as they slowly become pure fire) and tries to use them to his advantage. Techno can't allow that. Can't allow his blade to melt, or for Theseus to get enough power behind his wings to tear himself away even if it means losing a leg. He hasn't spent a month and a half chasing Tommy down to fail. He didn't just sink his blade straight through Theseus' leg to fail.

With the hand not holding the hilt, he grabs the bare blade of the urumi and-

Pulls.

Theseus falls and Tommy slams into the ground harshly.

"Bitch-" is the only word Tommy gets out as Techno cuts him off.

You never hesitate while killing someone, even if you have the smallest doubt, you never hesitate.

That's why Techno instantly digs his knee into Tommy's throat, crushing the kid beneath all of his body weight. It’s why Techno uses both hands to pin Tommy's hands and wings to the side as they uselessly try to throw him off. It's why he stares straight into bright blue eyes and watches as the life slowly drains out of the body beneath him.

He ignores the flames that tear at his skin, as Tommy tries to burn him enough that he backs away (he can't back away, backing up will result in Wilbur's death). He ignores the way familiar blue eyes water and dull (he's watched these eyes fade from existence before, but never this close and personal. Never this… Never… this). He ignores the fact he knows Wilbur and Phil will never let him live easily with this choice, that they're always going to hold this over his head (like they've done ever since this whole Tommy situation started).

He takes a moment after Tommy stops struggling, takes a moment to truly make sure Tommy has stopped breathing and his heart has stopped beating, before even thinking of moving off of the now crushed throat. There's a dip where Techno's knee sunk into flesh. There's a blade still stuck in Tommy's leg. And the kid is truly dead (again. He wonders how many times this kid has died, wonders how many times he's killed him, how many more times he'll kill him).

He steps back. Deciding how he's going to carry this corpse to the hospital (would it be easier to throw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes or should he just grab an arm and drag him across the ground, it would be more inconvenient if his body gets caught on corners but then when the kid reanimates in that bright flaming ball he always does, Techno will he hurt a whole lot less than if Tommy was thrown over his shoulder). 

He doesn't realise but stepping back to think is both his saving grace and his downfall.

Theseus had always needed time to regenerate. Tommy is no longer Theseus, Tommy and Techno have not seen each other in years. 

Flames burst to life instantly. Tommy's corpse burning so bright Techno has to look away, burning so bright Techno isn't sure they can hide it behind even the illusions set up.

Of course, he can’t think about the illusions and the Syndicate’s safety, not as he feels the excruciating heat take large gnashing bites at his flesh. Not as he feels the pain of open flames that spin outwards and… Techno had stood back, but not enough to avoid the entirety of the regeneration and-

(It reminds him of an ugly looking apartment building years ago. Wilbur couldn’t stop the tears from running down his face as he looked at the corpse of a blonde-haired kid and Techno had done his best to comfort his brother. Had tried to do his best to be sympathetic when he just wanted this over. Had tried his best to not start an argument over how happy he was at a child’s death. And then an intolerable heat and-

“Theseus?” Wilbur had questioned, and-

“Yeah! What the fuck was that about?” Tommy howled out in pain, backing away and-)

Seconds. 

It takes seconds for Tommy to begin the reanimation process and a few seconds more to shoot back into the sky, flying high above Techno. It was never like this before… Tommy would never just get back up in seconds and-

Techno looks for the urumi, it lays on the floor, melting into the rooftop. 

"A shame you didn't burn with me!" Tommy yells down at him and-

The way those flames burned, if Techno had stayed on him a second longer, he'd have suffered. He's not sure if the flames would have killed him, but he had felt the flickering edge of a fiery storm and it would have been more than painful to have been at the centre of it. It would have been-

Unbearable.

Not as unbearable as watching Tommy move to fly off with little more than a sneer and-

"Please!" Techno howls after Tommy's retreating form. "At the very least visit him! I’m telling the truth! He’s dying! Please!" 

Tommy gives no indication that he hears him as he flies higher and higher and-

Techno falls to his knees (he's spent more time on his knees this evening than he'd like, but… he needs a second. He needs to come to terms with everything that just happened and-).

They call Tommy Theseus. They compare him to Icarus. They all expect Tommy's story to be of a person who will fall and they're all wrong. Tommy is no Theseus, he's no Icarus. He's Pandora and he's opened a box that should have never been opened, has revealed the terrors and horrors to the entire world, and then trapped hope behind. Tommy is the only one who can open that box one more time, the only one who can release that trapped hope and yet… He's too scared to.

Techno finds himself looking at his melted urumi and thinks… maybe Tommy has a good reason to be scared.

Chapter Text

Niki drives with purpose. Her earpiece crackles to life with phone call after phone call, she's overworked and wants to shank someone, instead she's stuck cleaning up after the idiots in her life.

"I've managed to keep the illusion going, but the heroes have managed to lock the location down to a 30-metre radius, if you just drive in, they're going to find you. All of you," Fundy's voice affirms what Niki already knows (she's basically been told this by twenty different people within the last half an hour, as she got ready to drive her idiots out of the mess, they got themselves into). "Can't you get Ranboo to teleport the both of them somewhere safer."

"No," Niki dismisses. "He still hasn't mastered his abilities, he's even worse when he's stressed. He'd end up teleporting them into a wall if he even attempted it. Do you think you can pull an illusion over my car, at least going in, I'll be able to out gun any heroes on the way out?”

"Do you have any of my talismans on you?" Niki opens the glove compartment and sitting there so innocently are three unsuspecting wooden tokens. They're orange and white with a kitsune design carved into them and each of them have orange rope attached.

"Yes. A couple."

"Tie one to the rear-view mirror and leave the rest to me," it's hard tying the ropes together one handed, while racing down the streets as fast as possible, but Niki is the best at what she does, and this is something she succeeds at. 

"Done."

"Congratulations, you're as invisible as air. Be careful on the roads, other drivers will also fail to see you, but cameras will still be able to pick you up," Fundy informs and Niki can't help but smile.

"Perfect," her car speeds up, half driving on the pavement as she overtakes a couple of cars and clips their side-view mirrors without a care. "How long will this last?"

"Your journey there and your journey back. I better be getting paid overtime for this past week," Fundy groans and he sounds tired (everyone they work for and with sounds tired lately). 

"You and everyone else," Niki agrees. They've been pushed to their limits (and it's all because of Wilbur… Wilbur who she both loves and hates… Wilbur who she could do without seeing for the rest of her life… Wilbur who she doesn't want to see die from withering… Wilbur who honestly deserves to die...).

"Yeah… Do you have any idea what's going on right now? Did the boss manage to get the phoenix, or…?" Fundy asks, always painfully curious and Niki sighs.

"I don't know. I don't think so… Ranboo was freaking out pretty badly… Said Techno was injured," Fundy hisses and… Niki understands, she gets it. Techno doesn't just get injured. If he does, it's when he's fighting against the most vicious and deadly heroes… Theseus was strong, but... he had never stood a chance against Techno before. Techno had never suffered more than a few burns in a fight against Theseus …

What happened?

"I bet Ranboo's freaking out," Fundy says sympathetically and Niki can't stop the fond smile that splits across her delicately painted lips.

"When is Ranboo not freaking out?" She says, she initially thought the kid was going to be a problem in their group with how often he over analyses everything and was constantly doubting himself, thought she was just going to have to tolerate his presence for Techno's benefit, but he was a quick learner and genuinely sweet (maybe too sweet to be surrounded by villains, but that was apparently the type of person that attracted the Syndicate's attention… it always was… it's how they met her, it how they met him, it was almost as though they were seeking a light to fill up the darkness in their hearts. It never worked, all they managed was to dirty and corrupt those they claim to love and then drag them down to their level. There was a time she might have been horrified, but all she felt was acceptance. She had been given the option to leave and she chose to dive in so deep she would drown, she allowed for their darkness to consume her until she was as unforgivable as them. She wonders if he'll be able to continue slipping through their grasp). 

"He's going to have a heart attack before he turns 30," Fundy says, and although Niki knows the illusionist is equally as fond of Ranboo as she is, there's a harshness to his words. "Of course, that's if the bosses allow him to live that-"

"Fundy," Niki snaps, warning. No one associated with the Syndicate talks about him unless their leaders bring him up or it's work related (and if it is work related, they're expected to use the name he had hidden from the leaders of the Syndicate until they had discovered it themselves). 

"It's bullshit, Niki. We can talk about Theseus, but not Tommy? They're the same per-" 

"I know, Fundy," Niki interrupts once more, he always makes her feel guilty, she remembers the brightest pair of blue eyes lighting up from making Wilbur laugh and all she felt was pity. This poor kid had no idea who he was getting involved with (she almost remembers the glee and horror when she found out months after the kid had supposedly died, that he was the hero Theseus, and that Wilbur had no idea who he was getting involved with. It felt like karma that the villain more than deserved).

"Can't we do something?" The unspoken this isn't fair, is pointedly ignored by Niki. They're villains, nothing they do is meant to be fair.

"What like what you tried doing when you found out the truth about Theseus? That didn't work out too well for you then, did it?" 

The silence is damning, and Niki has to take a few calming breaths (and purposefully drives through a red light, barely avoiding collision). She can almost imagine Fundy's amber eyes filling with frustrated tears (but it's been so long since they've seen each other in person, would she even recognize Fundy nowadays?).

"I'm sorry," she sighs. "It wasn't fair of me to bring that up, but you have to understand why this isn't a smart topic to bring up. Especially now. Especially with what I'm driving straight into."

"But when will it be smart to bring it up?" And Fundy sounds so much younger than he actually is, sounds like he wants to run away from it all.

"You're smart Fundy, you know the answer," never. Unless their gracious leaders decide to bring it up, unless their gracious leaders are willing to have the truth shoved in their face.

"It's not fair to Theseus," Fundy sighs and Niki snorts.

"It's not fair to any of us," not even their gracious leaders, but… she has long passed the point of caring. She'll do what she must to survive on her own terms, to choose her own path forward. She'll kill, maim and torture if she must. She'll throw some innocent kid to the wolves and watch as he's mauled to death if she has to. She has the luxury of deciding how she wants to live, and she chose this.

"Do you need anything else?" Fundy eventually asks. Exhausted with the conversation (or maybe exhausted with the way Niki won't engage with him how he wants).

"Keep an eye on the heroes and the police. Let me know if they clock on to where we are," Niki commands.

"Alright," Fundy agrees easily. "I'm going to focus on that… make sure you guys aren't followed home… Good luck."

"Good-" The line dies. "Luck, too."

Niki sighs. She has more calls she needs to make; she should probably check in with Ranboo again and yet…

She doesn't have the heart to pull through another conversation. They've all been as bad as the call with Fundy. No one has been happy over the last month and a half (maybe… maybe longer, but the cracks are showing without Wilbur around and active. Wilbur is an essential cog if you want a group like the Syndicate to keep running, his ability keeps them all together and going. Without him the cracks show, without him everyone falls apart). 

She drives aggressively towards her destination, some may say more aggressive than necessary, but she’d argue she can’t passively drive when no one else can see her (it’s true, but it’s also an excuse, she just wants to take the edge off of her anger somewhere. This is the perfect excuse to do so). She tears down the streets in silence (well other than the sounds of destruction as she breaks whatever’s in her path as she tries to swerve around vehicles that can’t see her). 

Her thoughts are her only company… for the first time in weeks… And even then… She doesn’t know where to begin… even in the safety of her own mind.

This whole situation is a mess. He was meant to die, he wasn’t meant to be a hero, he wasn’t meant to survive, he wasn’t meant to come back into their lives, just because he was the only one that could help Wilbur. They shouldn’t be stretching all of their resources like this. It wasn’t going to lead to anything productive. One more push and they’ll fall apart, tumble to the ground.

(A heavily injured Techno is a Techno that can be defeated, a Techno that doesn’t scare everyone into compliance. If Techno’s gone and hurt himself, like Phil, in their desperate bid to save Wilbur… Niki doesn’t know what she’ll do, but she knows they’d have made them hopelessly vulnerable…)

She fumes as she pulls up to the building Techno and Ranboo have basically been living in for the past week (and that’s another annoying thing about this whole situation, Ranboo was meant to work for her, Techno shouldn’t be calling in favours like this, Ranboo wasn’t meant to be anything to him and here they are…).

The door to her car slammed harder than necessary and she’s sure everyone has heard it, that her anger will disrupt the illusion (because if a phoenix’s flames couldn’t pierce the illusion, Niki’s anger surely could).

She stomps up the stairs, undisturbed. Everyone who lived in this building and the buildings around had been paid off to go and temporarily live in a hotel, all fully paid for, the flimsy excuse given was that the surrounding streets were going to be used for some movie (it had been hard to make it believable without Wilbur and his abilities beside them), and was going to fall apart by the end of the day when the heroes looked into it (and then they’d have another loose end to tie up to protect themselves). 

Ranboo meets her nervously on the steps.

“Where is the moron?” She asks, with a sigh. Ranboo’s hands twitch and his eyes shift and he’s… he’s so bad at hiding his emotions (and he’s so endlessly sweet, he really dodged a bullet with Wilbur refusing to let Techno take him in, of course, he’s still down here drowning in the sewers with the rest of the rats).

“He’s uh… on the roof still… he… told me to leave when I tried to give him the first aid kit, he hasn’t left since Theseus got away,” Ranboo informs, and Niki pats his shoulder as she passes.

“Good work, Ranboo, I’ve got it covered from here. Pack up what you need and head down to the car. We’ll be leaving in less than two minutes,” Niki smiles and leaves a spluttering Ranboo behind (he says something about how Techno wasn’t going to leave in that amount of time, and she almost laughs. Techno might be a fearsome individual, but she knew how to get people moving).

Techno is where Ranboo said. Pacing the rooftop, with an unopened first aid kit kicked to the side. The rooftop is heavily damaged, blackened with scorch marks and melted objects that Niki can’t recognise with a simple glance. There’s also blood. Everywhere. She can see where the source of some of it is coming from, one of Techno’s clenched fists have blood dripping from it and it leaves trails all over the ground from his pacing (it’s not the only source though, there’s too much to have come from one hand wound). Techno’s flesh is also burnt, some of the burns look pretty bad and… 

All of the Syndicate's bosses were going to be hospitalised.

Perfect.

“We need to leave,” she says, not bothering to hide her irritation. Especially when she sees Techno acknowledge her with a quick side eye, before he continues pacing. “We need to leave.”

“I can’t,” he grunts back, clearly agitated. 

"Yes, you can, and you better do it if you don't want to be caught up in an explosion," Niki says, hand on her waist and not backing down. She doesn't back down even as Techno freezes and glares at her. She doesn't have to fear for her life, she hasn't in a long time.

"We're not blowing this place up," Techno says, firmly. 

Niki rolls her eyes.

"Say that to the C4 we're standing on," she'd be nonchalant and flick her hair or look at her gorgeously painted nails, but she knows her usual joking manner won't work with Techno right now. Techno isn't thinking straight, so she has to aim her words pointedly at him. She has to force him to see the truth of the matter. Has to shove logic down his throat and force his mouth shut.

"Why would we do that?" He huffs, going back to his pacing (she watches as more and more blood falls down to the ground. She wonders, not for the first time, how Techno ever thought this meeting would pan out).

"Syndicate protocol. Destroy all signs of evidence of a battle ever taking place. Especially missions where Syndicate members had to stay within the premises," Niki reiterates, as though Techno didn't know these rules. As though Techno himself didn't write out the Syndicate handbook that gets handed out to every newbie that joins them.

"That only applies when a mission is complete, does this look like a completed mission?" Techno gestures to the clear signs of struggle (more blood splatters to the ground from the abrupt movement).

"No," Niki admits, easily. "It looks like a botched mission and botched missions require immediate destruction of evidence, whether a Syndicate member is still within the building or not. This building will be blown to smithereens in ten minutes, whether you're still lurking here or not."

"It isn't a botched mission," Techno argues, eyes narrowed.

"Your target escaped, the heroes are narrowing your positioning down, you've left your blood all over the roof; what isn't botched about this mission?" Niki snorts, she has no patience for the stupidity of the Syndicate leaders (she did once, a long time ago, she's not that person. Not anymore).

"It's mostly Theseus' blood, actually-"

"If that's your only excuse for this building not going bye-bye, you may want to retire from the Syndicate. We only accept those that follow the rules given to us from the Syndicate handbook, no matter how cruel some of those rules are," Niki says and Techno laughs.

"Now that is just not true. I know you've been helping-"

"Techno," Niki cuts in, she's not here to play games and Techno should know better to try and play them with her. Should.

Techno sighs.

"This is the best place to plan a meet up with Theseus. No one knows about it," Techno explains and there may have been some truth to his words, but he's also hiding something (it's not a something Niki is willing to dig into).

"Knew. It was something no one knew about until you got into a fight with Theseus. Now everyone is aware. We have to leave," Techno still hesitates. Doesn't get up and leave without any remorse like he would have before Wilbur started dying. "Do you have any other excuses to not blow everything up?"

"Fundy won't be happy to lose some of his talismans," Techno points out and even Techno knows how weak an argument that is.

"That's never stopped you before. If you remember, you're the one that tells him he can just create more," Niki laughs.

Techno doesn't react. Continues pacing and-

Although Techno is a prettier man than you'd expect from such a brutal villain, long cherry blossom pink hair and ruby red eyes that compliment his facial features perfectly, although he doesn't look or act like the beast his boar mask is based off of, in this one moment Techno appears more animal than human. It's like he's been trapped on the roof, caged with nowhere to go. It's like in the day since she last spoke to Techno, he had lost all his intelligence and had even forgotten how doors worked. Niki almost thinks they may need to burn one of their leaders themselves, to have him be blown to bits to protect themselves.

"Let's go," she coaxes and…

Techno follows. 

He doesn't grab the first aid box, doesn't gather any of the personal belongings he surely brought with him when he first took over the building, just follows behind Niki with a reluctant acceptance. He knows staying here will lead to nothing good. So, he follows behind her, but only because it's logical. She's sure if he could, he'd have stayed on that rooftop forever. Fighting hero after hero as they discovered his location. Hoping for the slimmest chance Theseus would come back.

(He'd be a fool to return. He has the ability to fly away from the Syndicate, to reach places others only dare to hope they can reach, he should make use of those wings. Fly away forever.)

When they reach the ground floor, Ranboo is waiting for them in the car. He's sat in the back, long limbs bundled up awkwardly because of the luggage he's dragged down and the fact the car wasn't really designed for larger passengers. The front passenger seat can barely keep Techno in it, his large frame almost spilling over the seats.

Niki slams her door shut behind her and demands everyone wear their seatbelts as she starts the car up.

"What illusion is on the car?" Techno asks (it's of course the first thing he notices when he enters. Techno has a habit of sweeping an entire area for bugs or bombs before he does anything).

"We're invisible to everyone," Niki explains and she catches the incredulous stare Techno sends her way through the mirror (she also makes note of Ranboo's horrified stare and decides she's going to tease the kid a bunch later over how scared he is of her driving).

"That is the stupidest illusion Fundy has ever put up," Techno says, and he sounds as irritated as he is confused. "How exactly are we meant to avoid other cars if they can't see us? Couldn't he have just made the car look different? Hidden it from only the heroes?"

She could remind Techno that that isn't exactly how Fundy's powers work. Could mention how she had navigated the invisible car situation earlier. Instead, she narrows her eyes and tears off down the street, no fear or concern for if she hits a person or damages property. She's tired of caring.

"If we're talking about stupid, why don't we start with you?" She doesn't mean to snap (she does, she means it with her whole heart. She is done. Done).

"Oh?" Techno doesn't sound bothered, or like he's concerned for her anger.

(She'll make him concerned.)

"You went on this mission on your own," Niki starts and-

"I wasn't on my own. Ranboo was there," Techno argues like he has an answer to everything.

(He thinks he does. He’s wrong.)

"Ranboo could hardly help. He wasn't much help when Theseus came along, was he? No offence Ranboo," she looks at the kid awkwardly sitting in her backseat. He shifts uneasily.

"None taken," Ranboo assures, but his words are drowned out by Techno scoffing. 

"What was Ranboo meant to do against Theseus? Theseus is stronger than he is," Techno reasons.

"Which brings us back to my original point. You go on a solo mission against a hero known for taking some of the largest villains down. Only Schlatt and the Syndicate have even managed to escape him while he was active and-!" 

"And you've pointed out the flaw to your own logic. The Syndicate have been able to avoid him plenty of times-"

"When we're working as a cohesive whole, Techno! Right now, you're our only leader, you don't have Phil or Wilbur as backup, and you still challenged him. Why do you think you can fight someone with that kind of power on your own? Was it because he was a hero who swore not to harm anyone? Well, look at your wounds right now, look at the damage he caused the hero agency; he will hurt, maybe even maim and kill you if he has to, to escape. Is it because he's young? He's nineteen! Practically an adult-"

"He's twenty, actually," Techno interrupts and Niki wants to scream.

"Stop arguing over the little details and focus on the bigger picture here. You went against a dangerous foe without any backup. No snipers on the rooftops, no getaway car for when things turned out bad, which is why Fundy, and I are having to save you. You need to stop making these bad decisions!" Niki is stressed. She. Is. So. Stressed.

"I'm not an idiot, Niki," Niki scoffs. "I'm being serious. Things like tranquilisers don't work on Theseus, so the best bet was conversation. Conversation that wouldn't have taken place if the surrounding buildings were filled with snipers. You think you can hide something like that from someone who's gonna approach from the sky?" 

"How did that conversation go?" Niki asks pointedly (Techno is bleeding over her car and she's going to have to get it cleaned).

"Pretty well," Techno says and Niki wants to tear her hair out. Wants to stop avoiding the traffic that can't see them and let them end her’s and Techno’s lives (if it wasn't for Ranboo, she might have truly considered the thought, but the kid doesn't deserve to have his life ended in a car with a bunch of villains).

"Well, the next time your conversation turns out this well and you're completely out of commission, know that I'm pulling the plug on Wilbur's life support," Niki tells him.

"What the fuck?" Techno sounds like he can't decide between anger and disbelief. "You can't be serious."

But he knows she is, and he knows she's the only one with enough authority to potentially pull such an act.

"He's suffering as he is and when his obsessive family is out of commission, I will put him out of his misery, consequences be damned. If you don't want to lose your brother and your best worker, you best take a serious look into the Syndicate, Theseus and your family. If you keep going like this, you're going to lose all three," and it's true. The Syndicate are a rope that's being held together by one loose thread, if no one tries to fix it soon it's going to snap and take out the lives of many. The family situation of the Syndicate leaders was… something Niki didn't want to poke at even with a ten-foot pole (maybe if she tied a knife to the end and stabbed it-). The Theseus situation was even more taboo.

"I thought you'd understand Niki, you were my friend. You were Wilbur's," Techno says and he has no right sounding so betrayed.

"Were. We were friends, it's been a long time since then. We're work colleagues now, so pull your head out of your arse and start using that brain I know you have," Niki's hand tightens on the steering wheel. They're still fifteen minutes from the hospital and she can't stand having to be in the same car as Techno after that conversation. "Stop being an idiot."

They're silent. Techno hopefully taking in her words, hopefully listening to them properly and not thinking of them as just a threat (he's probably taking it as threat, the moron).

"Uh… have we stopped arguing now?" Ranboo asks from the back of the car and Niki feels her shoulders sagging, the tension leaving her.

"Yes. Let's get back to business," Niki calls Fundy up, informing him that they need a building blown up. Fundy complains like Techno had predicted but gets to work quickly (the heroes are so much closer than they were when Niki had driven out, if she was even a few minutes later or Techno was even slightly more stubborn, Ranboo and him may have been in trouble).

She doesn't feel any sympathy for the people losing their homes as the explosions take out numerous apartments. She doesn't feel any sympathy as she can see Techno tensing like he's just lost something invaluable. She doesn't have any sympathy for anyone. All she can remember is a small warm bakery that was lost to similar explosions, for similar reasons. All she can remember is a foolish young girl who opened up her home to a friend in need and she was repaid with blood and destruction. The foolish do not deserve her sympathy.

(So, stay flying high Tommy, she'll cheer for you as long as you don't return to the ground. She'll cheer for you as long as you don't stupidly stumble into a golden cage.)

----

Tommy flies high above and… he's confused. Painfully confused.

When he had decided to at least give The Blade enough time of day to say a few words to him, he had… well he had expected to see The Blade, not Techno. Well… maybe, technically, he got neither of them. The man on the rooftop with the long pink hair, steely red eyes and desperate need for his brother’s safety was Techno. The crown wearing, cape wearing, quick to turn violent man on the rooftop was The Blade. He had expected one or the other (he had expected The Blade, the villain who wore a boar mask that covered all of his facial features, expected to be greeted with a sword to his throat, he hadn’t expected grim but determined eyes). He hadn’t expected some weird accumulation of the two personas (but then, they were the same person at the end of the day, just like how Tommy was both Tommy and Theseus. He doesn’t know what to expect from a fusion of The Blade and Techno. Doesn’t know how to portray a fusion of Tommy and Theseus).

(Only he does. He has had a few trusted friends who knew him as both. He knew how to share both sides of himself to those in the know. But those people had hurt him. But Tommy didn’t willingly reveal his double life to Techno. But Tommy is no longer Theseus, and he barely feels like Tommy.)

The confusion didn’t end when he first joined Techno on the roof. There was the begging… that was a thing that happened and… at first, it had made sense. Techno was begging for his help, because Tommy was the only one who could help. It was painfully obvious he needed Tommy’s help when he obeyed every one of Tommy’s whims without complaint. Hell! Tommy had even gotten Techno to say they were brothers (and Tommy wasn’t going to look too deeply into that old fantasy). So, why was someone so desperate for his help, someone who had finally got Tommy into a position where he could request said help, lying. 

As soon as Tommy heard about the withering, he knew he needed to get off the rooftop that very second. Withering was deadly. It was called Death’s touch by many, and Tommy had been nicknamed The Angel of Rebirth for as long as he could remember. He had spent so many years healing people from the deadly poison and… no one survives long. A few stubborn fools, or a few people lucky (or maybe unlucky) enough to get hit somewhere non vital, could survive longer than the few hours most people had, but…

No one could survive for a month. No one. 

Tommy would not fool for the Syndicate’s tricks. He would not walk openly into a trap. Maybe in the past he would. Maybe when he was naive Theseus, he’d have argued walking straight into a trap was worth it, if it meant they even had a chance at saving someone. Maybe he would have a few years ago… but he wasn’t Theseus. He wasn’t a hero. Not anymore. 

(Never again.)

He couldn't just walk into a trap. Couldn't nonchalantly follow The Blade- Techno. He wouldn't risk his life (his life was never at risk, he couldn't die)... wouldn't risk his way of living (he was hardly living)... wouldn't risk his morals (ignoring Techno was actively going against said morals)... he just… he just wouldn't, not for his murderers. 

Which is how he finds himself flying high above the world. Confused.

See, Tommy is unexpectantly great at undercover missions. The fact he was usually a loudmouthed blinding ball of fire, meant when others sought him out, they looked for flames or listened out for a mouthy teen; they stupidly assumed he couldn't keep his mouth shut or couldn’t smother the flames from his wings. He messed with people's perceptions, which is what he did as soon as he left the rooftop.

He made his escape bright, dazzling, something that would gain everyone's attention and when everyone's gaze was directed in the way he had flown off to, he had killed the flames. Had flown back to observe. Watched as Techno fell to his knees. Watched as Ranboo had come out to talk (he… he wasn't even going to start thinking about Ranboo… that was a thought process for when he was less bird and more human… a shame he had accidentally over fried his food through the resurrection process… that would have helped him feel more himself). Watched as Techno started pacing. Watched as Techno rejected first aid and ignored Ranboo. Watched as Ranboo retreated. Watched as Techno didn't stop pacing, even as he bled and bled and bled. Watched as a car parked dreadfully in front of the building. Watched as Niki exited the car (of fucking course Niki was a member of the Syndicate! She was scary enough to be... Maybe Tommy should start assuming everyone Wilbur introduced him to was a Syndicate member. He doesn't want to do that, though… he had friends…). Watched as Ranboo entered the car Niki had driven. Watched as Niki (tiny, tiny Niki) strong-armed Techno into the car. Watched as they sped away.

He continued watching as he followed safely above and…

He was confused.

So, very confused.

Techno was acting like he was grieving, so maybe someone was dying, but… why lie about the cause of death? Did he think Tommy was more likely to help if it was withering? Had The Blade been fooled into thinking his brother was dying via withering? Has a new ailment similar to withering came into being since Tommy was gone? And if somehow this was withering, what the hell were the Syndicate doing in the Nether?! It couldn't have been Killer Queen; they didn't have beef with the Syndicate!

(It's been years… the power dynamics could have drastically shifted by now… the last thing Tommy knew was the Syndicate were taking advantage of the power vacuum from Las Nevadas falling… which, totally unfair. Tommy and Tubbo had spent so long taking Las Nevadas down and the Syndicate just reaped the rewards… He should have made Techno beg more.)

Still… Although he can't get a read on Techno's goals here, he follows. He's trained to follow- no. No. He chooses to follow, because… he needs to know what exactly the Syndicate were hoping to drag Tommy into. He wants to see if what they have going on is worth Tommy waking up from his phoenix claimed mind. He doesn't know what he's dub worthy yet and… that was another thing that confused him. If he didn't want to be here. If he didn't care. Why was he following? Why not let the phoenix flames consume him whole? Fly above everyone for eternity?

(Because the curiosity would kill him. He'd search for answers for the rest of his life and if he waits too long the Syndicate would long since have ceased to exist. He needs to search for answers himself while he still can.)

On the topic of confusing… The Syndicate drives like madmen. He watches as cars almost crash into them and they swerve around and between cars like they have places to be. They've almost hit numerous people in their mad dash away from the building of Tommy's first death, and the people don't even react to the near-death experience. It's honestly kind of crazy to watch and Tommy has had to stop his wings from flaring out and swooping down to help numerous times since he's been observing them. Has to constantly remind himself to hide, hide, hide.

The journey eventually pays off. 

The Syndicate arrives at…

A hospital.

A hospital?

A hospital…

It… it could be for Techno. He looked rather crisp after Tommy's resurrection. Techno probably- no definitely needed healing. Just…

A hospital?

Tommy had always expected some secret lair where they had some poor healer chained up to heal any wounded people that came along. He ignored the fact that didn't match up with his perception of Wilbur, Phil and Techno (he hadn't really had time to think of them as a whole person with the new information provided, the mess with the hero agency followed by mindless flying… it wasn't a great combination for individual and complex thoughts).

He's just… he's just gonna silently fly down and sneak into the hospital. He's gonna check that they're just getting Techno medical care and that… this isn't anything else (there's no way Wilbur is dying in there. That idiot is too stubborn to die. And what would Tommy even do if he is the one dying? Did he deserve healing after the press of a blade and the end of his life?). He's a master at stealth missions. He's got this.

Only…

He hadn't really paid attention to it earlier but… he's still in his hero costume. Even after all these years… The yellow, red and white bodysuit is basic as fuck, but with Tommy's abilities, any cool extra things would burn in seconds and… well, it was hard enough getting an outfit that didn't burn with him. This was the only thing the hero agency had been able to create that would withstand the flames and that's because they used Tommy's feathers and hair to create the material. He needed to keep the hero suit on, in case he needs to resurrect again (no one wants to see a naked hero after he he’s just died) but walking in like this is stupid. He doesn't even have shoes!

He feels a little bad, but… he flies carefully around the hospital building, peering in through windows, until… bingo!

Clothes! 

With no witnesses!

He doesn't know if they belong to a patient, a nurse or a doctor, but he slides the window open and slips into the room silently. The shirt and trousers are too tight, there's no sign of shoes in the room, but the pink hoodie is massive on his frame. He takes it and continues the process of hunting clothes until he's in a massive pink hoodie that keeps sliding off his shoulder, jeans that don't even cover his ankles and definitely designed for a woman with the lack of breathing room, hiking boots that are 2 sizes too big and a beanie with cat ears. He looks ridiculous and he hates the cat ears with a passion, but at least he isn't instantly recognisable now. He shoves a plaster over his nose and ear as a final touch, he'll just act the role of a patient. It's not like anyone's expecting Theseus, the hero that heals to need the hospital. 

(It's not like anyone expects Theseus to still look seventeen… only Techno knows that and… well he'd rather not run into that idiot again.)

So, begins his scouting mission. His mission to prove he was right about the whole withering thing. That he was correct with his suspicions concerning Techno and the Syndicate.

Let it be known that hospitals were not easy places to scout. Sure, you could walk around mostly freely, public space that it is, but it's hard to find anything with the hospital being so large. There were maps and thousands of signs for fuck's sake! Hospitals were unnecessarily maze-like (how were you going to save lives when the corridors were more labyrinth than an actual labyrinth?). 

Tommy does know this hospital a little, though. When he was still a hero in this area, he'd secretly visit on his days off to help heal patients and play with the sick kids. He'd visit on his workdays when he needed to heal those that got injured through hero and villain battles ('thanks,' Sapnap would laugh, 'I'd be broke from lawsuits if it wasn't for your ability!'). He's… rather intimately familiar with the hospital wing that deals with burns.

A lot of heroes with fire abilities, innit?

And now he's dealing with a villain with burns…

He heads there first. Casually looks around like he owns the place and-

Nothing.

No one.

Well, no one is suspicious. He sees injured civilians and aches to help them, but…

He's not Theseus anymore... He can't let anyone know Theseus is here…

It always was the worst part of undercover missions.

It was always the thing that made him break cover and get in trouble (it happened enough times that he more often than not was Tubbo's backup, his eyes in the sky, two halves of a whole…).

(Thinking about Tubbo hurt. He… he shouldn't do that anymore.)

He moves on.

Explores the rest of the hospital.

He's explored for an hour and a half and is almost tempted to just ask the receptionists if they have a patient called Wilbur or Techno, when he comes across something… not right. It could be nothing, but…

There's a section that is almost pitch black and sectioned off and yet… staff members still walk down there. Almost as though nothing is wrong. It could be nothing, just an area that is in need to an electrician, but…

Well, it's something after a whole lot of nothing.

He goes down the ominous looking path when no one else is around and-

It looks perfectly normal and clean and like nothing is wrong and-

Suspicious. Suspicious. Suspicious…

He ducks away when doctors come by (because although hiding makes him look suspicious, he's sure he's right about this area. That something is happening here). He eavesdrops on conversations and hears talks about bribes and payments. He knows something is going on, he's heard snippets of something, it doesn't prepare him for stepping into a room after twenty minutes and coming face to face with fucking Philza Minecraft.

Or should he call him The Angel of Death? Philza Minecraft doesn't have wings. And the man on the bed in front of him has large black wings that are stiff looking as they're spread out on stretchers and they're deadly sharpness had slit many throats over the years (never Tommy's though… should he be glad one member of the Syndicate hadn't tried killing him?). He's thankfully out cold (it's not that late, but Phil is an old man, and old men do need their beauty sleep… or well… just sleep). 

Tommy has no idea why Phil is here (or well… he's assuming it's something to with his wings with how they're being treated, but he doesn't exactly know how they got like that… or why The Angel of Death would let his wings get to that level of damage), but… this is a step in the right direction. And… maybe Techno had lied. Maybe he wanted Tommy to heal Phil, but a little wing pain wouldn't be enough to get Tommy to agree.

(It wouldn't be enough for Techno to beg for his help… maybe… Techno was always protective to a fault. The man was suspicious of children for fuck's sake! An idiot, that supposed smart man was! Like a toddler would ever pose a threat!)

Well… maybe this is the problem, maybe it's not. All he knows is…

He's going to snoop.

He goes through Philza Minecraft, The Angel of Death's belongings and side tables and finds… an emerald earring, a wallet (of which Tommy pinches a fifty with zero remorse) and manga… tons and tons of manga. 

(He thought Wilbur was joking when he called Phil a weeaboo boomer. Truly, The Angel of Death’s greatest crimes.)

There's nothing interesting. Other than a tablet Tommy can't enter (look, Tommy is great at a lot of things, but hacking isn't one of them… The most he can do is gently guide Phil's thumb to the tablet and hope its fingerprint recognized… which it isn't)… would Phil store all his evil plans on a tablet anyway… maybe… he's old though… there's probably a notepad somewhere.

(A notepad that's like: today the Syndicate are going to harass Tommy, because we have nothing better to do.)

He steps back. Looks around for a notepad that screams I'm evil and filled with secrets, when…

Movement.

Someone else is in the room.

He's not alone with an unconscious person.

(Of course, he isn't. The Syndicate aren't idiots, they wouldn't leave their members without defence.)

A groan and-

Tommy hides around the curtains that surround Phil's bed. Uses them to sneak a glance at who's in the room with him.

(Who he's going to have to fight to get out.)

And…

In another hospital bed sits Wilbur. His fists are weakly grabbing his bedsheets as he whines. His eyes are shut tight. And he's in pain.

A small part of Tommy wants to make some commentary or quip about the state of the Syndicate if all of their members are out cold and apparently don't have people guarding them. But-

Tommy is walking forward without thinking, pushing the curtains aside without a care.

"Wilbur?" He gasps, because-

There. In pain. Not reacting to his voice at all is-

Wilbur.

His once maybe-friend.

His once maybe-brother.

His definite murderer.

Wilbur.

And he's… he's…

His skin is so black. Like a stick that has burnt for hours and is now only cinders that would crumble under a single touch (if Tommy were to reach out and touch him; would he collapse in on himself? Would a touch be all that was needed to take down the stupidly confident Wilbur Soot? Is the 'Soot' nickname more than just a nickname here?).

Techno said he had been like this for over a month. How was he alive? How could he remain breathing (and he is breathing. If Tommy wasn't so scared that his touch would be the final blow against Wilbur's life, he'd check for a pulse. As it is, he watches the slow and stuttered rise of his chest).

Wilbur coughs and it shakes his entire frame.

(Was Wilbur ever this small before? Was he ever considered tiny? Tommy remembered someone he had to look up to. Someone that was larger than life.)

"Wilbur?" It's nothing more than a whisper and…

Wilbur doesn't respond and Tommy wants to shake him until he gets a response.

(No, he doesn't, he is a professional healer. He knows better than to move a patient like that.)

(No, he doesn't, because that's his murderer. Wilbur hurt him more than anyone ever has before, and he deserves this.)

Only… does he?

Does Wilbur deserve this?

To be forced to endure this torture (and make no mistake this was torture). Had someone (a new villain? Someone with a vendetta against the Syndicate?) created a formula that extended the effects of withering? To drag the most painful death known to man out for this long? It was… it was inhumane. No one deserved that.

But does Wilbur deserve his healing? A swift death would be mercy and Tommy won't have one of his murderers after him anymore (only the other two who would never forgive him for ending Wilbur's life).

He hesitates as he steps closer to Wilbur. As he stands beside the poor suffering soul.

Wilbur's face that was once pulled into a cheeky grin as he led Tommy around, causing havoc amongst their friends and family, is in a grimace. Tommy's fingers twitch. He wants to un-crease that brow. He wants to ease that pain.

(He's terrified his touch will end it all. He's terrified he will be the one who hurts Wilbur.)

He can't kill Wilbur. It doesn't matter that he's a villain. Doesn't matter that he hurt Tommy. Tommy… Tommy can't kill a person. Not even in mercy. He's a phoenix. He heals. He always has, since he was a small child running around with his best friend. He isn't designed to hurt someone.

Is he designed for ignoring the suffering?

He'd like to say no. But he's been flying for so long he doesn't know what day it is. He's walked through an entire hospital filled with people he could save and had to ignore them. He learnt long ago as a hero that you can't save everyone, even if you have impressive powers like he does. All it takes is one mistake and a life could be lost and-

Some would argue ignoring Wilbur would be the kind thing. Not for Wilbur. Not for the Syndicate. But for everyone else? For those that he hurt? He would be doing them a favour, but…

Tommy's never been fond of the trolley problem. Can you guarantee one life will save hundreds of others? What if the loss of Wilbur makes the Syndicate go on a mass murdering spree? What if a massive war against whoever did this starts? There's never a guarantee that things would go your way, no matter what you do.

(It's why a naive child fell to the blade of his maybe-brother.)

His… his thoughts are spiralling. He… he needs to think. To come to a decision.

Should he heal Wilbur?

Would he even be able to?

Did he want to?

He doesn't know… he doesn't know.

(He wishes he had Tubbo, Wilbur, Dream, someone to talk to. To debate his decision with. To share the guilt with if something goes wrong. But he's lost his phone with hundreds of contacts and he’s not sure any of them would answer his call anymore. He’s alone. Painfully alone. And maybe that wouldn’t usually be a problem, he’s been alone for a while now, but this is different. This is a decision that could affect everyone. Or… at least one person outside of himself. His last decision, his decision to be alone, only affected him. He doesn’t know if he has the guts to make decisions for others anymore…)

He leans closer to Wilbur. Close enough that he feels every weak breath against his skin. Each breath is warmer than his flaming wings. He leans closer.

“Wilby,” he tries once more. A whisper that would never be heard (only Wilbur somehow always knew when Tommy accidentally called him Wilby instead of Wilbur). 

Wilby doesn’t respond. He’s dead silent.

(And someone that loves their voice that much shouldn’t be this quiet. Someone who even spoke in their sleep shouldn’t be this dead quiet.)

(A sense of dread crawls up his spine and he feels… panicked. He... he forgot what that feeling felt like.)

“Wilby,” he calls again.

No answer.

“Wilbur,” more firm, but still quiet. Still respectful. 

Wilbur coughs again, but he doesn’t acknowledge the presence looming above him, his eyes don’t even flutter. And-

Tommy doesn’t even know why he wants a response. Does he want Wilbur to tell him this was all a joke (how would that make this any better? What would that even mean for all of them?). Does he want Wilbur’s opinion on what to do (does he want one of the worst villains alive to throw their opinion into if he survives or not?)? Does he want to talk to Wilbur?

He… he doesn’t know. 

He’s confused. 

He’s confused.

Confused.

His tears leave him before he even knows his eyes are welling up. 

He catches a glint of gold and backs away like Wilbur has burnt him. His hands rising to catch the little teardrops, but-

It’s too late.

Three little beads of gold fall down and touch blackened flesh and-

The skin starts healing. Shedding the black poison that is withering, and replacing it with a colour that is Wilbur and-

It’s not enough to heal. Not fully. But it’s enough for Tommy to feel offended. He hadn’t decided if Wilbur deserved his healing. Hadn’t actively decided if Wilbur should live and-

His body had betrayed him.

Tommy was better than his bodily functions. He could control his tears and who got healed from them and-

He steps back. Step after step and-

He can’t be here. 

Can’t be around a dying Wilbur, an injured Phil and an overprotective Techno. He can’t. Not unless he decides to be here. His murderers don’t deserve his sympathies. They don’t deserve the lingering feelings of (please-love-me-please-include-me-please-say-we’re-family). They don’t deserve anything.

Tommy runs out of the hospital without a care for who sees him. He takes to the skies without a single concern. He pushes his wings to take him away from the city where there are buildings being destroyed and set aflame, the city where hundreds of people could use his healing; the city where Wilbur was dying from a prolonged withering effect. He ignores it all, begging for some clarity. For some solution his mostly bird-brained mind can come up with. 

The entire time he flies away (escapes from that dreadful city once more) not one tear falls away from him. Each golden tear that warms his cheeks and chin as they fall, doesn’t touch the ground or another person. Every single one lands perfectly in Tommy’s cupped hands. And to the uninitiated, maybe Tommy would look like some macabre statue of an angel. 

Crying golden tears into cupped hands. Liquid life that has saved more people than Tommy could count. Liquid life that could continue to save people, if only Tommy could find the strength to step back into the limelight. If only Tommy knew what he wanted to do. 

He knew he was going to hate coming back to the ground. Knew it was only going to cause endless problems. He still had half a mind to dump his tears in a jar, hand it to some homeless man and take off back to the skies. But…

(He can’t forget Wilbur’s pained face. He can’t forget the suffering he was going through. It’s just there every time he closes his eyes. Haunting him. He-)

He can’t just fly into the sky. Can’t continue being nothing. He needs to decide. He just…

He just doesn’t know how to anymore…

(He can’t remember if he ever did…)

Chapter Text

Wilbur has grown somewhat… complacent with the darkness. His eyes had started failing him about midweek of Techno leaving to drag Tommy back. It was… less worrying than he initially thought it was going to be, but that might have something to do with the fact he already lost control of his hands, vocal cords and just… general movement. Sure, he could still grab things and sure he could still croak out a few words, but it wasn’t the same. 

Phil, through his few moments of wakefulness (his dad was exhausted, and Wilbur would feel guilty about pressuring his family to work so hard to bring Tommy back, but he can’t really feel guilty about Tommy returning. He wants it more than anything) had insisted they not tell Techno about his deteriorating health. Said there wasn’t anything more Techno could do other than wait for Tommy to come to him, but… well…

Techno could have listened to Wilbur in the first place (back when they first met Tommy. Back when the hunt for Tommy first began. Back when Wilbur knew what he was doing, and Techno clearly did not).

Techno could be doing more (this past month of restlessness? Nothing, compared to the way Wilbur hasn’t been able to sleep since he felt Tommy’s body slump into his, his life slowly slipping away from him. Since he realised Tommy was Theseus and he had killed his little brother before he truly knew him).

(What would his life have been without knowing Tommy’s bright smiles and shiny ocean eyes?)

In all honesty Wilbur was feeling petty, so he had ignored his father’s request (advice) and had told Techno through one of their phone calls. Techno had almost rushed back home, and Wilbur had forced his expression into a sneer as he reminded his brother why they were in this situation in the first place. Techno had wilted and pushed himself to work harder to find Tommy, to fill the sky with more messages. To call even more people (even though Techno hated social interactions).

Maybe it was cruel, Wilbur did love Techno. He loved him dearly, he was his brother. Just… Tommy was also his brother. And he wanted them both.

(So, he’ll be cruel. He’ll be the villain he truly is and force Techno to search for Tommy. A few hurt feelings were nothing compared to the emptiness of his chest.)

So, yeah… Wilbur has gotten used to his blindness despite the fact Phil has to tell him where to reach if he wants to grab something, despite the fact he has to let the nurses do almost everything for him, despite the fact he can’t watch the news anymore (can’t see the same picture they’ve been using for Tommy for the past three years. The windswept blonde hair, the bright grin, the sparkling eyes… he wonders, often, who took that photo. Wonders if Tommy means as much to them as he means to Wilbur). He gets used to it all, accepts it with surprising ease, because this is just another motivation, another encouragement, for Techno to work his hardest. To find Tommy. 

(Wilbur will burn the world down to get what he wants. And he wants Tommy in their family. He had faltered once; he was weak after a year of trying to push his powers onto the two people who somehow always seemed immune to it. He wouldn’t be weak again. He’ll have Tommy and Techno. Just like he has Phil and Fundy and Niki.)

It’s because he was losing his eyesight that the first thing that alerts him to something not being right is… when he wakes up, when he’s rudely awakened, he can… see things. 

He catches sight of his dad sprawled out on the cot beside him, the curtain is thrown wide open (probably his dad’s need to watch Wilbur, to make sure he doesn’t snuff it through his sleep) and knocked out (they had to resort to sleeping pills, after he had snuck out of his bed to stare over Wilbur’s still form the fifth time. Wilbur was almost surprised Techno didn’t demand chains, their dad could shake off a lot of things and he wouldn’t be surprised if sleeping pills were one of those things… though supposedly not given the current state of the room). 

His IV is still in his arm. It’s… strange. He can’t feel it, he can’t feel most of his body anymore, but it’s strange to see something and know he should feel it, but just… can’t. The bag the IV is connected to is full of some liquid that Wilbur doesn’t bother remembering (can’t remember if he was ever told, though he’s sure Techno probably had told him at some point) and looks the same as every other time he’s seen it. For that matter all the wires connected to him due to his long stay are the same as always (the catheter, the electrodes attached to his chest, everything; he’s a mess of wires and he can’t even feel it).

He sees a flicker of pink heading towards the door. Towards the exit and that’s what makes him realise something is incredibly wrong. The sudden eyesight was weird (but so was the sudden blindness and he’s in a hospital, they’re probably trying to help in some way), but pink walking away from him? That’s absurd. That never happens. That is an impossibility, even more so than his messed-up eyes. 

“Techno?” He grunts, or… well… he had planned on grunting, whispering the word past his sore throat, but the words come… easily. The familiar name falls from his lips like he hasn’t had trouble speaking over the last month and-

His eyes widened. He can see. He can speak. And Techno is walking away from him. 

“Techno!” He yells (he can yell? Why can he yell? His throat was shot, he hadn’t been able to speak around his body trying to hack his lungs up and-) “Techno!”

Techno doesn’t respond and the pink is out of his vision and-

Wilbur still feels like shit. As he tries to pull himself up, tries to get his elbows under him to lift up, he falls back down. He’s… better in impossible ways, but not fully healed and Techno is walking away-

What the fuck did Techno do?!

“Techno!” He yells. Phil twitches in the bed beside him but doesn’t wake up. Which… which is dreadful. Wilbur’s left to his own thoughts and-

Had Techno got Tommy to come to the hospital? But Tommy wouldn’t heal him only a tiny amount, Techno wouldn’t allow for Tommy to leave until he’s fully healed and-

Had Techno stolen a small fraction of Tommy’s healing abilities?

No… no. No! Techno couldn’t do that. From all of Wilbur’s research into Theseus after Tommy left him, he had come up with nothing about how he heals. Everyone knew he could heal, but there were contradicting reports of how he healed. Some claimed to have seen gold, some claimed to have seen feathers, some claimed flames had burned them until they were new; no one had proof of any such claims. Which meant Techno couldn’t steal whatever Tommy used to heal, it might not even be something that you could steal. It could just be Tommy’s presence that healed the weary (Wilbur always felt lighter and happier around Tommy, it wouldn’t surprise him to know that Tommy just being in a person’s life made them feel better than before). 

So, Techno couldn’t have taken something from Tommy. Couldn’t have dragged him here. Couldn’t have forced him to heal. But what did that leave them with and why would Techno leave him? Techno doesn’t leave him, even when they’re angry at each other. They’re brothers.

He looks around the room. Seeking answers.

The wither flowers sit in a vase beside his bed, undisturbed thankfully (Techno and Phil had wanted Wilbur to throw them out when the sneaky fucker Killer Queen had them delivered (Killer Queen had even left a helpful note for Wilbur detailing how to keep them alive, most of it tied to the little vial of unidentified liquid that he was told to pour out a drop a day). Wilbur kept them, knowing those black blooms were one of the many fates that awaited him. That he could just be the fertiliser for the deceptively pretty roses (he wonders if his body is already more rosebush than human, maybes his veins are just stems and the organ they attach to are slowly morphing into buds). The flowers were a hope, a reminder that not all was lost, that Tommy was still within his grasp). 

His phone sat charging right next to the vase. Every day it rings and as Wilbur’s sight had left him, Phil had to direct his hand in the right direction (it was either Techno phoning to check in or Fundy calling to tell him he looks like an idiot. He’s fond of both calls immensely, even if he’ll argue with Fundy over the insults and he’ll end up guilt tripping Techno. He just likes hearing from his people. His family). The phone, similar to the vase, hasn’t been disturbed. 

Honestly… nothing in the room looks out of place. The only reason Wilbur knows something is wrong is because… he’s better when he shouldn’t be, and Techno has left him…

He stares over at Phil (he doesn’t have the strength to throw anything at him and he isn’t sure it would wake him up at this point).

He stares at the call button attached to his bed (the nurses have to help him, but there’s no guarantee they’ll know where Techno has gone or that they’ll be able to get him to return).

He stares at his phone (if Techno had walked away, there was no guarantee he would answer if Wilbur called him, there was no guarantee he’d want to listen to Wilbur).

He hesitates before picking up his phone. Techno might not want to answer, but Techno isn’t the only number in his phone. Techno isn’t the only one who would know what is going on. They have a very special boy who watches over all the cameras throughout their missions. 

He scrolls to the Fs in the contact lists and hits the familiar name. The name of someone dear to him. Someone as irreplaceable as his family. Someone who was family. As legally as Techno and Phil, anyways.

He answers on the first ring, practically answers before the call rings out.

"Wilbur! A misdial?" Fundy's voice crackles through, and usually Wilbur would play along, would tease Fundy as Fundy teases him, but he's exhausted, confused and he wants to know where Techno has gone. 

(Wants to know why Techno was even here. Did he find Tommy? Did he get in a fight with a hero and get injured? Did he just come back prematurely because he's worried and has given up on Tommy again?)

"You know it's not a misdial, Fundy," Wilbur says, he's not quite making the words strict (Fundy doesn't deserve that), but he is being firm. Needs Fundy to take everything he's about to say seriously (he'll shoot a disappointed stare at the camera if he has to).

"Do I know that? You've been hitting a lot of wrong numbers on that phone lately. You should just ask Siri to do it for you, she's there for a reason, old man," it's a familiar argument and Wilbur's meant to laugh and say he's not an old man, that Phil is. It's been an ongoing joke for years, but-

"Fundy," Wilbur sighs.

Fundy laughs (it sounds awkward, and Wilbur hates to make him feel bad about himself, but with everything going on he needs serious Fundy for a bit. Needs a Fundy who can mess with people's perceptions of reality, a Fundy who can hack into anything just because he loves technology (and totally not, because he's bored. Wilbur has given Fundy everything, has gifted him the perfect home, designed exactly how Fundy wanted it. He has everything he could ever want with no expectations necessary from him).

"What can I do for you?" Fundy asks (that's more like it).

"Where's Techno?" Wilbur asks.

"Techno?" Fundy repeats, as though he hadn't just seen Techno leave the room and was watching him through the cameras right now. Like he didn't understand why Wilbur was stressed over Techno just entering and leaving like that (and maybe Fundy doesn't understand, no one really understands the need to keep each other together and safe despite the world fighting against them, no one understands the fear they feel when the other is away, but that's fine. Each of them understands enough for each other, Phil and Techno understand and they're enough to make sure everything else goes along smoothly). 

“Yes, Techno,” again Wilbur tries very hard not to be frustrated, but… well, he’s allowed to be grumpy. He’s dying and everyone he loves is away from him. He has spent far too much time alone in this hospital room and if he’s to actually die he wants everyone he loves around him (it’ll be hard to figure out how to get Tommy here and how to transfer Fundy safely to the hospital when the kid is terrified of cars, but… well, he’ll figure it out if he needs to).

“He’s… a couple rooms over,” Fundy hesitates, but eventually says. “He got hurt. Fighting Theseus.”

“What?” Wilbur doesn’t even know what to ask first. He has so many questions. Most of them keep circling back to: why would Techno fight Tommy?

“Yeah…” Fundy awkwardly laughs. “I hope you like your bacon crispy, because Techno is pretty burnt.”

He doesn't even bother to try, and sound scandalised over Fundy's joke. Doesn't try to argue against what is surely the truth (Fundy wouldn't lie about this). 

"Call Techno and get him to come over as soon as possible," Wilbur says and hangs up to… try and understand what's going on (he'll apologise to Fundy for his rudeness later, but…).

Tommy and Techno fought?

Techno and Tommy fought?

He… he can understand Tommy being distrustful of them and can't exactly fault Tommy (he had hurt him so badly, he'd never expect forgiveness after that, but he hopes for a chance to right all his wrongs- all their wrongs. Their whole family has a lot to try and make up for). But… how exactly did a fight break out?

Where Tommy should be rightfully angry at them, hate them, want to hurt them like they hurt him (and Wilbur would willingly allow Tommy to punch and burn him until he's happy with himself), it didn't make sense. Tommy… had never been one for pointless violence (Theseus' whole thing was about healing and helping others, not needlessly hurting. He was even careful with his flames against villains. Always so careful to make sure he didn't hurt them beyond reason. The only one in danger when Tommy fought was Tommy himself), so why would he attack when Wilbur is assuming he came down to meet Techno of his own accord? Did his resentment change his personality over the years they've been separated? Was he hoping to return to the heroes by proving he was against the villains (as though the heroes wouldn't welcome him with open arms, as though anyone bar select heroes and the Syndicate knew that Tommy was associated with villains in the first place)? Or had Tommy been forced to fight because Techno was being obtuse?

He… he knows his brother (knows both of them), but… he's never been able to predict the two of them when they're together. Could Tommy have attacked Techno out of anger? Potentially, yes. Could Techno have attacked out of frustration and desperation, even though he knew Wilbur would resent such an action? Just as likely. His brothers had a lot of… grievances to get through, before they understood just how precious the other was.

(Only, Tommy knew how cool Techno was. He had tried so hard to reach out to Wilbur's brother. Tried to bond and click together, not just because Techno was Wilbur's family, but because Tommy liked him. He thought Techno was hilarious, would eagerly digest every word Techno granted him; he looked up to him, which… knowing that Tommy was Theseus… really put into perspective how highly Tommy thought of Techno. Tommy was constantly surrounded by famous and powerful people and yet somehow Wilbur's socially awkward brother was held upon a pedestal even as he built walls between himself and Tommy.)

(Only, The Blade enjoyed Theseus's company. It was hard to see, no one would expect The Blade of all people to have favourites, but, well… he did. Sure, he'd still try stabbing and injuring his favourites (and may have succeeded a fair few times in the past, there was a reason Skeppy was retired), but they were his favourites for a reason. Whether that's because he thought they were funny, a challenge or someone that could be reasoned with, he still liked them. He liked Theseus, which in turn meant he liked Tommy, it just… could never be that simple for Techno. He had walled Tommy off from his heart and always knew Theseus wasn't a hero he could just force to retire through grievous injury. Not to mention the number of villains that had been taken down by heroes undercover, something they knew Theseus himself had participated in, in the past. Techno liked Theseus, but he wouldn't be swayed by simple emotions, he needed more.)

It was all a little ridiculous in hindsight.

Not as ridiculous as Techno storming into the room, with his wounds only half bandaged.

His brother stands at the doors, a doctor, Niki and Ranboo hovering behind him, as his shirt and other parts of his villain costume have been set aside, so he was only in a loose pair of tracksuit bottoms. His chest is half bandaged, and the bits that haven't been covered yet are shining with salve for the burns. Burns that aren't going to heal well even with the salve. One hand has already successfully been bandaged, as have both of his arms and a large plaster rests on his cheek.

Wilbur would make a quip about the dangers of brothers with overpowered abilities fighting, but… Techno wouldn't appreciate it and Wilbur… Wilbur is feeling a little pissed off right now.

Techno is standing before him, horribly injured and he can only imagine Techno has done the same to Tommy and-

(He doesn’t like his brothers being injured.)

(He needs Tommy.)

"What the hell, Techno?!" Whether the fight was Techno's fault or not, it's a legit question, because… Techno wasn't meant to come back to him injured. Tommy wasn't allowed to come to harm anymore. Why can't they just follow his plans for the future?

(If his powers worked on either of them, this all would have been so much easier. He could have had Tommy reveal his secrets when they first met the kid. He could have had Techno face the fact he liked Theseus and Theseus was Tommy and theirs. Alas, he had no time to fantasise about the perfect world where his brothers were less stubborn, and Wilbur could force them to be happy.)

"I think that's a question you should be answering," Techno snorts and when Wilbur raises a brow, Techno gestures at his face and-

"What?" Wilbur questions, a little defensively, unsure exactly what Techno is pointing towards.

Techno sighs, pulling his phone out and-

When he turns it to Wilbur after pressing a few things on the screen, Wilbur can see his face and-

His face is like a piece of art. His naturally pale flesh fighting against the corrosion of the withering effect. It almost looks like he's a topography of veins, with the way they collide. Like a star was allowed to paint his face with its supernova. Or a snowflake's delicate design had been imprinted upon him. And-

And it's good to know what he looks like after a little bit of healing (and that is what he's witnessing. His body healing, even if only a little), but Techno shouldn't be the one surprised. Wilbur woke up feeling better and seeing pink and-

What if that wasn't Techno? What if someone else had come in and healed him?

"I thought you would know something about that," Wilbur admits. "My eyes and throat are feeling so much better, and I heard you got in a fight with Tommy, so…"

It's clear what he means. What he's insinuating. Techno healed him, right? With Tommy's help (whether it was willing or not). 

Techno has fear in his eyes, as he stares at Wilbur. And it's obvious that he has no idea what has happened or what this is about or-

"I didn't succeed with Tommy," Techno admits, sounding heartbroken. "I couldn't have done this."

Techno couldn't and there weren't many people who could. Of all the people who could… he hopes it was Tommy who had come by, that Tommy granted him a little more life whether it was deserved or not (and he hopes beyond all hope that it wasn't Killer Queen. They had done more than enough, thank you very much).

----

"They're not staying here," Techno disagrees with Wilbur for the sixth time without looking up from his tablet, his chest finally fully bandaged and shirt replaced.

"Well, they're not going to Fundy's," Wilbur insists and there's enough strength in his vocal cords for him to use his powers.

They're a subtle power, one that creeps on a person like a whisper. A power that speaks the truth- or a truth- to the mind Wilbur speaks to. Speaks it so confidently that the person thinks it's their own thoughts, and if the person is aware of Wilbur's powers, they struggle to tell the difference between their own mind and Wilbur's interference. Not that Wilbur really interferes. Unlike what the heroes think, his powers aren't mind control, it's more… morale based, more encouragement. Wilbur can't force someone to do something, but he can encourage it. And that, sadly for some of his victims, included intrusive thoughts. He's talked many people into crashing their cars or just giving up, because they've had that fleeting thought once or twice. He's talked many people into doing something they didn't want to by directing their thoughts onto a topic he could encourage (he once talked a cashier into not only handing all the money in the till over, but also quitting their job and treating him to meal afterwards, just through a few speeches about how unfair their place of employment was). 

It was a powerful ability, an ability that could force everyone to obey him, if it wasn't… intrinsically flawed. If a person is sure of who they are, if a person is sure of what they want, he can't manipulate their thoughts. He couldn't make a suicidal person quit their attempt if they can't think of anything to live for and alternatively, he can't make a person genuinely happy with their life want to kill themself unless they have hidden depressing thoughts. It's these flaws that have allowed Techno to happily ignore Wilbur's suggestions for years (the few times he thinks Wilbur has been successful, are the few times he's been dragged into more physical affection than he’s usually comfortable with, but again that could just be his own decision making. He might usually only like quick hugs, but he'll make exceptions for his family when necessary).

It's a dangerous ability to use when Wilbur's on his own while fighting one of the heroes. Can't risk them finding out his true powers and can't risk it not working on them either because they're sure of themselves or because Wilbur's misjudged the person (though Techno is always amazed by Wilbur's skill when it comes to his powers. He has to talk a lot, to get information out of his target and figure out the best way to encourage them to do what he wants. It's not something Techno would be great at doing. Techno would prolong the conversation for too long and miss his opportunity or misjudge when to say something and- yeah… He's glad that Wilbur is the one with that power).

"They have to," Techno says, sure in his decision, sure enough to shake off Wilbur's attempt at controlling him.

"Why?" Wilbur questions, eyes narrowed (and it's wonderful to actually be able to see Wilbur's brown eyes again, for a while there, his brother struggled to keep his eyelids from drooping while they talked over video call. Techno almost rushed back, desperate to be there, but he was needed on a rooftop. Alone. Waiting for someone who may have never turned up).

"Because I drove him here," Niki answers, but they both know she means, because Techno doesn't trust me around you, anymore. 

(If she thought he would after that threat, she was sorely mistaken.)

(Then again, Niki was a smart woman. She knew what trust she was destroying as she shared those accursed words. There must be a reason for them, but… he won’t risk his family over them.)

"Get another car sent here then," there's power in his words again, an encouragement that would work if that was the real problem. "We're not compromising Fundy."

"You saying you don't trust Niki and Ranboo?" Techno questions instead as he taps endlessly away at his screen (his phone and tablet have been purposefully sabotaged and every time he tries to do something, different apps open up instead).

"I've never trusted Ranboo," he purposefully says nothing about Niki, wise really. She wouldn't appreciate either answer.

"They're going," Techno insists, finally looking up (he had to give up on the tablet, only a certain brat would be able to fix it at this point… or well, only a certain brat needed to stop messing with it in the first place).

"No," Wilbur says and… Techno gets it. He gets why he doesn't want them near Fundy, but they don't have another choice. He can't let Niki stay here, can't risk her pulling through with her threat and Fundy was purposefully ignoring their calls. 

"They're leaving with me. The best I can do for you is make them park in the area and not actually at Fundy's house," Techno offers, it's the best compromise he can give right now.

"They better park at least a mile away," Wilbur allows (and Techno can see it's a struggle for him to even allow that).

"You're going to make your brother walk a mile?" Techno asks, mostly joking.

"Yes," Wilbur says and…

He does.

After another awkward drive with Niki and Ranboo.

After he demands that Niki and Ranboo: "go home. Take two days off."

After Niki asks… says: "you think the Syndicate can really run without me."

After Techno slams the door shut behind him in answer.

He walks a mile. It's hardly a taxing walk, but it does leave Techno with his thoughts. Thoughts that… are spiralling.

Tommy… healed Wilbur, if even only a little bit.

He knows Tommy isn't the only one who can heal Wilbur. Anyone with an elixir could in theory help, but no one advertises having an elixir (unless you're the hero agency or trying to scam someone or both), so that… that just isn't likely (especially seeing as if someone used an elixir to help Wilbur, they'd be aiming for the Syndicate's favour, they wouldn't run off after healing Wilbur). Of course, the most damning thing is Fundy is protecting whoever helped Wilbur, and the only person outside of limited Syndicate members Fundy has interacted with is Tommy. Fundy likes Tommy. He'd protect Tommy if he slipped by to see Wilbur, but why would he have come by?

Did he just want to check if his suspicions about Techno lying were right and had accidentally healed Wilbur in the process (maybe Tommy’s healing was passive)? Had he wanted to intentionally prolong their suffering, to provide them false hope (Techno isn't able to hope)? Did he need more time to decide if he was willing to help those that were his enemies, those that had hurt him (and that wasn't hope! He wasn't hopeful that Tommy's brotherly feelings might affect him the longer he has to think about it. He can't just cling to useless emotions; he needs to be doing something. He needs to be proactive)?

He reaches Fundy's house in no time and Fundy is expecting him. The large, spiked gates slide away as he approaches. There's no Fundy in sight, of course. He'll be waiting inside. Like he always is.

Techno walks beneath the wisteria that perfectly circles the walkway, approaches the modest looking bungalow and opens the large bulky door without resistance (there could be resistance, the place looks quaint, but Techno knows Fundy had the entire place filled to the brim with technological delights that could maim a person).

"I'm back here!" Fundy yells, as though he ever really leaves his room.

Techno walks towards the bedroom/tech room and-

It's carefully organised, all the wires that could get in the way tucked neatly behind the numerous screens and towers. The only things in the room that wasn't technological based was the bed tucked into the corner and the wheelchair Fundy rested in.

The wheelchair… well… Fundy had tried to get one with a motor, but Wilbur hadn't been… fond of the idea. He spent days worrying about it when Fundy had first got one and… technically Techno had no proof (and he wouldn't do anything about it even if he did), but he's pretty sure Wilbur used his ability on Fundy. Had encouraged Fundy to see how dreadful the motor-based wheelchair was, convinced Fundy that he wasn't strong enough to pull himself along on one of the more athletically built chairs and that there was no point in trying to build his muscles up, because he'd just fail. He had assured Fundy he wouldn't be a hassle to push around for the rest of their lives. That all he needed to do was rely on Wilbur.

Wilbur was understandably overprotective of Fundy (of his adopted son, even if… none of them are quite family). It may have been overkill, especially when Wilbur proceeded to terrorise wheelchair manufacturers with Fundy's help, but… the overprotectiveness was understandable.

"Hey, Uncle," Fundy grins over at him and…

Techno grimaces, before giving Wilbur’s kind-of kid a concerned once over. His ginger and white hair is a mess, barely looking like it’s been combed. He’s wearing some blazer he’s sure Wilbur got him, and some anime shirt Phil definitely got him, beneath it. He’s also wearing a pair of shorts that don’t really match with the rest of the outfit, but boldly show off the leg that abruptly stops just above the knee. He’s not looking particularly great, but he’s not looking particularly bad (and Fundy has some bad days).

"I'm not your uncle," he denies, despite the concern that is familiar to family.

"Maybe not emotionally, but legally you can't get rid of me," Fundy's teeth always appear sharper than normal while he’s grinning. "So, what can I do for you, Uncle?"

Techno sighs. 

It is true, unfortunately. Unlike with Tommy, they knew Fundy’s complete background when Wilbur insisted, he had to adopt him and… well they all felt a little at fault for how Fundy was orphaned, so… Techno had agreed. And now… well Fundy's ability and skills are irreplaceable. They can't do without him. Then again, he can't do without them (Wilbur had made sure of that).

"Tommy, why are you covering for him?" Techno asks.

"Well, what can I say? Tommy's my favourite uncle, he took me out on trips, snuck me sweets Dad said I couldn't have and was generally just fun to be around. How could I not cover for him?" Fundy shrugs. "I'd say I'm sorry that you're not my favourite, but I'd just be lying."

"That's… that's not what I meant," Techno squeezes the bridge of his nose (a migraine is on the way, it's building up and up and up). "Why wouldn't you message one of us that he was there? He's the only way we can save Wilbur. Do you want your dad dying?"

"Of course not. I want Wilbur to live, but I'm not having you force it. It'll be by Tommy's choice or not at all. Do you think you'd even be able to force Tommy? I saw what happened on that rooftop," Fundy says and… 

It's true, no matter how Techno doesn't want to accept it. He can't make Tommy help, he tried and that went dreadfully, but he can't give up. He needs to hunt Tommy down and the one making that impossible is in front of him (but is also kind of family… Techno can't do anything against family, even kind-of-family, they're everything to him).

"You're protecting Tommy, right now? Not going to provide us any details of where he's going or gone to?" Techno questions.

"You mostly found him on your own the first time, I'm sure you can do it again," Fundy cheers, but… last time he didn't have Fundy working against him. He has no doubt Fundy could lead him on a wild goose chase.

"There's nothing that will change your mind?" Techno asks.

Fundy snorts.

"Maybe if we go on a walk in the garden and you actually get a full eight hours of uninterrupted sleep, I might be willing to stop Pokémon Go constantly loading on your tablet," it's the best he's gonna get, so with a sigh Techno stands up and pushes Fundy towards the garden (a garden carefully designed with paths and moon gates a wheelchair can traverse through without problem) and if left on the computer behind them was a program Fundy had written that tracked Tommy's appearance on cameras and turned said cameras off. Well… no one needed to know that.

Though a couple of farmers a long way away would have loved to know why their cameras had all stopped working at the same time. It would have prepared them for what they were about to encounter…

Chapter Text

Tommy had found himself on a farm late at night. He doesn't particularly know the area and he can't find it in himself to care about the fact he's trespassing (it's not like he'd ever hurt the animals or the civilians living here). He just needs to find something to contain his tears in and the barn is the unlucky place he finds such a thing. 

A grimy looking bucket that he can't really tell if it was used for milking the cows, helping with potential water leaks or something grosser. All he knows is it looks like it could do with a good washing, and it was rusting, but there were no holes and that was all that was necessary. It's not like germs would affect the healing properties of his tears.

He had carefully deposited the tears from his hands into it and then clumsily fell to the ground, face poised over the bucket and… just cried. He just… cried and cried and cried. Golden streams arching down his cheeks and dripping into a bucket that could be older than he is.

He thought back on all the good times he had with Wilbur and his family. He thought back on the hair ruffles, the chaotic meals; the deep conversations shared. He thinks back on the sleepovers, thinks back to the day Wilbur introduced him to his adopted son; thinks of the chaos he and Fundy had caused his family. He thinks about the shopping trips, the talks of a future which involved Tommy right beside Wilbur's family and how every 'you mean the world to me, Tommy' had made Tommy's day. He thinks about everything he misses. Think of the things he can never have.

And every memory, every emotion, fuels his tears. Eggs them on. Encourages him to give everything he has over. To ring him completely dry of emotions.

“You can't waste a single tear, Toms,” a hand ruffled through his hair, soothing, but more importantly directing Tommy's head forward so the tears would fall directly into a beaker. “One missed tear could be the end of someone's life. You don't want to be the reason someone died, do you?”

That's Dream's voice echoing in his head. A voice he hasn't heard in years, a voice he never wants to listen to again. A voice he doesn't have to listen to. Still…

"No," Tommy's voice cuts off through the heaviness of his chest and he sobs harshly. His tears rush down his cheeks with renewed vigour. "No. I don't… I don't want anyone to die…"

He chokes. Whimpers. He can't help but answer the memory of Dream's voice, because where he doesn't agree with what Dream did, not… not at the end (maybe never), it doesn't stop that he still doesn't want anyone to hurt. He wants everyone to live a long happy life (even if they don’t deserve it), but-

He cries more. Louder.

That's impossible.

Tommy might live forever (though maybe he won't, he can't be killed, but maybe old age will eventually get to him… if he can even reach old age), but no one else can. People die, people get hurt and it's impossible to save everyone. He's always known this, it was a lesson he was taught early on at the hero agency, but… but Tommy has the ability to save as many people as possible and he just… he just doesn't and he's not sure if that's ok.

(Maybe it should be. Maybe he could just… float off again. To become nothing but another light in the night sky-)

There's a sound. Sudden and loud behind him and-

He can't waste his tears and his life isn't exactly at risk (if someone is trying to kill him, he'll just come back), so he just focuses of kneeling over a bucket and letting his tears build up and up and-

Moo.

That's the sound he hears and it's close. Surprisingly close and-

Tommy slowly manoeuvres himself. Never letting a tear miss the bucket, but also letting himself shuffle around, so he can see-

The beauty of an animal before him.

It… it might sound stupid, so very, very stupid, but Tommy's never seen a cow before. In person that is! He's always seen them on the TV or through the internet (which is why he knows they're his favourite animal, the amount of old friends contacts that would be spammed with images of shampooed and conditioned cows was a little over the top (and thinking back on it, it was the only time Techno ever acknowledged his messages, sending emojis back to show his approval of the animal pictures), but it was understandable! They're cute).

"Aren't you a beaut?" Tommy mutters in awe.

The cow just shuffles closer, almost knocking over Tommy's bucket of tears, but Tommy just adjusts the bucket for the cow without any complaint or fanfare. How could he complain when he is closer to this majestic beast?

And majestic it is. The poor dear hasn't been shampooed or conditioned like this king deserves, but it’s black and white hide is glorious anyway. So glorious that Tommy almost feels compelled to run his hands along the cow's sides, but… well he's not sure how to stroke a cow and he doesn't want to disturb this precious being now, does he? He's careful of the hooves that step too close to him, but he can't focus on them. Not for long. Not as his eyes lock onto large black eyes that just entice him to stay here forever.

"You're more than a beaut," he says in awe. "You're… you're like everything. You deserve everything. Everything ever. And you chose to come to me?"

The cow doesn't really respond, but Tommy pretends the next moo this gentle creature releases is just for him and he-

He smiles. 

A sweet sincere smile that stretches his cheeks. 

(He feels his tears brush against his lips due to the new divots and valleys they have to traverse to reach the bucket, but he ignores them. All he has attention for right now is this amazing being in front of him.)

"Such a glorious being like you deserves a name that's worthy. It can't be something pathetic or weak. You're an amazing creature that others could only hope to match up to. You're… you're everything," he looks into those endless eyes, those eyes that draw everything in and knows he's understood. "Henry."

The next moo is inquisitive, happy, a confirmation (and no Tommy isn't projecting).

"Henry," Tommy repeats in awe. "I know, I know, I'm quite the name giver. Only I could give you such a perfect name."

Henry must agree because the dear lays down beside him and…

Tommy scoots over with a laugh, gently resting against the beautiful creature. He makes sure to puff up his feathers as they brush along Henry's side, trying to make them as soft and comfortable as possible (and oh… looking at them now, they're kind of a mess. He… he wonders how long it's been since he’s preened them, since he refused to leave the sky. He… he should sort that out, right? But… but maybe not. What if he wants to return to the skies? Would it even be worth knowing then?). 

Henry moos again and then Tommy hears the wettest grossest sound he's ever heard and feels something slimy run along his hair and-

"Did you lick me, Henry?" Tommy asks in disbelief. Henry just continues to be the best being in the world as Tommy tries to understand what just happened. "I'm not that desperate for a preening."

But maybe he should be. It's been… it's been a while. He knows it's been a couple years at least, but he… he honestly can't pinpoint the exact time it is. Doesn't know what day it is, what year it is, hell he doesn't even know what season it is. All he knows is he's been flying for so long and now he has to try and be human again. He doesn't want to be human again. He wants… he wants…

He looks over at Henry.

He wants to be like Henry.

"You have no idea how easy you have it," Tommy sighs, before his eyes widen in horror. "I mean! A cow as glorious as you probably knows more than I could ever know, so you probably know exactly how good you have it. How you get to just wander around as you please, have others wait on you as you lounge around and enjoy the tasty, tasty grass. You know how lucky you are. I'm just… just jealous there's no expectations thrown on you. There's no people throwing questions that mess with your entire life. There’s…"

There's no moo in the silence as Tommy trails off.

He pretends there is.

"You're right. You're so right. I'm here asking you dreadful questions and expecting you to have all the answers with how wise and amazing you are, and… cows have a lot expected of them outside of my pathetic questions anyways," Tommy sighs, he wants to run a hand over his face, but he can't risk messing with his tears that still roll down his cheeks. Instead, he grips his hair. Tight. "You need to produce a certain amount of milk and if you don't you risk being slaughtered. You're expected to be food, clothes, whatever your 'owner', though you and I both know no one could ever own you, wants you to be. Those with more power and strength, though you are the strongest and most powerful being there is, are the ones who get to dictate the lives of others…"

And maybe he's projecting (he's not! Henry just has a tragic fate ahead of him), but he's feeling rather sympathetic for Henry. It feels like he knows exactly how Henry feels and-

He looks down at the bucket full of gold and…

"I get you, big man, I get you," he informs Henry and gently reaches out a hand to pet Henry (just one delicate pet, no more out of fear of disturbing the beast). "Others just want to squeeze you dry, want there to be nothing left of you but the things you produce. They want your whole life and worth to be a bucket full of liquid. They're selfish and don't see you as anything but a means to an end. And you can't get out no matter what you do. They expect and they take, and they expect, and they take and then what's left of Tom- Henry?! It's unfair. And they act like they've given you everything you could ever want, but they understand nothing. Nothing."

It's silent. He feels Henry's chest rise and fall with every breath and tries to let that feeling sooth him as he contemplates just how true those words are. How he and Henry are just the same.

He looks into the golden surface of his tears. The colour is deep, and his reflection is distorted as more tears ripple along the surface of the liquid. This is all the hero agency ever wanted from him. This is all they expected from him. They wanted to treat him like stock, give him a place he could run around in, a place that looked and felt safe, while they harvested what they wanted from him. If his flesh was how he healed, they would have taken a pound a day from him. If his feathers had been the cure, his wings would eternally be plucked. He was nothing to them, all they wanted was what he could do. What he could produce.

"They treat us like cattle that can just be led around. Treat us like we're property that could be owned," he turns towards Henry's face, but those deep soulful eyes are closed. The cow is asleep. Tommy continues speaking. "We're not. We're alive. We have our own goals. We're better than that. But… can we afford to not give what we have?"

It's… a little different for him and Henry. Henry can't voice his complaints and… well… There was a documentary Tommy watched about cows, about how there's too many of them and how the demand for them (for their milk, their meat and their leather) is literally contributing to global warming. Some might argue we need less cows. Some might argue that they're just dumb animals that don't deserve anything but being slaughtered. There's a lot of stupid opinions and the question if they can afford to get rid of cows or stop treating them poorly is one that won't be treated as honestly as it should. 

Then again… just because Tommy could voice his opinion doesn't mean others won't raise stupid questions or argue with him over if he should be allowed to live how he wants.

He feels like a commodity, maybe not at the time, when he was being used and abused, but now? Now when he looks back at it? Looks back on the way he was used as a product to sell without any member of the public knowing? He feels so very little like a human and more like an animal.

(He is an animal. He’s a bird, that deserves to sail the clouds and chart the stars and-)

He nudges himself further into Henry’s side. 

“If every cow stopped producing milk overnight what would happen?” Tommy poses the question. “There’d be madness at first, for sure. The prices of milk and dairy products would inflate, people would panic and buy stocks out, but if there was no other milk after that? People would adapt. They always do. So, what happens if I don’t heal? They’ll learn how to exist without it, humans are about survival. About doing what’s best for them. Though… that’s why they won’t let me rest easily. It’s why if cows stopped producing milk, people wouldn’t just let it go…”

They wouldn’t. They’d experiment on cows, try to find out why they’ve stopped producing such a product and try to make them produce it again. They’ve bred sheep to produce more wool than their bodies are comfortable producing just so they have more of the product. Who’s to say they won’t be able to force a cow back into producing milk? It’s both what makes humans amazing and terrifying. 

A man, Tommy looks up to, can tear his flesh, bone and blood away to try and make him stay, and reason it as necessary.

A man, Tommy had loved, can hold him down and try to force him into obedience, and reason it as necessary.

The human race decides they’re important, that their wants and needs are more pressing, and force it onto others. They’ll claim it was necessary, make others believe there was no other option (when there were so many other options, like leaving him alone and letting nature take its course), humans are so selfish. Is it any wonder he stopped wanting to be one? Is it any wonder he left them all behind?

“Henry,” Tommy says, his words serious. “You’re the only being ever. From now on, you’re the only one I’m ever going to heal. You and no one else.”

Henry, to the surprise of no one, says nothing. 

Tommy takes that as an agreement.

Of course… his words aren’t actually true, but he doesn’t voice that to the most glorious creature behind him. The truth is more complicated, because… where he is a bird, where he is a phoenix, at the end of the day… he is also human.

He hates it, he hates it, he hates it, but… He’s human. Painfully human with selfish wants and desires like everyone else. And… and maybe he’s been brainwashed into compliance, like every other human that lives in a society that doesn’t love them, but Tommy… Tommy wants to heal.

He wants to help people. He wants Wilbur to live. He wants the world to be a better place.

(He wants to be allowed to heal others without the complications the hero agency forces upon him. He never wants to see Wilbur again, but he wants to know he’s out there somewhere in the world breathing. He wants to ignore the world for the rest of his existence.)

He wants and he wants, and he wants, but… where does that leave him? What does that mean? What is ‘selfish’ for Tommy?

“You and I, Henry? We deserve better,” that’s where they’re at. Deserving better from a world that doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know what to do, or maybe he does, but he doesn’t want to think about it, not anymore, so… “Have I ever told you about the time Sapnap burned all of Dream’s hoodies?”

So, he tells tales. Ignoring the inevitable decision, the inevitable sunrise and the inevitable discovery of an ex-hero on some farm in the middle of nowhere.

Somewhen through the night his tears stop falling, and he’s left with a bucket almost full of gold (and a pressing question of what to do with it circling deep within his mind).

There are… many choices he could make and there are many outcomes he could reach. He could leave right now, leave the bucket beside Henry who clearly deserves it more than anyone else, and for Henry's farmers to find it and decide what to do with it (maybe they'll recognise it, maybe they'll chuck it away ignorant to what they have in their hands).

He could leave it with someone, maybe the nearest hospital (maybe with Wilbur, maybe with the hero agency) and they could make use of it in a way he knows will be productive.

He could fly around, clinging to a bucket with uncertainty of how the future is going to play out; stuck at the edge of a decision that's going to mess with his life so thoroughly.

He could knock the bucket over and pretend it never existed.

"Don't waste a single drop. Not a single drop. One wrong step and you'll end up killing someone."

No. He… he can't do that last one. He couldn't bring himself to actively hurt someone. It… it wasn't who he was. It wasn't him.

He… he has to heal someone. 

But who?

His decision making comes to a halt when a familiar looking man carefully walks into the barn, he's taken refuge in. The man holds a gun in hand and Tommy has no doubt it would be aimed at his face if the man's eyes didn't widen in surprise.

"Tommy?" The man gasps and… Tommy should be more alarmed at the fact this man knows his real name. He'd introduced himself to him as Theo and he parted ways with him as Theseus. He's never known him as Tommy (and that's always been a bit of a shame).

Tommy smiles (grimaces).

"Hey, Sam."

----

It's the first night in a while that it's stopped raining. Sam had been forced to deal with leak after leak as Ponk would find more things for him to fix (Sam was almost positive Ponk was purposely destroying their house, not only were the barns and coops pristine and untouched by the weather, but Ponk would always sound amused as he found something else Sam had missed). Sam never complained as he worked on the next DIY project, honestly, he's grown fond of the simple requests after his last high-stake job fell through. Ponk deserved to enjoy life as well, so... if Sam was eternally made to fix his destruction, then that's what Sam was going to do. 

(Ponk deserved to be destructive after everything he'd been forced into.)

Thanks to the rain and the constant DIY projects Sam had missed when the cameras around the barn had all turned off. It wasn’t something he could allow himself to miss, not with who he is and who Ponk was (he’d clearly become too relaxed in his retirement, he couldn’t afford to be relaxed). So, even though he hasn’t had any sleep throughout the night and though Ponk won’t allow him to sleep in when he wakes up, Sam walks over to the barn, shotgun in hand.

It’s probably just a maintenance failure (his tech never fails), but it’s never a bad thing to be too careful. Maybe he should have been more careful (or less), because he’s not sure how to deal with what he’s stumbled across.

He heard a voice chattering away before he fully reached the barn. He had slowed his steps down, carefully held his gun, prepared to fight to the death or scare away some kids who were trying to harass their animals. He managed to sneak up on the person and there-

There…

(There was a kid with blonde hair, mischief-filled eyes, a red plaster across his nose and a green bandana around his neck. He grinned up at Sam, leaning his weight on Slimecicle beside him and falling flat on the ground when he slipped through Slime’s gloopy body. The kid had cursed, and Slime had insisted that it was a normal human function to fall through a person and Sam had laughed. Laughed and offered the kid a hand up, hoping this child wasn’t going to fall into the same trap everyone who walks into Las Nevadas does.)

There was a kid with messy hair, sunken eyes, numerous plasters and mostly torn clothes that don’t fit. He stares blankly at the walls of the barn, his body only kept up as Elizabeth, the oldest cow they own, keeps him from falling over. Sam walks forward, the kid’s name on his lips and the kid looks up. His lips upturn, but it doesn’t reach his eyes (doesn’t really reach his lips).

“Sam,” the kid says and…

Well…

What was Sam exactly meant to do with this situation?

This was… a complicated situation.

Sam had first met Tommy at Las Nevadas. He had tried to keep an eye on the kid, the kid he would call after fondly (of course, he was calling the wrong name. Complimenting ‘Theo’ as he learned the ropes of his job at Las Nevadas), the kid that had torn everything he worked on to the ground (not that he had realised that, not straight away, he had been looking for the kid as the heroes infiltrated and then he had come across Theseus), the kid that hurt him with his lies, the kid that he was almost thankful for, for the second chance he was granted, the kid he feared for every day since he discovered what the hero agency was really like. Sam likes the kid, he's not sure he can trust the kid, but he wants to (he doesn't think he can fully blame Tommy after everything he now knows about the heroes). 

But knowing the kid, liking the kid, wanting to help the kid… those feelings and wants mean nothing when he takes into consideration his delicate situation (he can't have Ponk swept into this, not again, and he can't have the hero agency breathing down his neck, not again). Not to mention his wants, his needs… they might not match up with Tommy's. Sam has no idea what Tommy wants, last he heard Tommy was flying high above the world. Completely oblivious and ignorant to the way the world cried for him.

(What exactly has happened since he last braved a trip to civilization?)

"What are you doing out here, Tommy?" Sam asks with a sigh. 

Tommy laughs. It sounds fractured and so unlike Tommy that Sam's heart clenches tight. He really wants to help the kid out (but he's not going to rush into it, not again, he's been burnt once before. He needs to know if the cause is worth getting burnt a second time).

"Just needed a bucket, innit?" Tommy gestures to the old bucket in his hands and the thing is filled with more elixir than Sam's ever seen in one place, even while working for the hero agency. "Then Henry here came along for my great conversational skills."

"That's Elizabeth, actually, she's female," Sam says, focusing on the part of the conversation he could actually understand (why was there so much elixir there?).

"Sam! That's not very gender of you, let Henry identify however they want," Tommy says and Sam can't help but snort (can't help but think back on nonsensical conversations that never really had a clear trail of thought, but were always hilarious).

"Beth is a cow, gender means nothing to her," Sam says. Tommy rolls his eyes.

"Then it shouldn't matter if you call him Henry."

"She literally has udders," Sam points out.

"Gender means nothing to a cow," Tommy repeats his words back. Sam can't stop his lips from twitching up in a smile, it shouldn't be so easy to banter with someone who tricked him (but then, he had never really blamed Tommy for that trickery, not after the initial shock wore off).

"Fine. What were you talking to 'Henry' about then?" Sam asks, and Tommy looks back at 'Henry' as though asking for permission to talk about their conversation. 

'Henry' of course, doesn't answer. 'Henry' had always been a troublemaker, getting caught behind barbed wire fences, running off from the barn in the middle of the frequent storms, starting beef with other cows; the security system Sam has set up is most frequently used to track 'Henry' down. It almost makes sense 'Henry' found Tommy through the night, kept him company and is now ignoring him. A fussy cow.

"We were just discussing the cons of being treated like a product… I could sympathise with Henry's plight, you know?" And it could simply be more nonsense, could be Tommy making a joke, but…

Sam knows the hero agency more than he ever wants to, knows Dream is desperate to get Tommy back and he can see a bucketful of elixir in front of Tommy. And… oh… Oh! 

"Please, Sam, please," hands gripped tightly to his shirt. "Please!"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," is repeated like a broken record as they're surrounded by blood that seems to pour to the ground endlessly.

"Don't worry," unwanted hands pat a shoulder. "We're close to fixing you. Then you can help again."

Oh.

"Henry doesn't produce milk," Sam says unthinkingly and Tommy looks devastated.

"What… is… Is Henry going to be killed?" Tommy asks, and it's an understandable question, a lot of farmers would take no milk as the perfect time to make the cow a burger, but-

"No. Henry hasn't produced milk for years, too stubborn to breed and Ponk doesn't want to inject hormones into any of the animals, so…" He shrugs. "We've just kept Henry around, and any other animals that are a little too stubborn like her."

Or shy. Or odd. Honestly, they're probably running the farm at a deficit from all the animals they take in that aren't producing the kinds of quantities farms are expected to make. But this place was never about profit, it was just about earning enough for themselves and their animals to be happy. 

"Ponk?" Tommy asks, confused and… ah. Tommy knew Ponk but has no idea why Ponk would be out here with him. It probably made very little sense to Tommy, who had last seen Sam behind bars over three years ago now. 

"Yeah… did you want to come in and say hi?" He asks and suddenly… Suddenly the idea is all he can think of. Ponk. Ponk is perfect for this situation! If what Sam is suspecting of happening here is true, then Ponk can relate to Tommy in a way Sam could never hope to.

Ponk can help Tommy! 

(Sam can help Tommy, because if Sam is right, Tommy is in desperate need of help.)

As Tommy reluctantly agrees and leaves Henry's side, though refuses to leave the bucket of elixir behind, Sam completely forgets he went out there to check on the cameras. By the time he remembers they're all back on, running fine without a single sign of anything being wrong (he's gone through too much to not realise that that's suspicious, he's gone through too much to not research into it), but that's for later. For now…

He focuses on the kid that looks so drastically different for someone who hasn't aged a single day...

Chapter Text

Morning is always a pleasure for Ponk. He gets to wake up at whatever time he chooses (and he had experimented at first, waking up late, waking up early, trying to find out what he liked, and he liked early. Likes waking up Sam after the man has clearly only had a few hours of sleep due to working on whatever DIY project Ponk had sent him on the night before. Likes listening to Sam complain even as he gets up and helps Ponk with breakfast. Likes waking up just before the animals do, so the first thing they see is Ponk coming along with their food. He likes early mornings). 

This morning is even more of a pleasure for one simple fact. It’s not raining. He had chosen this farm before he had a chance to realise that it rained so much, before he had a chance to realise the rain really didn’t agree with him. On days when the rain has sunk deep into the ground and made everything feel frozen Ponk’s arm aches. The scarred tissue and missing limb flare up in the cold and there are some mornings Ponk struggles to uncurl his curved spine and leave his bed (on those days, he throws things against the wall between his and Sam’s bedrooms until the other man begrudgingly gets out of bed and helps him by setting up more heaters than could feasibly be safe). 

So, with a stretch that pops both of his shoulders and makes his last remaining wrist click, he gets up and changes. It had been an odd experience at first, changing with only one arm. An odd experience he was almost happy to go through even as he struggled to button up his jeans with one hand and had had to learn how to wiggle the remaining residual limb into his shirt. The worst part was his mask, it was so hard to align the eye holes with only one hand, but he had experience with it now.

It had been a year since he lost his arm. 

A year of him living in the middle of nowhere with Sam. 

He’s never been happier. 

Old friends of his (if they could even be called that) didn’t understand. He’s hand numerous people reach out to him and ask if he’s ok after his ‘accident’, had people who should be better than they are ask how he could live as a farmer after being a hero, has had Dream ‘reassure’ him that they were trying to figure out how to regrow limbs back and they’d have him back on the hero paycheque before he knew it. He told them all he was fine, that he likes his life now better than he ever liked his life as a ‘hero’, none of them got it. None of them understood, but then… none of them had a power like he did. None of them were treated like he was. All of them liked their jobs. For all of them being a hero was a job. It wasn’t like that for Ponk.

It wasn’t like that for numerous people.

Ponk had lived the first seventeen years of his life in ignorant bliss of the abilities he had. He had gone to school, hung out with friends and had just figured out what he wanted to aim for at university. Agriculture. He had always had a fascination with collecting lemon seeds and figuring out how best to make them grow, it would be amazing to turn his hobby into a job. Then the accident happened. 

A friend of his at school had slipped up through PE, it was kind of stupid and kind of hilarious (who slips in mud and falls over in mud like that), it was also one of Ponk’s most hated memories. Ponk had gone over to help him stand up, because his friend had seemingly twisted his ankle. He held a hand out to his friend, his friend grabbed his hand, the mud almost dragged them both down, Ponk held his other hand out to steady them both, both of Ponk’s hands touched his friend and-

Ponk’s hands had glowed. He felt like his heart pumped for two people. He felt like a live wire that needed mending. He let go of his friend, but by then it was too late. His friend’s twisted ankle was fine and Ponk felt drained and unwell and-

Ponk had an ability. 

It wasn’t anything worrying at first. People discovered they had abilities all the time. One kid in his class could change their hair colour and another kid in school could elongate their limbs. It wasn’t too unusual, and people thought it was cool. Healing was a cool power and his friend had thanked him with a laugh once everyone understood what happened. The problems came after. When his powers were registered.

Any ability had to be registered. It was for safety reasons, the hero agency claimed, they promised it would never be used against a person, but then there came Ponk with his healing abilities. Abilities the hero agency were too fearful to let villains discover and soon. Well… soon…

Heroes were visiting his school daily. His parents were being pestered for Ponk to join an apprenticeship. False rumours spread that Ponk wanted to join the agency. 

It had kind of been cool at first. A little annoying, having heroes explain why he should join them every day, but cool to be the centre of attention at school. To have people come up and ask how he knew this hero or if he could get them this hero’s autograph. But, then all of Ponk’s university plans fell through. 

He had all the right grades. Had been talking with lecturers’ who had been directing him into the correct channels for agriculture. Everything had been on track, he had all but been promised a position and-

Rejection. 

Rejection from every place he had applied. 

Any email sent to a lecturer he had talked to before bounced back and-

The hero agency had seemed like the only means of him getting anywhere in life. Especially when even fast-food places started to reject his CV. At least the heroes wanted him. 

So, he joined with a heavy heart, and he’s regretted it ever since. 

He had no idea at the time that the heroes had actively destroyed his chance of success outside of them. He had no idea joining meant he had to cut ties with everyone he knew before and would be monitored 24/7. He had no idea the levels the hero agency went through to see the extent of your power. 

Ponk’s healing abilities basically sped up a normal person’s healing. If he touched someone with both hands and they were unwell, his ability would make a connection between the two of them and speed up the healing process. It wasn’t anything impressive, especially at first, but… well…

When he first joined, he was made to hold injured person after injured person until he was unconscious in a pile of his own vomit. He would be made to hold people of all different injuries to see the extent of his healing, numerous people died under his hands because he wasn’t enough (because he wasn’t designed to heal someone like that). He was starved and overfed and put through life threatening situations to see if any of that would affect his healing abilities. And the entire time it was described as something reasonable. 

“Of course, we have to see if you can heal yourself,” someone said as they cut him again and again and again. 

“They’re going to die anyways, so it doesn’t matter if you can’t heal them,” someone reassures as he holds a crying baby close, hoping his powers will work.

“Your heart rate picks up while you’re healing, maybe if you do some cardio before healing it’ll affect your healing abilities,” someone theories as they look over the results the machines attached to him as he healed had provided. 

It went on for years like that. A gruelling training process Ponk hadn’t been happy to be a part of, but knew he had nothing else waiting for him. Years of training and then he’d be an official hero. Only…

Only support heroes don’t leave the hero agency. Support heroes rarely got acknowledged by the hero agency and the newspapers they interfered with. Ponk was expected to sit in the hero agency’s hospital and wait for an injured hero to come along for healing, he was expected to keep up the sickening training in his spare time and… that’s it. Wake up, heal, train, heal, train, sleep. He didn’t get days off, anytime he tried heading out (just to a shop to maybe buy something, or to go out and check on his family or old friends) something always came up and-

“This is why I prefer when we find heroes young,” he had overheard someone complaining. “The younger heroes never have any problems with working constantly and staying inside, and if they do, they quickly learn how the world works.”

“Could you sound anything more like a villain?” Someone had laughed in return.

“What? It’s not like I’m not talking from experience. Most of us were brought here young and those that weren’t wanted to join so badly, they don’t see anything wrong with the way everything operates,” the original voice had commented. And-

Ponk was horrified. Ponk had researched. And…

He discovered the injustices of the hero society. Understood he was just one of many cogs keeping the industry going and that anyone who had ever defied the agency had swiftly been dealt with. He couldn’t actively do anything, but at least he wasn’t ignorant anymore (he always felt sorry for the bright-eyed youths that pushed themselves so far for an agency that just didn’t care. That couldn’t care). He lived miserably, but at least he was living. 

Then Theseus had learnt the truth and had torn the building in half to escape those false promises. 

Then Ponk had met Sam, someone who was surprisingly naive for who they had been…

Sam had been a villain. Sam had agreed to join the hero agency to lessen his sentence. Sam was rebuilding the hero agency and reinforcing it with defence measures that matched that of Las Nevadas when it was still around. That’s what people knew, on the surface, Sam was complimented for changing. Sam would be spoken about as a success story, a story that villains don’t have to remain that way, that they can redeem themselves. And when Theseus was revealed to be a kid named Tommy, they entwined their stories around each other. Made claims that Sam wanted to improve himself for the kid he met at Las Nevadas.

And maybe, maybe, all of that was true. But Ponk went on to learn that Sam had never wanted to work for Las Nevadas, that he was one of the many that fell into the gambling traps behind the glitz and the glamour (and was now falling into the trap of the hero agency’s false promises). Learned that Sam hadn’t really joined the hero agency but was expected to build them whatever they wanted (Sam lamented late at night some of the things they expected him to make, how he struggled to sleep over the horrors of some designs). Learned that Sam worried about Tommy and frequently spent his nights staring out at the night skies, hoping for a single glimpse of Tommy flying by (he once mistook a shooting star for the kid, and had cried himself to sleep). Learned that Sam had always wanted a dog, had thought of the perfect name for a dog (Fran was not the perfect name for a dog, but Ponk couldn’t argue when Sam looked so soft). Learned that Sam despite his large build and terrifying abilities was actually a very sweet man (was a man that was always trying to aim to be better, to do what was right even with the shitty hand he had been drawn).

It's this discovery, the friendship they've fostered between each other and the furthering pressure the hero agency has put on healers as Tommy refuses to return and the hero’s supplier of Elixirs stops delivering that leads them to their desperate situation.

It starts with the door getting locked behind Ponk as he enters the hospital wing, physically unable to leave his workstation until a hero comes along and lets him out.

It starts with his card being declined and calling his bank ending up in a wild goose chase until the hero agency offered to foot the bill for his dinner.

It starts with carefully planned 'accidents', that will surely escalate. But Ponk isn't a teenager who sees only the best in people anymore. He had grown since then, knew he had to act before things got worse. He went to Sam. Sweet, sweet Sam, who only knew the worst of the world and still wanted to help. He went to a Sam who is endlessly traumatised by all his past actions (and current actions) and begs to add to the trauma.

"Sam, I need you to be a villain," Ponk had said as he broke into Sam's workshop (it was on the other side of the hero agency and Ponk had to literally sneak through the building that was meant to be his home).

"I'm retired from that," Sam had joked, unaware of how serious Ponk was.

"I need you to be the Warden. I need you to cut my arm off," Ponk had said again, not hesitating for even a moment (hesitation would make everything worse, he had made his choice. He was happy with his choice).

Sam had looked over. There was fear in those green eyes. 

"You can't be serious. You-"

"I can't stand being here for another day, Sam," Ponk practically begged. "They're gonna force me to heal for the rest of my life, they're gonna bleed me dry and then make me feel indebted to them. I need out. I needed out yesterday… years ago if I'm honest with you."

"Why didn't you leave before then?" Sam asks, and Ponk knows he doesn't want to hear the answer (doesn't want to know that his 'redemption' is pointless. That there wasn't a single part of the agency that was decent). 

"I couldn't. They'd make excuses to keep me from leaving, sometimes my exit would be physically blocked and… if I ever managed to escape, to leave, they'd stop me from living my life. They stopped me from getting an education before, it wouldn't be hard to keep me unemployed and under their thumb."

"Wouldn't… wouldn't it be the same now?" Sam had asked, understanding to some extent, but not understanding. Sam had been through similar things, but not quite the same. Never the same.

"I have to try to leave. I'd rather die on the streets than remain here another day," it was the truth. He liked to think his story would be shared, how a hero had been left to die alone on the streets but knew it would never be. The agency controlled the news far too well. "Please, help me Sam."

"Why me?" Sam asks, voice choked off. "Is it because I was a villain? I thought… I thought you understood that wasn't by choice. I thought you understood I want to be better. I thought we were friends?"

"I'm asking because we're friends, because you're the only one I trust. Sam. You're the only one trying to actually be good. You're the only good thing in this building, so help me. Please," he couldn't stop himself from going over to Sam and leaning into him for comfort, couldn't stop his hands from gripping at Sam's shirt. "Sam, please. Please!"

Sam had hesitated. He rested his arms gently against Ponk, his head leaning against the top of his. His every movement was uncertain. Careful.

"I… I can't cut your arm off," Sam had said, but before Ponk could argue or beg or cry, Sam had continued. "But I can help you."

And he had. He had gone through all the camera footage of them talking, of them planning and erased it. He had set the stage, had machines he used to create running, massive metal wheels that grinded things to dust were running, drills and lasers were running. Numerous instruments that Ponk had the choice of to destroy his own limb. Sam had shown him how to 'accidentally' get caught on any of the equipment and as Sam was 'busy' working on Dream's latest project, Ponk 'accidentally' lost his arm. 

It was painful and blood was everywhere and Ponk was crying, and Sam was holding him, reassuring him he'll be alright while calling someone to 'save' him. And Ponk had clung to Sam and repeated one phrase over and over and over again.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you."

He still meant those words as Ponk's arm was amputated. He still meant those words as Sam was investigated to make sure it was actually an accident. He still meant it as he was put through experiments to see if he could heal with only one arm. He still meant it as his parents didn't want to see him. He still meant it as he was handed a new bank account with only a small number of what he should have earned after all these years. He still meant it as Dream assured him, they potentially had a way to heal loss of limbs and they'll get back to him when they know for sure.

He definitely meant it when Sam had turned up months after his trial and asked what Ponk wanted to do with his life. He definitely meant it when Sam had managed to get a farm for the two of them when he told him he used to like growing lemon trees. He definitely meant it as the farm started to be overrun by the yellow filled trees. He definitely meant it every day he woke up alive and safe and away from the hero agency. He definitely meant it every time he looked down at his missing arm and didn't even notice the loss of weight.

He knew he'd continue to mean it as he walked down the stairs after failing to find Sam in his room and discovering a worn looking Tommy eating breakfast and a sheepish Sam cooking more eggs. He didn't make a fuss as he joined them at the table, just shot them an amused look and asked for his breakfast. He didn't want to be dragged back into the hero agency’s problems, but Sam was too good a man to just leave Tommy to the side. And Ponk was too fond of Sam to not help the idiot out when his bleeding heart reached out to a difficult situation again. 

"You didn't tell me we adopted," Ponk jokes. "I'd have decorated the house with 'it's a boy' balloons."

Sam laughs and something eases in Tommy's frame and Ponk knows that no matter how this ends up: he's still going to be thankful for Sam. That he can't fully hate his past when it brought him and Sam together.

----

Tommy is having a confusing day… a confusing few days. But let’s not focus on the problems before today, let’s not focus on the way his mind jumps back and forth between human and bird, or the fact Techno wanted to see him or that Wilbur was dying, and he is the only one who can save him. No, that was all a thought for a later Tommy (a later Tommy that will curse him to hell and back). No, let’s focus on Sam.

First, he tried renaming Henry to Elizabeth (Lizzie is a very good name and he’ll definitely be using that name later, but for another animal. Henry was Henry and shouldn’t be disrespected as he clearly has been). Then-

Actually… let’s not lie, first Sam had come in with a gun and hadn’t shot Tommy. That was the first most confusing thing. Sam always had a soft spot for kids and the ‘good’ ones, which is why Tommy had been chosen to target Sam, to gain his trust, to use him to get in with Las Nevadas. That soft spot is dead now, what with Theseus coming in a swooping down on Sam and his entire business (it didn’t matter that Tommy had tried to lessen Sam’s sentence afterwards, pleaded with Dream to give the man a chance… Sam hadn’t wanted Tommy’s charity and had chosen to rot in jail for it). 

Sam should have seen Tommy and killed him (or well attempted to like everyone else he’s ever cared for has). Instead, he had stared dumbfounded, recognised what the bucket in Tommy’s hands was filled with and had gotten into an argument over Henry’s name. Tommy had thought, maybe, Sam was keeping him alive because he wanted the bucket full of healing tears, but he never reached out for it. Never mentioned it or forced Tommy away from it. Instead, he had…

Invited Tommy into his house to meet with Ponk (Ponk? What the hell was Ponk doing out here with Sam?). And was now… making breakfast. Tommy watched him, his head tilted, as he tried to understand. 

Nothing was making sense. 

He was gonna have to be more human like and communicate (ew).

“Why are you out here?” He had asked and Sam got all soft and gooey (it was weird to see, Tommy was used to some part of Sam’s face being obscured, Las Nevadas was all about masks, even if it was a mask that only ever covered a gambler’s eyes). 

“Well, Ponk wanted to farm and who was I to deny him?” Sam asks, which… gross. That sounds like they want to kiss and stuff, yuck… sharing slobber. But also, not what he was asking.

“Ew, I wasn’t asking about your dating history, Sam. I was asking why you’re out here? Weren’t you arrested and isn’t Ponk like a hero?” A pretty cool hero if you asked Tommy. Tommy had been at the agency for much longer than Ponk, and Tommy had never seen Dream as frustrated with someone as he was with Ponk. It was hilarious to a much younger Tommy (it was a little horrifying thinking back on it, with everything he now knows).

“I wasn’t- we’re not- I… What do you know about the hero society since you’ve been gone?” Sam decides to ask instead of answering Tommy’s very valid and important questions. Rude.

“Not a lot. There’s not really any preview or sky lounge in the sky you know. All I know since I’ve come back down, which has been only a little over 24 hours at this point, is that one of the Syndicate leaders needs healing,” Tommy shrugs.

“They…. Wait, the Syndicate?” Sam asks and Tommy snorts.

“Are you sure this is your house, cause you sound like you’ve been living under a rock for the past week or however long the Blade has been harassing me. He was rather blunt and obvious with his pleas for help,” clearly something Tommy said made no sense to Sam, because he was quickly tapping away at his phone and with a press of a remote it was popping up on the TV in the dining room. 

Some internet news article started playing. Dream was on the screen. Green hoodie, dirty blonde hair poking out in odd spikes and his trademark (stupid) smiley mask in place.

“-do not know what the Blade could want with Theseus, but Tommy would never be foolish enough to fall into this obvious trap, he’ll have the Syndicate running to his tune in no time, I’m sure,” Dream’s voice hasn’t changed since Tommy last heard him. He’s as calm and collected as always and it frustrates Tommy to no end (not as frustrating as hearing Dream use his real name in an interview. Tommy would never do that to Dream).

“What could the Syndicate want from Theseus?” The interviewer asks. 

“Most likely it’s grudge based. Tommy really did a number on the Syndicate when he was with the agency, seeing as the Syndicate haven’t tried before now, we worry they have something to use against Tommy. We’re investigating to make sure Tommy has the backup needed when the Syndicate does make their move. Numerous bases have already been raided and we’re working hard to keep the situation under control,” Dream sounds so rational, like he has everything under control (the kind of calm all the top heroes have for the camera).

“Thank you for your time,” the interviewer says. “Do you have any parting remarks before you get back to saving the day?”

“Only the same thing I’ve said with every interview. Tommy,” Dream looks directly at the camera and Tommy is scared (terrified) that Dream can see him right now. Can reach out and put a hand on his shoulder with those fond green eyes and- “I know you’re scared after you lost control of your powers, but you’re not in trouble. You have nothing to worry about. Come back, please, we just want to help you gain control again. Every hero goes through a sudden surge of power, accidents will happen. We just want to help.”

The screen goes off to some news anchor talking about the messages in the sky left by Techno, but Tommy can’t focus on that. All he can focus on is Dream and-

Accidents happen? We just want to help? Scared?

Yeah… Tommy is scared. Scared of Dream. Scared of what Tommy will do when he sees Dream next. What he did to the hero agency was no accident. He needed out, he felt like a caged bird, and he needed to be free, and he had the means to be free, he just had to let loose. Just had to cut himself away from his humanity, escape the confides placed on him and-

Everything burned. Everything burned and burned and-

“That’s ridiculous,” Sam says, still looking at the screen where they’re still talking about the sky messages and some pilot is being interviewed on a shoddy camera phone and-

“-honestly thought it was a prank. The guy on the phone was awkward as hell, but with the amount that’s appeared and how the heroes are taking it seriously I went to the police about it and… well, they think the money I was paid with was stolen from some billionaire which is causing some legal problems over who the money actually belongs to, and-”

Tommy snorts.

“That’s the Blade for you. The Syndicate is full of dramatic arseholes,” Tommy says (dramatic arseholes he is endlessly fond of).

“I’ve only met the Angel of Death,” Sam mutters as he stares at the screen. “I wouldn’t say he was dramatic. Just intimidating.”

“Didn’t think you could get intimidated, Big Man,” Tommy admits (Sam had always radiated this feeling that he was a castle that would safeguard everything and everyone. He was something impossible to take down).

“All the time,” Sam disagrees. “I get intimidated by people all the time, Tommy.”

“By me?” Tommy jokes, but-

“Yes,” Sam admits. “Tommy, you especially intimidate me. You took down Las Nevadas alone at the age of 16 and now walk into the room with a villain you took down without an ounce of fear. You’re even casually waiting for the villain in question to make you breakfast without any information about the power shifts in the world. I could poison you here and you don’t care.”

“I can’t exactly die, Sam,” Tommy points out, but that just makes Sam shoot him these sad puppy dog eyes, like Tommy has murdered his favourite pet (he would never).

“Absolutely terrifying, that’s what you are Tommy,” Sam shakes his head. “And even with all that power, I just… find you crying with a bucket of elixir.”

“I wasn’t crying,” Tommy denies (hoping Sam hadn’t caught him filling the bucket with his golden tears).

“Your eyes are swollen and puffy,” Sam says (a careful poke of his cheeks doesn’t provide Tommy with any answers, if his eyes had been swollen, they’ve already healed. His body constantly in a state of healing).

“Fuck you,” Tommy says.

Sam laughs, softly, putting all his focus back on the pan in front of him, even as the TV continues to talk about Tommy’s situation without actually knowing anything. Even as Tommy watches him.

“You know you didn’t answer my question about why you’re out here,” Tommy points out. 

“I… Dream offered for me to join the hero agency. I did for a while, but after Ponk’s… accident, I just wanted him to live the kind of life he wants, you know? So… farm life it is,” Sam says and… honestly the whole concept is off. Sam has always been about tech and building stuff, the idea of him without any of that is odd.

(The idea of him in a tractor kind of fits though… and imagining him messing with the engine to make the world’s fastest tractor is hilarious and something Sam would totally do.)

“Sounds kind of boring,” Tommy comments and Sam laughs.

“Boring is good. Boring led to us getting Henry,” and Tommy squawks because unfair (how could Sam of all people, be the one to find such a beautiful creature?).

The conversation carries on, both avoiding the hard topics for now (but they burn in Tommy’s throat. Questions like: why haven’t you tried killing me yet? Why did you invite me in? Why did you accept Dream’s offer for redemption, but not Tommy’s?). The questions continue burning, as food is placed in front of him, and he starts eating with little care (eggs, sausages and pancakes; it’s pretty nice). The questions threaten to leave when Ponk turns up and Tommy sees the ‘accident’ Ponk had clearly suffered from.

Ponk makes some stupid joke about adoption and Tommy complains that he is literally an adult and Sam laughs about him not looking like one and- 

It’s all homely. 

It’s not something Tommy can get comfortable with.

He has a bucket to dispose of and a world he needs to learn to survive in. 

(He’s not saying no to food before all of that. And he deserves to have at least one more conversation with Henry before he heads off.)

Eventually (as Ponk is literally eating) Tommy can’t keep the questions at bay.

“What happened?” Tommy asks, and it could mean anything really. Could be asking how these two became close enough to live together. Could be asking what’s happened in the world since Tommy’s been gone, but they all know what Tommy is actually asking. His stare is pointed and direct.

You see… the thing is healers aren’t really let out of the hero agency, there’s always an excuse to keep them away from the rest of the world. They had tried that with Tommy when he was younger (but Tommy was not to be stopped, he was always an unstoppable force). So, Ponk shouldn’t have been able to get hurt (unless it was back on the day Tommy left, he destroyed so much when he left. The most destructive resignation ever given).

“An accident,” is all Ponk says (so it could have been Tommy’s fault. He hopes not, he liked Ponk).

“And now you're out here?” Tommy questions. 

“Now I’m out here,” Ponk nods.

“And… The hero agency is ok with that?” It’s hard to imagine them being ok with that, they were rarely happy with anything.

“What do you think?” Ponk asks Tommy and… ah… Ponk had probably gone through similar bullshit he had gone through and-

“Are you alright? Doing ok out here?” Tommy asks him. He understands the need to escape, to run away and never look back. To just exist without needing anyone messing with him. He never imagined Ponk would be like that, but Tommy can understand it. Can respect it.

“Never better,” Ponk says and there’s a smile in his voice (and there’s a smile on Sam’s face and Tommy really shouldn’t be intruding, he’s messing with their whole dynamic and-). “How about you Tommy? How have you been?”

He should just say he’s good, it’s the expected response. But he looks at Ponk’s arm, looks at the way Ponk was able to escape the hero agency and their claimed ‘necessary’ bullshit and… he wants to be honest. From one healer to another. Wants an opinion that isn’t his own.

“I’m not sure how I’m feeling. Someone wants me to heal them, but I’m not sure if I should put myself through that pain again,” Tommy admits. “What’s it like not having to heal everyone?”

“Honestly? A relief, but then I never wanted to be a healer,” and they talk. They talk through breakfast. They talk through lunch. They would have talked through dinner, but Tommy needed a break, so had gone out to visit Henry. 

Neither Sam nor Ponk expect or force anything on him and the two… the two share their opinions to Tommy’s problems (not that he’s positive he can agree with them yet). And Ponk explains his past. Explains the hell he went through. It’s different for Tommy (Tommy had wanted to help, had wanted to be a hero who healed), but it had ended the same. Used. An agency breathing down their necks. Expectations that never should have been there. 

Ponk makes a lot of comparisons to doctors. How legally a doctor or nurse wouldn’t have to help outside of work hours, and in fact it could lead to more problems long term, if a person chose to sue them. Ponk had brought up forums where doctor and nurses were debating whether they had a professional duty and Tommy got immersed in the hypothetical situation these people similar to him faced. 

Nothing was perfect. 

Tommy still had no idea what he was going to do.

But… well at least he had Henry for now (and at least Ponk and Sam seemed to be helping… that… that was pretty nice. Even if it wouldn’t last. Even if it made no sense).

Chapter Text

"Dad!" A voice he couldn't live without hearing screeched. "Dad! Come quick!"

The young voice was panicked. Terrified. Schlatt instantly dropped the paperwork on the dining room table and ran out towards the living room where his son and his son's best friend were meant to be quietly playing until he finished with the ‘boring adult stuff’.

"Boys! Are you ok?" He called, stumbling into the room. 

There, in the middle of the room, Tubbo worriedly crouched over the curled-up form of his best friend. His kid looked up at him with wide watery eyes as Tommy wailed into the floor, his small fluffy pinkish wings struggling to cover his ball-like form.

"What happened? Tommy, can you hear me?" Schlatt's question just seemed to make the kid cry more, so Schlatt tried to pull the kid up off the floor and into his lap.

The kid struggled away. Refusing to move with him. Schlatt turned to Tubbo, hoping his son could give him something to work with.

The four-year-old shuffled awkwardly on his feet. Looking away.

"Tubbo?" He asked, voice gentle. 

"We… we were jumping on the couch- I know you said not to! But Tommy was sure if he got enough height, he could fly this time!" Tubbo whimpered and Schlatt sighed. He couldn't be surprised; this was how his kids met. Tommy had wings that wanted to extend to the winds, Tubbo had hooves that wanted to explore the cliff sides; Schlatt and Tommy's Mother have experienced numerous heart attacks over their kids climbing things they should not be climbing.

"Tommy, you know what your mum said about your wings, right?" Schlatt questioned and gently placed a hand on Tommy's shoulder. Rubbing the kid's back, just above his wing.

"They are big enough!" Tommy screeched. "I'm a Big Man!"

"You are, you're the biggest man," Schlatt reassures as he looks over the living room. The kids haven't knocked anything over, a few cushions are out of place, but there's thankfully no blood. Tommy hasn't seemingly injured himself too badly, hopefully he's just crying over the shock of the fall. "Big men ask for help when they need it."

"I am a Big Man!" Tommy whines. 

"Are you going to ask for my help then?" Schlatt asks, hopefully leading the kid into a situation where Schlatt can actually help.

"Can-" Tommy is cut off by a whimper, a whimper brought on by Tubbo kicking Tommy with one of his hooves.

Schlatt stares at his son in shock for a few moments, goes to tell Tubbo off, when-

"The plan," Tubbo mutters, it's almost a whisper and if his son wasn't basically a toddler that had all the espionage skills of an elephant, Schlatt's sure he wouldn't have noticed. As it is…

He observes as Tommy seems to pause and then cry louder. Wailing like he was bleeding out and-

"It hurts," Tommy groans like he's going to throw up and-

"Daddy... maybe ice cream will help?" Tubbo asks, all politely and sugary and-

It's very hard to stop himself from snorting in amusement. These kids are menaces. And dramatic as fuck. His heart slows down when he realises there isn't any actual danger. That the kids were just bored of waiting on him and trying to speed him along. He can't just call them out, though. No, that would be too easy. No… instead…

"I'm sorry boys," Schlatt sighs, feigning a deep sadness at everything going on before him. "We're gonna have to delay our trip out for ice cream until another day, if Tommy's injured, we're going to have to go to the hospital and I'm going to have to delay doing the taxes until my next day off."

He shoots Tubbo an apologetical smile, before scooping Tommy up into his arms, purposefully squishing the kid's face into his chest, so he can't see the obviously fake tears. Tubbo stares up at him, bewildered.

"Come on, Tubs, get your shoes on. You don't want to risk Tommy dying, right?" He says and Tommy screams into his side (the screams are muffled, but still loud enough to pierce eardrums).

"Not. Dying!" Is what Schlatt understands, and he runs a hand through Tommy's blonde locks (they're incredibly soft, but then again, his mother spends hours preening Tommy's hair and feathers every day. It would be disappointing if they weren't soft and fluffy). 

"I know it's scary, Toms, but denial isn't the way to go. We'll get you to the hospital and patched up in no time," Schlatt walks purposefully towards the door, a struggling bird in his arms as he reaches out to pick up Tommy's shoes and jacket.

"I'm fine! I'm ok!" Tommy cries and Tubbo follows behind, suddenly worried (Schlatt wonders why that could be?). 

"Come on, Tubbo. We have to be quick," Schlatt pulls out Tubbo's jacket and shoes when the kid doesn't reach for them. 

"We… we don't really have to go to the hospital, right?" Tubbo asks nervously, placing his feet in his shoes without doing the laces up and just holding his jacket as follows behind Schlatt.

Schlatt holds the backdoor seat to his car out and makes sure Tubbo is seat belted in before walking over to the other door. He opens the other backseat door, crouches down, so he can place Tommy into the seat opposite Tubbo’s.

"Of course, Tommy's hurt, I can't just leave him now, can I? We have to make sure he's healthy, right?" No one answers him, Tommy continues to squirm in his hold. "Unless there's a reason, we shouldn't…?"

Silence.

Tubbo looks away, out his door's window, as though the outside of their house was the most interesting thing he's ever seen. Tommy stills in his hold, completely frozen like a deer in the headlights.

"That's what I thought," Schlatt says (and it's so hard to not laugh at the two kids). "So, to the hospital-"

"I'm fine!" Tommy breaks first (he always was the first one to). "I lied! I'm completely ok!" 

"But Tommy, you were crying. You know-"

"Look!" Tommy yells, pushing away from Schlatt's chest so his face is on show for everyone.

There are tears. But they aren't the golden tears Tommy cries when he's genuinely distraught. They're the normal tears every other person in the world cries. Small clear liquid trails that assure everyone that Tommy is fine, that he was faking a few moments ago.

Schlatt pulls out a tissue (knows to always have them on hand with how much of a handful his kid is, with how much worse he gets when he has Tommy in his corner). He wipes Tommy's tears away and lets the kid blow his nose, before finally placing him in the car and making sure he's also seat belted in. After making sure he has everything he needs from the house and he’s locked the front door, he joins them back in the car with a purposefully loud sigh.

The 'quiet' mutterings from the back instantly stop when he looks back with the saddest look he can muster (it's a pitiful expression with half lidded eyes and a pout and it makes his son and his best friend squirm). He sighs once more, just so he can watch the way the two tense up.

"Why would you lie kiddos? I was incredibly scared, thinking Tommy was terribly injured. What would have happened if we got to the hospital and went through all the tests they do? Would you have kept the lie going?" Tommy shuffles a little, goes to open his mouth to answer (which had equal chances of being an honest answer or an exclamation that he was a 'big man'). 

"We plead the fifth!" Tubbo yells, balling his little hands in his shirt. "Right, Tommy?"

"Yeah! The fifth!" Tommy answers just as strongly, even though he was definitely about to say something completely different.

"Alright," Schlatt nods, and focuses on the road ahead, seat belting himself and starting the car. 

"What's the fifth?" He hears a tiny voice speak up in the back of the car.

"Don't know. People yell it all the time when the police ask them questions and then they don't have to answer," Tubbo explains.

"Oh. Is that how you got out of trouble for running around with scissors in Miss Clara's class?" Tommy asks.

"Yeah! I'm called Mr. Big Law now, after finishing off with the Bar," Tubbo informs his best friend, with all the surety of a four, almost five, year old. "I'll make sure to get you out of trouble next time too, Boss Man." 

"Thanks, Big T," Tommy says and… Schlatt… Schlatt has clearly been watching too many murder mysteries around Tubbo, if the kid was picking up all this kind of terminology. He's… gonna have to keep an eye on that, even if it is hilarious to hear. Maybe… maybe he'll let the kid listen in a little more, just to see what other weird stuff he’d come up with. 

He focuses on driving. Listening in on the kids talking in the background. They rile themselves up, getting progressively more panicked the longer Schlatt drives. He hears them worry over the fact that Schlatt is driving them to prison due to their lies, hears them panicking over what happens in prison (and Schlatt almost hits the breaks when he hears Tubbo mention ‘picking up the soap’, only to relax when he realises the kids had misunderstood the term to mean they would have to wash their mouths out with soap… alright, so maybe he really should stop watching murder mysteries and crime related subjects around Tubbo).

He lets them panic, stops himself from laughing, because when he reaches their destination, he’ll laugh openly in their faces as they realise, he’s driven them to the ice cream parlour he promised earlier that day. Tubbo will kick him, because his son is a little shit, and whine and won’t properly learn to stop being a devious schemer, because he did get what he wants, but… well Schlatt just finds the whole thing funny. 

And…

And he wakes up to a loud bang. The memories of the past fading away. And his pitiful present reveals itself to his tired mind. 

He’s sitting, slumped forward, in a bar. To the uninitiated he looks like a drunk that was never kicked out of the pub, it would be foolish to make such an assumption. He was one of the most wanted villains around these parts (not because of what he did, though he did mess with the hero agency a fair bit, not because of his abilities, there was nothing special about being a ram, but because of what he knows and what he shouts from the rooftops for everyone to hear. He's considered one of the most dangerous villains not due to the fact that he harms others, but because he slanders the hero agency. Well… that's what he and the hero agency know. The public think he's the worst thing to ever walk these lands, think he’s a terrorist with expertise in bombs, even though he has no idea how those work).

"Dad!" Tubbo yells, pulling his hazy mind to focus. 

Tubbo, his little boy that he never got to see grow up, stands in front of him. Hands slammed on the table he had been sleeping against. He's taller than he once was but is still quite short. His horns haven't grown in fully though, so maybe there's a growth spurt coming in his future (or maybe the hero agency has fucked with his kid so bad, that he's stopped growing before he was meant to). Tubbo is covered in scars after years of training and fighting, he covers most of them up with layers of clothes (clothes that haven't been put on properly, it reminds him of untied shoelaces in his dreams and Schlatt longs to reach his hands out and right Tubbo's shirt, just like he had knelt down and tied Tubbo and Tommy's shoes up for them after they had stopped yelling at Schlatt for tricking them). The clothes fail to hide the burn marks that run up Tubbo's neck and face (Tubbo had grown his hair out, hoping to cover the scars, but there's too many and there are permanent chunks of hair missing from where certain flames had licked at his flesh). 

His boy is 20. Old enough to move on with his life, to leave the father that failed him and the hero agency that deceived him behind. Tubbo's clever, Tubbo's bright; he could do anything with his life and there was no villain in this world that could stop him and yet…

He reached out to Schlatt. He listened to what Schlatt had to say. He doesn't blame Schlatt for everything that happened. He wanted Schlatt to help him.

So Schlatt does.

With a stretch that cracks Schlatt's spine (he hates aging), he sits up.

"Tubbo. What do you need?" He asks, without a single moment of hesitation. Without a single doubt.

Tubbo slides into the chair opposite. Taps away at his phone and hands it over to Schlatt. On screen there's a news article about the Syndicate. Schlatt isn't surprised. Tubbo has been observing their every move over the past week, ever since they revealed themselves to be going after Tommy (Tubbo wouldn't let a single person touch a hair on his best friend's head, he and Tommy always had been ride and die).

"They're finally making a move?" Schlatt asks, as he glances through the article.

An entire block had been knocked out with an explosion. It appears initial reports claimed it was a gas leak, but it quickly became apparent it was the Syndicate when little fox totems had been uncovered within the rubble. Everything after that was pure speculation. 

Schlatt had no time for speculation. He looked up at Tubbo. His son had a vicious snarl on his face (he gets that from Schlatt, and he's never been a prouder father).

"The heroes are obviously covering the explosion up, and I wanted to know why," Tubbo explains, pulling his phone away. A few more taps and a bunch of charts are revealed to Schlatt. "These are the temperature readings in the area. The Syndicate made their rendezvous with Tommy. Only that bird brain can reach those temperatures."

"You think they captured Tommy?" Schlatt asks, worried.

(He's had the misfortune of meeting Wilbur in and out of costume. The man is… obsessed with Tommy. He had only hunted Schlatt and Tubbo down to ask for stories about Tommy. To ask if they had any advice on bringing Tommy back down to the earth to them (he had said 'him' and quickly changed it to 'them', as though he was fooling anyone with his plans). Schlatt doesn't want Tommy anywhere near the Syndicate, doesn't want him anywhere near the hero agency and if he gets his say this time, he'll make sure they can't even look at him this time.)

"I think if Tommy went to those temperatures there had to have been an attempt," Tubbo grins (the expression is a little too proud). "A failed attempt. But they're going to try again, and we can't allow for that now, can we?"

"Of course not," Schlatt's grin matches Tubbo, they are father and son, after all. "You head down to the lair, get things started. I'll join you in a bit."

Tubbo laughs, jumping up and making his way over to the pool tables that if pressed in a certain way will reveal the hidden 'evil lair' behind the bar. 

"You won't mind if I start messing with them while I wait for you?" Tubbo asks, as though Schlatt has ever told his kid 'no'.

"Rain hell upon them, kid," Schlatt says, heading towards the back of the bar, where a stairwell leads up. To their apartment above. He has someone he needs to talk to before acting the bad guy once again.

Connor.

Connor was alright. Just your average graduate that didn't know what to do with themselves. Just a struggling young adult seeking their place in the world. Schlatt let him work for his bar and often let the kid crash in his apartment. Which had proven to reveal that Connor was the worst roommate alive. Often claiming Schlatt's things as his own, which is why Schlatt found the kid snoring in Schlatt’s bed.

With a sigh, Schlatt pushed him out of his bed. The kid hit the ground with a yelp. 

Groggy blue eyes peer out from behind the bed.

"Schlatt? Why'd you have to do that?" Connor whines and Schlatt rolls his eyes.

"You’re sleeping in my bed again and you didn’t wake me up last night. I spent the entire night sleeping at the bar,” his neck was killing him and Connor, as predicted, was unrepentant. 

“But you looked like you were having such a nice dream. You were smiling and drooling,” Connor laughs. “What were you dreaming of?”

“Just old memories. You’re lucky Tubbo woke me before it turned into a nightmare,” and it almost had. That day… that day in his past was both a day fondly filled with his kid and his kid’s best friend saying stupidly hilarious things and making ridiculous schemes, but it was also the day the hero agency got involved in their lives. 

After ice cream they went to the park. He had watched over his kids as they climbed trees, ran across the playground, and rushed down the slide. It was all normal, painfully normal, and then… Tubbo had fallen off the swing. He had landed weirdly, his arm hitting the ground at an odd angle. It didn’t seem broken, but Tubbo cried every time he moved it and yelled when someone touched him.

Tommy had cried those golden tears. 

Before that day no one knew why his tears were different. They just were and it wasn’t important. It didn’t hurt the kid or anyone else and an ability changing the colouring on a person wasn’t exactly rare. They never thought to check if there was something special with his tears. 

So, Tommy had cried right beside Tubbo. Tubbo through his own tears and pain had tried comforting Tommy. He brushed Tommy’s tears away clumsily and, with a curiosity Schlatt still doesn’t understand till this day, had stuck one of those golden tears in his mouth. Maybe it was the knowledge that they weren’t normal that made Tubbo want to know if they tasted different, maybe Tubbo had just wanted to clear his hand from the tears, whatever it was Schlatt hadn’t blinked twice at the strange action. Kids did gross things, you had to get used to it as a parent. 

Schlatt wishes he had stopped Tubbo. Wishes he was a parent that wasn’t so used to the disgusting things kids sometimes did. If he had stopped Tubbo maybe none of them would have ended up like they had. 

Tubbo had licked Tommy’s tears off his hands and his injured arm healed in front of everyone. No one knew why at that time, but when the hero agency came to know of some ability that could heal, they would find out soon enough. The hero agency wouldn’t rest until they knew. Their lives were never the same. 

Schlatt lost so much.

They all lost so much. 

Never again. That’s what he promised as he started protesting outside of the hero agency. 

Never again. That’s what he promised as he was interviewed by newspapers.

Never again. That’s what he promised as he was vilified and sacrificed for some ‘greater’ good.

Never again. That’s what he promised as he had to arrange a funeral for a lonely mother that blamed herself.

Never again. That’s what he promised as he embraced his role as a villain.

Never again. That’s what he promised as Tubbo, and Tommy somehow escaped their prison in the hero agency. 

Never again, is what he promises now, as some two-bit villain organisation tries to capture a bird who finally escaped his cage and learnt to fly. He wasn’t going to let Tubbo and Tommy down again. He had work to do.

“-genuinely looked like you were having a good rest,” he doesn’t bother to understand what Connor was saying, it wasn’t as important as what Schlatt was about to announce. 

“Connor, I need you to look over the bar for the next few days, maybe a little longer, I’m going to be busy with the other job,” Connor’s eyes light up with recognition, but before he could pipe up and ask if he can join Schlatt in his villainy, Schlatt’s already turning away. “Call Charlie for me, we’re going to need his help.”

He had work to do and well… If Schlatt gets his way… This place was going to be a lot different tomorrow…

Chapter Text

Tommy spends days awake. Thinking. Debating. 

He talks to Ponk a little. He talks to Sam a little. He talks to Henry a whole lot. He’s not sure what he’s to do with his life now, but… he has a pressing matter to deal with before anything else and…

Although a hard decision, Tommy would be lying if he said he expected himself to make any other choice (and he tries to make himself make another decision, tries to force himself down a different path; a better path). He knew himself well enough to always know this was always the choice he’d make. 

He grabs his bucket of healing tears. He spreads his wings and… he takes off. Only one destination in mind. 

He’s not sure if he’ll be back (but maybe he will, if only for Henry), but he has things he must do. At the end of the day, he’s still a hero (whatever that actually entailed).

The sun rises, catching on his golden locks (they’re clean and shiny, after Sam insisted, he have a shower) when he lands at his destination. His fate, everyone’s fate, is made in those warm sunbeams. It’s not a future anyone could have predicted. 

(Well… almost anyone. There are few who know what is coming, and those few tremble and try to find some kind of escape for what is about to come. For their future that would be desolate and non-existent without the return of a certain hero…)

----

Eight hours of sleep hadn’t helped Techno. Eight hours of consistent sleep hadn’t helped Techno. He’s stressed and his sleep is filled with nightmares of him failing (his family need him and yet here he is, flailing about because Fundy won’t help him, Tommy won’t help him, no one will help him. He’s been left alone to deal with everything and it’s just becoming a little too much (he’s made no progress. He needs to make some kind of progress. Needs to have proof that he’s doing something- and no, the burns that pull at his skin every time he moves are not enough proof. He needs something more. He needs-)

He needs Wilbur to be alright already!

Wilbur… Wilbur had healed a little, thanks to Tommy, but over the last few days he seemed to have gotten worse. Suddenly the withering effect was hitting him harder and faster and… Had Tommy’s healing triggered something in Wilbur to make him die faster? Tommy had said it didn’t make sense that Wilbur was still alive, maybe there had been something about the way Wilbur had been hurt that kept him going longer, some impurity that had been healed by the phoenix’s healing abilities and…

Techno can’t help but wonder if it was purposeful. It’s not like Tommy’s family, it’s not like Tommy cares about Wilbur like Wilbur cares about Tommy, the brat would probably do something spiteful like this to prove himself right (the world would congratulate him for it as well, tell him he did a good job killing a villain. Killing Techno’s brother).

He knows better than to voice these thoughts. Wilbur wouldn’t mind dying if it means he gets to see Tommy again. Fundy is clearly pro-Tommy. Phil… Phil’s always been on the fence, seeing both Wilbur and Techno’s point of view. Saying how Techno was right about Wilbur rushing in with Tommy too fast but saying how Wilbur was right about there being something special about Tommy.

(He was a hero. That’s what is ‘special’ about the kid. That and nothing more.)

It doesn’t stop the thoughts from festering. From building up. From clouding his vision and his opinion on anything. Doesn’t stop him from stressing out all the more when Fundy calls for him. 

He had stuck around Fundy’s house while trying to come up with some new plan to help Wilbur, to capture Tommy, because… well… Fundy was Wilbur’s kid legally and with Wilbur and Phil out of commission the kid was getting deathly pale without his escorted trips to the garden. That was something Techno could help with (it also meant he’d be able to convince Fundy to tell him where Tommy was without Fundy just having his phone constantly rickroll him, as had been the newest game the kid was playing. Every time Techno tried to turn his phone on the YouTube app would load and all he could hear were those damning drums and those annoyingly catchy beats).

Honestly, Fundy had been stubborn about Tommy (everyone in their family was so stubborn), so when Fundy called out for him, he wasn’t expecting much. Maybe the kid wanted to go on a trip outside (even though it was a little too early, dew still sliding down the flowers that made up the front garden) or wanted Techno to push him to the kitchen for easier access to breakfast. 

“Techno! Tommy’s at the hospital!” Was not what he thought he’d be greeted with as he entered Fundy’s room. 

Seeing grainy footage of Tommy entering the hospital without a single care for subtly (and the kid looks both better and worse from when he last saw him, wearing clothes that are too large on his form but that still look better than the one piece suit he was wearing prior. Hair puffed up and clean, much better than his bug riddled hair beforehand. But the kid still looks slumped and defeated. The kid has also acquired a bucket since their last meeting and… it looks kind gross looking). 

“Is that happening now?” Techno questions, watching Tommy strut forward, not acknowledging the looks he’s receiving (but then, he’s used to the attention, isn’t he?).

“Yeah. I’m sure it isn’t a surprise to say he’s heading towards Wilbur’s room?” Fundy laughs, a little awkward and Techno…

Techno charges out of the house. He’s since brought his car to Fundy’s home (for an occasion just like this) and he’s tearing down the streets without a care. He doesn’t bother answering the phone when Fundy calls, he only has one thought in his mind. Tommy is approaching Wilbur and Phil. Tommy is approaching his family. His family could be in danger. 

Techno doesn’t like surprises. Techno doesn’t like when things don’t go according to plan. He doesn’t like things that can’t be contained and explained. Tommy is everything Techno doesn’t like. How can Techno plan for Tommy when he’s always been the most annoying and spontaneous person Techno’s ever met? How can he know how this is going to pan out if Tommy has never given him an honest answer to any of his questions?

Tommy is a risk. He always has been. He became a bigger one when they discovered he was Theseus.

Techno liked Theseus. It’s no secret, he played favourites, but being a favourite didn’t mean he would tolerate them being a threat. He had genuinely tried to kill Theseus in the past. He had successfully put Skeppy out of commission. He’s willing to put Dream six feet under. He’s a villain, and although he’s a villain for Phil and Phil’s glorious vision of the future, he’s still willing to do every criminal thing in the world to protect his family. He’d find a way to kill the unkillable if it would protect Wilbur and Phil. 

So, Tommy had best hope he wasn’t threatening his family right now (was he going to heal Wilbur a tiny bit again? Was Wilbur some fucked up experimentation Tommy was participating in to see how his healing fared against withering?). Techno wouldn’t want to make the hospital his family were in (the hospital they had spent years corrupting so they could use it however they wished) a battleground, but he would if it was for their safety.

He rushes across town. Little care for red lights and other lives, when his family was at risk. If he gets a speeding ticket? It wasn’t like he couldn’t afford it.

He reaches the hospital in record time and flings himself out of his seat and into the building without a single care that he’s parked awkwardly in his parking spot. Who could honestly care about road safety when your family was in danger?

He reaches Wilbur and Phil’s room and… they’re both asleep. Undisturbed. The only change in the room is… the open window and the bucket Tommy had been carrying left right beside Wilbur’s bed.

The camera… The security camera they had first seen through hadn’t done the bucket justice. It glowed from Techno’s angle. A bright golden colour that Techno knew meant elixir and… Tommy had brought… an elixir? When he could have just healed Wilbur himself? Things… things weren’t lining up with all Techno has ever known. Why drop off a bucket (an entire bucketful of elixir) with them? How would he have even received it, the hero agency had… had… lost connection with their provider… and… Tommy…

His phone rings. 

Phil twitches, his feathers shaking with an alertness that was finally coming back after two weeks of healing. 

Techno grabs the bucket (a piece of paper flutters to the ground from the movement and Techno quickly grabs that as well) and rushes out of the room. Away from his healing family. Away from his dying family. With a sigh he leans against the corridor’s wall and answers Fundy’s calls.

“You know, if you picked up, you wouldn’t have had to worry so much. I could have told you Tommy was just leaving a present,” Fundy says, his voice amused. 

“I wouldn’t have believed you,” Techno informs him.

“Oh? Feeling a little honest after everything? I’m proud of you, I know how hard it is-”

“Not the time Fundy,” Techno grunts, looking down at the crumbled note and the bucket of elixir. 

“Tommy wrote the note,” Fundy explains, clearly watching Techno through the cameras. “He wrote it in a rush. Who wants to bet he just repeatedly called you an arsehole?”

Techno gives the nearest camera the middle finger. Fundy laughs, before squawking like an indignant bird (he’s definitely got that sound from Phil, Phil always sounded like an offended seagull). 

“What?” Techno asks.

“The cameras went out,” Fundy explains, and Techno feels 100 times better that he rushed over here, he’s not leaving his family unguarded. “I’m going to try and see what’s going on with them. Keep me posted.”

“Maybe,” it’s the best he can give, you’d think Fundy wouldn’t know that with how loudly he protests as Techno cuts the call.

With a sigh Techno takes in his surroundings. There’s no one around, the staff knows when to keep their distance and when they need to approach, but Techno is still careful as he looks down at the note and elixir.

Was… was it actually an elixir? Would Tommy really drop off something so precious? Didn’t Tommy hate them?

(He should hate them. They’ve killed Tommy more than just once. They’ve tried using him for his healing ability. He was a hero, and they were villains. The only world that made sense was a world where they hated each other. Maybe Tommy was prone to feeling guilty… but that didn’t line up with the cocky Theseus or the loudmouthed Tommy...)

He checks the note first. Hoping for some clarity in the words Tommy has chosen to grace them with. 

(Did Tommy even know how to provide clarity? He was a little all over the place and could babble on about nothing for hours. Surely having only a few seconds to leave a hasty note made his inability to chat coherently worse?)

He takes a deep breath, a breath to ground him, before Theseus predictably drags him 50 feet up in the air just like he always did in their fights, trying to shake his world once more. 

He reads.

He… he doesn’t know how to feel.

The note… the note… is something.

Something…

Tears?

What?

Tommy… Tommy just couldn’t help but drag him along for the ride, could he? He couldn’t stop himself from following his own pace and forcibly dragging everyone along with him. Maybe it’s just what those with bird like abilities did. Phil was prone to dragging the world into his own tempo as well, but this…

This made Techno question a lot of what he thought he knew.

The message was so simple as well.

So painfully simple.

Wilby,

You’re an arse, but I’m done crying over you. I’m sure you can make use of these tears more than I ever could. 

Tommy.

Tears…

Tears?

Theseus’... Theseus’ powers have been speculated about for years. Techno had speculated for years, he’d once thought that maybe it was his feathers and that the hero agency kept quiet about it so that no one would try collecting the left-over feathers from after his fights (but that had been proven quickly false, Tommy’s feathers turned into ash after a certain amount of time of being left alone). Then he thought maybe his flames were tied into his healing, they always flared out when he was healing himself and the hero agency would probably be worried about someone suing them if they mentioned having to burn someone alive to heal them. But… one theory had mentioned gold and…

Elixirs are gold. 

Techno… doesn’t know why he wrote that theory off. Maybe he thought someone was making a baseless connection to Tommy and the elixirs, but… was it baseless…? Did the elixirs they’ve all used for years (and the Syndicate had stolen more than their fair share over the years and wasted them thinking there was an overabundance of them) come from Tommy? Did they exist from making the kid cry?

Tommy had to be messing with them, but…

There was a bucketful of elixir and…

It made more sense that he came from Tommy than Tommy spitefully finding it instead of healing Wilbur himself…

And maybe… maybe the theory he had accidentally healed Wilbur was… true? Had seeing Wilbur in the sorry state that he was in made Tommy cry? Was the unexpected sight (though it should have been expected, Techno had told Tommy Wilbur was dying) enough to make Tommy cry? Had he cried enough to fill a bucket over Wilbur? But that…

That didn’t make sense.

Tommy didn’t care. Or… well… he cared until he knew the truth that they were the Syndicate. The truth that they were the villains and Tommy was the ‘hero’ was always going to divide them, even if they hadn’t figured that out soon enough, even if they hadn’t figured that out before attachments had formed.

(Tommy cared, just not like how Wilbur cared. He didn’t care like they were family. He barely cared at all.)

Techno… Techno’s world doesn’t shift. Not yet. There is not enough room in his heart for Tommy (and there never will be), but he tries to look at this situation in a way that isn’t… full of suspicion and horror and… 

Tommy had given him a cure. However, he’s come across said cure, whatever their past might be, Tommy has given him a cure. It doesn’t matter if it’s suspicious, doesn’t matter if it’s a trap, doesn’t matter if something isn't adding up. In front of him is a forbidden fruit, gifted to him by a snake and Techno is going to bite, not because he wants to, but because there is no other future, he would rather be a part of, than the future where Wilbur has a chance.

It could be a cleverly hidden poison. 

It could be liquid flames created by a phoenix.

It could be the answer to all his problems. 

And there is an easy way to find out. Techno is the perfect tester. His burns still hurt, every movement aching his entire body. He thinks he should have collapsed days ago (probably would have if not for Fundy). 

He cups the liquid in the palm of both hands. 

The bucket is gross, definitely a health and safety hazard in a hospital, but if it is an elixir… it should be fine right?

Right…

You know… if these are Tommy’s tears it’s kind of gross that they’ve been drinking them for years. Like how did they even discover you could drink them to heal? Did Tommy have like a dying dog, and it licked his blotchy crying baby face and bam! Happy healthy dog!? 

What if these were just tears but like oddly coloured tears with no healing ability, a lot of people have odd colouring due to their abilities (Techno himself had pink hair, that wasn’t seemingly tied to any other part of his ability). What if Tommy was just playing a prank on them and Techno was about to drink the grossest thing in existence? 

Well… the uncertainty was kind of the point of this. He doesn’t know why the idea of it being poison is less upsetting than it being Tommy’s tears, but… it is… somehow… 

It doesn’t matter. This was for his family. 

He brings the golden liquid up to his lips. Tilts his head back and-

The cupped liquid races towards his lips. 

Not all of it perfectly runs into his mouth, some drips out between his fingers, some slips down his chin, but a majority of it does fill his mouth and…

It doesn’t taste salty like tears. It’s warm, like someone has blended up the sunny days he spends with his family in the garden with the adrenaline of a successful mission where Phil gives him those proud smiles and Wilbur nudges their shoulders together and-

It’s the feeling he always gets from an elixir. 

It’s a burst of joy followed by a cold feeling, like someone has gently rubbed a balm across every single wound he’s ever had and wished them away. It’s always been an odd sensation and Techno has written it off as some weird ability thing, his ability was hardly explainable after all, and well… It is some weird ability thing. It’s Tommy’s tears. A phoenix’s tears… 

Assuming Tommy is telling the truth and not being metaphorical or something… 

It’s still from Tommy, meaning it’s probably tied to his healing…

Maybe…

Were there any explanations on how phoenixes heal in legends? Techno just remembers reading that they could heal themselves and others and… well… that was it… No detailed explanations…

He… he can’t get distracted with the logistics of it… not now. Not while Wilbur is still suffering. Not when Techno can finally do something about it.

He takes another handful of the elixir and watches as his burns heal. The first drink had made them stop aching. The second drink had them fade to small scars. A third drink rids him forever of the burns Tommy had given him while reviving.

He’s not… happy with just that (he’d never be happy with just that), so he finds a separate room, a room with glass vials he can fill the liquid up in and summons one of his daggers to his hand. 

The blade slips free from his wrist, falling into his hands like it was always there (and it was, his weapons were always there, humming in the back of his mind like a reminder that violence is always an option). It’s the fancy dagger Phil had gifted him for his 21st birthday all those years ago. It’s more decorative than anything, but he doesn’t need it to be good for defence. He just needs it to be able to cut and all of Techno’s blades can do that (his abilities made sure of it). 

He brings it to his wrist and cuts it. Digs the blade firmly into his wrist and pulls the dagger up his arm, almost severing his forearm in half. Revealing bone and muscle. His blood splatters to the ground, but he’ll clean that up in a moment. For now, he has to focus (or he’ll accidentally bleed out, he doesn’t need to kill himself while Fundy can’t watch, and the cure is right there).

He picks up a vial. 

Fills it with the elixir.

Let’s the liquid slip easily down his throat.

And…

The wound heals. 

He feels better than when he cut himself. The elixir put him back together better than when he woke up this morning. 

He tried the experiment again. Pulls his shirt up and clenches the bottom of the shirt in his teeth, so it’s out of the way. Aims for his stomach. Digs the blade in deep and-

He winces at the pain as he gets himself another life-threatening injury. This time, when he collects the elixir up, he pours it directly on the injury. Watches as the golden liquid mixes with the red of his blood. 

The injury seems to almost glow as it’s filled in. Like Tommy’s tears are actually gold and Techno is a bowl that’s being fixed up kintsugi style. When the gold slips free of his wound, for it is liquid and not gold, he’s healed of all injury. 

He wipes the liquid away with a thoughtful hum. A thoughtful hum that cuts off as he tenses up and-

He turns quickly.

His dagger raised to strike, every other blade in his body ready and waiting to be used.

He doesn’t know what he was expecting to see when he turned (maybe Tommy coming back to take the cure away, doubting his decision and not wishing Wilbur to be healed any longer). He wasn’t expecting to see an anxious Ranboo with his arms raised like that was ever going to help defend against one of Techno’s blades. 

“Ranboo,” he sighs, untensing. Bringing him blade down (and letting it slip back into his flesh in a less damaging way and more of a becoming one with him again way). “What are you doing back here?”

“I was looking for you. Niki asked-”

“Doesn’t matter,” Techno quickly cuts him off. It's rude and he’ll feel bad about it later, but Ranboo reminded Techno of something important. More important than whatever Niki was asking of in the first place (and he’s pretty sure she’d agree with him this time. Techno is going to make her day). “I need you to deliver something to her.”

“Uh… but… she…” Ranboo’s hands rub together, his fingers tense and unsure as Techno gets out another vial. Fills it with the elixir and hands it out to Ranboo.

Ranboo holds it like it’s going to explode on him (and hey maybe the kid thinks it will, Techno has no idea if Ranboo has ever seen an elixir in person).

“Tell her, I don’t care about her little side hustle with Manifold, but if she could actually make use of the connection and look into that liquid then the two of them and the Syndicate will benefit greatly,” Techno says. Ranboo stares at the vial for longer than probably necessary, before looking back up at Techno with a determined expression on his face.

(It was that determined expression that first made Techno notice the kid. Techno’s always been fond of those that were defiant and strong willed. It’s probably why Tommy was a favourite.)

“Is there anything I should ask her to focus on?” Ranboo questions.

“To see if there’s a way to duplicate it, Manifold’s abilities might be useful there,” Techno says and then hesitates as he stares at the small vial of liquid gold in Ranboo’s hands. “And see if they can figure out what the chemical compounds are that make up the liquid… Maybe focus on seeing if there’s any electrolytes.”

“Alright,” Ranboo nods. Pure determination radiating off of him (it really was a shame Techno wasn’t allowed to train him).

“Did you need to write that down?” Techno asks, not unkindly. 

“That probably would be good,” Ranboo says nervously. And once he’s done and left Techno alone, Techno stares at the bucket he has… it’s still incredibly close to full up. He’s healed his burns, two life threatening injuries and handed some over to Ranboo for Niki and he’s still got plenty. 

He… he can’t keep it in this bucket though and he can’t keep his blood on the hospital floor…

So, with a sigh, he works on pouring the liquid into numerous vials and corking them up (the hospital won’t miss them, the Syndicate is basically the reason they have all the equipment they have). He cleans his blood off the floor and…

By the end of it he’s left with too many vials for one person to carry and a roughed-up note. He… he tucks the note away for now. He can’t focus on Tommy just yet. He’s got bigger problems to deal with.

(Should Tommy even be a problem now that Techno has what he wants? He shouldn’t… he shouldn’t be… Techno should be able to go back to ignoring his existence…)

Honestly, in an ideal world Techno would wait until Niki has results for him. Has an explanation about the elixir, but the truth is he doesn’t have time. Techno seems fine and maybe there’ll be long term effects, maybe there’s a slow acting poison involved, but if Techno waits Wilbur is guaranteed to be dead. 

He heads to Wilbur and Phil’s room. 

He has a family to heal. 

He has a family to save. 

And he has revenge to garner. 

Tommy hasn’t just provided him with a means to save his family, he’s provided him the means to get revenge on Killer Queen. 

Everyone knows Killer Queen has been untouchable since Tommy took to the skies, since the elixir stock depleted. Killer Queen could just do whatever they wanted, because if you got close enough for them to touch you, you were dead. 

Killer Queen has always been an odd one. Open with their identity, Eret, King of Pogtopia. They could be open with their identity, because their status of ruling another country gave them liberties they weren’t deserving of. It didn’t stop them from gaining a title, but that’s because they were a piece of work.

Pogtopia was a land that went deep underground and was guarded by a wall of wither roses. Wither roses Eret grew by killing others. From what Techno understands it started with them killing traitors and criminals of their land, but it soon grew to them reaching out to other lands to kill their criminals (and it didn’t matter to them if they were told no or were politely requested to leave, they’d reach out with their death bringing hands and murder thousands for their roses. Murder thousands to protect their land… or well that’s what they claimed. Techno had his doubts on if anyone actually lived in Pogtopia. The only citizen he’s ever met was Eret themselves).

Techno has no idea why Killer Queen went after Wilbur (he has his theories… There were a lot less villains around these days, what with Las Nevadas falling and Schlatt focusing on being a barman of all things, so it would be logical to aim for the next set of villains. The only thing is… they’ve never had a problem with each other before. Techno had even kept his dislike of the government to himself, because Wilbur and Phil seemed to get along well with the King), but after everything Killer Queen has put them through… Well… the King had best sleep with one eye open from now on. 

Their defences of Wither roses would be nothing against the power Tommy had granted him. 

Killer Queen would be dead by the end of the week.

(Then maybe he could figure out what to do with Tommy. Then maybe he can sleep easily. Then maybe he can spend some quality time with his family.)

----

Wilbur has been dying. Withering effect tearing his body apart, making him, slowly but surely, the perfect fertilizer for Wither roses. It’s not been an easy process. It hasn’t been pleasant for a single second. All he’s known is pain and agony. So, when he wakes up feeling fine, he knows not to hesitate. 

When he opens his eyes and sees a flicker of pink, he pushes himself up as quickly as possible (and there’s no struggle with his movement this time, he is up before he can even question if he’s able) and he’s reaching forward. His hand, undeterred by anything. 

There is nothing getting in his way this time. 

(He’s spent far too long regretting not reaching out to the last disappearing glimpse of pink to miss his opportunity this time.)

“Tommy!” He yells, his voice more than fine, even better than the last partial healing. Maybe even better and crispier than when he first received the Withering effect.

He hears a snort that is distinctly not Tommy sounding (can he even remember how Tommy sounds? Has he lost that voice to the cruelty of time?). Feels the way the snort moves the chest of the fabric he’s grabbed (it’s a grand movement, like there’s too much air needed to even begin to fill those large lungs). 

“I'm pretty sure I should be offended by the comparison,” the voice of his brother (the other brother, not the youngest one) comes to him.

Wilbur blinks. Stares up at Techno who seems fine, all his burns gone since the last time they saw each other. Phil is standing on the other side of the room, stretching his wings, testing their strength after the abuse he’s put them through. 

Wilbur looks down at himself. His flesh… is fine. He’s completely healed. If you looked at him, you wouldn’t think he’s suffered from the withering effect for over a month now.

“What…” Wilbur starts, but… isn’t actually sure he wants to know (he does! Is Tommy around? Did Techno win him over? Where is his littlest brother?).

Techno shakes a little vial of golden liquid, a vial of elixir, with a grin on his face.

“Got my hands on some elixir, we’ll have no problems from now on,” Techno informs him and… Wilbur’s mind…

Wilbur’s mind short circuits.

“What about Tommy?” He asks, his mouth working on autopilot.

Techno hesitates. Looks awkward.

“No idea. Fundy’s been hiding him from me. He could be anywhere,” Techno admits and…

Wilbur… There’s only two words that echo around Wilbur’s at that.

Well, fuck.

Chapter Text

“Mate, I don’t think you should be doing this; not now at least,” Techno ignores Phil’s worries as he finishes lacing up his combat boots. “You should wait for Niki to get back to us at least.” 

“There’s no guarantee she’ll even get anything from the elixir. She’s already sent Ranboo back around for another two vials. They’ve made no progress,” Techno argues, stretching his limbs out before reaching out for the rest of his costume (mask firmly placed, hair tucked away; cloak running down his back like a waterfall). 

“It’s been a week,” Phil stresses and Techno rolls his eyes, even though Phil can’t see it behind the mask (maybe he’s a little more confident rolling his eyes at his dad, when his dad can’t see it). 

“That’s a week too long, I’d at least expect confirmation that it’s the same elixir we know and love,” Techno looks at Phil and… well the old man isn’t looking good. He’s healed from the strain put on his body thanks to the elixir, but… he’s still worried about Wilbur (who has been acting nothing but snappish since he’s been healed, he’s even shut himself in his room right now, Techno… Techno has been getting progressively more worried that Wilbur was hoping he’d die from the withering effect (like Techno would ever let his brother die to such a disease)). Not to mention Phil’s had to get the Syndicate back on track, alone, now that Niki and Techno are busy with something else. “If you really don’t want me to go, I’ll stay. All you have to do is ask.” 

Phil sighs. “I could never get you boys to do what I want.”

“You could,” Techno denies, like it was that easy to control The Blade (it was, when you were someone, he cared about, someone he loved). “For you, I’d do anything, you know that.”

“I know. It’s not your lack of devotion that’s in question here,” Phil sighs with a smile, resting his hand on Techno’s shoulder (usually his dad likes to ruffle his hair, it always made Wilbur whine about his perfect and pristine hair being made a mess, and Techno had to retie a bunch of braids over the years, but right now he’s in costume. It’s impossible to ruffle his hair… The first few times Phil had tried had ended in disaster with them almost being unmasked in front of heroes; it had taken a while for their dad to learn to show his affection through shoulder pats). “More my inability to deny my sons anything.”

“Now, that’s not true,” Techno snorts and Phil sighs.

“I guess not,” and they both know what they’re referencing. 

Tommy.

The little hero that had almost infiltrated their family. The… kid a lot of people got incredibly close to. Once Techno had discovered Wilbur hadn’t bothered vetting the kid, once Techno had discovered Tommy had no past to uncover, well… Phil had found himself in a difficult position. Techno was sure Tommy was suspicious, Wilbur was sure Tommy was perfect younger sibling material and Phil… Phil, who wanted to give his kids everything, didn't know how to answer them. Wanted to give them both what they wanted, but with how complicated the situation was he didn’t know how to do that.

“We could kidnap him and lock him away? Then it wouldn’t matter how much of a potential threat he is,” Phil had half-jokingly (half-seriously) suggested one day, when Techno and Wilbur had been at each other’s throats over the matter. 

“We couldn’t safely lock him away without knowing if he had some unknown ability,” Techno had denied. 

“I’m not locking away my baby brother,” Wilbur had denied just as quickly.

Phil had to continue to not give either of them what they wanted, while trying to come to compromises that didn’t exist (where Techno and Wilbur didn’t know what they should ultimately do with the kid, they both were of the same thought when it came to what not to do with the kid, apparently). 

The entire time Phil hadn’t given either of them his opinion on Tommy and… maybe that would have made things easier. If they had someone to be their tiebreaker, but… Well… They had asked once and-

“Sorry, mates,” Phil had looked so apologetic, “I’m as attached to the kid as Wil, but that scares me. It’s like my instincts are acting out, and that is suspicious. I don’t get attached that quickly, I didn’t even get attached to the both of you that quick and I wanted the both of you from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

Neither of them had been pleased with that response (but who could ever be content with such a response? They wanted a final decision. They wanted to be right… It also wasn’t great to hear your dear father was attached to some other kid for some unknown reason).

They know the reason now. Tommy was Theseus. Was someone who also had a bird-based ability and it messed with Phil’s instincts. Some part of his bird brain sense baby bird and wanted to swoop in and protect (but even that couldn’t have been a guarantee, sometimes birds fought other birds with little care if they ended up hurt, there was just something about Tommy that had appealed to Phil’s bird instincts and Phil had wanted to preen Tommy ever since, even if they had no idea why at first).

“Last chance to stop me, old man,” Techno says, now is not the time to get caught up in memories of the past (now is not the time to get caught up in memories of Tommy). 

With a sigh Phil steps back. 

“You know I won’t. Just be careful, I don’t need another son dealing with withering,” Phil’s concern is endearing, but completely unnecessary. Techno is not one to be bested (even the rivalries he’s fond of, he’s never the ultimate loser, even with the whole Theseus situation, Techno is winning).

“You just worry about yourself and Wil, I’m gonna be fine,” honestly half the reason Techno’s put off leaving for vengeance is because he’s been worried about his family (the other half of the reason is he has been spending restless nights planning what he needs and how he’s going to murder Killer Queen, someone infamous for their defences).

“That cockiness is going to be your downfall,” Phil cautions, like the wise old teacher he sometimes acts like (most of the time he’s just chaotic, or a proud father).

“Hasn’t yet, has it?”

“Just make sure it doesn’t this time,” Phil looks at him, a lasting stare like he’s picking apart the universe and making sure it’ll line up perfectly for Techno; like he’s plotting the best path for his son (it’s a shame that isn’t his ability, things would be so much easier for them if they could guarantee victory that way). “Make sure Eret suffers.”

“Of course,” Techno’s grin is hidden behind the mask, and it’s a good thing it is (it’s bloodthirsty and cruel, not that Phil would ever look at him with anything less than love, Phil would say he even loves Techno’s bloodthirsty side if asked).

(Not that Techno is bloodthirsty. He’s full of righteous anger and the need to defend his family, but that’s different from just pure rage. He’s not a mindless beast that attacks for no reason. Every move he makes is calculated and necessary.)

He leaves their house (and it is just your typical house, no super-secret lair… ok, so there are trap doors and secret chambers and it was always fun working out how to hide them in a way that doesn’t make the house look weird, and… well, it’s not like The Blade just casually strolls out of some house in the middle of some middle class suburbia… there’s secret ways to leave without anyone seeing him (not to mention the amount of talismans he has on his thanks to Fundy) and he takes one of those routes… one of the routes with a stretch of pavement he can drive off on his motorbike).

There are plenty of hidden pathways in the city, plenty of places to sneak in and out of and hardly any of them are connected (it wouldn’t be smart to have an entire tunnel network hidden beneath the city, if the hero agency found one pathway, they’d find all of them). One pathway, the one Techno speeds towards, is a secret one just for the head members of the Syndicate and King Eret.

It’s not a path you can completely cross without permission (Killer Queen would never allow for there to be such a weakness in their defences), but as Techno powers through he meets… no resistance, like Killer Queen is expecting him. Like Eret is waiting for him. 

He speeds up, anger fuelling him. 

What was Eret playing at here? 

Techno’s never been fond of Eret, in actual fact Techno’s pretty sure eventually they would have to take them out eventually. Eret was as corrupt as any in the Hero Agency, but at least they weren’t pretending to be a hero. At least they were trying to help (even if it was in an incredibly fucked up way that made everything seem so much worse).

As Killer Queen, Eret needlessly killed, well… needless if you didn’t think their view on defence was ridiculous. Wither roses grew from a person who suffered through the withering process (the process that almost killed Wilbur) and those roses were potentially as dangerous as the withering effect itself. Sapping the life of those that touch it like there were souls that inhibited the roses and they were trying to steal the life of those that touched them. Like their souls were so desperate for relief they’d take everything out with them.

These roses were grown carefully around Eret’s nation, around their castle, around everything they cared for. If Eret decided you were a threat, if you decided to attack Eret you’d be added to those defences. You’d be lovingly cared for as a flower by the only person who could care for them, by the person who tore your soul apart and twisted it into something new. 

It wasn’t a pleasant death.

It was that almost death that Wilbur was recovering from. 

Techno had carefully observed Wilbur’s every move since he returned from the hospital, and where his brother was fully healed (where Tommy had fully healed his brother), Wilbur was still suffering from the consequences. There was days Wilbur forgot he could speak properly and would mutter like his throat couldn’t deal with the strain. There were days when Wilbur would just lay down and continue to wait for his death even though his death wasn’t coming yet. 

Wilbur was healed, but he wasn’t healed. There were lingering effects that should be gone and there was a depression about him. 

(A depression that formed from the fact that he didn’t know Tommy had saved him and Techno doesn’t feel even an ounce of guilt from keeping that from him.)

Killing Killer Queen would help. 

Wilbur wouldn’t have to worry about the withering effect ever again (assuming he never goes into the Nether and had to fight from Withering Skeletons… Techno wouldn’t allow him to go to the Nether alone, not after this).

Techno can satisfy his and Phil’s need to avenge their cherished family member. 

And… 

Well… Despite the good Killer Queen has done, killing those that are abhorred and deserved to perish, they were also corrupt. Playing jury, judge and executioner. 

(Techno would give them a taste of their own medicine, and it will be so sweet.)

Techno… still doesn’t know how Wilbur got the withering effect. Or… well… not the how, everyone knew the how. Killer Queen had sent a bloody bouquet, it was more… the why… Eret had always been an ally and they hadn’t been in any big disagreement and yet… They betrayed them so easily… and for what?

For…

For…

For what?!

It doesn’t make sense. There shouldn’t be any reason for Eret to betray them. Sure, they’d probably eventually be enemies, but that wasn’t yet. They still had time to be allies, time to have the same motivation and aspirations, time to fight against the corrupt heroes. 

But more pressingly… it didn’t account for Wilbur. Wilbur never kept secrets from Techno, it was just one of the many truths of the world. A fact that couldn’t be shaken, a fact that was one of Techno’s pillars of stability. He’d always have Wilbur beside him, and they’d always be truthful to each other, even if they disagreed and fought.

(They had been painfully honest with each other over the entire Tommy situation, even if it would have been easier to just go behind each other’s backs and do what they thought was best. Is that why Wilbur was keeping things from him now? Did he not feel comfortable with Techno after Techno had denied him the wish he desperately fought for?)

(And isn’t Techno also lying? Hasn’t he been keeping secrets about where he got the elixir? He hadn’t even told Phil, worried over how the both of them would react to knowing that Tommy had offered his healing free of charge, with absolutely no expectations.)

(He can’t risk Tommy’s presence in their lives, it’s too dangerous, too unpredictable. Tommy does whatever he wants with little care for the ones he leaves behind to suffer.)

(Tommy is… Tommy is a threat that has disrupted their lives more than enough. Why can’t Wilbur see that?)

His anxiety picks up as he gets closer to Pogtopia. As wither roses encroach more and more onto the road he’s driving down. 

Pogtopia is as beautiful as it is horrifying. The roses are well cared for and tended to by Killer Queen in such a way that the roses grow exactly where they want them to. And those roses… they’re gorgeous for all that they use human corpses as nutrients. But it’s a horrifying display of power. That Killer Queen has killed this many people to protect such a small area. The roses climb over everything and if a person isn’t careful the roses could end your life like the thousands before them. 

Techno has killed people. He doesn’t deprive any joy from the act, it’s a necessity (especially when so many people try to end the life of his loved ones), but the amount of people Techno has killed is nothing compared to Eret. They… they’re something special. A bit of a tyrant and bit of a philanthropist. It’s why Techno’s never been able to fully trust them.

And he was right.

(Just like he was right about Tommy.)

Eret betrayed them.

(Just like Tommy had.)

They had lied and taken advantage of the situation. 

(Like Tommy.)

Techno can’t wait to sink his blade into Eret’s neck. Can’t wait to make them suffer. Can’t wait to them bleed and scream and-

Finally, he’ll be able to succeed in killing someone who hurt his family.

(If only Tommy wasn’t so hard to kill, the kid wouldn’t be around anymore. Would have died a long time ago in Wilbur’s arms; a death that was far more peaceful than he deserved.)

(And it was a peaceful death. Make no mistakes about that, Wilbur wouldn’t allow for anything less for the boy who could have been his brother in another lifetime (in no lifetime’s given what they know). It was a quick death, with a gentle but firm touch and calming empty words. No other enemy of the Syndicate had been given such a sweet death. Eret wasn’t going to get such a peaceful death.)

Techno wishes there was a way to make Eret experience the withering effect. They deserved to die as they almost made Wilbur die. They deserve to have their life slowly drained from them. Deserve to have their body fail them until they can do nothing but exist on the very edge of existence. Living but not actually living.

And Techno will find a way to make Eret suffer like that. He has no idea if poisons affect them. Has no idea if there’s a way to make Eret suffer from other ailments, but if for some reason they don’t work, Techno will take his time. Slowly taking Eret’s sight, their ability to breathe easily, their everything. Anyone can go through hell if you’re meticulous enough about it.

He could tear Eret’s every limb from his body and Eret would not be able to do anything about it. Their only defence, their only offence, is their ability. An ability that is useless against all the vials of elixir Techno has on him. Techno has grown a temporary immunity and he’s going to take advantage of it.

First…

He has to reach Eret and…

It’s suspicious, so very suspicious, how empty the streets are. How he’s not bumped into anyone. How no one’s tried to stop him. They’re not allies. Not anymore and yet…

No one has stopped him.

It’s like Pogtopia… has been abandoned…

There’s a clear decline and… usually Pogtopia although overrun with plants, is impressive with the buildings that are built into the ravine’s walls. They’re so intricately placed together, that it was like a puzzle easily slotting into place, like it had begged to be built there; like every structure couldn’t exist as a whole without each other. Now they look like they’re close to breaking, like those that usually cared for them couldn’t.

Techno eyes it all wearily, but he carries on. He’s here for one thing, and one thing alone. Revenge.

He has to leave his vehicle behind, long before he reaches the castle (the castle that somehow stands over everything, an ominous structure that watches over everything beneath it). Techno is careful to avoid the roses as he climbs, and when he does get pricked by a plant, he doesn’t instantly down an elixir. He continues his journey, allowing the withering to take effect, allowing his limbs to slowly grow weak (though not as slowly as Wilbur, the withering effect should be much deadlier than what Wilbur went through). 

He drinks an elixir before it gets too dire (he won’t put himself at risk, but he needs to conserve the elixirs, so if he gets hit it’s better to just survive the burn and weakness so he can touch more roses in his travel, than need to drink a second elixir when he does touch a second rose).

The journey is longer than he’d like, and he goes through the withering effect one more time when he stumbles across a bramble that can’t be avoided. It’s an odd experience. Being pricked by a rose, feeling his blood drip down from the small cut, his limbs becoming slower as they try to push forward; his muscles deteriorating, only for it to all come undone when he drinks the elixir (when he drinks Theseus’ tears).

(He briefly wonders if this is what Theseus feels when he heals. The constant sense of his soul trying to escape him, only to be dragged back into his body. A life on the bitter edge of life and death.)

It’s an odd experience, but no less odd than what he witnesses as he finally reaches the castle. 

Doors that were once guarded remain open, halls that were once bustling with activity echo from having no one around to fill them and his brother stands beneath a throne on which Killer Queen sits.

His brother stands beneath a throne on which Killer Queen sits.

Techno’s first instinct is to tear in there and defend his brother. To protect Wilbur from all that could ever harm him, but…

Techno is not stupid. He is no fool. Wilbur shouldn’t be here. Wilbur had been complaining about being overly cared for, while sticking it out in his room. Wilbur who appeared to still be healing and yet… is here. Alone. With Eret. The person who harmed him. 

Techno is not stupid. He is no fool. He can tell when something doesn’t add up and… something doesn’t add up here… Something is off and… 

Wilbur should be home, healing. He should be comfortable and not worrying about a single thing as Techno sought out his revenge. 

(Wilbur has cared more about Tommy than any vengeance, and usually he wasn’t about to let someone just get away with messing with the Syndicate, especially when they were previously allies. He refused to share any details about what happened with Eret, and-)

Techno can’t trust Wilbur. 

It’s… a sudden and painful thought. He… he never thought he’d find himself in this position. One where he doesn’t confide everything with Wilbur, where seeing Wilbur standing in a room alone with an enemy doesn’t make him want to stand back and watch as Wilbur destroys them, but rather makes him want to stand back and gather intel. He doesn’t trust Wilbur and it hurts. 

(It burns up in his chest, making it difficult to breathe and understand what his world has become.)

And… 

Maybe more painful… 

More terrifying…

Something that shakes Techno down to his very core…

Wilbur can’t trust Techno. 

If he did, he’d have explained what was going on. He’d have been upfront about what happened between him and Killer Queen. He’d explain everything, but… he hasn’t. He hasn’t. He’s kept every word to himself and… 

Now Techno has to snoop, sneak around for answers and… That’s not what their relationship should be.

They should be the person they trust most, the person they confide in, the person who mocks them with a smile, but would fight anyone else for saying the same thing. They were meant to stand beside each other through thick and thin. They were meant to be brothers. 

What… What happened?

(Tommy happened.)

(Theseus happened.)

(A not-death they could never change happened.)

Techno is silent as he sneaks in. He has no fear about walking amongst flowers that should kill him, he has the elixir with him. He has so much elixir with him, he was temporarily immortal. And, because neither of them expects someone to silently sneak up on them amongst the flowers, neither fear being overheard.

“-has to be another way to successfully do this-”

“Wil, I don’t have the resources to-”

“It doesn’t matter! We need this to-”

“We physically can’t. You’ll die if-”

“Then I’ll die,” Wilbur sounds desperate, more desperate than Techno’s ever heard him (and he’s heard Wilbur cry over his family’s injuries, heard him scream as a loved one died, and he had to pick up the pieces for her brother; has listened to Wilbur ramble after abruptly waking from guilt filled nightmares. Wilbur has never sounded this desperate before. Not for himself, not for anyone he cares about or loves. “If my death is necessary then I’ll die.”

“It didn’t work,” Eret sighs. “If it didn’t work now, why would it work later? I can’t put the withering effect on you again. You have to figure something else out. I know our options are limited, but-”

“No.”

And… maybe Wilbur has something more to say. Maybe Techno should listen more, observe everything, but all he can think of is…

His brother dying. Dying the most painful death imaginable and his father flying to the ends of the world to try and get him a cure. Remembers holding Wilbur’s weak hand, a hand that couldn’t feel his own anymore and… mourning. 

His brother wasn’t dead, but he was dying, and he was in pain, and he was suffering, and-

It wasn’t real? 

Techno… Techno had wanted to cry. He had spent over a month pushing the feeling away as it bubbled up, every time he looked at his brother, he felt anger and fear and just… sadness. A deep sadness that sank into his bones and made his frame droop. He was losing his brother and there was nothing he could do about it, but…

Techno had done something and…

It was worthless. 

Meaningless. 

Tommy didn’t need to be dragged back down to Earth.

Wilbur’s family didn’t need to mourn.

The Syndicate didn’t need to buckle under the loss of one of its bosses.

They could have been fine. They could have been happy, but Wilbur-

Techno doesn’t care about stealth, or information, or anything. He stands straight and steps out of his hiding spot, revealing himself to the others with little care for anything else. He is suffering from the withering effect, but he doesn’t feel it. All he has is eyes for is Wilbur and a desperate need for answers. 

“Wilbur,” he says and… he’s never mean harm to his brother, but he’s never sounded so angry at him before and Wilbur…

Wilbur looks shocked. Startled. Scared.

There is no trust between them.

(Maybe there never was.)