Chapter Text
Tommy stepped through the portal, a grateful breath coming from him at being back on familiar lands. He heard the sounds of the others stepping out onto the grass behind him, but paid them no head as a figure came running up towards them.
“Dad!” The figure shouted, excitement ringing in their tone. Tommy smiled, easily opening his arms and wings to let the teen into them. Barreling into his arms was an 18 year old with black and white hair, floppy ears hung off the side of his head and a long black and white tail flicked behind him.
“Hey, Henry! Did you watch the game? We totally crushed it!” Tommy exclaimed, ignoring the surprise from SBI and Co. (They had picked up Ranboo along the way, Tommy didn’t know when. Alongside Ranboo was a teenage piglin Tommy had yet to meet.) He knew they were shocked at him having yet another kid, but after his little outburst earlier Tommy was too exhausted to care. Henry smiled widely at him, the cow looking at him like he had strung the very moon itself.
“I did, you and Grampa crushed it.” Henry stated. Grian immediately spoke up, playfully offended. “Oi what about your dear old uncle, I did good too!” He exclaimed. Henry gave him a shit eating grin. “Yeah you did alright, for an old man.” He added smugly. Grian instantly squawked in offence, leaping at the teen to grasp him in a headlock, Henry and the other hermits laughing the whole while.
The moment was ruined by a snort from behind them. “Just as immature as his dad, and here I thought you had changed for the better.” Wilbur sneered. Tommy instantly bristled, “What did you just say?” He questioned, wanting to give his old brother the benefit of the doubt. Wilbur just doubled down. “You heard me, you’re out here trying to play king but the way your kids act gives you away. You’re the same immature child that tried to kill himself.”
Tommy saw red, he knew his eyes had changed color as well. The voices immediately started back up, REVENGE, REVENGE, KILL HIM, MAKE HIM PAY, BITER FINALLY SHOWS HIS TRUE COLORS POG, FIGHT HIM, MAKE HIM TAKE IT BACK. They shouted in his mind. Tommy lost control. He felt his form shifting, long limbs changing to a quadruped stance. Blonde fur grew over his whole body, a long tail tipped in feathers lashed behind him. With his horns now fully grown and framing his face, a dragon stood before them. Tommy snarled, “You take that back right now.” He demanded, voice deepened by ash in his throat.
Wilbur got defensive, his own body changing and shifting. Where Tommy had an equine body with fur, Wilbur was long with blue scales lining his body. Instead of horns, he had two long fins framing the side of his face, which were currently flared out like a scientifically inaccurate dilophosaurus. Right above his brow a white streak of scales broke up the blue of his body, mimicking the white streak in his hair when he was alive. Tommy tried to ignore the white in his own fur, a sign he had lost all three lives. It didn’t matter any more, he wasn’t on that server. He didn’t have to worry about lives here. While staring down a snarling dragon, Tommy had to remind himself of that. He was safe here, the other hermits were probably already riling behind him to defend him. Even if Wilbur killed him, he would respawn safe in his castle.
Tommy stared Wilbur down, the other clearly expecting him to lash out like he would have ten years ago. But Tommy wasn’t a teen anymore, he was a king. He took a deep breath, pushing down the bloodlust and anger. “Get out.” He said instead of the fire that wanted to burst from his throat. Wilbur looked at him in disbelief. “Excuse me? You can’t just tell me to get off the entire server.” He stated incredulously. Tommy snorted. “I’m the son of the admin of the server, and king of the land you stand on, I can do whatever I damn well please. Now leave, before we make you.” He demanded. Wilbur looked like he was about to argue, when a loud thud sounded. Standing between the two was the biggest dragon Tommy knew he’d ever seen. Pink and red scales covered a battle scarred frame. Smoke poured out of the beast’s nostrils.
“Enough.” Techno snorted, “this has gone on long enough. You’ve changed ever since Dream brought you back, an’ not for the better. You need to leave. I ain’t dealing with it anymore.” The older dragon demanded. To wrap up the quartet, a black dragon with wings like oil stepped up beside Techno. He was the smallest of the group, but obviously held the most power. “Techno’s right mate, you aren’t the son I knew. You need to go.” Phil added. A new force joined the conversation. A gray wyvern not much smaller than Techno came up. “I will ban you from the server if need be.” Xisuma’s voice came from the wyvern.
Wilbur gasped. “You gave him a heart scale?” He demanded. Every true dragon had a special four scales growing over their heart. When plucked by the dragon and given to someone they trusted, it gave them the ability to shift into a dragon. Heart scale dragons couldn’t produce heart scales themselves, but were still every bit as fierce as true dragons. Tommy saw tubbo clutch at the necklace around his neck that held one of Tommy’s own scales. The red and white scales were hidden by his fur.
Tommy nodded, “I did.” He stated calmly, not rising to the bait. Wilbur knew he was outnumbered, with one last growl, the water dragon turned and stalked out of the portal. Xisuma shifted to his human form, pulling up a glowing black screen. With a few taps he nodded. “There,” He started, “Now we don’t have to worry about seeing him ever again.” The group consecutively sighed in relief. Tommy let his dragon form melt back into something more humanoid, Phil and Techno doing the same. Tommy gave the group a sheepish grin.
“I’m sorry again, I seem to be loosing control quite a lot today. It won’t happen again, I promise.” Ranboo spoke up for the first time in the conversation. “You’re good, we kinda get it. This is really stressful isn’t it?” They asked. Tommy nodded with a small smile at the enderman.
“Come on, my castle is just this way. We can chat more tomorrow, after we’ve all had time to settle a bit.” He stated. With that the ragtag group followed Tommy down the road, into yet another unknown.