Chapter Text
Both him and Techno run towards the raised voices, Tommy’s tone turning panicked, scared, and that’s the worst thing to hear, because in situations where death is on the line, Tommy only ever becomes more daring, more willing to yell and fight than he already is.
Even in situations where Tommy has a sword to his head, it’ll only make him be more rather than quiet down, and Wilbur knows that far too well, he’s never been able to quiet Tommy down, guide him, maybe, lead him, but never control, not directly.
A high pitched scream rings out, echoing across the sky, terror evident in Tommy’s voice as he gets shouted over by someone else.
And the scream gets cut off, in a heart wrenching way that makes Wilbur want to gasp for air, because there’s two ways of shutting Tommy up, one of them includes Tubbo, the other includes a much more violent approach-
They both slow down, Techno quiet beside him, but he can feel the worry coming from him, and Wilbur feels the same, scared to see why Tommy’s just gone quiet.
“Tommy?” Wilbur calls out, and chokes back a scream as he pushes the last branch out of the way, seeing Tommy’s limp body on the floor. Techno puts a hand onto his shoulder, his grip bruising, taking a sharp breath in that Wilbur barely hears because all he can see is Tommy, Tommy’s-
Schlatt stands over him, an axe in hand and looking shocked, out of breath, and almost horrified at the sight before him, Tommy sprawled out on the dirt with blood splattered over his chest.
Is he breathing?
Wilbur takes a step forward, and another, quicker, faster, he’s running, frantically trying to get to him, he faintly hears the sound of a crossbow being loaded behind him.
Is he breathing ?
“ TOMMY !” Wilbur yells, Schlatt taking a step back as Wilbur falls to the floor, kneeling beside the unconscious teen. He doesn’t know where to start, Tommy’s shirt is so soaked with blood, his face is dirty, a small cut across his chin-
Techno is right behind Will, and the second Wilbur kneels down to Tommy, he steps in front, raising his crossbow up with fire in his eyes and a quiet anger that could make anyone drop to their knees and realize that it’s over.
He fires, and Schlatt doesn’t even have a moment to yell, it’s over just like that, Techno raising the crossbow right up to his neck and pulling the trigger.
Wilbur hardly notices, he pulls Tommy into his arms, hugging him close, carefully. He uses the end of his jacket to wipe at Tommy’s face, the blood smearing.
“Tommy, tommy! Hey, kiddo? Look, I need you to give me a sign here-” Wilbur chokes back a sob, clearing his throat and instead trying to find a pulse, fingers shakingly getting pressed against Tommy’s neck. “Anything, anything at all! Just one sign, one sign-”
Wilbur goes dead still, quiet, eyes wide, as if he doesn’t move a muscle, that might help, it might let a beat come across his fingers, it’ll give him something to grasp onto, to hope for.
There’s a pulse.
“Okay, okay, fuck, okay, it’s going to be fine, you’re going to be fine, Tommy.” Wilbur whispers, his voice shaky and he can’t tell if he’s trying to reassure himself or Techno, or Tommy, he doesn’t know-
He yanks off his coat, pressing it against Tommy’s chest and ignoring the fact that it's going to stain, he’s going to have to look at it later, when this is all done, and remember how quiet Tommy was, in his arms, too much blood across his shirt.
“Wilbur.” Techno says quietly, or maybe he’s said it normally, Wilbur can barely hear anything with how there’s ringing in his ears from seeing Tommy on the fucking ground, a gash across his chest. “Wilbur!”
Wilbur flinches, hugging Tommy close and pressing across the injury harder. “...What?”
“Is he alive.”
Techno sounds barely contained, and Will has an inkling that if he answered no, if he simply said Tommy is gone in a brutal death like this, then the town around them would cease to exist within the next hour, along with all the people in it. No doubt Techno would kill and destroy in his rage, that’s only how he is-
Wilbur pauses, breathing out slowly. The town.
It’s rigged.
The tnt is still here.
Wilbur glances to Schaltt’s body on the ground, an arrow stuck through his skull. He won't respawn too early, with that sort of injury, but even then, when he comes back, can Wilbur really just let him continue on, without any sort of punishment, payback?
“ Wilbur .” Techno kneels down, grabbing Will’s arm so hard it hurts, but Will doesn’t pull away, instead looks towards Techno, already going through choices in his head, already choosing his fate.
“He’s alive.” Wilbur nods, Techno looking like he wants to collapse and take a nap right there, with the relief sinking into his shoulders.
Wilbur pushes Tommy towards him, getting to his feet. “Here, take him to Pogtopia, quickly. I need- I need to-”
“Tommy?!” Someone yells, and they both turn, Wilbur’s heart sinking as he sees Tubbo run over, Nikki right at his heels. Nikki seems to notice the blood before, and wraps her arms around Tubbo, yanking him backwards.
“Wait, no, hold on-”
“Tommy!? What’s going on, Wilbur, what’s going on?!” Tubbo yells, Nikki trying to get Tubbo to turn away. Tubbo sees Schlatt's body on the ground, but he doesn’t mind it, he’s focused at the fact Techno’s standing up, carrying Tommy in his arms, the teen having Wilbur’s bloodsoaked coat wrapped around him.
“Nikki, Tubbo, I need you both to get the fuck out of here, get to Pogtopia, now .” Wilbur walks past Techno, who’s already running into the trees, dead focused on his goal and not concerned with what Wilbur’s already starting to plan.
“What?! What happened? Is Tommy-?!”
“Tommy is FUCKING FINE! GO! NOW !” Wilbur yells, kicking Schaltt’s body for good measure and running, yelling more instructions as he goes. “Tell anyone you care about to evacuate, Marburg is going up in flames!”
“Wilbur!” Nikki yells, and he doesn’t listen, there’s a pleasant ringing in his ears that goes on and on, his feet hitting the ground under him as he runs, grinning. Fine. Fine! He always planned this anyway, but this gives him such a reason more.
He’s angry, he’s tired. He knows he pushes Tommy, he knows he’s been an idiot time to time, but having to see that and having to almost plead for a sign that Tommy was okay-
It’ll take forever for him to respawn after, if he doesn’t get out in time, but it’ll be so worth it, the death with be completely worth it, seeing this stupid place go into ruins. Schlatt won’t be able to rule anything if there’s nothing left .
Nikki and Tubbo frantically run into the trees towards Pogtopia soon after, hesitant but also willing to listen, knowing that nothing good will come from just standing around.
Nikki messages Eret to run, who in turn tells Fundy who’s with him in person, who runs out to yell to Skeppy, who drags Bad with him, and on a chain reaction of everyone realizing they need to get the fuck out of here, before something happens.
Schlatt’s body gets discovered halfway through the evacuation. It only makes everyone scatter faster, because, oh fuck, this is serious.
At that point no one bothers grabbing their supplies, just anything they have on them and running. Tubbo sends out Pogtopia’s location. Before, it might’ve been a terrible move, but now it’s the only place that’s going to stay a safe place, and they all agree that whatever is going on, the fighting can stop. Schlatt had been the one to push, to keep lands divided and to keep tensions high.
Well, the fucker is dead right now, for the moment being, and Tubbo is spamming messages out for everyone to quickly run, because while he’s not entirely sure what exactly will happen to Manburg, he knows that it won’t be pretty. His panic translates through fairly well, and in turn it creates an impromptu peace treaty between everyone.
Eret is one of the first one’s to find the entrance to Pogtopia, Tubbo helping him down the stone steps, rambling about how he’s not sure what’s happening, but there’s an awful panic in the air, isn’t there, and don’t you think Schlatt kinda had it coming anyway, honestly-?
He’s rambling, he’s nervous, and Eret immediately gets why, because he gets a glimpse of an open room, a sign outside the door, ‘Tommy’s room’.
He sees Tommy on a bed with bloody bandages thrown across the floor, both Techno and Nikki leaning over him, hands working, silent and serious.
Eret closes the door and walks with Tubbo back up the stairs, to help with the others to take refuge.
---
Once the button is pressed, Wilbur is on a timer.
The tnt will go off in sections, bit by bit, until the big boom, the main event, which will turn everything else into nothing but fire and rubble.
It’s up to Wilbur to try and navigate those explosions, and get out in time.
If he doesn’t, dying to explosion, he’ll respawn in a week's time. If he does?
To be honest, he’s not planning to survive, he’s here to press the damn button. It’s not hard either, he doesn’t have a moment of hesitation, a moment of ‘should I?’. No sudden reconsidering, or imagining.
It’s just ‘this is for Tommy, you motherfucker’ and and the press of his knuckles against wood, a hissing noise going off as he turns right back around and starts booking it.
Things start going a bit blurry after that, with the first boom.
---
Techno’s washing blood off his hands in a water bucket, listening to Nikki talking with Tubbo through the walls, Eret calming the company they have in pogtopia right now. Techno would much rather just stay in this room with Tommy.
One, because people scare him, and two, because his priorities are with making sure Tommy stays stable.
“...He’s going to blow up manburg.” He hears faintly behind him, and he freezes, hands hovering over the bucket of reddish water.
Techno turns, seeing a delirious Tommy squinting at him, still panicked and worried, even with the obvious pain he’s probably in. Techno’s only just gotten the bleeding under control, he hasn’t even reached for potions yet, Tommy should not be awake, this is the worst time for him to be awake.
“Tommy, I’m gonna need you to close your eyes and pass right back out-”
“Did you even hear me? Wilbur is going to blow up Manburg, Techno.” Tommy says quietly, and Techno has to lean in to hear him, a bit put off by the unusual volume, honestly.
But he does hear it. “And?”
“He’ll die .” Tommy responds, and his eyes say everything, asking without another word. Don’t let him die. Don’t let him burn in the flames he’s set.
Techno is too far to go fetch Wilbur now, and even then, there’s no way he’s leaving Tommy with these many strangers in the place.
“I got it, Tommy.” He reassures, getting to his feet. “Wilbur will be okay.”
He doesn’t even finish his second sentence before Tommy is passed out again, face scrunched up in pain.
Techno makes a simple, quick message, sends it off, then goes to get some healing potions.
All he can really do is hope now. But he has trust in Phil. Wilbur will be okay.
---
Wilbur thinks he might’ve fallen down a hill, at one point. It would explain the pain in his leg and how he’s, well, on the floor.
Another boom rings out, Wilbur covering his ears as they ring, and there’s fire too close, burning his face with the heat.
He crawls away, gasping and choking on smoke as another explosion sounds out, farther this time, but close enough for small bits of burning rock to rain onto him, hitting his back.
Pushing himself to his feet, he leans into a still intact piece of wall, limping along through the fire. He’s not even sure where he is, he doesn’t recognise much, disoriented by being thrown around by the force of the tnt and the way the terrain has already changed from everything being blown to bits.
There’s fire roaring right in front of his path, and he turns his head for another escape, gritting his teeth at the stinging of his leg. He tries to move another direction, before he realizes, oh no, this area is still intact, he’s mostly likely right beside-
Just to his amazing luck, that’s when the nearby tnt sets off, and Wilbur yells as he’s thrown into the air, kicking his legs as he roughly lands in the middle of fire, pieces of dirt, rock, and burning rubble getting thrown at him by the blast.
He can’t breath, there’s too much smoke circling around his head, his ears hurt, his arms, legs, his hands burn , he’s rolling to the side, out of the fire, but it still hurts, it still stings, he wipes dust from his face to try and see, dirt in his eyes.
“Help-” Wilbur chokes, coughing violently as the ground shakes again, another big blast. Not much longer now, then. Part of him wonders if he should just roll over, take the pain and lay down as the town burns around him.
He almost does, leaning down until his forehead touches the floor, dirt stuck to his face from the sweat, blood and probably tears, most definitely tears, it would be strange for Wilbur to not be crying at this point-
“WILBUR!” Someone yells, and how the fuck is that coming from above him, or is his sense of direction terribly warped? Brain damage would be expected, he supposes-
Hands are grabbing at his arms, tugging him by the armpits and Wilbur shrieks as he’s pulled up from the ground, up to his feet, having to mostly lean on the person in order to stay standing, Wilbur coughing again as hands yank him by the face, forcing him to look forward-
At Phil.
What?
No, no, Phil shouldn’t be here.
Out of anywhere, right here is not the place he should be, not with Wilbur.
“-any idea of how worried I was, I thought I was too late! Everything is going up in flames, Techno sends me a message that Tommy’s hurt, but you need saving-”
Wilbur doesn’t catch the rest, hacking up smoke again. Phil keeps talking, but it seems to be more of reassurance now, as he wraps his hands around Wilbur’s torso, pulling him up. Wilbur sees Phil’s wings, opened up, curling around them both.
They look so terribly out of place, in Wilbur’s opinion. Phil looks out of place. Out of anywhere, in flames like these with burning remains, Phil really shouldn’t be here.
“Dad?” Wilbur whispers out, and he’s not even sure if he actually said it, but Phil’s face goes torn, so he supposes he probably did.
“Come on, Wilbur, come on, son, we gotta go, hold on-”
Wilbur closes his eyes without meaning to, coughing again and wincing at the burn in his lungs. He can barely stay standing as it is.
“Wilbur! William, don’t you dare pass out on me right now, we need to go, just stay awake until we’re safe!”
He feels Phil pull at him, the two of them leaving the ground as Wilbur hears the flap of wings, another explosion going off, far, but another warning to the big one.
He needs to warn Phil. If they both get caught up in this-
Wilbur ends up hoarsely crying instead of saying anything, Phil holding onto him tightly as they fly through the air, weaving through smoke and fire.
“The main one-” Wilbur gets, before clearing his throat and trying again. “Phil-”
It’s too late, by then, because the explosions stop, for a solid few seconds, and Wilbur grasps onto Phil’s shirt, eyes wide as he tries to scream.
The big one goes off, and they both get knocked to the side with it.
---
“-bur! Wilbur! Give me a sign, anything!”
There’s the dragging of grass against his back, and Wilbur vaguely realizes he’s being pulled across the ground, the very solid, safe, ground.
“Wilbur, come on, come on, Wilbur! Techno’s on his way, and, and Nikki, just stay with me, I’m right here!”
At least it’s not burning anymore. The fires are gone, so Wilbur assumes Phil must’ve done it. They’re out of Manburg. Or at least what used to be it.
“Hey, hey.” He gets gently slapped at the side of his face. “I know you’re there. Open your eyes. I’m here.”
It takes a minute, Wilbur still trying to work out how he’s even intact, a dull numb pain coming from, well, everywhere. But he gets his eyes open, just for a moment.
Phil’s leaning over him, relief evident on his face. “Will. Wilbur, hey.”
Wilbur doesn’t say anything back. He can’t, really. He just closes his eyes, hearing the sound of horses approaching.
“Techno! Help me with him-”
---
The next time Wilbur opens his eyes, it’s to the warm light of lanterns and a blanket over his waist, Wilbur realizing he’s resting on a bed, a pillow underneath his head.
He stares at the ceiling for a moment, both shocked and also just...kinda processing. He did not expect to be alive for that.
There’s a quiet snore beside him, and Wilbur lifts his head to see blond hair tucked into crossed arms, Tommy leaning into the side of Wilbur’s waist, asleep and leaned over in a way that can’t be good for his posture. There’s a red fluffy cape over his shoulders, and Wilbur blinks at the sight.
He’s touched that Tommy is here, first off. And by the looks of it, he seems fine, sleeping peacefully beside him, slow, even breaths coming from him.
There’s a knock at the door of the room, and Wilbur snaps his head to it, seeing Techno, his hand raised up to the stone wall.
He walks forward, sighing with a bone deep fatigue that only Techno can have as his usual aesthetic. “Congratulations. You’re alive.” He says, sitting himself down on a chair beside Wilbur. He sounds unimpressed, but he pats a hand onto Wilbur’s arm, reassuring, and that’s all Wilbur needs to know he was worried.
“Here I am.” Wilbur laughs, coughing. He leans over and clears his throat, and when he looks back up, Techno’s holding out water for him.
Wilbur takes it, grateful. After a minute of getting the dryness of his throat to leave, he leans back, looking to Tommy who sleeps on.
“...Phil.”
“I called him.” Techno shrugs, lifting one shoulder up as he leans forward on the bed. “He was the only one who could probably get you out in time, with his wings, and there’s no way I was going to leave Tommy with a bunch of strangers in the home.”
“Strangers?” Wilbur pauses, taking that in. “Wait, is everyone here?”
“Yes.” Techno responds, sounding very enthusiastic about it. “...I wish they would leave.”
Wilbur snorts, shaking his head. “And...manburg?”
“In ruins. There’s honestly not much left. Dream’s taken leadership of what’s left, until everything’s settled down, but...it’s pretty much just rubble and fire, now.”
Wilbur hums, feeling a bit satisfied over that.
There’s another knock at the doorway, and both him and Techno look up, Phil raising his eyebrows at the two of them.
“Good morning.” He greets, Wilbur nodding, Techno giving a small wave. “Techno, mind if I talk with him for a bit?”
“Ooh boy, good luck.” Techno responds, getting to his feet, Phil scoffing. Wilbur appreciates it anyway, he can feel doom loom over his shoulders. Not the ‘serious, life threatening’ type of doom, the ‘I’m very fucked’ type of doom. Big difference.
“I got Tommy.” Techno says, and he very much does, he picks the teen up like nothing, and Tommy keeps sleeping, undisturbed. Wilbur gives a confused look at Tommy being so deep in sleep.
“I put a sleeping potion in his breakfast, this gremlin ain’t waking up till the next hour or so.” Techno supplies, Phil laughing a little and facepalming.
“Go, techno.”
“I’m going, I’m going.” Techno nods, Phil patting him on the shoulder as he passes, carrying Tommy out.
Then it’s just him and Phil, silent.
“...Wilbur.”