Chapter Text
Wilbur is doing this for the best
He’s doing this for l'manberg
Tommy doesn't understand
Wilbur knows Tommy will try to stop him
Wilbur is filled with paranoia and fear
He's been betrayed before
He doesn't want to get betrayed again
He won't give them the chance to betray him
Wilbur knows if he let Tommy come with him- if he listened to Tommy- he wouldn't be able to do the deed.
But he has to do it.
For l'manberg.
For his family.
Even if he doesn't have any left after this.
He's willing to risk it all to take down the tyrant.
It’s for the best he tells himself
"Where are we going, Wilbur? I haven't seen this part before, Wilbur? Wilbur?"
Wilbur’s grip on Tommy’s arm tightens as he grits his teeth. He has to do this.
"Wilbur please- Wilbur you’re hurting me- Wilbur- Wilbur where are we going," Tommy snivelled, tears welling in his eyes, not pouring because Tommyinnit doesn’t cry.
Rather than answer Wilbur commanded Tommy, "Tommy give me your stuff. ill put it away" Wilbur says- pleads- he can’t let Tommy stop him- he can’t get Tommy caught up in this.
Tommy pauses "Wilbur what-"
"JUST DO IT" Wilbur screams at him
Tommy flinches back "Wilbur-" he stutters.
Wilbur sighs and looks down at Tommy, "Tommy I’m sorry just- please. do it."
Tommy stares at Wilbur. Wilbur stares back.
They stare at each other until Tommy concedes, Tommy’s hands shake as he takes off his armour.
"You’re not gonna do it right? that’s why you’re doing this right? We- we can’t do it if we don’t have stuff right? We- we can stay and farm potatoes with Techno" Tommy pleads with his brother in all but blood.
Wilbur opens his mouth as if to say something to tell him the truth but decides better of it, and instead, he just nods his head wordlessly
Tommy’s smile brightens a bright he only ever saw in The Before- before the election- before the wars. When Tommy was just a child. Not a war soldier. Wilbur’s vision blurs.
"I’m so sorry Tommy" Wilbur whispers hoarsely after Tommy finishes putting his stuff away.
"Wha-" Tommy begins but he never gets to finish asking as his body meets the cold cobblestone
Wilbur watches Tommy fall. He watches as Tommy doesn’t get up- passed out, as Wilbur planned, though it does little to soothe the hole in his stomach while watching.
Wilbur picks up Tommy and moves him into a cell. Wilbur wraps Tommy in a blanket, "I’ll be back in a couple hours, little brother. Everything will be better then. No more war. No more Schlatt. I promise.” Wilbur says softly, giving Tommy’s hair a ruffle before turning to move Tommy’s stuff to his dumb, dumb room, beside his stupid pistons.
Wilbur walks through the tunnel he carved out and jumped over the hole made of obsidian onto Tommy’s stupid Prime path, and into their home, Pogtopia, the Underground city.
Wilbur walks past Techno making the potato farm bigger.
Techno had been working for almost three days straight, under normal circumstances Wilbur would tell Techno to take a break immediately and force him to sleep or eat but he'll do that, later. When everything was set right.
Today’s events will go down in history, as the day L'manberg won back its freedom. Again.
Tubbo thought the festival was going on as planned.
There were stalls selling different foods, the stage was set for the speeches, everyone was having fun according to Schlatt.
But Schlatt didn’t know what Tubbo knew, what Tommy had told him.
He couldn’t even tell Schlatt, not without getting hurt or compromised.
Tubbo had told Ninachu and Eret what Wilbur was planning.
Well actually he told Nikky and Nikky told him to tell Eret.
Tubbo was a little suspicious at first but soon it was found that Eret was ok now.
The rebellions big brother Eret was helping L’manberg again, even after his betrayal.
Techno was nowhere in sight which was weird but then again this was techno he might not have even bothered to come.
Ok maaaybeee he’ll tell Schlatt.
If they can’t find Wilbur before the speech.
They would find Wilbur.
They had to.
Looking for a fugitive without alerting anyone of the presence of that fugitive is oddly difficult.
Wilbur couldn’t be anywhere where he could be noticed from the festival so clearly, he had to be either hiding underground like Pogtopia itself or-
the fireworks
“Liking the show, boys?” Wilbur said standing on a pile of TNT.
It’s worse than they could have imagined. There’s so much TNT. So much.
Suddenly Tubbo’s back in L'manberg’s Blackstone walls as Dream lights the TNT that blew their entire land up.
Tubbo hears Nikky and Eret scream and he’s back in the present.
"WILBUR PLEASE- HOW HOW IS THIS ANY BETTER THAN DREAM? DURING OUR WAR FOR FREEDOM" Tubbo screamed, memories edging his mind
"Wilbur put down the flint and steel-" Eret said calmly- voice wavering- with his hands up
"SHUT UP TRAITOR! YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN THE TYRANT!" Wilbur yelled at Eret. Eret had no retort.
Eret tried to tell Wilbur he’s wrong but he couldn’t because Wilbur was right he DID betray them- for what kingship? Eret tried to think of anything to say to Wilbur but his throat felt like sandpaper his attempts at words came out as a pathetic squeak.
Eret looked at Wilbur, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Please Wilbur we're trying to help you," Niki said trying to calm Wilbur down.
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT U P SHUT UP SH UT UP SHUT UP " Wilbur screeched straining his lungs, with his eyes closed he was pulling his own hair out, Wilbur’s eyes were leaking tears.
"YOUR ALL TRAITORS! ALL OF YOU! I NEVER SHOULD HAVE TRUSTED ANY OF YOU!"
Wilbur’s crying face, as he screamed, was enough to make them all pause. All tubbo could think of was Tommy’s voice when he told him "Wilburs gone fucking insane, man"
"Wilbur-" Tubbo started
Tubbo was interrupted by Jschaltt entering the room.
"Just WHAT is going on here" Schlatt’s commanding voice boomed.
Before anyone could say anything Wilbur started laughing hysterically
"ITS THE FUCKING FIREWORKS SHOW!" Wilbur cackled
"WILBUR PLEASE YOU DONT HAVE TO DO THIS" Tubbo yelled, others had followed Schlatt into the room and saw the once benevolent, kind president laugh hysterically on top of a pile of TNT with a flint and steel in his hands, it was enough to make anyone pause
"OH BUT I DO" Wilbur laughed lighting the TNT underneath his feet, before walking backwards off it.
Everyone ran, Sapnap used an enderpearl.
All Tubbo could see was a malevolent dream and an insane Wilbur.
he couldn’t tell what was real anymore.
Wilbur wasn’t leaving
Wilbur wasn’t leaving
Wilbur seemed stuck in his spot laughing before his laughter turned into silent tears.
Why wouldn't he leave
Tubbo ran towards him- towards the TNT- and tackled Wilbur away from it as far as he could
He’s not about to lose a brother
Wilbur laughed as he saw everyone run as if they could escape this there’s TNT everywhere! He hid them! Underground! They wont stand a chance. They’ll all die!
And then they’ll all be safe.
Safe.
His laughing seemed to slow and he could feel his cheeks getting wet.
Suddenly he felt the air in his lungs escape as he felt something- someone run into him.
Tubbo?
What?
No no no he can’t he’ll die
"TUBBO"
Wilbur used their falling momentum and turned on the heel of his feet so that he covered tubbo with his body.
He heard a bang as he felt his body fly across the room. All he could feel was pain.
Tubbo closed his eyes and waited for the pain. When it didn’t hurt as bad as he expected Tubbo slowly pried his eyes open and OH MY GOD
explosions continued ion the distance
Wilbur coughed and his lips turned red before he fell
Earlier in a mansion far away
"Skeppy come onnnnnnnnnnn," Bad whined to his best friend
"no," Skeppy pouted
"The festivals gonna be fun!!!!" Bad grunted as he tried to pull Skeppy up, but as a man made partly of diamonds he was kinda heavy.
"noooooooooooo" Skeppy pouted.
"Pwease?" pleaded bad
"Nooo, stayyyyy!!" Skeppy pouted like a child
"ARGH- YOURE ALWAYS LIKE THIS!" Bad pouted and dropped to the ground crosslegged.
"I just- I don’t- I have a bad feeling about it. ok? i- I cant-," Skeppy said, jittery.
Bad frowned.
"ok, we'll stay here, happy?"
"YAYYY!" Skeppy cheered clapping
Skeppy and Bad decided to play Uno while they waited for the festival to finish. They played through 6 rounds of the game before Bad decided Skeppy was cheating and threw his cards at him.
Skeppy just laughed, he told Bad, “You’re was just bad at the game”
(bad was right about the cheating)
"HOW DO YOU EVEN CHEAT IN UNO????" Bad screamed, annoyed
"You say that likes it’s hard?" Skeppy teased his best friend
"AHA! SO I WAS RIGHT YOU WERE CHEATING!" Bad said happily, doing his 'i was right' dance
Bad doesn’t call it his 'i was right' dance but that’s what Skeppy calls it mentally and that’s all that matters.
Skeppy giggled at his friend’s antics feeling better than he had for a few days. He didn’t know why but he had this feeling something was off. Bad was right though- it was probably nothing.
But his friend never treats it like it is. Skeppy will never admit it but that means more to him than anything he could ask for.
"I'm sick of Uno wanna go take a walk?" Skeppy asked Bad
bad looked at him, pausing his 'i was right' dance "Of course!" Bad smiled and grabbed Skeppy’s hand and pulled him up (Skeppy really just jumped up but lets Bad think he could drag him)
As Skeppy and bad walked, they talked about things.
it had started off normal, trees!
But trees lead to flowers and flowers lead to bees and bees lead to tubbo and somehow on their peaceful walk they ended up talking about the war
"I mean yeah I think it’s mean for Jschlatt to ban them from their own home! even if Tommy is annoying and always swears- Skeppy what’s wrong?" bad stopped to look at his friend
"It’s just- today has been awesome but somehow the more time passes the more I feel like somethings wrong," Skeppy mutters, "somethings wrong."
Bad tries to find the words to help his friend when suddenly all of his thoughts were interrupted by an explosion.
It was in the distance, but it was really big.
For a second all bad could see was white and then-
Skeppy whipped his head around as soon as he heard an explosion. it came from the festival.
"Skeppy! We have to help them!" Bad yelled
Skeppy nodded and they both started running as fast as they could towards Manberg.
They ran as fast as they could to Manberg.
They run past burning trees, burning from the embers thrown around by the explosion. They ran as fast as their legs could take them. When they finally reach Manberg the last of the explosions had already faded and nothing but destruction was left in its wake. Everyone who joined the festival is injured.
"SKEPPY HELP ME DO EMERGENCY AID" Bad screamed
Skeppy had never seen bad so scared in his life
double meanwhile/earlier
Huh. That was weird.
Techno could swear that was the 8th time he’s seen Wilbur run past his potato farm. Techno has no idea how long he’s been working on the farm but normally Wilbur would have told him to stop at least 12 hours ago.
Welp
Doesn’t matter.
He doesn’t care as long as he can do some potatoes.
He hasn’t heard Tommy yell in a while either. Double weird.
But all it means is more potatoes babyyyyy
Eh theyd be fine
potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes
ok enough potatoes
Not that techno would willingly stop making the farm
they needed more this farm cleasrly isnt enough
but... like… he kinda wants a nap. And to eat potatoes. So he takes a nap and eats potatoes.
He sets a timer on his comms to wake him up in a couple of hours.
He just wants a nap, man
Techno lies down in someones bed and before he knows it he falls asleep.
Instead of waking to the ring of his comms, Techno wakes to the ground being shaken like a toy in a box in the grubby hands of a toddler. The shaking running through the ground Techno lived on shook him out of his bed and he landed directly onto his face.
OH COME ON
He just wanted a nap, man. What was that anyway?
Techno gets up to look, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes Techno walked up the stairs and broke the dirt door hiding Pogtopia.
Man, that’s a lot of fire. Wait, was that an explosion earlier. You mean someone blew something up… without ME.
Techno sighed into his comms and asked "What"
Dream answered shortly after "well i may have underestimated how insane Wilbur went"
"what"
"i gave him TNT, didnt expect him to try to do a suicide bomb"
"what"
"gave Wilbur TNT"
"you mean Wilbur did this"
"yeah...?"
"and he didn’t tell me"
"wait he didn’t tell you?"
"no, as you can tell me being woken up from my nap by an explosion was just for fun"
"...Wilburs not okay is he?"
"Why’re you asking ME?"
"im going to go to the festival"
"you want me to go too dont you"
"Yeah"
Techno closed comms and sighed again.
what in the world happened.
Techno walked to Manberg, as the human GPS he is, made it there at the same time as Dream who was twice as close to Manberg than he was. Well, what was left of Manberg which wasn’t really much. Bad and Skeppy were tending to the injured and there was a lot of injured.
"What happened here," Techno said in his monotone voice.
Bad paused his work for a second, "i have no idea but if you don’t come here and HELP techno, dream i will- ARG" bad shouted
Techno shrugged "It’s not like i have anything better to do" there’s not much to do when everyone’s so hurt
Techno and Bad ended up having the most medical expertise out of the four of them- Bad because well duh he’s bad he’ll help anyone and Techno because battles lead from one to another and wounds are just another part of his day now. Bad and Skeppy work together as a single unit and so do Dream and Techno, dealing with the worst of the injured first.
Techno paused when he saw Wilbur and Tubbo’s bodies- his little brothers are hurt.
Tubbo’s not nearly as hurt as Wilbur even though they’re right beside each other so Techno can only assume Tubbo was protected by Wilbur- Wilbur did this
"Tec-," Tubbo coughed hoarsely, reaching out for Techno.
Techno paused what he was doing to go to Tubbo.
Tubbo grabbed his shirt
Techno let him
"tech-no" tubbo sobbed
Techno squeezed his shoulder in reassurance, "I’m here"
Techno stayed there holding tubbo until Tubbo’s grip on his shirt loosened and his arm fell down. Tubbo passed out.
Techno stared at his brothers. He didn’t cry. Nows not the time. He has to help the others.
Techno, Dream and Skeppy work wordlessly and bad yells commands at them about what to do for the patients.
They work through the night. Everyones so hurt. And they’re so tired, but they can’t stop- Someone always needs their attention. At some point, everyone was shifted to a makeshift hospital, Techno can’t really remember.
They’d decided to rest in shifts, one pair sleeps while the other works. They switch every couple of hours.
Techno could wish he could say that he got some good sleep but he couldn’t- not while his family was this hurt.
and where the hell is Tommy?
Techno didn’t do much more than eat and help everyone with patients, Bad would force him to rest once in while techno didn’t need it but he appreciated the effort.
Fucking damnit Dream thought
He didn’t know what he was expecting anymore, probably along the lines of 'they fought for this land they deserve it' but fuck why didn’t he see this coming? He saw Wilbur slipping he should have realized this.
Schlatt may not be Wilbur but Wilbur sure as hell isn't Wilbur. God- fucking-
He couldn’t let himself get distracted by his own mind almost everyone was hurt- his friends, his once enemies now friends, and someone he considered an enemy. He didn’t want any of them to die… not even his enemies.
In the War for Independence, both sides specifically made sure to not let anyone die, came to an agreement about one thing. It was a violent, violent war was but it was bloodless, no one died. A bloodless violent war. That’s what he expected this war to be too.
Not- Not this. Never this
Dream left the hospital for a second to catch his breath. He slid off his mask that covered half his face and stared at the stars. He once heard that when people die they join the stars. He hoped nobody ended up there tonight.
"Dream" Techno voice tore through his pity festi- party. His pity party.
Dream slid his mask back on.
"Whats up Techno" Dream said not looking away from the stars.
Techno walked up to behind dream and put his hand on Dream’s shoulder, "u gud?" he asked.
Dream debated telling Techno that yeah, yeah he’s ok but in the end, he just said a curt "no"
Techno sat beside dream and they silently looked at the stars for a few minutes before Skeppy informed them it was their turn to take care of the patients. Dream nodded and they left.
Bad was dealing with patients until the last possible second but as soon as he sat down beside Skeppy he collapsed.
It was their turn to help
Karl was the first to wake up.
Like properly, not- not delirious or anything.
He had eating caramel apples with Punz on the other side of the festival when the TNT went off, so they were the least harmed.
Karl tried to help them the others but they forced him to rest and heal first. He woke up at dawn- he was okay. well not okay- none of them were okay, but he’s better than before and that’s okay
They might be able to save the others.
Soon after him, Punz woke up.
Punz kept poking Karl to see if he’d react or if he died. Karl tried smacking him in retaliation and for the first time in long long painful hours- days?- everyone laughed .
After them was Purpled.
He was just minding his own business when the explosion went off knocking him off his feet, his back covered in burns. But he’s awake. He’s alive
And that’s more than any of them could have hoped for.
After purpled was Sapnap.
Sapnap enderpearled away- only caught behind a stall. He was lucky to have that enderpearl, no one was expecting a fight. Sapnap got it by pouring water on enderman for fun while he was playing with george
Sapnap- of course- got worried about Karl.
In the end, he made fun of everyone, he got made fun of back. It was the closest any of them could go to normal.
it had been almost a day and a half since the explosion- probably more, they had lost track of time so many hours ago
no one else woke up that day
nearly another half a day later tubbo woke up
he was shielded from the worst of the damage by Wilbur.
When tubbo woke up he cried. Techno gave him water and held him in his arms in a hug making circles in his back until tubbo stopped crying. Everyone else felt like they saw something they werent suppossed to see.
The air was depressing again, but hey, whats air without deppression?
Tubbo tried to help, he was delegated to bed once again. Karl tried to cheer him up, it worked. They were giggling messes at their terrible puns and Sapnap getting increasingly mad from being called 'sapmap' from dream.
The others would wake up- they had to.
George was the next to wake up.
He was standing behind the rest of the Manbergdieans when the explosions went off.
He woke up nearly a day after tubbo, things were dtarting to look hopeful
Sapnap and George somehow managed to get into a fight despite being contained to medical beds and unable to move properly because of injuries.
Quakity and Fundy woke up soon after.
Quakity made jokes soon after but it was clear he wasnt ok, the others made sure to let him grieve in his own special Quakity way.
Eret and Niki woke up half a day later within an hour of each other.
It was looking better for the group.
Sure most of them were too injured to leave their cots but theyre alive. They’re alive. They’re not going to die. things were looking hopeful. They were hopeful.
Schaltt woke up another day later.
Things werent looking as hopeful. Schlatt couldnt see, he was blind , the explosion hit him pretty hard wasn’t pretty but... they could adjust.
They were on deaths bed, injured, scared, scarred, but they were, somehow, alive. They weren’t okay yet.
But this was good enough.