Chapter Text
phil stared at his younger son.
the son he lost so long ago.
the son that could be back in his arms if he could heal him.
but he had to figure out what was wrong with wilbur first.
schlatt ran a hand through his hair, sighing. “he’s been like this for 3 and a half weeks. i’ve been searching for an answer, a potion, anything that could fix him. but then i ran into techno.” the ram hybrid looked at phils older son, who stood in the corner with his arms crossed.
“you’re lucky you found me when you did,” techno said, “or things could be a lot worse for you.”
phil dismissed his sons weary words as typical techno banter. after losing wilbur, he took his older son under his wing, literally, and taught him how to really fight hunters. the pig hybrid may not have wings, but he could soar in battle.
the archangel rested a hand on his sons chest, feeling the shaky rise and fall of wilburs breathing. phil noted the bruises and cuts that were slowly healing around his arms and face, along with the loss of blood leaving his son pale.
whatever this was, it wasn’t good.
“and you said the stab wound was closed, schlatt?” phil asked as he examined wilburs stomach, where a scar was present.
“y-yeah. tubbo whipped something up real quick when we thought it was the end. i don’t know how he did it, it didn’t even look like he had potions on him. but he closed the wound after will went unconscious.
but will never woke up.” schlatt recounted the awful night. he was planning to grab the boys and run as far away as he could when tubbo stood up from his spot next to tommy, bent down in front of will, and pressed his hand onto his wound. in a bright flash of yellow light, wilburs wound was closed.
that sounded awfully familiar to phil. healing magic was a common power among archangels. however, it was something to look into after he woke his son up.
“there must be something preventing him from waking up. i can take a look inside his mind, and maybe then i can understand this better.” phil turned to schlatt, who seemed dumbfounded.
“i’m sorry, look inside his mind? what are you, a wizard or something?”
“archangel,” phil motioned to his wings, “but close enough. ive been in many minds, schlatt. getting into wilburs will be easy.” he turned back to his son, putting his dominant hand over wills head.
“wait-phil. let me grab the boys first. they’ll want to be here if wilbur wakes up.” schlatt disappears for a second, then returns to the bedroom with a disgruntled tommy, muttering about it being too early for this sh-
tubbo walked in shortly after and immediately clung to tommy’s arm, the former more awake than the latter. tommy shifted to make tubbo more comfortable.
phil smiled, seeing his sons in these two boys. maybe he can take them all under his wings.
someday.
now, he must find his son.
he places his hand just over wilburs head, and closes his eyes. phil takes a deep breath, and ignites the spell.
as he opens his eyes, they glow a bright yellow, as does his hand. wilbur appears to glow the same color, but fainter.
schlatt nearly yelps in surprise. he’s never seen archangel magic before, and he certainly wasn’t expecting phil to glow.
“calm down buddy, this happens all the time.” techno hasn’t moved an inch, simply staring at his brother.
“youve seen this a million times! i’ve never even seen an archangel, much less his magic!” schlatt is nearly hysterical, torn between awe for the archangel and concern over wilbur.
“you guys need to be quiet. he has to focus.” tubbo pipes up from the other side of the room. both of the older men look to the small boy.
“and how would you know that?” techno asks, his brow raised ever so slightly.
“i-i don’t know. i just figured phil needs some quiet.” tubbo looks down, wondering how he knew that too. tommy rubs the hand on his arm and gives his brother a reassuring look before turning back to look at wilbur.
phil opens his eyes to see nothing.
nothing? this was new.
normally, a patients mind had at least a few things indicating what was wrong. something to indicate trauma or a wound on the inside.
seeing nothing but white space concerns him.
where was the inner wilbur? every person has an inner conscience that manifests when phil arrives.
the archangel spreads his wings and is about to soar up when-
“...dad?”
there he is.
phil freezes, folds his wings, and turns around to see a sleepy wilbur rubbing his eye. he looks so confused.
oh, wilbur.
he smiled.
“hi, son.”
“dad, what are you doing here? you’re dead. technos dead. you’re not supposed to be here.”
oh.
no.
is that really what he thought?
after all these years?
it’s what phil thought.
the archangels smile dropped as he walked over to his son and wrapped him into his arms.
“will, techno and i have been alive this entire time. we thought you were dead ever since the attack. we’ve been looking for you, on the slim chance you’d still be here. and we found you.” phil’s eyes began to water. he had his son again.
wilburs body tensed with realization, then began to shake as he wrapped his arms around his father.
“dad, how- what- you- you’re...okay?” was all wilbur could get out before the sobs started to wrack his body. phil merely rubbed his sons back before letting out some tears of his own.
“it’s going to take more than a few hunters to take down your old man.” wilbur laughed into his fathers shoulder, feeling so small and so young. he inhaled, and pulled away from phil.
“dad, why are you back now? what- what’s going on?” wilbur was still shaking, trying to process all of this information coming at him so fast.
phil sighed. “wilbur, you’ve been in a coma for nearly 4 weeks. i don’t know if you would’ve made it if techno didn’t literally run into your ram friend a few days ago.”
“ram friend-“ wilburs eyes widened with realization, remembering the night he died. “schlatt! he- oh god, tommy and tubbo- i got stabbed, right? aren’t i dead?”
phil shook his head. “no, tubbo managed to close your wound before you died. schlatt told me everything. he’s been trying to wake you up ever since.”
“tubbo, he closed my wound?” wilbur looked down at his stomach, feeling discomfort, yet reassurance. “that kid always has something up his sleeve.”
“i have a feeling he’s got potential. along with the loud one. he’s got some good fighting skills.” wilbur laughed at that.
“tommy’s got quite the mouth, i’ll agree. but he’s got passion, and that’s what makes him strong.” phil hummed in agreement, and the two sat in silence for a second.
“dad? if tubbo closed my wound...
why haven’t i woken up yet?”
phil looked down at the ground. “that’s the thing, will. we don’t know why you won’t wake up. i came here to see if i could find some answers.”
wilbur looked almost flabbergasted. “but...but i want to wake up! i want to see you and techno again. i want to see my boys, i want to see schlatt! why can’t i wake up, dad? i want to be there with you! who’s protecting everyone when i’m not there?” panic rose in wilburs voice the more he spoke.
“schlatt must be tearing his hair out trying to deal with tommy and tubbo without me. and the boys- oh god, the boys are still so young! i need to be there for them, dad! i need to... i need...” wilbur trailed off, breathing rapidly.
the atmosphere around them started to darken. phil looked around, and without a moments waste, pulled his son back into his arms.
“i know, will. i know you aren’t doing this on purpose. something must be interfering with your outer consciousness.” he rubbed circles into his sons back to help calm his breathing. “i’m gonna find out what that is, don’t you worry.”
the archangel felt his son relax in his arms, his muscles loosening. the sky lightened back to its original form.
“dad, i’m so scared.” wilbur whispered into his fathers shoulder. “what if i never wake up?
i’m so cold, dad.”
phil felt his heart shatter. he didn’t want his first reunion with his son in nearly a decade to go like this.
“you’re going to be okay, will. you’re going to wake up. i’ll go back to hell if it means i get to see you in the physical realm again.” he felt his grip on his son slipping.
he felt will falling asleep.
it was time for phil to leave.
“i love you, wilbur. i’m gonna figure this out for you. i have to go, but i’ll be back soon, okay? i promise.”
“i love you, dad.” wilbur whispered into his dads shoulder. “say hi to techno for me.”
“i will.”
phil closed his eyes.
schlatt was pacing.
it had only been fifteen minutes, but it had felt like weeks.
techno hadn’t moved from off the wall, eyes closed.
tommy and tubbo were now sitting on the ground, using each other as supports. tommy was nearly asleep again, but tubbo nudged him awake.
phil was still frozen in his glowing state, eyes wide open.
“how long does this normally take, techno?”
“i told you the first twenty times, it depends on the patient. you need to calm yourself, ram boy.” techno opened his eyes and smiled as he called schlatt his new nickname.
schlatt sped over to techno, hands grabbing his collar. “i told you to stop calling me ram boy, you-“
phil gasps and stumbles back, losing his balance. schlatt and techno both reach to catch him.
“phil! what happened in there? did you see wilbur?” schlatt asks. once phil regains his balance, the ram hybrid walks over to wilburs bed, watching for any signs of consciousness.
phil shared a glance with techno and looked down. techno released his grip on his father and returned to the wall.
the archangel approached schlatt and put a hand on his shoulder.
“schlatt, i saw wilbur. he’s okay in there.” phil smiled.
“...” schlatt stared at phil.
“he’s not going to wake up, is he?”
phil sighed. “it’s not that he’s not going to, it’s that he can’t wake up. an outside force is keeping him from waking up, and i have no idea what it is.”
in the corner of his eye, schlatt could see tommy and tubbo sharing a concerned glance.
schlatt took a moment to process this, then sighed.
“okay. how do we find out what this mysterious force is?”
“it has to be a mental block.” schlatt said from the end of the dinner table.
everyone looked up from their food at the ram hybrid. tubbo was rambling about a new beehive he saw close to house before schlatt piped up.
he hasn’t spoken since he left wilburs bedroom earlier that day. phil’s interaction with his son left schlatt confused.
why wouldn’t wilbur wake up?
if he wanted to, there had to be something keeping him from physically doing it.
just like how nightmare-
no. no going down that road yet.
“what makes you think that, schlatt?” phil asked.
“i-“ schlatt started. was he really going to talk about this in front of the boys? they knew how his horn was broken, but nothing more about his past.
if it meant wilbur would wake up, then it was worth it.
“after my village burnt down, i was taken captive by nightmare and the rest of the hunters. they injected-“ schlatt paused, closing his eyes. “something, into me. they had some bullshit scientific name for it. i don’t remember. whatever it was, it gave me what i called a mental block. nightmare would say a certain phrase- and i would immediately do his bidding. now matter how much i didn’t want to obey, i couldn’t escape it. it was like he had my mind in a chokehold. he made me do things- “ schlatt cut himself off, not wanting to send the younger boys into a panic. “something similar must be happening to wilbur. it was a hunters sword that stabbed him, right? maybe the blade had something on it.”
all eyes were on him, each person stunned into silence. even techno had nothing to say.
after a few more seconds of silence, phil smiled.
“you might be onto something, schlatt. we can talk more about this after dinner.
tubbo, what were you saying about the beehive?” the archangel glanced at the ram, then back at the younger boy next to him.
“well, i-i was saying that i haven’t seen the queen yet, but she’s most likely surrounded by the male worker bees. most bees don’t live longer than a few days, you know....”
as tubbo continued to ramble, schlatt picked at his food for a minute before getting up and walking out of the room.
tommy followed him not long after.
schlatt sat down on the old porch, feeling the wood creak under his feet. the night air was chill, and the sun was just finished setting. he closed his eyes and let his mind wander.
“you’re going to do what i say, and you’re going to do it now, little ram.”
the feeling of numbness. hands touching him, refusing to let go, cutting off his circulation. needles pricking his skin.
“wilbur, will- run! please, just go! i’ll be okay, i’ll be-“
the feeling of a horn shattering.
“we’re going to take you stupid hybrids and monsters down, one by fucking one! starting with you, little ram.”
the feeling of electricity shooting through his body.
blades slicing his skin.
hot tears falling.
smoke.
fire.
so much fire.
in and out.
in and out.
in and-
he couldn’t breathe.
the door opened.
“schlatt?”
the ram exhaled, opened his eyes, and turned to see tommy in the doorway.
“hey, big t.” schlatt tried his best to not sound shaken up.
tommy walked forward and sat down next to him, their shoulders touching. they both looked out into the distance.
after a few beats, tommy whispered.
“it’s okay not to be okay, you know.”
schlatts breath hitched, looking down at the boy.
“there’s obviously a lot more to your story than i thought. i could see you didn’t want to say all of that at the table.
i know you just want to help wilbur.” tommy looked up at schlatt.
“but you don’t have to share everything. if you’re not ready, you don’t have to tell us. you never have to tell us. tubbo and i will still be here.” the blonde boy rested his head on schlatts shoulder.
“wilbur would be proud, though, that you’re opening up to us.”
schlatt felt tears pricking at his eyes. these boys, the boys he thought he had the misfortune of finding, they were so much wiser than their years.
they’re just kids.
the tears fell onto the wood floor.
in and out.
in and out.
tommy wrapped his arms around the ram, which schlatt returned with near desperation. he clung onto the boy with everything he had, sobs racking his body.
it’s too much.
“i know.” tommy whispered, and held schlatt a little tighter. damn, did he say that out loud?
whatever.
for once, schlatt felt glad to have some company. he’s never cried in front of anyone other than wilbur.
tommy was surprisingly good company, for the loudmouth that he was. schlatt nearly forgot, through all of this, that this kid was still a kid and not always a pain in his side.
in the distance, schlatt could hear tubbo talking about bees, and phil laughing. the door was still open.
schlatt let go of tommy and wiped his eyes.
“thanks, tommy.”
tommy smiled.
“we all have to be here for each other, schlatt.”
“how did you get so wise, kid?”
“that’s just life, i guess.”
tommy stood up and walked back into the house, returning to the table.
after a few more minutes, schlatt stood up and walked through the doorway, finally closing the door.
instead of returning to the dinner table, he opted to go to wilburs room.
schlatt opened wilburs door, and saw wilbur asleep on the bed. as always.
“hey, will.”
schlatt sat in the chair next to his bed. he’s been through this routine.
he smiled.
“remember the time you nearly stabbed me? I was just starting to walk properly again after my horn broke. i finally got my balance down. it was hard, man! the right side of my body always felt heavier than the left...”