Chapter Text
Ghostbur felt nothing for a long, long time. He was surrounded by void, mind too fuzzy to really focus on anything. The familiar two figures stood in the distance away from him though he found he couldn’t move to get closer. He didn’t need to in the end though because as light suddenly began to fill the dark space, they started moving towards him. His vision fully blurred out and suddenly the void was changing, shifting into something else, somewhere else
When Ghostbur’s, no, Wilbur’s vision comes back Phil is the first thing he sees. His father (he almost scoffs at that) is standing over him with a look of such disbelief and he absently realises he’s slumped to his knees on the ground. He chooses not to focus on that, instead trying to work out what the hell is going on. His eyes slip shut as he wracks his brain for any memory that would possibly explain what he was doing here. And it hurts, god it hurts but through all of his thoughts shooting through his mind at rapid speed, on particular one gets repeated over and over.
𝗧𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘆
Oh god where’s Tommy? The panic rises quickly and Wilbur is suddenly trying to pull himself up off the floor as he frantically looks around. Where’s his little brother?! Wilbur is slowly piecing together Ghostbur’s memories and from the fragmented “happy” visions he can tell Tommy’s not in a good place, mentally or physically. Wilbur barely registers Phil trying to calm him down until he’s being wrapped in a hug and he hates it, he hates it so much and Phil’s touch is making him want to claw his skin from his body.
He’s breathing heavy when he shoves Phil off of him and stares at the shock in his f̶a̶t̶h̶e̶r̶'̶s̶ reviver’s eyes with a hatred slowly bubbling up. “How dare you pretend to care now?!” Wilbur practically screams as he pushes himself backwards on unsteady feet. “You ignored me for years and now you suddenly have time for me?! You put Techno above your two children for years and only now you’re trying to make up for it?! After I fucking died?! “
Phil keeps trying to butt in and defend himself like he would on the rare occasion that Ghostbur got angry but this is Wilbur now so he just talks over him. “What about Friend Phil?! Sheeps can’t respawn, I’m not stupid anymore! You were lying to me! You took advantage of my state so that you could paint yourself as the good guy and then you-“
Wilbur suddenly stopped, cutting himself off because his mind is splitting itself apart and he’s suddenly remembering everything and it hurts, oh god it hurts make it stop, please make it stop. He falls back to his knees and lets out an awful scream. His hands clutch at his hair in an attempt to ground himself but he can’t stop the memories bombarding him one by one. The happy ones fly by like darts past his sight, lodging themselves in his head but not wanting to be seen. The sad ones pause before his eyes, taking a fraction of a second in reality but in his mind he’s back there.
Funnily enough, most of them seem to be about Tommy. He doesn’t know whether that comforts him or not.
He hears Tommy beg to keep his things, grey eyes pleading for “just this once?”. He hears Dream telling him Tommy cancelled the party and to go take a walk in the snow. He sees Tommy crying himself to sleep in the Tnret one too many nights. He sees the remains of Logstedshire, blown to bits.
And just like that his head is crying out again because oh god Tommy’s been through so much and nobody else knows and he wasn’t able to take care of Tommy well enough and everyone left him and-
“You left Tommy.” It’s not an accusation, it’s a statement. Phil goes to argue against that but Wilbur wasn’t done. “You know full well he thrives off of attention and you just never visited! Did you never once think of the effects it would have on him?! Because Techno is just sooo much more important” Wilbur sees Phil bristle at that and scoffs because of course. Phil will always take Techno’s side “Techno was betrayed!” Phil is shouting too now and it’s a miracle nobody’s come in to see what’s going on.
“Techno is a grown-ass ADULT Phil!” Wilbur screams back “He needs to realise that nobody is going to ‘respect’ his ideals when he blatantly disrespects everyone else’s! You literally teamed up with your son's abuser!”
Phil flinches at his words, looking at Wilbur with and expression that only said “what?”. Wilbur scowls, wondering how he could ever see the man in front of him who was hell-bent on ‘teaching L’manburg a lesson’ before he even knew all the facts as a father. He left L’manburg as his unfinished symphony and yet Phil and Techno and Dream (Oh, Dream. Once Wilbur had his hands on a weapon Dream better sleep with one eye open) had inadvertently ended it with betrayal and slaughter.
“Do you even know what Tommy went through Phil? Did you ever care to find out? Did the fact that your youngest freezes up when yelled at and can’t stand explosions anymore never rub you the wrong way, not once?” Wilbur continued his attack, not relenting when he sees shame cover Phil’s face as he’s called out on his shit parenting. “He went through so much shit that he should have never had too! You promised to protect him Phil, you promised to keep him safe for ever and ever but here I am having to pick up the remains of a traumatised teenager who I was more of a parent to than you could ever be. “Wilbur’s tone is dark, acid dripping off of his words as he says them with the intent to hurt, to show Phil that no matter how much he hid behind “teaching a lesson”, his absence had fucked up a kid.
Phil didn’t once speak through Wilbur’s speech and when Wilbur throws a glance over he sees that his skin has gone ghostly white, horror and realisation and pain all swirled in his blue eyes. He has his hands clasped over his mouth and Wilbur watches with an unwanted twang of pity as Phil’s knees buckle and he falls to the ground. Phil had been so nice to him while he was Ghostbur… “Thank you Phil, I know it took a lot to get me back and I appreciate the lengths you’ve gone too.” Wilbur sighs, despite everything he’s not able to leave Phil here looking so distressed.” You have to acknowledge the mistakes you’ve made otherwise you’ll have no way to make up for them.” Phil looks up, tears swiftly falling but with newfound hope in his eyes that Wilbur can’t bear to stamp out. “Until we next meet”
Wilbur quickly leaves, not glancing back once as his thoughts fully focus in back on his little brother, his Toms. He needs to get to Tommy now, he needs to see his little brother safe, he needs to wrap him in a hug and tell him it’s going to be okay because big brother Wilby’s here now and make everything better. He knows he can’t, Tommy’s been through far too much to be fixed with one hug and a few reassurances. But he’s determined to help. Tommy is going to be allowed to feel safe again if it’s the last thing he does.
Wilbur runs into main L’manburg, ignoring a surprised gasp from someone he can’t quite place in his rush. His legs are killing but it doesn’t matter because he needs to find Tubbo so that he can find Tommy.
It’s going to be ok
He’ll make sure of it