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Chapter Text

Tom was sitting at his desk, Minecraft already pulled up on one monitor and this stream's script pulled up on the other. This first part was obviously more scripted, since his face cam wasn't on to make people aware that he was reading anything, but there was still plenty of room for improv, as he and Wilbur liked it. 

They were nearing the end of the conversation when Tommy first heard it. The chanting. It started faint, ignorable, then grew until it was all he heard. All he heard. 

"Wilbur?" He could see his friend's discord profile lit up in call, but no noise. Nothing but the steady chant, growing louder, louder. He started to panic. "Wilbur? Will, mate, I- something's happening, I don't, I don't know, I hear this voice, I--"

And then his head felt like it was pushed under freezing water and he blacked out. 

Tommy woke up slowly, blearily blinking his eyes open as someone called out his name. 

"There you are," the voice soothed. It wasn't Wilbur. "I was wondering when you'd wake up."

Tommy, still half asleep, noticed one thing immediately: he wasn't in his bed. Or his chair, as he last remembered being. In fact, he was slumped against a wall, one that burned beneath his thin t-shirt that he most definitely was not wearing last. Needless to say, he was awake again within the second. 

The next thing he noticed was the figure in front of him. It was green, but humanoid, and where its face would be was instead simply a white mask with a smiley face. It was wearing an orange jumper, and Tommy couldn't help but think about some art he saw of Dream in the prison of the SMP on twitter. 

But this- no. That couldn't be Dream. 

"Are you just gonna keep staring at me like that or are you gonna get up? Don't tell me death made you dumb. Well, dumber than you already are." He laughed, and Tommy blanched because god that really did sound like Dream, didn't it? But not like Clay, the one who'd plan streams with him and give him tips on writing assignments for college and who was currently in a battle with him over who could send the other the stupidest tiktok. No, this was Dream. The character. The villain. 

Tommy pressed closer against the wall while Dream continued, "C'mon, dude, it's a mute joke. Get it? Because dumb- oh my god, nevermind. At least you're quiet now."

He went over to the other side of the cell, and Tommy watched with rapt attention as he dunked his hands into the cauldron. When Dream took them out, they ran a bit, diluted by the water, before reforming. He did it again, putting his hands under then pulling them out and watching, then repeated for a few minutes as Tom looked around the rest of the cell.

It looked just as it did on his computer, just… real. Real-er, he guessed. (How the fuck did he get here anyways?) The warmth from the lava at the entrance could be felt even from the far corner he sat in. Purple droplets gathered at the pointed edges of the obsidian in the ceiling and fell with quiet drips. He could feel some droplets seeping in through his shirt from where it was set behind him. 

He turned back to Dream, who was still dunking his hands. Tom didn't know if he was washing them or if it was entertaining or what, but he cleared his throat, making Dream stop anyways. 

"I do piss in that, you know." 

Dream just chuckled, low. Tommy couldn't help the flash of fear that coursed through him at the sound (it was wrong, coming from his mouth like that, in this context, when Tommy wasn't sure there was a stream to perform for or an "after" of said stream where both could reassure each other that they didn't really mean it before laughing it all off). "There he is," Dream said. "The hell happened when you died that made you so quiet?"

Tommy looked down at his hands, then up at Dream, whose back was still turned. "Am I dreaming?"

The green man turned. Took a step forward. Tommy moved to go back, but only succeeded in making part of the rock poke through his shirt into his back. "Want me to pinch you to make sure?"

"Uh… sure?"

And then Dream punched him. Right in the face. Tommy gasped as images started to flash through his mind. 

Dream standing above him, illuminated by the lava, one hand on Tommy's collar, pinning him up on the wall, the other wrapped in Tommy's hair as it brought his head back against the rock again and again and again--

Dream standing at the entrance of his hall of treasured items, his sword pressed against Tubbo's (Tubbo? Was that- it looked like him, but the clothes, the hair, the horns were wrong, wrong, wrong) throat as Dream shouted, giving the two an ultimatum--

Him and Dream standing on thin paths of obsidian, watching as L'manburg's final explosions finished off from dozens of blocks above--

Dream digging a hole in exile, so many holes, so many explosions--

Explosions--

Dream

Dream

"STOP NO PLEASE!" Tommy had hands in front of his face without even realizing, but Dream was already back on the other side of the cell, laughing. 

"Oh the look on your face, Tommy!" Dream laughed harder before reaching up and wiping a nonexistent tear from his eye. "You look so… fun when you're scared. You should try it more often."

"I don't think I want to, thank you very much."

"Oh sure you don't. But hey, at least you know I was telling the truth now. The book was real. You're back now, Tommy. You're alive. Nobody else has died and come back."

Besides Jack Manifold, Tommy thought, but he supposed he wasn't supposed to know that. Top priority: surviving this conversation. How to do that? Being the character Dream expected him to be. Be TommyInnit, Traumatized Annoyer Extraordinaire™, then wait for Dream's back to be turned to he can figure out how the fuck to get home. (Because he sure as hell wasn't dreaming, if that punch was anything to go by.)

He already had this stream planned out, so he knew what he needed to say, how he needed to act. And to be honest, it wasn't too hard to fake fear in this place. He yelled and flinched in all the right places, screamed at Dream to make sure he knew that Tommy didn't want Wilbur back. Only for Dream to do the exact opposite because of course--

Wait. Tommy froze. If he revived me, and I'm here now, then maybe if he revives Will… 

"Dream. In all seriousness. Do not bring Wilbur back. I'll do anything, just- please--" Tom exaggerated his pleas, stooping so low as to beg. Nausea started to crawl up his gut at the way Dream just laughed.

"Tommy, nothing you say is going to stop me, you get that?"

And Tommy could barely keep his smile in. Yeah, he did get that. He got that loud and clear. 

It took a day and a half for Dream to stop. A day and a half of pure abuse, physical and mental. And what was Tommy going to do against it? He wasn't a trained fighter. He was a fucking Minecraft streamer, that's literally on the opposite end of the spectrum. 

He just wanted to go home. He wanted to be able to curl up in his bed and cry without Dream laughing at him from the other side of the cell. He wanted the stream to be over, dammit, he wanted to unwind and take off his persona and take a nap. 

Dream asleep looked… weird. He climbed into the chest and let his blobulous form completely melt, making a weird green soup inside the box. Tommy opened it to make sure he was gone; the mask stared up at him, but said nothing. He closed the chest.

He went back over to the front of the cell, where the lava was. It was warm; he liked it there. Sitting down, he dug around in his pockets for something, anything, until he pulled out what looked like a flimsy smartphone. He turned it on to see what was essentially game chat. It was a comms system.

Frantic now, he hit the message box and typed as quickly as he could.

You whisper to Awesamdude: sam sam SAM SAM SAM

You whisper to Awesamdude: DREAM RESSURECETEDD NE HELP HELP 

You whisper to Awesamdude: GET ME OUT PLEASE SAM I NEED YOU NOW PELASE HLEP

You whisper to Awesamdude: SAM

You whisper to Awesamdude: IM ALIVE

Tommy stared at the comms, his breathing rushed. He felt like he had just run a marathon, and he was on high alert as he glanced back over at the chest. Dream was still asleep. Good.

Awesamdude whispers to you: Wait, what?

You whisper to Awesamdude: THIS IS SERIOUS SERIOUSLY BIG MAN HELP

Awesamdude whispers to you: I'm coming, I'll be there as quick as I can. Dont worry.

Awesamdude whispers to you: Please stay safe. I'll be there soon and I'll get you out, I promise

Tommy could almost cry. He'd been doing it enough these past day or so anyways, it wasn't too hard. 

He was safe. Or, well, he would be safe. And from there he'd be able to go home. Hopefully.

Dream reformed a few minutes later, and he walked over to where Tommy was still curled up by the entrance. He nudged the boy with his foot. Tommy didn't respond.

"You know, I don't get why you keep sitting over here," the man said. "Nobody's coming for you."

Tommy hid his smirk, instead curling further in on himself. "'s warm."

Dream hummed, then put his arm out and stuck his hand in the lava. Tommy's breath caught in fear as he watched his hand melt and reform, just like it had in water.

"I don't think it's too hot," said Dream. "Why don't you try?"

Tommy shook his head. "The fuck, dude? Why the hell would I do that?"

Dream didn't move, but the boy could tell he was looking at him out of the corner of his eye. He shrugged. "I told you, it's not that hot."

"Yeah and I'm Philza Minecraft. I'm not a fucking idiot, you know. I still have common sense, Will knocks it into me often enough."

Dream started to say something, but he was interrupted by a loud thunk of gears starting to move. He stepped back, arms raised defensively as he looked around wildly. "The fuck," he hissed. "What. The fuck. Did you do?" He turned to Tommy at the last word, seething with rage.

Dream started to surge forward in an attack only to stumble back into the main cell as the netherite row shot up, diving the two and keeping Dream in. Tommy was the one to laugh now. 

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO, YOU LITTLE SHIT?!" Dream was growing, his green body literally boiling with rage. Tommy froze, stepping back with wide eyes. "I'LL FUCKING-- YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!"

Tommy took another step back, the imposing heat of the lava at his back. He felt it bubble up and singe his shirt, then his back as it burned through. He winced.

And then it was gone. He turned to see the lava down and the bridge already on his side of the chasm. He stepped on with a breathless laugh, then turned and gave Dream the middle finger as he walked away.

Halfway across, he turned back around to the front just in time to see a figure step out into the area where the bridge would land. They were a furry, green, centaur-type creature, with the face of a creeper. They wore armor on both their upright chest and the chest that made up their main body, and had a thin ringlet of gold in their hair, almost like a crown. They held a trident. 

Is this Sam? Because if so, holy shit is Sam badass here. Oh my god.

Then they spoke. Their voice was soft, unsure. "Tommy?"

And yep, that was Sam. "Hey, big man. Sorry about the, uh. The dying. I guess." Tom winced. Not a good impression, but hey, give him a break, he'd been acting before a madman for the past two days. He didn't ask for this.

"I-" Sam laughed. "Tommy, and I mean this in every way possible, you have nothing to apologize for. If anything, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, dude."

Tommy watched as probably a thousand different emotions went through Sam's face at once and winced. Probably not the best thing to say, in all honesty. Instead of saying anything more, he turned back to Dream, who was still screaming. 

"YOU WANT TO LEAVE?!" Dream's mad shouts echoed throughout the empty room. Tommy huddled closer to Sam's steady form. "NO, YOU--" Dream cut himself off with a laugh. "NO! YOU REALLY WANT TO GO BACK OUT THERE?! WITHOUT ME? I'd love to see you try. You said you don't want Wilbur back? You said he'll ruin everything? NO! HE'LL- HE'LL BE PERFECT! JUST YOU WATCH!" And then he started chanting. And glowing, a green light started to fill the space.

Sam took a step back, brows furrowed. "What is he doing?"

"I don't- I don't know. I think he might- I think he's resurrecting Wilbur." Tommy looked up at the centaur, trying not to let his hope shine through. Now was not the time to show weakness, not when Dream could still see them. "We should probably get the fuck outta here."

"Yeah, probably. Get on my back, you look… I don't think you should be walking on your own right now."

Tommy nodded, then scrambled up on his back. The armor underneath him was uncomfortable; it clearly wasn't meant for riding. A small voice in the back of his head said that this was for a reason, nobody rode Sam's back. This was special. (Dream's chants, which steadily increased in volume as the two turned and left, didn't exactly help the moment, though.)

"C'mon kid, let's get you home."

Chapter Text

Wilbur was sitting on Phil's couch, a bottle of wine sitting temptingly on the coffee table in front of him. It was cheap, probably not even that good; it was just the first thing he could find. Before he could even think of reaching for it, though, Phil came into view and grabbed it.

"Will, mate, you gotta stop this." Phil moved to the kitchen, where he put the bottle somewhere Wilbur couldn't see. "I thought I got rid of all of these. Where did you even get this?"

"Tesco."

"Wilbur."

"... Sorry."

Phil sighed as he moved back to the living room and sat down next to Wilbur. He put a hand on his shoulder consolingly. "I know."

Wilbur hummed, not looking at him. There was silence for a minute until Will spoke up again. "It's just… he's gone, ya know? Tommy's… They don't even have a lead."

"It's only been two days."

Wilbur finally made eye contact. "Most missing persons are assumed dead after the first 24 hours."

"Don't say that."

"It's true!"

"I'll make you go back to your house if you're going to be such a downer about it, jesus." 

Wilbur winced at that, and Phil softly smiled in response. "I was kidding, Will. Promise. You can stay as long as you need, lord knows we all need the company. 

Will smiled back. Leaning onto Phil's shoulder, he let himself relax. He started to go to sleep, the hangover he was still sporting making his head pound. But with eyes halfway shut, he froze. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"The--" The chanting. It had started quiet, but now it couldn't be ignored. He could hear it in his mind, growing louder, starting to hurt alongside the searing migraine. He stood up and the world tilted, the chanting echoed louder and louder and he tried covering his ears, tried screaming, tried everything he could think of but it wouldn't leave it wouldn't leave. 

He looked up and could see Phil's frantic face, could see his mouth moving but couldn't hear any words. Just chanting, just- just Dream. Only Dream. Wilbur squeezed his eyes shut, and--

And it was quiet. 

Too quiet. He couldn't hear the humming of Phil's central heating, couldn't hear the cars outside, nothing. 

He opened his eyes.

The first thing he noticed was the rubble around him. How could he not, honestly? It stretched on all around him until it hit cliffs that towered above him. He was right at the edge of one of them. Looking down, he could see a lone wooden button right by his foot. 

He could tell where this was going and he did not like it. 

He started walking, looking around. Quickly, he arrived upon the L'manburg flag at the bedrock, surrounded by red vines. The cloth was torn and tattered, and the plant matter around it pulsed with life. Wilbur grimaced, taking a step back. He could smell the vines from where he stood, sulfurous and toxic. He stepped away, looking up instead at the glass ceiling. 

Someone was on it, looking down at him. He couldn't see them well enough to tell who it was, but they broke the glass and stuck their head down through the opening they made quickly enough.

"Hello?!" The person shouted, and oh, that was Ranboo. Wilbur was on call with him just the day before, to break the news to him and Tubbo that Tommy had- Tommy-- 

"Ranboo?"

"Hi!" The teen smiled. "I don't think we've met before, but if we have and I just forgot I'm really sorry! That happens sometimes!"

Wilbur couldn't help but smile at his nervous yet friendly tone.  "No, you're fine! We haven't met!"

Ranboo said something but Will was too far away to hear. Ranboo seemed to notice that, and said, "Oh sorry, let me come down to you, hold on," then leaped down to the chasm, landing in a squat as he let his legs follow through with the momentum.

Up close, Wilbur could see how tall he was. Once he stood, his lanky form towered above Will by a good foot or so, which was most definitely saying something. His skin was half pitch-black and half milk-white, which carried up into his hair. His eyes were different colors, red and green, and the gold in his small crown and the enchantments of his armor glinted in the sunlight. Long story short, this Ranboo was not human, in any sense of the word. 

To be precise, he was half enderman. Wilbur didn't know what the fuck to do about that, but he decided to just go with it for the time being. 

"How did you survive that jump?" Will chuckled awkwardly.

Ranboo patted his chestplate. "Oh, just good armor, I guess. Before I started the hotel with Tubbo, grinding for supplies was the most interesting thing to do, honestly." He shrugged. "I'm not one for wars, ya know?"

Wilbur smiled. "Not really, but ok."

"Most people don't. You need help out?"

"Oh, please."

Ranboo started to lead him out of the pit, starting towards one of the cliffs before digging in and making a small staircase up. They talked about little things on the way, like the smell ("Oh, it's definitely gotten worse since I was last here," Ranboo said. "Probably because we put the glass over it. I don't think it likes being caged in too much.") and where, exactly, did Wilbur get his sweater, because it looked really warm (it was the one Phil had given him the night before, apparently a hand me down from his father, with a long sleeved piece of Wilbur's own merch thrown on top. He didn't know how he was still wearing it in this impossible world. Wilbur didn't say that, though, instead just shrugging and saying, "It's from a friend, I think."). It was quickly decided that Wilbur could stay at the Bee n' Boo hotel for the time being, if he wanted. Wilbur wanted. 

Will's first look of the SMP once above ground was… breathtaking. Not necessarily in a good way, but not in a bad way, either. He stopped at the top of the stairs that once led into L'manburg and looked over the ruins. The flag was still visible. He looked forward and saw the Big Innit Hotel in the distance, accompanied in the skyline by countless towers, big and small. He was in awe at the sight of it all.

Ranboo kept going a few steps, but stopped and looked back when he saw that Wilbur wasn't following. "Coming?"

"Hmm?" Wilbur snapped back to reality. Or what was his new reality now, he supposed. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. It just… it all looks so different."

Ranboo nodded then started moving again. "Ok, there's a lot more vines coming up, so be careful. And I should probably take you to the church first, just in case, since I have no idea how long you were down there. Plus you smell, no offense. Then we should go to Snowchester, I think Tubbo would be a bigger help to you than I am right now." He chuckled. "Sorry."

After a quick stop at Church Prime where Will quickly dunked his head under the flowing water and a hike through the woods that honestly took longer than he was expecting, they finally made it to the Snowchester cabin. Ranboo went up first, saying that Wilbur "should probably stay here for a sec, I'll tell Tubbo what's going on."

So here Wilbur stood, in the snow, shivering a bit more than he should be, honestly, due to how wet his hair still was. He watched as Ranboo hoped the door, picked up the baby zombie pigman that rushed into his arms at the sight of him ( Michael, his mind supplied), and said something Will couldn't hear to someone inside. Then Ranboo turned and nodded at him with a smile, and Wilbur walked up and entered the cabin.

The place seemed cozy, albeit very messy. The kitchen table was littered with scraps of paper and items were lying around outside of their correct chests. There was a painting against a side wall of the family, which Will recognized from Twitter. Standing in front of it was Tubbo.

The boy was the same height as he was in real life, and the face looked the same, which was a bit of a relief. (Though the height difference between him and Ranboo was almost laughable.) But that was where the similarities stopped. His face was tired, exhausted, the dark bags under his eyes betraying the fact that he was probably going to collapse at any second. His hair was blond, but only the tips. Not in a way that said he wanted only his tips blond, but more in a way that said it used to all be blond, but it had been months since he died it and now the first couple inches of his roots were brown again. And his horns. God, his horns. One pair was fully grown and wrapped around his head, framing his face in a lopsided circle, and the other, while only half-grown, were starting to go straight back and up from the top of his head. 

This is wrong, said a voice in his head. It was unfamiliar, foreign-- but undeniably him, undeniably Wilbur nonetheless. His horns shouldn't be that big, the first pair had just barely started when I left him--

Will shook the thought away, instead taking in Tubbo's shocked face. "Tubbo?"

"Wilbur?!"

"Oh!" Ranboo seemed excited, at least. "You guys know each other, then?"

Tubbo turned to him. "Ranboo, when you said you 'found some guy in the ruins' I didn't think you meant Wilbur fucking Soot, I--" He turned to Will. "And where are your wings?!"

"My wha--?" Wilbur's eyebrows furrowed with confusion before he was hit with a tidal wave of- of- he didn't even know how to describe it. Wrongness, maybe, because this was not his body (but it was but it wasn't but it was). Loss, of worn hands and well-earned scars and his wings, his wings, that were always a part of him and yet also never were. He stumbled, head in his hands. "Look, I don't know what's happening either, to be fair," he eventually said. "Not a goddamn clue. All I know is that I'm not supposed to be here."

"Yeah no shit you're not supposed to be here, you're supposed to be dead!"

Ranboo's eyebrows nearly hit his hairline. "Dead?!"

"No, not just that!" Wilbur butted in. "I'm not supposed to be here. In this world. I'm not-- I'm not Wilbur, I- I mean, I am, technically, but not- I don't know. I don't know, I just heard chanting and then I woke up in the ruins. It's hard to explain."

"Start from the beginning, then." Ranboo put Michael down, letting him run around, then moved to the couch. Tubbo followed, then Wilbur moved to stand in front of the two of them. Even though he stood above them now, he couldn't help but feel as though they were judging him. Deciding his fate. 

"Two days ago, Tommy went missing. In my world. Which I'm pretty sure is different than this one, because in my world, this one is fake."

"... What?"

"Tubbo, please. Just give me a second." Wilbur took a deep breath before continuing. "He was - I probably shouldn't be telling you guys this, but - he was doing the stream where Dream was supposed to revive him. Because in my world, this is all a story that we're acting out in. In a videogame. I see your faces, I'm giving you existential crises I know, I'm sorry. I just-- this is the only way I can really explain it.

"Right when his character was revived, Tommy stopped talking, and when- when…" Don't cry don't cry don't cry "When his mum went to check up on him, because I- I was in call and watching and I saw him not responding, so I called his mum, and went she went up to his room, he- he was gone." Oops, he's crying anyways. "No trace of a struggle, or even him leaving his chair or anything, just gone. I was staying over at Phil's for a few days and we were talking, and then I heard the chanting and woke up… down there. Yeah." He sniffed and wiped his eyes before huffing and straightening up. "Any questions?"

Tubbo and Ranboo stared dumbfounded. Michael squeaked. "So many, big man," Tubbo eventually got out. 

"Understandable. But, I mean, we've probably got all day, right?"

Ranboo nodded and Tubbo shrugged, and Wilbur sat down on the floor in front of them. He started to speak.

Chapter Text

Sam and Tommy made their way through the prison slowly. Sam stopped at the first checkpoint, where Tommy would have to go through a small channel of water, clearly lost in thought. 

"Shouldn't I get off here?" Tom asked.

Sam hummed, then moved so he stood in front of the entrance to warden's passage. "I don't want to risk you losing another life right now. Just… close your eyes, you're not supposed to see this part of the prison."

Tommy nodded, then burrowed his face into the soft green fur of Sam's back. He heard the soft thumps of Sam's paws(? feet? They certainly weren't hooves, but beyond that Tom wasn't sure) as they hit the ground, the ominous whooshes of the guardians in the walls, the clicking of buttons and redstone controls as Sam worked his way through each area. 

He eventually spoke up. "Hey Sam?"

"Yeah?" More clicks. 

"Can I tell you something?"

"Of course you can, Tommy." His voice was soft, softer than Tom had ever heard it, roleplay or not. "What happened?"

"I'm not… I'm not Tommy."

Sam froze. Tom could feel the muscles tense underneath him. "What?"

"Not like that, not like that! I mean, I am Tommy, just not this Tommy. Not the one you know."

"Like an alternate universe or something?" As he spoke, he continued moving.

"Yeah, somethin' like that. Dream really fucked up the resurrection process, that's for sure. I think. Genuinely no fucking clue what to do right now, in all honesty. I just wanna go home. Back to my mum and dad and my dogs and, hell, I even fuckin' miss college, isn't that saying something."

Sam was quiet for a minute before muttering, "I can imagine." 

"Do you believe me?"

"I… I think I might. You know what they say, life's weird enough as it is, this may as well happen." Tommy huffed out a laugh, and there was one last series of clicks before Sam stopped again. "You can open your eyes now."

Tommy straightened up and looked around. They were in the lobby of the prison, and holy shit it was huge. "You built all this by hand?!"

Sam chuckled. "Yeah. It's impressive, sure, but I mean anyone could do it."

"Yeah, but it's even more fuckin' impressive when it ain't a videogame or some shit. I mean it's still fuckin cool as shit then but this- this is real! The real deal!" He laughed, then slid off Sam's back. "Like, that's some sick shit, man!"

Sam smiled. "Glad to see you back to normal." He tilted his head, reconsidering his words. "Or I guess, back to my Tommy's normal? Unless that's offensive or something, I don't know--"

Tom barked out a laugh. "Nah mate, you're fine. We're similar enough anyways, I'm just less traumatized and shit, ya know?"

Sam hummed and moved over to a lever. A wall opened beside the boy. "You can go get your stuff, Tommy. Do you know how the key system works?"

Tommy nodded and stepped into the other, much smaller room. As he stepped up to the enderchest in the corner, he could feel the energy it emitted humming around him. Cautiously, he put a hand on the lid and opened it. 

A small book was haphazardly placed on top; the key. Ignoring that for a second, Tom looked further into the chest to see a few other things: a small stack of disks placed gently to one side, a folded up piece of leather, a few blocks of diamond and emerald, a rusty dagger, a creeper head, a couple more books. Tommy took the key and closed it, then went over to the button in the wall and put the key in, opening the normal chest. 

He put his armor on first, his shaking hands somehow knowing exactly how the clasps came together. The shimmer from the enchantments swirled in his eyes. He could have sworn he was going to be sick at the sight of it. Instead, he took his sword from the bottom of the chest and sheathed it in the scabbard at his hip.

Everything else he touched and it disappeared, but he could still feel it on him, clearly in some sort of inventory. He left the room with only his hardhat in hand, before putting that away too at the sight of Sam.

"Ready to go back?" The centaur asked. "I know we don't exactly have a way to get you to your real home yet, but I feel like staying somewhere familiar to your body would do you some good."

"Oh, I feel like I could sleep for a million years, big man!" Tommy grinned. He walked alongside Sam this time, not riding him; they came to the mutual silent agreement that that would be best, at this point. To save both their dignities. 

Once outside, Sam took the lead. "Let's hope nobody sees us," he said. "Everyone still thinks you're dead. It… might be best that way, at least for now."

"Hmm. Yeah, I've got a lotta enemies here, don't I?"

"You could say that, yes."

Despite how fast Sam urged him to go, it took Tom a good half hour to make it to his dirt house if one included all the times he stopped to take in the sight of everything. Every new building they came across, he would stand and stare until Sam pushed him onwards (sometimes literally). Luckily, however, they made it without running into anyone, and Tommy entered his house with a sigh of breath he didn't know he was holding.

Sam watched as Tom went to the back room of the house and discarded his armor. Sam had to duck his head to fit, but looked into the room the best he could nonetheless. "Hey, message me if you need anything, ok? I'll be back in the morning to check in."

"Mmk."

Sam nodded awkwardly as Tom collapsed into bed, then left. The boy listened to the receding pats of his footfalls before turning over in bed. He grabbed the pillow behind him and started at the ceiling. 

Maybe this was all a bad dream. Maybe the night he spent in the prison was a fluke, and this time he would wake up back in his own bed where none of this was real. Where he wasn't abused by some green blob. Where he didn't have to put on armor just to survive outside because everyone around him wanted him dead. Where he had at least some idea of what the fuck was going on with his life. 

He heard shuffling outside and sat up. Sam poked his head back through the door. "Uh, some people are here to see you." Then he moved aside, letting the people through. 

The first was Ranboo, if Tommy had to guess. His enderman heritage was obvious now, with the particles surrounding him and the fact that he was seven goddamn feet tall. Then came Tubbo, with weird hair and weird horns and an even weirder face, if only because he looked so conflicted. Tom had never liked it when his friend looked like that, had always wanted to make him feel better.

And then came Wilbur. Tommy couldn't help but gasp.

Chapter Text

In the end, it didn't take all day to answer all of the platonic couple's questions. 

The first question was, of course, the issue of Tommy being not-dead. He tried to explain it the best he could, how Dream had resurrected him using the book Schlatt gave him, and for the most part the two seemed to be accepting of it, albeit shaken. 

"It's just," Tubbo butted in at one point, "This is the second time I thought he was dead and he wasn't, you know. And yeah, he- he was actually dead this time, but." He sighed, using his hand to hide his face. "I had only just started grieving, you know? And now I have to start all over again."

Ranboo rubbed his back as he cried. Wilbur just sat there awkwardly, trying not to make a noise. 

The thing is, he understood. Two days ago, he'd been on call with Tommy when the boy very abruptly stopped talking, stopped responding. After a few minutes of frantic DMs to Tommy (never answered) and from Dream (who was also in the call, waiting for a que that never came), among others, Wilbur finally decided to hack into his account to end the stream. And then he called Tom's mom, and, well. 

It had never really hit him that Tommy was gone, not truly. And he supposed the same was true for Tubbo.

But he said nothing. Just sat there. Awkwardly. 

Tubbo dried his tears and they quickly moved on to the next part: how Will knew. Which was a bit harder to explain, to say the least. 

He said as little as he could for the time being, and the two boys could very obviously tell he left bits out. But when they pressed, he evaded, and they eventually left it at that. 

They sat in silence for a while, Michael's running around the house the only noise. Ranboo eventually hummed and stood up. "Well, if you're right about Tommy, he's probably still in the prison. We should go get him."

Wilbur's eyes went wide. "Oh my god, I hadn't even thought of that. Fuck."

"What's so bad about the prison?" Tubbo asked. "Besides it being all inescapable and shit."

"Dream." Fuck, he need to get there fast. "Dream's so bad."

"Ah," Ranboo said, then stood. "We should probably get going then."

Wilbur left the house in a rush, though he noticed the other two staying behind for a second. When they came out, Tubbo had on armor as well, and both had swords fixed at their sides. 

"Wow, you guys are juped up, huh?"

"It's dangerous out there." Tubbo shrugged, then glanced over at Wilbur, still in his sweater. "We should probably get some for you too, to be honest."

Will hummed, the wrongness in his gut returning. "I, uh. I don't. Hmm."

"Oh yeah, you didn't like armor, did you?"

"Yeah."

Tubbo just hummed and moved on. Every part of Wilbur could tell that wasn't right.

They got to the prison soon enough, but they even sooner realized that Sam wasn't there. Wilbur kicked the wall in frustration, then jumped back as pain shot up his leg. 

"Sam's not responding," Tubbo said with a hum. Wilbur turned to see him holding what looked like a cheap phone. "We should check somewhere else."

"His house, maybe?"

Ranboo looked at him. "You know where his house is? I thought it was a secret. Or I have been there and just forgot, ha."

"Uh." Wilbur pulled a face. "I probably shouldn't tell you guys, actually." 

Tubbo rolled his eyes. "Let's go to the Badlands, then. He's probably there."

Remembering the vines, Wilbur blanched. "Actually let's not go to the Badlands." 

"Do you want to find Sam or not, Wilbur? Jesus."

Wilbur looked over at Ranboo, who winced apologetically. Bad day, the teen mouthed, and Wilbur gave a knowing nod. 

"Fine, fine," Wilbur relented. "Let's go."

When they passed by Tommy's house, Will paused. "We should probably check here," he said.

Tubbo turned. "But the Badlands?"

"I know, just…" Wilbur sighed, not having a good answer. "I don't know, nevermind."

Right as they were about to leave again, the door to the house opened and a… a green something stepped out. It had a creeper face, though it wasn't a creeper, and its expression looked worn. It paused when it saw the group.

"Sam!" Ranboo exclaimed, and Wilbur raised his eyebrows because this was Sam? "We were just on our way to see you, actually."

"Hey, Ranboo, Tub-- holy shit." His eyes landed on Wilbur. "Oh, he actually did it, didn't he?"

"Did what?" Tubbo asked.

"Dream, he- Tommy said he was reviving Wilbur. And he did it. Holy shit."

Will laughed. "You're telling me."

"Wait, does that mean- wait. Are you from here? Like, this… universe?"

Wilbur's eyes widened. "You know? Can you help?"

"I mean-" Sam ran a hand through his hair, dislodging his crown a bit. "Well. I don't know right now. I think you should talk to Tommy."

"Tommy's here?" Will and Tubbo said at the same time. They looked at each other. 

"Uh, yeah." Sam glanced between them, sensing the tension. "I got him out of the cell about an hour, hour and a half ago now. You can come see him."

He turned around and went back into the house. The other three looked at each other before heading in, Ranboo taking the lead and Wilbur last. Sam moved to let them into the back room, and they all filed in, all eyes on Tommy. When the boy's eyes landed on Wilbur, he gasped. His eyes widened as they landed on the merch logo. 

"Will? Wilbur?" His voice was so soft, so unsure. "…Will Gold?"

Wilbur almost cried. "Yeah Toms, it's me. I'm here."

Tommy jumped up and grabbed Wilbur in a hug. Will hugged back just as tight, his wings wrapping around them bo--

Wait, no. That wasn't right. Wilbur held him tighter.

"I was so scared," Tom whispered. Wilbur could hear his tears in his voice. "Dream, in prison, he-- I had to get him to revive you, it was my only fuckin hope, I'm so sorry, I don't even know how to get back and now we're both stuck here--"

"Shh, shh. I'm here now, that's all that matters. We'll figure it out. You're smart, yeah?"

Tommy chuckled. "Yeah, I'm the smartest man alive, bitch."

Wilbur laughed, and Tommy pulled back from the hug, wiping his eyes. He took a second to really look his friend over. "How come you got to keep your clothes and I didn't?"

"Maybe because you actually had a body in this world."

Tom hummed and raised his eyebrows at that, a soft agreement. "Maybe. Can't believe you came in your own damn merch though, you fuckin egotistical prick."

Will laughed again.

"Ok," Sam said, interrupting their conversation. The two pulled out of their hug and Tommy took a full step back, reluctant to be seen showing affection. "We need to come up with a plan."

Chapter Text

"Ok," Sam said. Tommy pulled back. "We need to come up with a plan."

Tommy nodded. "Yeah, for sure. My main theory right now is that something happened while Dream was resurrecting me, and somehow he got me instead of, you know, Tommy."

"That does check out," Wilbur said. "You-- When you went missing, it was right as Dream was supposed to revive you in the stream."

Went missing? Tommy looked at Will. "What do you mean I went missing?"

"Uh…"

"No, Will, tell me." He could feel himself getting angry, but he felt that it was earned. Wilbur said nothing. "Tell me, you- you fuckin' bitch! I wanna know!" He had been missing in the real world and he didn't even know?! And that meant Wilbur would be missing now, too, and Tommy was the one to blame for that. 

I'm the one to blame for everything, for L'manburg and Wilbur's death and exile and everything with Techno and--

Sam was in his face, hands on his shoulders, bringing him back down to reality. Tommy took a few deep breaths and stepped back from where he had somehow gotten in a fighting stance. 

Those weren't his thoughts. That wasn't how he would have normally reacted to something like that. Tommy took another deep breath to try and keep the panic from rising in his chest again. 

"Sorry."

"It's fine," Sam and Wilbur said at the same time. Tommy huffed out a laugh. 

"I mean, it's not, but."

Ranboo smiled sympathetically. "I think it was a valid reaction." 

Tommy didn't make eye contact as he nodded. "Thanks, mate."

"I'll talk to you about it more later, alright?" Wilbur said, and when Tom nodded, he continued, "Ok. As I was saying, you are right, that does seem to be the most reasonable explanation for what's going on. He was supposed to say he had it memorized, right? And that's how he didn't have it in the prison?"

"Yeah."

"What?" Tubbo looked between them. 

Wilbur ignored him. "I think he didn't memorize it as well as he thought he did. But if we can get the book, then we can figure out what he did wrong and do the same thing. Or something along those lines. Then we can reverse the process."

"But as you just said, he doesn't have the book," Sam added. "I can confirm that he didn't bring anything into the cell. We have no idea where he would have put it."

Tommy groaned. "Oh yeah, he doesn't have a fucking house we can rob. Shit."

Tubbo looked sceptical. "Reversing the process sounds a lot like you guys just dying again."

Tommy shook his head frantically. "It's not going to be like that if we can help it, right?"

Will hummed. "Yeah, but… One of us could die and then come back? Scope out the area, if that makes sense?"

"Again, no book," Sam said.

"Will, you can't actually be suggesting we fucking kill ourselves."

"Thing is," said Wilbur, "I think this is our best lead yet."

Tommy hummed, high pitched and doubtful. Besides the fact that no part of him wanted to die, SMP him or no, it just didn't seem like a good idea. Not well thought out. And he knew a thing or two about not well thought out plans. 

"It's not, though," he said. "We could always go talk to Dream. He's- he's right there, you know. Like a ten minute walk, if you're fast about it." When nobody responded, he continued, "Look, Will, he resurrected you for a reason. He's- You know, the--" Tom glanced at the others, then leaned in to the man and whispered, "The script, man, your whole thing right now is you're supposed to be helping him. He's expecting you to go to him at some point, because that's what's supposed to happen. And maybe you could get info on the book out of him. Besides," he added, "I don't-- I'd rather not die if I can help it."

Wilbur nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think that might work. Maybe. We'd have to be careful, though, if he even starts to think I'm not the Wilbur I'm supposed to be, I'm done for."

"So, you're going back to Dream then?" Ranboo seemed sceptical. 

Tommy grinned. "Yep! Well, Will is. Yeah."

"I think one of us should go in with him, just saying," Tubbo added.

"Well, not you." When Tubbo just squinted, Tommy continued, "I know you're not, like, my Tubbo, but you're still Tubbo, ya know? And this Dream can hurt you, a lot. Same with Ranboo, actually, I don't think he could either. But I mean, I could--"

Wilbur's hand tightened on Tommy's shoulder. "No. You're not going back in there."

Tommy groaned. "Aw come on, man--"

"No, he's right," said Sam. "I don't want you going back in either. That leaves me, but… I do need to stay on the outside of the cell to work the controls."

"One of us could do that," Ranboo suggested.

"No offense, but I don't trust you. Not with Pandora, not when messing something up means Dream getting out."

Tubbo hummed. "Then I'll go."

"Tubbo--" Tommy started. 

"No, no, Wilbur will protect me. Won't he?" The boy turned and raised his eyebrows at Will, who hesitated before nodding. "Besides, I'll probably have to have an invis pot anyways. Dream won't even know I'm there."

Tommy squinted, unsure, before sighing and nodding. "Fine, fine. Tomorrow though. I still haven't gotten my damn nap."

He started to walk back to his room when Wilbur called out, "No, wait! I wanna explore a bit more."

Tommy turned and groaned. Sam laughed before taking it as his queue to leave. As he shut the door, Tommy said, "But I'm tired."

"Yeah, yeah, and you can sleep later, come on." He turned to the other teens with a grin. "Hey Ranboo, show me that hotel you were talking about. I wanna see."

Before the enderman could say anything, Tommy bursted out, "You're staying at fuckin' Bee n' Boo?! ("Hey, now--!") I cannot BELIEVE you, Wilbur, betrayer of your own family, disgrace to this household--" Wilbur was laughing. "Don't laugh!"

"I'm not, I'm not!"

"Uh huh. Hey, you know what'll make it up to me?"

"What?"

"You got your phone still on ya?"

"I swear to god, child, if you ask me if I have games on my phone--"

"No! I just wanted to get a picture in front of my hotel, obviously the vastly superior one. C'mon, please?"

Wilbur dramatically sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine! Whatever the fucking gremlin child wants, apparently." 

But Tommy could see in his eyes that Will wasn't truly annoyed. He ran up and caught Wilbur's arm then ran out the door, dragging the man behind him with a laugh.

Chapter Text

Tubbo watched Tommy and Wilbur check out the front of Big Innit Hotel together, their laughs of excitement reaching all the way back to the doorway of his house, where Ranboo and Tubbo still stood. Sam was further down the walkway, watching as well. Tubbo watched as Sam Nook, a humanoid green android with a creeper face and raccoon ears, came out of the building. Both figures seemed surprised at his presence, but Sam Nook clearly was overjoyed by Tommy's return. Wilbur laughed, took out a strange device (it looked like a comms, just… more), and held it up as Tommy posed with the android. 

"I don't trust them."

Ranboo looked over at him. "Why not? They seem fine to me."

"You… you weren't here when Will was alive, but… Right near the end, he started to go insane. Like, genuinely fucked in the mind. He started L'manburg, but he was also one of the people who blew it up. And there was other stuff, too, back when he and Tommy were in Pogtopia. I mean, I don't know the full extent of it, but… based on what Tommy's told me, it wasn't good. He wasn't good. But he was damn good at faking it."

They both looked back over at the other pair. Wilbur was now pointing his comms(?) around, trying to get everything as if he was taking a video. Tommy shouted and Wilbur turned back to him and Sam Nook with a laugh. Sam, normal Sam, went over to them as well, and the three started talking. 

Ranboo hummed. "And you think that's what's happening here?"

Tubbo shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know. I wouldn't doubt it, though."

"I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt for now. Because, well, there isn't any evidence against what they're saying so far. And Tommy agreeing with him kinda confirms it."

"It doesn't, though." Tubbo frowned. "There hasn't been any evidence for what they're saying, either. And you never know, maybe… Maybe Tommy went insane, too. Dream did kill him and bring him back. And- and a lot of other stuff, too."

"You really think so?"

Tubbo sighed. "He hasn't even said hi yet, Ranboo. Like… I'd thought he'd at least acknowledge me or something. He's barely said five words to me."

"But those five words were him being worried about you. It's pretty obvious that he does care, somewhere… deep inside."

"It shouldn't be that deep, though. The Tommy I know either cares or he doesn't and he's not afraid to yell his opinion about it at the top of his lungs."

"But that's the thing, isn't it? Wilbur said they aren't the ones you know. They aren't the ones who know you. I think, maybe, Tommy's just… freaked out, because you aren't his Tubbo. Like how you're freaked out because he's not your Tommy. But he's staying with Wilbur so much because that is his Wilbur. If that makes sense?"

"It… yeah. Maybe." Tubbo watched as the group by the hotel laughed. Wilbur's hand was on Tommy's shoulder, a comforting presence as he hugged the boy close. "Is it selfish that I want it to be my Tommy?"

"I don't think so."

"Do… Do you think my Tommy will ever be back? Or is he gonna be dead forever?"

Ranboo looked away. "I don't know, Tubbo. I honestly don't."

They were silent as the group moved away from the hotel and back towards Tommy's house. Wilbur held up his comms(?) triumphantly. "We're getting a group photo! Everyone in front of the door."

"This will be wonderful marketing material!" Sam Nook bubbled happily. "Seeing the great Tommyinnit in his own house. The hotel-goes will be able to easily relate!"

Tommy laughed like a madman. "I don't know how the fuck I understand you, but well fucking said, Big Man! Well fucking said!"

Tubbo ended up beside Tommy once he calmed down, arm around his shoulders. Tommy looked over at him, then up at his horns. A conflicted expression flashed across the taller boy's face as he looked over them, and for the first time since Schlatt's presidency, Tubbo was self conscious about them. He ducked his head, careful to not hit the other boy in the face. 

"I'm sorry," Tommy whispered. 

Tommy isn't one to apologize. "I--" Tubbo looked back at Will, who was trying to get the group to smile. He did his best. The pictures were taken, and Tubbo ducked his head down again. "It's ok, Big Man. It's ok."

Chapter Text

The next morning, Ranboo and Tommy stayed behind while Wilbur, Sam, and Tubbo went to the prison.

"You sure you'll be ok?" Wilbur asked as he shrugged on the cloak Sam gave him. 

Tommy scoffed. "I'm not a fucking child, Will, you can go on."

"But if he does get into any trouble I'll be sure to scold him." Ranboo smiled and Wilbur returned it with a shit-eating smirk. 

Tommy sputtered. "Hey! Not fucking funny!"

The two watched as the small group left. Tommy turned back into his house with a sigh. "Anything you wanna do while we wait?"

"Oh, well, I haven't written in my journal in a bit, I was kinda hoping to do that before too long."

His memory journal. "Oh, yeah, for sure. Go ahead dude. I'll do some, uh… inventory sorting? I guess? I don't want to go too far away without you."

Ranboo smiled. "Sure, sounds good! Oh, wait, have you had any food yet? You look hungry."

Tommy was suddenly aware of the growing hole in his stomach. The only thing he had eaten so far since coming to this world was some spare raw potatoes back in the prison, and needless to say, those… weren't good. At all. They were raw potatoes, what did he expect? "Oh please man, I'm fuckin' starving over here."

Ranboo proceeded to pull cooked steak out of his pocket. "Here!"

"UhhHhh. Uh." Tommy cautiously took the pocket steak. Holding it now, he could tell it was a stack of about 15 or so. "Um."

Ranboo smiled. Tommy grimaced back and took a bite out of the meat.

All things considered, it was actually pretty good. The first one was gone after only about three bites, and the second disappeared soon after.

Now he was full. And still awkwardly holding the cooked steak. 

"You can put that away, you know," Ranboo said.

"Won't it go bad?"

"How do you mean?"

Food doesn't go bad in minecraft, does it? Oh my god. "... Nevermind."

Tommy thought for a second and the steaks left his hand as they went into his inventory, just like the stuff from the chest had. Not that he knew how to access his inventory, but he'd worry about that later.

He spent a while simply going through his house and digging around. He wasn't the most organized person, and he doubted he was about to be, but when he looked in chests, everything seemed to be where he left it the last time he was here in-game. 

Curious, he decided to experiment a bit. He grabbed a handful of sticks and went back to the main room, where he knew a crafting table was. Ranboo glanced up from where he sat in the corner, but ultimately paid him no mind, instead continuing to write. 

Slowly, unsure, Tommy put the sticks down on the table in the shape that would make a pickaxe. He put the last one in place, and… 

Nothing happened.

"Huh."

Ranboo looked up again, now fully paying attention. "Oh, if you're trying to make something, then just press the image on the side of it to confirm and then pick it up."

Tommy raised his eyebrows. "What?"

Crouching down, Tommy could now see the preview image of the wooden pickaxe in a little glass insert on the side of the square table. "Huh." He pressed it and it lit up. When he stood back up, a fully formed wooden pickaxe sat on top. "Oh! I do like that, actually." He picked it up and tossed it around in his hand for a second, then let it fall into his inventory 

Ranboo smiled and went back to writing. "Is it different in your world?"

"Well, in my world it's a fucking videogame, so. I'd say so, yeah. It opens a whole new menu when you do it."

"Oh. Sounds weird."

Tommy laughed. "Yeah, I guess it is. Speaking of which, how the fuck do I get to my inventory?"

Ranboo continued on to explain the different mechanics Tommy asked about. (Inventory couldn't be directly seen, you just had to remember what you have and summon it. "I have trouble with that bit, hah. Sometimes I'll feel that it's full and pull out something I didn't even know existed." Coords and other F3 info could be figured out through tablets you had to buy through villagers. And Ranboo didn't know what Tommy meant by "FOV" and "Master Volume" so Tom grumbled and left it at that.)

Tommy then took a minute to go down into the sewers and try out the pickaxe. He hit the stone in front of himself a few times, and it crumbled into cobblestone beneath him. He tried to pick it up, but it wouldn't fit. His inventory was full. He groaned and threw the pickaxe aside before going back upstairs.

He didn't know why he was so pissed about it, and that doubt made him even more pissed. He was Tommy fucking Innit, yeah? Why couldn't he figure shit out already? He slammed his fist against the wall as he went up the stairs, and cried out as pain shot up his arm. 

He was depressed and also so fucking angry at everything and he didn't know what to do. Sure it was fun writing all these fucked up things to happen to his character, but now it was really biting him in the ass, huh? 

Plus his head fucking hurt. He stopped at the top of the stairs and groaned.

Ranboo looked up. "You ok?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine. Big man big thoughts, ya know?"

Ranboo hummed and looked back down at his book. "You know, you don't have to keep pretending to be my world's Tommy all the time around me, right?"

"What?" 

"Like, I know Tubbo's being weird about it, but I don't mind."

"You should." Tom sat down on a chest. "I know I sure fuckin mind."

When Ranboo didn't respond, Tommy continued, "I didn't ask for this, ya know? I was just gonna have some fun with my friends in Minecraft and then all this happened and I--" He sighed. "It sucks. There are these two voices in my head, your Tommy and- and me, my Tommy, and I don't know which one to listen to anymore. I just want things to go back to normal."

"With the ways things are going, I don't think anything will be normal for a while."

Tommy sighed and put his head in his hands.

Ranboo hummed. "I know I'm not really helping much, but I know Captain Puffy is starting a therapy service. She might be able to help?"

Tommy thought about it, about all the times he's talked to her, about the way Twitter seemed to want her to "give the children therapy." She was nice. "Yeah, maybe."

"Let's go, then. I'm getting cramped sitting like this anyways." 

Tommy smiled at that, and they both went outside.

As they walked, Tommy noticed that nobody else was around. They were probably off doing their own thing; he knew well enough that most people moved out of the greater SMP area once L'manburg was gone and the egg started taking over more. But still, it was… errie, walking around what looked like a ghost town. 

"Hey, let's stop by my hotel first. I haven't seen the insides yet." And maybe there's someone inside.

"Sure, we probably have plenty of time."

Tommy jogged over to the hotel and entered, Ranboo trailing in after him. He froze right as he hit the threshold, staring down the person at the front desk. 

Jack Manifold stared Tommy down right back, the pen in his hand dropping. 

"What are you doing here?" Tommy asked incredulously. What do I mean, I know what he's doing here-- 

Jack gaped. "Wha- What am I doing here?! What are you doing here is more like it, you- you're dead! You died!"

Anger flared up in Tommy again. "Oh my god, we get it, ok? I died, I came back, so fucking what? Now why are you behind my fucking front desk?"

"Your desk? Your desk?" Jack looked like he was about to explode with how red his face was. "No, no, I-- It's my hotel now, ok? You died! Dead people can't own things."

"And what have you done to earn it, huh?"

Jack sputtered. "I- I worked hard! I upgraded this place--" He gestured angrily towards the chests in the corner, "I promoted business, I- I've done more for this hotel than you ever have! People actually stayed in it because of me!"

Tommy hummed doubtfully. No, he's right, you know he's right, you've seen his streams, you know what he's been doing-- "Yeah, no, I don't-- no."

"What do you mean 'no'?! I'm telling the truth!"

"Yeah, telling the truth about fucking stealing my shit! I've already gone through so much and then I come back to- to this?!" He was practically screeching now. "I cannot fucking believe you!"

He felt Ranboo's hand on his shoulder. "Tommy, I think we should go."

Jack nodded frantically. "Yes! please do!"

Tommy knew, he knew that he was acting like an asshole. But it was justified, wasn't it? He just came back from the dead to find out that his coworker and good friend had taken over his business--

But he already knew that. He knew that, out of character. If he could just stop acting for one fucking second, then maybe he could calm down and have a nice conversation.

But he didn't feel like he was acting. That was the problem. 

Tommy could feel the pressure in his head build as the two conflicting sides of hin continued to scream.

He stole our hotel! Fucking kill him, show him what he's done to us!

No, no, he grieved for us. He's sad, he's in pain, you watched his streams! You know what he's going through!

YEAH BUT HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE GOING THROUGH, DOES HE? HE STOLE OUR FUCKING HOTEL!

HE DIDN'T, THOUGH! CALM DOWN, FOR FUCK'S SAKE! SHOW SOME EMPATHY!

HE DOESN'T DESERVE IT!

The pressure popped. Or, well, exploded, really. "YOU CAN KEEP THE FUCKING HOTEL FOR ALL I CARE! BECAUSE GUESS WHAT! I FUCKING DON'T! So just--" He screamed between his teeth. "I'm leaving. I'm gone, bye, bitch, I'm- I-- C'mon, Ranboo, let's go."

He was halfway out the door when he realized Ranboo wasn't following him. He turned to face him, concerned. "Ranboo? Let's go, come on." No response. "... You ok?"

Ranboo shivered. "Do- do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"The- the chanting."

The anger fueling the air shifted and settled into an eerie suspense. Behind the counter, Jack nodded slowly. "Yeah, I do."

A shiver went up Tommy's spine. Is it the same chanting as before? But, no, wait, it can't be-- Ranboo isn't dead. And Jack isn't either, not anymore.

Tommy was shocked out of his thoughts when Ranboo shivered again, curled in on himself, and fucking glitched. Behind him, the same thing happened to Jack.

For a couple seconds, instead of a lanky enderman standing in front of him, a teenage boy a little taller than Tommy was there. A half black and half white face mask covered his mouth. That plus his brown hair seemed familiar, but Tom didn't have enough time to place it. He looked around, down at his hands, then up at Tommy, clearly incredibly fucking confused (as was Tom, to be quite honest), and his eyes widened. 

Jack, Tommy could see, had become… Well, Jack. He looked the same enough, but his hoodie and 3d glasses were gone. Instead he was wearing a lazy looking outfit of a different hoodie and sweatpants, and he held a phone loosely in his left hand. He looked around wildly. "What in the shit?!"

Tommy turned back to the other boy, who was still staring at him in shock. "Tom--"

His word was interrupted by a glitch and Ranboo stood in front of him again. "--my? Wait, wait, what the fuck--"

He glitched again, but only for a second; the other boy could barely be seen through the fuzz before the enderman came back. He stumbled, grabbing his head. When he opened his mouth, a loud enderman noise came out, and then he stammered. "Uh- sorry, sorry. What just happened?"

"Um." Tommy stared, dumbfounded. "You tell me, dude. You got all, like… glitchy for a second, it was weird."

He looked back at Jack, who was back to normal as well. He was leaning against the counter, head in his hands. "Get out," he said.

"Yeah, that's what we were in the middle of fucking doing when whatever the fuck that was happened--"

"Get out. Get out of my fucking hotel."

Tommy raised his hands defensively and backed out the door. "Ok, ok! I'm getting, I'm getting. Jesus, some people."

Once outside, Tommy shook himself off. "Let's just keep going to Puffy's office, yeah? She might still be able to help."

Ranboo nodded, still too scared to speak. 

They quickly made their way to to other side of town. Luckily, they didn't run into anyone else. Tommy didn't know what they would have done if they did. 

Ranboo knocked on Puffy's door, and a soft "Come in!" Was heard from inside. The boy opened it and stepped in, Tommy following in the shadow of his lanky form.

Behind the desk in the small room stood a sheep hybrid. She was significantly more sheep-like than Tubbo, even though she didn't have horns. Her head was fully animalistic, and Tom could hear the light clomp of her hooves as she moved around. The wool around her face went back like a long, full head of hair, and it was died rainbow. She wore a pirate's cap, but she managed to make it look professional. Her expression was frazzled as she looked over the papers on her desk, but she didn't seem to be taking any of the information in.

The sheep looked up, and her eyes widened as she saw the two standing in her doorway. "Tommy?"

Chapter Text

Wilbur, Sam, and Tubbo went to the prison while Ranboo and Tommy stayed behind. Once Will was certain Tom would be safe, his group left, though his shoulders were still tense. His wings were puffed up, primary feathers extended as if he was going to fly away at any sec--

No, wait, he. He didn't have wings. Why did he keep thinking that? He adjusted the cloak Sam had given him to replace Phil's sweater with stiff hands. He still wore his merch underneath, though with the logo hidden in shadow, it looked like a normal shirt. He prayed it would be enough to fool Dream.

The first half of their journey passed in peace, nobody crossing their path at all. About five minutes in, though, Sam stopped.

Wilbur looked forward and saw a figure on a hill before them. He put a hand up, trying to see better, but with the sun at their back, the figure was too shrouded in shadow for him to tell who it was. 

"Hello?" Sam called out.

The person jumped up and off the hill, practically gliding down and landing in front of them. Tubbo took a step back, and Sam put a protective hand out in front of him. The figure stood, and Wilbur watched as the shadows lifted from their face.

It was Phil. Well, Philza, really. His face was the same but also not, and the blond hair of his avatar was tied into a loose ponytail under the bucket hat he wore. Will knew that the Phil he knew would never let his hair get that long. He wore a large cloak, and when Wilbur looked closely, he could see the broken remains of wings widen within. The red brooch that clasped his cloak together was in the shape of a hardcore heart, and Will couldn't help but smile a bit at the detail.

Philza stepped forward, face in shock. He looked like he'd seen a ghost, which, well, Will supposed he had. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, trembling, barely above a whisper. "Wilbur?" 

Will smiled. "Hey, uh. Dad."

A tear ran down Phil's face as he put a hand on Wilbur's cheek. "Oh. Oh my God, son, you're… You're alive."

"Heh. Yeah, I am."

Phil pulled him into a tight, suffocating hug, burying his face into his shoulder. Will stood for a second, arms out, unsure what to do, before he settled into the hug as well. 

Philza pulled back after a minute, concern etched across his face. "Where are your wings?"

Will winced and gave a nervous chuckle. "I really wish people would stop asking about that, honestly."

"Sorry, sorry. I… I get it." Phil smiled. "Who did this? Revived, you, I mean. Do you know?"

"Well, I heard from some sources," Will nodded at Tubbo, who he knew was there when Dream originally revealed the nature of the book, "That Mr. Dream Was Taken got a book from Schlatt about how to raise the dead way back in the Pogtopia days. And he's just decided to bring me back."

He saw Tubbo's confused face, no doubt as to how in the hell did Wilbur know these things, but the man paid him no mind. 

Phil nodded, glancing between the other two for only a second. "So you're going to the prison then? I assume so, with Sam here."

"Oh, uh. Yeah, basically."

"Why, though? To say thank you? Say fuck you? What? What's the deal here?"

Wilbur shrugged. "Either one, really. Mostly I just want the book for myself. It's a lot of power, you know."

Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw Tubbo shift on his feet uncomfortably and the very clear stink eye the boy was giving him. Philza, however, just smiled and patted Wilbur on the back. 

"I always liked your style, kid."

Will smiled back shakily. The voice in the back of his head surged with pride, and he did his best to squash that down again. "Do you, uh. You wanna come with us?"

He could very very clearly see Tubbo and Sam's subtle attempts at discouraging this turn of events, but Philza paid them no mind.

"Sure! It's been a while since I've seen the bastard anyways."

And with that, the group continued towards the prison, with a notable amount of new tension between them. 

Sam spoke up after a minute or so. "So… what brings you to the Greater SMP area, anyways? I thought you lived over with Technoblade now, in the Tundra."

Philza shrugged. "Heard Tommy died. I just…" he hummed. "Wanted to say goodbye. Something kept pushing me, I just wanted to get it off my conscience."

Will winced at the choice of words. Wilbur, however, nodded along. 

"That was like last week, though," Tubbo said. "Why didn't you come earlier?"

He shrugged. "Didn't want to."

Wilbur glanced over at Sam, who looked like he was about to fight Phil on the spot. And honestly, Will wouldn't have stopped him if he did. He knew that if it came down to it, though, he'd protect his father with his dying breath.

A minute or so later, Will watched as Tubbo ran up to stand next to Philza. 

"Does Wilbur seem… different to you? At all?" The boy asked in a whisper as he glanced back at Will. Wilbur looked away, pretending that he wasn't listening in.

Phil hummed questioningly. "No, not really. Why?"

"Are you sure?"

"Do you want him to be different?" Phil stopped.

"No, no, that's not what I'm saying--"

"Look, mate, I'm just glad my son's back and that he's back to normal. If he seems different that's probably just because he's been dead for however many months. If you have any more problems, bring it up with him at least, yeah?"

Tubbo backed off sheepishly. "Yeah, ok. I got it."

Philza scoffed and kept going. Will heard a soft "rude" from Tubbo before the boy went back next to Sam, and Will watched as Phil stormed off. He needed to talk to him about this. Though he might not take the news of Will not being his actual son well, if these past few minutes were anything to go by.

Later, though. Right now he needed to talk to Dream. 

They made it to the prison eventually, Sam leading them through into the lobby. As the other two put their stuff in the lockers, Wilbur froze. He looked at Sam. 

"I don't want to die."

Sam looked up from where he was pocketing the warden's key. "What?"

"I don't want to die," Will repeated. "I don't- I-" His breath hitched. "You can search me, be as thorough as you need to, but I don't- I can't- I don't want to die, I don't, I don't--"

"Hey, hey, calm down." Sam's hands were out, palms up as he spoke softly and tried to calm Wilbur down. "You'll respawn during the searching process, don't worry."

"But, like, we don't even know if the respawning will work because I'm not in my minecraft body, I'm in a normal, human one, and- and--" Will whined, high in his throat. "I don't have anything on me, I swear, I swear, I swear--"

"Shh, hey. It'll be ok."

"But what if I die? Forever?"

"Weren't you the one suggesting that maybe death is the answer to all this?"

"Yeah, but--"

"It'll be ok, Wilbur. I promise. It won't even hurt."

At that moment, Philza stepped out of his locker. He seemed oblivious, again. Or maybe just choosing the simpler answer, the easier one. Will knew this world had a shortage of them these days. "Ok! Ready. Will, you got your stuff put away?"

Wilbur took in a shaking breath and shrugged. "I don't have anything anyways, so." 

Tubbo stepped out as well, and Sam closed the lockers. 

"Well then," Sam said, stepping forward to take the lead. "Let's get going, yeah?"

The very first checkpoint was a search. Wilbur knew this, he knew it, but it still freaked him out nonetheless. 

Tubbo went first. He put his hand on the bed in the corner, and when he lifted it, blue whisps of energy followed his hand for a second before fading. 

"Set my spawn, I'm ready," the boy said, and Will couldn't help but look as Sam pulled a lever, dropping poison on the boy, and--

And Tubbo appeared back on the bed, perfectly fine. He slipped off and moved to stand by the door to the next area.

Philza nudged Wilbur forward. "Well go on, then."

"Nuh uh, old men first."

Phil laughed and stepped forward. The same thing happened, and he appeared in the bed, again, perfectly fine. 

Will could do this. He could. It would work. He shook out his arms and walked towards the bed. When he touched it, the same blue whisps followed him, tickling his fingers. This… this would work, yeah. He stepped into the square where the poison would land.

"Ready?" Sam asked. 

"As I'll ever be, I guess."

Will felt as a bottle broke over his head, and then winced as the liquid poured down his hair and face. He smelt its sickly sweetness for a second, then its bitter taste as some went into his mouth, and then he was choking, he was choking he was choking he couldn't breathe was was going to die--

And then he was back on the bed. He gasped for air with a hand on his chest. Philza was looking at him weirdly.

"You alright, son?"

"Hmm?" Wilbur breathed away the last of his panic. "Oh, yeah. Just… Death. Yeah. You know."

Philza hummed, but didn't comment.

They made it to the room before the cell quickly enough. The different potions that had to be splashed on them and their effects were starting to make Will go lightheaded, the smell of both water breathing and fire resistance on his clothes starting to mingle in ways they probably should not. 

They all watched as the lava lowered. Sam looked at the three of them. "Ready?" 

Will took a deep breath. "As I'll ever be."

Philza nudged him. "He's fine, mate, there's nothing to worry about."

Will and Tubbo made eye contact, doubt clear in both of their eyes. Tubbo looked away and pulled out one of the potions from Sam's bag. 

"Bottom's up," he said, and chugged it. Will watched as he went transparent, starting from his mouth until it reached the rest of his body. Small gray bubbles could be seen where he was standing. 

"Woah," Will said with a chuckle, and Phil looked at him. 

"What, never seen an invis potion before?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, of course. It's just, uh. It's been a while. One hour in the living world is a day in the afterlife, you know."

Philza seemed adequately shocked by that, and Wilbur took the change to step on the platform with no further questions. He felt the other two step on behind. 

When they got to the cell, Dream turned to look at them immediately. Though his smile was fixed, he seemed to get happier, somehow, at the sight of Wilbur. 

"It worked!" Dream laughed. "Oh, well, of course it did! I couldn't have gotten it wrong."

"Hello to you too, Dream."

"What brings you by?"

Wilbur smirked. He felt himself slipping into character; it felt so right and so unimaginably wrong at the same time, especially since he was living it now. He couldn't stop, now that he had started. "Oh, you know, the usual. Finally got out of hell! Wanted to check on the guy that helped me out, wanted to see how it's going, you know! You know."

Dream laughed. "Oh, I've been shit, thanks for asking. That little brat Tommy hasn't been any help, either." Before Will could say anything about that, Dream turned. "And Philza?"

The winged man shrugged. "Same deal, mate. You brought back my son! Of course I'm willing to help you out, not like I haven't done it before."

"Speaking of which," Wilbur said. "How did you do it, by the way? I could have sworn that would have been impossible. To be quite honest, I was pretty happy being dead, you know. Nobody asked you to do this."

Dream laughed. "Actually, someone begged me not to. Which in my book, is almost the same as asking me 'please.'"

Will hated this. He hated him. God he was about to be sick. 

He pushed on. "Really, now? Huh. Doesn't answer my question, though."

"Oh you and your getting straight to the point. You really want to know?"

"Yes."

Dream sighed. "Fine, ok, ok. When the Battle of Manburg happened, and I switched sides to be with Schlatt-- You remember that?"

Wilbur raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Yeah, well, I switched sides because Schlatt gave me a book. And I know what you're thinking, I know, I know! It sounds stupid, what the fuck can I do with some random book? Well, the thing is, Wilbur, this book isn't random. It brings people back to life."

Wilbur gasped just as he was supposed to, and Dream cackled. "I know! I know, I'm- I'm like a god now! Really! I control death! It's me! I can kill and I can bring people back over and over and over again, Wilbur! I--" He cut himself off with a laugh, and Will looked out of the corner of his eye at Philza, who was looking over at the green man with concern. The man looked up, and when he caught Wilbur's gaze, he simply raised his eyebrows skeptically.

Dream continued, "The thing is- Ok, Wilbur, you've got to keep this part a secret." He stepped closer and dropped his voice to a whisper. "The thing is, I think I've done it too much. Which sucks, obviously. I've only done it twice. I made this server, so I'm very… attuned, you could say, to the way it's working. Right now, the barrier between these two worlds is very thin. If I tried to bring someone else back, I could also very likely bring back someone I wouldn't want here."

"Like Mexican Dream?" Phil asked. 

"Don't say his fucking name."

Wilbur laughed. "Ok, ok, calm down dude. And… by 'these two worlds', you mean this one and…?" 

"The afterlife, obviously." Dream tilted his head. "What else would I be talking about?"

"Nothing, nothing. Nevermind."

"... What other worlds are there, Wilbur?"

"Don't say my fucking name like that, jesus. It's creepy, man, I don't like it."

"You didn't answer my question."

Wilbur gulped. "There are no other worlds."

Dream was silent for a moment before whispering, "You're lying."

"Wha- no--"

"I can see right fucking through you, Wilbur!" He grabbed the other man's collar, shoving his mask in his face. Wilbur leaned as far away as he could with no avail. "Tell me."

"I'm telling the truth!"

Dream stared for a few more seconds before letting go and backing off. "Ok."

"Ok?" He's giving up that easily? He looked over and could see Phil looked just as surprised as he did. 

"Yeah. I mean, I don't… I wouldn't say I believe you, not 100%, but you're obviously not going to tell me anything, so."

"I already told you everything."

Dream hummed. "See, that's where I'm not so sure. You know, I'm not even sure you're really Wilbur."

Will tried to school his expression the best he could, but could tell by the way Dream's body momentarily fizzled with bubbles that he saw right through him. And oh boy was Dream happy about it. 

Philza stepped forward. "The fuck you mean, mate? He's still my son."

Dream didn't even spare him a glance, eyes still trained on Will. "You're not. Are you?"

It wasn't even a question. Will tried to deflect. "What, so you're admitting to messing up the resurrection process? Like some… idiot?"

Dream chuckled darkly. "Oh I'm not an idiot, Wilbur Soot. Actually, if anything, I think I perfected the process! I've done something even better, something even more powerful. But hey, there's only one way to find out."

And then he started to chant. It started soft, but it grew, and though Wilbur didn't know the words, they sounded painfully familiar.

"What are you doing? Stop it."

But Dream just kept chanting.

Behind him, Wilbur saw Philza wince, then lean on the wall for support as he used his free head to hold his head. The chanting grew louder, and then he… glitched? 

And Phil was standing in his place. 

Not Philza, the winged master of death, but Phil, Wilbur's friend. From real life. Wilbur's eyes widened and he watched as Phil glitched again and Philza was back. And then again and it was Phil. The man cried out, clutching his head, and Dream turned. Phil looked up and squinted, eyes moving between Wilbur and Dream then back to Wilbur. 

"Will?"

"Philza?"

Phil turned around before he could respond, and Will turned to Dream with newfound fury in his eyes. No way in hell was anyone else getting stuck here, not on his watch. Wilbur screamed and tackled Dream. They both crashed to the floor, Wilbur on top. 

Though he struggled to land blows, Wilbur continued to fight the best he could because how dare he. How dare he take Tommy away from his home and his friends and bring him to to this world just to hurt him, how dare he even think about laying a fucking finger on Wilbur's brother in the first place. Or anyone, for that matter. How dare he. In a fit of desperation, Wilbur grabbed Dream's mask and slammed it down on the ground as hard as he could.  

It fazed through his jell body and hit the obsidian floor with a shatter. Wilbur pulled away a hand covered in green ooze to reveal a cracked mask.

Dream did not move. Faintly, Wilbur could hear Philza glitching back to his Minecraft form with a groan. The younger man stood up shakily, still staring down at Dream, who had unformed into a green puddle that was rapidly oozing throughout the cell.

Dream did not move. 

Tubbo, still invisible, groaned. "What the fuck was that?" 

Philza laughed weakly. "No clue. But uh, Will, mate. I think you killed him."

"Huh?" Wilbur looked up at him. "No, I- no, no, I--" He stared down at Dream. Dream did not move. "Huh."

Beside him, Tubbo faded back into existence, also looking down at the body. The boy kicked the mask. 

Dream did not move.

"Pog."

Chapter Text

Phil opened his door to a rain-soaked man on his doorstep. 

"Uh… hi?"

The man chuckled awkwardly. "Hey, Phil."

The recognition hit him all at once. "Techno?! What are you doing here?"

"Phil!" A voice from inside called. "Who is it?"

"It's fuckin' Technoblade, Kris! We--" Phil laughed a bit, ignoring the tears coming to his eyes. "We pretty much got the whole family together!" He turned back to Techno. "Well don't just stand there, it's fucking pouring, mate, come in, come in."

Techno walled in, shaking the rain off himself. "I got the first flight I could after I heard about Wilbur. I'm really sorry 'bout turning up on your doorstep like this, man, but I just- I--"

"You need the company." Phil smiled warmly as he took Techno's bag and coat. "I get it. I think we all need some company right now, honestly. Go make yourself at home, Tubbo's in the living room."

"Tubbo's here?"

"Like I said. We all need the company."

Phil went upstairs and dropped Techno's stuff in the guest bedroom. When he came back, Techno and Tubbo were talking, both with tears in their eyes. 

"Not the circumstances you were probably planning to meet in, huh?"

Tubbo looked up at him and laughed, wiping his eyes. "You can say that again, big man." Techno hummed in agreement. 

Phil walked over to them. "Well, I was planning on getting some takeout. Anything you guys up for?"

Neither was particularly hungry, but they didn't say anything, not wanting to enact the wrath of a dad-mode Philza. They eventually settled on just pizza. By the time it got there, Kristen was gone to run some errands, leaving the three on their own. 

They poked at their pizza in silence for a while until Techno, who hadn't eaten anything, put down his slice. "What… what happened, exactly?"

Phil looked up. "What do you mean?"

"When Wilbur disappeared. I know you say he just, like, 'glitched away' front of your eyes, but--"

"Are you doubting me? I know what I fucking saw. I can't explain it, but I know, ok?" 

"All I'm saying is that maybe you got a bit worked up, maybe you saw things--"

Phil hated to admit it, but he was starting to get angry. He laughed, but not in a nice way. "'Maybe I saw things--?'"

"Hey!" Tubbo shouted. Both men looked at him. "Let's not… let's not fight about it, ok? Wilbur's gone, just like Tommy, and none of this makes any fucking sense and that's ok. We don't know a lot, but we do know they're missing. And that hopefully, they'll come back. Ok?"

Techno huffed. "Fine."

All at once, Phil deflated. He tried not to let it show, especially in front of the younger two, but… God, he was tired. And stressed. Tom's disappearance was bad enough, with it happening live on stream (and still no damn leads despite that), but now that Will was gone too… 

Phil was tired. Let's leave it at that. He ran a hand over his face and prayed that there would be some good news soon. He needed to be strong for them, not snap like that. 

"Phil, could you put something on the TV or something?" Tubbo asked, either not noticing the tears in the man's eyes or ignoring them. Or maybe he did notice, and knew he needed the distraction. "It's getting boring, I--"

He was interrupted by Techno, who had frozen, eyebrows furrowed. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Tubbo looked up.

"The- it's quiet but it's this, uh, like--"

"Chanting." Phil froze. He did hear it, faintly, though he had the feeling that it wasn't meant for him, somehow. Like the chanter was calling for someone, but not him. And not Technoblade or Tubbo either, based on the looks on their faces. 

"Yeah, actually." Tubbo made a face. "Is it just me or is it getting louder?"

Phil looked at Techno and Techno looked back, mild panic shining in his eyes. Because yeah, it was getting louder. Not so loud that it drowned everything out, but loud enough that it was starting to get overwhelming, starting to get all-encompassing--

And then Tubbo cried out and fucking glitched. That's the only way Phil can put it. He glitched, and for a split second he had horns--

And then Phil's whole body fizzed and when he opened his eyes he was in a different room. It was dark, black, except for the orange light shining from behind the two figures in front of him. He didn't have time to take anything else in before he fizzled again and he was back in his living room.

He looked over and Techno had an almost cartoonish looking boar's head, covered in scars. "Phil?! Where the fuck are we?"

Phil screamed and glitched again, back in the other room. His head fucking hurt, so he cried out. That, apparently, was a mistake, because the two figures turned. 

One looked like it was made out of green slime, with an orange prison jumper and a bone white smiley face mask. It was chanting, and somehow, its smile seemed to grow. Behind it stood a human with curly brown hair and a simple dark cloak covering a worn pair of jeans and… wait. Phil knew that logo. He knew that shirt.

"Will?"

"Philza?!" 

The green one laughed and Wilbur cried out in anger. Phil suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and he whipped around to see… nothing. Nobody was there, just gray bubbles, like invis particles in Minecraft--

Wait fuck holy shit. Was he in Minecraft? That… 

Oh.  

It would explain a bit. 

"Phil?" Tubbo's voice said, and it didn't take a fool to figure out that he was the invisible person in front of him. "What's going on?"

And then Phil heard rather than saw Wilbur slam the other figure (Dream?) into the ground, making the chanting stop. Everything fizzed again and with a jolt, he was back home. 

He looked at Techno and Tubbo. They both looked back. 

"Uh," said Techno, ever the eloquent one. "So. About that. What?"

Tubbo already had his phone out. "I'm texting everyone else, hold on."

Phil's phone buzzed, and he opened the Dream SMP group chat to see:

>>general-1

Bee boy Today 7:42 pm

Hey did uh

Dib anyyone else feel that?

Ranboo (no b) Today 7:42 pm

yes wtf

Dream Today 7:42 pm

I mean I didn't feel anything but something definitely happened to Sap, it was weird

like really fucking weird

what was that??

Big Q Today 7:42 pm

I think I saw sapnap?? actually??? like we were in the same house when whatever that was happened

but I was also in this field for a bit I don't fucking know

Dream Today 7:42 pm

he kept like glitching and stuff and becoming this other person, I dont. know Genuinely what the fuck

Big Q Today 7:42 pm

Karl too

He was also in the house I mean

I assume he was also glitching but I didnt see any of it myself 

Foolish Today 7:42 pm

My living room is broken??? when I glitched SOMETHING happened and I do not know what

If you guys are right and we like switched bodies with something, whatever I switched with is fucking HUGE

Dadza Today 7:43 pm

I saw Wilbur

Phil watched as several people started typing. Tubbo and Ranboo were the firsts to respond, doing so almost simultaneously.

Bee boy Today 7:43 pm

So did i 

Ranboo (no b) Today 7:43 pm

I think I saw Tommy

In the actual house, Techno looked up from his phone at the both of them. "What?"

Phil ran a hand through his hair. "I dunno man, it was-- it was really fucking weird." 

Dream Today 7:43 pm

Ok ok @everyone who else glitched and was apparently fucking teleported/switched bodies with someone?? And did anyone else see anyone we know?

Bee boy Today 7:43 pm

And the chanting you cant firget the chanting

Dream Today 7:43 pm

The what 

Phil watched as confirmation messages rolled in, raising his eyebrows as what seemed like everyone was affected. Some claimed they glitched more than others, his own and Tubbo's experience seeming to be the worst. One group of messages caught his eye.

President Schlatt Today 7:51 pm

I love opening this group chat after I've had it muted for a while and seeing the wildest shit sometimes

anyways the chanting was a fucking shared experience? damn thought I just got fucking blasted somehow or some shit

but yeah it was more deafening for me

and less glitching and more I woke up at the bottom of this pit and sat there for a good minute or so before being dumped back in bed

fucking sucked I'll tell you that much

Dadza Today 7:51 pm

What did the pit look like?

President Schlatt Today 7:52 pm

wouldn't you like to know bitch

Phil groaned. Now was not the time. 

President Schlatt Today 7:52 pm

but sure ok

it looked like I was at the bottom of it or something, and I was lying on some cloth I think, like a big blanket

I didnt get high enough to see what it was though

and there were these weird red vines fuckin everywhere. Smelled like shit

Phil read the messages over and over. That description sounded familiar, but he couldn't tell why… 

Ranboo (no b) Today 7:53 pm

That. That sounds like the L'man hole tbh

The part where it goes down to bedrock and the flag's there surrounded by red vines

And if I'm going to be honest the area where I popped up looked like Tommy's hotel

Jack man i fold Today 7:53 pm

I think I was also at the hotel? And I definitely saw you Ranboo but idk abt tommy 

You might have been standing in front of him?? 

So much was happening idk

Bee boy Today 7:53 pm

Oh!! I think phil and I was in Dreams prison 

For some reson

He was there, he was the 1 chaning

chanting

Dream Today 7:53 pm

I was there??

Ok hold up @everyone get to the no stream VC now this is too confusing

Phil joined the VC to chaos. It looked like the whole server was in the call, and everyone was speaking over each other, causing the channel to overload and distort the audio.

"Ok, ok!" Dream's voice carried over everyone else's, and they all fell quiet. "Everyone mute yourselves until you have something important to add. And if you didn't see Tommy or Wilbur, turn your face cam off, the call's lagging enough as it is."

Phil set up his phone against a takeout box so that the camera faced the couch. Tubbo got up and sat down next to him, with Techno on Phil's other side. 

"Do I have to turn on my camera?" Ranboo asked. "Because I'm kinda just hiding out in the bathroom right now. It happened in the middle of class and I just kinda. Ran out. I don't think my teacher noticed, though."

Dream sighed. "No, you don't have to--"

Fundy interrupted him. "Why the fuck are you in school anyways?"

"I need an education?"

"This isn't what we're supposed to be talking about!" Dream shouted. "Jesus christ can we stick to the topic at hand. Please."

"Jeez Dream, calm down," George said, and a few people unmuted to laugh. "You don't have to be so feisty."

"I'M NOT FUCKING FEISTY!"

A few more laughs, and then Phil spoke up. "Ok guys, but actually. We need to talk about it."

Quackity unmuted. "Oooh Dad's mad at us, guys." He snickered as Phil sighed deeply.

People muted again and Phil continued, "I feel like I should say that what happened, or, well, what I saw of what happened, kinda looked like what happened to Will. Except he fully disappeared, as you guys well know. He didn't become a different person. I think that might have something to do with why I saw him in the prison. Or, well, wherever we went."

"I do think it was the prison," Sam said. "I was there too, just not in the cell. I'd recognize it anywhere."

"So you're saying you all went to Minecraft?" Dream said incredulously. "Specifically the SMP?"

"It makes sense," Ranboo said, and a few people voiced their agreement. 

"But--"

Phil interrupted. "Think about it. When… When Tommy disappeared, it was right as your character would have revived him in the stream. Wilbur's character was also dead, and your character had reason to revive him, and now he's missing, too. And Schlatt, you said you didn't glitch, you just kinda stayed there?"

There was silence for a second, and then Schlatt unmuted. "Hmm? Oh, yeah. I was just kinda stuck there for a bit. Didn't like it."

"And the flag in the L'man hole would be where he died, technically. Right? Because that's where the Camarvan was." Tubbo said, and a couple people confirmed it. "So maybe Dream was trying to revive him next. And he wouldn't have appeared in his body because his character doesn't have a body anymore because everyone robbed his grave."

"Ok, but, if that is what's happening, then why didn't Schlatt disappear?" Dream asked. "And why did you guys also start to glitch?"

"The last thing I saw was Will slamming your character into the ground, Dream. To stop the chants." Phil chuckled. "That might have something to do with it. No clue about why we all went, though."

Dream was silent for a second, clearly thinking. "So you're saying my fictional character botched his fictional revival attempt? In fucking Minecraft?"

"Well it sounds insane when you put it like that." Tubbo said with a small chuckle.

"It is! It is insane! Are you guys hearing yourselves?! This can't- This can't be real, guys, oh my god."

"And we're all telling you that it is real, Dream," Sapnap said to murmurs of agreement. "You saw me glitch, dude, you can't deny that."

Phil looked over at Techno at that, who refused to meet his eye. Phil patted his knee and whispered, "Hey, mate. I'm sorry about what I said earlier."

Techno huffed. "You're fine."

"No, you had reason to doubt me. I get that. I'm sorry I snapped. I was an ass, you didn't deserve it."

"I told you man, you're fine." He smiled, and Phil turned back to the phone, where Dream was still talking.

"It's just… I know my character." The young man sighed. "And I know that if our Tommy was put in that world when he was revived, then he would have popped up in the prison. With me. And I don't… I don't want to think about that."

"He was definitely out of there by the time I saw him," Ranboo said softly. "If that's any help."

"Yeah, but how long was he in there? It's been four days, he could have just gotten out. I--" Dream cut himself off with a groan. "This whole situation is just so fucked." A slam could be heard on Dream's end as he presumably hit his fist on his desk. "Fuck!"

There was silence on the call. Phil glanced up at Tubbo, at Techno. Both seemed… conflicted. Phil sighed and looked back down at the phone.

Dream spoke again a minute later, voice weary. "So. Our friends are stuck in a videogame, apparently. What do we do now?"

Chapter Text

They got out of the cell quickly and silently, Tubbo the only one seemingly excited by the turn of events. He had stolen Wilbur's phone to take a few pictures of the goop on the floor, giggling under his breath. 

Will was glad someone was happy about it.

Because fuck. Fuck. He had just fucked it all up, hadn't he? Dream was their one source of info on the book, and now he was- he was…

Will had killed a man. He took in a few shuddering breaths. Yeah, it was a fictional man, and an evil one at that, but. Dream was alive not two minutes ago. And now he wasn't. 

Philza walked past him into the platform without a word. The angle of his hat hid his face; Will couldn't tell what he was thinking. 

Will knew that both Tubbo and Sam knew his story was true now. After… whatever the fuck that was, it would be hard not to. He hoped that would mean good things for him and Tubbo, but Phil, on the other hand… Truly a wild card, here. But probably not good. 

He got on the moving platform with bated breath. Philza didn't look at him, so he refused to look back. 

When they made it to the other side, Sam rushed up to them frantically. "Are you guys ok?! What happened in there?"

"You felt it too, big man?" Tubbo asked. "The glitching stuff."

"Yeah! I was in front of this room, in front of a computer, I think, it was-- I don't even know…" Sam ran a hand through his hair. 

"I saw Phil, actually. I think." The other three looked over at the man in question, who didn't look up. Tubbo turned back. "And Techno, for some reason. But also not Techno? And then Phil looked completely different for a second, he had like short hair and no wings and shit, it was weird."

Will thought back to the cell, back to the way his Phil had appeared in front of him. "I think you might have seen my world. Or, like, switched places with your bodies there because I definitely saw my Phil in the cell for a second."

Philza finally looked up, face expressionless. "Your Phil?"

"Uh…"

Tubbo suddenly interrupted them. "But why? What's that mean?"

Wilbur turned his full attention to him, glancing at Philza out of the corner of his eye every few seconds. "Well, Dream did say the barrier was getting thinner, right? And that if he tried to revive anyone else, he'd bring across someone he didn't want to bring back. Or, I guess in this case, some ones."

"Who was he trying to revive, though?" Sam asked.

Wilbur shrugged. "Fuck if I know. I probably, uh. I probably stopped him before he could finish the chant, but we should check The L'man hole and Logstedshire for anyone just to be safe."

Tubbo tilted his head. "Who the fuck would be in Logstedshire?"

Will laughed. "Mexican Dream. What, never met him?" 

Sam shook his head. "And I hope I never will. Uh, you wanna go there now, or?"

Wilbur looked back at the cell. Sam pulled the lever to start the lava, and it was slowly starting to fall from the ceiling. As high as it was now, though, Will could still see right into the cell. Right at Dream's body, which was starting to drip into the lava pit--

He looked away. "Maybe later."

They continued through the prison with significantly less difficulty now that there weren't search stops. When they left the portal, Will was the first one out, anxious for the fresh air. He stretched his arms out, his wings spreading wide--

Phil slowed down at the entrance to the portal room, almost back into the outside world. He looked down and spoke, voice low and dangerous.

"You lied to me."

Will froze. Looked over at Phil with wide eyes.

"You didn't- you-- You said you were my son. You lied."

Wilbur stepped forward. "No, Phil, it's not like that--"

"It is, though! You said you were my son, you called me Dad and I- I don't even know who you are, do I?" Philza got in his face. "What the fuck was that in there?! What did I see when we glitched? Who are you?"

"I'm Wilbur, I'm Wilbur--!"

"NO YOU'RE NOT!" 

And with that, Philza Minecraft punched Will in the face. He reeled back with a gasp and immediately moved a hand up to cover his eye. He looked at his father his friend the stranger in front of him in shock. 

"Phil." Sam stepped forward, holding a trident that Will was certain wasn't on his body just minutes before. "I think you should go."

"Philza, please," Wilbur started, "I know I'm not exactly who you want me to be, but--"

"Yeah, no, you're not! I want my son back, not another goddamn Ghostbur!" There were tears in Phil's eyes and Wilbur's gut wrenched at the sight.

"That doesn't mean you get to punch him!" Tubbo shouted, and Philza whipped around to face him. 

"You have no say in this matter! 

"No, I think I do!" Tubbo stormed up, all 5 foot something of himself in Philza Minecraft's face. "Will wants to get home! I'm gonna fucking help him! And if you don't want to help for whatever fucking reason, then either start wanting or get the fuck away! I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else I care about!"

Phil stepped back, cloak shifting as his broken wings flared up. He gave one last glare back at Wilbur before pulling out an ender pearl and throwing it as far as he could. He was gone in a flash of purple, and the other three stared at where he once was for a tense second.

"You ok?" Sam eventually asked.

Will hummed noncommittally. "It's like… He's hurting. A lot. I get that, I really do, it's just… it still hurts, yeah? And I want to make him feel better but I can't."

Tubbo looked up from his comms in the following silence. "Ranboo said they're at Puffy's office, let's go."

Wilbur was the first to move, taking off his cloak as he started to walk. Green goop was still on it, and he avoided the stains the best he could as he crumpled it up and tossed it aside. It landed in a nearby lake. 

He saw Ranboo outside a building he didn't recognize and walked right past him. The teen blinked as he passed, then looked back at the other two, who were doing their best to keep up behind him. "Uh, Tommy's in here--"

"Yeah, ok, let me take a fucking bath first."

"Oh, sure. Yeah. Um."

Wilbur went into Church Prime. Without even taking his shoes off, he ran into the center pool and stood under the waterfall, reveling in the crushing feeling of the water pouring down upon him. 

He looked down at his hands. They were still green; although the water had washed off the goop (blood, it was blood, it was Dream's blood oh god), they had been stained as if they had been covered in green dye. 

The water thundered down. 

His hands were still green. 

He cried. 

Thoughts going at a million miles an hour, he collapsed into the pool, letting himself float on his back. The water fell down on his body,  grounding him.

This is good, right? Dream was the bad guy, he hurt Tommy. His character is evil. And now he can't revive anyone else, which is great!

No, he was our friend! He found Friend, he was nice to Tommy in exile--

I wasn't here for exile. Will curled his hands into fists and brought them up to press into his temples. That wasn't real, I as a person wasn't here for that because it was a fucking roleplay in a videogame. He wasn't good to Tommy in exile, his character wasn't good to Tommy's character in exile, I know this--

He was our ONE SOURCE of info! How could we be so- so STUPID! Who gives a shit about Tommy when we could have still had Dream help us--"

"I do! I give a shit about Tommy!" Will suddenly said out loud. "So shut the fuck up."

He heard the soft sound of Sam's feet retreating. He didn't even notice the other following him in, did he? God, he was losing it. Insanebur indeed. He looked over and caught eyes with the giant painting of a turtle on the wall next to him. Despite himself, he laughed. "Oh Master Oogway, help me."

Chapter Text

Puffy led the two teens to another room where a small chair faced an overstuffed couch. She took the chair and Tommy and Ranboo took the couch.

"So," she said. "What's going on?"

Tom looked over at Ranboo who raised his eyebrows. Then he looked back over at Puffy. "It's a long story."

She smiled. "I'm a fan of those."

Tommy began to speak, starting from the beginning. How he was sitting, doing his stream, and then he appeared in the prison with Dream. What Dream did in there, the hurt he caused. How Wilbur showed up a couple days later when Dream revived him. The voices. God, the voices.

Ranboo added info where he could, but spent most of the time sitting next to Tommy, giving physical comfort. Puffy took notes the whole time, responding where she was needed.

When Tommy seemed like he was done, she looked over her notes for a second before looking up and smiling softly. "I think right now all we can do is try and regulate and balance the thoughts in your head. The way you explained things makes it sound like both you and the Tommy from my world are in your head, who seem to have very… different, I guess you could say, ways of approaching life. And there are ways that one of you would react that the other wouldn't dream of doing."

Tom thought back to the fight with Jack. "Yeah. But…"

"But?"

He sighed. "But what if I can't? The- the other me, your me, he's so angry all the time, and scared, and I want to curl up into a ball and- and cry but I can't because that's so fuckin' stupid and--"

"Hey, hey, it's ok." Tommy looked up into Puffy's concerned gaze. "Deep breaths with me -- In, two, three, four…"

Tommy let her lead him through some breathing exercises. He felt Ranboo's unsure hand rubbing circles on his back. After a minute, he felt calm again, but didn't make eye contact with either of them.

Puffy put her hand(? more of a hoof, really) on his knee. "It's not stupid to cry, Tommy. Sometimes you need to release a lot of emotions, and crying's a great way to do that. If you need a shoulder to cry on. I'll always be here, ok?"

"Me too," Ranboo said. "And Tubbo, and Sam, and Wilbur."

Tom finally looked up. "Thanks, guys."

At the boy's request, Puffy started to teach the two a few breathing exercises. It was nice, Tom decided, taking a second to sit down and take a deep breath. Literally, he supposed. He chuckled.

After maybe twenty minutes, Ranboo's comms device buzzed. He pulled it out. "Oh, Tubbo's asking where we are, I'll be right back." And with that, Ranboo left the office.

Tommy looked at Puffy, who looked back and raised her eyebrows. "So…?"

"Hm?"

She smiled. "You can wait for Ranboo to come back if you're more comfortable talking with him here."

Tommy let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Ok."

There was a soft silence filled only with the sound of a clock ticking in the corner. He looked over at it, grateful for something to look at besides the bandages on his hand that he kept fiddling with. 

"Thank you, by the way," Tom eventually said. "It's nice to have someone to talk to about this besides Ranboo and Will. I don't like dumping all this on them, ya know?"

"You're not dumping it on them if they want to help."

"I know, but…" He sighed. "They have their own stuff to deal with, yeah? Wilbur especially. I dragged him into all this." Before Puffy could say anything, he continued, rushed, "So yeah. Thanks. I've never done anything like this before, not even in my world, but… it's new. It's good."

At that moment, Sam poked his head through the door. "Hey, Puffy, Tommy."

"Sam!" Tom grinned. "What's up? Where's Will?"

"Ah, about that. I think he's having a breakdown?"

"What?"

Tommy was up and outside in a second, Ranboo and Puffy following. Sam quickly led them to Church Prime, where Tubbo was standing, shifting on his feet and running his hand along the edge of his armor anxiously. 

"That was fast." Tubbo chuckled, then looked over the size of the group. "Uh, I don't know if he'll want too big of a group in there. You know?"

Sam nodded and stepped back. "Yeah, I get it. Besides, Puffy, I need to talk to you about something."

"I'll stay out here too, I think," Ranboo said. "I don't know him as well as you guys do, I don't know how big of a help I'll be."

Tommy nodded and went in, Tubbo trailing behind him until he stopped in the doorway. Tom took a couple more steps before he stopped as well.

Will was in the center pool, fully clothed, floating as he let the waterfall run over his body. He looked depressed (which was never a good look on him) and had a huge black eye. Tommy furrowed his eyebrows at the sight of it.

"What happened to your eye, mate?"

Wilbur touched the bruised skin tenderly and winced. He let his hand fall back into the water with a splash. Tom noticed the green staining it but said nothing. "Uh… long story. Don't wanna talk about it."

"Oh." Tommy walked the rest of the way and sat down next to him. "Well, what happened in the prison? Unless that's how you got the black eye, in which case you don't have to talk about it."

"Talked to Dream for a bit."

"Uh huh."

"He tried to revive someone else, that's… That's when the glitching happened."

Tommy raised his eyebrows and hummed. "Yeah, I saw that. Ranboo was all weird afterwards, didn't really know what to do."

Will nodded. "Well, I stopped him from finishing the chant or whatever, thank god. And then…" He brought a hand up in front of his face and stared at it for a few seconds before saying, "And then we left."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

"So you didn't get anything?"

"Nothing besides what we already guessed." Will sighed and put his hand back down again. "I did kill him, though."

"And I took a picture of his corpse!" Tubbo exclaimed with a grin as he walked up behind Tom. "It was very pog."

Tommy snorted out a laugh. "Ah, yeah, I'll give you that. Did he turn into a puddle again? He did that when he slept, it was fuckin' weird."

Will didn't respond. 

"Will, mate? You ok?"

The man whimpered. Fuckin' whimpered. Tom didn't know what to do. "Uhh…"

"I killed him, Tommy. I hit his face against the floor so hard he fucking died. My- my hands-- This doesn't feel right, this doesn't feel right, I--"

Tommy felt Tubbo beside him. "Hey, it's ok," the other boy said. "He was a bad person."

Tommy chuckled. "Yeah, character Dream's a bitch. We all know that."

"Besides," Tubbo continued, "you kill mobs all the time, right?"

Wilbur's words came out choked, forced. "We don't have mobs in our world."

"Oh."

A memory came from the depths of Tommy's mind unbidden. He was young, maybe seven or eight, and he stood in front of the body of a dead zombie. It poofed away, and Tommy dropped his sword with tears in his eyes. 

Wilbur ran out of the woods near him, worry painted on his face. He smiled as his eyes landed on Tommy, and the boy ran up into his brother's arms. 

"Tommy, jesus fuck, we were so worried. I know Phil's not your dad, but he still cares, ok? You can't just run off like that!"

Tommy whimpered and puried his face in his brother's chest. Wilbur sighed and started to run his hand through his hair, and his wings came around to wrap around the both of them. "What happened?"

"I… I killed it." More tears started to fall.

"Killed what, Toms?"

"The zombie!"

"Oh, you killed your first mob? Congrats!"

Tommy cried harder.

Wilbur pulled back and looked the crying boy in the eyes. "That can't be it, right? I thought you were excited about killing your first zombie! Techno would be proud, you know. He's a bitch sometimes, yeah, but I'll make sure he's nice this once."

Tommy sniffed and wiped his eyes. "It- it just-- It sounded weird, and my sword got stuck in it and it took too long and I was scared, I was so scared, Wilby--"

"Shh, shh, it's ok," Wilbur said. "I've got you, I'll take care of you."

Tom looked down at Will now. Even though that memory was from another life entirely, Tom knew it was his turn to take care of his brother this time.

Tom patted Wilbur's shoulder. "Hey, well, at the end of the day, he isn't real, yeah? It's not like you really killed a man or anything."

"But- but- he sounded so much like Dream -- our Dream, Clay -- what am I talking about of course he did they have the same voice -- and after the whole glitching thing, when I stood up, I was so scared I hurt him. Clay. And then Phil- Phil, fuck. I really fucked that one up, didn't I?"

"What did Phil do?" Tom looked between the other two. "He was here?"

Tubbo just patted his shoulder, ignoring him for now. To Will, he said, "You didn't fuck anything up. If anything, it was his fault for taking it all so personally."

"He had every right to! He's right, I'm not his actual son, he has reason to be mad after I--" His voice dropped to a whisper. "After I pretended to be."

Tommy hummed. "I mean, technically, you are still his son. And no matter what, he's your friend, right?"

"He doesn't think that." Will ran his hand over the water in silence. The green was mostly on his palms and fingertips, but some ran over to the backs of his hands as well. Will sighed as more tears came to his eyes.

"And these voices in my head, they're- they're fighting about the death constantly and I hate it because, 'cause, like, I know it was a good idea, in the long run. Now he can't revive anyone else, he can't hurt anyone else. But he was also our source of info, and what I did was stupid and rash and not- not smart, I should be smarter, and- and- he was my friend, right?" Wilbur laughed, but the tears had started running down his face. When he spoke again, his voice was high and light and it faintly echoed. "He was my friend, he found Friend for me, he was nice to us during Lads On Tour--"

"Wilbur?" Tommy reached out and put a hand on the man's shoulder. Will gasped.

"I--" He took a few deep breaths. He cleared his throat and his voice went back to normal. "Sorry."

Tommy looked at Tubbo, then back at Wilbur. "We should get you to Puffy."

Wilbur groaned. "I wanna stay here though, it's nice."

"C'mon, Big Man. Get up, go on." Tommy stood, pulling on Will's arm. Will did not budge.

Wilbur looked over at him and smiled, giving both boys a small splash. "You know, you need a bath too, gremlin. I can smell you from here."

"I swear to god if you do what I think you're about to do--"

Tommy was cut off as Wilbur pulled him into the pool and playfully dunked his head under the water for a second. Tommy shot up with a gasp and an indignant shout. 

"YOU GOT MY FUCKING ARMOR WET, YOU BITCH!"

Wilbur laughed. "Ok, I'm ready now. I've gotten my daily dose of tormenting you."

Tommy splashed him as he stood up. "Bitch."

They left to head to Puffy's office, and, lo and behold, she was still standing right outside talking to Sam and Ranboo. She looked up as the group exited the church.

"Hey," Sam said. "We were just talking about the glitch. Puffy felt it, too, I'm starting to think it affected the whole server."

Puffy nodded. "We'd have to talk to more people about it, of course, but it makes sense. If Dream's right and this… barrier is thinning, then the side effects of his most recent revival attempt would have had to affect everyone."

Wilbur stepped forward. "Speaking of Dream…"

"I heard."

She reached up and hugged Will, the height difference between the lanky man and the much shorter sheep lady almost laughable. He was still dripping wet, and some water seeped into her coat and fur, but she didn't mind. She whispered something to him that Tom couldn't hear, and Will let go of the hug and nodded. They started off towards her office.

"Hey, Will!" At Tommy's words, Wilbur and Puffy looked back. "Before I go, can I have your phone for a bit? I wanna vlog some more."

"You wanna--" Wilbur cut himself off with a laugh. "Sure, child. It's in the chest in my room at the Inn, the one with my sweater. Make sure you turn it off all the way when you're not using it, I don't think I have a way to charge it here so I want to keep the battery life for as long as I can."

Tommy nodded excitedly. "Sounds great Big Man! I'll be back to check up on you, promise!"

And with that, Wilbur was gone. 

"So!" Tommy turned to the other three. "Mischief?"

Tubbo laughed and Sam said, "Actually, I think our first order of business is checking to see if anyone else didn't come back to life. I'll go ahead and go to Logstedshire to check out this Mexican Dream guy, you should all go to the L'man hole."

Tommy blinked. Dream digging holes, forcing him to put all his stuff in. Dream stabbing Mexican Dream before turning to Tommy, green blood still wet on his blade. Dream blowing up the camper, screaming, loud so loud-- "Uh. Yeah, big man, sounds good."

Sam walked off and Ranboo looked over at Tommy, concerned. "You ok?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, 'course I am Ranboob!" He swallowed down the bile rising in his throat at the lie. "Let's go!"

Chapter Text

Wilbur walked through the nether in a hurry. Tugging up the sleeves of Phil's sweater that he had put back on after Puffy's, he thought about what she had said. 

About how he shouldn't feel guilty for killing Dream (despite the pain shining clear in her eyes). About how Tommy had been facing something similar, in regards to fighting the voices in his head (that was his brother, his brother, he shouldn't have to go through this pain). 

Puffy had helped, but she wasn't enough. She wasn't family. Will side eyed a ghast in his peripheral vision as he made it to the portal and stepped through. 

Icy wind hit his face the moment he was on the other side. He put his hand up to see through the glare of the setting sun and… There. There was a faint trail through the snow. 

He knew exactly where it led. Pulling his sleeves back down, he started to walk.

It only took a few minutes to get to Techno and Phil's house, but by that time he started shivering. He looked up at the warm, inviting house, and thought of the likely far less inviting people inside. Taking only a second more to hesitate, he knocked. 

Halfway through his second knock, the door whipped open and he stepped back. The short, pink-haired woman who opened the door did a double-take, blinked, then had her sword out and at Wilbur's throat in a second.

"Woah! Niki!" Wilbur chuckled, easily slipping into a more relaxed demeanor. What the fuck do you mean "relaxed" she has a fucking sword to my throat nothing about this is "relaxing" jesus fucking christ-- "Forgot you, uh, worked with these guys. How are you?"

Niki scrowled. "What… what is this? You're supposed to be dead."

"Phil didn't tell you? I'm not anymore." He shrugged. "But it's a long story, I'll spare you the details."

She slowly put her sword away and Will relaxed a bit more. Then, out of nowhere, she punched him in the face. 

Will rolled back and put a hand to his eye. It has been sore before but now it was throbbing with pain. "Ow! Fuck, jesus, that's the, what? Second time today? That's two times too many, man!"

"Niki, what's going on out there?" A gruff voice called out. "Are you going to get Ranboo for the meeting or what? Come on."

Then a man awkwardly nudged his way into the doorway. When Niki didn't move from her stand-down with Wilbur, he sighed and took his spot behind her.

At least, Will assumed it was a man. His head was actually more reminiscent of the piglins Wilbur had seen (and quickly avoided) in the nether earlier. He had a thick, dark red cloak wrapped around his shoulders, and a large broadsword was strapped to his back. A dark ring of gold was wrapped around his forehead, and the few gems encrusted in it shined bright in contrast. He looked at Will and his brows furrowed.

"Wilbur?"

"... Technoblade?"

Techno hummed, then looked up, presumably at the upper room. "I guess he was right, then. Huh."

"Don't just 'huh' me, let me in."

Niki moved so she blocked more of the entrance. "And why would we do that?"

Will groaned. He really didn't need this right now, he wanted to be back by morning, at least. "I just want to talk to Phil. Is that too much to ask."

"I don't think he wants to talk to you," Techno said.

"Oh really? Have you asked him?"

Techno looked at Niki, who shrugged. Techno looked back up. "No?"

"Then ask! Fucking christ."

Technoblade nodded, then looked at Niki. "You go get Ranboo."

"On it." She didn't move.

The pig man stepped back a bit then yelled up at the ceiling, "Phil! Wilbur, uh, Wilbur's here. He wants to see you."

Phil's voice was muffled and came slowly. "Let him in."

Niki didn't back down, so Will had to awkwardly squeeze between her and the doorway to get into the room. He felt the two pairs of eyes on him as he climbed the ladder.

Finally, he poked his head up into a cozy-looking sitting room. It was small, yes, with chests and brewing stations pushed up against walls, but Philza made his own room. He was in a large stuffed armchair by a furnace, which was lit and, if the smell was anything to go by, was cooking something. Philza didn't look up as Will stepped in, instead turning over the piece of wood in his hands. A smaller knife was in one of them; he was carving something.

Will sat down on a chest. There was silence for a few moments. There was a creak downstairs followed by frantic shushing. He looked over at the ladder hole and chuckled. "They're listening through the floor, aren't they?"

Philza glanced up and cracked a smile. "Oh, definitely. I remember when you, Techno, and Tommy were little--" He cut himself off. Will looked down. 

Phil eventually spoke again. "What… what are you? If not my son?"

"It's hard to explain."

"Well hurry up and do it, then. We don't have all night."

Will sighed. "I'm… Well I mean, I am Wilbur. Just from a different universe. When Dream revived me, he fucked it up somehow, and now I'm here. It's the same thing with Tommy, he's from my world, too."

"Tommy's back?" Philza brushed wood shavings off his lap. There was no emotion in his voice. "I must have missed that."

"Yeah, he is. And I'm worried about him, you know, because, like, even if he isn't my actual brother, he still looks up to me. I still need to take care of him. He's not a soldier, he's not used to this pain, not in the real world. He's still a kid! And sure he likes to yell that he isn't, but. He still is."

Philza hummed sadly. "If he's here now, I don't think he will be for much longer."

"Yeah. Exactly."

There was a lull in the conversation, the only sound the crackling of the furnace. Will picked at his sleeve. "You gave this sweater to me, Phil. Well, my Phil gave it to me."

Philza said nothing, but paused his carving.

Will continued. "In my world, you're not my dad dad, but you're still a father figure to me. Just like how Tommy's still my brother, in a sense. I still look up to you, you're still one of my closest friends. I still care about you. I always will. Being in a different universe doesn't change that.

"It's a weird situation, I know -- god knows Tommy and Tubbo are going through the wringer because if it -- but I don't want to throw away all of my care just because you're not the same person. And I know I'm a different person, too--"

"But that's the thing," Philza said. He sounded choked up. He looked up and there were tears in his eyes. "You're different. It's not the same."

"And I'm sorry, Phil, but it's never going to be the same again. I'm not your son, not exactly, but at the end of the day, you're still my friend. I don't want to lose that."

Phil was quiet as he went back to carving. After a minute, he held it up, and Will could finally see what it was supposed to be: a small bird. He leaned forward and pressed it into Will's hand; it was small, delicate. The initials "P.M." were carved into the bottom. I used to call you songbird, you know," the man said. "When you were little and you couldn't stop singing all the random tunes that would come to your head. Your wings hadn't fully grown in yet, but you'd climb up a tree and sit there and sing until I had to come get you down." He chuckled.

Images flashed through Wilbur's mind. Him riding Philza's shoulders as the man walked through a village and traded for supplies. The tree incident Phil talked about, and the way Wilbur would keep climbing further up and into the branches so his dad would have a harder time reaching him from the air outside. Phil teaching him to fly, and him glancing back to see a small Technoblade and an even smaller Tommy looking on in awe. It wasn't him but it was, it was. Who else could it be? "I remember that, I think."

Phil looked up at him, and they kept eye contact for a few calm seconds. "C'mon," he finally said. "Let's get you a healing potion for that eye before you go."

"Can I stay the night, actually? It's getting kinda late."

Philza froze halfway to the door, and after a second his posture softened. "Of course you can, son. I'll see if we've got any extra beds anywhere."

Wilbur smiled.

"And you stay here," Phil added as he left. "I'll be back with some stuff soon."

He kept to his word and came back about a minute later with a shimmering potion in a small glass vial and a Technoblade following behind him, carrying what looked like a dark brown blanket. Techno huffed and tossed the cloth at Will; he picked it up to see it was a new cloak, with fur lining the collar. 

"It's the only one we got right now, sorry it isn't dyed." Phil handed him the potion then pulled out a couple carrots. "Eat up, you look famished. You can take the rabbit in the furnace, too, I don't mind."

"Thanks."

Wilbur ate in silence, finally feeling at peace. He looked up at his friends his dad and his brother, both illuminated by the low light of the furnace. He wanted to capture this moment, keep it forever.

"Do you have a camera by any chance?" 

Phil looked up from his quiet talk with Techno. "Uh, I think we might, actually. Ghostbur might have left his in that house he and Tommy built when they were staying here."

Wilbur nodded and went back downstairs. Niki was gone, probably finally off to find Ranboo. Outside was considerably warmer with the cloak, and he wrapped it tighter around himself for protection. 

The cabin in question was half-built and crumbling, the roof caved in from a lack of support. Wilbur went in, stopping when he saw the picture of him and Tommy in the front room. It was the horribly photoshopped one of the two of then on the beach, back in the real world, but now it looked more like a poorly done painting. The parchment it was printed on was soaked through from the snow, and when he went up to touch it it broke, having become brittle as it refroze in the cold. 

He went over to the chest, got the camera from inside, and went back into the house without another word. 

When he got back to the upper room, he took the camera back out and took a couple pictures. He watched the Polaroids develop with a smile, then raised the camera up again.

"What are you doing?" Techno's question made Phil look up as well,  and Will awkwardly put the camera down.

"Uh, just, you know. I was taking some pictures. I don't even know if they'll stay on me when I go back, but they're nice to have anyways." He smiled. "I want to remember this."

Philza's eyebrows furrowed and a small frown slipped on his face. "You're going back?"

"I mean, that's the goal. It's why we went to Dream in prison, we wanted the book to try and reverse the spell. But then I, well. You know."

Techno looked between the two of them. "I, uh, I don't know, actually--"

"I killed Dream."

"Oh! Huh. Hey, at least he won't cash in the favor now." Techno chuckled to himself. "Less loyalties for me."

Wilbur laughed. 

Philza stood up and made grabby hands. "Hey, give me the camera, I want to take one."

"What?" But it was too late, Phil had already taken a good handful of pictures of Wilbur and Techno standing next to each other. Phil handed one to Wilbur to add to his collection and then looked down at the others with a smile.

"I want to remember, too." Phil looked up and smiled. He started walking out of the room. "Now come on, I know you don't like armor, but I'm not letting you walk around the SMP unarmed. Let's get you an axe."

Chapter Text

After stopping by the inn, they made it to the pit quickly enough. On the way down, they talked. 

"What did you guys see when you glitched, by the way?" Tubbo asked, trying not to stumble on the broken stairs down. Ranboo reached out an arm for support and the other boy flashed him an appreciative smile. 

"I mean, I didn't glitch." Tommy was a few steps ahead of the other two and didn't look back as he spoke. "Honestly, I still don't really know what happened besides Dream tried to resurrect someone else and the whole fuckin' barrier thing Will was talking about."

Ranboo nodded. "Yeah, that's about it. Wilbur also said that when we glitched, we might have switched with the people from your world."

Tommy stopped, turned a bit so he could see them, and hummed thoughtfully. "Actually, yeah, that checks out. I think. What did you see then?"

"I was in this classroom," Ranboo said. "The kids were all staring at me but I don't know if the teacher noticed, funnily enough." He chuckled, but Tubbo could tell there was no humor behind it. 

Tubbo squeezed the arm he was still holding. "Sounds, um, what's the word… nerve-wracking, yeah, that's it. Sounds nerve-wracking."

Ranboo smiled, just a bit. "Yeah, it was."

"I was in some guy's living room, for the record. I saw Philza and Techno, but also, like… not Philza and Techno? I think Will said it was his-- You guys' version of them, but still." He wrinkled his nose. "It was weird, ya know?"

"Yeah, I know." Tommy glanced up at Tubbo's horns. "Wait, if Techno was with you and Phil, that means…" He jumped off the last step then tilted his head towards the sky thoughtfully. "Wait, is Techno in England?" He started to pout. "The Blade is in the Queen's country and I'm not even there to show his puny American brain the ropes? Come on, man!"

Despite the fact that Tubbo had no clue what Tom was on about, he laughed. "Sounds horrible."

"It is! This is the greatest tragedy of our generation!"

They made it down to the top of the pit. Tubbo took the lead now as they walked across the glass, Tommy having froze as he looked up at the obsidian paths above. 

Ranboo nudged Tubbo to get him to stop before looking back. "Tommy? You ok?"

Tommy said nothing, just continued staring. For a second, just a second, Tubbo saw his Tommy in his eyes. In the way his eyes widened for just a second, in the way his grip tightened on the sword at his hip.

"... Tommy?" Tubbo took a step forward, concerned.

Tom finally shook himself out of his stupor. "Yeah?"

"What's up?"

"Oh, nothing, just…" he shrugged. "Just thinking. Let's get lookin', yeah?" Tommy pulled out the phone with a grin and the three continued on their way.

They started by just walking along the glass and looking down into the hole, sure that that would be the easiest way to spot someone. Ranboo was the only one really doing the work, though, with Tommy occupied with "vlogging" everything that happened and Tubbo occupied with making fun of Tommy over it.

"Now if I had my vlog gun, this would be perfect!" Tommy swung the camera back over to Tubbo, who scrunched his face up in a laugh.

"Shit, man, you get to have a gun in your world? No fair! Ranboo would never let me get one."

"It's because you're a menace!" Ranboo shouted from ahead. "An absolute menace to society!"

"Am not!"

Tommy snorted and pulled Tubbo's head down by one of his horns for just a second, playfully. "Are fucking too, mate."

"Hey!"

To be honest, Tubbo didn't truly know what to feel. This wasn't his friend, he knew that. But he also knew he wasn't insane now -- there was no denying the glitching, the words Dream said. 

Everything Tom did was so painfully Tommy and yet it wasn't. Not at all. Not the way his natural posture out here, in danger, was slouched (though still tense), not the way he pulled out his sword inexpertly and took a second to just stare at it. Not the way he was soft to Tubbo, to Ranboo, even in the height of their bits. This wasn't Tommy but it was but it wasn't.

In front of them, Ranboo stopped. The other two stumbled to a halt behind him, confused looks on their faces. Ranboo just gestured down.

Below their feet was the L'manburg flag. Tubbo had seen it here before, dozens of times in fact, but the grief still somehow hit him just as hard every time as it did the first time.

He looked over at Tommy, who was looking down at it through the phone. "Hoooly fuck, man. It's fucking massive."

"That's what she said," Tubbo muttered. Despite the situation, the three teens chuckled at the weak joke.

After looking down at it for another second, it was easy enough to determine that there wasn't anyone down there. They turned to leave, only for Tommy to jump back with a yelp. And for good reason, too.

Bad Boy Halo stood right behind them, in all his desaturated demon glory.

Tommy dropped the phone, scrambling to pick it up, turn it off, and shove it in his pocket. "Uh… hi?"

Bad blinked. "Tommy?"

Ranboo stepped forward, only his height starting to reach Bad, who towered over the other two. "Hey, man, we're, uh, we're just chilling. What's up?"

Bad took a step forward. The teens took two steps back.

"It's… wow." Bad laughed. "It's almost too much to believe! But here you are anyways. Back. And… better than ever!"

Tubbo could very clearly hear the thinly veiled hatred in the demon's voice, and judging by the look on his face, Tommy did, too. 

But the other boy just nodded. "Yep. Better than ever."

Ranboo summoned an axe and glared. Tubbo had only seen him get this protective over Michael -- this was new, but it was nice. "Seriously, Bad, if you could just leave us be, we'll be on our way."

Bad hummed and tilted his head as if he was actually considering it. "Hmm. Nah. Besides, I want to catch up with Tommy!" He turned to the boy in question, who froze under his ice white gaze. "The Egg has missed you, you know."

Tommy's breath caught in his throat. "I didn't, actually. But I'm not really too interested in seeing him."

"That's- but-" Bad took a deep breath, composing himself. "Tommy! Don't you know what's happened? The Egg has given us visions! I mean it, now is truly the best time to see it. It's far more…  poignant than it has been in a long time."

Tommy scrunched up his face, making Tubbo laugh behind his hand. "The fuck does that mean?"

"Language. Now come on, we're anxious for your arriv--"

Bad was cut off by the flapping of wings. Someone landed right between Bad and the teens, facing the demon -- Quackity, judging by the yellow wings. 

"Bad," he said, foux suave. "What's up? Our meeting isn't for another week. You know I don't have time for unplanned meetups."

Glancing over, Tubbo watched as Tommy's eyes widened. "Big Q?" The boy mouthed, and Tubbo nodded. 

Meanwhile, Bad simply shrugged. "I saw Tubbo and Ranboo, I wanted to say hi! And hey, didn't you see -- Tommy's back."

Quackity looked back and locked eyes with Tommy, who gulped and took a step back. Tubbo understood; between his unchanging face and the still somewhat fresh scar going down his face and through both his eye and mouth, Quackity was quite the intimidating figure.

Quackity looked Tommy up and down. "Huh," he eventually said. "I guess Jack wasn't lying."

"Yeah no shit, Sherlock."

"Language!"

Tommy groaned. "Can we just fuckin' go already? We got shit to do, man."

"Not before you go to the Egg." Bad took a step forward, but didn't get far before Quackity stuck an arm out and stopped him.

"Bad, just let them do whatever it is they're doing, man. It's no big deal. Let them go."

Bad glared. "This doesn't concern you."

"It actually kinda does when you're threatening people on my land." Quackity jerked his head towards the El Rapids sign that Tubbo just realized that they were now standing right next to.

Tommy laughed out loud at the sight of it. When everyone turned towards him, he covered his mouth with his hand and chuckled a couple more times. "Sorry, sorry," he said, then laughed again. "Just… ahh that poster shouldn't be as funny as it is in person."

Quackity chuckled a bit before turning back to Bad. "Ok but seriously now. Piss off. I'll meet with you next week, where we said."

Bad looked at Quackity, then over his shoulder at Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo. He finally sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll be back though!"

He turned and left. Next to Tubbo, Tommy grumbled. "Yeah, and we won't. Bitch."

Quackity watched as Bad left, then turned to face them. "So!" He clapped his hands. "What the fuck?"

They all moved to the Prime Path, sat down, and the teens did their best to explain everything. From the revive book to the alternate universes to Wilbur and Dream and Philza. Quackity seemed to take it well enough, though he kept looking at Tommy weird. (Tubbo glared back every time.) 

When they got to what they were doing now, though, Quackity held up his hands to stop them. "Wait, so the glitching, that was Dream trying to get someone else back?"

Tommy shrugged. "Probably. It's what Will said, at least. He probably didn't succeed, but better safe than sorry, you know?"

Quackity nodded. "So you're looking for Schlatt. Got it."

"To be fair," Tubbo said, "If he did get revived, he wouldn't be our Schlatt. He'd be the one from Tommy's world."

"Huh." The duck hybrid nodded, looking over through the glass over the L'man hole. "Want me to help you look?"

Tommy grinned. "Fuck yeah, Big Q!"

"I thought you didn't have time?" Ranboo asked. "I don't want to get in the way of your business, I know you've been working hard on it."

"Ah, nah man!" Quackity shoved him playfully. "I always got time for you guys. Besides, it's nice to see Tommy again. Glad you're doing ok, even if- you know."

He moved to ruffle Tommy's hair, and the boy just screeched and shoved him away. They all laughed.

They all decided to go down into the pit itself to make sure they had surveyed the whole area. Tubbo gagged on the smell as soon as he crossed the glass threshold; Wilbur and Ranboo weren't lying, it was atrocious down here. 

But again, no people, dead or alive. The sun was starting to set as the small group finished their round. They headed back to the church quickly to get the stench of egg off of themselves, then said goodbye to Quackity, who promised to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity in the area. The three teens headed down the path slowly, all admiring the sunset. 

"Can… Can I stay the night at Bee n' Boo?" Tommy asked.

Ranboo looked over at him before glancing at Tubbo with raised eyebrows. Tubbo shrugged. To Tommy, Ranboo asked, "How come? I thought you hated our hotel."

Tom gave a sort of half-shrug. "Ah, I dunno. My place was kinda lonely last night. And I think I'm banned from my own hotel, so."

Tubbo gently patted his friend's shoulder before pulling his arm fully around him. "Hell yeah, man. We'll get another room set up as quick as we can."

Tommy beamed, and Tubbo couldn't help but think of his own Tommy yet again. Before everything went to shit. When they would just pull pranks on Dream and listen to the disks on their bench and watch the sunset together. 

But this wasn't Tommy, he knew that now. It was a new Tom, one that wasn't exactly his friend (but he was. He is.) So that wasn't going to stop Tubbo from helping him in any way he could.

Chapter Text

People stayed on call as long as they could, eventually either logging off for the night or splitting off into their own calls over the hours. Dream stayed on, though, alongside Ranboo, Sam, Jack, and Phil's group. They exchanged theories and, when that was exhausted, simply talked. About Tommy, about Wilbur. Favorite memories. Nobody dared to mention the new hope they had of their return. 

They had discovered pretty quickly that they weren't able to get back on the server itself. Every time they tried, an error message would appear. Fundy tried hacking in a couple times, but nothing worked, and he eventually gave up and left the call before he "just fucking passed out, holy shit I'm so tired, guys". 

Clay couldn't stop thinking about it all. About Tommy, his friend Tommy, who had been stuck in the prison with his own character for who knows how long. Just thinking about it made Clay sick to his stomach. It was his fault this had all happened, wasn't it? Because it was his character that tried the revival, it was his character that had fucked it up.

He looked at the call now, at Phil's camera, where Tubbo was asleep curled into the man's side. He could see Techno talking to Kristen in the background. It was late for them, he knew. Probably early morning by now.

At Sam, who was typing away on his computer, trying and still failing to get into the server. Or taking notes. Or maybe just keeping himself occupied with something else during the lull in conversation. Dream wasn't sure at this point. At Ranboo, who was home now and had transferred the call to his computer. Homework surrounded him, but he made no move to finish it, instead solving and unsolving a rubix cube as he spun in his chair aimlessly. At Jack, who was fully asleep on his desk.

Nobody spoke.

Clay started as the door to his room opened behind him. He turned to see Sapnap standing there. 

"I can hear you still blaming yourself from my room, dude. Keep it down." Nick chuckled and Dream smiled a bit in response.

"Ok, ok, whatever."

Sapnap nudged his shoulder. "Seriously though. Get to bed."

"It's only like nine right now."

"Yeah, and you've been on call since two. It's been a long day, you need some rest." He crouched a bit, leaning over Dream's chair to look at the other people on call. "You guys, too. Jeez, half of you are dead on your feet."

Dream whined and leaned his chair back, making Sapnap lose his grip. "But we're still talking."

Phil looked at him through the computer. "No, we're not. We stopped a while ago. Nick's right, we can continue in the morning if we really need to."

Clay looked at the screen, then back at Sapnap. "Ok," he finally sighed. "Ok ok I'm going."

Dream didn't sleep, instead spending the whole night scrolling through twitter. 

People were getting more worried than before. The Tommy situation was bad enough, with him disappearing literally in the middle of stream. There was no denying that. But now Wilbur was gone too, and while nobody in the group had said anything, it was painfully obvious how he had gone dark online. People were getting suspicious.

They had to do something. Anything. They needed to get the two of them back, but how? Clay shut off his phone and tossed it across his bed with a groan. 

There was the glitching, which was something. It confirmed theories, gave the group a starting point. But what was the point of it if they couldn't utilize it again, couldn't try and contact Will and Tommy?

Or, wait… maybe they could. Dream started to knock his hand against his thigh as he thought. 

Yes, they were pretty sure that the glitching had happened because of his character, who might be out of the scene right now (which was weird to think about in and of itself). But maybe, if they tried hard enough, they could do it again. Or, well, someone besides Dream -- he hadn't glitched in the first place, so he wasn't sure he'd be able to do it now.

But it was an idea. He should go bring this up to everyone-- 

Patches jumped up onto the bed and shoved her head under his still jumping hand with a purr. He started to pet her and smiled.

Tomorrow. He'd bring this up to everyone else tomorrow.

Dream SMP

>>general-1 

Dream 10:43 am

@everyone I had an idea, come to vc  

Clay watched as the call filled up quickly. His morning had been spent anxiously waiting for a good time to tell as many people as possible. And he never did fall asleep, instead just spending hours in his bed, his cat curled up next to him. 

"Dude, are you gonna say something or not?" A voice called out through his headphones, and Clay looked up to see almost the whole server in the call. Some had cameras on, Phil (with Techno and Tubbo next to him) and Sam among them. Jack was the one who spoke, laughing a bit as he did.

"Yeah, yeah, of course." Dream paused. "Actually, now that I think about it more, it might be kinda stupid."

"Ok, well," Schlatt said. "You've woken me up already, and we need whatever we can get. So spit it out."

Dream nodded despite the fact that nobody could see him. "Yeah. Yeah. Ok, hear me out… what if we tried to do the glitching again? Like, maybe if one of you guys got across, then we could get some messages to them or something, figure out a way to help."

The call was silent as everyone thought about it. Dream continued, "Like…" he paused. "What does the glitching even feel like?"

"McDonald's Sprite," Karl said immediately. "But my soul is the Sprite and I'm getting poured between two different cups at a rapid pace."

Tubbo hummed. "I'd say more 'shaken violently' but yeah, pretty much."

"Huh." Dream leaned back in his chair. He swore it would fall if he went any further. "Would you be able to replicate it, though?"

"I mean, without the chanting?" Phil asked. "No clue."

"But I mean, muscle memory." Dream's leg started to shake. "You know when you're trying to do something weird one-handed that you did well like, once, years ago, but now you wanna try again? Like that. Weird muscle memory."

"Dream, my man," Sapnap said. "You're not making any goddamn sense."

"You know what I mean!"

"We really don't," Tubbo said, and a few people laughed. Dream put his head in his hands and groaned. 

Sam sat up a bit in his chair. "You know what? Fuck it. I'll try."

Dream sat back up, letting out a soft "oof" as his chair shot up with him. "Yes! Thank you!"

Sam smiled, then closed his eyes and let his face fall. His brows furrowed, and for a second the call was silent as everyone held their breaths. 

Nick spoke first. "See, I told you, dude, nothing's gonna happ--"

And then Sam glitched. It was only for a second, but in that second, he was green, and huge, and wearing armor. He, still human, opened his eyes again with a gasp as everyone in call went batshit insane.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"Somebody better be fucking recording this--"

Someone laughed. "I am now!"

Dream turned on his facecam and laughed loud enough to be heard throughout the house. "GET FUCKED, SAPNAP!"

The wall across from him banged as it was hit on the other side. "SHUT THE FUCK UP."

He turned back to Sam, absolutely giddy now. "Try again, try again!"

Sam grinned. "Ok, ok, everybody calm down, I need to focus."

He closed his eyes again and almost immediately started glitching. He kept going for longer this time, lasting for about a minute. The call was dead quiet, everyone muted, until… 

A green creature appeared on Sam's screen. It was like a centaur, almost, and it wore armor and had a crown on its head. It groaned, and its voice was unmistakably Sam's. He looked up, saw the people in the call, and froze.

"Uh…"

The call erupted again, Dream calling out over all of them after a second before it got too much. "ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, ENOUGH!" Everyone quieted. Clay looked at the creature. "Sam?"

"... Dream?"

Clay chuckled. "You could say that."

Sam got closer to the computer, inspecting the call. "Oh, wow," he said. "All of you are human. It's weird."

Quackity laughed. "Yeah no shit, Sherlock."

"Like, I can kind of guess who most of you are by the usernames… Wait, who's that on Philza's screen?"

"Me? I'm Tubbo."

"No, the other one."

Phil elbowed Techno and the man jumped. "Heh? Oh, I'm, uh, I'm Technoblade. Subscribe."

A few people snorted out laughs. Sam stared at him for a second more before going "huh" and nodding, moving on to stare down other people in the call. 

"Well what now, Dream?" Jack asked. "That was your whole plan, right? To glitch again?"

Dream started shaking his leg again. "Hmm. I mean, yeah."

"Wait, you guys were trying to glitch, too?" Sam grinned. "That's what we were doing on our side, Wilbur said we might be able to communicate."

"Wilbur?" Phil sat forward. "Like, our Wilbur?"

"Yeah! Yeah I'm… I'm pretty sure."

Schlatt laughed. When he spoke he sounded almost giddy, a sharp contrast from his dead tone from earlier in the call. "Damn, so they're actually in Minecraft then? Holy shit!"

"I mean, yeah, I guess s--" Suddenly, Sam glitched again. He was back in Minecraft form not a second later, stumbling a bit and catching his head. 

"You ok?" Bad asked, and Sam nodded.

"Yeah, fine, it's just… keeping this up is very headache-inducing." He squeezed his eyes shut before looking back up. "Don't know how long I can hold this, honestly."

"Well what's been going on?" Phil asked. "How's Will, how's Tommy?" 

A few "yeah"s were muttered to affirm the questions, and Sam looked them all over with a smile. "I know I already said this, but it's weird seeing you all like this. Not just human, but… caring. You guys care for them so much. It's refreshing. They- they deserve you guys.

"To answer your question though, I'd say… They're alright? Given the situation? They're both kind of going through it, based on what I can see -- Wilbur especially. He killed Dream, my Dream, yesterday, and then Philza punched him because he realized that your Wilbur isn't his son because of the glitching and just… Yeah."

"Pog," Tubbo said.

"That's not--" Phil turned to look at Tubbo incredulously. The boy just giggled. "That's not pog!"

"I meant the death part, you know that!"

Phil ignored him, instead whipping back around to Sam. "What do you mean I punched him?!"

"That's actually the part he seems to be taking better." Sam chuckled. "It's the death that's getting to him. He hasn't killed anyone before, has he?"

The people in the call had mixed reactions to that, varying from incredibly high eyebrows to awkward laughs to at least a couple of shouts. 

Sam glitched again, only for a second. "I'll take that as a no," he said.

"To be fair," Dream said, "I would have done the same if I were in his shoes. I'm a horrible person in that world, I know that, that's the whole point of it all. If I was face to face with him, it would honestly be on sight."

Sam smiled, just a bit. "I'll tell him you said that." He started to glitch more, clearly about to fully switch again.

"Wait, Sam, before you go." Dream looked into the camera. Sam glitched quickly and looked back. "How… how long was our Tommy in prison? Do you know?"

Sam sighed. "To be honest, no. I don't know when he was revived, so I can't really say for sure. I got him out the day Wilbur was revived, if that means anything."

Dream's eyes widened and he leaned back, running a hand over his face. His leg started to bounce higher, hitting the desk at this point. Two days. That's a lot. That's… that's enough for… "Did I do anything?"

Before Sam could say anything, George cut in, unmuting for the first time. "It wasn't you, Clay. Stop saying it is."

Most everyone on call nodded. Phil added, "Yeah, mate. This isn't anyone's fault, especially not yours."

"It's really just the multiverse being fucky," Tubbo said, and Bad in the background muttered out a "language." Clay couldn't help but snort out a laugh.

Sam smiled a bit at their antics before his face fell again. "Dream, I'm sorry to say that I truly didn't know he was in there until he messaged me. I wouldn't know what happened, and Tom hasn't said much about it. But I promise you, all of you, that I'm going to work as hard as I can to help get him and Wilbur back home."

Dream nodded, and Sam smiled. He broke his concentration, glitched, and his human form fell onto the floor. A loud groan could be heard off camera. 

Dream stopped his anxious shaking. "You ok?"

Sam pulled himself up and sat down. Only the top of his head was in frame, so he adjusted the camera again. "Yeah, I'm ok. Head's killing me though. "

"That's good." Ranboo chuckled. "Not the head thing, just the ok."

"Go get some painkillers, bro," Tubbo said, and Sam laughed out loud at that.

"Actually, would you believe it--" He held up a small glass bottle full of a shimmering liquid. "Philza Minecraft gave me a regen potion."

Phil huffed out a laugh. "Damn, really?"

"Drink it!" Quackity called out. "Unless you're a fucking coward."

Sam laughed and unquarked the bottle. He drank about a third of it before putting it down with a slight grimace. 

"What's it taste like?" Tubbo asked, and half the server muttered in agreement. 

"Like… god I don't even know how to describe it-- Like if there was a grapefruit flavored cough medicine. Also it's carbonated."

Dream laughed. "That's disgusting, oh my god."

Sam shrugged and downed the rest of the bottle before putting it up in front of his face and nodding appreciatively. He looked back at the camera. "I literally haven't felt this good since middle school."

Ranboo cheered. "Yeahh let's give it up for Philza Minecraft!"

The rest of the call cheered, clapped, and whooped, becoming loud enough that the audio started to distort. Clay himself couldn't wipe a smile off his face. For the first time since Tommy disappeared, he felt truly happy.

They could do this. They could get their friends back. Clay was sure of it.

Chapter Text

Tommy went back to his room in the inn alone. 

According to Puffy, Wilbur was off doing his own thing, so Tommy decided not to worry too much about it. Will was an adult, after all; he could take care of himself. He didn't need Tom worrying about him every second now, no matter how much the teen wanted to do so. He simply returned the phone to the chest (ignoring the missing sweater -- Will was fine, he'd be fine, he'll probably be back in the morning, there's no need to worry) and went to bed.

Tubbo and Ranboo went back to Snowchester for the night, but in the morning they came back by with Michael to make some breakfast for everyone. Well, Tubbo and Michael did; Ranboo went off mining with Niki, apparently. (Knowing her current arc with the Syndicate, Tommy doubted that.) The toddler was in his lap as he sat in the lobby, Tubbo milling around. Tom was full from the meal, and for the first time since coming here, he felt truly at peace.

Tubbo looked over at them and smiled. "He's a hair puller," he warned, and Tommy winced as Michael did just that.

"I noticed."

They both laughed. 

Tommy continued playing with Michael for another half hour or so. Tubbo eventually sat down on the couch next to him, and the small piglin scrambled over to hug his dad. Tommy looked at the two of them with a soft smile. 

Tubbo caught his eye. "What?"

"Ah, nothing." Tommy shrugged. "You're just a good dad, is all. Never really seen you like this before."

Then the door knocked. Outside, he could hear voices. One was instantly familiar as Wilbur.

"Now, I know we just got back on good terms and everything, but if you bully Tommy or Tubbo I will punch you. Don't think I won't."

Another voice laughed. "I believe you mate, don't worry."

And then the door opened to reveal Wilbur, Ranboo, and Philza. 

Will's black eye was gone, fully healed, and he had a huge grin on his face. He had a new cloak on as well, one vaguely reminiscent of some art Tom had seen for the Arctic Empire back when that was his plotline and he had spent hours scrolling through fanart for it, though it was a simple dark brown instead of the usual light blue. Underneath, the purplish glint of a netherite axe could be seen. "Hi!" He said. "I brought a friend!" Phil waved from the doorway.

"Philza Minecraft?!"

Tubbo squinted. "Didn't he punch you in the face yesterday?"

"What?!"

"Ohh," Ranboo said. "That explains some things."

Wilbur just smiled. "Everything's fine now, guys. Don't you worry your little heads."

The enderman stumbled as Michael jumped off the couch and ran to cling to his legs. The toddler looked up at him and started rambling in piglin excitedly. Phil took a small step away from the pair as they moved over to sit on the couch. "I never liked kids."

"It's 'cause you helped raise me, innit?" Tommy smirked. 

Phil looked at him strangely for a second before his face settled into a small smile. "Sure, you keep giving yourself that credit."

Wilbur laughed. "Ok, well, you guys have fun without me for a bit, yeah? I'm gonna go get Sam, then we can have a meeting to figure out our next move." 

"Wait, no, don't leave us with him--" But before Tubbo could finish, Will was gone. Tommy looked over at the other boy who looked somewhere between shocked and angry. "What's wrong?" He whispered.

Tubbo fell back on the couch with a grumble. "Ok, like, I know what you guys are saying is true now," he hissed, "But he's friends with the Syndicate?"

"I'm in the Syndicate," Ranboo whispered, offended. 

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Do I?"

Tommy glanced over at Phil, who was staring straight at them. "I mean, if Will's keeping him in check, then I'll trust him."

"I can hear you, you know," Phil said, and the three teens had the audacity to look sheepish.

Wilbur came back in several tense minutes later, Sam following behind. They all moved to the common dining room, and everyone besides Sam (who physically couldn't sit in a chair) and Philza (who leaned against a wall angstily) sat down.

"Ok so:" Wilbur clapped his hands together. "Plans. What you got?"

The room was silent. Will groaned. "Christ, guys, seriously? We need to find this book! Soon!"

As Tommy listened to his brother's words, he couldn't help but be reminded of their L'manburg days. When Wilbur would be the voice of the people, when he would lead and plan and be confident. (And even though his memories of that weren't his own, even though they got mashed in with memories of computer screens and glitchy calls, they still called out to him. They still ached to be familiar.) 

Tom shook the thoughts away. Instead of speaking his mind, he suggested, "Maybe it's in, like, a desert temple or something? You know how much Dream loves 'em in Manhunt."

Ranboo tilted his head. "What's Manhunt?"

"It's this series Dream, George, Sapnap, Bad, and Ant do," Tom said. "It's, like, really big or some shit, it gets them a bunch of clout. Basically Dream tries to beat Minecraft while the others try and kill him."

Tubbo furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean, 'beat Minecraft?'"

"Oh, like kill the ender dragon?" Philza asked. "I've done that in a few of my own servers before, it's--"

Wilbur slapped a hand down on the table, a flash of green against the brown. "Can we please get back to the topic at hand? Jesus fuck."

Tommy blinked at him, unable to explain the way his heart seemed to be beating out of his chest. If he didn't know any better, if this wasn't Wilbur, he'd say he was terrified. "Uh, I mean, yeah Big Man."

"Thank you." Will ran a hand over his face. "Toms, you're right, a desert temple would be a great place to look. The problem is, there's so much fucking desert in the world, Tommy, so, like, just-- No. Not a good place to start. Maybe later though."

Tubbo hummed. "You could maybe try and ask Dream himself."

"But Wilbur killed him," Philza said.

"Yeah, but maybe…" Tubbo thought for a moment. "You said there's a Dream in your world, right? And that he's chill? Maybe one of us could do the glitching again and ask!"

Wilbur leaned back in his chair, its edge hitting the wall, and stared up at the ceiling as he considered it. 

Ranboo furrowed his eyebrows. "How do you mean? Dream isn't here to do the weird chanting stuff again."

"But you guys said you felt it?" Wilbur said. "Maybe you could try and recreate that feeling."

"It's probably not that easy, Big Man." Tommy stuck a foot out to slam Will's chair back to the floor. The man jerked as it hit the floor and glared. 

"Tommy!"

The boy laughed. "Whaaat? You were annoying me."

"Oh like you don't do that every day."

"Yeah, payback bitch!"

Wilbur jokingly hit his shoulder ("Hey, ow--!") and continued, "You're right, it's probably not that easy. But Tubbo's has a point here, and I feel like it's worth a try. Dream -- this Dream, not Clay -- said that the barrier between these two worlds is thinning, maybe it's thin enough now that you guys can glitch and switch places with your person in our world without Dream's help."

"Maybe," Sam said. "But if that's the case then why don't you just do it and go back home?"

"Because we don't know if that's the case. Besides, I don't know how to glitch."

"What does it feel like, anyways?" Tommy butted in. "The glitching, that is."

The room was silent for a second as the others thought. Phil eventually said, "It's … It's somewhere between drinking a water breathing potion and a speed potion. All the bubbles and fizz and energy packed all up and going through your body but only for a second."

"Ah yes." Tommy nodded. "Like cocaine."

Wilbur laughed, a green hand coming up to cover his mouth as he tried to stifle it. "WHAT?"

"What do you mean, 'what'?? Hey, man, I saw Big Q yesterday, you can't blame me for my mind going there."

"Did you now?" Will chuckled again before turning back to the others. "Anyways, as I was saying, I don't think I have a body over there right now, and neither does Tommy, so neither of us can be the ones to try. But I do wanna try."

Tubbo looked like he was about to say something again when Sam put a hand on his shoulder. "No, Wilbur's right, it's worth a sh--"

And then Sam glitched. For a fraction of a second, he was a normal human, and then he was back in centaur form. He stumbled. "Um."

"Holy shit," Tommy said. "Was that you?"

"No, actually. I don't-- I don't know what that was."

Wilbur stood up. "Well maybe it means it can work. Try, try."

Sam looked at him, then closed his eyes. He glitched once, twice (Tom could see that both forms were clearly concentrating on something), and then Sam appeared. Human Sam. 

"Oh my god!" Tubbo laughed. "That's… woah."

He flickered and stumbled, bringing his hands to his head. Tubbo reached up and guided him down into an empty chair. Sam looked up to thank him, saw his horns, and stopped. He looked around the table, eyes finally settling on Tommy and Wilbur. Tommy shifted nervously under his gaze.

"Holy shit," Sam breathed. "It worked."

"What worked?" Wilbur asked. "Our Sam was just trying to get to my world, what are you on about--"

Sam laughed. "Holy shit it worked, yeah--" He fizzed again, but remained human. "Fuck this is hard to keep up. Um, basically, ever since the glitching thing happened -- I assume you guys know about that -- we've been trying to figure out what's been going on."

Tommy leaned forward. "We?"

"The whole server, basically. Mainly Dream, me, Phil, Tubbo, Ranboo, and Jack. Schlatt and Techno a bit, too -- basically everyone who saw you and Will when we glitched. Everyone else is helping too, of course."

"Everyone?" Tommy asked. "Even Vikkstar?"

Sam laughed. "Yes, even Vikkstar."

The boy gasped in awe and looked over at Will. "Wilbur did you hear that--?"

"Oh my god, shut up."

Tommy flinched at his brother's harsh words. For a second, he was back in that void, with only the booming voices around him the keep him company, to bully him--

Will's hand was on his arm in an instant, worry written across his face. "Are you ok? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped like that."

Tommy smiled softly and shook his arm out of Wilbur's grasp. "I'm fine. Sorry. Sam?"

The other man looked between them, confused and concerned. "Uh… Should I be worried about whatever that was?"

Half the people at the table spoke at once. 

"It's fine, Sam, really, you don't have to--"

"Voices , you know how it be, Big Man--"

"Puffy said their souls combined or something, I don't--"

They all stopped when they realized the others had been speaking. Philza eventually sighed and said, "Just continue, Sam. They'll be alright."

Sam nodded, though still unsure. "Anyways, yeah. Dream was thinking that maybe if we tried to recreate the glitch again we could maybe come back here, so I tried, and--" He glitched, curling in on himself. It lasted longer now, several seconds at least. When he came back human again, he gasped. 

"That hurts, oh my god…"

Ranboo put a hand on his arm. "You ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, thanks… Ranboo? I assume it's Ranboo."

"Yeah."

Sam nodded, squeezing his eyes shut. "Thank you."

Phil walked up to him and handed him a potion. "Here. It's regen."

Sam furrowed his eyebrows and took it slowly. Wilbur laughed. "How many potions you got on you, mate?"

"You never know when you need them!"

Will laughed again and turned back to Sam. "How long can you stay here?"

"Not much longer, I don't think."

Wilbur nodded and spoke quickly. "Ok, well, what we were just doing was trying to get our Sam to do the same thing you just did -- get to the real world."

"Probably only worked because we did it at the same time."

"Makes sense, yeah," Tommy said.

Wilbur nodded with him. "Right now, we're trying to find the revive book, because if we can get that, we can maybe reverse whatever happened to us. We'd ask this world's Dream, but, well…"

Tubbo smiled. "Will killed him."

Tommy saw Wilbur wince minutely before he nodded. "Yeah," the man said. "Basically. But the problem with that is that we can't get anymore info out of him."

Sam thought. "I think our Dream might know where the book is. He put it in a physical place in-game, so I'd imagine it's here in this world as well."

"Well how do we reach him?" Tommy asked, then looked over at Wilbur. "He didn't glitch, did he?"

"No."

"Fuck."

Sam smiled apologetically. "I don't know, but we'll figure something out. This is already so much more info than we already had. We'll get you back home." He reached out and took both Wilbur's and Tommy's hands and squeezed them. Tom felt the cool glass of the potion stuck between their hands as he spoke. "I promise."

He glitched one last time and Minecraft Sam was back in his place. He let go of the hands as he fell out of the chair, this form clearly not used to sitting like that.

Sam stood up on shaky legs, then looked at everyone in the room in turn. "Well," he said after a minute. "That was something."

Chapter Text

Now that the group had the new info from the other world, they could finally… 

Do nothing. They honestly couldn't do shit right now. It sucked.

Biggest problem: still no coords. Will did feel comforted that his friends were still rooting for him over on their side of things, and he sure Tommy was, too, but it didn't mean anything when he wasn't able to use them.

What the fuck. What the fuck do I mean it doesn't mean anything, their support means everything. What am I thinking? I don't need to use them. 

We don't need them at all, actually.

No, we do need them! Everything's always easier with friends--

Wilbur squeezed his eyes shut as he sat on his bed late that night, doing his best to will the voices of Alivebur and Ghostbur away. He needed to focus. 

That was easier said than done. 

Despite the fact that they didn't have coords, they continued their search for the book. Tommy and Wilbur usually went on their own as they first combed through the Greater SMP area, to no avail. Plenty of books, but none were the one they were looking for. They spread out further, Sam and Phil even going out to nearly the edges of the world to find some of the farther away inhabited areas. Will and Tom even tried Karl's library, after an entire afternoon searching for it -- still no dice. 

Two days now, and still no book. Still no progress. Two days with no fucking leads, and Will couldn't help but laugh painfully to himself at the familiarity of it all.

He hated it, to say the least.

Wilbur and Tommy were just walking around on the Prime Path that third day (well, sixth day overall for Wilbur), taking some time to relax. Wilbur was incredibly reluctant to do so, but both Sam and Tubbo were adamant, so he relented. Besides, Tom deserved it.

They walked around the nether for a while, watched the mobs, got some ender pearls. They even took an hour or two to build a small bridge to the middle of nowhere, where Tom dug out a cave in the netherrack and placed several signs. A few had all the lyrics to Will's song "Your New Boyfriend" from memory (Will watched him get half the verses wrong with more than a few snickers), and one read "BIG MAN & CO. WERE HERE!! POGCHAMP!!!!!" He took his sword and carved a crude penis into it.  

"That--" Will laughed. "Seriously? We spend all this time getting up here and this is all you do?" 

Tommy snorted. "Yes, of course! I must leave my mark somehow or another. Now take a picture of me in front of the signs, c'mon."

They made their way back out, laughing and joking the whole way. When they got to the area overrun by red vines, they stopped.

BadBoyHalo stared them down. He stalked closer. Instinctively, Wilbur took a step to be in front of Tommy, protecting him. 

"Wilbur Soot!" From within the depths of his black and white hood, Wilbur could see Bad's sinister smile. "Fancy seeing you here. I actually just wanted to talk to Tommy. So if you wouldn't mind stepping out of the way--"

"No." 

"Well." Bad chuckled humorlessly. "This might be a problem. Unless you would like to talk to the egg, too? I'm sure it wouldn't mind a new visitor."

Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw the vines start to move. He heard Tom shuffle closer behind him as the stench became overwhelming. "I said no. Neither of us want to go with you. Anything you want to say you can say here."

"But I've been wanting to talk for so long. It'll be fine, the egg is completely safe. As long as you guys listen to me."

"I said. We're not going with you. Fuck off."

Bad stepped forward. "Yeah, that's just not gonna happen."

And then everything happened at once. Bad raised his hands and the vines surged forward and Tommy cried out. 

Wilbur whipped around to look at Tommy, at the red vines completely encasing his lower legs, reaching up around him to hold his hands down, some still climbing up to reach for his mouth to muffle him, then back at Bad. "LET HIM GO!"

Bad laughed. "Now why should I do that?"

Wilbur felt righteous rage flow through him, blinding him, as one of the voices in his head screamed. He screamed right alongside it. "I- I- I'll blow it up!" Wilbur drew his axe. His brown cloak billowed dramatically around him; it wasn't trenchcoat, but it felt right enough for now. He felt his nonexistent wings stretch wide behind him, a glorious display of power. "I'll blow your fucking egg up, how's that feel, huh? I'll stick fifty fucking stacks in there and I'll light it from the inside out."

"You wouldn't."

Wilbur sneered. He turned around towards Tom and raised his axe (painfully ignoring how hard the boy flinched), bringing it down on the vines around him. They snapped and withered where they sat, retreating back into the shadows. Tommy cried out a sob as… something happened as the vines fell away, Will didn't exactly know what. He turned back to Bad with fire in his eyes. 

"I'll do anything. Don't fucking test me."

Bad stared at the axe as Wilbur adjusted it in his hand. "Fine." He turned to leave. "Watch your back, Wilbur Soot. We've got our eyes on you."

Wilbur watched him leave with a glare, only putting the axe up once the demon was out of sight. He turned back to Tommy.

Tommy was curled on the ground, in the middle of a panic attack. 

"Shit." Crouching down to be more on his level, Will put his hands on his shoulders. "Breathe with me Toms, deep breaths, yeah? Can you do that for me?"

Tommy gasped for breath and shook his head. Slowly, tenderly, Will reached out and pried Tom's hands away from where they were pulling at his bandages. 

Looking down at the hands now, Will froze. Where the egg had touched the boy, the skin was an angry, burning red. His own green bands tingled like they had been shoved in ice water when he ran his fingers over the swaying lines.

"Fuck, Tommy. How do you feel?"

Tommy laughed weakly. "Like shit. I feel like I just drank a bucketful of poison pot."

Wilbur hummed as he put a hand on the boy's forehead. He didn't know how, but the symptoms of poison effect were ingrained in his mind somewhere, and judging by Tommy's pale, sickly face… "Honestly, I wouldn't doubt if that thing poisoned you somehow. It's an easy enough fix, though."

Tommy nodded, taking a few deep breaths. He sniffed. "You're not actually gonna blow the egg up, are you?"

I will, I want to watch it burn, want to watch the whole world burn--

"Of course not." Will wiped a stray tear off his brother's face. "I was bluffing, you don't need to worry about anything."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

Tommy nodded, not making eye contact. Then he surged forward and hugged him.

"Please don't yell like that again," Tom said into Will's hair. "Please, please, I- You sounded like you did in Pogtopia, it scared me."

"But…" But Pogtopia wasn't real. We weren't actually here, that wasn't actually… Was it? 

Yes. Yes, it was. You remember, don't you? "I won't, Toms. I swear."

He felt a cool calm wash over him, and for a moment, Ghostbur's voice prevailed, his tinny voice straining his throat. "It'll be alright, ok? I'm not like that anymore."

Tommy looked up at him in fear. Will sighed, letting himself come back, and rubbed the boy's shoulder. "Let's just go back home and get you some milk and a healing potion, yeah? I'm sure Phil or Sam has got something."

Wilbur stood and took his brother's still burning hand. Pushing the voices down for now, they went on their way back home. 

Chapter Text

Sam had told them everything he learned, from their search for the book to the people who were in the room to the smaller details, like Wilbur's hands and little Michael in the corner. 

Dream confirmed that he had the coords, the problem was he, uh. He didn't know where they were.

"But I can look!" He said desperately. "I can, I'll turn this house upside down if I need to. I wrote it down somewhere, I'm sure of it."

Dream did not sleep. For the next couple of days, he spent all his time scrounging his apartment for the coords for the book. Because he knows he wrote it down somewhere so he could remember, he just has to find it.

That was a harder task than originally thought.

Bedroom? No. Office? That was… significantly harder to answer due to the mess that room was (he didn't have to worry about cleaning it up too much -- perks of being a faceless youtuber), so he'd try again after he already checked some easier spots. It wasn't anywhere visible near his computer, though, which was a shame. 

In some book lying around? No, and even Nick helped with that one so Clay had to be sure. In the kitchen for some unknown reason? ...No, and Nick once again helped by stopping Dream before he tried to clear out the fridge. ("Why the fuck would you put it in the eggs? We got them two days ago, they're fresh." "I don't know me, man! You never know!")

Back to the office now, and after spending a rough hour clearing off the desk, his eyes landed on a sticky note lying underneath it all. He picked it up and unfolded it, and the second his eyes comprehended what they were seeing, he burst out of the room and into Sapnap's.

"I have the coords."

"For the book?" Sapnap looked up.

"Yeah." Dream held up the slip of paper. "It was buried under all the crap on my desk. Can't believe I left it there."

"This is why I tell you to fucking clean shit-- Well don't just stand there! Tell everyone else!"

Dream nodded and sprinted back to the office. He hastily cleared away everything in the way of his computer and sat down, powering up Discord as fast as he could and joined an empty call. He sent out a message and several people joined within a minute. 

The second everyone he needed was in, Clay held up the paper. "I found them! The coords!"

People cheered and clapped as Dream sent the numbers in the chat. Phil asked, "Yeah, but how do we get this info to them? Last time was pretty much an accident. It'll be hard to get the people in both worlds to try and switch again."

That… shit, yeah, he had a point. 

"I can try," Tubbo said, then closed his eyes.

"Dude, you look constipated," Jack said, and Ranboo burst into laughter. 

"Hey!" Tubbo sounded offended, but there was a smile on his face nonetheless.

"Dream, you could try?" Ranboo suggested. "I know you didn't glitch the first time, but--"

"No." God, Clay didn't even want to think about it. "I'm not letting character Dream into the real world, I don't care if he's technically dead or what. Absolutely fucking not. I wish- I wish so much that I could do something, anything--" Fuck, I really can't do anything right now, can I? "But- it's not my place. Not right now. They need someone who can help them, not me accidentally actually reviving myself."

Ranboo nodded slowly. "Fair."

Sam spoke up. "Well, I was the one who did it last time, right? So I feel like he would be the one most willing to do it again."

"Well try, then," Dream said. "We don't have all that much time."

"Ok, ok!" Sam smiled, then closed his eyes. After a second, he glitched, but it didn't stick. He sighed in frustration, glitched again, and again it didn't work.

"Third time's a charm," Jack said, and indeed, when Sam did it the third time, his corresponding creature stumbled into the world. And then promptly fell out of Sam's chair. 

"Who sits like that?" Came a voice from the floor, and the people on call laughed.

Sam stood up and adjusted the camera so that his whole body was in frame. "Hello again. Please ignore the fact that I just fell."

"Oh absolutely not." Dream chuckled. "Anyways, I found the coords for the book. I already told our Sam, but I'm gonna tell you in case he can't make it to them in time."

"Oh shit, coords? I was at my base when I switched over here, it might take too long to get to them."

"And that's why I'm telling you, just in case."

"I mean, if it'll take too long, I can switch?" Tubbo said sheepishly. "I meant it when I offered earlier."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, my Tubbo's probably wherever Tommy and Wilbur are. Or at the very least where Tommy is, especially after the stuff that's happened today."

Jack groaned. "And I meant it when I said you looked constipated, mate, don't do that to yourself again."

Ranboo and Dream laughed, Tubbo himself cracking a smile.

"I want to try it anyways," the boy said, and closed his eyes again. He glitched once, opening his eyes in surprise. Then he glitched again and he gasped. "I didn't do that one."

"Third time's a charm," Ranboo repeated with a grin. Tubbo grinned back and closed his eyes again. 

He glitched, and then kept glitching, and for a second Dream almost felt like he could feel something, too.

And then it was over and Tubbo sat back in his chair, now with horns.

"Oh!" The new Tubbo said. He spun around in his chair with a laugh. "It worked! That was easier than I thought."

"Tubbo!" Sam said, and the horned boy looked at the screen. 

"Sam! You- wow, yeah, you were right, it is weird when everyone's human. Is…" He squinted. "Wait, is that Dream?"

Clay laughed. "Yeah kid. But not… not that Dream, yeah?"

"I can vouch," Ranboo said. Tubbo looked at him with wide eyes. 

"Oh shit! You-- Wow, yeah, this is definitely something, alright."

Phil chuckled. "Ok, ok, everything is very different kiddo, we get it. But Dream, mate, important stuff? We don't have much time I don't think."

"Yes, coords!" Clay clapped, bringing everyone's attention to himself. "Tubbo, just in case neither our Sam or our Rubbo can get to Tommy and Wilbur in time, do you think you could memorise those coords on your screen? That's where the book is."

"Oh! Yeah, I see them, hold on…" He reached for something off screen, then held up a ballpoint pen. "Is this a pen?"

Jack chuckled. "Yeah, mate. That's a pen."

"Perfect." Tubbo began writing the numbers on his hand.

While he did that, Sam spoke. "I think something's happening with the glitching."

Phil looked at him, concerned. "What do you mean? We kinda need this link between the worlds, I hate to break it to you."

"It's…" Sam sighed. "It's definitely gotten easier since last time. I have to concentrate to stay here, right? But now I don't have to concentrate as much. Wilbur said that Dream said that the barrier between our two worlds is thinning every time we cross, and I think he's right."

"But what's that supposed to mean?" Dream asked.

"Well, I think by the time we get both Wilbur and Tommy back here… something will happen. Things are gonna change, and I think that that barrier might thin out entirely. Until then, I don't think we can do something like this again, in case we cause more damage than what's already been done."

"Wha- But--" Phil started.

"But what if we have more info?" Ranboo asked. 

Sam sighed. "You'll just have to hope they can figure it out on their own. I'm sorry."

"I… guess this is goodbye, then?" Tubbo looked up with a pout. "Aw. Well, it was really nice knowing you guys!"

"Yeah." Sam smiled. "Goodbye. It was wonderful meeting you all."

Dream started shaking his leg again, moving the desk with it this time. He heard a glitch sound, and when he looked up, Sam and Tubbk were both human again. 

"I got them the coords," Tubbo said, and everyone smiled. 

"Thank god," Jack said. "What now, though?"

Dream sighed. "We wait."

Chapter Text

Tommy was limping the whole way back to his base, leaning heavily on Wilbur as they made their way across the path. Will took his comms device to message a quick shoutout to Sam and Phil, and Tom just hoped that they would be there in time to help him.

Will unceremoniously put Tom down on a stray dirt block, then moved to rummage through the chests in the main room. "I don't- I don't know what'll help, all of this is just, like, stray wood planks."

"There's some more chests downstairs, maybe a grapple or two."

Wilbur nodded and put the planks down behind Tommy, creating a sort of bench he could lay down on, before turning and running down the stairs. Tom didn't miss the way he avoided eye contact the whole time. It hurt. 

Will came back up right as Sam entered. Tom took the gapple gratefully as the centaur creature stood in the doorway, looking him over. His eyes widened when they landed on the red lines.

"Oh," said Sam. "That's… that's not good."

Tommy swallowed the bite in his mouth. "You're telling me, big man."

Then Philza came in, and Will hastily briefed the two on the situation. Well, actually, not much of the situation; he conveniently left out the egg part, probably as to not worry the two as much.

Philza took a second to look through some of the things in his inventory, then hummed thoughtfully. "I don't have any healing or milk on me, but there's definitely some back at Techno's. I'll be back as quickly as I can, ok?"

Tom nodded, wincing as the movement brought a new wave of nausea.

Sam walked up. "May I see?" Tommy nodded, and Sam took one of his hands. The marks there spiraled up and tapered out around his elbows. Though it split up into thick red lines -- the wounds themselves were imprints of the vines -- his hands were completely encased in red. He turned it over and clicked his tongue. "Is this it or is there more?"

"Oh, there's more, yeah." Tommy pulled up his pant legs to right above the knee, wincing as the fabric ran over tender skin. The red markings came up about halfway up his calves, but they were definitely far worse than the ones in his arms. The lines looked like they actually dug into his skin there, and both Tom and Wilbur hissed in a breath at the sight of it.

"The egg?" Sam asked.

Will looked up at him. "How'd you know?"

Sam winced sympathetically before he reached down and removed the armor on his front two legs. A latticework of red scars cut through the fur there, and clearly continued up to the rest of his body, hidden by armor. "The same thing happened to me. It happens when the Egg physically has a hold on you and is forced to let go, it- it seems to release some sort of venom." He put the armor back on. "Have you gotten holy water yet?"

Tommy shook his head. "Nah, that, uh, wasn't really our first concern after all that."

"Well, that's definitely the first thing we need to do. I'll go get some, you guys wait here."

The other two sat in silence for a couple minutes.

"You know," Tom said eventually, "You don't have to stay here if you don't want to."

"But I do want to. I'm part of why you got so hurt, I need to make it up to you."

"It would have been a lot worse without you, Big Man." Tommy smiled, and Will gave a weak smile back. "Just saying."

Then Sam came back in with a bucket of water, seemingly oblivious to the brotherly moment that had just happened. "Ok, it'd definitely be better if you could fully bathe in it, but I don't want you moving right now, so this will have to do. I can get you to Church Prime after this just to be sure, though."

"Yeah, sounds great."

Wilbur went and grabbed a scrap of leather ("not really a rag or anything, but it'll do") and the three went to work cleaning Tommy's wounds. The boy didn't let the others touch any of the ones on his legs, instead gingerly running the water over them himself when he got the chance. 

Philza came back with a few potions, which Tom took gratefully. They tasted weird going down his throat, the thickness reminding him of cough medicine, but also carbonated, which… not a good combo overall.

Will chuckled.

"What?"

"You make a weird face when you eat something bad, it's funny."

Tommy scowled playfully. "I'll show you funny, bitch."

After another minute or two, Sam led the boy down to the church to get fully cleaned. He could already walk a lot better, which was pog. But he didn't really like how much Sam was babying him. It felt like pity. And Tommy hates pity.

Tommy submerged himself in the pool and awkwardly shimmied around for a second. He looked back up at Sam. "This good?"

"I- Yeah. Yeah, it'll be fine for now. But if you start hearing the egg or anything like that, come straight back here, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Tommy stood up and shook himself off. "I'm gonna head to Snowchester now, yeah? Got your permission to do so?"

"Tom, you don't have to ask my permission to do anything. Of course you can go."

Something inside Tommy bristled at the name. Sam didn't know his IRL self, who was he to call him by that name? "Alright, well. I'm gonna go now, bitch boy. You got a towel or anything?"

"Uh… no. Sorry."

"'Course he doesn't," Tommy muttered to himself, then turned to leave. Sam didn't follow.

Wilbur was waiting outside, because of course he was. (And Phil was gone, because of course he was.)

"I told you you could leave, you know."

"Aw what, am I not allowed to hang out with my little brother?" He ruffled Tommy's still wet hair, to which Tom shoved him away with a muttered "fuck off" and a slowly growing smile. "Besides," Will continued. "I don't really have much else to do. Phil had a project he wanted to get back to, by the way, sorry he had to leave. He wishes you well, though."

Tommy scoffed. "Well, we're going to Tubbo's now. That was too stressful, I need to wind down."

Will nodded, then shrugged off his cloak and threw it on Tommy. It nearly fit, if only maybe a bit too wide in the shoulders. 

Tom sputtered. "What's this for?"

"It's cold over there and you're still wet. If I had a hat I'd make you wear that, too, but this'll have to work for now."

Tommy huffed and pretended he didn't care as he pulled the warm material around himself.

Will caught up with him in only a few long strides. No matter how fast Tommy walked, his brother was right beside him. 

Will looked over. "What's got you so worked up?"

"Am I not allowed to just be pissed?"

The man hummed. "I suppose so. But if you wanted to talk about it, I'm here."

"Well, I don't. So."

Oh but he did. He really, really wanted to, but the part of him angry in the first place wasn't too fond of opening up, was it? It was frustrating, but, well, it was him. He supposed he was used to it.

But was he?

Just- just talk to Wilbur, man. It's not that hard. He's right there, he's our fri-- He's our brother. 

But he hurts us. Don't show weakness in front of him, we can't anymore. 

Tommy walked faster.

They made it to Snowchester fairly quickly. In the not-so-far distance, a loud thudding could be heard, as if an enormous creature was moving around. Wilbur and Tommy stopped, looked at each other, then moved forward to investigate. 

Tom peeked around from behind a tree to reveal a mansion. And even that was putting it lightly. It was easily over a dozen stories tall, its front stretching out and covering a good part of the peninsula. It was only half-built right now, but both men could already see how awe inspiring it would be upon completion.

"Holy shit," Will whispered, and Tom was inclined to agree.

From behind the house, a figure rose, walking around to the front. The fact that whoever they were was tall enough to almost equal the house was pretty fucking terrifying enough (in a good way, kinda), but that plus the fact that they were solid gold and and also seemed to be fused with a shark, judging by the fine running along their back, made for quite the intimidating figure. Luckily, they didn't seem to notice the smaller two.

"Hey guys!" said a voice from behind them suddenly, and Tommy jumped at least two feet into the air with a screech. 

"Ranboo! Fuck!"

The half-enderman laughed. "Sorry, sorry. Uh, I see you guys have seen the mansion? We hired Foolish to make it for Michael."

"Oh that's Foolish." Wilbur turned back around to look at the giant. "I'm not, like, really caught up with his lore, but I guess? That checks out?"

"Holy shit," Tommy repeated, and Ranboo laughed again. 

"C'mon, the main cabin's back this way."

They made their way over there, and finally took the change to relax. Already Tom felt himself relax, surrounded by friends and a warm fire. Michael was fun, too, especially since he seemed to remember Tom from a few days before. Will sat down with him as well, and the two of them played with the toddler as Tubbo and Ranboo stood talking.

And then Tubbo glitched. The other three turned and stared. 

"Uhh…" Tubbo chuckled.

"Was that you?" Will asked. He stood up, Tom quickly following. Michael squeaked, confused as to why play time ended so abruptly.

"No, definitely not."

"Try glitching on this side, then. They might have a message for us."

"But I don't know if I can--"

"Try it."

Wilbur's voice deepened, scratching in a way Tom had never really heard before. He pulled Micheal closer to himself protectively, but Will blinked and seemed to come back to himself in a second or two.

Meanwhile, Tubbo closed his eyes and squished his face up. Pretty quickly, he was able to glitch momentarily. Then he took a deep breath, tried again, and, after a bit of buzzing with bated breath, his whole body shook and the glitches faded out to reveal a Tubbo with no horns. 

The boy stumbled, having suddenly moved from sitting down to standing up, but rightened himself pretty quickly. He looked around, blinking, and Tommy couldn't help but stare at him, frozen. 

And then Toby saw Tom. Tom stared back. Before either of them knew it, they had run together and wrapped each other up in a hug. Tom reached up and felt his hands run through the other's hair, no horns to stop it this time. He cried.

"You're ok," Toby whispered. "You're ok, you're here, you're actually-- Like, it's different when you see it yourself, you know? It's different, you're here, you're alive, you're ok."

"Yeah." Tom hugged him closer. "Yeah, I am."

Tom stepped back and let Will take a second to hug Tubbo as well. "It's good to see you, kid," he said. "Is everything good?"

"It's better now." Tubbo smiled, then turned to the other person in the room, who had been standing there in the corner, shifting his feet awkwardly. "And you must be Ranboo?"

"Uh." Ranboo chuckled in a way that quickly turned into nervous enderman noises. "I. Uh. Yeah. You're… you're human!"

Tubbo and Tommy both laughed. "Yeah!" The older boy said. "I am. And you're not. You're also very tall, it's insane."

Ranboo chuckled and rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. 

"Oh and Michael!" Toby crouched down. "Holy shit! Hi! You're very very cute, did you know that?"

Tom chuckled as Michael shuffled to hide behind his leg and Tubbo pouted. "Don't think he recognizes you without the horns, Big Man. Sorry."

Wilbur stepped forward. "Is there anything you need to tell us? I mean, not that I'm complaining about your visit, but--"

"Oh!" The boy stood up. "Yeah, I do, actually. Anyone have something to write down on? Dream got the coords for the book."

Tom gasped and Will's eyes widened. "Really?"

Ranboo was already going through his inventory. "Hold up, I can tear a page out of my journal or something."

"Oh you don't need to do that!" Toby said.

"It's fine, really." Ranboo finally found his memory journal, flipped to the last page and ripped it out. He put the book back into his inventory and took out a quill with a smile. "Got it."

Tubbo listed off the numbers and, even though they were being written down, Tom tried his best to commit them to memory. When he was done, Toby turned back to face him.

"I uh. I probably don't have much time left here." As if on que, he glitched.

Tom smiled sadly. "Yeah, I get it big man. You've got everyone else to get back to. But I'll be home before you know it, ok?"

Tubbo laughed. "I'm holding you to that!"

And then he glitched, and his character was back. He stumbled for a second, holding his horns, then looked up with wide eyes. "Coords!"

Ranboo held up the page. "Yeah, I got 'em."

"I put them on my hand too, just in case."

The four gathered around the table and double checked the numbers. Wilbur took the sheet for a second, looking down at it with furrowed eyebrows. He hummed. "How the fuck do we do coords?"

Tommy looked at Ranboo, a flash of their conversation from one of his first days here running through his mind, when the enderman explained different mechanics to him. "I think I might know, actually. Anyone have a debug tablet?"

Chapter Text

Both Sam and Tubbo had a debug tablet, apparently, as was discovered when Sam burst into Snowchester an hour or so later. However, both said that it might be better to use Sam's due to the fact that Tubbo's was shattered beyond most readability, a fact that Tommy teased him relentlessly for.

After packing a few stacks of supplies, they headed off that night, not wanting to waste much more time. Tom and Will took one boat, Ranboo and Tubbo another, while Sam took his own.

They rode their boats until the son rose and Tommy started to gripe. "Come on," he whined. "Can't we get out and stretch our legs for a bit? Walk along the shore? My arms are fuckin' tired."

"But then we could get off course," Ranboo said, and Tommy grumbled.

"Actually," Wilbur said, then looked up at the horizon before them. Sure enough, an island was starting to peek up beneath the rising sun. "If we stop over there, we'll be able to cut through some land and still keep straight. I think staying on the boats for that part would be slower, actually."

Tommy perked up behind him and Eill felt as the boat started moving faster. "Let's fuckin' go, then."

They made it to shore pretty quickly, right in the middle of a curved beach. Wilbur jumped off the boat and took the lead, walking forward confidently. As a result, he didn't realize a certain someone wasn't following.

"Uh… Tommy?" Tubbo said, making Wilbur turn around. Tom had taken about two steps off the boat before he froze, eyes fixed on one point to his left. "You alright?"

Tommy whimpered. Will followed his gaze and his eyes widened as he caught sight of what the boy was looking at. 

A one block wide tower stretching up into the sky. 

Will turned around hastily and clocked in their surroundings: the hole where Tnret used to stand right next to him (how he didn't notice it in the first place is a mystery to him), the ruins of Logstedshire off to the side, the huge murals propped up in the middle of the field. 

Shit. This wasn't good.

"Tommy? Tommy?!"

Will snapped back around to see Tom fully hyperventilating on the ground. Tubbo and Ranboo crouched worriedly beside him. Sam had a hand on Ranboo's shoulder, holding him back.

"Guys, don't crowd him," he said. "That won't do him any good. Tommy? Tommy, can you breathe with me?"

But Tommy couldn't, he just kept sobbing as he curled up into a tighter ball.

Will took a step forward. "Toms? Sam's right, you've gotta breathe, buddy--"

Tommy gasped in a breath, body jerking as he scrambled back. "Get away from me, get away from me!"

Wilbur froze. Why did you stop moving?! Show him who's in charge, he's not the one making decisions around here, we need to keep going as fast as we can-- "T- Tommy--"

Tommy winced and Will suddenly realized how harsh his words came out. Suddenly reeling, he forced his mind in the opposite direction and felt his voice raise and echo as he said, "It's fine, Toms, we're just on tour again! We'll be happy here, it- It's--"

Will threw his hands over his mouth and sobbed. Stop, please. "I'm- I'm sorry, fuck, I'm not-- It'll be just like old times, yeah? If Dream were here then we'd really have the- the gang-- Stop fucking crawling away from me, you little shit!"

Wilbur lunged forward, but before he got anywhere far, Sam stepped in between him and Tommy. Will ran into his sturdy form and fell down onto his back with a groan.

"Wilbur," Sam said, slow and steady. "I don't know what, exactly, is going on right now, but you need to stop."

Fuckin'-- Kill him, rush past, pull his legs out from under him, do something, you need to get to Tommy, you need to make him stop fucking crying, oh my god--

No, no, Sam's trying to help! You need to let him and Tubbo calm Tommy down, we can't help right now. Just get up and calm down. Take a deep breath. Get some blue.

Will did nothing. He just lay there, letting the voices in his head wear themselves out.

Sam sighed and walked away. The sounds of Tommy's panic could still be heard. Will lifted himself up just enough to catch eyes with the boy. He looked broken.

And god, Will didn't want to see that look in his brother's eyes every again. Especially because of him.

"Tommy, mate." Will did his best to give a reassuring smile. He pulled away from the voices as much as he could (though they still yelled so loud) and sat up fully. "I'm not… I'm not that Wilbur, I'm not Alivebur. I'm not going to let him hurt you."

He ignored the roiling anger that flared up within him at the words. 

Tom sniffed. "I- I-- How can I trust you?"

"Remember when you came down to Brighton to visit? And we went to the pier and the arcade?"

"And I got my vlog gun and then you fuckin' broke it?" Tommy chuckled weakly. "Yeah."

"What's Brighton?"

"Not now, Tubbo. But, Toms, I… I don't know where I'm going with this." Will looked away for just a second with a laugh, then looked back. "That was real, Toms. That was me, that was you. And it was fun, yeah? We had a lot of fun together, we have a lot of fun together, because that's what we do. You're my friend, you're my stupid little internet brother, and I love you for that. No matter what, with whatever's happening now, with these voices and everything, that's not going to change. I still care about you.  And I'm sorry, I'm so sorry this is happening and that sometimes I don't know who I am, that sometimes I'm this fucked up dude of my own creation. But at the end of the day, it's not real, ok?"

Tommy shook his head. "But it's in my head, man. That has to make it real in a way, yeah? And- and- Tubbo and Ranboo and fuckin' centaur Sam are all here, and they're real, yeah? And the egg and Dream and everyone-- They're not characters anymore. I'm not a character anymore, Wilbur."

"I don't…" Will sighed. Wilbur sighed. "I don't know. But, well. We'll figure out a way to get it out, yeah? We'll figure out a way to undo this. That I do know." Will stepped forward and held out a hand. When Tom took it and let himself be helped up, Will released a breath he didn't even know he was holding. "I promise."

Will tucked his little brother, his best friend, under his arm, Will's cloak wrapping around the both of them, and guided them all through the plains as fast as his legs could carry him.

By the time they were in the bordering tundra, Tom had pulled away to talk to Sam. Will ignored the metaphorical punch to his gut and marched on. 

But he didn't get to wallow in his pity for too long before Ranboo came over and pulled him back so they were behind the other three. There was silence for a second before the teen tentatively said, "Hey, uh. About what you said back there…"

"Which part?" Every part made him sick to his stomach, so he braced himself. 

"About this world not being real. What exactly did you mean?"

Will stopped walking. I can't tell him the truth, it'd destroy him. 

Good. Destroy him, do it.

He deserves to know! He's helping us, and I- I know it's hard but he need to understand. Besides, I'm bad at keeping secrets.

"Because, like," Ranboo stammered when Wilbur said nothing. "I know what you told us back at Snowchester on your first day, how you're from this world where all of this is, like, a story or whatever. But I mean, I--" Ranboo paused, nervously fiddling with his hands. Then he turned and looked at Will exactly. "You left something out, I can tell."

Will sighed. He looked forward to make sure the others couldn't hear; they were a good few dozen meters away, they probably wouldn't hear unless he yelled. "Yeah," he finally admitted. "Yeah, I did."

"Oh. What?"

"You, you promise you won't tell anyone about this, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah I promise." The teen nodded vigorously. "I can write it in my journal though, right?"

"Yeah, of course, kid." Wilbur started walking, slow enough that the others would stay ahead. "It's a bit of a long story though."

And he told as much as he could. How Dream started the server for his friends from manhunt, then Tommy joined and started doing stuff that made some sort of a storyline, with the disks and everything. And then he, Wilbur, joined, and they made their bit about making drugs in the van and ran with it, and started L'manburg, and somehow made an engaging plot out of a few handfuls of stupid jokes. And then the election came and they started to script and plan everything, and more people came both to the server and to the streams, and everything blew up but they were still having fun, they were all still friends, everything was still mostly held together with bulleted sentence fragments in the ideas channel of their discord server and a few more handfuls of jokes and--

Will was crying. He didn't know when he started.

Weak. 

Too bad we don't have blue to soak it up.

No, he… He deserves this. He hasn't let himself cry over this yet. God, he really needs to cry over this, huh?

He felt the unsure hand of Ranboo on his back. "Hey, hey, dude, it's…it's ok, it'll be ok."

Will sniffed. It wasn't. He stopped, turned, and reached out to grab Ranboo's hands as he looked up at him, caught the wavering comfort in his gaze, caught the way his comprehension of the world had just been shattered. Will squeezed his hands, the green stains on his own palms tingling at the pressure. "No matter what happens, Ranboo, I will make sure you have a happy ending. I will make sure that everyone gets a happy ending. I promise."

Ranboo nodded slowly. "...I trust you. I think."

Will chuckled weakly, then nodded and wiped his eyes. "Ok." He looked over at Tom, still leaning on Sam for support, Tubbo on his other side. "Thank you."

They finally made it to the coords location. After a full day and a half of traveling, they finally made it.

It actually was a desert temple, in the end. It was right on the border of the biome, across the river from a dense jungle. An abandoned village was a couple dozen blocks away, and the group poked around it just in case. They found nothing of importance, though Will did finally take a piece of armor. (And then immediately discarded it because "it's the fuckin' desert, mate, you expect me to have this giant hunk of metal on my body the whole time?")

Tubbo went down first, water bucketing down and leaving the water there as he mined out the pressure plate. Tom hesitantly followed, then Sam and Will, who was surprised at the water's ability to truly made the impact not hurt at all. Ranboo stayed at the top, not wanting to get wet. 

Tommy opened the first chest. Sitting right on the very top was a book. It was bound, a strap of leather wrapped around it tightly, and was worn down with time. He gingerly took it out and, after only a moment of hesitation, handed it to Will.

Wilbur opened the book, cleared his throat, and began to read. 

"'How to revive the dead! A book by…' hmm. The name's scratched out. Anyways." He glanced up to see everyone watching him expectantly. "'Step one! Just don't die. Fucking idiot. 

"'Step two: If you do manage to die, just hold a totem. It's really not that hard.'" He huffed out a laugh, and the others chuckled with him.

"'Step three: If you do find yourself dying without a totem, tough luck! Not much you can do about it now. Your fault for being a fucking idiot.'"

"Oh my god," Tommy groaned. "Is this all it is?"

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there, be patient. 'Step four: If someone else you know died without a totem, you have slightly less tough luck because now you can actually do something out it.' Here it is, yeah. 'Repeat these words and replace the blanks with the name of the person who you wish to revive.' Uhh. And then the rest is like two full pages of ender, I don't know how to read this."

Tubbo took the book, looking it over. "Hmm. I mean…" He looked up. "Oi Ranboo! Can you read this, do you know?"

Ranboo squinted. "Uh…"

"Oh my god." Tom rolled his eyes. "Just pick the water bucket up, he has good armor, yeah?"

Tubbo did just that, and Ranboo jumped down. Sam held out his arm when he wobbled and the enderman took it gratefully. 

He took the book and squinted at it again. "I… hmm. I technically can, but… I don't know if I'd understand it, you know? And we need someone who can work the spell around and get what you guys need."

Tommy chuckled. "If we had a god or someone that'd be great, wouldn'it?"

Will paused for a second, thinking. Technically, there was a god on the server still, if he wasn't mistaken. A totem god. And that's pretty much exactly what they needed. "What about Foolish?"

Chapter Text

They headed straight back to Snowchester as fast as they could, only stopping to rest once, eating as they went. Tom swears he was dead on his feet by the time they made it back to the snowy biome, the mansion in sight just ahead. 

Tubbo took the lead this time, bringing them all to the mansion, where Foolish stood working on the front exterior. The ground shook as he stepped around, and the other were forced to scatter as he almost hit them. 

"Hey big guy!" Tubbo called up. "I've got a favor to ask you!"

Foolish turned to face the group, then smiled and crouched down. He was intimidating up close; his totem face looked like it was carved out of the gold on his face, though it comes as he spoke, and the sharp teeth of his shark hood were nearly the size of Tom's whole body. The boy took a step back.

"Oh, hello Tubbo, Ranboo. And Sam! Oh goodness we're really having a party now. I'm… I'm not going to get any work done today. Am I? Jesus--" He stopped his muttering as his bright green eyes landed on the other teen. "Tommy? I was told you were dead?"

Tommy chuckled. "Well that's the thing, innit?"

"Yeah. That's the thing. …What happened?"

Will stepped forward then, bringing out the book. "It's a long story, really, but, uh. To put it simply, Dream revived us. With this."

Foolish took the book, skimmed through the first few pages, and paused. Then he looked up at the group. Then down at the book. Then up at them. Then down, then up.

"Where did you get this?"

"Uh," Wilbur eloquently said. "Long story?"

"You seem to be full of them."

Will chuckled. "Yeah, I guess I am."

And then Wilbur started to explain. From the botched resurrection to the fact that they needed someone to rework the spell. Tom butted in to talk about the voices, a bit, which made Will go oddly quiet. Foolish nodded along, reading the spell as they talked. 

"Ok," Foolish started, "Based on what you guys have told me and by cross-referencing the original spell with the chants I heard when the glitching happened, I think that, technically, the revival did work. It just also happened to pull you guys from your world into it. Your minds and the minds of the Wilbur and Tommy from the 'Minecraft', as you call it, world, have melded together into the same mind and body."

Tommy's face squished up. "Can you reverse that?"

"Well, I'd need both bodies." Foolish paused. "I think. It depends on a lot of things that I don't quite know yet. There's a chance that when the revival happened, your bodies physically combined, but… I don't know. I don't know. Especially with you, Wilbur… based on what I know about you, you seem to be in a different body entirely. If I tried to take the other Wilbur out of you, I don't know what, exactly, would happen."

Wilbur thought. "What about Ghostbur? He's in here, too, can you not just get him out and let him be a ghost again?"

"Yeah, but there's the chance that I could make you the Ghost and keep Ghostbur in that body. Or make both of you half you and half Ghostbur. Or… something else, I don't know."

"It's worth a try though, innit?" Tom asked.

"I-- Well. I'm not that good with ghosts, you know." Foolish chuckled.

"Aren't you a god of life or some shit?"

"Yeah, exactly, god of life. This isn't my area of expertise."

"But you're the only one we've got," Will said. "So please. At least try."

"There's no 'try' with something like this. Either it'll work or it won't."

"Then make it work! It's that easy."

"Ok, well," Foolish sighed, then looked away, thinking. He looked the book over one last time. "I'll need another couple days or so to get the spell reworked the way you guys need it. Is that ok?"

Wilbur started to speak but Tom butted in right as he opened his mouth. "Whatever will get us home."

Foolish nodded, and Will and Tom walked back to the inn, exhausted. The boy collapsed into his bed and passed out immediately.

Their last couple days in the server were largely uneventful, thankfully. Tom refused to go anywhere infected with vines unsupervised now (not that he admitted to wanting the help), causing Will to be by his side most days. Bad was easily scared off with a dramatic axe flare, which both scared and relieved Tommy. 

The two vlogged with Will's phone until it died, then continued to take pictures with his shitty little Polaroid. Tommy insisted that they get as many landmarks and people as they could, to which Wilbur begrudgingly agreed. 

Tommy even built a new, albeit small, cobblestone tower in front of Eret's castle, though he had to leave it unfinished when Eret herself actually showed up. That was a conversation he didn't want to have just then. So instead, he ran breathless through the SMP, letting the wind rush through his hair as he triple checked behind himself to make sure that Eret didn't see him. (They didn't, and was instead looking over the new tower in visible confusion. Tommy laughed.)

It was nice, Tom thought. And the voice in his head was silent for once. Whether that meant they were closer or farther apart the boy didn't know, but what he did know was that he was glad it was gone, for now. And sure, he got angrier than he used to, and sure, he kept having thoughts around lava and high towers that he… didn't want to think about right now -- he'd talk to Puffy or Will or someone about it later -- and sure, he kept having panic attacks about stuff that he already knew about because he fucking wrote that and why is he panicking this is so fucking stupid--

But he was fine. This was nice. 

When they went back to Foolish that fateful morning, Will donned his sweaters, both Phil's and his own despite how warm the spring sun was (Puffy had helped him wash them the day before), and Tom found yet another red and white shirt to wear, somehow. There was always a new one in his inventory every morning, and whenever he took the last one off, it would disappear somewhere. (Perks of having a constant wardrobe, he supposed with a shrug. Bigger fish to fry than to worry about it, honestly.)

They said their goodbyes to everyone they needed to and left, Tubbo, Ranboo, and Philza the only ones to come with them. 

"I want to see you off," Philza said. "Not just Wilbur, but you as well, Tommy. I've… realized some things. I need to say goodbye."

Some part of Tommy felt wrong; Philza was supposed to care about Wilbur and Techno and that's it. He wasn't part of that equation.

But Tom saw the hurt in his eyes, the way he seemed like he felt truly sorry. He saw the way Will pat the man's shoulder with a soft "thank you", and Tom understood.

They made it to Foolish's base by that afternoon. The heard the giant approach far before he actually arrived at the doorstep, and when he saw them he grinned. Crouching down, he looked each member of the group down one by one. It was intimidating, as always; he had the dark, full-color, glossy eyes of a shark, but instead of black, they were a brilliant green. His golden skin glinted in the afternoon sun. "Ready?"

Will, who held Tom's hand, squeezed it reassuringly. "As we'll ever be."

Foolish nodded. "I have a couple supplies to get, but it should all be good to go pretty soon. You two come on inside, everyone else can wait out here."

Tommy looked back at Tubbo and Ranboo one last time with a smile before following Foolish in. They were in a large central room, all the furniture scattered around clearly made for someone of Foolish's size, even the furnaces and crafting table.

Tommy watched the giant go as he slid down a wall to sit. "What if it doesn't work?" 

Then you're stuck with me, I guess. It's one of the worst things in the world, I get it. Hopefully we'll get to blow a few more things up before we go.  

And oh great, the fuckin' voice was back. 

Wilbur hummed. "It will."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I can't. But… I don't know what I'd do if I had to continue like this."

Tom was silent for a beat. "Yeah. Yeah, I get that."

Chapter Text

Tommy scrambled to his feet when Foolish came back a few minutes later, holding a couple of potions. They shimmered, but not like a normal potion -- the glass itself seemed to glow with some unknown power.

"Ok, there's two parts to the separation spell. Part one: drink these." He put one in each of their hands, and Tommy drank his right away. Wilbur held onto his for just a moment, watching to see what Tom would do.

The boy looked up from downing the whole thing in one breath with a gasp. "Ready whenever you are, big man!"

"Ok. I'm pretty confident this'll work. But again, it… might be a bit scuffed." Foolish got down on his knees so that he was at least somewhat on the same level as the two of them. He started to mutter under his breath, and after a few seconds, his pointer finger started to glow blue. He lifted it up, touched Tom's forehead, and--

Will saw as the boy's body flickered, doubled, then two versions on himself fell to the ground. One was covered in bandages and wore the same red and white shirt Tommy had been wearing this whole time. His hair was shaggy, longer than Will had ever seen it, bits of dirt and specks of blood matted in there. He had more bandages than Tommy had before, with large white scars running over his arms and face that weren't there a second ago. (He looked so young despite it all, and it hurt Will and Ghostbur's hearts to think about.) The other wore a simple dark green shirt and sweatpants, the same thing Tom was wearing the day he disappeared. The armor they were wearing was split between the two of them, with Tom, the streamer, getting the leggings and sword attached to them, and Tommy, the character, getting the chestplate and boots. Both of their bodies were still covered in red from the egg, and their inventory spread out around them in a wide circle.

Tom sat up first with a groan, but stopped when he made eye contact with Wilbur. "Will?" The boy said, then laughed. "Will! Wilbur, it worked, my head's finally fuckin' quiet again, I can sleep again, oh thank God--"

He was cut off as the other boy sat up. The two looked at each other. 

"Oh," the scrappier one said. "That was, uh, not very poggers. That whole thing."

The two stared at each other, mirror images of one another, until Tom broke out into a laugh. Tommy slowly started to chuckle with him, until they were both in stitches. 

Wilbur smiled. He looked down at the potion in his hand, then unquarked it and drank it as fast as he could. It was bitter, leaving a burning feeling in the back of his throat. He took a deep, steadying breath and turned back to the giant. "Ok, ready."

Foolish put his hand up, and his finger touched Wilbur's- Will's- Ghostbur's- no, fuck, wait-- The finger touched his forehead and for a split second his mind was blank. 

And then all at once he came rushing back into himself and he stumbled back with a gasp. He heard twin gasps beside him, echoing in his own mind, and he looked over to see two ghosts. 

One wore a yellow sweater that covered his hands. He floated a few inches above the ground, and he was spinning around as he took the enormous room in with wonder. His wings were a light gray and they spread out wide as he spun. The other wore a floor length trench coat with the L'manburg flag sewn into its sleeve. His dark brown wings were pulled in close to himself. At first glance, he didn't look like he was floating, but it was plain to see the way his feet faded out towards the floor. 

They both had the same gray, translucent skin. They both had the same stark white eyes. They both had the same bloody wound in the middle of their chests, both a startlingly sharp blue, and Will couldn't help but put his hand up to feel the spot on his own body.

They looked up at him, and Will looked back. He stood there in his own colorful sweater and his floor-length cloak, feet planted firmly on the ground somewhere in between the two. "Hello."

Alivebur and Ghostbur spoke at the same time, words overlapping. 

"Hi!"

"I fucking hate you."

Alivebur turned to Ghostbur and glared. From behind Will, Tom snorted. "Wow, you're really fuckin' immature, aren't you?"

Alivebur scoffed. "Says you."

"Yeah! Says me!"

Tommy stood up beside his counterpart with a shaky smile. "Yeah, if we say you're annoying, then you're really doing something wrong, eh?"

"Eh? Eh?"

The two Tommys continued, echoing off each other, and Alivebur slammed his hands over his ears. "Oh my god shut up, will you? Fuckin' christ."

Tommy stopped immediately, eyes wide, and Tom moved to stand in front of him, sword already drawn. "Why don't you shut up, huh? Go back to hell, fuckface. Didn't you say you liked it?"

"I mean, I did like it down there," Alivebur said. "I didn't lie to you."

"Yeah, but could you go back on your own?" Tommy asked. "Or would we have to kill you again? Because I- I'll do it! I fucking fight you!"

Alivebur laughed. "Of course you will."

Will sighed. "Ok but seriously, mate. Go back to hell. I've had enough of your bullshit."

"Yeah, you get to go back to your competitive solitaire or whatever the fuck." Tom laughed, but stopped when Tommy sucked in a gasping breath. "Oh shit, should I not have said that? That probably, like, triggered something, I should have known I've been living with it for the past couple fucking weeks now, fuck--"

Will tuned out Tom's frantic muttering over his character and turned back to Alivebur. "Ok but seriously. This world doesn't need you anymore. You were right, you know, down in the afterlife -- all you do is make this server hurt."

At the words, Will could feel the searing pain that came along with the jab. It was almost as if he had said it to himself, as if some part of Alivebur's brain was still in there with him. Maybe it was.

The ghost didn't look much better himself. He was impossible to read, but Wilbur could tell he was mulling over the decision he had to make. 

Will thought harder, going down to the depths of his mind where he felt the pain from. There were two presences there, one dark and one bright. He moved closer to the darker one and he could feel the essence of Alivebur grow stronger, could see Alivebur's eyes widen and his feathers raise as he felt it as well. 

"Stop that."  

The words echoed around in his mind, and out of the corner of his eye, Will could see Ghostbur react, too. He retreated. "Sorry."

Suddenly, Wilbur heard a shout from behind him. He whipped around to see the two Tommys facing each other, gripping each other's forearms. Where their arms touched there was a cloud of glitches, and Tom looked down at it in fear and awe. 

"Uh… Big Man?" Tommy asked with a nervous laugh. "Bit of help here? Maybe?"

Ghostbur floated closer. "Oh no, are you two stuck?"

Tom laughed. "UhhHH."

"See, this is what I meant by 'scuffed,'" Foolish said.

"Can you let go?" Ghostbur asked. 

"You think we haven't already tried?" Tommy snapped.

Will stepped in. "Maybe… maybe get closer?"

Tom looked at him skeptically.

"In your mind, maybe. I don't fucking know, man."

Tom immediately shut his eyes at the suggestion, his character following soon after. The glitching grew, pixels coming up and covering the rest of their bodies in the cloud, until--

One Tommy stood in their place. He was the one from before the separation, somewhere in between the both of them physically, now back to wearing the full armor set again. 

"Huh," He said. "I-- Nope, nope, I want out, want out, I just got my body back I'm not--"

And then he glitched again and there were two, now standing in the other's spot. Tommy, the character, let go first before he started to pace with his hands in his hair. Tom just looked at his arm and blinked.

Ghostbur and Wilbur looked at each other, parallel expressions of surprise on their faces. "Oh--!"

Tom looked at his counterpart. "Wait, Tommy -- that's fuckin' weird to say, innit -- I wanna try that again. If you. If you're up for it."

"I-- Fine. Ok."

They both closed their eyes and, after several seconds of glitching, became one again somewhere in the middle without even having touched. Then they glitched and separated, once again having switched spots. 

"That's so fucking pog," Tom said, then laughed.

Tommy smiled and held his forehead. "Not too much though, your thoughts are shit."

"Your thoughts are shit, asshole--"

"You made me, how am I the asshole--?"

Will felt a presence float up beside him, its ghostly form sending shivers through his arm as it stood beside him. He looked over; It was Alivebur again. 

"Still haven't gone to hell yet? The Tommys meant it when they said they'd fight you. And I'll back them up, to be honest."

"About to." Alivebur hummed. "Wanted to… say goodbye, I guess. But I don't think either of them want to see me."

Wilbur felt the part of Alivebur in his mind send out waves of emotion. He was… angry, in a sense, but also knew that what was happening was justified. Maybe angry at himself. And sad, overwhelmingly sad. Will was lucky he didn't have to feel the full thing anymore. (But that was selfish.)

Alivebur descended into hell and Will felt a part of himself go down with him. Ghostbur floated close, settling on the ground for the first time. 

"I never liked him anyways."

Will just hummed. 

"Ok, well," Foolish said, "Now that that part's over, I'm ready to do the spell to send you guys back. You should go say your goodbyes." 

They all stepped outside, where Tubbo and Ranboo were still waiting. Tubbo looked up as Tom came out and smiled. "Hey! How's the spell go--"

And then he saw Tommy. Both boys' eyes widened and Tommy ran up and pulled his best friend into a hug. Will watched as Tom followed, an unsure look on his face, before Tubbo turned and pulled the other boy into the hug as well.

Will walked up to the group, putting his hand on Tom's shoulder, just in time to hear their conversation.

"We, uh, we got something for you, actually." Ranboo smiled. "To remember us by when you go back.

Tom was handed a large sack of cloth with a red patch sewed into the bottom. Looking at it, Will realized it was the bandana Tubbo wore around his wrist that matched the green one Tommy wore. Tom opened it; inside was a stack of ender pearls, several dozen pressed flowers, an enchanted compass (by the looks of it, it probably pointed to somewhere in Snowchester), and a copy of Cat. 

Tom looked up at the two of them and smiled. "Thank you. I'll… I'll treasure it."

Tommy fake gagged in the background. "Ew, catch me with that clingy shit."

Tubbo laughed. "Oh shut up!"

Wilbur laughed and walked over to Philza, Ghostbur trailing behind him. Phil looked them both over. "So."

"So."

Ghostbur just smiled. Will sighed. "Alivebur went back to hell."

"Did he now?" Phil raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"No, I… I get it. I think he's better off there, anyways. You've helped, you know that? A lot. I've needed to let go. You let me do that."

There was a best of silence before Wilbur spoke. "He's still in my head, you know. Definitely not as much, but still there. There's a bit in Ghostbur, too, I think."

Ghostbur tilted his head. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I feel him." He shuddered, feathers flaring up for just a second. "I never liked him very much. I still don't."

"Well I did write him to be the bad guy." Will chuckled. 

Philza stared at Will for a second more, and the younger man shrunk under his gaze. He felt like a lab rat, analyzed for the betterment of others. And then Philza sighed and wrapped him up in a hug. 

Will didn't know what to do for a second. Then Phil squeezed tighter and Will couldn't help but hug back. 

"You're not my son," Philza said. "But I will miss you, little bird." He pulled back and there were tears in his eyes. "Try not to give your me a heart attack when you get home, alright? If I know myself, you probably will."

Wilbur laughed. "Of course, Philza Minecraft. I'll miss you, too." He turned and called out, "Tom!" The boy looked up from where he was still talking with the other three teens. "It's time to go, come on."

Tom looked back at the other boys with a bright grin one last time before jogging up next to Will. "I'm ready."

Will looked at the pouch clutched tightly in Tom's hand, then ran his finger over the axe on his hip and the carved bird in his pocket. "Good. So am I."

They went back in and stood in front of Foolish. "Let's go," Will said.

The giant nodded, then started muttering under his breath. The words, when Will caught them, were familiar from the first chant. Foolish started to glow, light pouring from his mouth and eyes. Wilbur could hear erratic glitching behind him. The giant looked at Will and Tom, and--

And--

Wilbur fell down, threw up, and promptly passed out.

Chapter Text

Wilbur appeared in Philza Minecraft's living room, and the first thing he did was throw up on the nice carpet before promptly passing out. Luckily for him, a very fast-thinking Kristen was there and stopped him from falling into his fresh puke. 

Technoblade was sitting right next to her, which, unluckily for him, meant that Wilbur threw up on his shoes. He is ashamed to say he screamed.

Phil came running from the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about, and froze at the sight of Will unconscious on the couch.

"Don't just stand there!" Techno yelled. "We gotta do something, at least!"

Phil ran over and put his hand to Will's forehead, pushing his hair up. The other man squinted at the touch, then his eyes blinked open. 

"Philz' Mincraf'?" Wilbur rubbed his hand on his forehead and blinked. 

Will blinked again, finally taking in the room. "It… it worked! Wait- Philza Minecraft? What are you doing here?"

Everyone else looked over at Phil, who was standing there with his blond hair, bucket hat, and broken wings. He looked down at his hands. "Wh—"

And then he glitched and he was back to normal again. 

"Yeah… about that," Kristen said. "Right before Wilbur appeared, you guys glitched. Like what you said happened a few days ago."

"That's- wait…"

Will gasped. "The barrier! The- it was thinning out—" And then he glitched, and for a second he was a ghost again. Before quickly coming back. He looked around, taking a shaky breath as he ran a hand through his hair. "Well. This complicates things."

Meanwhile, Tommy appeared in his streaming chair in his own room, and had much the same fate as Will, throwing-up-and-passing-out-wise at least. Though nobody was there to catch him, he was smart enough to lean over the chair to do it so as to not get any bile on himself. 

When he came to, he groaned, wrinkling his nose at the smell of his own vomit. Fucking gross. He blinked, taking a second to take in the room around him. The squishy armrests of the chair, the computer monitors in front of him, the bed and cabinets behind… 

When it finally hit him, he gasped. He was home.

He stumbled out of his chair and out the room, not caring about the racket he was making as he slammed the door open and thundered down the stairs. He burst into the living room, eyes wide.

His parents turned to face him. His mom gasped. "Tommy?"

"Mum!"

Tom ran forward into his parents arms. He felt tears run down his face and bleed into his father's shirt as he buried his face into his chest. 

He was home. 

His mom leaned back from their hug, holding his head and looking him in the eyes. "Where were you?"

"I, uh." Tom chuckled. "I think I was in Minecraft?"

"...What?"

Tom hissed through his teeth. "Yeah, it, uh. It's hard to explain, but— Wait I can show you!"

He ran back up to his room and grabbed the sack, armor, and sword that he dropped when he appeared back in his chair. Stumbling down the stairs again, he unceremoniously shoved it all on the kitchen table. "The armor and shit I stole from myself, but Tubbo and Ranboo gave me the sack. Like, their character selves. This will make sense in a second, I swear!"

While he opened the sack, his father reached out slowly and took the sword, turning it over as he admired it. "Tom, this is…"

"Yeah." Tom laughed weakly, an ender pearl in hand. It was a little bigger than a marble, and he rolled it across his palm easily. "Yeah, I know." 

And then he threw the pearl. It broke against the far wall, exploding in a cloud of purple particles. Tommy appeared in the cloud, having teleported from one side of the room to the other. "Fuckin' tell me about it."

It took a few hours to get a call in order. They both had to clean themselves up a bit, and if Tom couldn't pull himself away from his parents for a long time, what's it to you? He can be clingy just this once. And Will found himself smothered by Phil and Kristen (and Techno, just a bit), questions and tears a near constant. 

And even then, it was barely even a call. It took Tom a while to even touch his phone, and when he finally did (ignoring all the missed texts and calls and twitter notifications), Will spoke quickly.

"We're on our way!"

Tommy paused. He hadn't even said anything yet. "What?"

"We're going to your place," Wilbur explained. "We wanted to make sure you were back in person."

"Oh, you- I mean, you didn't have to—"

Kristen's voice came through in the background. "Bit late for that, dear, we're already halfway there."

Tom sputtered and Wilbur laughed. "I- uh, Who else is there?"

"Well, me, of course," Will said. "Then Kris, Techno, and Phil. And we just picked Tubbo up." He chuckled. "Its getting a bit crowded but we'll make it work."

"Techno's there?!"

Techno chuckled near the phone. "In the flesh, man."

"There's some stuff we need to talk about," Will said. "And again, we want to see you. But we're getting close! So just sit tight for a bit, it won't be too long."

The call ended before Tom could get any more words out.

Wilbur and company arrived a little over an hour later. After hugs were exchanged, followed by a large one with the whole group, they all settled on the couch for the talk. Well, "settled" is putting it lightly — they were more along the lines of a large cuddle pile sprawled on and off the sofa. Phil stood to the side, talking softly to Tommy's parents, filling them on what had been going on before. 

"It's hard to believe, I know," He said. "And we should have been keeping you two up to date this whole time, I'm so sorry—"

"Don't worry about it," Tommy's mom said soothingly, rubbing a hand on Phil's shoulder. The man nodded. "Tommy's back, that's what matters."

"And I think after the whole ender pearl demonstration, we're a bit inclined to believe you," Tom's dad added with a chuckle. From the sofa, Tubbo gasped. 

"Tom!" Tubbo reached over and shoved the boy in question. "You have ender pearls?! In real fucking life— show me! Holy shit!"

Tom laughed and ran over to the kitchen to grab the sack and armor. Everyone spent the next several dozen minutes marveling over the items, and then Will remembered the figurine Philza had carved him and the axe he had left in the car which were both worth another half hour of marvelling. By the time they actually started talking about what they came to talk about, the sun had set, and they talked around plates of takeout Tommy's parents had ordered. (Phil and Kristen had offered, but the Simons insisted — the others were guests, after all.)

"So," Will started. "The barrier."

Tom choked on his food and took a good few seconds to cough it out. "Oh, yeah, shit, I hadn't even thought about that. Like- I— How thin is it now? Especially since we've fully crossed back over."

"Fully thinned out, basically," Will said. "Or at least that's my best guess."

Phil nodded. "But it's… different now. Hold on, let me—"

He tilted his head and closed his eyes, and in a flash, he was in his character form. Tommy's mom gasped from behind him. 

"Oh," Tommy gasped. "Philza Minecraft?"

"No, no, I—" Phil laughed. "I'm still me! That's the thing, I'm still me. I didn't switch places with my character or anything, I just… look like him, I guess."

"Which brings up a lot of questions," Techno added. "About what, exactly, it's doing to our bodies and long term effects and stuff like that." He smiled, then glitched, a hulking humanoid pig now taking up his place on the couch. "But you gotta admit, it's cool as hell."

Will laughed. "Of course you've gotta be a fuckin' nerd about it." He turned to Tommy and whispered dramatically, "He wouldn't stop glitching the entire car ride here. He was sitting next to me, it fucking itched and it was annoying as hell—" 

Techno cut him off with an indignant "hey!" as Tommy and Tubbo laughed. Phil smiled and sighed and shook his head fondly and glitched back to his human form.

"It's probably different with you two, though," Phil said. "Given… everything. Will explained more of how it ended on your end on the way over, and there might still be some lingering effects from that for you."

Tom hummed. "Can I still try?"

"I mean…" Will shrugged and sat up a bit. "Full steam ahead, man, don't let us stop you. I may as well try once, too, just to see what happens."

"Hell yeah!" Tubbo grinned. "Glitch pog."

Tom chuckled. "Fuck yeah, glitch pog!" 

Tom closed his eyes, concentrated, and…

And he was in two places at once. 

He waved his arms out, blinking rapidly — he was still on the couch, surrounded by his friends (who all now look on at him in concern, their mouths were moving but he couldn't hear them, he couldn't, he couldn't, fuck, fuck), but he was also sitting on his bench back on the SMP, watching the sunset, letting himself feel calm and alone for the first time in months.

Well I'm not fucking alone now, am I? Tommy snarked in his head, and Tom blinked, and—

And he was on the bench. The sun still set before him, and he jumped up, feeling down his own body. Shit, shit, he was back, he was back, he- he- he didn't want to be back, he thought this was all over—

He glitched again, back to two places at once. Then again, and he was back in the living room. Tom heaved in a breath. 

"Woah, mate mate mate, calm down, deep breaths." 

Phil was crouched in front of him, and Tom could see his parents hovering anxiously in the background, and he could feel everyone's hands on him and and and and — 

He stood up and pulled away, retreating to the other side of the room. Will looked on in concern. 

Will himself had tried to glitch into Ghostbur, and while it had worked, technically, it was also… off. Wrong. The little bit of Ghostbur that still lived in his mind grew tenfold as he took his form, and Will immediately pulled back from the connection with a gasp. 

And then Tommy showed up beside him. The character Tommy, with wide eyes and a small screech before he calmed down enough to look around wildly and go "who the fuck are you lot?" before glitching twice again and leaving Tom in his spot. 

"I just… wasn't prepared for that," Tom said after a second. He shakily sat down on the couch and curled into Wilbur's side. "It was like back with Foolish, where Tommy and I — still weird as shit to say, by the way — would switch places when we glitch. Guess it still works like that."

Tubbo nudged Tom's knee with his and offered him a small smile. Tom smiled back, grateful for the silent support. 

Another minute of silence passed before Kristen finally spoke. "You should probably tell the rest of the server. About Will and Tom being back, at the very least."

The others nodded, and Tommy went back upstairs to get his phone. 

Dream SMP 

> general-1

BIG MAN TOM

I lived, bitch

It took a while for things to get back to normal. The first discord call with Will and Tom back in the real world was mostly loud cheers and overlapping questions followed by an attempt at playing Jackbox by half the group while the rest looked on. It took a while to even begin to explain the whole "everyone can glitch now, actually, and it's basically just shapeshifting so go ham on it" (as Tubbo so wonderfully put it), which was promptly followed by everyone trying it out, whether on call or after the fact with some frankly hilarious pictures as proof. (Bad Boy Halo took a picture of himself in his character form in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night sporting a huge grin and a thumbs up, which Ranboo claimed was "nightmare fuel", kicking off a competition between the less humanoid characters of who could take the creepiest picture of themselves.)

Dream was one of the last ones to try, still nervous about letting his character self into the real world. When he did try, he said the ghostly, slimy form was "fun" and "makes Sapnap mad because I refuse to clean up the weird goo it drips sometimes, so I think it's a win-win."

"We should have a ghost get-together sometime," Wilbur suggested to him with a laugh one day. "Me, you, and Schlatt. Oh, and Quackity — he can turn into Mexican Dream, right? All of us get together one day and wreck some shit upon the populace."

Dream laughed. "I could make it my face reveal."

"Oh my god you totally could!"

Tommy got the footage he had recorded from Wilbur and edited it into a video. Even then, it took him a few weeks to upload it. 

"They're not gonna believe me."

Tubbo hummed on the other side of the call. "I think that's a given either way. The whole thing's kinda unbelievable. But, I mean, you have your pearls, and you and Will's weapons, and all the glitching from everyone and, you know, the actual fucking footage. If they don't believe us after all that, then I wouldn't bother."

So Tom did upload it. And deleted twitter for the day. 

"'Stop trying to be special by saying you WENT INTO MINECRAFT are you a fucking idiot?? Nobody's gonna believe you,'" Tom read out on stream a few days later. "Oh, man, I fucking wish it was fake, like — I did almost die, once. And the— my arms? Has nobody noticed my arms yet?" Tom held up the arms in question, showing off the red scars there. "It's from the fucking red vines, dipshit, Bad tried to kill me with 'em."

"I noticed the arms, Tommy," Ranboo said. "If that makes you feel any better." On the screen, his character crouched and nodded towards Tommy's. They still streamed on the SMP (it was fun, sue them), but the whole group was taking a break from lore for a while. It's hard to put your characters through hell and back once you realize they're real people, apparently.

"It does, Ranboo, thank you so much." Tom smiled. "Actually, wait, I know a great way to prove this whole thing."

"Wait." Ranboo realized what was happening a second too late. "Wait wait wait, Tom, we haven't seen what happens when you glitch while someone's on the server over here — Ah!" Clicking could be heard from his end. "The, uh, the server crashed."

"It can do that?" Tommy, the character, glared at the screen in front of him, staring down his icon, who was walking aimlessly. "I don't think it did on my end, my guy's still walking around. Also hi Ranboob."

"Hey."

"Is this really what it looks like on your end of things? It's so…  blocky." 

"I mean, that's half the game's appeal, honestly."

Tommy wiggled the mouse around for a second before his in-game self jerked to the side and ran over to a chest. Tommy put his hands up but Tom kept moving in game, taking a sign out and putting it on the wall. 

Stop moving my head jackass that hurts >:(

"Ah! Sorry."

Chat was going insane in the background, but Tommy didn't notice. "What's going on over there?" Ranboo asked. "I can't see anything, I can't get in at all."

"Tom's just running around and stealing shit — aw, hey, wait no stop I wanted those potions—!"

Tommy glitched once, twice, and Tom was back in his own seat, a triumphant grin on his face and two bottles of potions in his hands. "I got speed, bitches!"

Ranboo laughed. "Oh, hey, the server's back! I think if you glitch over there we can't enter, which makes sense."

"Ranboo did you hear me? I got speed. Enough for two!"

"Well it's really too bad I'm not over in England with you…"

"Oh stop that!" Tom laughed. "You're making chat go crazy again."

A few months after everything had settled down, Tom and Will sat on call together. Tom complained about his day at school and Will would give the best big brotherly advice as he ran song ideas by Tom as they both slowly fell asleep, just like they would before the whole fiasco.

"Hey Wilby?" Tom asked sometime after midnight.

"Hmm?"

"I'm glad we made it back home. You know that? I'm glad."

Will chuckled and plucked at a couple strings absently. "Yeah, me too, kid."

"I go to the server and see Ghostbur sometimes. He thinks you're pretty cool, did you know that?"

"I didn't, no." Will smiled fondly. "I think you're getting tired, though, and as your big brother it is my job to make sure you get a good night's sleep."

Tom groaned. "Yeah, and as your little brother, it's my job to tell you to shut the fuck up."

"Don't call me your brother, I will cry."

"You started it!" They both laughed, then Tommy continued, "Anyways, like I was saying… I miss you. That's all. But I'm glad we're back. I like how everything is now. It's different, but… it's nice. You know?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I know." They sat in silence for a little while longer. "Want me to sing you to sleep, Toms?"

"I'm not a child, you bitch." A pause. "But yeah, I would."

And so Will sang, and Tom slept. In the morning, Tom would glitch over to the server to grab some more enderpearls and get caught in a hoard of zombies, and Will would try and glitch into Alivebur for the first time, but for now… for now they sat peacefully. At home. Finally, finally home. 

Will heard snoring through his earbuds and smiled. "Goodnight, Toms."

He ended the call.