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The funeral was long over when he arrived. His form, though slumped with grief, was large and imposing. The piglin was oddly more terrifying this way, showing emotion for once. His eyes were shiny with unspilled tears, and his mouth was twisted into a grimace one could only form from immense sadness. Techno may have been violent, but this is never what he wanted for his baby brother.
He had made sure everyone else was long gone before he arrived at the graveyard. Techno had to keep up his persona of a cold, unfeeling warrior. The piglin didn’t feel emotion, according to anyone else you asked, other than Philza.
Slowly, he approached the freshly overturned dirt. He thought about turning around a few times, heading back to his home in the arctic. Techno didn’t do shows of sentimentality, but he thought he could make an exception just this once.
None of them had ever meant to let it get as far as it did. Exiling Tommy had been a necessary evil, the kid was a nuisance. Everyone thought he’d be gone for a few weeks, and come back humbled. They knew Dream was keeping an eye on him, so after a while visits seemed pointless. They’d see him soon enough anyway, right? Tommy was always getting into something, he couldn’t possibly be gone for long.
Crouching down, Techno held up a small crown in his hand, far too small to be his. In fact, it looked like something you’d give to a child. As he gently laid it on the grave, a single tear could be seen rolling down his cheek. And then another, and another. The usually silent, stoic man was crying. Tears fell from Techno’s face to the dirt below, watering the soil with his sadness.
Tommy had been pushed too far, too quickly. No one saw it coming. One day, he was gone from their minds, written off until his return. The next, he was gone altogether. Dream had found Tubbo, said he had urgent news he needed to share, a victorious expression on his face. Tommy had taken a step no one ever could have expected from him. A lava lake in the nether had called him, and he had answered. He was gone. There was nothing to bury, no body for people to grieve over. In the end, all that was left for his grave was a singed bandana, found carefully folded on a rock near where he had made his final choice.
Techno dried his eyes. He thought about a kid with two-toned hair. Someone he had been reluctant to trust, and allow into his life. He decided then and there he would never make the same mistake that he had made with Tommy ever again. Drying his eyes and standing, Techno turned to leave the graveyard. He looked back only once more before his exit.
“Goodbye, Theseus.”