Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Phil looked to his youngest son in confusion. All he had been trying to do was step out to feed Carl while Techno was getting his rare few hours of sleep when he found his youngest son, Tommy, gently petting one of the white foxes near the stairs, a distant look in the boy's normally bright eyes.

The boy looked...wrong. He remembered the few times he'd seen his boy as a child and before the wars and he'd never looked like...like this. The boy's once golden yellow hair that always made Techno jokingly go "gold crazy" as a child was now a dull yellow, nearly the same as his own, with a snow white streak mixed in.

The child's clothes that used to fit perfectly were now baggy and had quite a few tears and stains on it that Phil registered as blood. The sneakers that the boy wore looked like they'd disintegrate if walked on the wrong way. Looking to the boy's pointed ear he saw that the family earring, the one that he had given his boys long ago.

It was dull and the gem was crackled in several places. Long ago he'd put a spell on them to ensure he'd always know if his hatchlings needed his help or just needed him. Wilburs only had a few small cracks but it always glew brightly, nearly the same could be said for Techno but since he was always out on adventures with him Phil knew he wasn't getting hurt or such but Tommy...god how long has it been since he's seen the little sapphire glow or not even have a crack on it?

Looking the boy over once more he frowns when he sees a glowing book limply hanging from the boy's hand. Stepping closer he watched as his son flinched as he looked up at him, fear very much evident in his eyes and his face. When did he start doing that?

When Tommy saw who it was that he just let out a soft breath before standing up. "Hey Phil…" The teen spoke in a hoarse voice, evidence in a possible crying session.

"Hey mate." Phil greeted, trying to ignore his hybrid instincts that were telling him that something was very wrong with his fledgling. "You know you're not allowed here. Go back to L'Man-"

Phil quickly shut his mouth with an audible click. Right. Doomsday. "What do you want? Gapples? Potions? What?" He quickly asks.

Tommy suddenly looked hurt and it made Phils' heart squeeze. "I-I just…" Tommy began until the sound of the door opening made him turn away.

"What are you doing here Theseus?" Techno growled, venom dripping from his words.

"I-I was...forget it." Tommy sighed, crossing his skinny arms over his chest. "All I wanted was to ask a question but I have a huge feeling you two, of all people, wouldn't care."

With that Tommy turned away and started to walk towards Ranboos home, knowing the Endermen had just put in a portal. Maybe he'd find some food in there too, who knows? 

Tommy was so focused on leaving that he hadn't heard bones rattling from not too far away but he did feel the arrow enter his leg almost immediately. Looking down at the arrow he felt his heart drop when the damage finally registered. Screaming on the top of his lungs he tried to get it out of him only to receive more damage.

"NO! NO, NO, NO, N O,NO,NO,NO,NO,NO-!" He shouted, desperately trying to yank it out. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,I'm sorryI'msorryI'msorry-!"

Tommy felt his heart racing in his chest, he felt it in his ears and eyes, he knew he needed to calm down but when an arrow suddenly lodged itself into his gut he screamed louder. He hated taking damage, he hated it so much! He didn't want to die!

Yes you do

Tommy flinched. His eyes were wide and wild as he looked around him as another arrow lodged itself into his lower arm. He didn't see the new person that the voice must've belonged to but he did see that the Skeleton was mixed in with a bunch of dogs not too far away. Slowly backing up he was trying to think of what to do but when he saw that he was on three hearts he panicked.

Screaming he ran towards Techno, wanting his big brother to save him like he always did as a kid.

But he was always gone with Phil.

You didn't even know he was your brother until two days before the first war.

Tommy stopped and just stared at Techno, his head pounding. He knew the voice - now voice s apparently - were right. F-Fine! If he couldn't go to Techno then he might as well go to da-

He's not your father!

He left you every chance he got!

He hates you!

He never loved you like Wilbur did.

These two aren't your family.

They don't care!

If they did then why haven't they tried to help you yet?

Tommy slowly stopped moving, feeling blood flow down his limbs. "Wilby…" He whispers, closing his eyes.

He heard the arrow cutting through the air but he didn't move. His legs felt so heavy, his heart hurt so much...he just wanted it to stop. "...Dream was right." He spoke softly, suddenly feeling at peace.

 Covering his face with his hands he lets out a sob, knowing it was the last sound he'd ever make..

"TOMMY!"

Flinching Tommy turned to see Ranboo holding up a shield to protect them just as a 'thunk!' was heard. He heard the Skeleton getting killed but he couldn't see who was doing it since all he could see was Ranboo. "Why the hell didn't you two help him?!" Ranboo shouted at Techno and Phil. "Do you hate him that much that when he screams loud enough that Fundy and I could hear him freaking four hundred blocks away you don't even try helping?!"

Fundy? Where was…? "Tommy!"

Tommy turned to see his little brother nephew with worry in his dark brown eyes. "Oh god it's in your stomach." Fundy whispered before he carefully tried to pull it out.

Tommy noticed that half a heart was suddenly gone when Fundy moved the arrow. But for some reason he could care less about the damage, he only cared that his litt-...that his nephew was tearing up and shaking. Gently grabbing his wrist he gave a very forced smile when the younger looked up. 

"I'm ok bubba. I'm ok…" he whispered.

Fundy didn't look convinced as he looked at Tommy, his eyes searching. "I'm not going anywhere bubba, at least not from this. I promise." He whispers to the other teen. "If that mob had shot me again I would've just respawned...not entirely sure where since somebody stole my bed but I'd be fine. I still have one life left and Dream isn't taking this one."

This seemed to calm Fundy down a lot more than anything. "But I do need food. I'm down to four hunger marks." Tommy frowns.

"What?!" Fundy shouts in shock. "Why are you so low?! Don't you have food at home?!"

"No. Pretty sure Hbomb stole my food chest. I saw him walking out of my house a few hours ago and when I walked back in it was gone." He sighs.

"Food...chest? You don't have a fridge?" Fundy asks with a frown.

"I live in a dirt shack bubba. I don't have electricity." Tommy chuckles. "I keep my food in a chest buried in the ground to keep it cool, like back in the first war."

Fundy stared at his brother uncle in disbelief. "W-Wait. If that...Tommy do you have indoor plumbing?" Ranboo suddenly asks.

"Uh…" Tommy looked anywhere but Ranboo.

"Oh my god that's why you stink and I saw you break into the hotel." Ranboo frowns.

"Hey! I didn't break in! Sam Nook let me-!" Tommy wanted to continue yelling but a voice made him stop.

Stop shouting!

You're being annoying.

Just leave.

Go to the nether.

Do it.

Do it

Do it

Do iT

Do IT

DO IT!

"I JUST WANT TO SAY GOODBYE YOU FUCKS! CAN'T YOU GIVE ME A MOMENT OF PEACE PLEASE?!" Tommy shouts as he covers his ears.

Panting he crouched down and sat in a little ball for a second until he heard snow crunching under somebody's boots. He was trying so hard not to cry, Dream hated it when he cried. Sniffling he finally felt the biting cold air hit him all at once and he hated it. He wanted to be back in his real home with Wilby, playing Uno with Fundy while dinner was being cooked, he wanted to play blackjack with Schlatt like he had in the Afterlife, he wanted to hug Henry again, he wanted to meet his mother, he wanted Sam Nook to hug him as he cries and screams about all the unfairness he's faced into his cold and metallic chest, he...he needed to suck it up. He didn't deserve any of it.

Sniffling he slowly stood up, the arrows despawning from his body. Searching his inventory for something, anything to eat he sighs when he sees that he had a carrot on him. Taking it out he frowned when he saw how old it looked but he was close to starving. It wasn't much but I'd do for now. 

"Heh. My first final meal was a potato, now it's a carrot." He chuckled to himself before biting into the carrot.

The damn thing had no crunch, a thin layer of dirt covering it and probably a little bit of mold but that was ok. He was used to his food tasting this way. He went to walk away but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Looking up he saw the terrified look of his replacement Ranboo. 

"What do you mean final meal Tommy?" Ranboo spoke in a soft voice.

Tommy just gently took the Endermens hand off his shoulder and gave a sad smile. "Take care of Tubbo for me, ok? He deserves to be happy, no matter what he's done to me." He just simply said before pulling a Poppy out of his inventory for the other.

Ranboo froze at the sight of it, his heart stopping as he shakily took the flower. The flower had so many different meanings but in this instance he could only think of one of those meanings. Death. "T-Tommy please don't." He whispers.

"My family doesn't care Ranboo! My best friend replaced me, got married while I was suffering in jail, my brother wanted me to die just because I was being a kid and sticking with one of the only constants in my life while he was never there for anything but Tubbo was. I grew up thinking my nephew was my fucking brother for gods sake." Tommy sighs as he rubs his head, missing Technos slight flinch at the mention of him. "Hell, even my family loves you more than they ever loved me."

"My "dad" hated me and I don't even know why. He once hit me so hard just for asking him to stay, just so I could spend one birthday with him, that I couldn't chew on that side for a month, turns out he knocked a tooth loose but hey it's fine because the tooth fairy came but still!" Tommy wanted to yell more but he started to feel his body shaking so he knew his nerves were almost shot. "But that doesn't matter. I left directions to something in Church Prime I want everybody to see. Go there and you'll find things I managed to save."

With that Tommy crouched down and let his black wings shimmy out of his shirt, his wings hiding Phils suddenly pale face. Jumping up he flaps as hard as he could, barely getting four feet in the air but once he did he flew straight to where he'd built an extra portal, just in case something went wrong. He could hear shouting, he could hear pleas from his nephew and Ranboos' teleporting sounds but he never looked back. 

He had to do this, he had to.

======

"You want to...to visit him again?" Sam asks in almost a whisper. 

"You owe me for letting me die Sam. Send me over with the items in my inventory please." Tommy frowns, watching Sam.

"No." Was a simple and curt reply.

Tommy shrugged as he walked past Sam and straight to Pandora's Vault. "Tommy! Tommy stop!" Sam shouted as he quickly gave chase.

Tommy ran towards the Vault and pulled out a fire resistance potion. Chugging it he threw the bottle back and let it smash on Sam's mask, slowing the man slightly. When he made it to the lava wall he quickly hit the button he saw Sam hit before and ran to the wall. It was dropping but not fast enough.

Taking a breath he jumps into the lava and starts swimming. It took a bit longer than he wanted but he made it just as the lava was dropping one block higher than the crying obsidian so he just stepped right on to it. Panting he stumbles over to the barrier, leaning against it.

"What the hell…?"

Tommy looked up and saw Dream just watching him. He went to say something but Sam's voice cut him off. "TOMMY THESEUS MINECRAFT WATSON!" Sam shouted, his voice filled with anger.

Rolling his eyes Tommy crawled through the barrier but quickly got stuck due to his still very tired limbs. "Uh...a little help?" He asks quickly. "He just used my full FULL name."

Dream stood from his bed and grabbed the teen. He was so confused right now. Was Tommy breaking him out or was he coming here to kill him? "Why are you here Tommy?" Dream questioned.

"I have something for you. I didn't trust Sam to give it to you so I had to." Tommy replied.

Dream frowned behind his mask. What was going on?

He watches as Tommy pulls out a few things from his inventory, a little freaked out. But when he saw Tommy putting a painting up he quickly grew curious. He watched him put up a few more before placing down a scaffolding and placing a flower pot and putting a poppy into it. Next he placed down an anvil and pulled out a name tag.

"The cat I killed. What did you name it?" He asks over his shoulder.

"I...I hadn't named it yet. What's going on?" Dream tries to ask but when Tommy throws down a spawn egg and sees a cat he stops talking.

When he was thrown a half stack of fish he quickly fed the cat until he tamed it. Quickly scooping it up he hugged the animal. "How did you get that?!" He asks quickly.

"Found it in a chest in a village about….four thousand blocks away?" Tommy replies.

Dream watched the boy, not trusting him with his new cat. "Name?" Tommy questions.

"Patches." Dream frowns until the cat licks his hand.

Tommy turned with the name tag and gently hooked it to the red collar on the cat. But then he took out some lime colored dye and placed it against the collar, quickly turning it lime green. "Be good to him ok? He's a prick sometimes but I know he'll love you." Tommy spoke to the cat, gently scratching the cat under the chin.

"Tommy...are you...are you ok?" Dream asks softly, watching the way the boy shifted slightly.

"I-I'm just...so tired Dream. I can't take it anymore." Tommy whispered, tears dripping down his face. "I just want to be with Wilby again."

Dream wanted to keep Tommy with him, wanted to make him stay so he could make sure he wouldn't do what he knew he was gonna do but when he heard the angry hiss of Sam he knew he couldn't. So instead he pulled Tommy into a hug, trying to ignore the stinging in his eyes.

"I'm gonna miss you Toms." He spoke softly before the boy walked over to Sam with his head down.

"Bye Dream." Tommy whispers.

He walked on the bridge with Sam but ignored the man completely until they were on the other side. Rushing forward he looked up at the man who was shaking in rage. "Goodbye Sam. Thanks for trying to be a dad for me." Tommy says, not seeing the other person by the wall.

Sam felt his rage quiet down just a small bit as he looked down at Tommy, at the sad smile he was being given. "Tommy why did you-?!" Sam snarled until the boy quickly hugged him.

"I forgive you papa." He heard Tommy whisper before running off.

Sam was stuck there. He felt frozen and just...just...well he didn't know. "What was that about?"

Sam turned to look up at Bad before looking towards the doorway. "I...I don't know but...why does it feel like that's the last time I'll ever see him again?" He asks softly.

======

Jack growls as he walks back and forth on the cobblestone path above the bubbling lava that filled the nether. He had been left a sign asking him to meet somebody here but he had no idea who and now they were twenty minutes late! "Where are they?!" He shouts, startling a zombie piglin.

"I'm right here."

Jack turned and wanted to growl at the sight of Tommy. "You're not getting the hotel back Tommy." He states firmly.

"You can have it. Word is that you're running it into the ground anyway." Tommy replies. "Try charging less. People get pissy if they're forced to spend a lot of money for just one day."

Jack felt his jaw drop at that. How fucking dare he?! He went to snap at Tommy but when a poppy was held out to him he just stared at it. "Take the flower Jack." Tommy spoke softly.

Jack reached out and took the flower carefully, cautious as to what's happening. Looking around he tried to spot Sam Nook anywhere, ready to jump out and kill him but when he didn't see the robot he frowned and looked back at Tommy. "What's going on Tommy?" He asks, only now taking in the disheveled look that the other had.

His hair was matted with dried blood, dirt (most likely from his house), and it looks like it lost its shine. The boys' clothes were...well it looked like a miracle that they were still wearable. His normally bright eyes are dull and lost that mischievous glint and now just looked like it was a struggle not to cry. The boy looked like a shell of his former self.

Jack wanted to feel happy but he...he just couldn't. He remembered babysitting this kid growing up. He remembered how he clung to him during the war for independence, a war he was far too young to be fighting in. He remembered how Tommy had clung to him the first time he visited him in Exile, practically begging him to stay with him so he wouldn't be alone anymore.

He remembered the bruises he'd see everytime Phil came back home and the bruises that he'd seen when he visited Tommy after Dream came back from seeing him. God why was he remembering all this now?!

"I want you to kill me."

….come again?

"What…?" Jack asks softly, watching Tommy sit on the edge of the cobblestone path, legs dangling over.

"I want you to kill me Jack." Tommy sighed, looking at his hands. "Only two people told me that they would care if I died, Jack. Two. Wanna know who they were?"

Jack just numbly nodded, staring at Tommy. "Puffy and Quackity." Tommy replied. "Out of everybody on this server they were the only two people to care."

Jack felt his mouth go dry. He's been wanting to kill Tommy for so long and now? Now he just wants to take the kid to the hotel, make him a nice home cooked meal, some hot chocolate and never, never want to hear those words again.

"Will you do it?" Tommy asks softly.

"No! No, no, no way in hell!" Jack shouts, starting to hear yelling not too far away from them.

"THESEUS!" A voice shouted.

"Then will you stay with me?" Tommy asks as he pulls out a potion that Jack immediately knew as poison. "The voices won't leave me but I...I just don't want to die alone Jack. I'm scared of being alone."

Voices? "T-Tommy...how about we go ba-back to the hotel huh? Nook must have something f-for ya to do?" Jack asks softly, a shaky hand reaching out, wanting to take the potion and throw it into the lava below.

"TOMMY! TOMMY WHERE ARE YOU SON?!" Another voice yelled.

"They're getting closer, Jack." Tommy whispers. "Yes or no?"

"TOMMY IF YOU FUCKING DO ANYTHING I'LL WRING YOUR FUCKING NECK!" Another voice.

"¡TÓMAS VEN AQUÍ! ¡POR FAVOR! ¡NO HAGAS ESTO!" and another.

Jack didn't know what to do, he wanted to help Tommy to those that were calling for him while he also wanted to push Tommy into the lava. He just stayed there, quiet. That is until Tommy pulled out an Axe.

"The Axe of Peace…" Tommy whispered. "Return it to Techno would you? It's his after all..."

Jack quickly nodded and went to take the Axe but Tommy's small smile stopped him. "Thank you. I'm sorry you have to wash my blood off it first."

With that Tommy drank the poison and flashed red a few times before the teen slammed the blade of the axe into his own chest, the blade hitting his heart which killed him instantly. Jack watched in horror as the death message popped up in his chat box.

Tommyinnt was killed by Tommyinnt using [Axe of Peace]

Tommyinnts' cannon lives left: 0

Jack watched the blood flow out of Tommys chest, bubbling out from around the Axe blade and into the teens baseball tee as bile and his cookie from earlier rushed up his throat. "NOOOOO!"

Jack turned and saw Ghostbur with Friend, his face steaming and ghostly body trembling. He dove for Tommy but when he couldn't get a grip on the body he let out an anguished scream. 

Very soon after a group of people, all dressed in netherite, rushed over. "No…" Quackity whispers as he slowly sunk to the ground, his yellow wings hung low and twitched pathetically.

"Dad! Techno! Help! Please!" Ghostbur shouts as he flies over to the stock still Watson family.

Techno looked like he was ready to vomit while Phil...well Phil looked like he was about to jump into the lava. Both of their earrings shined for a moment before they both cracked to the point that none of them would have been surprised if they were going to shatter. "Tom...Tommy…" Phil whispers, shakily stepping forward but with his damaged wings hung so low to the ground he didn't get far.

He ended up falling to his knees beside Quackity, both of them had tears in their eyes as they looked upon the dead body of the 16 year old boy they had both promised to protect so long ago. Phil attempted to crawl over to his son but his body just gave up and made him land face first onto the hard netherack so he could let out his pain-filled scream into the hot rock.

"Techno! Techno you have to help him! Please! Please!" Ghostbur screams as he attempts to grip onto the man's red cape but his hands refuse to grip the garment and just go through it instead.

Techno stared, wide eyed at his brother, his Theseus. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to hold his brother tight, he wanted to apologize for everything, he wanted to listen to the boy sing along with Wilbur or just talk to him, talk about anything and everything just like they did when Tommy was little and Techno visited with Phil but he couldn't and he'd never get the opportunity to again.

"Th-There's nothing that can be done Ghostbur...he's...he's gone." Techno whispers, causing the ghost to let out a pained sob and fly back to his son baby brother.

Before Techno could even try to step forward he was being brushed past by Sapnap. The man's eyes were big and watery as he struggled to even bring himself to touch any part of the kid. "No... NO,NO,NO,NO,NO! " Sapnap screamed, falling to his knees, as his hands flew to his head where his fingers tangled in his own onyx black hair. "NOT AGAIN! NOT FUCKING AGAIN!"

In the back of the group Foolish and Punz just watched the sight. Neither of them knew how to feel. Foolish had started to see Tommy as a little brother after he'd started finding the teen leaving him some blocks of gold, his hands completely blistered and bleeding, and when he'd find Tommy either curled up around one of his cats or next to his cow pit, tear tracks had always been visible on the boys face whenever he'd find Tommy and he hated knowing that Tommy had most likely cried himself to sleep. But he barely knew the kid so he didn't feel like he had the right to mourn.

Punz...well Punz just didn't really care. He's seen plenty of death before, it came with the job. So what if his heart hurt a little from seeing the dead body of a child that took his own life? It came with the job! If he wanted to feel bad for not caring about death then he would've been a therapist for god sakes. Looking away he tried to ignore the sound of crying and the pleas for Tommy to open his eyes, to say something annoying. Even if he wanted the same thing.

======

Tubbo ran through the crowd of people that had begun to surround a nether portal. He couldn't be dead, he just couldn't be! Any second he'd hear somebody scolding Tommy for hiding from them, he'd hear Tommy yelling that he wasn't hiding, he'd hear something come from his best friend but when he made it up front and saw the body that Quackity was carrying on his back, shaky hands holding onto skinny ankles, he knew.

Tears began to flow down his face as he took small steps forward towards them when he heard Sam Nook and Sam rushing over. "MOVE!" Sam shouted.

"PLEASE MOVE! WE MUST GET TO YOUNG MASTER TOMMY!" Sam Nook shouted next.

The crowd made a path for the two Sam's, none of them having the heart to keep a father from their dead son.

Sam immediately took Tommy from Quackity, carefully as to not hurt the boy further. "Tommy! Tommy wake up! Come on bud! Wake up!" Sam shouts, his tears sliding down his face as he gently cradled his son. "Come on bud! Wake up! W-We can go find some cows! Remember? Hen-Henry the second? We were gonna build him a nice...a nice…"

Sam couldn't continue. He just broke into sobs when he finally saw the axe wound in the teens still chest. Screams, hisses and sobs were the only things that made it past the man's lips as he clung to the teen he thought of as his son, all four arms desperately holding him and praying to Ender that he'd hear Tommy ask him for waffles again.

Sam Nook watched on, not being able to understand. He'd been made to protect Tommy and those he sees as friends, to help him make his hotel, to ensure at least one smile of the teens face once a day. He was not made to grieve, cry or to understand death, so when he walked closer and gently took Tommy's pale, scarred hand he gave a relieved sigh.

"YOUNG MASTER TOMMY! YOU ARE SAFE!" Sam Nook smiled behind his cloth mask. "YOU GAVE US ALL QUITE THE SCARE! EVEN WARDEN SAM WAS WORRIED!"

Tommy was still, saying nothing.

"BUT NO MATTER! YOU ARE BACK AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS! NOW LET US BE OFF TO THE HOTEL!" Sam Nook gently tugged on Tommy's hand. "WE'LL GET YOU SOME NEW CLOTHES WHILE WE WASH THOSE ALRIGHT? YOU SEEM TO HAVE A RATHER LARGE STRAWBERRY JUICE STAIN ON YOUR SHIRT!"

Still nothing.

"MASTER TOMMY? ARE YOU UNWELL?" Sam Nook questioned. "MAYBE YOU ARE JUST HUNGRY! AFTER ALL YOU DID TELL ME THAT YOUR FOOD WAS TAKEN BY THOSE NASTY PILLAGERS! I'LL MAKE YOU A NICE HOT BOWL OF MUSHROOM STEW! HOW DOES THAT SOUND?"

Nobody missed the way Hbomb flinched at the mention of Tommys food being stolen. 

"MASTER TOMMY?" Nook asks as he gently shakes Tommy's shoulder.

The world was quiet beside the sobs that were coming from the real Sam and the sound of rain that started to fall around them all. "MASTER TOMMY…?" Nook was much more hesitant this time, his voice was much more desperate. 

"Sam Nook. That's enough."

Nook turned to see Warden standing behind him, holding his trident in a tight grip. "He's dead." Warden continued.

"DEAD?" Nook questioned.

"Dead means his organs are no longer working, his blood has stopped, he fell asleep and will never awaken again unless he comes back as a zombie or skeleton." Warden states as he helps Nook up. "Now come along. It's time for a quick recharge." 

Both robots started walking away as the rain came down heavily. When Nook looked back he saw the one named Puffy fall into the bad pink haired woman's arms, silent screams being ripped from her throat. But he also saw the man named Karl sneaking away, a book in hand.

He wanted to ask what was happening, why Tommy was "dead", why everybody was sad if Tommy was just sleeping but one look at his batteries he knew he didn't have time, least he wanted to shut down. Maybe he'll ask Tommy when he wakes up over a nice mug of cocoa and a bowl of stew. Yes! That's what he'll do! He'll wait for Tommy to wake up and ask him. 

Besides the teen has been through so much and barely gets sleep so this will be good for him! Smiling, he jogs a tiny bit to keep up with Warden, no longer bothered by the sobs and screams coming from behind him. He had to get home to recharge and make up Tommy's bedroom for him.

But unbeknownst to the group of crying people and robots there was a tall figure standing in the tree line, just watching with a small, broken soul shivering from the cold rain beside it. "Hm. Seems like those people really did care huh little one?" The figure asks the broken soul gently, placing it's hand above the poor thing to keep the rain off it.

The soul seemed to just shake as if to say no but the figure knew otherwise. With a smile the tall figure gently cupped the soul in it's large hands and started walking further into the trees. 

"Oh but dear, don't you think they deserve one more chance?" The figure spoke in an almost coo. "Come along little one, there's many preparations that need to be done first. Now which limbo is your brother in again? Ah yes! The train station."

In a small flash of white the figure and soul disappeared into nothing but a flock of crows and ravens.

Chapter Text

Four months have passed since the day Tommy killed himself, four months since the server made a shrine for Tommy which wasn't that far from Wilburs, four months since anybody could really smile, three months since Tubbo, Ranboo, Michael, Phil and Techno came to stay at the Big Innit Hotel while Phil and Tubbo receive treatment for a mysterious illness and two months since Ghostbur disappeared.

Nobody knows what Phil and Tubbo caught but Techno and Ranboo had to call for the servers' doctors, Puffy and Niki, for help when Phil suddenly starts coughing up blood and Tubbo vomits up black sludge many of times. 

Multiple days people can see Phil sitting between his son's grave markings, idly chatting with them like they would speak back to him. But somebody would always have to call Techno to pick up his father when the man refused to leave the sons he had abandoned so long ago.

Nobody knew what to do any more, between the grief of losing Tommy and seeing Phil and Tubbo slowly lose both their minds and lives. So they did nothing. That is until the day Jack came shouting that Tommy and Wilburs graves had been desecrated.

That day the whole server rushed to the sight of the graves and, indeed, the graves were destroyed. Wilburs banner was gone, as were the TNT, one of the brewing stands and the gold blocks and three of the lapis while the wool had still been on fire when they arrived.

Tommy's grave was half destroyed and the flowers that had been planted by Ranboo were picked and missing. Tommy's grave had been nearly the same as Wilburs but instead of a banner he had his disks in item frames in place, his favorite stuffed toy from a child that somebody found in Tommy's old dirt house would always sit under the disks on Tommys folded up baby blanket (that Fundy reluctantly gave up), a jukebox near where his head would've been if his body hadn't despawned, and the corners of his were all his favorite block with red and white wool going across the sides in a pattern that reminded everyone of the boys shirt.

But now the only things that remained were two pieces of cobblestone, two empty item frames and burning wool. Nothing else. No baby blanket, no stuffed toy, no disks, no jukebox. But there was a sign between the graves that read:

"Fuck all of you"

That day the server came together to help find who'd dare do this to the graves, all without seeing the figures watching them from on top of the Bee and Boo Hotel. One was tall and the other one was medium height and holding a smaller figure wrapped in a soft light blue blanket while they clutched onto a stuffed moth. So since nobody noticed these figures they also didn't notice when they lept off the building and made a mad dash for the remains of pogtopia.

======

Karl leaned against the stone walls of Pogtopia, shivering from the cold breeze that was let in from somewhere deep in the old place. He'd made a deal with somebody not too long ago, nearly four months, in order to right a wrong done by everyone on the server and now he just has to wait a bit longer.

"Hey!"

Karl jumped at the sudden squeaky voice that came from above him. Looking up he sees a head of golden hair peeking out from over the ledge of an old bridge. "Ah! No, no bubba! Get away from the ledge!" Another voice calls out before the head of gold is pulled out of Karls line of sight with a squeak.

"Hah! You fucking just sounded like a fox!" Another voice laughs.

Chuckling Karl moves away from the wall just as a bucket of water is dropped down. "Oh god!" Karl laughed when a tall man face planted into the water, slowly being pushed by it.

"You motherfucker!" The man yells as he pulls his face away from the water, now soaking wet.

"I would never!"

Karl laughs again as a teenager lands in the water holding a small child with golden hair. "How'd you land on your face?" The teen asked the man before he was tackled into the water that was slowly disappearing. "You fucker! I'm still holding Tommy!"

The man freezed and looked under him to see the child holding his breath with a very unimpressed look. "Oh god! Sorry kid!" The man quickly gets up and helps the teen up.

The child just crosses his arms and glares at the tall man. "Can I say it?" He asks.

"You may and thank you for asking." The teen smiles.

"Fuck you Schlatt." Tommy glares.

"Hey! I apologised you little fuck! That's a lot coming from me!" The tall man, Schlatt, growls before looking at the teen. "Wilbur control your gremlin!" 

Wilbur frowns and kicks Schlatt in the knee, making the man yelp and bounce around on one foot while rubbing his injured knee. "Don't call my baby a gremlin!" He shouts.

Yes dear reader you are reading right. These three are the deceased brought back to life for one purpose. A second chance.

But there was an…unfortunate side effect to the revival process. Those that the person revived were brought back to an age where their first trauma happened. So for Wilbur it was when he was 17 and walked in on his twin trying to kill Tommy, for Tommy it was when he was five years old when Phil first came back and smacked him with his wing and...and well Schlatt wasn't actually affected. Karl didn't know why but Schlatt had come back at the age he'd been before he died, the only one to not be affected.

"Did Mexican Dream already make it here?" Wilbur asks, ignoring the glares he was getting from the ram horned man.

"He did but he left. Said he needed to go do something before he was ready to face anybody here again." Karl spoke gently as he rushed forward to give the trio some towels he'd brought with him. "How do you three feel? An-Any uh…hold on."

Karl starts searching his pockets for a moment before finding it in his hoodies big pocket. Pulling out he unfolds the piece of paper and looks it over. "Any tremors, sudden chill, low grade fever, paranoia or...gas?" He frowns as he re-reads the word. "Yeah! Any gas?"

At that moment the child, Tommy, decided to let it rip with a cheeky grin. "Yes!" He giggled while the adults either laughed or gagged.

"Jesus kid!" Schlatt laughed. "What did you eat?!"

"Nothing yet." Tommy smiles while Wilbur puts him down on the ground.

"Oh god! We gotta check your shorts after that one!" Wilbur groans as he holds his nose. "Go play with Schlatt for a minute! I needa talk to Karl!"

"Can we talk like twenty feet away from this area?" Karl laughs as he covers his nose with his hoodie. "Smells worse than Sappys socks!"

Wilbur laughs as he and Karl walk a few feet away and towards a table that had been set up the night prior. "Wait! Don't leave me with the gassy kid!" Schlatt yells but is ultimately ignored. Groaning, he looks down at the kid who just looked up at Schlatt innocently with his blanket and stuffed moth in his arms. "Don't you dare fart near me again."

Tommy giggled and hid his face in his stuffed moth as the man crouched down to his level. "I mean it! You fart near me again I will throw you into the su-!" Schlatt went to continue yelling until Tommy gave him a gentle headbutt. He was frozen for a moment while the kid just laughed and ran off to play with the buttons that were all over the walls. "Wh-What just-OH YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

"Silent but deadly!" Tommy shouted as he smacked multiple buttons on the wall.

Schlatt quickly stood and rushed over to a little pond of water that Techno had made so it'd be easier to wash Tommy and the veggies they grew. He huffed as he laid at the bottom, watching his air bubbles. "He is definitely Phils kid." He grumbles until he sees the little shit himself looking down at him. "What do you want?"

"I'm hungry." The boy whines softly.

"Hi hungry. I'm Schlatt." The ram smirks.

Tommy frowns and looks down at his moth before looking in at Schlatt. "My name's Tommy." He said in a very confused voice.

Schlatt watched Tommy for a moment until he started taking damage. Quickly sitting up he coughs up the water that got into his throat before looking at Tommy. "That was a dad job kid. Don't you know what a dad joke is?" He frowns.

Tommy just stared at him before sitting back, clutching his treasures tight. "Papa Wilby doesn't tell jokes like that. Mostly just bee and fish jokes." He smiles.

Schlatt just looked at him before turning towards Wilbur. "Oi! You fucker!" He shouts, drawing the two brunettes' attention. "You never taught him what dad jokes were?!"

"We never had a dad around to tell them!" Wilbur shouts back. "Because of that I never had anyone to teach me for when I became a dad!"

"Oh." Schlatt frowns as he climbs out of the little pond.

Schlatt crouched down so it looked like he was about to do a push up but when he started to shake the water off the child behind him erupted into giggles. "Fuck I'm cold!" The ram man groans, rubbing his arms.

"Hi cold! I'm Tommy!" The blonde smiles as he runs past Schlatt.

Schlatt watched Tommy in disbelief as the kid grabbed Schlatt one of the forgotten towels and brought it to him. "I...I don't know whether to be pissed or proud." He frowns, taking the towel to dry himself. "Oi! Wilbur! Your kid is hungry!"

"Huh?" Wilbur asks as he looks over. "Tommy, baby, are you hungry?"

Tommy ran over to his brother and hugged his lower arm. "Hungry…" The blonde whines as he looks up at Wilbur.

"Ok bud I'll go find you some food ok?" Wilbur smiles as he gently runs his fingers through the boy's hair. 

"No!" Karl quickly says, startling the brothers.

"Oi! Lower your voice!" Schlatt growls.

"You're one to talk! You yell louder than I do!" Karl frowns before looking back to the brothers. "You guys need to stay down here until all the side effects wear off."

"So we gotta stay down here until the kid stops farting?" Schlatt frowns. "Grrrrreeeeaaaattt."

"Not only his gas but Wilburs low fever and your paranoia." Karl frowns.

"I don't have-"

"You thought a chicken was gonna eat you on the way here." Wilbur smirks, picking up Tommy so he could put him in his lap.

"....shut up."

Karl chuckles and stands up from the table to pull a notepad out from his back pocket. "Ok do you guys want pizza? Burgers? Uh...ice cream? We have a few restaurants here." He smiles as he takes the little golf pencil out from the spirals of the pad.

"Pizza!" Tommy and Schlatt shout with a smile, making Wilbur laugh.

"Looks like it's pizza for dinner." He chuckles as he puts his chin on top of his brother's head.

Karl laughs and nods. Once he got the group's order he quickly left to get it. He ran as fast as he could back to the crater. "Ok, ok…I can do this...I can do this." He said to himself as he pulled out an ender pearl from his inventory.

Throwing it he starts to think about what to say if anybody asks him about where he was. He teleported past the crater and just kept going until he was at Hutt's Pizza. Walking in he quickly went to the kitchen, missing the creeper hybrid that was seated at a table.

"Ok, ok, gotta work fast! Gotta work fast!" Karl quickly says as he grabs some dough from the fridge.

"Karl?"

"AAAAAAHHH!" Karl jumped and turned when he heard the voice. "Sam! Wha-What are you doing here?!"

"I came looking for you. Tommy and Wilburs graves were destroyed." Sam replies, an angry hiss escaping him. "It's all hands on deck."

"O-Oh...oh god." Karl whispers, now knowing why the trio came back late and why Tommy had the toy and blanket. "I-I need to make some pizzas though! I can't help right now!"

"Karl everybody is out looking for the culprit, who ordered pizza?" Sam questions.

"Think Karl! Think!" Karl yelled at himself before quickly remembering Michael.

"Ranboo did! He didn't want Tubbo and Michael to miss dinner so...pizza!" Karl smiles. "Plus we have some guests on the server here too! They're a bit out in the woods and too tired to hunt."

"Oh. Do you need help?" Sam asks kindly.

"Please? I need to make a lot of pizzas and...a BLT and Chicken nuggets!" Karl smiles. "Oh wait. The chicken nuggets go on the small cheese pizza."

"A chicken nugget pizza?" Sam asks softly before he gains a saddened yet nostalgic look in his eye. "Tommy loved Chicken Nugget Pizzas. Ponk and I always made them with him before…"

Karl frowns and pulls Sam into a hug. "I'm sorry Sam." He spoke softly, gently rubbing circles into the man's back.

Sam just wrapped his arms around the smaller man. "I miss him...so much." Sam whispers, his shoulders shaking from trying to keep his sobs in.

"I know Sam, I know." Karl whispers as he lets the man cling to him, gently carding his fingers through green hair. "Sam…? If there was a way for Tommy to come back what would you do?"

"Wh-What would I do…?" Sam asks softly, pulling away. "I would hold him close and never let him go again, I-I'd have him move in with me, I'd make him breakfast every morning, I'd never let Phil near him again, I'd adopt him, I'd do everything I should've done months ago!"

Karl nods as he pulls the man back into a hug. He wanted to tell Sam so bad but he had to wait just a couple of days.

======

Karl smiles as he watches Tommy eat his chicken nugget pizza with a big smile. "Is it good buddy?" Karl asks.

When Tommy nodded and offered him a slice, he carefully took it and took a big bite. Smiling he looked down at the slice then at Tommy. "Hey! That's pretty good!" He chuckles.

Tommy giggles as he continues eating. He loved Chicken Nugget Pizza! He remembers making it with a man with green hair and very cool looking eyes. He also remembered a man in a strange face mask always sneaking up behind him to scare him until the green haired man whispered something to him that made the man run away with a strange laugh.

Giggling at his own memory Tommy looked around at the stone walls of...pogtopia was it? Eh, either way I liked it here! It made funny sounds every so often and he saw those green fuzzy things that hissed at him but let him hug them. "You ok there buddy?" Wilbur asks as he wipes his mouth. "Need more soda?"

Tommy looked up from his pizza and went to check his cup until Schlatt snatched his cup and chugged his coke. "Hey!" Tommy whines.

"He does need more soda." Schlatt smirks, holding out the cup.

"Schlatt...there's a spider behind you." Wilbur smirks.

Schlatt yelps and quickly hides under the table, the cup falling onto the table. "Wait. That's a slime you fuck! Not even a big one!" The man yells as he peeks out from his hiding spot.

"Slime!" Tommy shouts excitedly.

"Karl grab him!" Wilbur quickly says as he stands up. 

Karl quickly grabs Tommy before the child could run off to catch the slime. "Hey, hey little buddy! No trying to catch mobs ok? They'll hurt you!" Karl gently scolded, putting Tommy on his lap while Wilbur scared the slime away.

"Awww! Ok…" Tommy pouted.

Karl smiles and gently rubs the top of his head before grabbing another slice of pizza and helping Tommy eat. The boy made very little fuss so that was good but he was quite messy afterwards. So Karl stood up and made a little hole in the ground to make a makeshift sink.

Tommy quickly cleaned his messy hands and face, not liking how the sauce felt on his face and hands. Once he was all clean he was given back to Wilbur. "Papa!" Tommy giggles happily.

"Baby!" Wilbur chuckles, taking his little brother from Karl.

The two rub noses before Tommy lays against Wilburs shoulder with a smile and a tiny yawn. "Aww." Karl smiles, quickly taking his phone out to take pictures of the cute scene.

Wilbur just chuckles and bounces the sleepy child. "Maybe it's somebody's bed time, huh bud?" He asks gently.

Tommy shook his head slowly as he rubbed at his eyes sluggishly. "After your guys' resurrections I'd be surprised if you all weren't tired." Karl smiles as he gently runs his fingers through Tommy's hair, still not believing he was actually there. 

"Actually, now that you mention it…" Wilbur yawned.

"You two head to bed, I'll keep a watch out for anything getting too close." Schlatt spoke up as he got out from under the table.

"You sure Schlatt?" Wilbur asks softly. "You have to be tired too…"

"Nah, I'm fine. You two are younger than me right now so you need more sleep." Schlatt frowns. "Plus I only fell asleep when I was drunk but that woman made me promise to cut back around the little stink bug or she'll cut my dick off."

Wilbur laughed softly before walking over to where a bed was set up against a wall. Moving back the covers he sits down and removes his boots and Tommy's sneakers. Putting them under the bed he yawns again as the child in his arms nudges his head under his chin. "Night Karl! Night Schlatt!" Wilbur called out as he lay down.

"Night kids." Schlatt called out as he took an iron sword from Karl.

"Night you two." Karl smiles.

In no time at all Wilbur and Tommy were out cold, softly snoring. Karl chuckles softly before looking up at Schlatt. "You guys just need to stay here until the side effects die down. Once they do I'll bring you to one of the hotels and you guys can stay there until you figure out which biome you want to live in." He tells the other man.

"What's the catch Karl?" Schlatt asks with a frown.

"Catch?" Karl frowns.

"There's always a catch in these types of things. Now what's ours?" Schlatt asks.

Sighing Karl wrings his hands together, not looking at Schlatt. "You guys need to hide who you are." He replies. "Especially Tommy and Wilbur. Wilbur because of what he did when he was older and Tommy...well you know why."

"Because the kid killed himself because you jerks didn't give him a break after being exiled twice, having his nation he founded blown up twice, both times by family members, he was easily replaced by his best friend and family, everybody stole from him, Sam let him die in jail at the hands of his long time abuser, had to share a bed with the man unless he wanted to burn up on the hot obsidian floor and only two people stated they'd miss him." Schlatt spoke with pure venom in his voice which made Karl step back.

"I-I...how did you…?" Karl asks softly.

"How'd I know? Wilbur would only ever watch over Tommy through Ghostburs eyes and I was there, invisible but there, when the kid slammed the axe into his chest." Schlatt frowns as he pulls a pack of cigarettes from his inventory. "Do you know how much I wanted to rip that axe out of his hands and toss it into the lava? How much I wanted to pin the kid until help came? But as usual, help for him either came too late or not at all."

Flipping open the lid he takes one out by his teeth. Placing the cigs back in his inventory he takes his lighter out and lights it. Karl watched the man, slightly afraid since he'd just given Schlatt the only weapon he had besides his bow. When Schlatt took a nice long drag and leaned forward towards Karl the smaller was concerned.

He was going to tell him to exhale until the man blew the smoke in Karls face, momentarily blinding him and causing him to cough. When Karl opened his eyes he didn't see Schlatt anymore. Turning all around he still didn't see him but he did feel when the man's rough hand grabbed him by his hair and yanked his head back into his chest. He went to scream but when a cold blade was pressed against his adams apple he swallowed the urge.

"Scream and I slice open your pretty little throat." Schlatt growled, his eyes flashing orange.

Gulping Karl knew he wasn't kidding so he just stayed silent. "I'll tell you this once Karl, and when I mean once I mean once." Schlatt growls. "If that kid ever tries to kill himself again because nobody treated him right, because he needed help but nobody cared or dies at the hands of his abuser once more, I will kill every goddamn person on this server and send you all to lady death with your fucking tails between your legs!"

Karl just watched Schlatt in fear before finding his voice. "I-I understand." He whispers.

Schlatt grinned, cigarette still between his teeth, as he removed the blade and pushed Karl away from him. "Good boy." He spoke in a condescending way before flicking his cig at Karl. "Now head back to my sloppy seconds and that blaze hybrid before they get suspicious you're cheating or some shit."

Schlatt walked over to the boys on the bed and set down a Birch Stair next to them so he could sit down as he watched for danger. "See you tomorrow Karl~" Schlatt smirked, his eye's glowing orange for a moment.

Karl gulped and quickly stood up, running as soon as his feet were on the hard ground. Oh god this was gonna be a hard mission.

Schlatt smirks and pulls out his phone. Scrolling through his playlists he finds a song he remembered Quackity had downloaded for him and quickly presses play (https://youtu.be/HdOCXC8ZwAw). Leaning back on his stairs he nods along to the song, knowing that if anything dangerous were to stalk by he'd sense it before it came anywhere close to his charges.

"I'm giving you a gift, Jonathan Schlatt. I want you to use it to protect my children from any danger that may fall upon them when they return to the server." The lady that revived him stated firmly. "It's called danger perception. You will be able to sense any dangerous mob or person within a forty feet radius around you, similar to spectral arrows. Use this to protect them where I can't. As my boys go back they will be children again so I am trusting you to take care of them better than Phil ever did. Alright?"

Schlatt looks up at the ceiling, sensing a Creeper and a Zombie behind the wall behind him. They were about thirty feet away so he wasn't worried. But what did worry him was the sense of another person holding an axe above them about twenty feet. The outline his vision was giving him told him that they were very tall.

Between 7-9ft tall to be exact but he couldn't be sure. Leaning over to the kids he whistles near their heads and only gets a small whine from Tommy while Wilbur was just out like a light. Standing he clears his throat as silently as he could. Walking over to the jukebox he slips the Mellohi disk he'd stopped Tommy from attempting to eat earlier into it.

Smirking he takes a breath before letting out his best crazed laugh (A/N: You know the one~).  He let it grow and grow before he started running up the stairs. Whoever that was there quickly ran for the upper exit as Schlatt chased them down with the sword drawn and his crazed laughter bouncing off the walls.

"COME BACK HERE COWARD! I'LL SKIN YOU ALIVE!" Schlatt yells in near glee at how he heard the running suddenly get faster.

Nothing was gonna hurt his little stink bug and music box.

======

Tommy looked back at his brother, who was sleeping, as he slowly climbed the stairs out before glancing at Schlatt. The man was out cold with the sword in a hilt on his side. He wanted to see the pretty flowers he'd seen the day before again but he knew Wilby wouldn't let him out if he asked from what he'd heard Schlatt and Karl talk about last night.

He didn't care if the people up above would try to hurt him or yell. He wanted flowers and he was five! He was allowed to do big kid stuff now! Like watching Jack, who was only a year older than him, when Wilbur needed to go to work or out for a hunt.

So he climbed quietly to the outside world. Once he made it to the exit he sprinted for it, a happy smile on his face when he saw the sun coming up. Running as fast as he could he jumped up and grabbed hold of a tree branch. Pulling himself up he settles on the branch before bouncing off and leaping to another tree.

Grinning, he turns towards where he smelt the flowers. Yes! He was almost there! 

Tommy was so excited that he ended up losing concentration and slipped on a branch. Yelping he falls down to the ground. Quickly closing his eyes he prepares for the pain but when he doesn't come he opens his eyes to see he landed on something...soft?

Frowning, he looks forward and sees a llama staring at him. With a startled scream Tommy falls back and off of the llama and into waiting arms. "You ok kid?"

Tommy looks up but sees nobody there. Frowning he reaches up and feels skin against his prodding finger. The invisible thing holding him laughs and puts him down. "I'm a wandering trader kid! I'm invisible because of the monsters that are out during the night!" The invisible person says.

"Oh! Hello! Thank you for helping! I gotta go now! Flowers are waiting to be picked!" Tommy laughs as he races away, the invisible trader shaking his head fondly at the sight. 

Tommy ran as fast as he could towards the flower field, not noticing somebody on the path nearby watching him run. So since he didn't notice them at first he didn't notice when they started chasing after him.

Laughing merrily Tommy waves at the Spiders in the trees, the Zombies that were stuck in the water and a group of wandering Pillagers. One of the Pillagers even gave him some bread and a glass bottle of water as he passed them which made his hungry belly happy.

He ate on his way to the field that was now only a few feet in front of him. Grinning he put his water away but he stopped when he heard a branch crack. Quickly whipping around he sees a person standing in the shadows of the trees so they were hidden very well, a single hand outstretched towards him. Tilting his head Tommy looks at them curiously.

"Hello! Who are you…?"

"T-Tommy? Is that...Is that you…?" The person asks in disbelief. 

Tommy frowns and steps back. "Who are you?" Tommy asks again. "Come into the light, please."

The person slowly stepped out of the shadows to reveal….

Chapter Text

Sam felt tears fill his eyes as he stared down at the small child in front of him. He looked the child up and down and he had no doubt in his mind that this child was Tommy, his Tommy. The clothes looked exactly the same but smaller, the green bandana around his neck slightly stained with blood and mud, his bright baby blue eyes, his golden hair and his usual plasters on his face.

Slowly walking forward he feels the tears slowly fall down his face as he crouches down. "H-Hey buddy. D-Do you...do you remember me?" He asks softly, hoping that this wasn't like with Ghostbur.

Tommy just stared at him before walking over. His small hands carefully pulled the gas mask down from Sam's mouth before gently tracing the bright green spots under the older males eyes and the boy instantly smiled. "Sammy!" He giggled happily as he held Sam's face in his small hands. 

Sam gave a soft, broken laugh as he gently nuzzled into the boy's hand. He couldn't believe this was real! Tommy was really here, given he was a lot smaller, but he was right in front of him! Pulling Tommy into a tight hug Sam placed his head over the child's chest so he could listen to the strong heartbeat again, like how'd he done the first time Tommy had been revived. 

When he heard the heartbeat going strong under his ear he let out a sob and just listened. "You're alive! You're really here!" Sam sobbed as he listened to strong 'ba bum! ba bum!' of Tommy's heart.

"Sammy? Are you ok?" Tommy asks softly, a bit worried about the man. "You're crying!"

Sam pulled away and pressed their foreheads together with a wobbly smile. "I'm ok buddy! They're happy tears! Happy!" He sobbed as he held Tommy gently, as if he was made of glass. "I-It's been so long since I-I've seen you and I'm just so happy you're here!"

Tommy smiles and bumps his head against Sam's gently. "Ok!"

Sam chuckles and just closes his eyes, listening to the boy breathing, clinging to the sound that let him know his son was alive and here. They stayed like this for a few moments longer until Tommy made a soft noise of discomfort. Quickly backing up and looking at the boy, he looks behind Tommy a bit and sees a spider nibbling on the back of Tommy's shoes.

He knew that Spiders were passive during the day so he wasn't worried but he still didn't want to risk the boy coming to any danger. So he carefully lifted Tommy up and held him close to his chest armour. "Are you hungry Tommy?" Sam asks softly, a gentle breeze rustling both of their hair. "I can make us some waffles."

"With chocolate chips?" Tommy asks softly.

Sam smiles and turns towards the way he'd came from. "With chocolate chips, whip cream, scrambled eggs and a breakfast coke."

Tommy's happy cheer made Sam smile as he walked. He never thought he'd hear it again after what happened but he was so happy he was wrong.

======

Ok Schlatt was not panicking, he was NOT PANICKING! 

"Tommy?! Tommy!?" Schlatt yells as he runs back and forth between the areas he'd walled off last night.

"TOMMY?! BABY WHERE ARE YOU?!" Wilbur was shouting as he ran around in search of his baby brother.

"Wilbur, you look in the potato room, I'll look above ground!" Schlatt quickly called out.

"What?! No! If Tommy is up there then I'm coming too!" Wilbur shouts, tears falling down his face.

"No! I told you on the way here how dangerous it'd be if the bastards find you! They will kill you on sight Wilbur then where will Tommy be? Right in the arms of Phil and Techno. The man that abandoned you both and the man that nearly killed Tommy just because he wouldn't stop crying." Schlatt spoke in a hushed tone when he suddenly felt the same presence he did the night before.

"B-But…" Wilbur wanted to argue but he knew Schlatt was right. So with a sniffle he sat back down at the table and poked at the mutton that Schlatt gave him for breakfast. "Please at least tell me if you find him."

"You'll be the first to know Wilbur, I promise." Schlatt says gently as he ruffles the teens' hair.

Schlatt practically ran up the stairs, praying Tommy was just asleep in the small cave entrance that Karl had apparently made for them. But when he got there he just saw Ranboos' tall ass self looking down at him in shock. Before the other could say anything Schlatt was pushing him out the cave entrance where  Techno, Foolish and Callahan were waiting. 

Once out in the open Schlatt stopped pushing and jumped up so he could land a hard punch on Ranboos' head. Said hybrid yelped and held his head. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"That was for spying! Now where's my - I mean - Wilburs' kid?" Schlatt growls.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Ranboo frowns as he quickly tries to hide behind Techno. "And what do you mean-!"

Ranboo was going to ask a question but unfortunately a sudden bitch smack made him speechless. "Where's. The. Kid?" Schlatt growls.

"Hey! You can't hit-!" Techno started to shout but was quickly shut up by a well placed smack.

The man landed on the ground with a startled sound. Everything was very blurry for him for a moment until he heard two more smacks and then two others were dropping to the ground with groans of pain. "For every minute you don't tell me where the kid is you're all getting bitch smacked, understand?" Schlatt growls, eyes flashing dangerously.

"What do you mean?! What is going on?!" Techno asks before he was suddenly smacked hard enough that his ears were ringing. 

"I don't have time for this." Schlatt growled as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Pulling out a creeper head from his inventory he quickly places it on his head before running from the area, knowing the trio would follow him instead of going into the cave. He ran straight to where the L'Manburg crater was and let out a primal sounding scream which drew a lot of curious people over. Including Karl.

Schlatt glared down at everybody as he tried to find a head of golden hair somewhere in it and when he did he sighed in relief before jumping down just as the three he'd smacked earlier ran up behind him, Techno taking a swing at him.

"There you are! Why did-" Schlatt went silent as he looked at a blonde kid that was most definitely not Tommy. Gritting his teeth he looks the kid in the purple hoodie up and down before quickly smacking him hard enough to knock him off his feet. "You're not the kid!"

Purpled fell to the ground in shock before quickly crawling away to Puffy when he saw the crazy creeper headed man smack Punz next. "What the hell?!" He yelps before Tubbo quickly joins Punz on the ground, a bright red mark on his cheek.

"Ok that one felt both good and bad." The creeper headed man states with a frown in his voice. "Good because you finally get some form of punishment for everything you've done to poor Tommy and bad since...well I'll keep that to myself."

Quickly Ranboo tried to punch the man until his arm was grabbed and he was struck across his face, sending him down and onto the glass below. "Ow!" Ranboo groans, pressing his hot cheek against the cool glass.

"Ok that felt EXTRA good Mr. Replacement." The man laughs before smacking Jack when he attempts to jump him. "Next time I'm putting that sword through your stomach and feeding you to the Zombies."

The man crouches down and takes the diamond sword that Jack dropped. "Hey! Free sword! Sweet!"

The man then moved onto Phil who tried to step in but that only got the man a sucker punch to the gut. "That was for abandoning Wilbur and Tommy to focus on the kid that nearly killed a baby." The man growled before turning and cupping his hands around his mouth. "KID! KID WHERE ARE YOU?! PAPA IS GETTING WORRIED!"

Unbeknownst to Schlatt, Tommy was happily eating his chocolate chip waffles while Sam held him like he was going to disappear. The child didn't even hear his caretaker's calls.

"Schlatt?!" Somebody yelled as said man smacked Foolish a couple more times.

"Hold on! I'm not done smacking the Shark...Totem...thing…" Schlatt growls as he shakes said Shark Totem like a rag doll.

Schlatt would've continued had it not been for the hand that reached under the Creeper head and yanked on his curled horn. He let out an embarrassing squeak as the pain registered in his head. "Drop Foolish! Now!" Karl growled, his fist clenched at his side.

Schlatt quickly dropped the, now very dizzy, Shark-Totem quickly as Karl yanked again. "Ow, ow, ow! Stop doing that before you get me hard!" Schlatt growled, making Karl let go immediately with a very red face.

Schlatt took that opportunity to smack Karl with a huff. "That's for grabbing a ram's horns! Next time you do that I will headbutt you all the way to Hermitcraft!" He growled lowly at the smaller man.

Karl just nervously laughed at the threat. "S-Sorry." He stuttered, putting his hands up as the man removed the creeper head from his real head.

The whole group of people around them let out shocked gasps and outraged cries at the sight of Schlatt. "Which one of you took him?!" Schlatt yelled as he lowered his head, right foot kicking dirt back like he was getting ready to ram someone.

"Took who?! What's going on?!" Karl quickly asks, standing in front of Schlatt.

"Him, Karl! We woke up and he wasn't there! Somebody took him and I wanna know who or I'm bitch smacking EVERYBODY ON THIS GODDAMN SERVER TIL THEY SEE NOTCH!" Schlatt yells, eyes shining orange.

"What?!" Karl shouts in shock. "Wh-What do you-?! Who would've-?!"

"I don't know but if the one that took him shows up and gives him back I am burning EVERYTHING to the the fucking ground! Starting with that bright ass Hotel!" Schlatt yells, pointing back at the Bee 'n Boo Hotel. "Mostly because it's the closest thing to me right now and I'd feel very uncomfortable blowing up that rainbow colored place and I don't know why!"

"Oh that's Targay. Yeah don't blow that up please. That's where we buy our food and supplies." Karl frowns before realizing what Schlatt just said. He turned sharply to Schlatt. "No! No more explosions, no more fires! Please!"

"Then have them cough up the kid." Schlatt snarled.

"Ok whoever has the child you have four seconds to bring him here or I let Schlatt hit all of you." Karl states as Schlatt slaps Phil behind him. "Or he'll slap you all regardless."

Karl sighs and turns to Schlatt. "Schlatt stop hitting him! He's sick!" He yells. "Tubbo too!"

"I know! I just don't care!" Schlatt grins.

"Wait. You knew? How?" Karl asks with a frown.

"Lady Death. She's the one that's making them sick!" Schlatt shrugs as he smacks Sapnap, who'd tried to sneak up on him.

"Wait. Kristen is the one that's making Tubbo and I sick?" Phil croaks out from his spot on the ground.

Schlatt smirks and crouches down next to Phils head. "Hell yeah Philly boy. Lady Death is very, very, VERY pissed at you two for hurting her baby." He chuckles as he grips Phils long hair tightly.

Phil held back a groan at his hair being tugged. He should've known this was his wife's doing a long time ago. Especially after that dream he had a few months ago before the sickness in him started. 

"You wouldn't happen to have the kid, would ya Philly?" Schlatt whispered into the blonde's ear. "You know he doesn't even know who you are so I doubt he'd have gone with ya willingly. So if one hair is outta place on his head Phil Watson, Killza, Angel of Death, whatever name you're going by nowadays, I will rip your useless wings off and beat you to death with him. Understand?"

Phil grit his teeth at the stinging pain in his head from Schlatts tugging and the twinge in his wings but he still managed a nod. He expected to be let go but when his head was slammed into the glass below him he let out a strangled chirp. He tried to lift his head up but when a foot was placed on the back of his head he thought otherwise.

"Get off of Phil, Schlatt!" Techno snarled, pulling out his Axe.

This just made Schlatt glare. "Is that…?" He asks as he steps forward and grips the handle before ripping it out of the piglin hybrid's hand. 

He looked down at his inventory and he suddenly grew very quiet, his shoulders tense as he stared at the name before it disappeared. "You actually use it…?" Schlatt whispers, his voice sounding broken.

Karl steps forward and takes the axe from Schlatt, only to gasp at the item he was holding. He quickly drops it like it's burned him before looking to Techno with disgust in his eyes. "The Axe of Peace?" He spoke softly, staring down the taller man. "You kept the weapon that your brother used to kill himself with?"

Techno grew silent as he watched the two men in front of him. One an ex-tyrant and the other a time traveller he wished could bring Tommy back. Nobody could see the way Techno's eyes shined with regret the moment Karl spoke of Tommy due to the boar mask he's worn everyday since Tommy's death.

"You...you sick son of a bitch." Schlatt spoke in a near whisper. 

Techno and Karl both looked over to Schlatt who had been standing still, shoulders trembling. The man looked up at Techno, angry tears falling down his face. "Didn't your dear ol' pops tell ya what happens when you reuse the weapon somebody died with?" Schlatt asks softly.

Techno just watched the man pick up the axe in shaky hands. "When you lose your last cannon life and you go to the void or become a ghost, you keep the wound you died from." He whispers angrily. "That kid, Tommy, he was there twice. Once with bruises, broken bones and bleeding horribly all over the place and the last with a near identical mark as Wilbur."

Schlatt turned with the Axe in hand to Phil, grip tightening on the handle. "Tommy died from a potato that Dream hid away and refused to eat so he felt nothing that time. But two days in the void, two motherfucking days, the kid starts screaming his dead lungs out as his wound bled more and more." Schlatt was yelling now. "You were killing with this axe weren't you!? You killed creatures with this axe and Phil let you! Couldn't give the poor kid a break could you Phil?!"

Phil refused to look at Schlatt and instead stared down at the crater of L'Manburg. "Everytime blood is split with the blade that somebody died from they will feel that person or creature's pain!" Schlatt yelled, his eyes glowing orange and the sky above starting to get dark with storm clouds. "For fucking months I heard the kid screaming in pain from all the death you caused with this cursed blade!"

Techno felt his blood run cold and for once the voices were silent. They were the ones that told him to hurt all those animals, witches and pillagers after all.

"He only stopped when XD himself came to help ease Tommy's pain! He stayed with us until I was revived Techno! Do you know how long that fucking was?!" Schlatt spit out, turning towards the man as thunder rumbled above him. When all he got was silence Schlatt took this as his chance to stalk over to Techno and get right in his face. "For you it was four months. For us? TEN AND A HALF GOD DAMN YEARS!" 

Techno stumbled back as tears stung his eyes. He'd been causing his baby brother to experience enough pain that he'd scream for ten years?

"MEXICAN DREAM HAD TO FUCKING PIN HIM DOWN WHEN HE TRIED TO BEG XD TO ERASE HIM! WILBUR AND I HAD TO GET ON OUR KNEES AND BEG XD TO JUST HELP WITH THE PAIN AND NOT ERASE HIM!" Schlatt yelled, his tears rolling down his face. "YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM TOMMY BUT THAT STILL WASN'T ENOUGH FOR YOU WAS IT?! WAS IT?!"

Techno just looked down as Schlatt was quickly held back from attacking him with the axe by Bad and Karl. The man screamed and kicked at Techno, screaming to be released as he was quickly pinned to the ground with Bad on top of him, holding his thrashing head still.

Schlatt screamed to be let go so he could rip out Technos' heart, to rip Phils' wings off, to tear Tubbos horns off his head. The man was just so overwhelmed by anger and disgust at the people of the server, he just wanted to do something, anything to feel useful to Tommy after having spent so long having to just listen to Tommy screaming to be killed again, to just make the pain stop, for his papa, for Henry, just anybody to make the pain stop. 

Nobody knew what to do, what to say. So they didn't say anything as a storm started and rain pelted the residents of the server that watched as their ex-president screamed and cursed Technos name with tears streaming down his face.

======

Sam looked up from watching Tommy investigate his lower set of hands when he heard Fran bark and growl at the door. "Tommy?" He whispered to the child that immediately looked up at him. "I need you to hide, ok? Fran is telling me somebody dangerous is behind the door." 

Tommy quickly nods and takes his shoes off as he's placed down. He slowly tiptoes to the stairs that lead to the bedrooms and crawls up the stairs as Sam puts back on his armour and grabs a trident from his Enderchest. 

Sam steps behind Fran as he puts his gas mask back on, watching the door carefully when he hears a hesitant knock. "Who's there?" He shouts.

The only answer he got was another knock.

"Answer me or die!" Sam shouts.

"You can't kill me." A woman's voice. "But I can kill you and I will if you allow my sons new clothes to get wet!"

Sam frowns behind his mask and carefully opens his front door to see a very tall woman in a floor length black dress, a black veil over her eyes, a yellow, red, pink and green ribbon tied into her long brown hair standing in the pouring rain yet she didn't seem to be getting wet. In her arms was a strange looking chest that was covered in blood vines that immediately made Sam uneasy.

"Do you work for the eggpire?" Sam questions quickly, still holding his trident in a tight grip.

"Eggpire?" The woman asks with a frown. "That sounds like a Denny's Special or something."

Sam swallows his chuckle as the woman steps into the house. "Sorry to intrude but I needed to bring this to my baby boy before I go back to the void." The woman spoke gently, looking around the room. "Where is he?"

"Where's who?" Sam questions, eyes never leaving the woman.

"Oh please Sam, drop the trident." The woman huffs, seemingly annoyed.

"No." Sam replied.

The woman shook her head fondly as she carefully placed down the chest next to the couch and looked over to where a little head of golden hair peeked out from the stairway. "There's my baby!" The woman smiles as Tommy comes running down and into the womans awaiting arms.

"Mama! Mama!" Tommy giggles happily, wrapping his arms around the woman's neck. 

"Hello baby." The woman smiled gently. "You seemed to give Wilbur quite the scare huh?"

"Papa scared?" Tommy whimpers. He didn't want papa wilby to be scared. "Wanna go see him." 

"After you change into your new clothes, ok baby?" The woman spoke softly to Tommy.

Tommy gave a slight nod until there was a loud clash of thunder from outside. Screaming he hides in his mothers arms as the woman glared at the sky. "It would seem Schlatt has lost control." She grumbles, rubbing Tommy's back gently.

Sam watched the woman carefully. Even if he now knew her as Tommy's mother he didn't trust her in the slightest. "Tommy, come here buddy." Sam spoke gently as he crouched down. "I have your headphones in the closet so you can use those to block out the scary sounds ok?"

Tommy looked back at Sam before launching himself into the man's arms, shaky sobs falling past his lips. When Sam stood up with Tommy on his hip he hurried to the closet where the slightly dusty noise cancelling headphones were. Puffy had told Tommy he needed them shortly after Sam, Quackity and Puffy had found Tommy in the prison's lobby with his hands covering his ears, screaming on the top of his lungs that he was sorry, that he'd never be bad again, during a thunderstorm.

God how he'd wanted to drive his sword through Dreams fucking heart at that moment. But instead he let Tommy use him as a pillow to scream and cry into. It was the least he could do at that moment.

Dusting the headphones off Sam gently placed them onto Tommy's head before adjusting the size. When the boy let out a relieved sigh he gave a gentle smile. Using his upper hands he makes sure Tommy can see his hands before he signs out 'better?'

When Tommy gave a nod and a thumbs up Sam carefully put him down on the floor so he could run over to the woman again. The woman just smiles and rubs noses with the boy before opening the chest next to her. "Thank you for taking care of him Sam." She said over the sound of thunder. "Thank you for grieving him. I'm pretty sure just the thought of coming back here to you was the only reason he agreed to be revived."

Sam smiled slightly at that. Walking over he relaxes his grip on the trident as he watches the woman pull out a cape that looked similar to Technos but in a light blue color and the fluff on top reminded Sam of Friends' wool. Sitting behind Tommy he gently tapped his pointed ear twice to tell him he was there before he had both arms full of a giggling Tommy.

The woman chuckles softly. "He really seems to love you." She spoke softly.

"I love him too." Sam said without thinking, carefully running his fingers through Tommy's hair.

The woman smiled as she watched the two. "If my idiot of a husband doesn't step up or fails him again would you be willing to ado-" Before she could finish her sentence Sam cut her off with a quick and loud, "Yes!"

The creeper hybrid blushed bright pink before going back to playing with Tommy's hair. "I-I mean...yes. I would love to adopt Tommy." He spoke softly. "I actually planned on asking Tommy if I could before…"

The woman nodded slightly, her grip on the cape in her hands tightening. "I wish I could've adopted him sooner to be honest. Maybe I could've stopped a lot of his anger, his pain. Just...everything." Sam whispers as Tommy proudly places a small hand against Sam's much bigger one. "Maybe he wouldn't have felt so alone, maybe Dream wouldn't have gotten his grubby mits on him as much as he did."

Sam smiled gently at the child, even if he couldn't see it behind his mask, when he looked up at him with a proud smile. When Tommy intertwined their fingers together Sam chuckled softly. Tommy has always been interested in his hands, never knowing why. Gently squeezing Tommy's hand he kisses the top of Tommy's head. 

"I want to do everything right for him. Help him through nightmares, protect him from dangers, hold him as he cries, chase away his fears, listen to what he has to say and just do everything I can for him." Sam spoke softly.

Tommy gave a soft yawn as he leaned against Sam, nuzzling into his lavender and gunpowder smelling shirt. Tommy didn't remember much about the place he's in but he does remember how Sammy always made him feel safe enough to sleep without the itchy feeling of needing to hold a brick or iron ingot while he slept so he wanted to take advantage of that.

Sam gives a soft smile as he gently rubs Tommy's cheek with one hand while reaching for a blanket he'd left on the floor with another one. "Do you want me to take a picture of you two for you?" The woman asks softly, tears filling her eyes at the adorable sight that was unfolding before her. 

When she was silently handed a cell phone with a creeper case on it she smiled and took it. She held up the phone before taking a picture of Tommy being held close to Sam's belly, his chubby cheek squished against the cool metal of Sam's armour, and hands gently gripping two of the creeper hybrid's green fingers. Sam was looking down at Tommy with so much love and adoration that Lady Death wished that he was Tommy's real father.

The picture turned out wonderfully and she couldn't help but coo. "If you want you can put him down for his nap. I'll place his clothes on the coffee table." She whispers.

"Thank you Miss." Sam smiles as he stands, removing his gas mask from his face.

While Sam walked upstairs Lady Death hums softly as she gently laid out the light blue cape, folded neatly into a square and a pair of black pants that looked victorian. Next came a cream colored shirt with ruffles around the sleeves and cuffs that'd hug onto the wearers wrist but would not limit movement, then came a small crown that was very similar to Technoblades' except it seemed to be made of netherite but the jewels were the same in every way.

Finally came a small, white mask with two blue dots for eyes and a D facing downwards so it looked like a big smile. She placed the crown and mask down gently on the cape and stood. Looking at the cell phone in her hand she quickly typed in her number and sent herself the photo.

She was going to put the phone down but when she saw a contact labeled 'little quack 🐤' she couldn't help but snoop. From the look of their conversations she could tell that they were father and son. So, with a look over her shoulder to the stairs, she quickly sends the photo to "little quack" and carefully puts down the phone.

When Sam rejoined her, still carrying Tommy she chuckles. Poor guy already had separation anxiety. "You couldn't leave him alone could you?" She teases which gets her a small shake of the head from the hybrid.

With a smile the woman walked over and shooed Sam back upstairs with the child. "Come on, I'll teach you how new mothers do it." She smiles warmly at Sam.

"I don't wanna leave him alone." Sam huffed, sounding more like an agitated child than a full grown man. "What if...what if I do and he disappears again? I watched his body despawn before, I don't...I don't think I can ever do that again…"

Lady Death smiles sadly at Sam. She knew the pain the man felt that day was not the pain of losing a friend, but a child. He may not have been raising Tommy very long but she knew his love runs deep for the boy. So with a sigh she nods. "Then you must nap too. I'll go tell his brother and caretaker where he is while you two rest. Sound good?" She asks.

Sam lets out a relieved sigh as he nods. "Very much so. Thank you." He spoke softly, heading to his room.

Removing his armour through his inventory, Sam walked over to his bed and slowly laid down so Tommy was laying against his belly, still out like a light. Moving up so he was in a sitting position against his headboard Sam uses his lower arms to pull his green comforter up and over the boy and his legs. Reaching over to his bedside table with his upper arms he grabs his book and quill with a soft smile. 

Opening the book to a clean page he starts to think of all the things he and Tommy could do together before listing them all down, a soft purr coming from his throat as he lists everything off onto the paper of the book.

He was not gonna fail Tommy this time.

======

Quackity sighs as he looks down at the amber liquid in his whiskey glass. He'd been sitting there for so long his ass was starting to fall asleep but he couldn't - wouldn't - move. He'd been like this nearly everyday since he carried Tommy back home and he hated it. He hated that he'd stare at a glass of whiskey like it'd bring his baby brother back to him. 

Well...actually it did in a manner of speaking. It'd bring his brother back in the forms of dreams and nightmares, he'd imagine Tommy yelling at him to get off his ass and go swimming with him instead of drinking and he'd imagine the Tommy curled up in his lap with humming along to the songs he'd sing to him to help him sleep.

Suddenly he was full of anger. Anger towards Phil, anger towards Dream, anger towards Techno and most importantly, anger at himself. So with a loud cry he flipped over his table, sending his whiskey, pack of smokes, cell phone and his picture of himself and Tommy to his casinos floor.

Screaming he fans out his small yellow wings, his heart feeling like it was ripping into two. Tears stung his eyes as he fell back into his chair, holding his face. "I'm so sorry Tómas...god I wish you were here." He whispers to thin air. "I built a swimming pool for you, I made a room for you, fuck I even planted your favorite flowers for you just so you'd like it here…"

Quackity let out a shaky breath as his phone buzzed 'Oi! Fuck head! You got a message!'

The man couldn't hold back a laugh as his phones message alert went off. Standing up he lifts up his phone and gently picked up the photo. He carefully tucked it into his chest pocket as he opened the message from his father. Patting his chest pocket he looks to the phone only to feel his heart stop at the sight that greeted him.

On his phone screen was a picture of his father staring lovingly down at a child that looked so much like Tommy. Shaking he stares down at it, his mind racing. Was that Tommy? Had he been revived? Why was he so god damn tiny? Is that fucking healthy? Wait. Why the fuck did his father have Tommy and not have called him?!

Quackity was moving before his mind told him his legs were moving. Running as fast as he could to his neither portal he kept thinking one thing and one thing only. 

He had to get back home, back to his baby brother.

Chapter Text

Schlatt huffs as he looks around his little crying obsidian box in distaste. Not too long ago Karl had built the box for him and called it his "calm down box" and he was only allowed out when he calmed down enough to stop the storm outside.

Kicking at the veined stone he growled when he heard a sigh from the box next to him. "Give it up Schlatt. We're stuck in these things for a while."

"Shut it Techno." Schlatt shouted. "I don't wanna hear shit from you!"

A soft huff was all he got back.

Shaking his head, Schlatt walked over to the bed that'd been set up for him in case it took him a while. Laying down he set his respawn point before just laying down to listen to the rain hitting the obsidian above him. "I need to find my - the - kid. I don't have time to be in this box." He whispered to himself.

Turning over onto his side he pulled out a picture from his inner pocket of his suit jacket and held it between his thumb and pointer finger. A small smile made it to his lips when he looked at the photo of him and Will, both holding babies around the same age as each other.

Wilbur held a baby with bright orange hair and fox ears perked up curiously in his right arm and a sleeping blonde baby in a little suit onesie that Schlatt had bought for him in the other.

Schlatt was holding a baby with chocolate brown hair and eyes that was attempting to sit up in the man's arms to look at the other two children near him.

Chuckling softly he remembered the makeshift senior prom they had together that night. They danced, ate pizza, spiked their punch with vodka and introduced the kids to each other and lemonade. He remembered the grossed out look on Tobys' face as he threw his bottle at Schlatt, as if he'd offended him with the drink.

With a sigh Schlatt looked up from his photo only to scream in shock when he was met with a duo colored face and eye's staring at him. Outside a boom of thunder rocked the box he was in, making Schlatt laugh slightly. Been a while since he could do that.

Looking back at the duo colored face of Ranboo he frowns. "What the fuck do you want?" He asks, sitting cross legged on his bed.

"I just wanted to know if you wanted out. You look really miserable in here." Ranboo says as he lifts his hands up to show he meant no harm.

Schlatt raised a brow at the teen. "You want to help me...after I punched you like...four times?" He asks curiously.

"Yep! I know I deserved at least one of them for spying and the others I am touchy about but still." Ranboo gave a small smile which unnerved Schlatt.

"Why don't you help your idiot brother and selfish father before you help me huh?" Schlatt frowned as he gestured to the hybrid's ear, glaring at Ranboo now.

Ranboo seemed to fidget as he gently touched his cracked emerald earring. "A-Actually idiot father and selfish grandfather…" He spoke in a soft voice. "Techno adopted me last month."

Schlatt glared at the wall behind Ranboo. "Did he now?"

Ranboo watched Schlatt nervously as the man stood up and walked to the wall separating them from Techno and Phil. "So ya officially replaced your brother huh?" He shouts but there was no anger in the man's voice. Instead the man smiled widely. "Then I guess you don't want him back, yeah?"

"Shut up Schlatt!" Phill yells out, startling Schlatt. "We miss Tommy everyday! Every goddamn day!"

"Aw. What's wrong Phil? Hate that your punching bag is gone? Hate that the boy you left behind finally has peace?" Schlatt spoke in a voice dripping with venom.

"Shut up!" Phil screamed, slamming his fist against the wall. "I loved Tommy! He was my son, my baby! I watched him hatch, I helped him take his first breath, I-"

"Hit him every time you came home just because he was curious about you, because he wanted a hug or was afraid. You refused to take him flying like you did with Techno and Will, you barely even looked at him, you let him believe his big brother was his father and yet when you finally were in his life what did you do Phil? Ah yes, you blew up the last thing he could remember his father by, you banished him from the family because he was being a fucking child for the first time since his childhood was ripped away from him by a 7 year long war. You fucking teamed up with his abuser and destroyed his home and the nation he fucking founded, both of you, yet you expect him to apologize to you . Also let's not forget that Techno was gonna give him up to Dream twice." Schlatt spoke through gritted teeth.

Phil was silent.

"You quickly replaced him, you refused to call him son, you weren't there when his wings grew in, when he was begging and screaming for his dad!" Schlatt yelled as the wind outside picked up. "Quackity and I were there Phil. Where were you? Where were you when he cried and yanked out his own hair as his back was torn open by his wings coming in? Where were you when he screamed "Dad! Dad! Help me! It hurts! I want Phil! Please!" over and over again until he finally passed out from the pain."

Silence.

"Where were you when Quackity taught Tommy to fly? Where were you when he first fell out of the sky? Where were you when he tried to-" Schlatt stopped talking as he looked down at the ground. "Nevermind. Just...if you really loved him Phil, you never would've laid your hands on him, never would've rejected him, never would've teamed up with that masked bitch, never would've done any of the shit you did."

Schlatt walked to the area where his single window was to watch the rain fall. "I won't make the same mistakes as you, not again." He whispers as he watches the rain fall for a moment long. "Go away Ranboo. My ride's here."

Schlatt backed away from the window just as a tall woman appeared from behind a tree that was quickly withering away. When the woman punched a few blocks to make a way out Schlatt let out a calming breath. After his third one the rain finally stopped but it was still quite gloomy out.

"Come along Schlatt, Tommy is safe with his friend Sam." The woman smiles kindly to the man, seeing the tear tracks that were still fresh on the ram hybrid's face.

"K-Kristen…?" Phil called out, pounding on the wall.

The woman frowns and moves out of the way of the hole in the wall. "Leave me to talk to my husband and son." She ordered.

"They don't want him anymore." Schlatt quickly says as he grabs Ranboos wrist. "That means-"

"I know what it means Schlatt but you are not the only one that wishes to do it now." Lady Death smiles softly. "Seems you'll have to work fast in order to."

Schlatt nods as he walks out the box with Ranboo but he does stop to pick up the crying obsidian. Rushing down the wooden walk he dragged the poor enderman hybrid with him as he looked around curiously. "Jesus Manburgs' changed since I died. Which way is it to Sam's house…?" Schlatt asks with a frown until he quickly had an arm full of ender teen. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the hell are ya doing?!"

"Water! Everywhere!" Ranboo quickly says as he climbs onto Schlatts back. "I can't touch it!"

Schlatt really wanted somebody to dump a bucket of water on him the moment the teen was on his back, his long ass limbs clinging onto him. "Bitch I will walk straight into a lake if you do not get off me." He frowns. "I need to find my - FUCK! I MEAN THE KID!" 

"Huh? Oh right you said you were looking for Tommy right? He got revived too right? Then let's go! Sams' house is near the prison!" Ranboo smiled, tail swishing happily.

Schlatt saw the tail and frowns. He spun in a circle of a moment, trying to catch the other's tail so he could investigate it but it was always just out of his reach. Huffing he starts the trek to the area the enderman hybrid pointed to. "Why aren't you surprised Tommy's back?" Schlatt asks with a frown.

"Oh I am! I'm just trying really hard not to cry or else it's gonna really, really hurt because I know once I start I won't be able to stop." Ranboo smiled even as small tears formed in his eyes.

"Hm." Schlatt hums, trying to figure out which way next to go.

It was silent for a moment after Ranboo gestured to the correct way. Schlatt liked it that way because it meant he wouldn't get angry again and if he didn't get angry then he wouldn't have another heart attack again. Ok he needed to focus on something else before he had a panic attack.

"I never meant to replace him, you know."

Schlatt stopped walking for a second as he glanced back at Ranboo. "Is that right? You could've fucking fooled me." He frowns. "You married his best friend, you took his place in the family, you are literally everything he wasn't so that meant everybody loved you and hated him."

Ranboo flinched at that.

"Your nickname is literally "Ranboo the beloveded" while his was "Tommy the unwanted" and "Tommy the war starter" oh, and "Tommy the nuisance"." Schlatt huffed as he walked towards a giant building that must be the prison. "Like it or not kid you were one of the causes at the end of the day, just as Tubbo, Phil, Techno, Dream and many others."

"I get you're a kid but for Notch sakes so was he. He was a war torn kid who cared way too much for people who would never do the same for him. He watched his older brother, his first father figure, go insane. He was beaten by him everyday and night if he did something wrong and in Wilbur's insane eyes if he breathed when he was told not to then he was doing something wrong." Schlatt continued.

"He watched his nation go up in flames twice, he watched as his family abandoned him again for somebody who's everything he's not, he watched as his best friend drifted away to that same person, he couldn't bring himself to hate the person who was taking his love away from him, he didn't know if he was alive our a walking corpse the day he left that hell hole then he finds out he's been replaced! Tubbo literally told him that he'd been replaced by you!"

"He protected you time and time again kid yet you didn't protect him from the others. You didn't protect him the few times he needed it the most. You could've talked to people and told them to stop hating on him, to just leave him alone for once, just let him heal. But you didn't." Schlatt looked down at the ground, eyes glowing a slight orange. "You're just as bad as the rest of them."

With that Schlatt started to walk again, not caring that a certain hotel stealing man and a certain fox eared man overheard him. At least now he had something else to focus on.

======

Sam hums softly as he gently rocks Tommy in his lower arms while his upper two carefully put a small braid in Tommy's hair. Everything was silent and peaceful in his house until the front door seemed to be kicked in, startling the sleeping child in his arms awake. 

"WHERE IS HE?!" A shout came from downstairs.

"Quackity…?" Sam frowns.

He'd barely seen his son since Tommy's death so this certainly was a surprise.

"Jesus christ Quackity! Calm down and put his door back on!"

Ponk?

"Who the fuck gave him sugar?!"

Sapnap?

"Why am I here…?"

George?

"Is everything ok in here?"

Eret?!

Is he getting robbed by his kids/kid in law and ex?!

"Why the fuck do you care?! You love that stupid egg more than you ever loved dad!" Quackity yelled as he walked up the stairs as calls of 'OOOOHHHH!' came from Sapnap, George and Eret.

"Big Q!" Tommy cheers when the sound of doors being bashed in resonates through the room.

"Tómas?!"

Uh oh. Sam quickly stands up and grabs the noise cancelling headphones (that he'd taken off the boy when the rain stopped) and quickly but carefully put back on Tommy before hiding him in his wardrobe just as the bedroom door was kicked open. "Where is he?!" Quackity shouts, pulling an apple out of his inventory.

"...Quackity I'm a warden, not a doctor." Sam chuckled while his son looked at his hand with a frown. 

"Wrong thing...hold on." Quackity turned away and looked at his hot bar but noticed his father was watching him. "STOP WATCHING ME!"

Sam laughed and turned away, a hand against the doors of the wardrobe when one of the doors tried to open. Not too long after he turned away he heard footsteps enter his room. "Dad? Why are you turned away like that?" George asks curiously as he peeks around Sam to see his face.

"Your brother wants privacy while he gets out his weapon to intimidate me." Sam hums as he reaches over and ruffles the brunette's hair.

"Gogy!" Came a childish squeak.

"What was that?" Sapnap asks as Quackity finally pulls out a neitherite axe.

"What was what?" Sam quickly asks, starting to sweat under the stare of his children, son in law and ex. 

"Sappy! Sappy Nappy!" Came the squeak.

"That! Is there somebody in here?!" Ponk asks with a growl.

"Sounds like a kid." Eret frowns as they look under the bed. "Are you surprise adopting again?"

"Uh….no…?" Sam smiles nervously.

"Hah! Found it!" Quackity shouts as he turns to his father. "Back away from the doors Sam. I know Tómas is in there!"

"Uh...no." Sam quickly says as he keeps himself practically glued to the doors.

"Gogy?" Eret smirks.

"Yes, Eret?" George smirks, already knowing what his twin was gonna say.

"You push, I pull."

"Ponk with me! Sapnap you pull with Eret!" George quickly gets on Sam's left side and starts pushing on his side.

Ponk quickly joined George in pushing as best as he could with one arm, a flicker of his old self shining through the egg's influence.

Eret, Sapnap and Quackity quickly take to pulling on the other side of Sam. "Curse these hardwood floors!" Sam shouts as he starts sliding to the right and away from the doors due to his socked feet not having good enough traction.

With a mighty pull and a strong push the group finally get Sam away from the doors of the wardrobe. Before Sam could say no Ponk pulled open the doors only for his heart to drop. "Ponky!" Tommy giggles as he reaches out for the man's covered face. "Missed you!"

"T-Tommy…?" Ponk whispers as he reaches into the wardrobe to pull Tommy out but Sam quickly grabs his wrist.

With a hiss Ponk glared up at Sam only to flinch at the look of fear in the man's eyes. "Don't touch him." Sam quickly says, his mouth smoking.

"You think I'd hurt a child?" Ponk whispered, actually hurt.

"Yes, yes I do Ponk. Right now with that egg controlling most of your actions I wouldn't put it past you, especially since how you Eggpire members reacted after being told Tommy...sweetie can you put your headphones back on?" Sam asks Tommy sweetly as the boy starts to do a little dance to a song in his head.

When Tommy compiled and immediately started dancing again, Sam chuckled before glaring at Ponk. "I wouldn't put it past you after you Eggpire members celebrated Tommy's first death and killed Foolish at the banquet." Sam hisses, eyes flashing dangerously.

Ponk looked away at that. He'd almost forgotten he'd done that. "Right…" he frowns before looking up at Sam again. "But I'd never hurt Tommy. I know how much he means to you."

"Exactly. You lot fucking kidnapped me at one point, remember? So why wouldn't you want to hurt me in the worst way possible?!" Sam growled. "I've seen how Bad, Ant and Punz stalk my kids Ponk. I'm just lucky Quackity has two people who would fight tooth and nail to protect him, George has a literal god on his side and Eret has just about every fucking person on this server looking after them!"

Ponk looked away again. He knew Sam was right but that didn't mean he had to like it. He was gonna speak again until small arms wrapped around his middle. Looking down he sees Tommy looking up at him with a pout.

"Where Uncle Ponks' arm?" Tommy asks before he climbs onto the man's shoulder and gives his face a good sniffing like he was a dog. "Why you smell like...neither and regret? You smell like Techie…"

"Oh great, I smell like Technoblade…" Ponk huffs as he takes his arm back from his ex so he could remove the headphones and take Tommy's searching hand that had been trying to figure out if the missing limb was invisible. "Well Tommy, a very mean son of a bitch took my arm because I wouldn't give him some keycards I took and I smell like the neither because the place I live in is made from neither blocks and redstone."

Tommy frowns. Who would take Uncle Ponks arm like that over some stupid keycards? "Isn't that overkill…?" Tommy whispers, gesturing to Ponks lack of arm. "Breaking it or fracturing it would've done the same thing because there's no real doctors here to take care of certain fractures that could cause you to amputate an arm and that way the person would be in pain a lot longer and most likely have to amputate their own arm!"

The room was silent as the group looked at Tommy who was smiling innocently back at them. "I'm going to choose to forget that he just said that." Eret states as they reach over and carefully removes Tommy from Ponks' shoulder. "C'mere you little parrot."

Tommy giggles as Eret holds him against their chest with his arms around their neck and legs wrapped around their waist. He giggles happily when Eret gently bounces him to help their grip. "Ok so I'll be taking him, bye." Eret quickly says, attempting to leave but when a Axe blade was pressed to his throat he stops moving and looks to Quackity who was glaring at him with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Quacky, what are you doing?"

"Shut up." Quackity quickly says, eyes darting to look at Tommy. "I'm taking Tommy, not you."

Eret frowns and sighs softly, lowering their sunglasses a bit to show their completely white eyes. "Quackity I love you, I do, but you have been slowly going insane for months and I don't think it's a good-" Eret begun but when the blade was moved closer to the skin of their neck, enough to make a small cut, they quickly stopped talking and pushed Tommy's face into their chest so he wouldn't see the axe.

"That wasn't a request, Eret. Hand him over." Quackity glares. "I'm not letting you L'Manburg assholes fuck him up again."

"Like you didn't have a hand in that Quacky." Eret growled. "You never once visited Tommy during his exile, you never even tried to speak up for the poor kid when he was being shouted at by his best friend that he was selfish and cruel, you didn't even participate in the little trick or treat party we all set up for the kids! Do you know how excited he was for you to see his costume Quacky?! He didn't fucking stop looking at the doors of my fort the whole party!"

Quackity frowns as he remembers seeing Tommy drop off some candy for him wearing a little duck onesie that he remembers seeing Bad and Skeppy wear once when he was a kid. He also remembers the panic he felt when he remembered that it had been Halloween and that he didn't get to spend it with everyone because he'd gotten his head stuck in a video game.

"At least I never fucking forced him into a war or took his fucking therapy animal instead of just asking for the god damn book or nearly cut off his leg because he was being annoying or fucking locked him up with his abuser and let him fucking die!" Quackity shouts, causing Tommy to flinch.

The room went completely quiet. Sam was looking down and away from Tommy as the memories of Dream telling him everything he did to the dead child as he braided a piece of his own hair into Tommy's bloody and greasy hair came flooding back. He wanted to vomit like he'd done at his camera station the day he saw Tommy on the floor, bloody and unmoving.

"At least I was there for him when he woke up crying, when he panicked from hearing thunder, when he fucking grew his wings in!" Quackity continued to yell. "At least I cared enough to fucking teach him to fly, to stop him from cutting his wings off instead of fucking grabbing a dull ass sword off the wall and try to swing it down on the back on a child. " 

That made Sapnap wince. He'd almost forgotten he'd done that. "But most of all, I fucking let him be a kid. I fucking made him, Jack, Fundy, Ranboo, Tubbo, Purpled and Hannah a fucking playground so they could have a childhood that this fucking server tore away from them. You should've seen their faces!"

Quackity was shaking now as he remembered the day he showed the kids their playground. He had built the whole shebang for them! Two slides, a big swing set, a climbing tower, a sandbox (that he had to chase Ghostbur away from when he saw the dead man eating sand on more than one occasion, a pile of dirt blocks for Ranboo to run around with, a little rock wall that he quickly realised would be useless to Ranboo, monkey bars, one of those strange teeter totters that looked like an X and, of course, a basketball court. 

"The kids looked so unsure when they fucking saw it and it hurt! They didn't know if they were allowed to have fun or not! It took me half an hour to convince them it was ok to run around and be a kid!" Quackity refused to believe his voice broke. "But when they finally trusted that it was ok, they ran around and laughed. They fucking laughed. I watched Tommy and Tubbo talk and run around like they used to, I watched Hannah and Purpled have a height contest on the swings, I fucking watched Ranboo get tangled in the monkey bars but still laugh and smile."

The man lets out a shaky breath as he lowers his axe to the ground. "I watched Fundy and Ghostbur talk and play on the basketball court, I watched Jack and Tommy get along and play on the teeter totter together. Sure they were trying to see how much force it would take to send the other flying but still! They were having fun and being kids. You guys gave them one day to feel like kids, I gave them a place where they could act like they have a childhood whenever they want." He spoke in a near whisper, sliding to his knees. "I...I just don't want it to happen again because you idiots stopped caring again."

Eret looks down at Tommy before looking to their brother. "Quacky we will never let that happen again." They spoke softly as they walked over to the downed man. "I swear on my life that it'll never happen again."

Quackity sniffles softly as he wipes at his eyes. God he felt horrible for holding an axe to his siblings throat but he just wanted to leave with Tommy, leave this stupid place and never come back. A small hand on his face made Quackity flinch and look up to see that Eret had crouched down with Tommy so the child could gently wipe off the man's face with a worried look.

"Big Q sad?" Tommy asks softly as he was carefully put down. "Sad is bad! I'll make it go away."

The child searched his inventory until he smiled and popped the item into his hands. "Look Big Q! Clementine!" He smiles brightly, holding the stuffed toy out to Quackitys' scarred face. "She'll eat all your sad away like she eats clothes!"

Tommy looks around before leaning in close to Quackity with a giggle. "She eats some of my socks so I can wear mismatched ones." He whispers, making Quackity snicker softly. "Don't tell Wilby ok?"

Quackity smiles softly as tears slowly slid down his cheeks. "I won't buddy, I promise." He whispers back, gently taking the stuffed moth into his shaky hands. "Hi Clem…"

"Hi Big Q!" Tommy whispered in a squeaky voice that made Quackity resist the urge to smile. "Why are you sad? Do you need to wear same colored socks?"

Shaking his head he smiles softly. "No Clem. I'm sad because I'm afraid Tómas is gonna get hurt again." He spoke softly. "I just want him to be safe."

Tommy frowns and thinks for a moment before smiling brightly. "But you're here Big Q!" Tommy squeaked. "Tommy feels safe with you and he knows you'll always protect him from scary things!"

Quackity felt his face suddenly getting wetter as his tears fell faster. "Bad things may happen to Tommy but he will always, always love you Big Q! You're his big brother and he knows that he'll always be safe with you! You once tried to fight big, bad Techie to protect him, remember?"

Quackity just silently nodded.

"But you need to remember something Big Q! You're not the only one that cares about Tommy! Sammy, Papa Puffy, Eret, Sappy, Gogy, Ponky, Wilby and Mr. Horns care too! So you needa share! Ok?"

Quackity squeezed his stinging eyes shut with a sob as he buried his face in the stuffed moth, slowly nodding his head. This made Tommy smile and hug his big brother's head, gently rubbing his back like how Wilby would when he was scared. "I love you Big Q." Tommy smiles softly, laying his cheek against the top of the man's beanie.

"I-I...I love you too Big T." Quackity sniffles softly.

After a moment or two Tommy got onto his knees in front of Quackity and looked up at him curiously. "Is sad gone?" Tommy asks softly.

Quackity let out a half sob and a half laugh as he nods. "Sad all gone. Now Big Q is happy crying because he has his little brother back." He smiles as he pulls Tommy into a tight hug, holding the child in his lap with his cheek laying against the blonde's fluffy hair.

The boy didn't stop giggling even as more people joined their hug. He was just really happy that Big Q was happy again.

Chapter Text

Techno quickly speed walks away from the crying obsidian box he had been in with his father. After his mother had yelled and cursed them out for everything they'd done to Tommy he had seen the gleam in her eye when she looked to Phil and told him he needed to be punished. Yeah he did not want to see his parents getting freaky so he ran as far as he could.

But due to him not being too used to the area, even if he had been living there for a while, he quickly got lost and ended up in a large patch of flowers. Looking around he spots Sam and Eret setting up a picnic while the rest of their family run around in the flowers with a small figure.

Shrugging he walks through the tall, wet grass and looks around at the flowers. Almost every flower he saw was a golden yellow that reminded him so much of Tommy. So, with a sigh, he sat himself down in a small patch of yellow tulips and gently played with the petals of the flower closest to him.

He suddenly remembered when Tommy would drag him to a large flower field near their family home when he was little, whenever he was home that is, and show him the little dens he'd made or the little nests the boy had weaved so carefully out of grass, flowers and hay. A small smile made it to his lips as he thought of how Tommy would gleefully tell him all about the flowers of the fields and their meanings while they walked through the field. Tommy had always been very fascinated with plants and fungus from what he could remember.

Laying down on his side he tries not to let his tears fall as he remembers the last time he'd actually talked to Tommy, the last time he'd held his brother and the last time he saw his baby brother's smile.

The last time he'd talked to Tommy was during Doomsday when he was yelling at Tommy to die. To say a boulder of regret filled his stomach that night when he'd finally settled down for bed would be an understatement. He spent that night with images of Tommy trying to protect Tubbo from the blasts, of Tommy crying as his home was destroyed once more, of Tommy looking up at him in so much fear and betrayal that it actually made it hard to breathe. 

The last time he'd held his brother when he was alive was when he found Tommy asleep in a large hollowed out tree that Phil had made so he could nest if he wished. He had been tempted to punch Tommy but when he saw the red on the boy's hands he knew something was wrong. So he pulled Tommy out and raced him home when he saw the blood covering the teens chest. It was three days later when Tommy woke up and ran out of Techno's house screaming when he saw the man and Phil.

The last time he saw his brother's smile was when he had been spying on him. The teen had been sitting on top of his little dirt house, slowly eating a piece of bread, when one of Phils' crows sat beside Tommy with a shiny thing in its mouth. That was how he found out Phil had silently landed next to him. Together the two watched as Tommy gave his bread to the crow in order to get the shiny item. The smile on Tommy's face was contagious as the boy held the totem of undying close to his chest. For half an hour Tommy didn't stop smiling as he talked to the crow.

Phil and Techno thought he'd never stop smiling and they were happy, not having seen a non forced smile on the blonde's face in a very long time but they quickly noticed Jack putting down some blocks and filling the spots with water. They were confused until Jack put a block of TNT into it and set it off. They both still remember Tommy's scream and how Jack pretended to be the "caring friend" by trying to help the sobbing and shaking teen until Sam Nook slashed his back to get him away from Tommy, having heard the blast as well.

It actually hurt seeing Tommy cling to that silly raccoon eared robot as he cried his heart out, begging Dream to let him keep his things. Techno wanted to be the one his brother clung onto but he knew he could never be an anchor for Tommy again. He messed that up a long, long time ago by leaving so much and now that he thought about it...that may have been the reason why Tommy betrayed him. He never saw Techno as a brother. He only saw him as somebody related to Wilbur.

But apparently it hurt Phil worse when Sam appeared and Tommy called him 'Dad' and begged him to not let Dream near him, begging him to let him leave exile. That night Techno could hear Phil crying from across the way and in the morning he saw how exhausted the man looked.

Is he ok?

Sad Techno

I just got here, what's going on?

Maybe he's hungry

Stay hydrated!

Techno grumbles as the voices start chatting idly to each other. "Shut up. Just let me-" Techno was gonna yell but when he felt a gentle tug on his cape he stopped.

Slowly turning over he felt his heart stop at the sight of somebody he'd thought he'd never see again. There, holding out a plastic wrapped sandwich, was a child version of Tommy. He knew it was Tommy from just the boy's hair alone. He remembered pretending to go "gold crazy" when he visited his little brother and saw his hair. It didn't help that the child had Tommy's bright baby blues.

Plus he's seen Tommy once or twice when he was little. "Tommy…?" Techno whispers, his eyes growing wide behind his mask.

Tommy tilted his head curiously before he looked behind him then back at Techno. "Hi Techie." Tommy whispers. "I brought you a sandwich."

Techno looked down at the sandwich in the boy's hands and slowly took it. "Bye bye." Tommy spoke softly as he attempted to leave. Attempted being the keyword.

As soon as Tommy tried running away from him Techno tossed the sandwich away from him and pulled Tommy to his chest, his head on the small shoulder while one hand was tangled in the bright yellow locks and the other was wrapped around the child so he was holding onto his other shoulder. The way he was sitting up, one knee on the ground while his other foot was planted firmly on the ground, made it so Tommy was slightly off the ground as he was held. (A/N: I hope I worded this right. I was trying to go for the Desperate Hug stance.)

He grit his teeth as the tears started to fall. "Theseus...Tommy…" He whispered in a broken voice, feeling the kid grip his wrinkled dress shirt tightly.

He listened to the child's breathing and let that ground him. For the first time in months Techno's heart felt full and he never wanted to let Tommy leave his sight again. But of course, when has luck ever been on his side?

"Let him go."

Techno looked up to see Ponk holding a crossbow with Sam and Eret standing behind him, each holding their own weapons. Then he heard a bow being cocked back so he glanced behind him to see George ready to let his arrow fly into Technos head. With a glance to his left he saw Sapnap, body already on fire, and he knew he had to pull something tricky to get out of here with Tommy safely. He didn't want a child to see bloodshed.

"You heard him pig, let my little brother go."

Techno quickly looked to his right to see Quackity holding a firework loaded crossbow directly in his face. He had nowhere to run. He was cornered with a small child. The normally strategic man was suddenly drawing blanks when what Quackity said registered.

Gritting his teeth he quickly became angry. "He is not your little brother Alexis!" Techno shouted, covering Tommy's ears as he did. "Last time I checked his last name was WATSON not...whatever your last name is!"

"Oh so we're using first names now huh William? Fine then." Quackity growls out. "Last time I checked, you didn't consider yourself a part of Phil's family and you "disowned" Tommy during Doomsday as he watched the last thing he had of his dear father, Wilbur not Phil, get taken away from him again."

Techno felt his boiling blood quickly turn to a simmer as the words hit him. "Also WILLIAM, why in the hell do you think you deserve to be called his big brother again? After all the bullshit you've done to him, what makes you think that ANY sane person would let you near him?" Quackity huffs, seeing the anger fading from Techno's red eyes. "Fuck, it's taking a lot for me not to slaughter you right now from you just being in the same biome as Tommy."

Techno felt his grip on Tommy weakening as memories of all the time's he'd hurt Tommy and the times he let him get hurt flew past his mind's eye. He remembered the day Phil first laid his hands on Tommy, the terrified look on the child's face as Phil screamed at him for daring to touch him. He remembered the look Tommy gave him as he walked down the stairs and right into the shit show.

He also remembered how he just looked away from the child to ask Phil what was for dinner. He hadn't helped Tommy. He never helped Tommy. Not even when the kid ran into his room with a busted lip and black eye. He had just told Tommy to leave him alone.

By the time Tommy was eight he had stopped talking to Phil and him. He just stayed quiet, away from the two of them. He even stopped dragging Techno to the flower field. Whenever he'd ask if he wanted to go he just shook his head and ran to Fundy or Tubbo and hid away from Techno and Phil.

Techno hated it. He missed the days where the boy would talk his ears off about things he found interesting or the perfect recipe for non-crafting bench made Mushroom Stew. He missed when Tommy would ask for a sparring session or to braid Technos hair and slip some of his favorite flowers into the braid. He also missed how Tommy would just let him hold him when the voices became too much. They'd always quiet down when Tommy was near.

Then one day when he went to show Tommy a new greek god book, he'd ignored Wilburs yells that Tommy didn't want to see him, he had walked in to see Tommy in a little cuddle pile with Fundy, Tubbo, a boy in a purple hoodie and black hair and a boy with light blonde hair. He went to question if Tommy was ok only to be stabbed in the stomach by a wooden sword. It barely even hurt and it didn't even break skin but it did startle the man.

When he looked down he saw a boy wearing sunglasses and a Santa hat staring up at him. He went to ask what was going on and who was he but he quickly shut up when the boy talked. "Family and friends only pal. You're neither so fuck off."

Techno stood in the doorway in confusion. He was family! He was Tommy's big brother!

Then with a small call of "Deo! Cuddle!" from Tommy the Santa hat wearing kid slammed the door closed.

That had been the last time he'd seen his little brother because the next day Wilbur and the others were gone with just a note on the table saying 'Bye'.

Gripping his head, Techno remembers how he'd treated Tommy here, how he was willing to give Tommy up to Dream twice and how one of those times caused the boy to have a panic attack so bad he had passed out from not breathing. He really didn't deserve to be the kid's brother. He deserved somebody better, somebody who'd treat him better and actually help him. Somebody who wouldn't make fun of the kids' trauma.

"There he is!"

Techno quickly let his head go when he realised that Tommy was no longer in his arms. Panicking he whipped his head around until he saw Schlatt on his knees, holding Tommy to his chest as the kid giggled happily. Sam and his family quickly walked over, obviously not trusting Schlatt.

"Hey Tech…"

Looking up, Techno saw Ranboo, his new son, wiping at his eyes with his sleeve. "I-I see you've found Tommy." The teen gave Techno a strained smile.

Now Techno had never been good with emotions but when he adopted Ranboo he made a promise to do better than Phil. So he quickly stood and pulled the duo colored boy to his chest, gently running his fingers through his hair as the kid sobbed. "I-I messed up Tech...I messed up so bad." Ranboo whispers, gripping onto his fathers cape.

Turning his head Techno saw Tommy laughing happily as Sam and Ponk tickled his belly. The overwhelming feeling of jealousy and anger, not at any of the other people in the field but himself, settled in his heart as he listened to the laugh he barely ever got to hear and saw the smile that was barely ever directed towards him shining brightly up at Quackity when the man took Tommy to give him a cuddle.

With a heavy sigh Techno just held his son tighter, even as his own tears threatened to spill.

"So have I...so have I."

======

Schlatt glanced back to watch Sam and Ponk swinging Tommy between them, the kid going absolutely nuts as he was swung forward. Tommy's gleeful laughs were bouncing off the trees of the forest leading to Pogtopia and Schlatt was honestly happy that Tommy was having fun.

Yet the man couldn't help but feel jealous of Sam and Ponk. He was meant to care for Tommy and Wilbur, not them. He had been entrusted this by Lady Death, not Sam and Ponk.

"Come on Toms!" He heard Sapnap call out behind him. "Try and kick me! If you can, I'll make cookies for dessert tonight. I know how much you like my chocolate chunk cookies."

Ooooh. Big mistake. Schaltt smirks when he hears a foot making contact with somebody's face and a body dropping into mud. Looking back he laughs proudly as Tommy sat criss cross style on a downed and dazed Sapnaps' chest. "Good boy!" Schlatt laughs as he picks the boy up.

Tommy just giggled happily as he was lifted above Schlatts' head. "Next time go for a headbutt! Skull on skull hurts worse!" Schlatt smirks as he hooks Tommy on his hip.

When he saw the yearning look in the kids' eyes Schlatt was confused until he looked up and saw they were under an oak tree that had plenty of acorns just waiting to fall. His inner ram wanted him to try and get the acorns and leaves as his stomach grumbled. "Hey Toms? You got a basket on ya?" Schlatt asks, not taking his eyes off the acorns.

Tommy quickly pulled a basket out of his inventory, still staring up at the yummy looking acorns. His inner crow was telling him that they were safe to eat and that he needed those yummy snacks right now. "Ok bud you keep the basket above your head and I'll ram it." Schlatt quickly says as he sets Tommy down to get into position. "We'll split the goods 60-40 got it?"

"Ok. As long as you get the 40." Tommy smiles, putting the basket on his head as Sapnap finally sits up. 

"Hey, I'm putting my brain on the line for this kid! I get the 60." Schaltt argues.

"Ram skulls were built by nature in order to sustain a hit harder than two football players clashing. You bashing your head into a tree will put your brain in no danger." Tommy frowns as he looks up at Schlatt.

"...I forgot Lady Death and XD let you keep your smarts." Schlatt frowns but sighs in defeat. "Fine. 50-50?"

"Sounds good to me! We'll let Papa Wilby count 'em so he can help us divide them evenly." Tommy smiled, getting his basket ready again.

Schlatt rolls his eyes with a smile, a bubble of pride forming in his chest, before lowering his head and body a bit. Kicking back some dirt he moved his arms to protect his chest as he ran forward and smashed into the tree, making a crack in the wood and a large amount of acorns fall onto the ground and Tommy's basket. 

The boy laughs and protects his head with the basket as the acorns drop all around him. Once the acorns stopped dropping Tommy lowered the basket and let out a happy chirp at the sight of a full basket of acorns, many of which were much bigger than the rest. 

Schlatt walks over and grins at the sight. "Hell yeah!" He laughs as he goes to snag a few only to get his hand swatted away by Tommy. "Hey! What the hell?"

"You have ta wait! We need to wash 'em, count 'em and take the tops off." Tommy frowns. "Or do you wanna teach a kid it's ok to eat dirty things?"

"...I don't like you." Schlatt frowns as he crosses his arms in a mock pout. "You gotta make things difficult."

Tommy just giggled until he perked up to a sound not too far away from them. Glancing to Schlatt he notices his floppy ears twitching and a sudden look he couldn't place crossing over his face. "Schlatt…" Tommy whispers, voice shaking a bit.

"I hear it too. Don't know what it is but I hear it." Schlatt frowns, pulling out the diamond sword he stole from Jack earlier from his inventory. "Go to Ponk kid."

Tommy quickly obeyed and hid behind the man's leg, peeking out slightly as Schlatt removed his shoes. He knew this move! Wilbur taught him it when they were passing through a village filled with dangerous mobs. Without shoes you are a bit quieter than you are with them on.

Schlatt slowly inched his way towards the bushes where he could make out the outline of a tall form holding a trident. It wasn't a drowned, he knew what those sounded like. So the only other thing it could be was another player or an Enderman who picked up an item instead of a block by mistake. 

Glancing back he sees Tommy watching him with worried eyes. He couldn't let whatever this was get near the kid. He would never forgive himself. But as he moved to hide behind a bush he quickly stood and raced back to the group when the outline turned towards him and started running. That was not a player, nor was it an Enderman.

That was a pissed off god.

"RUN!" Schlatt yells quickly, running as fast as he could. "FUCKING RUN!"

Ponk quickly picks up Tommy while Sam takes the acorns as Schlatt pushes Sapnap forward to get him to run. Together the group ran back the way they came from (nearly running into Techno and Ranboo as they did), Schlatt letting out startled bleets when lightning almost hit him twice.

Once they were far enough away that all of them were just a bit winded and almost back to L'Manburg they stopped to rest. Schlatt groaned as he laid over a stump on his stomach. "Never bother an angry god!" Schlatt calls out as he tries to catch his breath and stop his legs from burning.

"Now I see why you stayed with him for so long, Quackity…" Sapnap panted out, falling onto his butt. "Dat ass though!"

"Sappy, I love you, but you ever say that...that again I will sic Fran on you." Quackity groans, falling on top of his fiance. "Hi…"

"Hi…" Sapnap smiles, kissing the top of the smaller man's head. 

"Ugh! Stop with the PDA!" George groans as he lays down on his downed twins' back. "It always turns into you two dry humping."

Eret just groans at the new weight on their back. "Gogy I swear to Ender…" They groan.

Sam was just wheezing as he crouched by the stomp that Schlatt was laying on. "Who...Who was...was it?" He manages to get out as Ponk joins the group, not even winded.

"How are you all winded? I'm fucking carrying a child with one arm." Ponk laughs.

"That fucking egg gives you extra stamina, fuck you." Schlatt called out until he felt somebody grabbing his small tail at the base of his spine. With a surprised bleat he looks behind him to see Tommy was playing with the fluffy appendage. "Toms, baby bird, please don't play with that."

Schlatt hadn't even realised that he'd used a nickname as he reaches back and swats away Tommys investigating hands. "Soft!" Tommy shouts with a smile.

"Yes it is soft but you can't play with my tail, got it?" Schlatt groans as he sits up on the stump to look down at the kid. "Don't you got Clem on ya? Ain't she soft? Play with her!" 

Tommy thought about it for a second before searching his inventory. With a happy chirp he pulled the stuffed toy out of his inventory and laid on the grass with his precious moth friend. Schlatt chuckled until he felt a tap on his shoulder. Quickly turning he yelps at the sight of a masked person with their arms crossed. "Schlatt! You said you'd call me if you found Tommy!" The figure growled.

Schlatt looked at the person in confusion until they removed their mask. "Oh shit! Song bird!" Schlatt quickly gets up. "I forgot! I'm sorry! I had to deal with that Enderman kid, got put in a crying obsidian box, just got chased by an angry god and I got acorns."

Wilbur cocks a brow at the man before looking behind him to Tommy. "Tommy?" He asks.

"I went out to look at flowers, Sammy found me and made me waffles, mama came over and left me clothes and a mask, helped Big Q calm down, we had a picnic, I saw Techie," Wilbur flinched at the mention of Techno. "Schlatt found me, he started to lead us all back to the big button place when Sappy challenged me to kick him in the face, I won by the way, we saw acorns and we got acorns. Then an angry god started to shoot lightning at us so we ran!"

Wilbur frowns as he nods along. "Huh...was it XD? He did seem a tad bit ticked when we left."

"Nope. This mother fucker looked...weird for a lack of a better word." Schlatt frowns as Tommy runs over to Wilbur. "Honestly might've been that shark totem thing I shook earlier."

Wilbur hums, no longer paying attention to Schlatt as he picks up Tommy. "Hi baby! You have fun?" He asks with a soft smile.

Tommy nods with a bright smile, hugging Wilbur around the neck. "Lot's of fun!" He giggled. "Can we stay with Sammy? Please, please, please?"

Wilbur wanted to say no, not even knowing who this 'Sammy' even was, but when he saw the big puppy eyes that Tommy was giving him...how could he say no? "If Sammy says yes then I'm fine with it." Wilbur smiles.

"Yay!" Tommy cheers.

"Hey, hey, hey! I didn't say it was ok!" Schlatt frowns, stepping closer to the boys. "You two are my responsibility and I-"

Schlatt was gonna continue his rant until Tommy turned his puppy eyes on him. He stood there for a moment before he pointed to Sam. "Ask…" Schlatt states in a strained voice.

Tommy cheers again and looks down to Sam who just gives a nod. "I'm perfectly fine with it as long as Schlatt stays away from Quackity. I don't want him trying anything." Sam stated, acting like Schlatt wasn't even there.

"Bitch I am right here." Schlatt huffs.

"Who said that?" Sam asks, looking around himself.

Schlatt growls and prepares to headbutt Sam but when Tommy poked his cheek curiously he stopped himself. He knew that Lady Death wouldn't appreciate it if he hurt somebody in front of Wilbur and Tommy. So he stood there with his arms crossed as his cheek was poked by his youngest charge.

"Poke him in the eye, Toms!" Wilbur grins as he holds Tommy up to the man's face.

"Hey, hey! Don't you fucking dare!" Schlatt quickly says, dodging poking fingers.

"Aim for the eyes baby!" Wilbur shouts as he chases Schlatt down with Tommy held up to eye-poking level. "God I wish I had a fork!"

"I have one!" George calls out, holding up said fork.

"You bitch!" Schlatt yells at George as he runs from the now fork welding child and crazed teen. "Why the fuck do you even have a fork on you?!"

"To stab bitches." George smiled until he was quickly flipped over so Eret was now sitting on top of him.

"Freedom!" Eret laughs as they squish their brother.

"This is what you get for worrying me for OVER SIX FUCKING HOURS!" Wilbur shouts, chasing the man down with his fork welding child held out at arms length.

"HELP!" Schlatt shouts as he runs behind a tree.

Sam and Ponk were too busy laughing their heads off to be of any real assistance while the rest of the family was just watching in amusement. "You're on your own Schlatt!" Sapnap laughs.

Schlatt screams when the fork stabs his horn. What the fuck did he get himself into?!

======

Sam hums softly as he pops two pans into his oven, enjoying the rage filled screams of his family. Picking up his cup of water he takes a sip. "FUCK YOU GEORGE! YOU'RE ADOPTED!" He heard Quackity yell.

"BITCH, WE'RE ALL ADOPTED NOW HIT ME WITH ANOTHER FUCKING RED SHELL AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!" George shouts.

"I DON'T KNOW WHO'S FUCKING GETTING ME WITH THE FUCKING BOOMERANG BUT I'M COMING FOR YOUR LEFT SHOE AND I'M SHITTING IN IT PAL!" Eret yelled.

Sam choked on his water as he laughed, nothing actually coming out but a painful sounding wheeze. He choked on his laugh for a few more moments before calming down. "Why do they get so competitive in Mario Kart?" He laughed to himself.

"WHOEVER THREW THAT FUCKING BOMB I WILL PISS IN YOUR BED!" Came Tommy's voice, followed by Sapnap falling to the floor in laughter.

Sam resisted the urge to break down laughing and instead focused on getting the stuff needed to make cookies out. "Sam."

Sam turns with ingredients in all four hands to see Wilbur and Schlatt standing in the doorway, watching him. "Uh...creepy…" He frowns as he places his stuff down. "What's going on guys? Want a snack? I have grapes, apples, some chips called Monster Munch but they may be expired. I bought them months ago."

"Nah. We're good." Schlatt smiles a bit unsettlingly.

"Ok…" Sam frowns as Wilbur sits down on the table, placing his foot on one of the chairs.

"So...what did Tommy tell you?" Wilbur asks, idly looking through his inventory.

"What do you…?" Sam asks until there was a loud boom from outside.

Quickly looking out the window he sees lightning streak across the sky that was quickly growing dark. "Don't play dumb Sam." Schlatt growls. "Lady Death told me about you."

Sam quickly looked to Schlatt and into those glowing orange eyes. "What are you talking about?" He questions.

"How you can split your consciousness between you and your little robots, how you adopted three children born from the legendary hostile mob Herobrine, how you lost control of the youngest and how he'd only calm near a certain blonde child and his little group." Schlatt states.

"She also told us that you're like Stitch. You can pull your lower two arms back into your body but it makes you a foot taller." Wilbur spoke up.

Sam felt his blood run cold. Nobody was supposed to know these things, not even Ponk! What was he gonna do? He had to...well he didn't know what he had to do.

"Don't worry big guy, we all have our secrets. Especially us Watsons." Wilbur chuckles. "You didn't actually expect mortals to have been born to the Goddess of Death and her Immortal Angel, did you?"

The creeper hybrid looked between Wilbur and Schlatt. "Where are you going with this?" He asks hesitantly.

"We know you want to adopt Tommy because you feel bad for not saving him." Wilbur states as he pulls out his guitar from his inventory. "But Schlatt here also wants to adopt him just like I do. So you see our problem right?"

"Song bird, that's not what we needed to ask." Schlatt chuckles.

"That's not why I want to adopt Tommy!" Sam growls, subconsciously reaching for a knife. "I actually care for Tommy, unlike you two."

Schlatt glanced over to Wilbur who was quietly seething at the man's words. "Tommy! Come here baby bird!" Schlatt called out. "Bring the acorns!"

The little pitter patter of Tommys socked feet sounded through the kitchen as Tommy ran in excitedly with his basket. "Acorns!" He cheers, holding his basket high above his head..

Looking to Wilbur, Schlatt let out a breath of relief as he saw how he had calmed down. "Go show Papa Wilby bud." Schlatt smiles gently at Tommy who immediately ran over to his older brother.

"Papa! Papa!" Tommy grins happily. "Look!"

Wilbur takes a calming breath before he climbs off the table and bends down to look at the basket. "Wow bud! You and Schlatt sure got a lot huh?" The brunette asks with a smile. "How about we wash 'em off huh?"

"Yeah!" Tommy cheers, doing a little happy wiggle.

"Hey! I thought you were a bird bubba! But you're all wiggly like a worm!" Wilbur playfully says as he tickles Tommy's sides.

The blonde child squeals and tries to keep a grip on his acorns as he was tickled. "Papa! Papa no!" Tommy laughed as he struggled to be free.

"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you, Toms!" Wilbur chuckles as he tickles his brother.

Tommy screamed in laughter as he tried to get away from the tickles. "Fran! Fran help Tommy!" The child calls out when he sees the dog peek into the kitchen.

Fran barked once before rushing in and carefully bit down on the back of Tommys' shirt. The wolf quickly ran away with a laughing Tommy (who was still holding his precious acorns) hanging from her mouth and a confused Wilbur watching. "I...I...did he just get kidnapped by a dog?" Wilbur laughs as he follows. "Wait! Come back here!"

Schlatt laughs as he watches his friend run out the kitchen and after the dog. "Ok I didn't expect that!" He chuckles.

Sam too chuckled at the sight. "That certainly was unexpected but a funny one." Sam agreed, no longer reaching for the knife.

Schlatt looks at Sam and sighs. "Look, I need to have a talk with you about Tommy and Wilbur and since you are currently the only other person besides Karl I trust it looks like we'll be co-parenting." He frowns.

"Co-parenting?" Sam questions as he takes a seat at the table with Schlatt. "Why would I co-parent with you?"

"Because if you don't I won't be happy." Schlatt gave a creepy grin as a flash of lightning lit up the room. "You wouldn't want to make a god angry."

"You? A god?" Sam questions, glaring at the man.

"Yes, me." Schlatt smiles. "I'm a nature god Sam. I can control the weather, spawn animals, make plants grow faster and even revive dead plants."

Sam watched the man in distaste. Even if Schlatt was a god he still remembered all the bullshit he'd done when he was first alive. He knew for a fact that Tubbo can't be near fireworks still. "I know what you're thinking, Sam. But I didn't know." Schlatt frowns, looking down at his hands.

"What didn't you know?" Sam questions.

"That Toby was my son." Schlatts frown deepens. "I got into a bad car accident on a different server maybe twelve years ago and I lost most of my memory, most of my mobility in my right arm and I had terrible back pain for years after. I had a partner at the time and apparently they put Toby in a box and in the woods where Wilbur, Fundy and Tommy lived. I only remembered who he was after I died. My memories all came back and it fucking hurt."

Schlatt squeezes his hands as if to give himself reassurance. "I had a monster kill my son in front of me and I did nothing but laugh. I beat him or threw beer bottles at him for just doing his fucking job." Schlatt shook his head as he looked at the table. "I just...I just want to try again. I know I can never get Toby back nor can I get his trust back but I want to try again."

Sam watched Schlatt as rain started to gently fall in time with his tears. "I know I don't deserve it but…" Schlatt shook his head again. "I just want a second chance."

Sam folded his hands on the table, the only sounds now were the rain falling outside, Wilbur begging Fran to put Tommy down and his family's laughter. With a sigh he rubs his head before looking up at Schlatt. 

"I get them both on my birthday, fireworks day, Halloween and Christmas Eve." Sam quickly says. "We both get them on their birthdays so we can throw them a party, we both do schooling for them, we both show up to everything and we both work on building you guys a house close to me so it's not that far if you need help with something."

Schlatt looked up in surprise but he nodded quickly. "Y-Yeah! Ok!" He smiles. "But we switch it up every year. You get those holidays this year and I get them next year."

"Sounds fair." Sam agrees. "But we also have family dinners every Sunday."

"I can do that! I make a mean bowl of chili!" Schlatt smiles.

Sam hums. He liked chili. "We should probably put this in a book huh?" He chuckles.

"Oh! Hold on, I think I have one!" Schlatt quickly opens his inventory and scans through. "Extra shoes, my hat, sword, candy, mutton...that I should probably throw out now, coloring book, sticks, gunpowder, torches…ah! I got one!"

Schlatt pulls the book out and places it on the table. "Can you write it? It takes me a while to write anything." He frowns.

Sam takes the book & quill and starts writing everything they said. Gods he hopes he's not gonna regret this.

Chapter Text

Jack stood at the check-in desk at The Big Innit Hotel (having renamed it to its original name after Tommy's death) just...just staring at the old photo of himself and Tommy. It was from the war, only a year in, and the two were covered in mud and grinning widely with frogs on their heads and colorful plasters here and there.

Tommy had been ten and Jack had been twelve when the photo was taken. The last photo he had with Tommy before things went to shit.

Coincidentally it was the item that Tommy left him. Before Tommy died he had made a scavenger hunt for everybody to find the items he left for them. Tommy had died thinking that they would have a party for his death so he had made them a party game. The dead teen had said so in his letters to everyone.

Carefully lifting the photo frame Jack gently rubbed his thumb over Tommy's image as memories of that day started to replay in his head.

"Jack?"

Jumping Jack looked away from the photo and saw Nikki standing in front of him holding a plate wrapped in tin foil.

"Oh...hey Nikki." He whispers, his voice hoarse and scratchy. "Is it dinner time already?"

"Yeah...yeah it is." Nikki frowns, putting the plate down. Bending over the counter she places her hand against Jacks' forehead. "You're not warm...are you ok?"

"Yeah...yeah I'm fine." Jack hums, reaching for the plate.

"Jack…" Nikki says in a warning tone.

Jack stopped and looked back at Nikki. "I'm hungry. Can we talk after I eat?" He asks softly.

Sighing Nikki nods and pulls two cans of Sprite out of her inventory. "Sure."

Jack frowns at the sight of the soda. "You don't have any whiskey?" He asks softly.

"Jack, you're in recovery…" Nikki frowns.

Sighing Jack took the can of soda and immediately chugged it. Slamming the can down on the counter he burps long and loudly, making Nikki laugh in amusement. "Gross." She smiles.

Jack chuckled as he pulled the plate to him and unwrapped the tin foil to see a few pieces of mutton, a small pile of mashed potatoes and a small loaf of bread with a little pad of butter on top. Smiling, he grabs the silverware he had hidden under the counter and puts them next to the plate.

"Looks good, as always." He smiles.

Nikki chuckles and shakes her head. "Thanks now eat. You're nothing but skin and bones."

"What? No way! With the way you've been feeding me I've probably gained like sixty pounds or something!" Jack laughs.

Nikki laughs and climbs onto the counter.

The two are silent for a while, just the sound of Jack chewing and the soft music being played over the speakers in the corners of the room.

"Excuse me?"

Jack looks up and nearly chokes at the sight of Lady Death standing before him with a passed out Phil in her arms.

"Is this the hotel my husband is staying...Jack Manifold?" The tall woman asks curiously.

Jack shakily stepped back and away from the woman.

"Oh my, you are Jack! Hello again dear." Lady Death smiles, cradling Phil closer to her. "The one that got away."

Jack slowly slid down the wall as he stared up at Lady Death, the skull mark on his chest burning.

"I heard you have been a little scamp since last we met." Lady Death smiles, her head tilting to the side a bit. "You and your little friend, Nikki, had been trying to kill my baby boy."

"B-Baby boy…?" Jack stutters.

"Mhm." Death smiles. "Tommy Theseus Minecraft Watson."

Jack paled at the name that Lady Death had said. "T-Tommy was your...your son…?" He whispers.

"Was? Oh no, no, no! He is my son." Lady Death chuckles. "Whether he is alive or dead he is still my little man."

Jack chuckled nervously as he looked around himself for anything he could protect himself with if Lady Death decided to attack.

"Tommy really cared about you, you know."

Jack stopped and looked up at Lady Death. "...what?"

"He always thought you were so cool because you knew how to fish, because you never cried when you got hurt." Lady Death hums. "But when the war started he grew to realize that he looked at you like a big brother so he tried his hardest to protect you like he tried to do for Fundy."

"He loved you Jack." Lady Death frowns, gently touching the wilted poppy that sat in a vase on the counter. "For Tommy you were the light in the dark during the war when Wilbur would only snap at him. You were there to help chase away the fears and hunger pains."

Jack felt his heart both melt and break at the new knowledge.

"Yet you tried to kill him? Why?" Lady Death asks softly. "Was it because you all blamed him for the fall of L'Manburg? You do realise that that was your own fault right? You all betrayed my second born, Techno, knowing what would happen due to his anarchist views. You all blamed that on Tommy and I don't see why."

"Tommy drove Wilbur insane! It's his own fault!"

Jack quickly looked over to Nikki. He'd almost forgotten she was there.

"Excuse me?" Lady Death frowns. "A child was the reason a full grown man went insane? Are you sure that's not your jealousy talking little miss mermaid?"

Nikki frowns and goes to shout but Lady Death stops her.

"You do know my eldest only loved you because you remind him of Sally, yes?" Lady Death smiles. "He never truly loved you Nikki. He was only in love with the fact that you were part fish."

Nikki stood stock still as she looked up at Lady Death who loomed over her like a dark overhanging cloud.

"But don't worry dearie, you still have Puffy." She smiles but then gives a mock gasp. "Oh yes! I almost forgot! You two broke up because she found out you were actively trying to murder a child that loved you like a big sister and never once forgot about you, always trying to protect you from Wilbur. After all, if he'd beat Tommy half to death, why wouldn't he do the same to you?"

"Wil...Wilbur beat Tommy?" Nikki whispers.

"Unfortunately yes, during Pogtopia." Lady Death frowns. "I saw Tommy one too many times during those days. Thankfully Wilbur will never be like that again."

Nikki just looked up at Lady Death and watched her phase through the counter and over to the ladder. "I really should get Phil to bed now." She hums but looks down at Jack before heading up the ladder. "Phil is going to be very sore when he wakes so if you would make him tea and tell him that the spell I placed on him and Toby will wear off in three days, so long as they stay in my good graces."

Jack just nods and backs up enough that Lady Death could go up the ladder without problem.

Together Jack and Nikki watch Lady Death go up to Phil and Technos' room, both filled with fear and regret.

======

Sam chuckles softly when he sees Tommy and Quackity trying to sneak a cookie from the baking sheet. They'd finished eating dinner, Spanish Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and peas, not too long ago and in that span of time Sapnap managed to bake a dozen of his famous chocolate chunk cookies for dessert before heading out with Karl, Schlatt and George to get building materials for Schlatts' new house.

So that left Quackity, Tommy, Wilbur, Ponk, Eret and himself in the house.

Ponk and Eret were in the living room playing chess while Sam himself was washing the dishes and pretending he didn't notice his sons trying to sneak cookies.

Unfortunately he had no clue where Wilbur went. As soon as dinner ended Wilbur kissed Tommy on the top of the head and said he'd be right back. 

Humming he bites his lip to hide a smile when he sees Quackity using his beanie as a plate. "Ugh. Itchy lip." He hums. "Man, those cookies sure smell great. Can't wait to have some with some milk that's in the fridge and on the second shelf."

Glancing to his right he continues to hum softly as he watches Tommy and Quackity silently sneak over to the fridge. Shaking his head in amusement Sam goes back to washing the dishes but stops when he hears somebody coming into the kitchen.

Turning to look over his shoulder he frowns when he sees Ponk holding his head in pain.

"Ponky?" He whispers, quickly dropping both the plates and the rags he had been holding.

Wiping his hands on his apron and shirt he quickly walks over to the balaclava clad man. Gently gripping his shoulders he crouches down a bit so he'd be level with the man.

"Ponky, Ponky look at me." Sam gently orders. "What's wrong?"

Ponk didn't look up, just kept holding his head in what seemed to be pain. Panting softly the lemon obsessed man looked up at Sam then over to where Quackity was holding Tommy back. "You." Ponk spoke in a deep growl, a strange echo in his voice. "You should be dead!"

"Ponk!" Sam shouts in shock.

"What the fuck man?!" Quackity yells, attempting to pull Tommy further behind him.

Tommy frowns and shakes off Quackity. "Mama let me and Wilby come back." He huffs.

Ponk laughs and shakes his head. "Yes, I could tell. Your dear Wilby is putting up quite a fight with Bad and Punz." He smirks behind his mask.

Tommy looks up at Ponk with a frown before growling. "Hurt him and mommy will kill you all." He hissed. "Or better yet, I'll kill all of your puppets myself, Egg Bitch."

Ponk laughs as he walks over to Tommy, crouching down to his height. "Oh yeah? You'd kill a bunch of helpless people, little boy?" He grins. "Like you said, they're my puppets. They are innocent while I'm not."

Tommy glared up at Ponk, watching his crazed red eyes look him up and down as if he was studying him. "So what are you going to do to me boy? They've already tried TNT, moving my blocks, breaking my blocks. Nothing's worked! So what could you ever do to hurt me?!"

"Soul fire." Tommy growls.

Ponk flinched at that, eyes growing wide.

"Piglins avoid it because they don't like the screaming of the damned that comes from it that only they can hear while hybrids don't mind it because all they see is pretty blue fire." Tommy smiles evilly. "But for you it'll be worse. You need constant sacrifices, correct? But you can't survive much longer on a diet of villagers, witches and Pillagers alone. You know this, your puppets know this."

Ponk slowly stood, hand shaking.

"So I wonder what would happen if you could hear the screams of the people that you so very much desire to eat but can't because they're in the soul soil. Or, at least, the soul is." Tommy giggles, eyes flashing a toxic green color. "So your belly will growl and you'll slowly starve to death due to not having your correct diet and the soul fire will slowly destroy your blocks and contaminate your pools of lava."

Ponk shakes his head as he backs away in fear. "N-No...you wouldn't! You can't!" Ponk shouts in the same echoey voice. "I-I-I'll give you whatever you want! I swear I will!"

Tommy tilts his head with a giggle. "But I don't want anything from you except for you to die. You've bothered our family enough, don't you think?" He smiles.

"Y-Your family…?" Ponk asks softly.

"Mhm! You remember Sir Billiam right? And Butler?" Tommy asks to which Ponk slowly nods. "Sir Billium is a very old relative of mine and Wilby! I mean, why else would Techie look just like him?"

Ponks legs began to shake as he looked around himself for a way out but when he looks behind him he grins behind his mask. 

"You can't do anything to me if you're dead you little piece of scum." He laughs darkly. "You'll go right back to the void, where you belong."

Tommy tilts his head curiously before giggling behind his hands. "You're silly!" He giggles. Once his giggles died down he looked up at Ponk and put his hands behind his back. "Wanna make a bet?"

Ponk frowns and tilts his head curiously. "A bet?"

"Uh huh! If you can get Ponky to kill me then I won't come back and destroy your pathetic Eggy Form." Tommy smiles. "But if you win you get to live and I'll let you kill Philza and Technoblade."

"I am Ponk but...that sounds good. It'll be easy. He never liked you anyways." Ponk chuckles in the same echoy voice as before.

"But you're not Ponky. You're the Egg that's gonna make a mighty fine omelet!" Tommy smiles, holding out his hand for the other to shake while keeping his other hand behind his back.

When "Ponk" shook his hand, Tommy grinned and lightly tapped his crossed fingers behind his back.

"It's a deal then scum." Ponk growled.

"You're just mad that I'm the only one you can't control...or at least used to be the only one. Now there's ten!" Tommy giggles.

"Wh-What…?" Ponk asks in confusion.

"Try connecting to Bad if you would." Tommy smiles.

Ponk closed his eyes only to snap them back open as he clutched at his head. "No. NO! IMPOSSIBLE!" He screams.

Tommy giggles again behind his hands before pulling out an amulet out of his pants pocket. "Mommy gave us a bunch of these to help get rid of you!" He smiles. "It's called a Soul Fire Amulet, made to stop your control."

"YOU PEST!" Ponk screams, tackling Tommy and wrapping his hand around the child's neck. "I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"GET THE FUCK OFF OF HIM!" Sam screams, attempting to pull Ponk off of Tommy. "QUACKITY! CALL-ARGH!" 

Sam cries out when Ponk uses his missing arm to bash his nose. "FUCK!" He growls but doesn't stop trying to pull him off of Tommy.

Quackity stood stock still, his brain forcing him to stay still. He didn't know what to do. His heart was pounding in his ears and his vision was quickly becoming clouded by tears. 

"QUACKITY!"

Blinking Quackity looked down and quickly tried to get Ponks hand off of Tommys throat but no matter how hard he pushed on the man's arm he wouldn't budge. "PONK! STOP IT! YOU'RE GONNA KILL HIM!" He yells, trying to draw the real Ponk out. "MOM, PLEASE STOP!"

Tommy choked as he had his windpipe pressed on but when he heard Quackity shout the word "mom" he felt a bit of pressure ease off his throat. So, with a lot of difficulty, he reached out and managed to get the amulets chain wrapped around Ponks wrist.

"Leave Ponky alone. You make him sad." Tommy grumbles as the red in "Ponks'" eyes started to disappear. "Have fun being alone."

Ponk released Tommy and stood, attempting to get the amulet off of him but everytime he touched it it burned his hand.

Tommy landed on his side and coughed loudly, trying to pull air back into his burning lungs. Grunting softly he sits up and looks over to Ponk and smiles when he sees Ponk landing on his knees, panting softly.

"Yes!" Tommy grins as he hops up only to be pulled into Quackitys arms. "Big Q! Look! Ponky is Ponky again!"

Quackity didn't hear what Tommy was saying as he pressed kisses to the top of the child's head, tears pouring down his face. "Tómas…" He whimpers as he holds the small blonde tightly.

Sam quickly joined Quackity and Tommy. With shaky hands he carefully lifted Tommy's head and traced over the angry red handprint that was making itself known on the pale, skinny neck, with two fingers.

"Oh gods…" Sam whispers, tears beading in the corners of his eyes. "T-Tommy, how do you feel baby?"

Tommy just yawned and rubbed at his eyes. Whining he turns in Quackitys hold a bit so he was lying comfortably in the olders arms. "Sleepy…" Tommy whines softly.

"Quacky, take him upstairs and treat the bruise then get him to bed but don't leave him. Understood?" Sam quickly asks.

"Un-Understood." Quackity quickly stood and ran out the kitchen with Tommy held safely in his arms. 

As soon as Quackity and Tommy were gone Sam turned to Ponk and grabbed him by the shoulders, startling the man. Sam was going to yell, to tell Ponk to leave and never come back unless he wishes to be a ghost, but his words got caught when instead of crimson red eyes he saw chocolate brown staring back at him with a confused look on his face. 

"Ponk…?" He whispers. 

"Sam?" Ponk whispers back, eyes looking around wildly. "Wh-What happened? Wasn't I just playing chess with Eret?"

Sam turns Ponks' face back towards him and studied his eyes for a moment longer before a smile broke out on Sams' face. "Ponky y-you're...you're you again." He laughs softly.

"Wh-What?" Ponk asks before looking down at the amulet that hung from his wrist loosely. "What is this thing?"

Ponk brought it up to his mouth so he could remove it but Sam quickly stopped him. "No! Don't take it off!" Sam quickly says as he places a hand over Ponks. "It stops the egg from corrupting you!"

Ponk quickly lowered his arm and looked up at Sam. "Wa-Wait so the egg…?"

"Is no longer in control." Sam smiles, tears slowly sliding down his face.

Ponk smiles before hugging Sam with a joyful laugh. "H-How?! Where'd this thing even come from?!" He asks quickly.

"Tommy said that his mother gave it to him to help protect against the egg." Sam smiles,wrapping all four arms around Ponk. "He put it on your wrist when the egg took control."

Ponk smiles as he nuzzles into Sams' neck. "I-I'm sorry for everything Sam. I'm sorry for the banquet, I'm sorry for celebrating Tommy's death, I'm sorry for-" Ponk would've gone on if green lips didn't press against his hidden lips and a hand pressed his head closer to Sam.

Sam pulled away with a wet chuckle as he shook his head. "None of that matters now Ponky." He smiles. "I missed you so much."

Ponk chuckles and pulls up his mask up to his nose and pressed his lips against Sams in a gentle, loving kiss. Pulling back he gently cradles the man's cheek. "I missed you too Sammy." He smiles.

Sam leaned into the man's hand and gently held it against his cheek.

"But I am still mad at you for my arm ya dick wad." Ponk huffs as he suddenly punches Sam on the head, making the creeper hybrid grunt.

"A-As you should be." Sam nods. "I know it'll never make up for it but what if I made you a prophetic arm? It could even double as a communicator! Oh! Or make you lemonade!"

Ponk laughs as he sits back on his knees.

"It's a start." Ponk smiles. "Oh! Where's Tommy? I need to thank him!"

Sam's smile quickly faded as looks down. "I...I don't think you should see him right now Ponky." He frowns.

"What? Why?" Ponk asks with a frown. "Sam, I'm better now! I won't hurt him!"

"Maybe not but...Ponky you strangled Tommy just a minute ago." Sam whispers, slowly looking up at the other man.

Ponks visible skin paled as he searches Sams' face for any sign that it was some kind of sick joke but when he saw none he felt his heart sink. "I-I hurt Tommy…?" He whispers. "O-Oh gods...oh gods…"

Ponk leans forward and lays his head against Sam's shoulder as he wraps his arm around his middle. "I think I'm gonna be sick." He whimpers.

Sam wraps his arms around the other and holds him close, eyes shut tight.

He had no clue on what to say at the moment so he felt completely and utterly useless. 

Kissing Ponks cheek he rubs small circles on the younger mans back with a shaky sigh. "Y-You can see him when he's sleeping ok?" He tries but he only gets a shake of the head. 

"I hurt a child Sam…" Ponk whispers. "I hurt a fucking baby…I don't deserve to be near him."

"Ponky, that wasn't you! That was the egg!" Sam whispers to the distraught man.

"But it was my face he saw when that thing tried to kill him." Ponk sobbed, burying his face in Sam's shoulder while his only hand gripped tightly onto the front of the hoodie the other was wearing.

Sam, not knowing what to say now, pulled Ponk into his lap and gently rocked him back and forth as the smaller man softly cried into his hoodie.

Glancing above him he prayed to whichever god would answer him that Tommy would be ok.

======

Quackity quickly and carefully rubbed a healing potion against the bruise on Tommy's throat with a shaking hand. Looking behind them he let out a shaky breath when his eyes landed on his sibling on the other bed, dead to the world with a bump on their forehead.

While going upstairs he'd found Eret knocked unconscious with a broken Queen chess piece by their head which he had suspected was used to knock them unconscious. So, like a good brother, he dragged Eret up the stairs by the back of their dress and straight into Eret and Georges overnight rooms where he laid his slightly older sibling down on their bed.

A tiny whimper made him look back down and smile when he saw Tommy's baby blues slowly opening. "Hey pequeño…" Quackity smiles softly. "H-How do you feel?"

"Sleepy…" Tommy whimpered softly.

"No sleeping yet Toms. We gotta get that bruise healed." The duck hybrid whispers. "Ok?"

"'Kay…" The child yawned, rubbing at his tired eyes.

Quackity smiles softly and carefully lays Tommy down on George's old bed. "Stay right here ok? I need to go grab some bandages."

"Ok…" Tommy yawns softly.

Nodding Quackity quickly stood and rushed out the bedroom door to the bathroom. Pulling out his communicator he quickly pulled up Sapnaps contact info and pressed the big green button.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up…" He whispers as he opens the bathroom door.

Sliding inside he stops at the toilet and pulls the first aid kit off the wall.

"Hello? Quacky? You ok?"

"Sapnap! Oh thank gods." Quackity stops beside the door with the first aid kit against his chest.

"Quacky, what's going on?"

"Ponk just tried to strangle Tommy." Quackity quickly says as he makes his way back to the room. 

"What?!"

"He just walked in while holding his head, started yelling at Tommy and the next thing I know Tommy's on the ground with Ponk squeezing his windpipe." Quackity quickly says as he goes to open the bedroom door but is stopped by a sound inside the room.

"That bastard! I'll fucking kill him!"

Quackity frowns as he drops to his knees and looks through the doors keyhole. Looking around he spots a person in a lime green hoodie and white mask standing over Tommy, carefully lifting the blanket.

"Dream…" Quackity whispered in a panicked voice.

"Dream...? Quacky, what's going on?!"

Quickly opening the door Quackity ran in only to be punched in the face by a tall man wearing a strange mask. Grunting he lands on his front, away from the man by a good few feet.

"Fuck…" Quackity growls as he stands, forming his axe.

"I don't think so." The man spoke in a very, very deep voice before slamming his foot down on Quackitys' back.

Quackity cried out in pain and dropped his axe.

"Quacky?! QUACKY?!"

Growling Quackity manages to turn over and tries to push on the foot that was now on his stomach but it didn't budge the slightest bit. Panting softly he keeps pushing on the boot until the man it belonged to put more pressure downwards.

Looking up at the man he frowns at the sight of a man wearing a black zip up hoodie that was open to reveal a blood stained white shirt. Looking further up he bit back a gasp at the sight of the strange dark purple bunny mask that had fangs and a broken bit that revealed the man's red right eye and some of his black, fluffy looking hair.

He's felt like he's seen this man someplace before. But where…?

"Who are you?! How'd you get in here?! Why did you break Dream out of Prison?!" Quackity shouts, hoping his father would hear him.

"Dream? My brother?"

Quackity looked to his side and quickly took notice of the fact that the lime green hoodie wearing person was not Dream but in fact a girl wearing a mask with a face made of equal signs for eyes and a lowercase n as a mouth.

"Wh-Who the fuck are you?" Quackity grunts.

"My name isn't important right now." The girl huffs, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "Just know that I have the power to erase your remaining cannon lives so if you all fail him again and my chosen human dies by his or anybody else's hand again, this server will be filled with ghosts."

Quackity felt the man lift his foot but then he suddenly felt weightless. Looking down he saw that he was floating off the ground. Letting out a shocked sound he tried to get back on the floor but as soon as he turned himself around in the air he fell face first onto the floor.

Grunting he whines softly as his vision starts to turn black at the edges.

"Come on Corpse. Time to turn you into a doll." He heard the girl whisper.

"I know, I know." The deep voiced man huffs. "Why is Lady Death making me do this again?"

"Because she trusts nobody on this server except Schlatt and she knows that you'll never let anything bad happen to Tommy unless you want Sykkuno to meet Lady Death permanently." The girl hums.

The deep voiced man made a 'tsk!' sound before growling out. "She's lucky she's the goddess of Death or I'd kill her for trying to kill my chosen human."

"But Sykkuno isn't human."

"...ok then just my chosen. Can we just please get this over with? I already know it's gonna hurt."

Quackity groans as the darkness finally takes over just as hurried footsteps made it up the stairs and screams of his name reached his ears. His head hit the ground with a soft 'thunk!' and just like that, the duck was in dreamland.

Chapter Text

Wilbur sat against the bedroom door as the yelling downstairs got louder and louder. He could hear Sapnap screaming at Ponk, Karl (who had come to check on them) trying to calm Sapnap down before he combusted, Sam shouting for everybody to be quiet, Bad reprimanding people for cursing and Skeppy cheering on a possible fight.

Covering his ears he tries to drown it out when memories of Phil yelling at him for not being more like Techno started to resurface. Sniffling he wipes at his face when tears start to fall. "Make it stop…" He whimpers.

"W-Wilby…?"

Sniffling again, Wilbur looks up to see Tommy standing in front of him, holding his new Tom Nook plush to his chest. Quickly wiping at his face Wilbur looks away, not wanting his baby brother to see him crying.

"Wilby? Are you ok?" Tommy whispers.

"I-I'm ok baby." The brunette whispers, pulling the child into his lap. "Are-Are you ok? Mr. Sam told me about what happened…"

Tommy frowns and nods, his small arms wrapped tightly around his plush. "'m ok. Still hungry. Want a cookie." He pouts.

Wilbur chuckles and kisses the smaller boy's forehead which earns him a giggle. "Yeah? You want a cookie?" He asks softly.

"Mhm." Tommy nods. "Cookies are good snack."

"They sure are." Wilbur smiles. "Let's go find on-"

"WILL ALL OF YOU SHUT UP?!" Sam's voice yells, a loud shatter coming soon after which was quickly followed by a pained cry. 

Wilbur felt panic rise in his chest as he watched the door holding Tommy to his chest he tried to scoot back to the closet to hide them but the doors handle wiggling made him squeeze Tommy and bolt for it. Quickly opening the closet door he kicks a few things out of the way before closing the door.

Watching the door Wilbur slowly pet Tommy's head to keep him calm. "Wilby?" Tommy whispers.

"Shhh…" Wilbur whispers back.

"Boys! Boys, where are you?!" Schlatts voice shouts.

"Mr. Horns!" Tommy giggles, attempting to reach for the door but Wilburs grip on him only tightens.

The door is quickly opened and the two are blinded for a second by the rooms light but when they look up they see Schlatt standing in front of them with a worried look on his face.

"Boys? Hey, hey...it's ok." Schlatt whispers, crouching down. "What's going on?"

Wilbur quickly makes his way out of the closet and carefully sets Tommy down. Once his little brother was safe on the floor he quickly hugged Schlatt and let his tears fall.

"Hey, hey…" Schlatt whispers, rubbing up and down Wilburs' back. "You're ok Song Bird. I gotcha."

Wilbur grips on tighter to Schlatt as the man holds him as tight as he could without crushing him. He knew the ram hybrid was only doing it to help keep him grounded and he was extremely grateful for it.

"Don't let Phil take us...please…" Wilbur whispers into the ram man's shoulder.

Schlatt slowly shook his head and kissed the side of the other brunettes' head. "Never Song Bird." He whispers in his ear. "He'd have to kill me first."

Wilbur sniffles and clings on tighter to Schlatt, his slight shaking calming down. A soft gasp made it past his lips when he was suddenly lifted up. Looking around he sees he was a good few feet higher in the air now. "Sch-Schlatt?" He asks in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"I'm taking you boys somewhere else." Schlatt frowns. "I don't want you two near Sam right now."

"What happened?" Wilbur asks, pulling back some so he could see Schlatts' face.

"Sam got p i s s e d and threw a f u c k i n g flower pot at me for trying to start a fight." Schlatt sighs before looking down at Tommy. "Baby bird, grab whatever your mama brought you ok? We're gonna go stay at a hotel."

Tommy tilted his head in confusion but nodded nonetheless.

Schlatt walked to the door, still carrying Wilbur mind you, and waited for Tommy while pointedly ignoring the passed out bodies of Quackity and Eret…wait...Eret. Smirking, Schlatt carefully put Wilbur down and walked over to Eret. Bending down he gets close to their ear.

"It was never meant to be." He whispers. "You got two little boys who loved you so much killed just because you wanted to be king. You let two children die in front of you. You gave them nightmares that they'll never recover from. You are the reason why they each lost a life. No matter what you do...you can never take it back."

Schlatt stepped back and smirked at the pained look on Erets' face as tears slowly fell down their face. Chuckling he walks back over to Wilbur and picks him up again. "Come on baby bird! We needa go before the hotels desks close." He calls out to Tommy just as Sam stepped into the doorframe.

"Please don't go." Sam whispers. "We-We made a deal, remember?"

Schlatt looks over to Sam with a sneer. "You threw a plant pot at me. Why would I trust you with children?" He huffs. "Learn to control that temper and I'll bring them back."

"You were going to hurt Ponky!" Sam snaps.

"And? I just found out the son of a bitch tried to kill my so-charge." Schlatt growls. "The kids are my main focus, not lemon boy. You're lucky I haven't called lady death yet."

Sam frowns as Tommy runs up to Schlatt with a Tom Nook plush in his arms and wearing Quackitys beanie. "Please…" Sam pleads.

"Fix your anger and they can come and see you." Schlat frowns. "Now I'm pretty sure Eret needs your help."

Sam looks from Schlatt to Eret and quickly walks over to the king when they start to toss and turn wildly. "Come on boys." Schlatt quickly picked Tommy up and hooked him onto his hip.

Once both boys are secure on his hips Schlatt starts for the stairs, ignoring Sapnap and Bads' concerned looks. Heading for the door he stopped when a hand was placed on his shoulder. Looking over his shoulder he frowns when he sees Skeppy giving him a stern look.

"Oh look, he can be serious." Schaltt huffs. "What do you want, Skeppy?"

Schlatt was confused when Skeppy held out a pair of keys to him. "Uh…?"

"Keys to the mansion." Skeppy says softly. "You guys can crash with Bad and I until your house is built. Low rent, meals, beds, babysitting and access to the pool included. All you gotta do is say yes."

Schlatt looked at Skeppy then over to Karl. When Karl just gave him a small smile he sighs. "As much as that sounds good, Diamond boy, no. I'm not risking Sam coming close and I'm getting strange feelings from that prison so I'm taking the kids further away." He frowns. "Thanks anyway."

Schlatt turns and quickly leaves the house before anybody could try and get him to go with them too.

Schlatt sighs as he looks up at The Big Innit Hotel. He had tried to go over to the Bee n' Boo Hotel since it seemed more kid friendly but when he looked inside there was a fine layer of dust on everything so he had a feeling it had been out of business for a while.

"Looks like we're staying here kiddos." Schlatt whispers to the sleeping kids in his arms.

Tommy had fallen asleep not too long into the walk with his Tom Nook plush hanging from his hand.

While Wilbur had almost instantly fallen asleep when they left Sams' house.

Slowly walking into the hotel he hadn't expected to see Jack of all people to be standing behind the desk with Nikki. Sighing he tries to keep his anger in check as he walks in, ignoring the powered down robot beside the door. It looks like it'd been there for a while if the vines and overgrown grass around its feet was anything to go by.

 "Hey. I need a room." He called out. "This place cater to families?"

Jack looked away from his photo and frowned. "Yes but not to you Schl-...is that...Wilbur?" The duo colored glasses man frowns, pointing at the brunette in Schlatts' arms.

"Tommy…?" Nikki whispers, stepping forward when she sees the small blonde.

Schlatt quickly stepped back and growled lowly at Nikki, causing her to step back in shock. "Touch either of them and I'll kill you." He huffs. "I just need a room until my house is built. Five days, tops."

"Look, I don't care, ok? You need to leave. I don't wanna run the risk of Wilbur blowing this place up. Now leave before I wake up Sam Nook, our security." Jack frowns.

"Wasn't Tommy's rule that everybody was Welcome here, Jack?"

Schlatt turns around and frowns at the sight of the Enderman kid. "You live here?" He asks.

"To be closer to Puffy and Nikki in case Tubbo had an attack." Ranboo frowns. "They're not certified Doctors but they're great nonetheless."

Schlatt nods once before sighing. "Move. I gotta find someplace else away from Sam." He frowns.

"What? Why? What did Sam do?" Ranboo quickly asks, not wanting Schlatt to leave yet. 

"Ponk tried to kill Tommy, I tried to punch Ponk and Sam threw a flower pot at me." Schlatt grunts. "Hip still hurts."

"Wait, he did all of that in front of Wilbur and Tommy?" Ranboo asks.

"No but it caused Wilbur to have a small panic attack, now move." Schlatt growls. "I need to find a place for the kids. I can't fight any mobs with them in my arms."

Ranboo quickly steps in front of Schlatt and gives a soft, nervous chuckle. "Uh...you can stay at the Bee n' Boo! I own it with Tubbo!" He quickly says.

"Wilbur has asthma and there's a shit ton of dust and spider webs in there." Schlatt rolls his eyes. "So no. We won't be staying there."

"I-I'll clean it! Yeah! Just-Just give me a minute." Ranboo quickly runs off, leaving an angry Schlatt standing in the lobby.

"One day I'm going to kill that kid." He grunts, turning and sitting against a wall.

Sighing he holds Tommy and Wilbur closer to him, listening for anything that could hurt his- THE kids. "Come near us and I'll kill you. Canonically." He sighs. "And I'm pretty sure Jack only has one more life until he goes straight back to hell. But this time if he manages to crawl outta his hell he won't have Tommy around to drop him off food and water to keep him alive while he throws his little pity party."

"Tommy...Tommy did that?" Jack asks softly. "I thought…"

"He watched you die, Jack. He saw you fall over and die." Schlatt frowns, looking over to the man. "You're one of...excuse me, you were one of his best friends until you admitted that you tried to kill him. Then he quickly only saw you as a monster under his bed that he needed to learn to live with."

Jack stared down at the counter, then over to his photo.

"But fuck him right?" Schaltt chuckled darkly. "Fuck the child that watched his country burn, that gave up two lives for it, that watched his family destroy everything he had left, that watched his best friends get killed in front of him, that watched himself be replaced in everybody's hearts."

Jack flinched and looked up at Schlatt to see the man staring straight at him.

"You know when he was in the afterlife the first time he called for you everytime he had a nightmare. He cried and screamed, begging me and MD to get you and pinkie pie over there. He kept saying he wanted his big sister and big brother. Too bad they were celebrating his death or else we would've let him see you guys. Maybe it would've brought him some peace."

Schlatt sighs again as he pulls Tommy tighter to his side. "Makes me sick to my stomach." He frowns. "That all of you could be that cruel to a child."

"Hey! You're the one that Exiled him!" Nikki shouts. "And the one that ordered Punz to kill Wilbur!"

Schlatt turned on her in a second and glared. "Yes and I'm also the one that felt bad and followed the kid so he wouldn't do anything stupid and ended up stopping him from killing himself!" Schlatt snarled. "I also made sure the kid still felt like he was loved when he was being told everybody hated him by leaving him gifts in his favorite safe place. What the fuck were you doing? Oh yeah, baking and sitting around with your thumbs up your asses!"

Turning away from Nikki, Schlatt took a deep breath and pulled his boys up and onto his lap. Holding them close he tries to calm down until he hears Tommy waking up. Looking down at the child he smiled softly. 

"Hey baby bird. You ok?" He asks softly.

"Hungry…" Tommy whimpers, cuddling under Schlatts' chin.

"Hungry? You just ate not too long ago!" Schlatt laughs softly.

"...hungry." Tommy whines, now twisting himself a bit so he was off of Schlatts' lap and face first into the red carpet on the floor. "...red."

Schlatt chuckles and shakes his head. "Yes it's red now get up and come here buddy." He smiles.

Tommy whines but sits up and moves to turn towards Schlatt but when he saw the robot outside he stared at it for a moment before slowly standing. "Nook…?" Tommy whispers, slowly walking over to the robot until he looked around and seemed to notice where they were. "My...my hotel…"

Schlatt frowns and slowly stands up with Wilbur in his arms. "Tommy…?" He asks softly. "You ok bud…?"

Tommy looks up at Schlatt with tears in his eyes and sniffles softly. "I wanna go home." He whispers. "I not like it here…"

"Oh buddy…" Schlatt whispers, crouching down next to Tommy as the child shook with small sobs.

"Th-The faceless person took it from me. He said he was happy I was gone." Tommy whispers as more tears fall down his face. "I-I just wanted a place where people could stay and be safe but the faceless person...he…"

Schlatt glared over at Jack before softening his look when Tommy clung to him. "I want Nook." Tommy whimpers.

"You want Nook?" Schlatt asks softly to which he gets a nod. "Alright buddy, let's get Nook and go over to where we're staying ok?"

Sniffling Tommy nods and rubs his face against Schlatts' shirt to get rid of his tears and the little bit of snot that escaped his nose.

"Hey!" Schlatt laughs softly. "I am not a tissue."

Tommy steps back and clings onto his Tom Nook plush, nuzzling it's head. "Hungry…" He whispers.

"We'll get you a snack ok?" Schlatt smiles. "But first let's get to our room."

Tommy nods and moves to walk outside to get Nook but something told him to turn around. So he did. 

Looking at the people watching them he frowns and tilts his head curiously. "Schlatt?" Tommy asks.

"Hm? What's up bud?"

"Who are they?" Tommy asks, pointing at Jack and Nikki.

Schlatt looks down at Tommy in surprise. "You don't...you don't remember them?"

Tommy frowns and shakes his head. "Should I?" Tommy asks softly. "Were they friends of big Tommys'?"

Schlatt seems to think before shaking his head. "Don't worry Toms. They're nobody special." The ram man smiles kindly. "Let's go to our room ok?"

Tommy hesitantly took Schlatts hand as the man begun to walk out of the hotel, still staring at the woman and man. His brain was telling him that they were strangers but his heart was telling him that they were family.

Waving with his other hand Tommy quickly followed behind Schlatt as the man walked them over to Sam Nook. He watched his caretaker carefully lift up the rusty and dirty robot with some vines, worried about his robot friend. "Ugh...heavy." Schlatt groans as he ties the robot to his back.

The two quickly head across the way to the Bee n' Boo Hotel but Tommy never took his eyes off of Sam Nook.

Ranboo sighs as he slides down the wall outside the room he'd just escorted Schlatt and Tommy to. He had worked fast to get rid of all the dust, get rid of the mobs that had spawned and fix the bed coverings. He was pretty sure that the floors were still wet to be honest.

Groaning softly when his body gave a painful creek he lays down on the soft yellow carpet that little Tommy had so lovingly called "hallway pee". 

"It doesn't even look like pee..." Ranboo looks around himself before groaning. "It does look a bit like a river of pee. Maybe I should change it to a green carpet."

A noise inside the room makes Ranboo jump and sit up. Looking towards the door he was so tempted to look inside to make sure everything was ok but then he remembers when he had been smacked earlier. "I'd rather not get bitch smacked again…" he huffs, laying down again. 

But...curiosity is a hell of a thing. Slowly dragging himself towards the door he reaches up and swipes his master keycard on the scanner. Slowly pushing the door open he peeks through the crack and frowns in confusion when he sees Schlatt pulling vines off of Sam Nook.

"Tommy...I don't know if this is gonna work…" Schlatt sighs.

"I know it'll work!" Tommy quickly says, his voice filled with hope. "I just know it…he promised he'd never leave me."

Ranboo frowns and cracks the door open a bit more and watches Tommy hug his Tom Nook as Schlatt wipes the robot's eyes off so there was no mud, dirt or dust. Watching carefully his frown grows when he sees Schlatts' reluctance to go near Sam Nook's charge port on his back.

"Please Schlatt…" Tommy whispers. "You owe me for exiling me with a maniac."

Schlatt quickly looked at Tommy and a look of fear mixed with regret flashed over his face until looked down with a sigh. "Fine…" He whispers. "Don't say I didn't warn you when he doesn't move."

"He'll move and he'll talk! I know he will!" Tommy nods. "He's my best friend! He'll remember!"

"Best friend? But Tubbo is his best friend…" Thought Ranboo as he continued to watch.

In the room Tommy held his Tom Nook plush tight to his chest as Schlatt gave the robot a little, continuous shock of electricity from his finger to give the robot a quick charge. He held his breath as the robot stayed dormant for a while until-

Vrrr!

Beeeeeep!

Vrrp! Vrrp!

Tommy gasps and jumps back when the robot's eyes turn on and it's head jerks upwards. Quickly hiding behind Schlatts' leg he grabs his pant leg tightly in a small fist and peeks out to Sam Nook.

The robot looks around before letting out a sad sounding beep. "You're not young master Tommy…" Sam Nook whispers, his body giving a rather loud creak as it sagged. "Why won't he wake up…?"

Tommy slowly steps out from behind Schlatt and walks over just as slowly. "Nook…?" He whispers.

Sam Nook turned his head a bit and gazed down at the small blonde child before him. Slowly turning, being careful not to aggravate his creaky joints, and carefully crouched down to the childs' height.

"Hello there little one. Are you new?" Sam Nook asks softly. "My name is Sam Nook and-"

Tommy launched himself forward and wrapped his arms around the robot's neck with tears falling down his face. "It's me Nook…" He whispers. "Tommy…"

The robot slowly wrapped his arms around the child as his computing systems kicked on. Moving a tiny bit away he scanned over the child and made many connections to young master Tommy and this child. 

Same golden blonde hair.

Same little freckles that nearly blended in well with his pale skin tone.

Bright baby blue eyes.

Green handkerchief tied around his neck.

Colorful plasters decorating his face and arms.

A tiny scar on his chin that he remembers being told came from a rather hard fall after falling off his trike as a small child.

The same hopeful look in the boy's eyes.

But this couldn't be Tommy. This child was much too small and looked much too young. He wanted to give this child back to the ram man staring at them so he could go see Tommy at his "final resting place", as Warden and Sam call it, but he had one last thought.

Pulling the child back carefully he held him under his armpits and pressed one of his audio receptors, one of his raccoon ears,  to the child's chest. Shutting his eyes he played the recording of Tommy's heart, that Sam installed for him after he had grown to miss the young blonde, and listened carefully.

The recording of the heartbeat was from when Tommy was excited and happy, Sam having just told Tommy that he was going to make Tommy's favorite for dinner that night. He didn't want to question his creator on why he had the recording so he had just taken the recording happily.

Before he was using it for comfort, to feel like Tommy was still there with him instead of sleeping in that strange hole in the ground. He still remembers the day they "put Tommy to bed". How couldn't he? They put his human in his biggest fear!

Months earlier

Sam Nook held Wardens' hand with a frown. He didn't understand why people were still crying, Tommy was just sleeping. He'd wake up soon!

"EVERYONE! PLEASE CALM DOWN! TOMMY WILL WAKE UP SOON! YOU KNOW HOW HE GETS WITH HIS NAPS!" Sam Nook cheerfully calls out.

The robot didn't understand why Puffy, Drista, Tubbo, Purpled and Quackity started to cry harder and he'd gotten pity filled looks from Phil (who was silently crying next to the sleeping box they laid Tommy in earlier), Badboyhalo, Skeppy and Jack (who was gripping onto a photo frame in a white knuckled grip).

"Sam Nook, I have told you before." Warden spoke softly as Phil, Nikki, Ranboo and Technoblade started to lower Tommy's sleeping box into the ground. "He's-" "STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" 

Warden grunts when Sam Nook pushed him away to get to Techno. Sam Nook attempts to take his rope but Techno doesn't let go. "HE'S AFRAID OF SMALL SPACES! WHY ARE YOU PUTTING HIM IN THE GROUND?! DO YOU WANT TO HURT HIM MORE THAN YOU ALREADY HAVE?!" Sam Nook continued to try and rip the rope out of Technos' hand but the Piglin Hybrid wouldn't let up.

"Sam Nook! Stop that!" Sam Nook heard Sam yell but he didn't listen. 

He was built for Tommy, to protect him and make sure he smiles at least once a day, but these people were trying to make him even more afraid. "RELEASE HIM THIS INSTANT!" Sam Nook shouts. "YOUNG MASTER TOMMY NEEDS TO GET OUT OF THE HOLE!"

Somebody tried to pull him away from Technoblades' rope but he wouldn't go. "Sam Nook, stop this! I order you to let the rope go!" Sam yells, his voice sounding angry.

"NO! TOMMY WILL BE AFRAID WHEN HE WAKES UP! HE HATES SMALL SPACES SO WHEN HE-!" 

"HE'S NOT GOING TO WAKE UP!"

Sam Nook stopped and turned to Sam. The man was crying heavily, his arms shaking and his chest heaving. "HE'S DEAD NOOK! HE'S FUCKING DEAD!" Sam yells, grabbing the robot by the shoulders in a grip strong enough to make small dents in his metal. "HE'S NOT GOING TO FUCKING WAKE UP! HE'S NOT GOING TO EVER WAKE UP AGAIN AND IT'S ALL OF OUR FAULTS!"

Sam Nook stared up at Sam in disbelief before dusting the man's hands off his shoulders. "I did what I was made to and that was to protect Tommy and care for him." He spoke in a calmer tone of his voice, no longer shouting his words or using an undertone of animal crossing speak. "How am I at fault for this when I loved young master Tommy like he was my nookling? How am I at fault for him going into this scary hole when I stopped Jack Manifold and Nikki Nihachu from killing young master Tommy on multiple occasions?"

"Loved…? I-I didn't program…" He heard Sam mutter but he paid no mind.

"Young master Tommy will wake up and I'll be there the day he does." Sam Nook frowns behind his Tom Nook face mask. "I'll always be by his side because gods knows none of you will."

In the present

Small hands gently petting the back of his head snapped Sam Nook out of his reminiscing and brought him back from that unfairly sunny day and back to the chilly hotel room with his systems telling him that the heart beats were the same.

Pulling back Sam Nook reached up and removed his face mask and dropped it to the side. He remembered that Tommy had a hard time hearing him so he'd let him read his lips instead. Pointing at his mouth he begins to talk.

"Your heartbeat matches up with young master Tommy's but you...you don't look like him…" Sam Nook spoke carefully.

Sam Nook watches the child closely and, may his battery forgive him, hopes that he is Tommy.

He watches as the child quickly attempts to pull his shirt over his head with angry little grunts and soft make up curses like 'fudge' and 'sugar' . Frowning, he helps him with it and freezes at the sight of a scar over the boy's heart right where the Axe of Peace had cut into Tommys' chest. 

"It burns sometimes…" The child mutters, poking at the scar. "Not like touch fire burn but like...like touching hot metal kinda burn…"

Sam Nook reached out and carefully poked the scar. It was the exact same place and size of the strange wound he had seen on Tommy the day he went to sleep. Looking at the child's face again he takes in all the features he matched before and grinned happily.

"Young master Tommy!" He cheerfully chirps, his tail giving soft creaks and groans as it waggs side to side. "You're awake!"

Tommy smiles back and jumps up to hug Sam Nook again. "I'm awake!" He grins, small tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "I missed you so much Nook…"

"I missed you too little nookling." Sam Nook smiles, carefully holding Tommy close.

Schlatt, who had remained quiet through the whole thing, smiles and rubs the back of his neck. "Not that this isn't heartwarming or anything but it's past bedtime." He spoke softly.

"But-!" Tommy tried to argue but Schlatt shook his head as he picked up his shirt.

"No buts." Schlatt hums, helping Tommy back into his shirt. "Bedtime kiddo."

Tommy groans as his head pops out of his shirt. 

"You can play together tomorrow, ok?" Schlatt smiles. "Right now you need sleep and I need to clean up Nooks' joints."

"...promise?" Tommy asks softly.

"I promise baby bird." Schlatt smiles, carefully lifting Tommy up. Cradling the toddler to his chest he watches him yawn and rub at his eyes tiredly. "Sleepy bird." He chuckles.

"Night night daddy." Tommy whispers, making Schlatt freeze. "I love you."

Schlatt stares down at Tommy in shock as a warm feeling blooms in his chest. "Night night baby." He smiles, walking over to the bed he tucked Wilbur in. "I love you too."

Carefully tucking Tommy in he leans down and kisses the child's temple. "Sweet dreams you two." He whispers, stepping away from the bed.

Looking over to Sam Nook he smiles softly. "Alright big guy, time to clean you up."

Sam Nook let out a happy chitter at the thought of being cleaned. It'd been a while since he got the pebbles and dirt off of him.

Schlatt chuckles and walks over. "Come on, you oversized toaster. We have a lot of work to do."

Outside the room Ranboo was leaning back against the wall now, struggling not to cry. He didn't know if he wanted to cry because that was the first time he'd seen Sam Nook so happy for a very long time or because he had seen the child's scar and remembered when Quackity came out of the Nether with Tommy, dead, on his back.

Rubbing at his eyes he tries to stop himself from crying but the tears start to fall as he curls up tight outside the room door. "I'm sorry Tommy…" He whispered, hugging himself tight. "I'm so sorry…"

Chapter Text

Michael smiles as he makes his way to Targay, a little bundle filled with iron and gold nuggets hanging off of his wrist. His pa had asked him to go and get him some tea and he was excited to show his pa that he could do it!

Quickly walking through the double doors Michael quickly walked past the claw machine only to stop a few feet away from it. Frowning he looked towards the claw machine and tilted his head. Had he...had he just seen right?

Walking over to it he grabs the footstool from beside the machine and steps up so he could see into the glass and, sure enough, he had seen right.

Inside the claw machine was a little boy clinging to a cow plushie. He looked pale and he was sweating, his legs jerking like he was running from something.

"Hey! Hey kid!" A deep voice calls out.

Michael squealed in surprise as he fell off the stool and onto his bum on the cold floor. Looking around he can't find the source of the voice.

"Over here."

Michael frowns and looks around until he spots a Tom Nook plush standing a little bit away with it's little nubby hands on it's hips. Slowly raising his hand Micheal waves at the toy. 

"Hi...Michael." The zombie piglin child spoke softly, gesturing to himself when he said his name.

"Hi Michael." The toy huffs. "Look, I need help. The kid climbed in there and got stuck but I can't go and get whoever has the key to it. I need you to go and get them for me before something happens, please. I think his blood pressure dropped."

Michael tilts his head curiously at that. He knew about blood pressure drops, his Uncle Tommy used to have them before he went to sleep. He even had one in front of him!

Poor Uncle Tommy. Michael had scared the teen with an old smiley mask he'd found and the blonde had fallen down and nearly fainted. A few minutes later Pa and Da walked in and rushed over when they saw Michael crying next to Uncle Tommy, gently nudging him with his snout.

It took both Pa and Da to get him to recover. He never understood why Pa had screamed at Uncle until he cried over the drop. Michael hadn't liked it one bit so he tried to protect Uncle by biting Pa on the leg and growling.

He remembers the taste of blood in his mouth and how Uncle Tommy had grabbed him and held him close when it looked like Pa was gonna hit him. He also remembered how Uncle kept apologizing and Pa telling Uncle he wasn't allowed near Michael anymore. After Uncle had run out crying Da had yelled at Pa the whole night over how Uncle Tommy couldn't control it and how Pa could be so heartless after everything he already put Uncle through.

Then he remembered how a week later Pa and Da came home crying. Pa had been wearing an old and tattered red bandana that Michael had never seen before. That's when they told him that Uncle Tommy had gone to sleep and he wasn't gonna wake up again for a very long while.

"-id! KID!"

Michael blinked his one good eye and looked around. Quickly getting up he ran out of the store. Looking around he spots the fox man that came with Grandpa Phil to give him cake.

Smiling, he runs over to him and starts tugging hard on the man's jacket. "Help! Help!" Michael yells, dragging the man by the hand towards the store. 

"Michael? What's going on bud?" Fundy asks, quickly following Michael into Targay. 

"Claw! Claw!" Michael quickly says, running over to the Claw Machine and placing a clawed hand on the glass.

"You need help with the claw machine?" Fundy asks with a sigh. "Kid you had me thinking somebody was dying or...some...thing…"

Fundy's words died off when a small hand pressed against the glass of the claw machine, right where Michaels' was. Quickly making his way to where the joystick was, Fundy felt his heart stop at the sight of a much younger Tommy laying down on top of the plush toys inside the machine.

The fox hybrid's ears and tail drooped as he slowly walked closer. "T-Tommy…?" He whispers.

The boy's hair was a bright golden yellow with the cute little cowlick his broth-Uncle had when he was little.

The colorful plasters were slowly falling off from the sweat that dripped off of Tommy's face but they were very recognizable.

Even though the child's eyes were dulling, Fundy could still see that they were a bright baby blue. Tommy's baby blue.

The child laying inside whimpered and weakly smacked the glass, drawing Fundy out of his connection making.

Fundy quickly turned one of his hands into a paw and used a claw to try and break the lock on the glass. Grunting he managed to hear something snap inside and quickly opened the door.

"Tommy, Tommy are you ok bubba?" He quickly asks, pulling Tommy out of the machine.

Crouching down he gently rubbed his thumb over the blondes pudgy cheek. "Oh Toms, you're burning up." Fundy whispers, looking around for anything that could help.

When he found nothing he growled slightly, tail flicking angrily. "Damn it, what do I do?" He whispers until he hears a crash of thunder. Gasping he flinches and tries to hide Tommy in his arms. "Shit, not now."

"Shit!"

Fundy looks over at the giggly Michael and quickly gets an idea. "Michael can you go get your Da? Please?" He spoke softly.

Michael tilts his head curiously before looking down at the quickly panting blonde child. Whining, he steps closer and places a hand on the blonde's belly.

"Hurt?" He asks softly.

"N-No buddy, he's not hurt." Fundy whispers, a slight shake to his voice. "Just...just please go get your Da."

Michael didn't take his eyes off the blonde child. His hair resembled gold, just like Uncle Tommy and the plasters on his face reminded him of the large bandage that Uncle used to wear around him so he didn't scare him with the scars on his face.

Whining Michael felt the strange feeling in his chest that he felt the day he heard Mister Sam yell that Uncle Tommy would never wake up again. Gently nudging his snout against the blonde's cheek he whines softly and tries to get the blonde to open his eyes but nothing works.

Licking the blonde's cheek he continued to whine until the blonde opened his eyes slightly and looked over at him.

"Mimi…" Michael whispered, nuzzling the smaller boy's cheek.

"...Michael." Tommy whispers back, attempting to nuzzle back but he seemed too weak to do so.

"Hurt?" Michael asks softly. 

Tommy shakes his head slowly. "Want daddy…" He whimpers.

Michael nods and takes Tommy from Fundy carefully. Holding him like how Da held him he makes sure he has a good grip before running out of the store, grabbing the talking Tom Nook toy with his long tail.

"Wait-!" Fundy called out, quickly giving chase but was quickly reminded of how much faster Piglins were than foxes. Fundy slows to a stop and groans, rubbing his side in slight pain. "I needa work out more…"

======

Techno silently moved the eggs in the pan around, listening to his father hack up blood into their ice bucket behind him. Since yesterday Techno had been thinking about his childhood and the visits to see Tommy and Wilbur.

He'd remembered far more than he ever wanted to.

Like how he had let his voices lay their hands on his baby brother and how Wilbur had to break his guitar over his head to make him stop punching his baby brother who had only been a few months at the time.

Shaking his head, Techno sighs softly and tries to focus on making breakfast.

Ask Phil

Ask him

Ask

Ask

Eeeeeeee

Ask

Ask him bitch boy

Techno groaned and rubbed his head slightly. Sighing he slowly turns towards Phil.

"Phil?" He calls out.

He watched Phil spit into the bucket before setting it down and leaning back against his mini mountain of pillows. "Yes Tech?" He asks softly.

"Why...why did you...I-I mean…" Techno grunts and turns fully to his father. "Why did you hate Tommy so much when he was little?"

Techno watches Phil freeze for a moment before looking to his bedside table where an old photo frame sat. The pinkette knew the photo well since he had been the one to take the photo.

It was of Phil holding a newly hatched Tommy, tears in his eyes and a smile so bright on his face that it nearly blinded Wilbur and Tech. The 17 year olds had been so excited to meet their baby brother and barely left Phil's nest for Tommy's first two weeks of life. But one day the door to Phil's nesting room was locked but the twins had been able to hear Tommy crying and Phil telling the baby to shut up in a wet voice. Techno can sort of remember hearing muffled words through the door like 'sick', 'baby chick', 'want to help' and 'please'.

"I...I don't know." Phil whispers, tears gathering in his eyes.

Bullshit

Bull

The fuck he doesn't

"Phil-" Techno tried to speak but Phil shook his head.

"Tech, I swear I have no idea." Phil whispers.

"Phil, that is absolute bullshit." Techno huffs. "Tommy was a fucking baby and one day you decided to hate him and fucking hurt him to the point that he stopped talking to either of us!"

"You could've stopped me Tech!" Phil yelled, tears starting to flow down his face. "You could've stepped in or helped Tommy! But what did you do?! Go away Tommy, not now Tommy."

Techno took in a sharp breath as images of little Tommy's hurt face flashed in front of his eyes.

"You could've stopped me Techno. You could've-!" 

"It wasn't my job to stop you from hurting your own child Phil!" Techno interrupted his father. "Stop trying to blame your fucking mistakes on me! I did nothing wrong! You were the one that decided we needed to go on adventures and leave Wilbur with two fucking babies in a house in the middle of no where with little to no money."

"You were the one that decided to not go back for five years. You were the one that decided to start hurting Tommy. You were the one who made Wilbur always feel inferior to me and ruined my relationship with my twin. You were the one that messed everything up Phil. Not me." Techno frowned. "Do you really think I wanted to be out on "adventures" when I could've been at home, bonding with my nephew and baby brother? Or how about comforting my twin after his girlfriend died while giving birth? Don't you think I wanted to be there?!"

Phil was quiet, blood dripping off his chin.

Techno huffs and turns back to the eggs, quickly turning them off when he saw they were starting to burn. "Breakfast is done." He mutters.

The pinkette quickly plates his fathers food and walks it over to him. Placing it on his lap he turns away from the old man to get his plate ready.

"Tech-"

"Don't. Just...just don't." Techno whispers, wrapping his arms around himself. "I don't wanna hear your excuses Phil."

Technosad

Bad dad Phil arc?

Redemption arc maybe?

"No chat. There's nothing he can do that can fix this." Techno whispers. "You can't just put a family back together and expect it to work how it used to. It doesn't work like that."

Techno reached out for his plate when there was a knock on the door. Frowning, he checks his receipt holder. "We paid up for the month, what could Jack want?" He mutters, quickly walking to the door when the knocks get louder.

Sick

Baby bird!

Sickinnit

Dying maybe?

Techno frowns and opens the room's door. Looking around he frowned when he saw no one until he felt a tug on his pant leg. Looking down he felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach when he saw Michael holding an unconscious Tommy in his arms.

"Grandpa Tech! Help! Gold warm, sick!" Michael quickly tries to explain in human speak.

Techno quickly takes Tommy and rushes into the room. Carefully putting Tommy on his bed he rushes over to Michael.

"Michael, bud, can you tell me what happened?" He quickly asks.

"Gold in Claw, Gold sweat." Michael explains slowly, trying to remember the right words. "Blood drop! Blood drop!"

"Blood drop…?" Techno whispers with a frown.

Techno turns when he hears the refrigerator door open to see Phil pulling out the milk. Frowning, he watches the man pour some milk into an old baby bottle they had found in Tommy's old dirt hut in a strange box labeled "for the next gen".

"What are you…?" Techno asks as he watches his father pour some tea into the bottle.

Phil shakes the bottle up after putting the lid back on, quickly walking over to Tommy. "Come here baby bird." The man whispers, carefully lifting Tommy up and off the bed which earns him a soft whimper from the unconscious child. "I know, I know. You feel all icky and don't wanna be moved but I have to, I'm sorry."

Techno quickly makes his way over to his father with Michael right behind him and watches as Phil slips the nipple of the bottle into Tommy's mouth.

"Gold ok?" Michael asks softly, sniffing at the other child.

Phil chuckled softly when Tommy began to drink the milk and tea. "He'll be fine mate." He smiles softly, holding the bottle up carefully. "He just had a bad blood pressure drop episode. He must've gotten scared at some point."

"Doll say Gold climb and Gold get stuck in claw." Michael whispers as he rubs his face against Tommys. "Gold like Mimi. Gold have drop."

Techno watches the zombie piglin child for a moment longer before looking at his baby brother. The little blonde was suckling down the milk and tea quickly and he seemed to be gaining some color back to his face.

"Why did you help him?" Techno thought, looking at Phil.

======

Phil smiles as he watches Tommy and Michael play with some blocks on his bed. It hadn't been too long since Tommy had woken up and made a bit of a fuss. It had confused Phil and Techno for a moment before Phil put his baby bird down next to Michael.

Tommy had almost instantly calmed down and rubbed faces with the zombie piglin, letting out a few soft chirps as he did. 

Michael had let out a squeal of happiness and tackle hugged Tommy onto the ground where the two had let out a series of chirps, squeals and squished each other until Techno brought out some of Michaels' blocks.

So that brings us to now. Tommy and Michael had been playing together on the end of Phils' bed for a good ten minutes, Phil stopping them every other minute so Tommy could drink some more milk tea to attempt to keep his blood pressure steady.

"Tommy, baby bird, are you feeling ok?" Phil asks softly.

"Mm." Tommy nods as he shakily tries to put a block on the small tower he and Michael made.

"I'm back!" Techno calls out as he walks in carrying a Targay bag.

Tommy gasps and drops his block in front of him, his body jerking back in surprise. He would've fallen off the bed had it not been for Phil grabbing him and pulling him onto his lap.

Michael giggles and claps his hands when the tower falls over. "Make new!" He cheerfully says until he noticed that Tommy was no longer in front of him.

Snorting softly, Michael looked over the side of the bed for his new friend when he heard giggles. Sitting up he giggles when he sees Grandpa Phil tickling Mimis' tummy. Clapping, he sat back on his bum and watched the two.

He knew he had brought Mimi to the right person! After all, the two looked so similar, it was hard not to see them as not father and child.

Phil smiles down at his son. It had been so, so, so long since he'd had that bright smile of Tommy's shining his way and even longer since he was allowed to hear his baby bird giggle or laugh.

Nuzzling his son's face he cradles his son close as tears gather in his eyes. "Oh Tommy, my little bird, I'll never ever leave you again, I promise." He whispers to the softly chirping boy. "I'm sorry I hurt you in the past, I'll never do it again."

Hearing this, Techno was quickly reminded of how Quackity and the rest of the Dude family had acted towards Tommy. Hell, even Schlatt had treated Tommy better in the short amount of time he had seen him with the young blonde than how he and Phil treated the boy his whole life.

"Phil, we aren't his family anymore." Techno says solemnly, pulling the items in his bag out.

"What are you talking about? Of course we are!" Phil huffs, helping Tommy drink more from his bottle. "He's your baby brother and my son."

"Potty…" Tommy whines when he pushes the bottle away from his mouth.

"Who needs to go potty." Phil frowns before gently putting Tommy down on the floor. "Can you go by yourself baby?"

Tommy shakes his head with a frown. "Papa Wilby goes in with me to make sure the toilet doesn't eat me like it ate my dino toys and my sticky sand."

Phil ignored the sting in his heart at hearing Wilbur being referred to as 'Papa Wilby' and nodded. Looking at Michael he gives him a soft smile. 

"Michael? Can you go with Tommy to the potty please?" The avian man asks the piglin child sweetly.

Michael nods and quickly hops off the bed, taking Tommy's hand in his as soon as his shoes hit the floor. "Come, come!" Michael cheerfully says, pointing at a blue door.

Techno watches Tommy and Michael run into the bathroom before frowning at Phil. But before he could tell the man that he had to take Tommy back to Schlatt the man interrupted him.

"So, what did you get at the store?" Phil cheerfully asks.

Techno looked at the stuff he had put down and held up each item as he said the name of it.

"Cottage cheese, chips, coke, whip cream, ice cream, nuts, berries and...sunflower seeds? I don't remember paying for these…" Techno frowns before shaking his head. "Wait, no! Stop trying to change the subject, Phil!"

Phil frowns and slowly stands on shaky legs. Grunting he quickly grabs his walking stick before he has the chance to fall. "Techno, your mother has given us a second chance to raise your brothers right. All we need to do is find Wilbur and we can...we can be a family again. We can forget about the past and make a new future with your-" 

"PHIL ENOUGH!" Techno shouts, startling the older man back a few steps. "Wilbur and Tommy already have a family and we aren't it. You fucked that up years ago Phil, you fucked up two perfectly good kids all because you didn't like Tommy and because you wanted Wilbur to be like me! Do you know how many times I had to talk Wilbur out of running away or not fucking killing himself because he thought you'd be happier without him around?!"

"For gods sakes Phil pull your head out of your ass and see that we aren't good for them! They aren't safe with us! What if you suddenly start hitting Tommy again? What if you start comparing Wilbur to me again? What if you suddenly decide they aren't worth your time anymore like you did the first time?!"

Techno huffed and puffed at the end of his rant, feeling tears forming in his eyes. 

"What if I lose both of my brothers again because you let history repeat itself?" He whispers sadly.

Phil looked uncertain as he reached out to Techno, not knowing if his son wanted to be touched or not, but the pinkette stepped away with a soft sniffle.

"I don't want to have to bury my brothers again Phil." Techno whispers. "Once was enough."

"Tech I-I…" Phil whispers until the bathroom door opens. Quickly turning he watches Tommy slowly walk out holding an angry Michaels' hand. "Tommy? Baby, what's wrong?"

Tommy flinched at Phil's voice and the older blonde's heart gave a painful squeeze.

He watches his son hide behind Michael as the little piglin child lowered his head to show off his little tusks, ready to attack if need be.

"Tommy, baby what's wrong? Are you hurt? D-Did you fal-" Phil had tried to get closer but Michael let out a low growl and stepped forward, an arm outstretched as if to hide Tommy more from Phil's confused eyes. 

Techno watched Tommy hide as much as he could behind the slightly bigger child and knew immediately what was happening. 

"Phil, back up." He orders slowly. 

"What? Why?" Phil quickly asks.

"Because Michael is going to attack you if you don't." Techno whispers, slowly pulling Phil back as he too stepped away.

Sniffling Tommy nuzzles into the back of Michaels' neck with a soft coo.

Michael turns and hugs Tommy tightly, softly mumbling in piglin.

"Protect friend. My gold. Bad grown ups. Yelling bad. Gold not like yelling. Stupid adults." Michael grumbles as he squishes Tommys face and looks him in the eyes. "Michael protect Mimi. Michael strong, Da say so."

Tommy giggles softly and reaches up to gently grasp Michaels' wrists in his hands. 

"Mimi protect Michael too! Mimi promise!" He smiles.

Michael giggles and bounces in place before rubbing noses with Tommy.

"Nose promise!" The little zombie piglin child squeals.

Tommy giggles and bounces a couple times before hugging the slightly bigger child around the neck.

"Hug!" The little blonde giggles.

Michael giggles and hugs Tommy back. "Hug!" He cheers.

Techno watched the two for a moment before looking down at his confused father. "Techno what's going on?" Phil whispers. "Why did Michael try to attack me?"

Techno sighs and slowly steps forward but stops when Michael gives him a glare and bares his teeth as a warning. He was going to back off but when he looked at Tommy again he could see some sweat forming on the child's face and his cheeks becoming flush he knew he had to get Tommy back.

"Ok, ok." Techno says softly, slowly getting onto his knees and takes a deep breath before continuing to speak in piglin. "I'm not going to hurt Mimi, I promise."

Michael seems to think it over before letting Techno move a bit closer until he is a foot away. "I need to take Mimi. Mimi is sick and needs some food to recover from his bad drop. Ok?" Techno spoke softly or as softly as one can be when speaking in grunts and snorts.

Michael glared at Techno as best as he could with his one eye but ultimately let the older piglin take Tommy from him. 

"Careful with Mimi." Michael huffs as the pinkette slowly stands. "Or nuke you!"

"...I'm gonna have to talk to your father about letting you near Tubbo when he's talking about nukes." Techno frowns.

======

A half hour earlier...

Wilbur frowns as he slips on his mask his mother gave him. Looking out the window he watches Schlatt instruct Sam Nook and "Ranboo" to look near the prison before running towards L'Mancrater.

He had been forbidden to look for his brother since there were a lot of people on the server that apparently would want him dead but he didn't care. His baby was out there somewhere and he knew something was wrong. He could feel it.

So, quickly grabbing his bright yellow cloak, he ran out of the hotel room and headed straight for the stairs. Quickly taking two at a time he slips the cloak on and lifts the hood.

Pushing the door open he looks around, whispering softly to himself. "If I was Tommy, where would I...of course."

Wilbur quickly ran towards Sams' house, barely avoiding a run in with a man wearing a pair of old 3D sunglasses and a pink haired woman.

The brunette's feet barely hit the ground as he ran and ran until he was outside of Sams' house just as Karl walked out with Fran on a leash. When the older brunette looked at Wilbur he immediately knew something was wrong.

"Wilbur?" Karl asks, quickly walking over to the masked teen. "Wilbur what's going on?"

"Tommy wasn't in bed this morning and we found the door cracked open." Wilbur quickly explains as he opens his inventory. "Ranboo checked the cameras and found Tommy playing around in the lobby with his Tom Nook but something drew him to look out the doors and after that the cameras turned off."

Karl was silent as Wilbur pulled out Clementine from his inventory and held it out to Fran. 

"We have no idea what made him look outside but he was terrified." The masked teen continued as he held the toy out to Fran. "I need you to find Tommy, Fran. Please. Somethings wrong, I can feel it."

Fran sniffs at Clementine and immediately starts barking her head off and tugging on her leash. Wilbur quickly unhooks her and watches her run back towards L'Mancrater.

"I'll get Sapnap and the others! L'Mancrater is huge and goes all the way to bedrock." Karl quickly says when Wilbur prepared himself for the run back. "We'll meet you there."

Wilbur nodded once and ran to catch up with Fran. As he did he looks around and spots a few creepers gathering around something. Fear gripped his heart as he changed course and ran over to the group only to see a nest with an egg in it.

Sighing in relief he pats the creeper that he believes to be the parent of the egg and smiles. "Congrats." He says, giving the creeper a gentle head rub.

A loud barking made Wilbur look over towards Fran to see her pawing at something. Running over he sees that it was Tommy's bandana with small specks of fresh blood splattered on the forest green.

"No…" Wilbur whispers, carefully picking it up just as thunder sounded above him.

Quickly looking up, Wilbur feels his heart skip a beat at the sight of heavy rain clouds forming above him. Either Schlatt found out Wilbur left the room or somebody just royally pissed him off.

Wilbur went to get Fran to look for Tommy again when he realised what would happen if the rain started. Looking down at Fran he began to panic slightly. 

If the rain started it would wash away any and all clues as to where Tommy was. But most importantly, it would wash away Tommy's smell.

"Fran, Fran I need you to sniff Tommy out and fast!" He quickly says as Sapnap and Bad run over with Karl and Skeppy. "Please Fran, he's hurt and I need to find him."

Fran quickly sniffed at the bandana and barked.

Wilbur watches with bated breath as Fran raises her head to the sky and sniffed. He felt his hands shaking as the wolf whined and spun in a circle. Looking around Wilbur quickly took notice of clothes hidden in the trees and from what his mother had told him they were Tommys.

Rushing to a tree he jumps up and snags a pair of beige khaki shorts out of the tree. Moving to another he pulled out a red and white baseball with quite a few stitching marks and patches covering up holes in the shirt. It looked to have been well loved.

Staring down at the clothes he felt his hands shaking more. Whoever has Tommy planned this. They knew that he'd use Fran and set up Tommy's old clothes in the trees.

Looking around he thought he spotted a man hiding behind a tree near the path, a very familiar light blue baby blanket in his hand. Gritting his teeth Wilbur moves his mask to the side and looks down at a snarling and drooling Fran. 

"Fran. Sic 'em." He orders, his eyes flashing a vibrant yellow.

Fran ran towards the tree and man at top speed.

Wilbur smirks when he hears a pained cry and panicked screams. Moving his mask back into place he turns to Bad, Sapnap, Karl and Skeppy. "Who is he?" He asks as the screaming continues.

"Th-That's Michael McChill. He joined a little after Tommy…" Bad trailed off, images of Quackity carrying a dead Tommy on his back flooding his mind.

Wilbur notices the look in Bads' eyes and frowns. "Right...he may have something to do with Tommy's disappearance." He quickly says before turning to head back down the path. "Take him to Sam and interrogate him!"

Wilbur quickly ran back towards the Bee n' Boo, nearly running into a tall man carrying a bag that looked strangely like his twin, the man not the bag, and stopped by the front doors.

Thinking back to the security cameras he remembers Tommy looking through the glass door right before the camera shut off. But Ranboo had said that the cameras can't be shut down by anybody outside. You had to be inside the security office to turn it off.

Looking around Wilbur tried to find some kind of evidence of Tommy or whomever took him. He knew that Tommy was a strong kid, hell, he killed his first mob when he was four from what he could tell from older Wilburs' memories. Moving forward a tiny bit he felt something under his boot.

Picking up his foot he spots a piece of broken porcelain on the ground. Crouching down he carefully picks it up and turns it in his fingers. It was slightly curved and had a small black dot on it. Running his fingers over the smooth surface he feels like he'd seen it someplace before but he had no idea where.

Pocketing the shard he takes a deep breath when he feels his lungs give a painful squeeze. Slowly letting it out he turns and slides down the glass door.

Bringing his knees to his chest he tries not to cry out of frustration and the fear that somebody had taken his little brother that had been bubbling just under his skin. 

"Why do you always run Toms? What are you so afraid of?" He whispers to himself.

Wilbur didn't know how long he'd been sitting there but when he looked up again a man with an orange fox tail and a cool looking jacket stood in front of him, staring at him in shock. Sniffling he reaches up and rubs at...his...where's his mask?

Looking at the man's hand he sees his white bone mask with the bright yellow music note painted in the middle in his clawed hand. Growling he quickly snatches it from the man and slips it back on.

"Ever heard of not bothering...bothering…" Wilbur groans and holds his head in pain, headache quickly forming in his temples.

Falling back he lands hard against the glass door. Whimpering he feels a sudden itch in his throat that causes him to cough. Gripping at his chest he feels his lungs give a painful squeeze and a weak wheeze is forced out of his throat.

Panting he frantically looks around, trying to spot a head of brown hair or a glimpse of a business suit but find neither. "Sch-Schlatt…" He chokes out, trying to move but he just ended up falling to his knees.

With shaky hands he reaches up and attempts to remove his mask to get more air but his hands shook so much that he couldn't get a grip on it. He felt hands on the back of his head and suddenly the mask was gone and he could take in just a bit more oxygen, not a lot but enough so his lungs didn't burn as bad.

Sobbing he curls up as fear fills his heart. He didn't want to die again. He didn't wanna leave Tommy, not if there was a chance that Phil could get his hands on him again.

"Hey, hey, hey! Wil-Wilbur I need you to uh...god what did Tubbo have Tommy do before…?" The man whispers before gasping. "Right! Wilbur I need you to breathe through your nose real slow ok?"

Wilbur listened to the fox man even as scared tears formed in his eyes. He felt the burning in his lungs get slightly better but it still felt like he was sucking in air through a clogged straw. "D...Dad…" He croaked out as he was lifted a bit and his arms were put above his head.

"Shhh, shhh." The fox man whispers. "Come on dad, breathe, breathe."

Wilbur wanted to look back at the fox man but couldn't from the angle they were sitting. Closing his eyes he feels dread crawl over his skin and his heartbeat quicken.

"Sch-Schlatt…" He sobbed brokenly. "I-I...I want my dad."

He felt gentle but shaky hands pet his hair down before he was taken into strong arms and the smell of cigarettes and roses hit his nose. Slowly looking up he sees concerned orange tinted eyes.

"Hey bubba." Schlatt had whispered gently. "What's going on?"

Wilbur was unable to answer due to his throat feeling like it was being constricted. So with a sob he grips on tight to Schlatts suit and curls up close. He knew he should try to stop himself from cry, knew it wouldn't help his breathing, but his heart was beating a mile a minute and all his mind was focused on was his little brother being hurt or scared.

"Come on Wilbur, come on bubba, breathe for me." Schlatt whispers, placing one of Wilbur's shaky hands against his chest. "Come on, breathe with me Wil."

Schlatt held Wilbur's hand against his chest and took deep breaths while counting from 1 to 10, not knowing what else to do. He has one child missing, presumably kidnapped, and another having an anxiety attack.

Somewhere not too far away a certain masked man was having quite a chuckle as he watched his puppets start to fall in line once more with only a single thought in mind.

"This should be fun."

Chapter Text

Humming softly, Phil rocks Tommy slowly back and forth, back and forth.

Techno had left a few minutes ago to get the server medic since Tommy had come down with a very high fever, 103.2°F, and got sick all over himself.

Luckily Michael let Tommy borrow some clothes so Phil was able to bathe him.

"Shhh, shhh…" Phil whispers to the softly crying child in his arms. "I know, I know. It doesn't feel good to be sick huh?"

The crying started almost immediately after the child threw up his cottage cheese and berries on himself. Poor thing just didn't seem to be able to stop.

"Shhh, shhh, shhh…" Phil whispers. "Daddy's here, daddy's here."

The older blonde gently takes Tommy's smaller hand in his and gives his knuckles a gentle kiss.

"What do I do…?" Phil groans to himself. "I never got to take care of him when he was sick before!"

Looking down at Tommy, Phil felt his heart ache as more tears fell down his baby's face and his red cheeks grew even redder. "Oh my poor baby…" He whispers. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you, I'm sorry you had to go through so much without daddy there to help you. I'm so sorry."

Phil reached over to his bedside table to grab the cold medicine that Techno had managed to sneak past Jack and stopped at the sight of his and Tommy's photo.

The first and last one they ever took together.

Tommy was newly hatched, still having a bit of goo on him from his egg, and being cradled in Phil's arms. The avian man's smile was bright as small tears formed in his eyes as he cuddled his new son.

Phil never left Tommy alone until...until the day Tommy suddenly got sick.

The older blonde still doesn't know what it was but it made his instincts go nuts. For days he was on the verge of passing out while trying to fight his instincts that told him that he needed to kill Tommy, to get rid of him before he infected the rest of the flock.

But he never did.

He couldn't, wouldn't hurt an innocent baby!

So he moved Tommy out of his room and placed him in the nursery that had been set up for Fundy. He hated having to push his baby out of his nest but he had to to calm his instincts before he woke up one morning to a dead child and blood on his claws.

Before long Phil's instincts demanded him to kill the sick one to protect the healthy so he took Techno and ran.

He knew he was a coward and he knew he should've been there for his other two sons but he was just too afraid.

Then the day came that he got the call about Fundy being born and Sally losing her life.

They went home that day to see Wilbur cradling a tiny baby with a tuft of orange hair on his little head and little six month old Tommy playing on the floor with a little wooden cow.

That was also the same day that Wilbur must've decided he hated them because he chased them out of the house with a cleaver and screamed at them for daring to show their faces at the house again.

The next time they came home was when Tommy was five. Phil had been so nervous that he'd mess something up and...and he did.

When he had been tidying up the living room he had felt something on his wing and panicked. He flicked his wing out and knocked whatever it was away from him, screaming for it not to touch him.

But when he looked down and saw Tommy sitting on the ground with tears in his eyes he felt horrible and like the blood in his veins had been replaced with ice water. He had wanted to apologize, to hug Tommy and let him investigate his wings like he seemed to want to but the damage had already been done.

Tommy ran up the stairs, right past Techno, and ran to Wilbur.

Later that night he and Techno were "kindly" asked to leave. 

Everytime Phil came back to visit his boys and Grandson something always happened that led to him laying his hands on Tommy.

But the thing is that he never remembered it.

He never remembered smacking, punching or screaming at Tommy after the first time.

You can call him a liar or whatever you want but he really doesn't.

He only remembers Tommy's scared faces, big watery eyes and blood. There was always blood.

Every night it happened he'd sneak into Tommy and Fundys' room to just watch his baby bird sleep and to punish himself by looking at the bruises he left on his baby before Wilbur kicked him out.

He never understood why he had become like that, he never understood why it had to be towards a literal toddler but he did know he was a monster and it wasn't only because of his demon.

If Phil could he'd go back in time and punch himself, protect his baby from himself and maybe...maybe Tommy never would've-

A loud wail made Phil snap out of his train of thought and look down at Tommy.

Frowning, he quickly grabs the forehead thermometer and scans the child's head, his heart hammering in his chest. 

As soon as the little machine beeped he brought it up into his line of vision and gasped.

104.5°F

Quickly getting up, Phil tried to think of what to do when he remembered what he used to do for Wilbur when his asthma got bad. But this time he had to do it in reverse. Cold instead of hot. Icy water instead of steam.

Running into the bathroom he quickly turned on the cold water and lifted the plunger to turn on the shower.

"Daddy-!" Tommy hiccuped as he tried to get out of Phils' hold but he had seemed to quickly become too weak.

"You're ok baby, you're ok-!" Phil shushes as he climbs into the shower with Tommy.

He hissed when the icy water hit his sensitive wings but he stayed put. He wasn't going to leave his baby to suffer alone. Not again.

Never again.

Techno quickly ran back towards the hotel, Ponk securely on his back.

He could hear the balaclava clad medic yelping every so often from how Techno jumped over rocks and small hills but he wasn't going to slow down. He couldn't.

Something was wrong with Tommy and he needed to get help to him before something bad happened.

His footsteps were thundering down the path as he ran but they quickly stopped when Fundy jumped out of a bush, his face fuzzy with orange and white fur.

"Watch it!" He yells as he skids to a stop beside his nephew.

Looking down at Fundy he let himself pant slightly from exhaustion. He'd been running for a good ten minutes without stopping.

He just ran to the badlands, crouched down, yanked Ponk onto his back and quickly started to run back towards the Biginnit Hotel so he was a bit out of breath.

"I'm getting old…" He groans, leaning back so he could crack his back only to stop when he heard Ponk squeak in alarm. "Sorry."

Fundy looked up at Techno and gave a soft hiss of alarm. "What are you doing here?!" He hissed.

"I'm trying to get Ponk to Phil." Techno huffs. "Why are you in fox form?"

"...nevermind that, what's wrong with Phil besides the obvious?" Fundy huffs, standing up.

"He's running a very high fever and he vomited earlier along with a blood pressure crash." Techno quickly explains, leaving out that it was Tommy and not Phil who was experiencing all of this.

"Shit…" Fundy huffs before he chuckled. "Oh well. Karma is biting him in the ass hard."

Techno wanted to reprimand Fundy but stopped when he saw Schlatt running over with a man with brown hair in his arms. "Hey! I need them!" He calls out, pointing at Ponk. 

"Well so do I!" Techno frowns. "This server only has one medic and I got them first so back off!"

"My kid just had a panic attack and passed out!" Schlatt growls.

"My father is probably dying!"

"Good!"

"I'll fucking kill you-!"

Techno steps closer to Schlatt but was stopped when Fundy pushed him back. The push didn't do much but he did stop and look down at him.

"Back off Technoblade." Fundy huffs. "He's just stressed."

"Making excuses for him again huh Fundy?" Techno hissed. "He's not your dad, get over it."

Techno froze when he processed what he said. Looking down at Fundy he closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Don't mess up with him like you messed up with Tommy…" He thought to himself.

Opening his eyes he places a hand on the younger man's head and ruffles his hair a bit, startling Fundy. "Sorry…" He mutters.

Fundy just fought his hand off his head and huffed. "Whatever, just let us ask Ponk to help."

"I can't do that." Techno frowns.

"Oh and why not you selfish prick!" Schlatt growls.

"Because I wasn't getting Ponk for Phil, I was getting them for Tommy." Techno confesses. "We don't know what's going on but Michael brought him to us when he was having a blood pressure drop. It went back to semi-normal but then he got a high fever then a cough and then he puked on himself. We changed him into some of Michaels' clothes but he was sweating right through them."

Fundy frowns and looks back at Schlatt.

The ram hybrid had a look of horror on his face as he carefully moved Wilbur over to Fundy's back. "Fundy I-I need you to take your father back to the Bee n Boo ok? Our room is 206." Schlatt quickly gives Fundy the key card to the door. "Lay your dad down, cover him up and wait for Sam Nook ok?"

Techno watches Fundy nod before Schlatt was pulling him along.

"You better fucking take me to my kid right now." Schlatt grunts as he starts walking, tugging Techno along by the arm.

Techno nods and steps in front of Schlatt. Crouching down he has Ponk scoot over a bit to make room for Schlatt.

"On."

Schlatt grumbles as he climbs onto Technos' back but as soon as he was secure, Techno ran towards the hotels like a badger was on his heels.

In no time they were at the front desk of the Biginnit Hotel, startling Jack with their rather...loud entrance.

"-prick! Put me down! I'm gonna hurl!" Schlatt groans as he wacks Techno on the head.

"Shut up! We're here!" Techno grunts as he puts both of his "riders" down on the ground. 

Schlatt immediately ran for the ladder when he seemed to realize something.

"Room 402." Techno huffs.

As soon as Techno said the number, Schlatt ran to the ladder and quickly climbed up.

Rolling his eyes, Techno picks up Ponk and carries them up the ladder while ignoring Jack's confused questions.

Climbing up to their floor, Techno frowned when he noticed that Tubbos' door was wide open. Moving onto the landing, Techno quickly stumbles in and places Ponk down on the ground.

"Phil I got-!" Techno looked away from the seemingly dizzy medic to see that Phils' bed was empty. "Phil? Phil!"

"Technoblade!"

Quickly turning to the bathroom, Techno rushes in to see Tubbo and Michael drying off an unconscious Tommy while Schlatt wrapped a shivering and dripping wet Phil up in a towel.

Techno looked down at his father as the man pressed closer to Schlatt, his teeth chattering.

"F-Fever went up...used to give...used t-t-t-to give Wilbur...Wilbur steam showers for asthma...cold shower for fever." He whispered. "Climbed in too...wanted to stay…"

Techno frowns before looking at Tommy.

The little blonde's skin was flushed and his chin wobbled a tiny bit but he did look a bit better than he had when he left. His hair was wet but Michael was quickly taking care of that with another fluffy towel.

Looking at Michael, Techno frowned when he saw that the little guy was soaking wet. His striped shirt was sticking to his fur, his face dripped with water and his pants had turned dark blue from the water they must've sucked up.

"Did...Did you jump in Michael?" Techno questions.

"Gold and Grandpa cold..." Michael mumbled as he rubbed the towel in his hands on Tommys head. "Grandpa almost fall asleep...Gold did fall asleep…"

Techno frowns and looks over at his father to see him burying himself in Schlatts chest, nearly in the mans lap.

Looking back at Tommy he attempts to take him but both Tubbo and Michael snapped at him. Backing up a bit he raises his hands in a non-threatening manner.

"I just need to take him to Ponk." He quickly says. "Tommy is very sick and needs to get checked out."

"Fuck off." Tubbo whispers as he glares at Techno through his bangs. "I let him go twice now, I'm not going to this time."

"Toby, give Tommy to Techno." Techno heard Schlatt say softly.

"Fuck off Schlatt!" Tubbo hissed.

"Tubbo, please…" Phil whispered. "He...He might be dying again…"

Techno watches as a look of fear passed over the brunette's face before he looked down at Tommy.

Tubbo gently nudged Tommy's cheek with his knuckle and got a soft whimper in return. "Don't die Toms…" Tubbo whispered before carefully giving Techno the wrapped up child. "I don't think I can handle seeing you dead for a third time."

Techno quickly stood and went to leave the room but turned and pressed a kiss to the top of Tubbos' head like he used to see Tommy and Wilbur do when they were little.

"He's going to be ok Tubbo." He whispered. "I promise."

Standing up again he walks out and sets Tommy down on his bed so Ponk could get to work. Sitting by the bed he gently moves Tommy's wet curls away from his face as he listens closely for the little one's heart beat, praying that he wouldn't hear it stop.

"Come on Theseus...stay with us." He whispers.

It's been three days since Tommy fell asleep. Three nerve-wracking days of Phil, Schlatt, Karl, Techno, Wilbur and Ponk watching over the child to ensure he'd be alive when the others awoke.

After dozens of tests, Ponk wasn't able to figure out a thing besides that Tommy's body was fighting something nasty due to an elevated white blood cell and antibody count.

The families didn't know what else to do due to there being no actual hospital on this server so they sat and waited…and waited…and waited.

Until one day, nearly a week after he'd fallen ill, Tommy's big baby blues slowly opened and glanced around the room.

Phil had been curled around the child, holding him tight to his chest with a hand gently tangled in his soft blonde locks and his nose buried in the top of his head. So most of what the child could see was obscured by green fabric and black feathers.

“Da…ddy…” Tommy whimpered as he struggled to get free, weakly pushing on Phils’ chest.

“Tommy…?” A sleepy whisper followed.

“Daddy!” The child sobbed, struggling a bit more. “Hot!”

Phil quickly untangled himself from the boy and got to the floor where he sat on his knees, staring at the tiny child as he grumpily sat up and rubbed at his sleep crusted eyes. His pupils grew as his little chick gave an annoyed gurgle.

His little socked feet kicked at the bed as if he was angry as he slowly woke up fully. “Mmm!” Tommy moaned unhappily.

Phil rested his chin on the bed and just stared.

Chick!

Baby, baby, baby, baby boy

Cuddle him

Love him

Bring him to nest

Yes

Yes

Yes

Nest

The chick should be in the nest

We need a nest

A soft growl made Phil perk up and stare curiously as Tommy rubbed at his belly with teary eyes.

Chick hungry

Must get chick food

Chick needs to eat

Must feed

Standing, Phil quickly walked to the fridge and went to open it when he realized something.

They had no food worthy of his darling little crow kit.

Biting his lip he turned to his softly clucking baby and quickly scooped him up. Cradling him to his chest he whispered sweet words to his baby and started walking towards the door to the room. 

It took a bit of maneuvering but he managed to get to the ground floor. But as soon as he did he had a human and a certain demon blocking his path.

“Phil? Where-HE’S AWAKE!” Jack cried out happily once he saw the annoyed face of Tommy peeking out from his arm prison.

“Hungry!” The boy sobbed as he started punching Phil in the chest.

“Baby needs food…have to go find food.” The angel whispered as he nuzzles the top of Tommy's head. “Calm kit, calm. Daddy will find food. Daddy will provide.”

Walking past the two, Phil kisses his baby's forehead tenderly. “Daddy good now. Daddy good.”

“Daddy!” Tommy sobbed out as he beat his little fist against the man's chest. “Want daddy!”

“Daddy here. Daddy here…”

Jack and Bad share a look before quickly following the form of the angel.

“Food, food, food…” Was the mantra that fell from the man.

He didn't even seem to notice he wasn't wearing any shoes, only his socks that were quickly growing wet in the dewy grass.

But what Phil did notice was that he was being followed.

They're gonna take chick

They want our chick

Protect

Protect protect

PROTECT

Turning quickly, Phil fanned out his wings and let out an animalistic hiss. He jumped forward and flapped his wings wildly towards them.

The duo quickly backed up in fear which pleased the instinct driven man.

He quickly turned away with his puffed up wings held up proudly. “Mine.” He huffed as he took big strides towards the scenic path.

He knew exactly where to go to get good food for his baby.

Puffy may think it's her rip off McDonald's but it's not.

Nor is it Hbombs’ Cat Café.

Or even Karls’ Hutt’s Pizza.

Nope!

There was only one place he loved the most which meant it was perfect for his baby.

The crying from the hungry child made his heart hurt but he had to keep walking.

Walking past a group of people, he heads right into the tunnel leading to his destination.

“Phil? Guys, I think that was Phil!” He heard someone call out behind him.

Quick footsteps came up behind him until a man in a blue joggers jumpsuit, a scar over his eye and a beanie on his head popped up in front of him.

“Phil! What are you doing-!”

Quack!

The man gasped and looked down at Tommy, his pupil expanding on his good eye. 

Phil looked down at his baby and cooed softly, knowing his baby was trying to show he wanted food and that he was distressed. “Chick okay, chick safe.” He whispers, rubbing his stubbly cheek against his kit's face.

“Mmm…!” Tommy whined in distress.

“Duckling hungry…” Quackity, his brain reminded him, whispered. “Feed duckling…where going?”

“Catfé. Best food.” Phil humphs softly. “Only best for baby.”

“I agree, I agree, I agree!” The duck hybrid nodded quickly. “Hurry! Belly empty, belly should be full! Duckling should be fed. Duckling need food. Hurry!”

Together the bird hybrids ran towards the café, leaving a very confused group behind that consisted of: Wilbur, Techno, Sam, Schlatt and Karl.

“Did…did baby bird just get kidnapped by two instinct driven birds?” Schlatt asks with a twitching eye.

“Father?”

Schlatt looked down at Wilbur as the boy crushed the to-go cup that had held his chocolate milk.

The brunette looked up at him with a crazed smile. “Father, I crave violence.”

“...same, song bird.”

Chapter Text

It's been so long since I updated this story I completely forgot to mention we have a discord now!

It's originally meant for Healing with the Hermits but it's turned into a server for every one of the stories!

We have headcannons, sneak peeks, a place to share art you find or make and much more!

So feel free to check it out, just remember to be nice!

https://discord.gg/HKEWxHnTZY