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When you were standing in the wake of devastation
When you were waiting on the edge of the unknown
And with the cataclysm raining down
Insides crying: "Save me now"
You were there, impossibly alone
In a box of black, a star awaited death.
Technoblade, ageless warrior, stood across from the Spy from Pogtopia, a small blonde boy named Tubbo who awaited his judgement with wide sky eyes. The Second President of Manburg stood off to the side, laughing while taunting the scared soul trapped in the concrete box Schlatt and Quackity built. A roaring crowd behind let out a senseless din that became the background of noise the piglin tuned out in desperation of searching for a solution.
The piglin hybrid memorised Tubbo’s youthful face, slowly loading a crossbow with a firework arrow he crafted mere days ago. His blonde tresses were messed, plastered to his forehead while sweat gathered on his face around those blue pools that begged his mercy. Wearing a clean suit he dressed smart for his speech, now turned into his own eulogy when Schlatt demanded his execution under reason of treason.
For one of the first times in his long, long life Techno didn’t believe he could fight everyone here and remain standing. He had no idea what to do, ignoring the snarling of Schlatt to get a move on. He was searching for any way for both himself and the child he was supposed to protect to escape this situation, but he did not like the odds they faced. Several waited behind with sharp blades, thirsty for the blood Schlatt ordered him to spill of a poor boy far too young to face such a messy death.
Probabilities aligned with only one or neither of them making it out if the piglin hybrid didn’t do as he was demanded too. Facing the young being he was supposed to kill, he frantically scrambled for any other way out of this situation.
“Techno, take him out!” Schlatt urges, Techno letting out a light chuckle with worried looks off into the crowd hoping their backup would come to the rescue.
“What, to dinner? That I can do, there’s this lovely place just down the bloc-”
“Not to dinner, you are going to kill him, Technoblade.” Schlatt sneers, his eyes flashing as he drew closer to the tall hybrid man with lotus-pink hair. “You are going to fire that rocket directly at the treasonous bastard we have captured and eviscerate him. I want him dead for betraying the country he was sworn too, going behind my back to leak critical secrets to that awful former President inciting a rebellion against my rightful election.”
Dropping his voice to a dangerous low, goat horns flashing in the high sunlight. “I only ever call on you for special favours Techno because I enjoy your ruthlessness, Blade. ”
Swallowing quickly, Techno prays with every fibre of his being that someone, anyone will step in. If he didn’t murder Tubbo, Schlatt and Quackity would leap for his throat. If he did follow through on their demands, Tubbo would be splattered across this concrete box.
It was an impossible situation.
“Tubbo, I’m sorry.” Techno chokes out, praying the blonde will forgive him.
“Techno, don’t do this! ” Tubbo begs, his voice breaking. Water leaked from his blue eyes, meeting Techno’s crimson red.
Taking a deep breath, he looks at the attire Tubbo wore to his own execution. Flaming anger fills his stomach at what Schlatt was forcing him to do, and the weeks of planning the blonde did before. Preparing a festival for good, the Second President asked Tubbo to arrange for the party of a lifetime. Turns out, the ticket to that event was his own soul because it was all a front for Schlatt to brutally murder a child for the sake of him doing what he was pressured into.
Techno could relate, feeling the weight of the sins he was about to commit.
Checking the loading of his bow, he pulls it up to a level stance.
“Please.” Tubbo asks simply, Techno’s heart clenching.
“I’m so sorry, kid.” Techno mumbles under his breath while pulling the trigger, a cloud of colourful smoke and the smell of burning flesh all that remains of the child he was supposed to save and miserably failed.
Schlatt lets out a ringing laugh while Techno’s hands clench tighter around the stock of a weapon that was supposed to defend lives, not take them. A tapping against his neck reminded him of the emerald he wore, the crow who wore the matching gold piece wouldn’t have stood for murdering a youth.
The Voices in his head screamed retribution, blood to be shed in honour of the death he was forced to commit. Looking into the box that held a once excitable, full of life boy with most inquisitive curiosity and biggest heart, Techno made a decision.
Growling low in his throat he lets the rage ignite his veins, teeth ground together as he whips his head at the Second President. Schlatt’s coffee eyes widen, face morphing to a similar pleading as the boy he forced the Blood God to kill. His mind echoed with promises of violence and rivers of blood from those who were willing to murder their brightest, ones not dimmed by the harshest intents.
“What’s the saying Schlatt, an eye for an eye?” Techno snarls out, moving his aim to the centre of his suit-covered chest. “I think you are already blind if you believe a child deserved death over what he did for the sake of a nation you don’t seem to care for.”
For the second time that day, he pulled the trigger.
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation?
You build up hope, but failure's all you've known
Remember all the sadness and frustration
And let it go, let it go
Above him hung the end of the world, and it was a cascading demise.
Tubbo glared up at the huge, cold obsidian grid filled with promises of his country’s demolition. Ringing explosions surrounded the boy while he looked up at the ones who chose disorder, Techno laughing while putting together a wither. His crimson eyes glowed, liquid like entombed blood shone as he prepared his next plans for devastation.
The last piece of Tubbo’s heart shattered into the dust his buildings were becoming, his very soul being ripped apart by three beings they had pissed off. Glancing to his blonde best friend, Tommy is trading snarking comments with the piglin whose history was filled the gravestones of those who enraged him. Tommy’s sunshine curls bounced as he tossed his head angrily, his blue eyes held the storms of emotions that ravaged him.
Clutching the handle of his axe, Tubbo wondered just how they got to be here. Looking down to see the heavy scarring his right hand had encrusted across his knuckles, the blonde wishes with everything there was some way to undo this.
It was a losing battle, he knew it the moment he saw promises of death upon the Blood God and Angel of Death’s faces. By accepting Tommy’s return, he signed the death warrant of far too much time rebuilding a lost cause.
This time when the trio finished, they intended to reach the very bottom of the world. With two gods of old and a mocking madman, Tubbo believed that vow would ring true.
Peering across the wreckage he spies Phil on top of his and Ranboo’s beehouse, posed upon the struts with night black wings spread wide. Sighting down his bow, others felt the bite of his ire when they drew too close to the one who had tons of war experience behind him.
The Blood God and Angel of Death were known Goddess-blessed beings, living far beyond the time Tubbo would ever see. They were given ageless flesh and certain abilities; ability to control the Wither phantoms and Hounds of War were a dangerous example.
The great snarling beasts were huge wolves with devastating teeth, able to rip someone apart in seconds. Rumoured to be inhabited by the souls of those who had fallen to the Emerald Duo, the piglin had brought several of the creatures with him. Snapping at anyone who made it too close to their master, Tommy and Tubbo stood across a gap from where Technoblade was stacking soul sand.
“Techno, please!” Tubbo calls, interrupting the exchange of words between blonde and piglin.
Techno’s eyes meet Tubbo’s, a brief flash of regret crosses it before his glowing inventory panel opens in front of his weathered hands dusted black. The portal disappears to him cradling wither skulls, three to be exact.
“Do you want to be a hero Tommy?” Techno shouts back, Tommy sliding his foot back to a balanced stance. “THEN DIE LIKE ONE!”
His crimson eyes flashed bright ruby as the skull's eye sockets glow an eerie white, the piglin carefully placing them on the sand in specific positions.
The realisation no matter what, he would end up alone again settles in there with a soul-rending shatter. Tommy would be focused on retribution going past this and after Ranboo’s betrayal, they were no longer speaking. He would have nowhere to go after Dream, Phil and Techno finished their quest.
Tommy’s hand clutching his own breaks him from those depressing thoughts, the blonde running away from the phantom Techno sent after them urging the Third President to follow.
Catching one last look at Techno’s face, Tubbo blinks away tears to follow his best friend.
He had no heart now, it lay in the growing cavern Dream was going to expand with permanent consequences. His purpose, blown to smithereens by three beings who decided they had enough. Their last memories of Wilbur were being destroyed before them and there was nothing they could do.
What the fuck was he going to do now?
And in a burst of light that blinded every angel
As if the sky had blown the heavens into stars
You felt the gravity of tempered grace
Falling into empty space
No one there to catch you in their arms
Technoblade pulls himself from the water tunnel at the far end of Snowchester, anxiety crawling across his skin at the conversation he faced. Holding the picture of the happy family tight, he looks down at the one he just lost.
The Voices remind him that this is the toll of growing to like mortals once more, the echoing emptiness when they are gone a horrible, familiar grief. Ranboo’s mismatched eyes look up to his mentor, smile wide across his bi-coloured face. An emerald earring hung among many charms; a small L’Manburg flag, a bee, an allium, a fox and a cookie.
The happiest Techno has ever seen Tubbo also was captured in this polaroid, between them sat an adorable piglet with the widest grin. Matching his dad’s, half his face was different with exposed bone showing through. It was clearly a loving family, gold rings glittering on the horns of the child’s parents.
Techno remembers the day that showed up on his student’s horns among their cloud and coal hair, they were oddly evasive about answering it with heavily blushing cheeks. The piglin left it alone until it was just him and Philza, who he then grilled until the crow avian spilled one tidbit.
He only confessed Ranboo did have another he spent quite a bit of time with but refused to name anyone. His blonde partner told him he could be overbearing and to leave it alone, his student would tell him when he was good and ready.
The chance robbed from them at the end of Sam’s enchanted trident, Ranboo’s death paints in grotesque detail at the forefront of the piglin’s mind. With shaking digits he clutches the blood stained photo Ranboo had thrust at him. With their dying breath they charged their teacher with finding their son, who apparently The Warden had taken hostage.
Philza had to pull him back from killing the creeper hybrid right then and there, the Voices crooning their agreement to his gruesome expiration. Swearing retribution, he went home with his partner and chased away the rogue bastard who paid for his escape with Ranboo’s blood.
Afterwards, a debt settles in his gut he can’t shake until it's completed. Assuming Tubbo had seen his husband’s demise on his communicator, he told Phil he had to tell the blonde what happened. His crow partner knew him all too well that his mind will not silence until the task is completed, waves him off while putting away their battle gear.
Leading him here, in the borders of a country who had a tenuous alliance with the Emerald Duo at best. Taking careful steps forward he begins to look for the grieving blonde, seeing him standing before the book that held the independence of the nation.
“Tubbo?” Techno calls out hesitantly, his blue eyes glassy in the cold air as he stared off into the distance.
The piglin puts away his trident and strips out his armour, placing it safely into his inventory. Not wanting to appear a threat to the obviously distressed man, he observes the weight of the world on that youthful flesh. His shoulders dragging low, his fingers were frozen in place around the railing. Techno wonders just how often he stood here alone, feeling the decisions of a nation that aged him before their very eyes.
“Toby?” His voice is soft as he ascends the stairs leading up to his side, Tubbo’s head whipping around to glare at him.
Techno swore lightning flashed in that grieving gaze, precipitation freezing to his face while the news settled in. “What. Happened.”
The words were clipped, Techno gulping and feeling apprehensive of how to approach the mourning husband. Silence stretched with heaviness while the snow whirled around the piglin and the blonde, Techno frantically gathering thoughts before deciding to hell with it and speaking as it came to him.
“I was first only repaying a favour, I owed Dream an’ intended to complete the deal. But a complication was thrown in when I watched Sam arrest Ranboo when the mission evolved to save him too. Why was he arrested? I have no idea kid, I swear to you.” His voice shakes when he explains the next part, watching it in his head again with a stuttering heart. “Sam used him as a failed bargaining chip an’ I couldn’t save him in time. I am so sorry.”
“I’m alone again.” Tubbo sobs out, his knuckles turning bone white where he holds the railing. “I always end up alone Techno, I am so fucking tired of it.”
“You aren-”
“STOP IT!” Tubbo screams, Techno slamming his mouth shut. “It’s only ever going to be just me! Everyone leaves me eventually, or tries to keep me far away! You have Phil, you will always have that. My constant was just murdered and my best friend has become consumed with a suicide mission! My country is barren of population, all slowly moving away. I will forever be alone!”
Techno wasn’t sure how to respond to that, seeing the pattern as Tubbo spoke it.
“I couldn’t protect Ranboo and it seems I couldn’t protect Michael either.” Tubbo continues, hands releasing their aching grasp. “Fuck, I can’t even save my own family.”
At a loss for words, Tubbo stares him down until Techno drops his eyes. The small blonde stomps towards the stairs behind the warrior, Techno also following him, not liking the purpose painted on his face.
“Fuck this server!” Tubbo curses, moving quickly towards a bunker Techno had barely seen inside of. “There is nothing important to me here any more, why the fuck should it exist anymore?! All we do is kill or be killed, spilling blood in an endless battle of death. Sadness drowns every ounce of happiness here, we are a doomed venture I may as well help die!”
Techno really didn’t like how this bloodthirsty soul was talking, dangerous intentions steadying his hand. Clarity in grief could be positive or negative, currently it seems rage was his fuel and the whole server would feel his fire.
“Kid, talk to me, what are you doing?”
Snapping his eyes to the piglin, a wicked smirk crosses his face. “Why Techno, I am enacting Project Dreamcatcher.”
That did not sound good at all. “An’ what is Project Dreamcatcher?”
“Nuclear warfare Techno, the only thing that can take that bastard down I am going to unleash upon all of us.” His face softened, looking up to the great warrior. “I am only giving you this one warning, feel free to grab whoever you wish to save and escape this server. I know you have that power.”
Several faces flash to Techno’s thoughts; Philza, Niki, Eret and Fundy being the first couple. “Tubbo you can’t just waste this land-”
“Why not?” Tubbo shrugs, tears washing down scarred cheeks. “Everything I have cared about is dead, blown up or beyond reach. My husband is dead, my son most likely is as well and every country I have built couldn’t keep its citizens safe. I am an Angel of Death, everyone around me perishes through horrific circumstances!”
“Tubbo, Michael isn’t dead.” Techno pulls out the photo once more, having tucked it away when he followed the blonde to his nuclear bunker. “Sam has him hostage, he’s alive!”
“How do you know?” Tubbo accuses, crossing his arms across his parka-covered chest.
“Why would Sam kill him? A dead child wouldn’t work for his plans an’ I have hopes that some of his golden heart lies beneath that obsidian Warden skin.” Techno thinks of how to talk Tubbo down from arming the explosives that would blow this place to kingdom come and then some. “We can still save him, I vow to you, I will do anything to help you accomplish that!”
Tubbo stops his quick movements at that, waiting for Techno’s next words.
“I swear upon my ancient soul I won’t leave you alone again, Tubbo. I will help save your family, I don’t want you to feel like you have no one.” Techno begs him, reaching out to slowly place his hands on the boy’s shaking shoulders. “You never have to be alone again, I will spend the rest of my time on this server ensuring that if you wish.”
“What about our past?” L”Manburg’s death flashes across those stormy depths, Techno’s heart clenching at how much he damaged this poor boy.
Retreating to humour, he gives a small smile. “You tried to kill me for that already.”
“Alright, and the several withers you released in my country’s borders wasn’t enough payback for that?” Tubbo jokes, his stance relaxing from the tense hold of sorrow.
“That…might have been over-kill.”
“Yeah, you think?” Tubbo drops to a mumble, no longer eyeing the computers that covered one wall of this clean room. “It took months to kill those rogue bastards for the sake of them not escaping the cavern you carved where my country once stood.”
“Look kid, I’m sorry.” Techno felt he was standing on the stage in front of him once more, caught between the sharp words of scorn or a sword’s biting steel. “You have been the victim of so much destruction, often in positions you were forced into. None of that was fair an’ I don’t want you to suffer anymore. We can go get your son back then you can live at my commune if you want, it would be the best way to keep you both safe. Not even Dream will step within our walls with evil intent, I await that day with baited breath so I can exact my revenge of Ranboo's untimely death.”
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation?
You build up hope, but failure’s all you’ve known
Remember all the sadness and frustration
And let it go, let it go
Looking into sincere crimson eyes, Tubbo actually believed the piglin. His Boo’s death felt like a fresh wound, bleeding parts of his soul away from the smashed cavern that held his affection for the deceased enderman.
The product of their love had been snatched away for him too, but he had faith when Techno was set to a quest it would be victorious. The determination that shaped his expression spoke volumes of the results he intended, powering through every obstacle that stood in their way.
Reaching up to put his hand over the warrior’s, he gives a soft squeeze. With a slow step forward, Tubbo folds himself into the hulking hybrid’s embrace. Techno holds him tightly, letting him mourn his loss into the front of his shirt.
They stand that way for several moments, Techno leaning his heavy chin down to lay on top of Tubbo’s goat horns. A comforting weight the same way his Boo used to hug him, he absorbs the promise the piglin would never let him be alone again.
Stepping back, he looks up to the one he finally felt he could trust again. “Shall we?”
“Let’s save your Michael.”
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation?
You build up hope, but failure's all you've known
Remember all the sadness and frustration
And let it go
Let it go
Let it go
Let it go
Let it go