Archive of Our Own

Wilbur expected a lot of things on the days that he managed the register in his family's bookstore. He expected there to be people that came in just to have a quiet place to sit and read. He expected there to be a few rowdy customers that insisted that they knew more than he did. He even expected that someone would come in just to look around at the books without buying anything.

What he didn't expect was a blonde haired teen to stumble into the shop looking completely and utterly lost.

"Welcome in!" Wilbur greeted with his normal customer service voice, "Need help finding anything?"

The teen looked over his shoulder, like he was afraid he was being watched. He walked up gingerly to the counter, "Hi, um... do you have any books on Essempi? Like who they are, what they've done?"

Wilbur chuckled, "Usually people just use the internet for that."

The kid tilted his head, "What's the internet?"

He did not just.

Wilbur was completely stun locked by that question, "I... How do you not know what the internet is? You're like what, 15?"

The kid winced slightly, "Uh, 16. And my parent's are... uh..."

"Strict?" Wilbur offered, and the kid nodded, "They insist you read books instead of spend your time on the internet huh? Tough."

"So do you?"

Wilbur reached under the counter and grabbed his phone, typing Essempi into the search engine. He gestured to the kid to come behind the counter, and sat him down on one of the chairs back there.

"Here, you can use my phone. I already searched Essempi for you, so just feel free to browse around."

The teen's eyes widened as he was given the phone, but he nodded, "I'll be careful. Thank you..." he looked at Wilbur's name tag, "Wilbur."

"No worries. I'll be around if you need anything."

°•☆•°•☆•°•☆•°

The boy seemed to stop and stare at Wilbur every so often, his eyes darting back down to the phone whenever Wilbur looked over at him.

"Is everything okay?" Wilbur asked, and the boy winced slightly.

"Sorry, I'm not trying to distract you or anything."

"You're not distracting me, you can ask me a question if you want to," Wilbur replied with a smile.

The boy tilted his head to the side, "What are you doing with the books?"

"I'm sorting them, and then putting them away in the right sections."

"Why do you need to organize them? Don't you know where everything is?"

Wilbur smiled, "Yes and no, we organize them more for the people coming in, so that they can find the books that they want. For example, if they're looking for fantasy books, it would be easier to find them in a section dedicated to the genre, then just trying to find books if they were sorted by say, author."

"Why are you smiling?"

"What?" Wilbur turned towards the boy, clearly caught off guard by his question.

The boy shrunk into himself slightly, "I just mean, I keep asking you questions and disrupting your work. You should be upset with me."

"I would never be upset with someone for being curious, and besides, we're having a conversation. It's something to do while I'm working."

The boy seemed confused by his response, but nodded anyways. A few minutes later, he stood up and set Wilbur's phone on the counter, then started to walk towards the door.

"Thank you for the help Wilbur!"

°•☆•°•☆•°•☆•°

It was about a week before Wilbur saw the teen again.

"Hey um..." the teen seemed to shift his weight nervously back and forth, "Do you think I could hang out here again?"

Wilbur smiled, patting the chair next to him as the blonde smiled and practically ran over to sit down.

Wilbur laughed, "Say, I never caught your name, what is it?"

The boy seemed to panic for a moment, a nervous expression appearing on his face.

"If... if you don't want to tell me that's fin—"

"...Tommy. My name's Tommy. Sorry, my brain's been a bit frazzled lately, I just zoned out a little."

Wilbur nodded, unlocking his phone before handing it over, "You're a cool kid, you know that?"

Tommy looked Wilbur in the eyes, "I've literally been in here twice."

Wilbur chuckled, "I just mean, clearly you have a thirst for knowledge, that's a pretty cool trait to have, and you're not half bad to hang around," he would gently bump their shoulders together, "You certainly made my day better last time."

"Oh, well... I'm glad. I like hanging out here. You don't get mad when I ask questions."

Wilbur seemed taken aback by this slightly, but didn't get a chance to answer, as someone flagged him down for help finding a certain book.

When he returned, he found that Tommy was staring at him again.

Wilbur chuckled, "Do you have another question?"

"Why'd you pick here of all places to work?"

Wilbur laughed, a bit caught off guard by the question, "You really have no filter do you? It's okay, my dad owns the store so my brother and I help out here from time to time."

The teen's eyes sparkled a bit, "You have a brother?"

"Twin actually, although we don't look anything alike anymore. You'll probably see him around if you keep hanging out here."

"What's it like having a brother?"

Wilbur paused for a moment, "It has it's ups and downs. On one hand, I have a person that will do anything for me, and I for him. On the other hand, we both get on each other's nerves more often than not," he chuckled, "I guess it's having someone there for you even when you don't feel like anyone should be. Even if you don't always agree, you know that they care about you and wish the best for you."

Tommy hummed, "That sounds nice, but I can see how it could get annoying."

"I assume you're an only child then? No siblings?"

Tommy shook his head, "Just me."

A shrill beep emanated from Tommy's watch and he cursed, giving Wilbur back his phone and running towards the door, "It was nice talking to you Wilbur! I gotta run, I'll come back soon!"

°•☆•°•☆•°•☆•°

The next time Wilbur saw Tommy, he was just finishing up his shift and passing it off to Techno. Normally Wilbur worked afternoons, while Techno worked mornings, but today they had swapped shifts.

Tommy looked quickly between the two of them as he entered the store, "Is this your brother?"

Wilbur's face lit up, "Tommy! Yes, this is my brother Techno. We swapped shifts today, so I was actually about ready to go get some food. If you wanted to you could come with me."

Tommy seemed to ponder this choice for a moment, then turned and nodded at Wilbur, "That sounds good, I haven't eaten anything today so I'm pretty hungry."

Wilbur waved at Techno, and shoo'd Tommy out the door.

"There's this really good food truck that one of my friends works at, I usually stop there to get food and then eat it in the park right next to there."

"Friends?" Tommy asked and Wilbur was once again dumbfounded.

"Yeah like, people you care about and hang out with? Like we're friends... at least I think we are."

Tommy nodded, "I don't have any. Well I guess except for you now."

Wilbur's brows furrowed, "Why not? You seem like the kind of kid that would be friends with everyone."

Tommy shrugged, "I don't really get out much I suppose."

Wilbur chose to ignore the implications of that response as he led Tommy over to the food truck. He waved at the person in the truck, who lit up and waved back.

"Hey Wil! Good to see you man. Who's your friend?"

"Jack this is Tommy. Tommy, this is is my friend Jack."

Tommy waved hesitantly with a timid smile on his face.

"Pleasure to meet ya kid. What'll it be?"

"Can we get two of the burger specials?" Wilbur turned to Tommy, "What do you want to drink?"

"A coke please."

"And two cokes please."

Jack nodded, "You got it! Pay whenever you're ready, I'll go get that started for you."

Wilbur nodded, taking his card out of his pocket and quickly paying for their food. A few minutes later, they had their lunch and Wilbur took Tommy over to a bench in the park that was overlooking a small pond.

"This is my favorite spot, it's so peaceful here."

Tommy munched on his food, but had a look on his face like he wanted to ask a question but didn't know how to approach it.

"If you have a question for me Toms you can ask, I really don't mind."

Tommy bit his lip, seeming to contemplate a bit more, "It's just... you seem like a really nice guy. Why is your family working for the Syndicate?"

Wilbur froze and turned to face Tommy, "What do you mean?"

"Oh I uh... Dr— Dad. My dad, says that the bookstore is a front for Syndicate operations, and you said your family owned it so I was just wondering how your family got about working with them is all."

Now it was Wilbur's turn to think for a moment, "It's... more of an agreement than us working for them. We just kind of act as a safehouse in case they need someplace to stay or something like that."

Tommy hummed in acknowledgement, "I guess that makes sense. It's more of an if you help them they'll leave you alone situation?"

Wilbur shrugged, "Something like that."

He was not expecting Tommy to ask him about the Syndicate. He was also not about to tell Tommy that he was currently having lunch with one of the three heads of the Syndicate. That wasn't important.

"Why so curious about the Syndicate?"

Tommy shrugged, "Heard that they are against Essempi. My parents talk about them in a negative light all the time. Everyone sees them as villains you know. But it's kinda nice hearing someone not instantly go on about how they're evil. Essempi covers a lot of worse stuff up."

"What do you mean?"

Tommy's head snapped up, "What?"

"About Essempi covering up worse stuff, what do you mean?"

A look of panic crossed over Tommy's face, "I... I mean I don't know for sure or anything, just seen some stuff in my research and from talking to different people, you know."

Wilbur nodded, "Yeah, there are a lot of rumors going around recently. It's hard to know what's true and what's been made up to make one side or another look worse."

Tommy seemed to relax a little, "Yeah, exactly."

A beep came from Tommy's watch again and he groaned, "I gotta go. Thank you for lunch, I'll pay you back next time I see you."

Wilbur chuckled, "Don't worry about it, that's what friends do."

Although as the boy walked away, Wilbur started to wonder just who exactly he had become friends with.

°•☆•°•☆•°•☆•°

"Wilburrr, I'm dying of boredom, I'm withering away, I will be nothing but a husk by the end of your shift."

Techno chuckled from where he was sitting reading in the corner of the store, "L, that sounds like you just need to get better."

Tommy pouted, "Technoooo that's not fair! Wilbur's ignoring meee."

It had been about a month since Wilbur first met Tommy, and already the little gremlin had snuck his way into his heart. While Wil had been skeptical at first when he brought up the Syndicate, he quickly learned that it was all in the vein of curiosity. So he had dropped his suspicions and really taken a liking to the child who started coming around more and more often.

Wilbur rolled his eyes, "I'm not ignoring you gremlin, I'm just trying to get my work done. Is that too much to ask?"

"Yes it issss. I'm dyingggg," Tommy whined, ever so dramatically.

"Would you like to stay for dinner?"

Tommy's head shot up, a look of excitement on his face, "Wait really?"

Wilbur shrugged, "Of course, your parents seem to be okay with you hanging around a bit more. You can ask them if you can stay for dinner. Worst they can say is no."

"I will! Thanks Wilbur!"

Tommy typed something out on his watch and a few seconds later he cheered, "They said I can stay!"

"I'll go tell Phil the gremlin is staying for dinner," Techno called as he walked back towards the back room.

Tommy looked confused, "Wait, you guys live here? Like in the store? Also wait, who's Phil?"

Wilbur laughed, "I forgot you've never stayed around after closing. We have a flat in the basement. I also forgot that you've never met Phil before. He's our dad."

Wilbur walked over and flipped the store's sign to closed.

"Come on, I'll show you the way down."

Tommy bounced along after Wilbur through the doors that led into the back room. Once there, they took a left through a different door that led down a staircase. At the bottom of the stairs looked to be a front door. Wilbur opened it and Tommy's eyes widened as they stepped into a pretty extravagant flat.

"This is underneath the bookstore?"

Wilbur laughed.

There's much more than this, he wanted to say, but the rest of the Syndicate base was a secret, so he couldn't blow the kid's mind farther. At least not right now. Maybe someday.

"Come on, let's go introduce you to Phil."

Wilbur led Tommy through the entryway, into the living room of the flat. As they were just about to pass through into the kitchen, there was a puff of purple particles and two new people were suddenly standing in the living room.

Tommy screamed and ran to clutch onto Wilbur, and Wilbur spun around, barely able to hold back his laughter when he realized what just happened.

The shorter brown-haired teen's eyes widened and he turned to Wilbur, "I am so sorry, we didn't realize you had guests over or we would have walked. Oh Prime, are you alright?"

Tommy just kept glancing between Wilbur and the two new people. Wilbur nudged Tommy slightly, "It's alright, they're friends. That's Tubbo and Ranboo. Ranboo can teleport, and sometimes they like to drop by for dinner."

Wilbur looked over at Tubbo, "Are you two just here for dinner?"

Tubbo shrugged, "There's something I'd like to discuss with you, but it can wait until after dinner."

Wilbur nodded, waving at the three boys to follow him into the kitchen.

"Phil, Tubbo and Ranboo are here too," Wil called as he walked into the kitchen and Phil chuckled as he looked up from chopping veggies.

"I heard Tommy scream, figured that's what happened. How are you boys doing?"

"Pretty good, although I have some things to discuss. I assume I can't right now."

Phil nodded and Tubbo gave a thumbs up.

"So... who are you two?" Tommy asked and Wil clapped his hands.

"I forgot! Tommy, this is Tubbo and Ranboo. Tubbo's a tech wizard, and Ranboo's a book nerd like me. You two, this is Tommy, he's the one I've been telling you about."

Tubbo waved at Tommy, walking closer to him, "Nice to meet you bossman."

"Nice to meet you too," Tommy smiled back shyly.

Tubbo's eyes narrowed a bit as he looked at Tommy's eyes, but he shook his head and smiled.

"Food's ready!" Techno called out and all of them gathered around the table.

The meal was a bit chaotic, with Tubbo rambling about his newest invention, and Tommy quipping right back at him, starting more than a few friendly arguments.

After dinner was spent playing board games, which ended with Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo screaming at each other over Monopoly.

When Tommy's watch finally beeped, he just clicked the button and went back to playing.

"Doesn't that mean that you need to go Toms?" Wilbur asked and Tommy shook his head.

"They can wait until this game is over."

About a minute later, his watch beeped again, and again he dismissed it.

A minute later, the watch beeped again, but this time it was a different sound. Almost instantly Tommy grabbed his head and doubled over in pain.

Tubbo instantly reached over, "Tommy are you—"

Tommy shakily got to his feet and nodded at them, "Thanks for dinner."

He then turned and waved almost robotically as he left.

°•☆•°•☆•°•☆•°

A few weeks passed where Wilbur didn't see Tommy at all. He was starting to get worried, as the kid had just left without saying anything about what had happened to him or why he had been in pain. That, and the fact that Tommy went from coming in every day to not coming in for multiple weeks had Wilbur worried.

He checked the clock and sighed as he walked over to the door to flip the sign. The doors would lock automatically in a few minutes.

Just as he was about to go down the stairs to the flat, he heard the door open. Curious, he walked back into the store and inhaled sharply.

Tommy looked like he just had a brush with death. He looked on the verge of passing out, although Wilbur couldn't see any wounds. As soon as he ran over to Tommy, Tommy smiled and almost instantly collapsed in his arms.

"PHIL, TECHNO!" Wilbur called out as he managed to barely catch the teen.

Phil and Techno emerged from the back of the store, worried expressions on their faces.

"Wil what's—" Phil locked eyes with Wilbur and the teen in his arms and immediately rushed over, "Techno, can you help take Tommy downstairs?"

Techno nodded, moving quickly as he gently picked up Tommy and carried him down to their flat. They brought him into the guest bedroom where Techno set him down gently on the bed, adjusting the pillows and blankets so that he was comfortable, or at least looked comfortable.

"What happened?" Phil questioned as he placed his hand on the teen's head. It was slightly warm, but not concerningly so.

Wilbur shook his head, "I'm not sure, he stumbled into the store looking like he'd just brushed with death. When I walked over to help him, he just collapsed."

"Right, he doesn't feel like he has a fever, so dehydration maybe," Phil pulled the teen's sleeve back gently to check his pulse, but inhaled sharply at what he saw. On the inside of the teen's wrist was a small mark that Phil would recognize anywhere, and now he was even more intrigued by what was going on.

"Wilbur," he whispered, showing Tommy's wrist.

"Why the fuck was Tommy working closely enough with Essempi that they marked him?" Wilbur growled and Phil shook his head.

"I have no idea. Has he ever mentioned working for Essempi?"

Wilbur thought back to all of the conversations that they had, "Not directly, although there were a few instances where I was a bit suspicious, but it honestly seemed like he was a sheltered kid that was just curious about what was going on in the world."

Phil sighed, "First things first, we have to make sure that he's alright. Part of Essempi or no, I do unfortunately still care about him."

Phil took a thermometer and gently stuck it in Tommy's mouth, waiting for a few moments before pulling it out again. "Well, he doesn't have a fever, which is good. I'll call Niki and see if she can come over and give a more thorough examination. I'm a little concerned that he hasn't woken up yet, but his vitals seem to be normal from what I can tell. I'll be right back. Techno, why don't you come with me?"

After a few seconds, Wilbur was alone, sitting on the bed next to the teen. This whole situation screamed bad news. What had Tommy gotten himself into? Had he been working with Essempi this whole time, or was it a recent thing since he last saw him?

Wilbur absentmindedly brushed Tommy's hair out of his eyes, completely lost in his thoughts. However, he was quickly snapped back to reality by a groan from the teenager on the bed.

Wilbur instantly pulled his hand back, as he stared at Tommy, who was now coming back to awareness.

Tommy slowly opened his eyes, looking around the room lazily before his eyes landed on Wilbur, "Where... where am I?" the boy whispered.

Wilbur smiled, "You're safe, you're in our guest room right now. You passed out in the bookstore upstairs."

Tommy seemed to ponder this for a few moments, or maybe he was still really out of it. Wilbur couldn't really tell.

"You are a part of the Syndicate... aren't you?" he whispered.

Wilbur froze, chuckling anxiously, "Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?"

The boy hummed sleepily, "Good. Essempi sucks."

Wilbur laughed, the tension draining from his shoulders, "Yes, I am. You're safe. You're in the Syndicate base, Essempi won't find you here."

"Good."

The door creaked and both Wilbur and Tommy looked over to the door. Phil entered in first, followed by a woman about Wilbur's age with light pink hair. As soon as Phil locked eyes with Tommy, his face softened, "Oh! You're awake."

Wilbur smiled, "He's still a bit out of it, but as far as I can tell, he's not with Essempi, at least not willingly."

Phil walked closer to the bed and smiled, "Tommy, this is Niki, she's our healer and is going to do an exam on you to figure out what's wrong if that's okay?"

Tommy froze for a second and then shook his head, "'M fine."

A look of concern crept onto Phil's face, "Mate you passed out in our bookstore, that's hardly 'fine.'"

Niki spoke up, "I can just do a very surface level exam, just check your vitals and your fluids, make sure nothing's significantly out of balance?"

Tommy shook his head again, "Just hungry."

Niki looked over to Phil who just sighed, "Alright but if your condition gets any worse you're having that exam."

"Won't. This just happens sometimes."

Wilbur looked down at Tommy in shock, "You know that's not normal right? People don't just pass out for no reason."

"'M out of energy. I told you I'm just hungry."

Niki shrugged, "Could be blood sugar. How long has it been since you last ate?"

Tommy shrugged, "A few days maybe?"

Wilbur sputtered, "Days? Tommy what do you mean days?"

Tommy shrugged, "I'm supposed to be able to handle it."

Wilbur looked up at Phil, a deep glare on his features that screamed 'Dad, I will personally kill each and every person that hurt him.'

Phil frowned, "No one is 'supposed to' go without food. That's just absurd."

Tommy looked like he wanted to say more but instead he just bit his lip and turned his head away.

Phil sighed, "I'll have Techno make you something. I know you really like his cooking."

Phil left the room, but Niki stayed behind. "I know you don't want a full exam, but can I just check your vitals and your responses? I just need to make sure that you're doing alright."

Tommy sighed, but nodded.

Niki smiled, "Thank you," she reached into her bag and pulled out a small blood pressure cuff and wrapped it around Tommy's wrist, positioning it and then pushing the button, gently laying his wrist over his heart.

"Just breathe okay, this is just making sure that your blood pressure and pulse are normal."

When the machine beeped, she gently removed it and looked at the results. She frowned, the results weren't bad, but something about them didn't look right to her. She reattached the cuff again, pushing the button and then placing his wrist back over his heart.

Wilbur's brows furrowed, "Is something wrong?"

Niki shook her head, "Probably not, just want to check again to make sure."

The machine beeped again and she removed it and looked at the results again. They were the exact same as they were the first time. No variation. Normally there was some variance in normal blood pressure. Everyone's was slightly different based on a number of factors. But these numbers were weirdly perfect somehow.

"Wilbur could you try this for me? Maybe this is broken."

He shrugged, "Sure."

She performed the test once and wrote the numbers down. Then performed it again and wrote the numbers down. They were in the same range, but they were slightly different.

"How odd..." she whispered but shook her head and smiled, "Your vitals are good Tommy, can I test your reflexes?"

Tommy nodded again, and she helped him up into a sitting position. She quickly and gently tested his reflexes in his arms and legs and nodded, "Seems fine to me. Can you keep your head still and follow my finger?"

Tommy performed all of the tests and Niki smiled, "It seems like you're almost fully back which is good. Do you remember what happened leading up to you passing out?"

Tommy bit his lip and looked down to the floor.

Niki frowned, kneeling on the ground, "Hey, you're safe now. Whatever happened, nothing can hurt you here, and none of us want to hurt you either okay?"

Tommy nodded, seeming to think for a moment, "I didn't do what they wanted me to. So they got mad. I managed to escape and make my way here but I spent too much energy getting out. So I passed out."

Niki looked up to Wilbur, who had a fire in his eyes, "What did they want you to do?" he hissed and Tommy recoiled slightly.

Niki put her hand on Wilbur's, and looked over to Tommy, "Sorry Tommy, he's not mad at you. He's mad at whoever did this to you. What did they want you to do?"

Tommy seemed to shrink into himself a bit, but answered quietly, "Tell them about you. I didn't want to. I don't want to. I... I don't want to be with them anymore."

Wilbur and Niki shared a look as the door opened and Phil and Techno walked back into the room. The smell of cooked potatoes and veggies filled the room, and Tommy lit up and made little grabby hands towards the food.

Phil laughed, handing Tommy the plate, "I hope you're not sick of potatoes, you know it's what Techno likes cooking with."

Tommy quickly took a bite and hummed happily as he chewed on the food, "It's really good, I missed this. Thank you."

Niki smiled, turning to Phil, "I need to talk to you guys about something, can we step outside? All of us?" she asked, looking to Wilbur.

He sighed and nodded, following the others out the door while Tommy continued to eat his food happily.

As soon as they closed the door, Niki's face became more serious, "Something's going on here. Both with Essempi and Tommy."

Wilbur was taken aback slightly, "You literally just said everything was alright with him!"

"That's the thing. Everything is alright with him. Too alright. His vitals are perfect. But moreso than normal."

Phil gave Niki a questioning look, "How do you mean?"

"When you take someone's blood pressure, it's never going to be exactly the same each time. It's going to be in a range, and we use that range to determine if your blood pressure is healthy or not. But Tommy's results gave me the exact same number every single time. Textbook perfect results."

Wilbur's brows furrowed, "So what does that mean?"

Niki shrugged, "I have no idea, but it's not normal at all."

"Maybe the machine is just defective?" Techno offered, but Niki shook her head.

"I tested it on Wilbur. Both results were slightly different, just like they normally should be."

"So we have Tommy, who's been marked by Essempi for some reason. He claims that they not only have been abusing him, but that he ran away because they got mad that he didn't want to follow orders."

"What orders?" Phil asked and Wilbur shook his head.

"He said they wanted him to tell them about us," Wilbur shrugged, "It just isn't adding up."

The conversation was interrupted by a beep from Phil's phone.

He picked it up and put it on speaker.

"Look Tubbo I'm right in the mid—"

"What did you guys do? Essempi's network is going crazy."

The four of them shared a look of confusion.

"What do you mean Tubs?" Wilbur responded, "What's going on at Essempi?"

"Wait... this wasn't you guys? Shoot uh..." there was clicking of a keyboard for a few seconds, "It seems like something at Essempi has gone missing, all the communication channels are lighting up. Every person that can be looking is looking."

"For someone?" Phil asked,

"Not sure. Any mentions of it? them? use a codename. Any files are so incredibly encrypted that I've been running one file for 20 minutes and I'm still not through all the layers."

"Tubbo... what's the code name?" Wilbur almost whispered.

"Uhh... let's see... they're just calling it T zero dash three three Y, in communications. If you give me a bit more time I should be able to crack this encryption."

Wilbur looked at the phone and then back to the guest room door. He turned back to the phone again, "Tubbo do you have any idea what it is?"

"I could give some educated guesses, but nothing concrete, no."

Phil spoke up, "What is your best guess?"

"Well, I don't want to lead you in the wrong direction but, most of these encrypted files are from the technology department. It seems like Essempi may have been testing some sort of new tech that went rogue or something. Like I said, I'll have more information when I get through this encryption layer."

"Thank you Tubbo, make sure to drink some water," Phil responded and Tubbo laughed.

"You got it boss, talk soon!"

The phone call ended and the room went silent.

"You don't think?" Techno started, but Niki shook her head.

"The blood pressure is one thing, okay that's weird, but there is no way that that kid is a robot or something. He literally feels just like a human. His reflexes responded just like a human's and everything."

The door creaked from behind them, and the four spun around to face the door again. Tommy stood in the doorway with an empty plate and an apologetic expression.

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?"

Wilbur smiled, "No not at all! Did you like the food?"

Tommy smiled back, "It was super good, thank you again."

Tommy's eyes seemed to unfocus and he shook his head a few times.

"Tommy are you alright?"

Tommy stood still for almost a minute before blinking a few times, suddenly coming back to awareness "What...? What just happened? What's—"

Suddenly his face paled, "Wilbur they're gonna kill me. They're gonna kill me."

Wilbur moved so that he was in front of Tommy, "No one's going to kill you Tommy. We're all right here, they'd have to get through all of us first."

Tommy shook his head, "No you don't understand they—"

Tommy winced as his hand shot up to his head. After a few seconds he lowered himself to his knees and grasped his head in his hands.

Wilbur quickly followed Tommy to the floor, "Tommy are you okay? What's happening?"

Phil's phone rang again, and he answered it, "Tubbo seriously now is not the ti—"

"Essempi has released some sort of virus throughout their system. My system got it but tracers say that the payload activated, didn't find what it was looking for and then it went dormant. I was right, they're looking for some sort of rogue tech."

"Tubbo... what does it do?"

"What? I mean I'm not entirely sure I just thought I'd let you—"

"How quickly can you get to the base?"

"Now? Boo's home, he can telep—"

"Get here now!"

Phil hung up the phone, and within a few seconds they heard a voice call out, "We're here, where are you guys?"

"By the guest room!" Phil called back.

Tubbo ran around the corner and skidded to a halt when he saw the scene. At this point, Tommy had tears streaming down his cheeks, and he was still grabbing at his hair desperately. Wilbur was trying his best to soothe him, but he had no idea what was even wrong.

"Oh Prime," Tubbo whispered as he ran over and kneeled in front of Tommy.

"Hey, hey Tommy can you look at me?"

Tommy shook his head, "It hurts so bad, why does it hurt?"

"Look, I think you have a virus okay? It's attacking your systems. Can you give me any diagnostic info?"

Wilbur looked absolutely flabbergasted, "Tubbo what are you on about, Tommy's not a—"

"There's so many errors... I can't..."

Tubbo typed something into a small machine, "Okay, Tommy I'm going to try to connect to your system wirelessly okay? Can you open your eyes for me?"

Tommy shook his head again, and Tubbo looked over to Wilbur, "Can you help me? Just open his left eye just a bit."

As soon as he could see both of Tommy's eyes, Tubbo clicked a button on his machine.

"Got it. Oh Prime..."

Tubbo pulled his laptop out of his bag and plugged the machine into it. He started typing on the laptop and hissed, "Whatever this is, it's goal is to completely destroy a certain part of his systems. I'll try to stop it but it's already done a lot."

Tubbo seemed to battle with his computer for a few minutes, but in the end he sighed in relief.

"I think I've got it, just gotta..."

He pushed a button on his computer and Tommy went limp, instantly falling into Wilbur's arms.

Wilbur looked up in complete shock, "Tubbo what the fuck is going on?"

"Look, I had my suspicions when I first met Tommy a few weeks ago, but I thought the idea was too far fetched to actually be true."

Tubbo's phone chimed and he looked down, "I cracked the encryption."

"What does it say?" Phil whispered, and Tubbo frowned.

"Project T0-33Y, an artificial intelligence that is currently being trained to perform as an undercover spy for the agency. Project T's objective is to integrate into the lives of suspect persons and collect information about them, which will be retrieved at headquarters. Once the mission is complete or is determined to be a failure, Project T will undergo a system flash and will be reset back to default settings to prepare for it's next assignment."

Wilbur shook his head, "That's impossible. Tommy literally acts just like a human."

Tubbo sighed, "Wilbur, that's literally the point."

"There's just one thing I don't get, why did Tommy end up here half dead?" Techno asked and Wilbur growled.

"He said he didn't want to work with them anymore."

Tubbo tapped a few more times on his phone then tapped on his computer and gasped, "Oh Prime."

"What is it?"

Tubbo shook his head, "Project T isn't supposed to have it's own feelings or emotions. It's supposed to just mimic the emotions of the people around it."

Wilbur laughed, "Then there's no way that Tommy is this Project T, he literally has his own feelings and emotions, you've literally seen him get upset over playing Monopoly."

Tubbo nodded, typing on his computer, "That's what's strange. Tommy's AI seems to have learned about emotions from how you treated him, and created it's own empathy system. That's what the virus was trying to erase. I managed to stop it, and I think I can repair some of the code that was destroyed, but this is literally the most complex code that I've ever seen."

Wilbur looked down at the teen in his arms, "So what about Tommy... is he?"

"In stasis right now. I shut his forward facing systems down so that I could access the rest of his code base without hurting him. Essentially, I've just turned him off."

Wilbur bit his lip, "Can you fix him? I mean back to how we knew him?"

Tubbo shrugged, "I'll give it my best try, it will take at least a week though, like I said, this code is the most complicated stuff I've ever seen. I'll also have to disconnect him from Essempi's system, or this will happen again."

Phil nodded, "This takes top priority, disregard any other business you have with the Syndicate right now."

Tubbo nodded, "Yes sir, I'll do my best."

°•☆•°•☆•°•☆•°

It took a few weeks, but eventually Tubbo called everyone into the guest room.

Wilbur sat on the bed holding Tommy's hand while everyone else just crowded into the room.

Tubbo nodded at them, "I think I've got it. I've managed to completely detach him from Essempi's servers, but that also came with the downfall of losing his main database that he used to store and recall information. So it took a bit longer since I had to hack into Essempi and copy out that database. Which is proper massive by the way. So I did use a bit of the Syndicate budget to invest in a private server room for Tommy that I run. I assume that's not a problem."

Phil smiled, "Not at all, whatever you need to help him."

Tubbo took a deep breath, "Okay, moment of truth."

He pushed a button on his computer, and nodded at Wilbur.

After a few seconds, Tommy started to stir.

Wilbur brushed Tommy's hair out of his eyes, "Hey, Toms can you hear me?"

As Tommy's eyes fluttered open, he smiled slightly, "...Wilbur?"

Wilbur choked back a sob as he wrapped Tommy in a hug, pulling him close and burying his face in Tommy's curls.

"You're okay now, Tubbo fixed everything. You never have to go back to them ever again."

Wilbur pulled away and Tommy's face fell slightly, "I'm... I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was afraid of what you would think of me. I'm... not human. I'm not real. Why would you still want me?"

Wilbur shook his head, "Nope, none of that. If your code is anything like what Tubbo's been raving about for the past week, you've made yourself human. You're my little brother, AI or not."

Phil and Techno walked over and joined the hug, and Tommy started to cry.

Phil ran his hand through Tommy's hair, "It's nice to finally meet you, all of you.

Tommy smiled, tears still running down his face, "Hello again."

°•☆•°•☆•°•☆•°