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All his life, Tommy had been told by numerous people that he was always the liveliest one in the room. He wondered what those people would think of him now as he silently begged his captors for death.
Blood dripped down his chin and his throat was raw from the sobs that they had rung out of his body. His nostrils burned; stuffy and swollen from the countless punches the villains had rained down on him. It seemed that with every endless question they had asked, they had battered him with a hundred blows to match it. There wasn’t a part of his body that didn’t hurt. He was exhausted in every way he could imagine.
“Don’t go to sleep yet, Blade,” his captor chuckled and pulled Tommy’s head back by the hair as it lolled forward. He had no energy left to flinch as harsh fingers dug into his scalp. “We’re not done with you yet.”
---
Twelve hours earlier. . .
Phil hadn’t gotten off the phone in hours. Tommy had stopped trying to eavesdrop through the office door and now sat on the couch, buried under soft blankets in hopes that they would bring him comfort in the horrible darkness that seemed to cloud the world.
His brother was gone, taken by the villains. He knew Techno was strong, knew he could hold up until they found him. But when would that be? The heroes didn’t have a clue as to where he had been taken, nothing to hint at where they could start searching. His brother had disappeared into thin air and now they were chasing smoke trails that were rapidly melting into the wind.
“—yes. Thank you. . . thank you, Charlie,” Phil was saying as he stepped out of his office. Tommy turned. Wilbur sat up expectantly, unraveling himself from his seat on the armchair. Phil slipped the phone into his pocket and paused. Tommy’s heart plummeted. That could only mean bad news.
“Nothing?” he asked quietly. His father nodded somberly. Wilbur sagged back in his seat, the bags under his eyes darkening drastically as he started picking at a loose yarn on the cushion.
“They’re still trying,” Phil said, the hope in his voice false and heavy. Tommy turned away, blinking away the blur in his eyes. “Hey. Boys, look at me.”
“Don’t,” Tommy said, voice cracking. “Just don’t. Dad, you can do pep talks before a big show or after one of us has scraped their knee but you don’t do one when our brother has been kidnapped and is being tortured somewhere.”
“We don’t know if he’s being tortured—”
“Of course he is,” Wilbur croaked. “Why else would they take him?”
“It wouldn't make sense,” Phil sat down on the couch beside Tommy and pulled his legs into his lap. “Techno is the strongest of us. Why would they take him of all people to break for information?”
The word ‘break’ rang in Tommy’s ears and he swallowed, pushing back the images of his brother lying mangled and bruised on the ground. He imagined bloody concrete and dirty drains that gathered up the streams of crimson the villains drained out of Techno while they cut him open like a pig for slaughter. . . Bile rose in his throat. But Phil had a point.
“It could be for ransom," Wilbur suggested. "Or to prove something? Like you said, he’s the strongest of us. Maybe it’s a show of power, to prove they can take him if they want to, and they’ll let him go soon. Maybe they have no intention of hurting him.”
Tommy nodded along, but his heart told him otherwise. Somehow, somewhere, he knew Techno was scared. And for good reason, too. They had no clues on where his brother was, nothing to go off of to send in a rescue mission. But Tommy had a way.
That night he lay in bed, tossing and turning under his covers while his heart raced against his lungs. He wasn’t trying to sleep, no, he'd already written a note for Techno to find when he woke up in his body. He’d stay long enough for Techno to tell the others what he knew, enough for them to devise a plan, and then he’d switch back into the correct body. Guilt flashed in his chest. Could he switch back if it meant Techno would get hurt? What if they really were torturing him? Could Tommy subject him back to that after granting him a moment’s peace?
He tried to calm his thoughts. Techno had trained for this. He had gone through grueling hours of preparations in case of a situation like this, preparations that Tommy was still too young for. Techno would survive long enough for them to get him out. He had to.
Tommy laid his head on the pillow and let his eyes fall shut. He reached inside for his magic and grasped it, feeling where it was and all that it was connected to. His magic was him and he was his magic, disconnected yet all the same like the different cycles of the moon. He let himself sink against the familiar warmth, let it overwhelm his senses, rendering him blind and weightless, deaf and bare. For a moment there was peaceful bliss in the nothingness.
Then he directed his thoughts to his brother, letting them wash over him like waves. There was Techno’s wide smile that oh-so occasionally broke through the stoic facade; the rough palms that were impossibly gentle when they held Tommy’s face; the bright eyes that shone with so much intelligence, so much wisdom and so much safety that Tommy knew he could seek them out any time he needed to.
He reached out to the image and let his magic entwine with it, slithering wisps around the clear and warm figure and pushed. He felt his body flip inside out, the soft quiet of his room turning into hard and cold silence. His head pounded, a shallow ache setting into his muscles. Swallowing down a dizzy spell he opened his eyes.
His room was gone.
The first thing he noticed was the power-dampening cuffs around his wrists and ankles that strapped him to a chair that refused to budge when he tugged. It must be bolted to the floor. Dim lights hung above him, casting the room into shadow. Some old pipes ran along the walls and the ceiling was corroded. A drain sat between his feet and Tommy suspected the dark remnants he saw on the gridded pattern weren’t rust.
He was there, in the place they were keeping Techno. He was sure he had switched into the right body because he recognized the scars on Techno’s arms that his brother had gathered from the numerous fights as a hero. Tommy scanned his body for signs of injury, but other than a few scrapes and bruises, likely from the kidnapping, his brother was unscathed. They hadn’t harmed him then. Not yet anyway.
Focus, Tommy, he told himself, peeling his eyes away. Where are you? Where is Techno? What can you figure out? He looked around, trying to clear his head. It felt like his mind was trying to catch up to his new body, easing itself into the controls so it could work properly. Focus.
Something caught his attention, a distant thrum so quiet he wasn’t sure it was real. He strained his ears, listening to the rhythmic pounding before it fell silent moments later. A train. Somewhere close by. He glanced around the room again. The walls were clean-cut, tough, and straight, which meant Techno wasn’t being kept in any natural tunnel or cave. He was in a room built with a purpose, somewhere near a train or subway track. Tommy swallowed. It wasn’t much and it didn’t narrow it down a lot in a city the size of L’Manberg, but it gave them something to work with.
He glanced at his brother’s body once more. He didn't want to leave Techno here, didn’t want to subject him to the dim silence and uncertainty of if they were going to find him, but the faster Tommy got back with the information he had, the faster they’d be able to get Techno out. He only hoped his brother would hold out until they could save him.
Tommy closed his eyes and relaxed into the seat and let his mind wander, reaching for his magic, sinking into the darkness, pulling for the feeling and. . .
Nothing.
He tried again, fumbling blindly, but his mind found nothing, nothing but cold emptiness where his magic should have been. There had been times before when his powers had been nearly unreachable, slipping from between his fingers and swimming away, but never like this. Never completely gone. Tommy’s eyes flew open and a bead of sweat slipped down his brow. With it came a sinking and stifling realization.
He couldn’t switch back.
---
It didn't take long for Tommy's wrists to turn raw from pulling at the cuffs, but no matter how hard he thrashed, the metal refused to yield. Techno’s super strength was gone along with his excellent hearing, both sapped away by the dampener cuffs. Tommy would have taken either power now if only to fill the empty void where his magic should have been. This wasn’t right, this wasn’t good, he had to get out now. But he was powerless, strapped to the chair, restrained, and stuck in a body that wasn’t his own. And he was all alone.
It hadn’t taken him long to realize what had gone wrong. Whenever he had fought villains with his powers before, they’d always been on the field, always moving, always fighting. None of them had been restrained when he’d taken over their minds, never like this. Never with power-dampening cuffs.
He’d learned enough in his tutoring classes that powers came from the mind. The power dampeners were an ingenious device that tapped directly into the signals sent through the brain and cut them off before they could spark. Regardless of whose body he was in, Tommy’s powers were a part of his mind and consciousness, moving with him when he switched. But when he had transferred his mind into Techno’s body, Techno who was locked in power dampeners. . .
Panic had set in not long after, and everything Tommy had learned from his kidnapping training was forgotten. He pulled at the cuffs, tried to tip his chair, even tried to shimmy his foot close enough to the drain to maybe pop the lid off and use its edge to break through his bonds, but none of it had worked. He was trapped here in his brother’s stead and he was absolutely terrified.
It was fine, though. He’d just have to wait for Techno to give the heroes the information he had and they’d find him in no time. They’d be here any minute.
Not a moment later, the door at the head of the room jiggled with a key and opened. Tommy’s heart leapt to his throat but he kept still, settling on a glare he hoped matched the one that Techno always wore. He didn’t think he was doing it right.
“Still moody, are we?” a familiar voice spoke. Tommy froze as XD stepped into the room, his face uncovered. No mask. No fancy suits. No weapons. Just a man. He carried a chair with one arm and used the other to flick a light switch. The lights above them buzzed brighter. Tommy blinked in the sudden glare, then settled his eyes on the villain again. “I take it you’ve had time to think about what we spoke of last?”
Tommy had no idea what XD was talking about and he wasn’t keen on finding out. “Let me go.”
XD found that particularly funny, laughing before coming to a stop just out of reach. Taunting him. Playing with him. The villain set down his chair. “You heroes and your demands, thinking you have the right to request anything just because you have flashy powers and a golden spoon shoved up your ass. I’m sorry it had to be like this, Blade, but it’s about time that worldview of yours changed.”
The knife flashed only momentarily before it sank into Tommy’s thigh. Nothing could have stopped the scream that tore from his throat; he was too surprised by the abrupt attack to hold it back. White waves blasted across his vision. XD stepped back, leaving the blade embedded down to the hilt in his leg and Tommy felt like he was going to throw up because he could feel the blade inside him, carving through his flesh. Oh, God. There was a knife through his leg.
“Nice words didn’t work last time so I thought I’d introduce you to my friend,” XD said stiffly, his voice devoid of the amusement it had held when he’d walked in. “I think you two will grow close today.”
XD settled into his chair, watching as Tommy struggled to regain his composure. Tommy’s heart was running like a race car, battering his chest with its rapid beats. This wasn’t at all what was supposed to happen, this wasn’t right, he was supposed to be at home sleeping with his family, somewhere warm, somewhere safe—
“I want names, Blade. Names to the people on the inside. Contacts, heroes, medics, healers. Who is in your family? Who should I send your remains to after we’re done?”
“Fuck you,” Tommy spat, but his heart was beating out of his chest. It didn’t matter if it was Tommy’s mind in Techno’s body. If the body died, his brother would too.
“The more you hold back the more people I’m going to hurt.” XD tilted his head. “I’ll start with you and then continue down the line until every member of the hero organization has sat in the same seat, torn apart limb from limb.” XD leaned forward. “How much blood do you think it will take for the drain to clog up?”
Tommy stayed quiet, clenching his teeth against the pain. It hurt so bad, it hurt so much—
XD didn’t like his silence. He pressed his lips together and then ripped the knife out of Tommy’s leg. Blood flew with the knife and landed on XD's jacket. He didn't even blink. Tommy bit his cheek to stop himself from screaming. “I hear the thumb is the most useful appendage on a human.” XD pressed the knife into Tommy’s skin, expertly finding the joint in his finger and putting pressure on it. The skin broke but the blade sliced no further. XD tilted his head, watching as a bead of blood rolled down Tommy’s skin. “Which thumb do you think your family will want back first?”
Please, let me go. The words were in his mouth, ready to roll off his tongue but he couldn’t speak them. Wouldn’t speak them. He wasn’t Tommy here, he was the Blade, the strongest hero in the city. If he broke into a weeping mess now, ultimately it would be Techno that suffered. So he did the first thing he could think of. He spat.
The bloody clump of saliva hit XD on the cheek, driving away any pretense of friendliness. The villain rose and slipped the knife back into its sheath. The room stayed still for several moments while XD’s jaw worked. Then a fist came flying, bashing into Tommy's cheek with a crack.
Tommy's head flew to the side and pain bloomed across his face. He barely had time to suck in a pained breath before it was chased out by a punch to the stomach and another hit to the ribs.
“Give me their names!” XD gave him no time to respond before his knuckles collided with Tommy’s jaw again. Coppery liquid swelled in his mouth and he sputtered, struggling for breath. XD shot forward, grabbed Tommy's throat, and squeezed. Tommy choked, blood filling his blocked airways; he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think, he writhed under the grip, trying to get away, but the cuffs held him down and his head pounded like a drum, heat rushing in his temples as XD leaned in and hissed: “Give. Me. Their. Names.”
“Go. To. Hell,” Tommy choked out. XD snarled and shoved him back. Pain flared across Tommy's throat but he gasped for air through the pain.
XD shook his head. “Oh, I’ll be going to Hell, alright. But listen to me closely, Blade. You’ll be facing Hell long before I do and a long time before you’re dead. Right here, in this room, I will show you where the devils themselves come from. I will make you bleed and there will be no one to save you this time.”
---
It had been going on for hours.
Tommy sagged in the chair, heaving in breaths during the precious few seconds they were giving him to rest. Saliva mixed with blood dripped from his mouth and every part of his body burned like he was swimming in a cast iron pot filled with lava. It was pouring down his throat, scathing all the way down to his lungs. Speaking of his lungs, he was certain at least one of them had collapsed or now sat punctured. He couldn’t breathe. And he really wanted to go home.
XD had left him after an hour and had called in two new people. He hadn’t had a good look at either of their faces before the beating had begun.
His body trembled. The dampener cuffs had torn his skin, leaving his wrists raw and burning. Salt rubbed into his wounds from cold sweat. His back ached and his muscles were sore from the constant pain that made his body seize with every strike.
Where was his family? Surely they should have been here already? They’d be searching through train and subway stations for any sign of him, right? Just a couple more minutes and they’d be here.
“Catch your breath yet?” the other one of his tormentors asked, tossing her knife in her palm. It was coated with blood. She brushed a strand of pink hair from her face, smearing crimson on her cheek. Nemesis. Tommy remembered her name from the files Phil had been rummaging through the day before. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
“I think he’s had more than enough time to breathe.” That was her partner in beating, walking forward with a smirk shining from under red and blue glasses. Jack-Of-All-Trades, or as he was known better, Trade, was nothing if not unnerving with the blood splatters drying on his cheeks. Tommy's body tensed, unsure what to expect. The heroes had warned him of this villain and his status as a wild card on the field. No matter how many times you fought with him, you never knew what you were going to get. Chained and unable to protect himself, Tommy didn't like what that meant for him.
What would Techno do in this situation? How would he act? He wouldn't be scared. He would try to fight. But Tommy wasn’t Techno. So he just kept quiet.
“Anything you’d want to say before we continue?” Trade asked.
Don't talk, don't talk, don't talk, don't talk. . .
"I know a couple of tricks to make your tongue loosen. Or come off."
A cold shiver ran down his back, drawing a line of ice through his burning wounds. He's taunting you.
Trade tilted his head. "Nothing to say? Nothing at all?"
Fuck it. “Your name is shit.”
Any hint of a smile fell from the villain’s face, a switch so sudden it shook Tommy to his core. The villain leaned forward and pressed his serrated blade to Tommy’s throat, keeping it over a pulsing artery under his skin. The blade stayed still, barely breaking the surface. Expertly handled. Dangerously calm.
“You really wanna play that game, Blade? My powers give me the ability to learn anything in a short amount of time. Do you know how long it took for me to perfect the skill of gutting someone? To learn how to peel their skin off their flesh one inch at a time, how to tie their insides into a knot while they're still alive? Six hours, Blade. It took me six hours only.” The knife pressed deeper and dragged down, slicing through his skin, trailing a cut down his throat over his collarbones, and down to his chest. Tommy tried to keep his breaths from shaking. “I could cut you open like a pig. I could drain out your innards and make you watch as I cut them to shreds and leave them to rot. I know how to pull out every bone in your body while you’re still breathing until you’re nothing more than a pile of flesh that can’t move, that can’t run.” The knife halted its route down his torso. Trade gave a cruel smile before he changed his grip and pushed the blade into Tommy's gut.
Tommy bit his lip not to scream. Nausea rolled in his stomach as his flesh was pierced slowly, torturously. Every inch the blade sank deeper felt like a mile, carving through him with rusted claws. When he thought the blade was all the way in, Trade would twist it and it would sink deeper, cruder. Blood pooled around the blade and trickled down his front. A sadistic glint of enjoyment shone in Trade's eyes. “I could kill you in the worst way possible and make you squeal. I could kill you right now.”
“But he won’t.” Nemesis dragged Trade back roughly before settling Tommy with a harsh stare while he struggled to catch his breath. “We won’t kill you, Blade. But we’ll make you suffer until you give us the fucking names.”
Trade grabbed the knife still embedded into Tommy’s gut and pulled it out with a squelch, making Tommy double over, grinding his teeth as tears filled his eyes. His restraints stopped him from moving further. His stomach clenched, warmth bubbling down his shirt while lightning shot through his body. The blade was gone but he could still feel it in him. It hurt so much. “We’ll make you suffer, alright. And once we’re done. . . then you’ll die.”
Please come soon. Tommy squeezed his eyes shut, forcing himself upright. His family needed him to stay strong, to hold out just a little while longer. And if they found him here, they’d be able to capture not only Nemesis and Trade but XD as well, and anyone else hiding behind the crude walls of his cell. He just had to hold out. Not long anymore. Just hold on.
The next hit came and his world fell back into agony.
---
It was hours later that the villains finally decided to staunch his bleeding.
“Please,” he begged as Trade walked forward, brandishing a hot poker. The villain’s amused face stared down at him. “Please, no more.”
“The great hero of L’Manberg begging at my feet?” Trade sneered. “Pathetic.”
The hot iron pressed into Tommy’s skin and he screamed, vision blacking out. The room swam and swayed from the blood loss and pain.
Making sure he was dragging out every second of it, Trade used the iron to staunch his wounds and burn them shut. Sometimes his hand would slip and the iron would press into unmarked skin, by whichever miracle Trade could still find some.
Tommy shrieked. He wasn’t strong like Techno. He wasn’t resistant like Phil or defiant like Wilbur. He was Tommy and he wasn’t made for this and above all else, he was scared. He was so scared, scared of what was happening, scared of what had happened and what was yet to come. Scared that he would never make it home. Scared that he would.
“Please,” he whispered.
Trade shoved the poker toward his face, the heat close enough to sear his skin. “As much as I love hearing you like this, hero, I’m going to need you to shut the fuck up.”
“Let me go.”
“I’ll rephrase. If the next thing that comes out of your mouth isn’t the names of the other SBI members or members of the hero organization, I’m going to shove his poker down your fucking throat.”
“Then fucking do it,” he hissed, tears brimming his eyes, unsure of where he’d found the strength, much less the foolishness to argue back. “I’m not telling you shit.”
“Maybe we will kill you. We could move on to the next person. Siren maybe. Or Theseus. If your own screams won’t motivate you maybe theirs will?”
Not his family. Anyone but his family. He couldn’t let them go through this. Tommy pulled at his restraints. “Don’t you dare.”
“Oh, I dare. And I think XD will agree. There isn’t much better persuasion than the screams of your loved ones. I’ve heard people describe them as feeling like knives piercing their ears and flames burning their hearts. Would you like to experience that?”
“Don’t you fucking—”
The poker pressed against the wound on his stomach, driving into his flesh. He shrieked, pulling at his restraints. Trade growled. “Then tell me their fucking na—”
The wall behind Trade exploded, chunks of concrete speeding through the air like bullets. One struck the villain in the back of the neck and he tumbled to the ground, the poker clattering to the floor and burning a long line over Tommy’s leg. A concrete shard cut Tommy’s cheek but he barely made a noise, trying to get the air moving into his lungs again.
There were sounds of a fight, but they ended swiftly. Someone shouted his name. His name. Not Techno, not the Blade. Tommy.
Hands cupped his face and he flinched, the gentleness unfamiliar. He blinked his eyes open and met golden brown eyes that shone with worry and relief. He knew those eyes.
“Wil,” he whispered. They were here, they had come to rescue him. He could go home.
“Techno, prepare yourself,” Wilbur called over his shoulder, not once taking his eyes or hands off Tommy. “The moment these cuffs are off, he’s switching. “
“I’m ready.”
Tommy glanced up and saw himself standing next to Phil who was there too, staring intensely and shaken at him. They didn’t approach, staying several feet away. Phil had a hand resting on the small of Techno’s back. Tommy’s back? Their eyes shone, faces pale. Did they see the same weakness he felt in himself? Were they ashamed of how easily he’d managed to get himself trapped? Tommy let out a sob and blood sputtered on his lips.
“Shit,” Wilbur cursed, working feverishly on Tommy’s wrists. “You’re okay. You’re okay, Toms.” Tommy’s head sagged and his body fought to stay awake. He had to stay awake. If this was the last time he’d see his family, he wanted it to last.
Why weren’t Techno and Phil coming forward? Were they afraid of him? Had he done something wr—
The cuffs on both wrists burst open as Wilbur triggered the releaser. He barely heard the click before his stomach swooped in on itself and the world twisted and then he was falling. Strong arms caught him and Phil held him close, setting him down gently. Oh. That’s why they’d stayed back.
Somewhere close he could hear another person fall and Wilbur huff as he caught them.
“Techno?” Wilbur asked, voice shaky.
“It’s bad,” came a strained reply. Tommy’s head swam. “It’s really—” A wince, “—really bad.”
“Shit. Okay, we’re going to get you healed up. Phil, how’s Tommy?”
Tommy hadn’t even realized his eyes had closed before Phil told him to open them. His body was basking in the feeling of not being in constant pain and his mind felt as though it was floating along with it. “He’s bad, too. His mind is barely holding on. Let’s move. The others are waiting.”
Warm fingers brushed over Tommy’s skin and he was lifted off the ground, cradled like a child. A child which he was. One that wanted to go home.
“You’re okay now, Tommy. You did well.”
He let his mind slip free and fell into darkness.
---
When Tommy woke up, there was no beeping of hospital machines. Instead, it was silent save for soft breathing that wasn't his own. Tommy cracked his eyes open and glanced around the medbay. Two figures sat by his bedside, sound asleep against the sheets. To his right was another bed, turned so that he and the other patient were facing each other. And his roommate was awake.
“Hey,” Techno greeted. He sounded groggy as if he hadn’t slept for several days. He probably wasn’t too far off with that observation. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty good. You’re the one with the wounds,” Tommy answered. Guilt rippled through him. He had switched consciousness to stop Techno from having to go through the pain the villains had put him through. And he had failed in the end.
“You’re laying there with a major concussion because of how long you were switched. The medics are still trying to figure out if there's permanent damage.” Techno’s voice was monotone but Tommy caught the tremble in it, one that only he as Techno’s brother would notice. A tremble he could try to find because he was alive and he was with his family again. “Don’t pull that bullshit again, Tommy.”
Tommy stilled. “You swore.”
“That’s not our biggest issue here.”
“I think it’s an issue.”
"Tommy.”
Tommy swallowed and looked away. They fell into silence, locked in a moment suspended in the quiet medbay. Wilbur and Phil were still fast asleep against his mattress, dark circles branded under their eyes. The thought made the image of hot pokers flash through his mind and he squeezed his eyes shut.
When Tommy spoke again, it was in a whisper, paired with a clawing pain in his heart. “They could have taken any one of us,” he whispered. “Why you? You’ve been trained to withstand interrogation—” Torture, it was torture, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it “—so why would they kidnap you?”
Techno stared at the white blankets around his torso for a long while before answering. “Because they knew my one weakness.”
“Which is?”
Brown eyes pierced his. “You.”
“Me?” Tommy stared.
“And Wilbur. And Phil. They could torture me all they wanted, break every bone in my body and I wouldn’t talk. But the moment they touched any of you. . .” Techno looked away. “I would have proved that there is little difference between a villain and a desperate hero. I would have spilled any secret they wanted the moment they threatened my family, no matter how detrimental to the Hero Organization.”
"So why torture m— you first?"
Techno gave him a long look before answering. "To break apart walls. To implant the cracks that would splinter the moment they brought any of you in. Their plan was to show me what you would have to endure once they caught you too."
Tommy then understood the fault in Phil's logic back home. Techno was physically the strongest of them, and mentally tough. But when it came to them, his family, he would break. If it meant saving them, Techno would shatter.
As slowly as he could so as not to disturb Wilbur and Phil in their rest, Tommy reached out until his fingers brushed Techno’s. His older brother’s hand was cold and frail. Had that happened while at the hospital or had they found him looking like this?
“You kept quiet, Tommy,” Techno croaked. “You were stronger than I could have been. But you should have told them. They might have let you go.”
“They would have killed me,” Tommy whispered. “And they would have killed you. And Dad and Wilbur. And the rest of the heroes. I couldn’t do that.”
Techno squeezed his eyes shut and his shoulders hitched. He turned away, throat working. Tommy’s gut twisted, cold shock falling into his stomach because Techno was crying.
Pulling his weak body from under the covers, Tommy crawled quietly over the small gap between their beds and curled into Techno’s side. Fingers sunk into his hair as he pressed himself against Techno’s chest, trying not to stare at the long gashes on his brother's skin, trying not to remember what it had felt like receiving them.
“You’re the strongest of us all, Tommy,” Techno whispered. “But you never should have gone through that.”
“You’re the one suffering from the wounds now.”
“Physical wounds aren’t the only thing you received.”
A sledgehammer struck Tommy’s ribs and a cold shiver ran down his back. A drop of sweat trickled down his neck and it almost resembled the touch of a knife, slicing down down down—
“Tommy?”
“I’m fine,” he choked, blinking away the memory. He pressed himself deeper against the safety of his big brother’s side. “I’ll be fine.”
“Promise me you’ll talk to Puffy? I’ll go with you.”
Having to relive what had happened sounded awful, even if it was only through memories. But Tommy had seen therapy do wonders on Wilbur after he’d been trapped under a collapsed building during battle. His brother hadn't been able to walk into small rooms without having panic attacks for months. But talking had been effective and after lots of work, Wilbur had gotten better. Tommy still saw his chest heave before walking through doorways but the panic attacks were gone. Puffy had helped Phil over his fear of heights after taking a nasty fall because of a malfunction in his wings. She was good at what she did.
Talking would help, Tommy knew. So why was his mind having a hard time accepting it?
“You’ll come with me?” he asked, twisting Techno's hospital gown between his fingers.
“I won’t ever leave your side again. I promise.” A gentle kiss pressed onto his temple. And though it was a long journey ahead with lots of struggle and grief, Tommy knew that as they were now, he’d be able to face the world with his brother by his side.