Michael's Timeline || Beeduo + Emerald duo

Chapter 14: Arena

Hello my lovely readers! Question for you: Ghostboo in story? Or no Ghostboo in story? Help me decide! I have most of it planned, but I'm having trouble with this decision.

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Michael has been staying with Phil and Technoblade for over a week. He wasn't planning on staying this long, but he needed to. They have been training him for 4 days and he doesn't seem to be getting much better. Michael keeps sparring with Techno for hours on end, but he just can't get it right! He keeps losing.

Outside in the front yard, Techno punches Michael in the stomach and sweeps his leg. Michael grunts as he pushes himself up for what feels like the thousandth time. Technoblade extends a hand and Michael sighs before taking it. As Techno pulls him up he says, "you're getting better. You need to-"

Michael groans, "I need to have a better stance, I know I know. I just can't seem to get it right. Maybe I should stop trying. You're the best. There's no one better than you other than maybe Phil which I don't believe because I've never seen him fight! I give up. I'm good enough to-"

"You're good enough to go up against those who don't have weapons." Technoblade interrupts. "That's not skill, that's luck. You're going to get yourself killed doing that."

Michael throws his sword on the ground and stomps inside Philza's's house. At the same time Technoblade hears the gate creak. He turns around to see Phil who has returned from his trip. Phil's eyes fall on Michael who has now slammed the door. "Training didn't go well I presume?" Phil asked.

Techno sighed as he picked up Michael's sword. "It's not just teenage attitude, Phil, I can tell. He's holding anger inside of him. There's something holding him back from reaching his full potential."

Phil thinks back to the small conversation about Tubbo. He nodded at Technoblade. "I have an idea." Technoblade gestures at the door and returned to his own house. He left Michael's sword beside Phil's door before going to his house.

Michael was sitting on the edge of his bed with his hands on his head. "Okay, get up."

Michael looked up slightly to see Phil standing there. He shook his head and looked back down. "Phil I'm not in the mood for an inspirational speech or a lecture. I'll apologize to Technoblade later."

"I'm not asking you to apologize. I'm asking you to follow me." Phil doesn't give Michael time to respond, he just behinds walking down the ladder. Michael groans and follows him. He notices the sword by the door and picks it up, putting it on his back. Phil leads him to the bridge that connects the two houses.

"What are we doing here?" Michael asks genuinely confused. His tone isn't snarky or sarcastic. He typically didn't use a tone with Philza. He didn't know why. It was almost instinctual to respect him.

Phil doesn't say anything. He just walks into the knee deep water. Michael tilts his head looking at the psychopath sitting in the freezing water. Phil gives a small wave and drops instantly into the water. "Phil...?" Michael looks in the water, he's no where to be found. "Phil!" The water is too dark to see anything. "God really Phil?" Michael gets in small pond and shivers as the ice cold water hits his leg. It's not deep. Phil shouldn't have been able to drop? He looks where Phil fell and sees barely visible flicker of a light. "What the..."

Michael gets closer to the light and feels himself drop he catches himself on a stick before falling down an extremely deep hole. His heart rate is going a million miles a minute. He looks up to see that he's holding on to a ladder. He takes a breath of relief. Jesus. Maybe that training with Technoblade did help him with his reflexes a little bit.

He climbs down the ladder seeing only light shinning from the bottom. When he almost reaches the bottom, he sees that he's in a room that has blue walls and a blue ceiling. There's sea lanterns illuminating the room. The ground is made of course dirt and the terrain has small hills and obstacles. There's dummies and weapons, presumably for practice. What is this place?

When Michael reaches the bottom he hears Phil speak. "Welcome to the arena!" He looks up to see Phil on top of a small mountain that has a very large crack in the side of it. The crack extends down the mountain to the ground.

"What is this place, Phil?"

Phil jumps down dramatically. "This is where you're going to let it out. All of your anger."

"I'm not angr-"

"Don't lie to me Michael!"

"DON'T LIE TO ME BOY."

"I'm s-sorry I just wanted to see the stars.... From outside." Michael held tightly onto his bear.

"You don't go outside! You never go outside!" Tubbo rips the bear from Michael's hands and starts ripping it apart.

"NOOO!" Michael cries.

"Don't lie to me again. And don't ever, EVER, try to leave this house again."

Michael shakes the memory from his head and glares at Phil. "What the fuck do you want from me?! What! You want me to cry and whine and say how terrible my child hood was? Is that what you want Phil? Is that it?!" Michael walks over to the dummies and hits one hard. "Because guess what, Phil! It was terrible. I hated my childhood! All I've ever known is pain and sorrow!" He hits the dummy again, harder. "He was taken away when I was 7 and killed, MURDERED when I was 10! It was hard on me!" He draws his sword. "And you think that at least I have someone, someone who will help and protect me?"

You ungrateful piece of... This is why I'm leaving. Good luck on your own, kid.

"NO I DIDN'T! HE LEFT ME ALONE AT 13 AND ABUSED ME FOR 6 YEARS! I HATE HIM!" Michael hit the dummy repeatedly with his sword. "I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM!" Michael continued to hit the dummy until it was nothing but shreds of cloth and wood.

Michael fell to his knees, dropping his sword beside him. He had tears in his eyes. "Why did he leave... They both left me.... I don't.." Michael began to choke out a sob. "I don't want to be alone anymore." Michael's tears wouldn't stop. He covered his face with his hands.

He felt two arms wrap around him. He didn't reject the warm feeling. He hadn't felt it in so long. Too long. "You're not alone anymore. I'm here for you, Michael. I'll always be here for you. I promise." To Phil it felt right to say that. He meant it too. He wasn't going to leave Michael behind. Even if he didn't know him before, he's family. And he loves him.

To Michael, he wasn't sure if he should believe Phil's words. Over the years he became very good at telling if someone was lying and whether or not Phil could live up to his promise, Michael wasn't sure. All he knew is that Phil wasn't lying.