Predator (DWT x OC)

84

Wilbur and I sit across from each other, the distant rushing sound of water deep inside the stone walls is the only sound. Wilbur speaks first. 

"I'm already working with Dream. We already have a plan."

"You know he'll choose me Wil." My hands grip the armrests of my chair. 

"I have a plan, I have it figured out, why can't you just give up trying to stop me? This is what we need to do."

"There's another way." My voice is calm, my fingers tighten. 

"There is no other good way." He snaps. 

"This way we get everything back!"

"It's gone, we don't get anything back."

"So what I'm gathering, is that you have no objection to me handing myself over to Dream, just the fact we'll get L'manburg back if I do it."

"You can't stop the inevitable."

"I can, actually." I cock my head, eyes locked onto his. "And I will."

He doesn't respond immediately, watching me intently. "I would be sad to see you go." 

His words quirk the corner of my mouth into a half-hearted smile.

"Look how far we've fallen Wilbur." I say. "There was a time when you cried over this."

His expression remains stony, his voice flat and monotone. "Things have changed." 

"That they have." I sigh in agreement. "Can you promise me one thing though, just for old times sake?"

"Sure."

"Be there for Tommy and Tubbo. I know you lost your son, and I know you've lost what you worked for, but they lost that too, and that can't lose you on top of it all. They're going to need you to be strong for them."

"I can't promise that." His mouth is pressed into a straight line. "You know I can't."

"I'm asking you to."

"It never works like that."

"Try your fucking best then, Wilbur." I fling my hand in the air exasperatedly. "Don't you dare fail them like you failed me."

"For what it's worth," Wilbur lets out a heavy breath, looking at a point behind my shoulder; "I wish I'd been better for you."

"It's not worth a lot." I smile. "But I appreciate it anyway."

I stand up, passing him and towards the hallway exit that's a crescent of orange light, from the lanterns in the passageway. 

"L'manburg will fall." Wilbur calls out, and I look over my shoulder. "There is no other way."

"They all fall." I answer dismissively. "And so will L'manburg, eventually, but just not yet."

"It's time is over, you have to let it go."

"For what it's worth." I parrot his words, smothered in a lifetime of sadness. "Thank you for finding me and being there while I grew up."

"I'm glad I was." A tear slips down his hollowed cheek, the bulging cheekbone covered by sallowed skin. "I wish it had turned out different."

I shrug. "It still can, I guess. It's up to you."

"It's inevitable." He says again, like a broken record, and it's that one final moment where every thing sinks in, the thundering nature of the reality that the Wilbur I have loved, and the Wilbur I have known, is not in there anymore. That the world has not just changed him, but turned him into a completely different person. It's not his fault, but the new Wilbur wears his face and speaks with his voice and it's too painful for me to bear.