"Wilbur!"
He's dead.
He's going to die.
There's nothing you can do now, nothing you can do to stop it from happening.
You were a fool. An idiot. You played right into his hands. And now, the price of your ignorance: you get to watch your own brother die.
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. "Wilbur!" I shouted again, lunging forward, one hand outstretched.
I tackled him to the side as Smiley's knife slashed past, ripping through the sleeve of my left arm and cutting skin. Pain exploded throughout the entire limb, but I gritted my teeth and got up onto my feet, pulling Wilbur up along with me. "Go!" I yelled. "Find Phil! Call him! Call Tubbo, I don't care!"
Wilbur's eyes were wide and terrified. "Techno---"
"Are you insane?" I shouted. I pushed him, making him stumble, but I didn't care. Smiley had regained his balance, and I had no idea where Naida was. "Just go!"
"Techno," he pleaded. "You're my brother! I can't just leave!"
He was clinging on me too tightly for me to shove him again, gripping my arm like it was his lifeline. I bit back a bunch of colorful curses and tightened my grip on my weapon, glaring around me.
If I could teleport with another person, I could get us out of here right now.
If for once, my power of running away would actually allow me to take someone with me, I could save him.
"My, how touching," Smiley said, tilting his head to one side. "You truly are brothers, I see. You look nothing alike."
He smiled pleasantly, as if he wasn't trying to kill us. I stared at him, my mind reeling. Just seconds ago, everything had been fine. I could still remember how it felt to wake up that morning, perfectly calm, and the smile Philza had given me. How was it that the world had been okay just a couple minutes ago?
"Techno," Wilbur whispered. "Please. Save yourself."
"No," I said harshly. "Let go of me, Wilbur."
Smiley let out a nice laugh. "Oh, it's okay, you two. I can kill you together." He shrugged. "But I did promise Techno that I'd kill you first, Wilbur, so I suppose you'll have to wait a bit before I reunite you two in death."
The way he threatened us so calmly, so placidly, as if we were just three friends out on a stroll, was what irked me the most. My eyes narrowed ever so slightly. I could feel the challenge he had just issued to me, and I knew that Wilbur could feel it too.
"Techno," he said again, his voice so soft I almost thought I was imagining it. "You won't die, right?"
He relaxed his grip on my arm. I placed my free hand on his shoulder and smiled at him, a genuine, caring smile that I knew was exactly what Wilbur needed right now. "Of course not. Just get out of here, okay? Go find me some backup. Smiley is a pain in the ass to deal with."
Wilbur nodded. He took a step away from me, then another, then turned and started to run. I turned back to Smiley, who had been watching us with a sort of detached interest.
I turned to Smiley. "I hate you so much."
Smiley raised his own weapon and simply smiled wider. "Understandably so. But that's okay."
Our blades clashed in midair, metal against metal, sending out a ringing sound that echoed loudly in my ears. I pushed him back and kicked out, but he dodged to the side and brought his knife in a horizontal slash towards my face.
My eyes widened. My body reacted before my mind registered what was happening, pulling me backwards and away from the danger. Smiley's blade whisked past in front of me, grazing my left cheek.
Blood dripped down my face as I struggled to regain my breath, watching Smiley with furrowed eyebrows.
"Your reflexes are as sharp as ever, I see!" Smiley said brightly.
"That's not what you're supposed to say," I retorted, stalling for time. I could see Wilbur in the distance, not far enough. Not yet.
"Hm?" Smiley frowned slightly. "What am I supposed to say then?"
"How about, 'Wow, you're so much faster now'?"
Smiley laughed. "I know what you're trying to do, Techno," he said with a small shake of his head. "Naida's already on the move. He'll cut Wilbur off right when he thinks he's free."
My eye twitched, but it didn't matter. He could say whatever he wanted, guess my moves and motives, but I didn't care. Wilbur was actually really athletic. Even if Naida was a bounty hunter, I knew that my brother had a high chance of outrunning him.
"How does it feel to know that you misgendered?" I asked, raising my sword again.
Smiley mimicked my movements, his smile back again. "I'll apologize to him later. His name is one typically for females, but I won't make excuses. I feel bad about it, but I bet I threw you onto the wrong path of thinking."
He ducked under my swing and brought his elbow hard into my stomach, making me lose the bit of breath I had recovered. I stumbled back, barely dodging the next swing of his sword by a hair.
Not enough. Not nearly enough training for me to be able to take on Smiley.
Weak, the voices whispered. Pitiful. What happened to "the great Technoblade"?
Shut up, I growled back silently. For once, would you please just leave me alone?
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. I wanted to slap myself, to get myself out of my daze, but all I could do was play defense against Smiley as he pushed harder and harder, backing me into a nonexistent corner.
"Come on, Techno!" Smiley called, his wide eyes filled with wild ecstasy. "What happened to your fire, fueling you to fight? Where's the feral boar that I saw last time?"
He taunts you. Are you going to respond?
I had never wanted to punch a bowling ball-faced floating ghost thing so much in my life.
The momentary outlet of anger into dreaming of punching something I could barely describe actually helped me to focus back onto the battle. With a start, I realized that I had been working on autopilot, blocking Smiley's blows but not returning any of my own.
I could tell that Smiley was beginning to become irritated with me. He wanted action; all he got was an opponent who only dodged.
"Don't you feel alone?" Smiley taunted, his smile gone. "You're separated from everyone. Tryxel isn't coming. A fellow bounty hunter betrayed you. Your brother is far away. I stole Tommy from you."
A bubble of fury burst inside of me. I smacked aside his knife and grabbed his wrist, twisted his arm behind his back, my sword at his throat.
"What did you tell him?" I growled. "What did you do to make him follow you?"
Smiley's body shook beneath me. With a start, I realized that he was laughing. "I didn't do anything," he said with a slight wheeze. "Tommy came to me. He wanted me to stop killing and he wanted to fight me, but I wasn't about to kick a child."
"How did he find you?" I demanded.
The killer shrugged as best as he could in the position he was in. "I let him."
I was breathing heavily, my exhalation coming out in ragged bursts; whether from exertion or infuriation, I couldn't tell. "You let him," I repeated. "You let a child find you and try to fight you?"
"He's only a year or two younger than you are, probably," Smiley said, and I could hear the frown in his voice. "He was angry at himself for not being able to do anything. He wanted to help people, he said, so he wanted to become a vigilante. I carved him a mask and let him wear it and fulfill his dreams. I gave him my phone number, and I call him. Tommy talks to me. He told me his name. He told me his story. He told me he was unhappy."
My breath caught in my throat. The thought of Tommy going to Smiley of all people for life advice during a bad time felt incredibly wrong, but Smiley seemed sincere. Tommy hadn't seemed remotely guilty when I had found him out, only annoyed that I was still treating him like...
Like a child.
I've never taken him seriously in all these years that I've known him.
I was scared that he'd do something irrational, but he's always been able to handle himself.
In the blink of an eye, Smiley was free from my grasp, taking advantage of me being distracted. He gave me an easy smile, the faint scars on his face shifting as his skin did. "Tommy seems like a good kid. Don't worry. I'll take care of him for you."
A yell sounded in the distance, full of pain. My head snapped up and I saw Wilbur, on the opposite end of the road, lying on the ground while clutching at his side, Naida standing in front of him.
Smiley lunged at me as he realized that he had halted his attack, but he was too late. Without anyone attacking me, I was free to teleport to Wilbur's side, raising my sword and stopping Naida from taking off his head.
"What are you doing?" I shouted. "You're a bounty hunter! You were sent after Smiley! Why are you helping him?"
Naida took a step back, watching me help my brother up onto his feet. "Don't you get it, Techno?" he said, his voice soft. "This world is ruined. Gifted have taken over everything. They were born on a higher status than we were, given an unfair advantage, and where does that leave us?" His voice rose as his anger did, getting louder and louder. "We work! We put effort into everything, and then Gifted step in and take that all away! What do they deserve? Special powers? Abilities? Who cares?"
"That's not---" I began, but Naida cut me off with a delirious laugh.
"'That's not true,'" he mocked, guessing what I was about to say. "Because we're all equal, right? You and I, we're the same, are we? No, Technoblade, we're really not. Really, really not. You go to a store, everyone trips over themselves to come help you."
He spat out his words, laced with venom, but he wasn't wrong. That day with Tommy, when I bought us ice cream... the waitress had nearly dropped her phone, apologizing profusely, about not serving us the second we had walked through the door. All because I was a Gifted. It didn't matter that I knew it. Everyone with eyes knew the bias towards Gifted existed, but when had anyone ever stepped up and done something about it?
"You get it," Naida noted, finally returning to his usual calm. "Good. That means I won't feel as bad when I kill you."
The bounty hunter moved with speed almost able to rival Smiley's, appearing on my unprotected left side and bringing his knife forward in a deadly arc towards me. I raised my sword, catching his blow on the hilt. The force of the blow sent a tremor throughout my entire arm, making me grimace. I had never truly seen Naida fight before. Had he always been this good?
Break through, the voices chorused. Get through his attack and return with one of your own.
For once, I followed their words. As Naida charged at me, I ducked beneath his blow, my momentum driving my forward, bringing me towards his unprotected midsection. My sword flashed.
I straightened up. Naida lay on the ground, curled up into a ball around the wound on his stomach. Already, a pool of blood was forming beneath him. His body shivered.
"We work too," I said, staring down at him. Blood trickled down my blade, following the edge, dripping down beside me. "We work harder than anyone, because all of society's expectations makes it even harder for us to succeed. You're just blinded by your prejudice."
Naida's eyes closed. I stood there for a second, wavering on the spot. My limbs seemed to have snapped shut, unwilling to move.
Blood for the blood god. Blood for the blood god. Blood---
"Shut up," I said out loud, but it wasn't angrily. Thank you, I thought inwardly.
I could feel their hum of approval.
Wait. Where's Wilbur?
My muscles tensed up. I whirled around on the spot, searching around desperately, before my gaze finally landed on him standing a distance away, his eyes wide. For a second, our eyes met.
Dirt-streaked face, pale features, his chest rising up and down as he, like me, struggled to catch his breath.
Then I saw the blade in his stomach.
***
It had happened once before.
I had been around ten, eleven years old, when Wilbur had been twelve. I had been fooling around with my powers in the park just outside our house.
I didn't really remember the day. Probably, it had been warm, as summers usually were. I had only just discovered my powers a couple years ago and was still getting the effect of it, but I already thought I was the best in the world.
A typical day. That was how it was.
My power was teleportation, and even though I hadn't understood it back then, it was the power of shifting between layers of reality. Here and there. Then and now.
Jumping from here to there around Wilbur was fun, especially when we were playing around with tag games and he couldn't catch me. It felt like cheating, but I loved it anyway. I had the upper hand, so why not use it?
"Wilbur!" I had called, giggling as I appeared behind him. "You have to get better at this game to beat me!"
Wilbur had turned around, his arms outstretched, a big grin on his face. That grin disappeared suddenly, replaced by one of confusion and worry. "Techno? Where are you?"
It was the first time I had felt a side effect. The first time my body had wavered in and out of the layer it was supposed to be on.
Now, standing there, watching as Smiley pulled out his knife and Wilbur crumpled down to the ground, I could feel myself flickering again.
"No!" I cried out desperately, reaching out. My feet stumbled forward, sometimes on the ground and sometimes not. Suddenly, I was standing right in front of him, his body at my feet.
My fingers brushed his hair out of his face, fumbling as they searched for a pulse. "Wilbur," I sobbed. "Come on, you can't die! You're a superstar! You're famous! The world needs you!"
"I kept my promise, didn't I?" Smiley said, his voice seemingly far away. "I told you I'd kill him right in front of your face. But please, don't worry. I can send you with him as well after your futile goodbyes."
I hugged Wilbur close to my chest, my eyes closed. Cold pricked at my cheeks. The wind ruffled his clothes, sending shivers through my entire being. Sometimes I could see my hands on Wilbur, sometimes I couldn't. All I could do was hang on to him as tightly as possible and beg to stay with my brother for just a second more.
"It's okay, Techno," Wilbur murmured. "I'm okay. You don't... have to worry."
"I'm not worried," I said, gripping him tightly. "I'm... scared. I don't want to be alone."
"You're... not alone. You have Phil.... Tommy. Tubbo."
"I want Wilbur. I want my brother."
Wilbur chuckled slightly, though it sounded painful. "You've always acted... more mature. Why get... pouty... now?"
I opened my eyes. Tears had dripped down onto the surface of his shirt, mixing with the red covering the white fabric. My brother's eyes were closed now, his features relaxed. He grasped my hand and gave it a small squeeze. When I heard his voice again, it was in my mind: "It's okay."
In that moment, I knew.
I had lost the only brother I had.