The day L'manburg blew up started perfectly normally.
You woke up before Schlatt, carefully untangling yourself from his arms, getting out of bed slowly so you wouldn't stab yourself on his horns. You changed into your clothes, before pulling on your boots and grabbing the helmet Schlatt always made you wear.
"For your protection," he had said, kissing you on your nose.
You held it under your arm as you left your house and headed into the city. You were hoping to run into someone other than Schlatt, so you could possibly convince them into getting food with you. You were glad Schlatt was finally letting you out of the house unsupervised, after Tubbo had tried to blow him up.
"Hey!" You heard someone shout. You glanced behind you, smiling when you saw Quackity waving at you.
Fidgeting with the helmet in your hands, you walked over to him. "Hi, Q!" you greeted him.
"You good?" Quackity asked.
"What do you mean?" You asked.
"You look more tired than usual," he commented.
You sighed. "Yeah... I'm good, don't worry about me."
Quackity glanced around before stepping up to you. "Seriously, if something's bothering you, we can go somewhere to talk about it."
You faltered, then answered, "I'll tell you if you agree to having breakfast with me?" You pulled out two loaves of bread, offering one to Q.
He shrugged and took it. "Alright, wanna go on a walk?"
You nodded and took a small bite of your bread as you two started walking.
"So, what's up?" Quackity asked.
"It's nothing crazy, I just..." you paused, "I miss Tommy and Will. I'm worried about them, what if they're starving out there? And poor Tommy's probably going crazy, with only Wilbur to talk to."
Quackity nodded slowly while picking at his bread. "Well, if I were you, I wouldn't worry about them that badly. I'm sure they're creating their own civilization or something. They're great at adapting and stuff."
You sighed and nodded. "Oh, uh... please don't mention anything about this conversation to Schlatt, please? I'm not really supposed to be talking about them," you added nervously.
"Uh... yeah, sure. Why can't you talk about them?" Quackity asked.
You laughed, but it came out unnaturally as your nerves got to you. "Ok, I'm going to preface this by saying that I really love Schlatt, and I know how easy it is for him to get jealous, so I'm not upset with him," you started. Quackity suddenly looked nervous. "Anyway... usually when I mention either of my brothers, Schlatt gets really upset, and either ignores me for the rest of the day, or sometimes he'll just yell at me to get over them. Which is understandable."
Quackity looked like he was about to say something, but faltered just as you felt a gentle hand on your shoulder. You tilted your head up to look behind you, smiling when you saw Schlatt.
"Hi you two, whatcha up to?" he asked, returning my smile.
"Oh, nothing," you said, "we were just chatting and eating breakfast." Quackity nodded in agreement.
"Well, do you mind if I steal them from you, Big Q?" Schlatt asked, shifting his hand from your shoulder to take a hold of your hand.
"Not at all." Quackity nodded and stepped back. "See you two around," he said as he turned away.
You and Schlatt started walking in the other direction. "Is everything ok?" you asked.
"I'm not sure, I just wanted to make sure you were ok, something feels off," Schlatt answered quietly.
"What do you mean?"
He shrugged. "I dunno, just a get feeling."
Then, as if on cue, the ground started rumbling, a hussing emerging from under the earth.
You stumbled into Schlatt, holding onto his arm and looking at the city around you. "Uh... Schlatt?" you said nervously, looking up at him.
You couldn't read his emotions clearly, but his worry bled through his eyes. "That fucker planted this entire city with TNT..." he muttered in disbelief. He turned to you and pushed you gently. "Run, before it explodes!" He shouted at you. "I'll find you later, I promise!"
You nodded once and took off, running for the edge of the city. You fought off the urge to look back, but you couldn't ignore the nagging worry for Schlatt that churned in your stomach.
Just as you were about to leave the city, the ground erupted, starting from the center of the city and making its way out towards the edges at breakneck speed.
The blast washed over you, sending you flying. You landed just outside the city, your body slamming into the ground as you rolled to a stop. You quickly curled into a ball, covering your face just as a wave of fire went over you, burning your skin and hair.
Once it passed, you continued to lay on the ground for a moment, breathing heavily as tears dropped down your cheeks, making tracks in the ash that covered you.
Once you determined it was safe to sit up, you did so, crying out as a sharp pain stabbed into your ribs, along with several smaller pains from the many cuts and bruises you attained.
Pushing past your pain, you stood up with a gasp and a wince. You turned around and almost fell back down once you saw what had happened to your beautiful city.
Where there had once been L'manburg, was now a huge hole in the ground, deeper and wider than you had been expecting. You weren't the only survivor, were you?
A sudden panic took hold of you as you looked upon the chasm, remnants of buildings thrown around everywhere.
"Schlatt?!" You yelled, wincing and pressing a hand to your injured ribs. "Schlatt! Where are you?!" You held back sobs, your breathing shallow in your lungs.
You felt a hand on your shoulder and jumped, hoping it was Schlatt. But when you turned around, you were face to face with the person you least expected to see.
"Tommy?" you asked, your voice weak.
"Yeah, that's me," he said.
"What are you doing here?" you asked, trying to fight off the urge to hug him.
"I was looking for Wilbur, but found you instead."
You muttered a quiet "oh", still disappointed, even though you had assumed he wasn't there for you.
"Did you get hurt in the explosion? Are you ok?" you asked him, inspecting his face. He looked older from the last time you had seen him, a bit more ragged.
"No, I'm fine," Tommy said. "You look a bit beat up though, if I do say so myself. You still hanging out with Schlatt or whatever? I saw you looking for him just now."
You flinched, deciding to avoid the question. "Where's Wilbur?" you asked instead.
"I don't know, that's why I'm fuckin' looking for him," Tommy said scornfully.
You sighed and glanced downwards. "Look, Tommy, I'm really sorry you and Will got exiled, but-"
He cut you off. "But you didn't know, right?" You hesitated, and then nodded. "Well, why didn't you try to do anything once you did know? You could have tried to stop him, or even come with us! You didn't need to abandon us like that- we-... we trusted you!" Tommy cried, his voice breaking.
Your eyes widened as you looked up at him. You hadn't realized how your decision might have affected him past him being mildly bored or stir-crazy.
"Tommy, I-" you started, but he cut you off again.
"Whatever, we can talk about this later. First we have to find Wilbur." Tommy turned on his heels and walked off, and you trailed after him sadly, looking mostly at the ground so you wouldn't trip, occasionally glancing up at Tommy to make sure you were still on the right path.
After a few minutes, you and Tommy paused, wearily watching the rubble ahead of you as the sounds of someone walking drew near. Just before you was an unusually large chunk of wall, blocking off the view of where the person was coming from.
You held your breath, anxious to see who came around the downed wall. After a second, someone stumbled past it, clearly in shock. They looked up from the ground, and you almost choked on air when you saw who it was.
You wanted to run to him, to hug him and tell him how much you had missed him, but you guessed he probably hated you as much as Tommy did.
"Dad?" Tommy asked, stepping up to Philza. "Did you find Will?" he paused, then followed with a hesitant; "What's with the sword?"
"I-" Philza looked down at the sword in his hands, still shining red with blood and speckled in dust. He dropped it and it fell to the ground with a loud clang that seemed to echo in the pained silence.
"Dad?" Tommy asked quietly. "Did something happen to Wilbur?"
"He told me to do it!" Philza burst out suddenly. "He didn't give me any other choice. I didn't want to do it-"
Your stomach dropped and you glanced down at the bloody sword. "Is- is that Wilbur's blood?" You asked weakly, even though you were pretty sure you already knew the answer.
Your dad looked at you like he just noticed you were there, then his eyes glazed over again. "He said that if I didn't do it, he would be killed in a much more painful way for blowing it up," was the monotonous answer.
"Wilbur blew up L'manburg?" Your voice cracked as you looked around at the remains of the city.
Tommy took a shaky breath, then said, "we can talk later, right now we have to get out of here, because I'm sure Schlatt's looking for us right now, and he'll probably kill us on sight.
You nodded blankly, deciding to not comment when you saw Tommy trying to wipe away the tears that were streaming down his face. Since when was he the voice of reason?
You were already walking when you faltered. "Shouldn't- shouldn't I stay here? I thought you didn't want anything to do with me, and aren't I a danger anyway, if Schlatt comes looking for me?"
Tommy didn't turn around, instead shrugging slightly. "I don't give a fuck either way."
After a second of thought, you followed after your brother. You missed him, and maybe you would be able to fix things with him. Then you could go back to Schlatt and come up with a story as to why you were missing for a while.
You picked your way to the edge of the mangled city, practically biting your tongue to keep yourself from saying anything. Tears were silently rolling off your cheeks as you thought about everything you had lost in the span of an hour. First your city, then your brother you hadn't seen in what felt like forever, because he hated you. Sorry, he had hated you.
But at least you were back with your family, who also hated you.
You sniffled, wiping your nose on the back of your hand, your breath catching in your throat. You tripped on a rock, stumbling slightly before continuing to follow after the two boys ahead of you.
As you stared at the ground, you saw Tommy slow up ahead, until he was even with you, walking alongside you. He hesitantly took your hand, holding it as though he would let go at any moment. But the small gesture almost made you break down. You wanted to hold his hand more firmly, but didn't, in case that was the thing that would make him leave you again.
"Tommy?" you whispered instead, still looking at the ground.
"Hm?" he hummed, sounding almost annoyed.
"I'm sorry..." You had previously had a whole speech planned out for if you saw him, but the explosion had kind of knocked it out of you. "I'm sorry," you repeated.
"Thanks, I guess..." Tommy muttered.
"I'm sorry I didn't try very hard to keep you in the city, and I'm sorry I didn't go with you. And now Wilbur's dead, and it's my fault," you hiccuped, wiping at your eyes with your free hand.
"I guess it probably wasn't your idea to banish us, so it's not really your fault. Plus Wilbur would have blown up L'manburg even if we hadn't been exiled, so this was probably inevitable."
You were about to answer and tell Tommy not to say things just to make you feel better, when you reached a house. Philza, who had been silent the entire time, went inside with his head down. Tommy's hand slipped away from yours, and he followed after your dad. You let out a shaky sigh, not ready to go in just yet.
Instead, you found a tree near the house and sat against it. You were done with crying, so you dug your finger through the dirt, breathing slowly. Memories of the day flashed through your head so quickly it exhausted you.
After sitting out there alone for a while, Tommy came out and joined you, sitting awkwardly next to you.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Why do you care?" you asked, not trying to be rude.
"Because even though I'm still mad at you, I still care about you."
You nodded slowly. "No, I'm not really ok. I- I just... how could he be dead? I never got to apologize..."
You sighed and leaned against the tree, looking over to your left at Tommy.
"Apologize to who?" a voice from your right asked, sounding quiet but familiar.
They asked so calmly that it fit perfectly into the scenario, making you not even think to be startled.
"Wilbur, because I let something happen to him that shouldn't have happened." You didn't look over at them.
"What happened to me?" they asked, sitting next to you.
Tommy looked speechless and you finally looked at them, unbelieving of what you had heard. What did they mean by "what happened to me"?
But looking at them only deepened your disbelief. Next to you sat a pale, slightly transparent Wilbur.
"Uh... what happened to me?" Wilbur asked again.
"Wilbur...?" you and Tommy whispered at the same time.