Chapter Text
Reports say that the attack was aggravated-
Witness interview-
Hero Family is left in shambles when a bomb sent by the villain known as Daedalus struck the home of the Big 3. The family’s youngest had been in the home at the time and has been reported dead, though no evidence has been found to prov-
Local villains strike again-
Sam throws down the remote after shutting off the large TV in his office, the news taking a toll on him.
I’ll have to lay low for a while…
The steady rainfall taps on the window as if it wanted to be let in, the harsh wind makes the walls groan. Sam leans back into the cushions and lets out a sigh. The plan hadn’t been perfect, but it wasn’t supposed to get that out of hand. Tommy wasn’t supposed to be near the house at all, he was never supposed to get hurt. Sam knew his bombs were risky but it was the only way.
The man stands up and makes his way out of the office. The building is buzzing at the recent news. All vigilantes growing closer to villains and the top villains had heard what happened and began to gather in the tower- having been dubbed ‘Tartarus’ by one of the newer recruits -wanting to hear from their leader.
That would be Sam.
He walked down the halls of his empire, stormy aura keeping everyone a safe distance away from him. He takes the elevator down to the MedBay on B3. They had constructed the important rooms in the basement as a precaution against future attacks. Their resident healer was a young girl with regen powers and what Sam would like to call ‘an affectionate little shit’ with healing powers. He put his thumb on the keypad outside the door and stomped inside.
His heavy footfalls cause Lani to jump at her desk. Ponk pays no mind.
“Where is he?”
Ponk looks up from their clipboard. “Recovering.'' They say calmly “Not needing visitors. He’s still out.”
Sam feels the smoke escape from his nose, his brows furrowed with worry. Ponk sighs and makes their way over to Sam.
“He’ll be okay.” they say, wrapping the taller in a hug “You did good.”
Sam hesitates before returning the embrace. “He lost everything though, how could I have done well?”
Ponk looks back up at Sam “Losing a couple limbs isn’t the end of the world. I know you’ll make him the best prosthetics on the side of the cosmos.” They reassure “He’ll be okay.”
Sam looks over to the occupied room. An eleven-year-old boy lays in the bed, left arm and right leg having been lost in the explosion. His blonde curls fall over his eyes, as his chest rises and falls slowly.
“I hope so,” Sam whispers.
-~-~-~-
10 years later…
Phil is falling.
Okay, he’s diving. Which he would argue is ‘falling with style’
Bullets speed past his face, as he attempts to get closer to the villains. Carbon and Eudaemon send everything they can his way as Thanatos robs the safe behind them. Phil locks on to the villain and dives past the other two. Curses follow as Phil crashes into the villain and sends him tumbling across the marble floors. The man is quick to get up and move for the gun on his waistband.
Phil is quicker.
An obsidian feather implants itself into Thanatos’ hand. The villain lets out a pained cry and drops the weapon. Phil smiles under his crow skull mask.
Then something hard collides with his head.
Fuck-
His vision blackens for a few minutes before he wakes on the floor to see Carbon help Thanatos up while Eudaemon opens a wormhole and throws the bags of money in.
“Stop!” Phil shouts, getting to his feet.
Carbon curses and pulls the feather out of Thanatos’ hand before helping him up and going through the wormhole themselves. Phil runs over to Eudaemon and tackles the villain to the floor. The other is quick to shut the portal and shove Phil off of him. He runs towards the window, stopping just before he falls off the edge.
“You shouldn’t have gone to work.” The demon laughs before giving a two-fingered salute and falling backward out the window. Phil rushes forward, trying to save the man from death, only to find him gone. The remnants of a portal dissipating in the wind. Phil curses under his breath.
Olympus will have my ass for this one-
“OW!”
“Tommy please, people are resting.”
“You just stabbed my already stabbed hand bitch!”
Ponk rolls their eyes as they continue to stitch up the blonde’s hand. Luckily Zephyrus was feeling merciful today and didn’t use his poisoned feather blades, so all Tommy needed was stitches.
“You really went out on a heist today, of all days?” Ponk asked.
Tommy smiled “I’m goin’ drinkin’ with the boys later. Needed something to celebrate!”
Ponk rolls their eyes and tugs particularly hard on the last stick causing another string of curses to roll off the blonde’s tongue. “just because you’re 21 now doesn’t mean you should go drinking instantly. Plus you’re lucky it wasn’t your prosthetic; Sam would’ve killed you.”
“But Sam and Puffy said it was okay! Puffy even said she’d come with us!”. Tommy whines
“just be aware of your tolerance.” Ponk mutters while putting away the medical supplies.
In that moment the medbay doors slam open revealing two very excited men, decked out in full villain gear.
“HAPPY VILLAIN BIRTHDAY!” Tubbo shouts, barreling into Tommy.
“And actual birthday.” Ranboo finishes standing over the two, who have ended up on the floor. His tail swishes back and forth with joy.
“Thanks guys!- ow Tubbo your elbow is in my spleen -are we still up for tonight? The heist went well.” Tommy says shoving Tubbo off of him.
“Tommy, you were stabbed.” Ponk deadpans.
“In my hand! That’s not a big deal.” Tommy brushes off the medic. Tubbo and Ranboo chuckle, helping the blonde to his feet.
Ponk shrugs and moves into his office. Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo exit the medbay and get on the elevator. “Have any of you seen Sam yet today?” Tommy asks, pressing the ‘L4’ button.
“He’s had back-to-back meetings with our inside people.” Tubbo supplies typing away on his tablet.
“I think he’s available at lunch.” Ranboo whispers as the lift dings, signaling that they’ve reached the floor.
“Thanks loves!” Tommy says, stepping off the elevator.
Tartarus is thriving. Since Tommy joined ten years ago to the day, more and more people have seen the flaws in the hero system and joined. Sam and Puffy have been doing wonderfully at running the place, Tommy being their close second in command. He had asked Sam ten years ago to save him from his family; they were never home, never paid attention, too busy with their public image to spend time with their son and brother. Sam had come up with a plan to get Tommy out of there. The man would blow up the home that Tommy would’ve been at that day, Tommy would be at Puffy’s civilian cafe completely safe, making it seem as though the boy was killed in the crossfire of a battle between heroes and villains.
Not everything goes to plan though.
Tommy had forgotten the time he needed to be out of the house in order to avoid the bomb. He saw the fighting on the news and rushed to grab his things, Puffy was outside the house. He was almost out the door as his vision went white. Permanent hearing damage and the loss of his left arm and right leg followed. He woke up in the Tartarus medbay with Ponk looking over him. He’ll deny it until the day he dies, but everyone heard the sobs of gratitude that fell from the blonde’s throat when he realized he was safe. Sam made him two wonderful prosthetics and trained him until he was a registered villain in the hero database. They celebrated. Now the tower is home to the majority of smaller and bigger names in the villain industry. People wished him a happy birthday as he walked by, Quackity, Purpled, and Schlatt setting off confetti poppers as he walked into the cafeteria. The three all fell to the floor with laughter as Tommy cussed them out. Ranboo plucked pieces of confetti out of the blonde locks, Tubbo took a picture for blackmail purposes.
“Heard you’re going for a drink later tonight, can we join?” Schlatt asks, standing from the floor.
“No.” Tubbo and Ranboo say in unison.
“I’m not walking you home.” Quackity says from the floor.
Tommy huffs a laugh at his family’s antics and moves to find Sam. His guardian usually sits at the far table, closest to the windows so he can watch the city and stake out future heists. Tommy sees the familiar green hair of Daedalus over the crowds of people in the room. He walks over and sits down next to the man, who is working on a project on his laptop. Tommy pulls out his phone and leans slightly into the creeper hybrid. Sam pauses in his typing and looks down at the blonde on his side.
“Happy birthday Tommy.” He says fondly.
The blonde smiles and puts down his phone. He turns and hugs Sam, He feels strong arms return the embrace. “You still wanna go out later tonight? Even with the vigil and everything?”
“Yeah, I’ll make sure I stick close to Puffy the whole time.” Tommy sighs.
Today is the day that Tommy technically died, Olympus would hold a candle vigil and other memorial activities due to the fact that he was from a hero family. He knew Phil, Wilbur, and Technoblade would be spending most of the day at his and his mothers burial site. It’s nice to know that they would let him rest next to his mother, she was kind and beautiful. She kept having complications with pregnancy, so Phil and her adopted Techno and Wilbur. Years later, she was finally able to finish term and Tommy was born. He can’t imagine how joyful the day had been, now his birthday is a day of mourning for the Krafft family.
Tommy didn’t care.
Today should’ve been a day that he could go out and do crime without the worry of his past family catching him, but for some reason, Phil went on patrol today and nearly unmasked Tommy.
“I heard you almost got caught today.” Sam says, turning back to his laptop. “Wanna tell me why?”
Tommy shifts in his seat “He caught us off guard, nobody thought he’d be out today.” Tommy explained.
“You didn’t show anything did you?” Sam questions.
Tommy knows he’s talking about his wings. “I never let them out during the mission.”
Sam smiles “Good. I’ll tell Puffy to let you have something at the cafe today.”
Tommy’s face lights up. “Thanks Sam!” He says standing and rushing over to where he left Tubbo and Ranboo.
Sam smiles and watches his son in everything but blood mess around with his friends.
-~-~-~-
Wilbur lays next to a head stone.
Well, two headstones.
Thomas Kristin Krafft; son, brother, June 12 2109 - June 12 2120.
Kristin Perse Krafft; Daughter, Mother, Wife, October 14 2078 - July 9 2109
“Hey, Toms.” Wil whispers. “Happy birthday! Big ol’ 2-1, so I brought the good stuff for you.”
Wilbur takes a small bottle filled with whiskey and two shot glasses. He fills them both.
“I know you would’ve rather gone drinking with Techno, but he’s on patrol tonight. I don’t think dad’s gonna be too happy that I’m giving you alcohol the moment you turn 21, but y’know.”
Wilbur spins the whiskey in his glass. The amber liquid taunts him. He went sober two years after Tommy’s death; he’d always had something in his system during those first few years. He laughs as tears slide down his face, deep blue. “I’m so sorry, Toms. I should’ve been better.”
He looks over to his mothers headstone and smiles softly, mournfully. “I’m sorry I couldn't protect him.”
Wilbur throws his head back and downs the whiskey in one go. The liquid burns as it slides down the back of his throat. He flips the glass upside down and places it on the top of the headstone, then dumps the second glass over the top. He leaves the bottle at the site, knowing it’d be empty by the time he got to the vigil. He gets into his car and pulls out his phone seeing maybe twenty missed calls from both Phil and Techno.
He calls Techno first.
The phone doesn’t even ring once when Techno picks up. “Hullo?”
“Did you guys get killed or something?” Wilbur asks. Though he instantly cringes. “Sorry, not today.”
“It’s alright.” Techno mutters. “We were just worried, you’ve been gone all day.”
Wilbur scoffs “I do this every year, what makes this year any different?”
“Dad’s favorite whiskey is missing from the cabinet.” Techno deapans.
Wilbur fumbles with his keys, dropping them between the seats. He curses. “How did you find out?”
“Wil, it’s his twenty-first.” Techno says gently into the phone “Dad let us have a shot of the same bottle on our birthdays, I knew you’d want the same for Tommy.”
Wilbur’s crying again, thick blue tears race down his cheeks. He wipes them away with his sleeve, he’ll have to use stain control again, and leans back in his car seat. “He should’ve been able to celebrate.” He whispers.
He hears Techno sigh on the other end of the line “we did what we could.” A pause “Are you gonna be there tonight? Dad’s going this year.”
Wilbur thinks. He should go, he’s gone every year to keep up his image. He just doesn’t see the point, the first few years the city held them was nice, but now it just seems like a waste. These days should be private, hell, their mothers death is in a couple of weeks.
“I don’t know. Didn’t Phil go to work today?” Wilbur asks, trying to fish his key out from under his seat.
Techno huffs a laugh “Yeah, ‘parently there was a big heist goin’ down.” Techno hums “Heard Thanatos went again this year…”
“You’re kidding-” Wilbur pouts, putting his keys into the ignition. “He’s only out when I’m taking personal days!”
“That’s what you get for not being on patrol every waking hour. I’ve been told Phil got really close to unmasking the bastard.” something pings on Techno’s end “I gotta take this Wil, Olympus.”
“Okay, I’ll see you there in like fifteen minutes.” Wil says, pulling out of the cemetery parking lot.
“You left the bottle there didn’t you?” Techno questions
Wil laughs. “He deserves it.”
“Whatever, drive safe Piper.” Techno scolds
“Bye Prometheus~” Wil sings as he hangs up the phone, putting on his music and breaking only a small amount of traffic laws.
Time to go to work.
Tonight's candlelight vigil to honor the death of the son and brother of hero family SBI will be held at 9 pm in front of Olympus Tower.
SBI exclusive interview Ten Years after Tartarus attack-
Zephyrus explains the struggles of family lo-
Tartarus heist takes local bank; t ousands lost-
Thanatos on the rise, making a villain name for himself. Citizen wonder who is behind the new villain mask, taking the name of death upon himself.