Chapter Text
Technoblade grimaced at the unconscious body in front of him. Tommy lay on his front, left cheek smushed in the snow, but there was a definite rise and fall to his chest that Techno would have mistaken for sleep if he hadn't known Tommy's snores from Pogtopia.
No matter, Techno probably shouldn't be leaving his unconscious brother in the snow in just a T-shirt and khakis, even if it would be really funny. The voices seemed to agree, split between laughing and telling Techno to help Tommy.
So Techno carefully scooped the boy up, frowning minutely at how light he was, and continued carefully to his house. Prime, Tommy was lucky that Techno had just been returning from his own execution when he'd noticed a flash of red collapse on his property and went to check what was going on.
Making his way inside, he set Tommy on the floor, and checked he was breathing again. Everything was fine on that front, but as for the rest of Tommy...
Techno pulled a face as he eyed the array of yellowing bandages poking out of Tommy's clothes, which in themselves probably shouldn't have been as torn up as they were. And, because Technoblade was such a kind and caring brother, he took it upon himself to replace the bandages with clean ones before Tommy woke up and became too stubborn to accept the help.
Now, Techno liked to think he didn't feel too many annoying emotions after hundreds of years roaming servers, but even he had to admit that his stomach rolled when he peeled Tommy's shirt up to check if there were any wounds on his torso and was met with a large, still blistering partial thickness burn that only a multitude of explosions could create that were joined by similar ones running down his arms and hands. The snow had probably only aggravated it more, Techno groaned in his head, grabbing a Regeneration Potion and soaking a cloth in it before wiping the burn down.
Continuing the bandage unravelling ("Woah, my first unboxing stream!" One voice chirped, a welcome distraction to the rest of the chat feverish about why Tommy hadn't healed yet. Weird, because Regen didn't work like Healing did. That was common knowledge), Techno sighed as more new burns littered Tommy's bare skin, but only his left shin had a bandage, thankfully. All the other bandaged wounds had been gashes which had already had some sort of potions hastily splashed on them, meaning they were healed, although obviously haphazardly.
So Techno had no problem peeling off the last bandage. Like the others, it had had a shitty potion thrown on it at some point that closed it up, and Techno was just on finishing with the Regen when he noticed something else.
Tommy's right shoe was missing.
His barefoot - seriously, how hadn't Techno noticed it before - was about as torn and bloody as Tommy's clothes were, which wasn't something Techno wanted to think about at the moment.
Tommy's foot, unlike the other wounds, hadn't been closed by potions and had quite obviously come to such a state from his trek to the Tundra. Techno's pretty sure if he looked hard enough he could see the bone, and the first signs of some pretty bad frostbite. Fuck, why had Tommy come all this way with nothing to prepare him? How was he even able to walk?
On closer inspection though - some voices shrieked, although most laughed emphatically as Techno got closer to the gash - Tommy had wrapped a tourniquet just under his knee, and had probably lost feeling in his leg. Great, that meant he needed an amputation, and Techno couldn't exactly call someone to the Tundra right now.
Why Phil had taught Techno how to do an amputation had been lost in the years since he'd first had to perform one, but Techno was pretty sure he still had it down as he checked Tommy's breathing one last time before getting to work.
Tommy awoke in the void. He rolled his eyes, sighing as he felt around for the regeneration button while listening for anything happening around his body. He could hear the crackling of a fire and nothing else, so supposed it was safe to revive himself.
Finding the button, he mused to himself how lucky it was that he'd made it to Techno's before he died. He barely remembered hauling himself inside, but he was exhausted and suffering from severe blood loss, so it wasn't surprising he didn't remember the last leg of the journey. Tommy didn't remember running into Techno either, meaning his secret was safe, double luck. Maybe the universe was starting to be kind to him.
Blinking open his eyes, he took in the worn out old couch he had draped himself across, facing a lit fireplace. Unfamiliar, sure, but now Tommy was healing up he could sneak into Techno's basement before he could realise Tommy was even there.
He slowly sat up, groaning to himself as the aches in his body continued to fix themselves. Techno probably had some potions he could steal to help with that.
Stretching, he swung his legs off the couch and went to stand up... and immediately overbalanced and let his face become acquainted with Techno's lovely cold stone floor.
Cursing his low iron levels, Tommy pushed himself into a sitting position again, moving to stand. Only...
"What the fuck?!"
There was a clattering from upstairs, and Tommy instantly panicked, knowing Dream was probably going to yell at him for being too loud again. For a moment, he was back on the beach.
It made sense actually. Dream had caught Tommy trying to run away, and he didn't have any pets to kill this time, so he'd resorted to another, more extreme method. It would be a bitch to explain how he was still alive though.
But it wasn't Dream who stepped into Tommy's view, it was Techno .
"Tommy? When'd you wake up?"
"Where the fuck is my leg, bitch?!" Tommy jabbed at his thigh, the only remaining part of his leg there, then paled, "Why can't I feel my leg?!"
Techno crouched down so that he was in eyeline with Tommy, who was still sitting on the floor. Backlit by the fire, his bulky form looked even more threatening than usual with no light on his face. Tommy curled the leg he could feel into his chest, making himself as small as possible.
Techno noticed his discomfort immediately, raising his hands in a placating manner, "I put some numbing agent on your leg, but I didn't expect you to be awake so quick."
Well that explained why Tommy couldn't feel his leg, but, "Where's the rest of my leg though, prick?"
There was a silence for a moment where Tommy could see Techno's mouth moving uselessly in his silhouette.
"Tommy, you put a fucking tourniquet around your leg."
"And what, bitch?"
"You fucking- Tommy do you know what a tourniquet does?"
"Stops bleeding."
"By keeping all the blood above the compressed area! And all its toxins too! You would have died if I'd just taken it off!"
Tommy snapped his mouth shut, otherwise "I died anyway!" would have slipped out, and that would have Techno asking questions . Questions never ended well. But it also meant Techno didn't know that he'd just died.
"If it makes it any better, the hounds were fed well." Techno said when Tommy stayed quiet.
"What the fuck, man."
"Did you want to keep your slowly decomposing human leg? Bruhhh," Techno asked sarcastically, turning to sit beside Tommy, patting him on the shoulder awkwardly, "I'm, uh, sorry for your loss. But I patched you up the best I could," He gestured to the bandaged thigh, "And you can have some potions to speed up the healing."
"Oh," Tommy nodded, staring at the fire, "Yeah, thanks."
"And I'll commission a cool prosthetic leg for you. Free of charge... well, maybe not free --"
"Wait, for real? You'll get me a new leg?" Tommy perked up.
"Well, I can't get it immediately, but yeah, sure. Think you've already suffered a bit much."
Tommy beamed, "Oh, Techno, this makes up for you cutting it off in the first place! You've just made yourself an ally!" His smile faded a little, "As long as I can hide here from Dream."
"I don't think you can run anywhere else at the moment," Techno huffed, which Tommy understood as a 'yeah, I'm too worried to let you leave'.
He paused, looking down at his thigh, looking for a different subject.
"Can my leg have missile blasters in it?"
Techno hummed, as if he was considering it, "Not sure that's possible."
" Anything's possible if you try hard enough, big man."
Tommy ended up with a blue leg, similar to the colour of Friend's wool, after Ghostbur dropped by and suggested it. Tommy didn't have the heart to turn him down.
The foot was gold, on Techno's insistence, but it was fully operational. It took a few days to get used to, but the knee and ankle bent like a normal leg would and Tommy found himself comfortable with it in no time.
After a few weeks kept inside (which was way too long in Tommy's opinion), Techno finally let him go out to hunt and collect resources, with copious amounts of Invis, obviously.
And then they were told about the Green Festival. Techno had been causing chaos in L'Manberg while Tommy kept healing (which was actually bullshit. A death healed everything and Tommy had been dying to go out on missions since he'd got his leg), and finally announced Tommy could join him to spy on the festival.
Admiring the new builds as they went, Tommy skipped along eagerly, chatting Techno's ear off about anything and everything, from the warm day to his excitement at seeing Tubbo again.
"Isn't it Tubbo's fault you were exiled in the first place?" Techno questioned at one point.
"Well, yeah, but he didn't really have a choice. I hate that he did it, but he's still, like, my best friend," Tommy reasoned, reasonably . He was getting good at that.
"Personally, Phil has never exiled me."
"Well, has Phil ever been President of a country?"
Techno didn't answer, which Tommy took as answer enough.
They downed their first Invisibility Potions as they drew up on the country, which was looking... spectacularly empty for the place of a supposed festival. Just as Tommy was going to ask Techno about where everyone was, Jack came stumbling through the street, running desperately towards the Community House.
Without waiting for instruction, Tommy followed. He could hear soft footfalls behind him, so he knew Techno had had the same idea.
He couldn't have expected what he saw.
The Community House, blown to bits. Everyone surrounding it with shock written all over their faces. And Tubbo and Dream in the centre of the debris.
In hindsight, maybe trying to scale a wall with no experience scaling walls with a prosthetic leg was not a good idea. In Tommy's defence, he'd been good at it before.
Instead he managed to make it up to the top of the 20 foot wall left standing before his prosthetic foot slipped on the loose debris and Tommy was sent straight onto his face with a loud crack .
Then he woke up in the void. Fuck!
Tubbo didn't think that debris usually made such a sickening, human sound when it fell. Or that it made a noise that sounded suspiciously like Technoblade yelling "NO!" either.
Everyone's attention was on the sounds in seconds, including his and Dream's.
"Techno?" Dream called, "Is that you?"
"Errr... No?" A voice that was definitely Technoblade said from where the rubble had just fallen. Multiple people pulled out their swords - which, Prime's sake, the festival was supposed to be a no weapons or armour zone! Why was everyone ready to be docked out already?
"Does anyone have any milk?" Tubbo beckoned the crowd, "Techno, could you show yourself?"
There was a huff as Techno stayed invisible, "Bruh, I'm tryna check if someone is alive right now, can you give me a minute?"
Tubbo blinked, looking around the Community House. Everyone was definitely still there and alive.
"Who?"
There was another silence that stretched on for much too long before Techno said, "Lazarbeam."
"Lazar... doesn't live in L'Manberg, big man."
It sounded like Techno was about to respond again when a body began to become visible as their Invis ran out. Tubbo immediately assumed it was Techno, lying on the floor in an an odd way to evade capture, but he quickly realised the person on the floor was much too small to be a piglin. Was that...
"Tommy..?" He breathed out, moving over to his best friend before he could stop himself.
Tubbo had assumed Tommy had ran away when he finally visited Logstedshire only to find a cobblestone tower in the ruins. The crushing realisation that he hadn't even left a message for Tubbo, or returned to their bunker, left Tubbo returning to L'Manberg with a heavy heart and news of Tommy's 'suicide'.
But here he was, slowly becoming opaque again. Out of everyone he could have run to, Tommy chose Techno ?
He looked like shit too, excluding the fact he'd just fallen off a wall and was waiting to revive himself. Tommy had always had baby fat that clung stubbornly to his bones, no matter how much he trained, but now his cheekbones protruded through his skin and his hands had no meat to them.
He was wearing a jumper and trousers that had obviously been altered to fit a sixteen year old human rather than a 8-foot piglin, and maybe that created the illusion that Tommy was smaller than he was, but Tubbo liked to think his friend wasn't that thin.
"What happened to him?" He asked Techno, who was now fading into view as well.
"He fell off that wall." Techno pointed up like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Tubbo shook his head, crouching down beside Tommy, who definitely wasn't breathing, "I mean, why does he look like this? He didn't go into exile like this."
Techno snorted, "It's almost like not seeing someone for ages changes them."
"Wha- Not this much!" Tubbo sputtered, glancing down Tommy's body for anything he had to be careful of when he moved Tommy's body for his revival, "Why does Tommy have two different shoes on..?"
Techno's eyes flicked to Tommy's feet too, then shrugged, "One of them's fake."
Which didn't mean anything to Tubbo. Shaking his head, he rolled Tommy over, shielding his body from the crowd, and went about picking the boy up carefully.
"Tubbo," Techno's voice dropped to a mutter, "He's not breathing. That was his last life."
Bowing his head, Tubbo stood slowly, ignoring Techno as he addressed the crowd, "I'm going to take him to be healed. He's still alive."
"Tubbo, did you not hear me--"
"Surely I should do that?" Dream's voice cut over Techno's from where he was still stood in the centre of the rubble, "After all, he is still exiled from L'Manberg--"
"Well then I revoke his exile," Tubbo spat, holding Tommy closer to his chest. He shouldn't have been so easy to lift, "You seem to have proven how well you can look after him."
He turned on his heel before anything else could be said, striding out of the ruins of the Community House and towards their bunker. The crowd parted like water as he went, stone faced and clinging onto a corpse.
The crack of Tommy's skull mending itself was never a sound Tubbo liked to say he had got used to, even if he had a long time ago. As he trudged through a field half a mile from the L'Manberg border, he gave Tommy the go ahead after making sure nobody was following them, and not a moment later were the bones realigning themselves.
Tubbo kept his eyes glued ahead as Tommy took his first gasping breath and began moving again, groaning as he continued to heal.
"Sorry about that one, Tubso," He laughed, although it was scratchy as his throat removed shards of spine from itself.
Tubbo said nothing, just kept walking.
After another minute or so, Tommy wriggled out of Tubbo's arms. Tubbo gladly let him go, checking he wouldn't fall before continuing on without a word. Tommy stumbled to keep up.
"Did I do something wrong?" He scratched at his eyebrow before wiping some blood from his forehead away, "I mean, I know I shouldn't have tried climbing up an unstable wall, but I did make it all the way up before I fell! And you told the crowd I wasn't dead, so it's not that big a deal."
Tubbo turned his gaze to Tommy, brow pinched and lips downturned in a way he'd learnt to show his unhappiness in a Presidential way. Although he tried to muster words, they all failed him, so he just turned back to facing forwards.
Tommy seemed to understand just fine though, much to Tubbo's annoyance, "Were you worried about me, big man?"
Tubbo grit his teeth before letting out a small, "Still am."
Tommy threw his arms around Tubbo's shoulders, giving him a grin they both knew was real, "I'm okay, man. I had a shitty time in exile, but Techno actually, like, cared about me, so I've been good!"
"Why'd you go to Techno?" Tubbo asked quietly, "You could have just come to the bunker."
Tommy frowned, looking away, "I wasn't ready to face you yet, and honestly, ending up at Techno's was a complete mistake. I just started walking and recognised his build, and then he like, amputated my leg, and I've just been chilling with him since."
Tubbo stopped short, eye twitching as he processed Tommy's words. Said boy kept walking, not noticing Tubbo's pause.
"He what? "
Tommy faltered, glancing at Tubbo then down at his legs, lifting the one with the golden shoe on up.
"Oh, I thought- I thought you'd worked it out already..." He said lamely, rolling up his trouser leg to reveal a blue prosthetic, "I thought that was why you were so worried?"
"No, you idiot!" Tubbo rushed the other boy, punching his arm, "I was worried about how light you were! Although I guess having a missing leg contributes to that too."
"I'm okay, I swear!" Tommy rubbed his arm awkwardly, "It's my fault for walking through the Tundra without a shoe on."
Tubbo ran a hand over his face and muttered, "I swear to Prime."
"But I died right after Techno amputated the leg, so it healed nice and quick," Tommy smoothly ignored Tubbo, "And I think it's cool. Like how you've got your scar, I've got a missing leg."
"Our immortality is so sick," Tubbo said sardonically, but a small smile slipped onto his face.
Tommy laughed, "We make the best with what we've got, innit?"
Tubbo smiled wider, "Yeah, big man, that's all we can do."
"Tubbo."
"We just wanted to live in peace, Techno! Why did you do this?"
"Tubbo--"
"You know what, let's fight, right now. L'Manberg's up in flames, and for what?!"
"Tubbo, I did this to avenge Tommy! How is he standing right next to you right now?!"
Tubbo and Tommy glanced at each other before they both shrugged in sync.
"I got better!"
" What? "
"Do you want to 2v1 or not?"