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Life used to be easy for Tommy. He used to be an only child with two loving parents from the well-known planet, Earth. He used to run around fields, play in the grass, forests, and around playgrounds. They lived well off, his parents, both making a fair amount of money. He had a few friends; he did not remember their names. Tommy got taken away when he was 9. He remembers waiting after school for his parents to pick him up. He remembers being dragged away by unknown strangers before his memory starts to become dizzy, and he can only remember the second part of his childhood, experimentation.
He was brought to a facility, in which he later learned was out in space, far, far, far away from Earth. He wasn't allowed contact with anyone else for his first year there. It was mainly aliens trying to talk to him in a language he could not understand. They beat him, they put him through immense heat, immense cold. They ran tests, seeing what his species could and could not do. Tommy stopped keeping count of his time there around a year and a half days counted. They kept him in a cell, much like the prison cells he used to see on TV.
Sometime later he was able to make contact with a few other humans his age, also kidnapped. He sat next to a boy with golden hair, much like his own. That's the first time Tommy talked to the boy who would soon be his life-long companion. The boy's name was Purpled. Unlike Tommy, Purpled didn't have a home back on Earth; he was homeless. Tommy didn't remember his birthday, nor did Purpled, so they marked the day they met as both their birthdays, counting each day-night cycle as time went on.
In between the time of Tommy's arrival, he began making a name for himself among the scientists of the facility. He was a troubled kid. The one who always made an attempt to bite or escape the scientists during his tests. He soon later met the leader of the facility, Dream. Tommy thought he was nice at first. Dream would always go and visit Tommy in his cell, talking about how they were best friends. Tommy didn't say anything to Dream about being best friends. Purpled was his best friend, not Dream, but Tommy didn't say anything in fear. Dream would sometimes beat Tommy if he misbehaved, but he always excused it for a good reason. Saying how it's the only way for Tommy to learn to be better.
The next big event, that would change Tommy's life forever, happened when Purpled and Tommy were around fifteen. He woke up one morning to alarms and screams. His cell door was shoved wide open; he was free to roam around. Hesitantly at first, Tommy poked his head out the door and into the hallway, looking both ways. There was nobody, the screams were distant, but the alarms were overbearing. He smelled smoke. Tommy quickly rushed to Purpled's room; he had memorized the way there during one of his escapes. Purpled was huddled in the corner of his room, a man wearing all white corning him. Tommy ran to the man and pushed him to the floor. In their time at the facility, they trained them well. Tommy knew how to fight. While the man was still in a daze, Tommy grabbed Purpled's hand and the two of them ran out of the room. Unsure of where to go, they followed the sound of screams.
Tommy had never been to this part of the ship before. Dream sometimes let him wander. On one side of the room, the scientists stood behind Dream. On the other side of the room, a group of seven aliens stood in unusual clothing. The room was on fire. Dream and the mysterious leader of the other group seemed to be yelling in a different language. In all their time here, they never learnt the alien language that their captors spoke. On one hand, it was awful because Tommy never knew what they wanted from him. On the other hand, he and Purpled could speak together in English with no one to interrupt them.
Before they could take another step towards Dream, two arms strangled their way around Tommy. Another pair of arms grabbed Purpled. Tommy looked behind him to see a phantom man. They had learned about the different types of aliens from Dream. The man holding Purpled was obviously a piglin; he had a snout and two long tuffs spilling out of his mouth. The two of them were dragged over to the mysterious group. Tommy locked eyes with Dream. His memory became fuzzy here.
The next memory he remembers is waking up in a much nicer cell than the facility. Purpled curled around him on the soft mattress, passed out. He poked the boy on the cheek until he woke up.
"Purps, where are we?" Tommy whispered. If someone was listening in on them, he didn't want them to know he was awake.
"I don't remember, I think we were taken again." Purpled admitted quietly. Soon after, a duo came into their room with a plate of food in one of their hands and a stack of books in the other's hands. The one holding the food had spotted skin, half black, half white. One eye was emerald green and the other was blood red. Tommy wasn't sure what kind of alien they were. The other one looked almost human; the only off-putting detail was the small wings he had on his back.
"Hi. I'm Tubbo! He/Him." Tommy and Purpled's jaw dropped. In the past years, the only English they've heard is around each other.
"You speak English?" Purpled asked hesitantly. It was wrong to speak without permission, but these people seemed different.
"I do, I speak a lot of language. Human is just one that I picked up." Tubbo switched to a different language, turned to the person beside him, and said something that Tommy didn't recognize. The person beside him placed the food he was previously holding on a table next to the mattress.
"That's Ranboo, they use hey/they pronouns. He's Enderian, I'm Apis!" Tommy furrowed his brow; he'd never heard of "Apis" before. Enderian is the term used to describe aliens that have the ability to teleport around. Tommy later learned Apis was the term for bee-fused aliens.
"I'm Purpled, this is Tommy. Both he/him." Purpled introduced them.
"So, where are we?" Purpled asked Tubbo.
"You're on the Sleepy Bois Incorporated ship. Shorted down to, SBI." Tubbo placed the stack of books beside the table. Tommy read one of the titles, "Human to Galacterian: A guide to outer space." They were books on alien languages. That came in handy later.
"What about the facility?" Tommy redirected his focus to the boy.
"We got you out of there. That group of aliens are known for labs and experimentation. How long were you in there for?" Tommy did quick mental math.
"Six years." Tubbo's eyes widened. He muttered a "wow" before clearing his throat.
"Are you two brothers?" Tubbo asked curiously. They weren't, not blood-related anyways.
"Yes." Tommy said quickly. They three of them chatted for a while. Tubbo even translated a little bit of what Ranboo had tried to say to them.
From there on out, life got a little bit better. They had met the rest of the crew. Their leader was an avian named Phil. The man who grabbed Tommy was Wilbur. The man who grabbed Purpled was Technoblade, or Techno for short. Ranboo, Tubbo, a Vulpine named Fundy, and a phantom named Niki. Tubbo did most of the translating between the group, but they were all putting in an effort to learn Human. Tommy and Purpled read through each book provided to them in hopes of one day fully understanding their new family.
The days weave in and out of Tommy's memory. A few years later, Tommy and Purpled were around seventeen. They had lived with the SBI for two years and they were all close. Sometimes Tommy caught himself calling Phil his dad, or Techno and Wilbur his brothers.
It was one late night. Tommy couldn't sleep. He woke Purpled up and asked him to go on a walk with him. He agreed, and the two of them walked along the ship's deck. Tommy stopped mid-sentence and the hairs on his neck stood up.
"Subject T-0MM7." The curling of his stomach that he once felt in the facility returned. No matter how hard he had tried, he could never forget that voice. Purpled instantly turned around, Tommy doing the same, although it was Tommy's subject number that was called out. Steps were heard behind them. The two of them spun around. Dream's crooked smile greeted them.
"Ah, subject P-0R9L3D, I don't think we ever got to meet." He smirked. Tommy instinctively wrapped his arm around Purpled's. Their hands were intertwined.
"Come to me. I'll take you back home." That facility was not home. It was torture.
Tommy reached his free hand behind him, fishing something out of his pocket. Techno had made it very clear to the two of them that they were to keep the device on them at all times in case something just like this situation were to happen. It was a small plastic sphere with a button in the center. Tommy only assumed the button turned on an alarm. He pressed it. Nothing. He pressed it again. He kept spamming the button.
"Subject T-0MM7, what is that? A toy? You know toys are prohibited. Give it here." Tommy looked up to see Dream had inched closer to the two. His neon eyes stared into his soul. Tommy slipped it back in his pocket.
"Ah, ah, ah. Give it to me." His voice was cold, without any emotion.
"No." Tommy said simply. Dream raised one eyebrow.
"No?" Tommy closed in on himself, feeling small.
"No." Tommy whispered. Dream stared at him, disappointment washing over his face.
"I thought we were friends, can I please play with your toy?" Dream taunted. Tommy obediently reached into his pocket, his fingers closed on the sphere. Before Dream had the chance to snatch it away, he crumpled to the floor.
Techno stood in front of the boys, a metal rod in hand. Behind him, Wilbur and Phil rushed out, scooping the boys into warm arms. Tears threatened to spill in the corners of Tommy's eyes. He's only ever cried in front of Purpled. A single tear rolled down his hot cheek. Fear. The threat was gone. At least, for now.
"The button sends out a silent signal to us." Techno explained. His piglin accent carried over into his English, but Tommy didn't mind. Words were all the same.
Tommy nodded. He clung onto Wilbur like a child with their parents. The two of them were carried away from Dream and Techno, who was later locked up into the highest security cell on the ship.
They're family, inside and out, aliens and humans, who knew? Tommy and Purpled were given actual bedrooms on the ship, but they preferred to stay in the same room; it made their internal loneliness less lonely. Tommy and Purpled still had hard nights where they would wake up drenched in sweat, clinging to one another, while they sobbed. This just happened to be one of those nights. Tommy woke up, out of breath and covered in sweat. Purpled laid still next to him, snoring away. Tommy slowly peeled the blankets off his body and placed his hand on the cold doorknob that connected their room to the hallway of rooms. Tommy walked up to a familiar room. He knocked twice.
A noise was made on the inside; it was in the alien language. It meant, "Come in." Tommy entered. Wilbur's room was always a little bit messy.
"Hey Toms. Couldn't sleep?" Wilbur asked once he got a better look at the person who had entered his room.
"Mhm." Tommy grunted. He sprawled out on Wilbur's bed in the corner.
"Can you play me something?" Tommy instantly felt selfish, "I mean you don't have to it's just that I had a nightmare and I feel like-" Wilbur hushed his monologuing.
"Move over and I'll get my guitar. I'm working on a new song, Tubbo's helping me translate it to English." Tommy crawled into the corner of Wilbur's bed, getting under the covers. Wilbur sat down on the edge of the bed, and Tommy closed his eyes. Wilbur had a melodic voice; even with songs that weren't in English, they sounded beautiful. Wilbur cleared his voice and began,
"The cute bomber jacket you've had since sixth form..."