Chapter 20

I slam open the door of Pogtopia and march in and down the stairs. Tommy hurries after me, panting,

"Well, that was interesting." I silently start to take two steps at a time, letting my knuckles scrape against the wall next to me. "Nice little thing he's got going on there. Nice little festival."

I don't respond and Tommy begins to talk out of nervousness.

"Right bastard he is. A wanker, if I'm being real honest." I stop suddenly on a step and Tommy stops himself right before he bumps into me. "Will?"

"Are we the bad guys, Tommy?"

"What?"

"Think about it," I spin around and look Tommy straight in the eyes. "Schlatt legally won the election, we allowed coalition governments! And now we're trying to overthrow him and take back the power that is rightfully his? To make matters worse we have a literal anarchist for an ally!"

"Wait, Wilbur-"

"We're in the right, right? You agree that we're in the right?"

"Yeah, I mean I always am…"

"Then let's be the bad guys." I propose, body jerking with each word. "That's not L'Manburg, not anymore.

"So, let's blow that mother fucker to smithereens." I lean in grinning widely and eyes open wider. I walk down the rest of the stairs, Tommy slowly following behind.

"Are you saying that we-" Tommy worries, but I spin around, now at the bottom of the stairs, and walk backwards.

"Tommy, I say that if we can't have Manburg," I stop walking, baring my teeth. "NO ONE, NO ONE CAN HAVE MANBURG."

"No, we- we can take it back!" Tommy tries to soothe me, walking down the last steps. He approaches me like I'm a wild animal, cautiously and slowly.

"IT'S A NEW ERA." I yell, stepping forward. "Let's burn that place to the fucking ground. Let's be the villains."

It's as if everything had been blurry before but now it was crystal clear. I have to embrace my position as antagonist, whether Tommy is with me or not.

"I need to think..." Tommy mumbles, putting his face in his hands.

"Think?" I cry. "You've had years to think, Tommy! We lost the election months ago!"

He pushes past me roughly, head down. I turn and watch him walk to the other side of the ravine and hit his head on the wall, leaving it there to rest.

I sit on a ledge and look into the farm room, but I know Techno isn't here. No one's here to protect Tommy. He can't hide from the truth now.

"They're all lying to us," I call out. Tommy flinches slightly but doesn't turn to face me. "No one's on our side. I'm going to blow the place up. God help anyone caught in the crossfire. It'll leave no survivors."

I notice that my head had drooped, and my voice had gotten soft. I probably looked like a mumbling fool, a crazed lunatic. But I hope Tommy heard every word, it was all true.

"It's not too far gone." Tommy whispers, startling me from the proximity of his voice. I don't look up, the hope in his voice makes me pity him enough as it is. "We can get it back and-"

"And what?" I bark, "What's the point? If we get it back blood will be shed, just like when we fought for it the first time!"

I hold up my hand with the ring on it and raise my head, gazing up at the boy standing before me. His blonde hair is ruffled, there's dirt on his face and a defiant aura surrounds him. Foolish boy.

"And we'll just end up as the illegitimate rulers."

I lower my head again, hair obscuring the view of Tommy.

"But Dream's supporting us!"

"Dream's only with us because we're the enemies of his enemies!"

I hear him puff and I look up again to check that he hasn't walked away. He still stands there, scratching his chin comedically, as if thinking. I run my hand through my hair, yanking on it to see it this was even real, even though this is the realest thing I've done in a while.

"But if we have no L'Manburg, what's the point?" Tommy whimpers and I peer at him suspiciously.

"Oh," I lengthen the word and Tommy looks at me strangely. "I get it. I can see it in your eyes, you're scared, Tommy Innit. You're scared that people will think differently of you. When I said you weren't going to be president, that wasn't a challenge. It was true. And I know that you're trying to sound like you know what you're doing, but you don't."

He looks at me with wide eyes, was that hurt in his blue irises? Good. I need this to get through to him. I carry the momentum, I'm angry and my point will be heard, God damn it.

"NONE OF US DO! WE'RE FUCKED! WE WERE FUCKED THE MINUTE WE GOT THROWN OUT!" I pant. "And Schlatt knows that. And you know what a man with nothing to lose does?"

Tommy stares at me, eyelids droopy. He looks tired and defeated.

"What?" He mumbles, still making eye contact with me.

"Whatever the fuck he wants." I answer lowly, practically snarling as I let the beast out of me. "And now we have a man who rigged our nation with TNT years ago! Let's do the same. Let's kill them all, at the festival." I stand up from my seat and loom over Tommy.

"LET'S KILL THEM ALL, ALL THE LIARS! TUBBO? HE'S LYING TO YOU TOMMY! ONCE HE REALISES THAT WE WERE DESTINED TO FAIL FROM THE VERY BEGINNING HE'LL BETRAY-"

Tommy's hand collides with my face and stumble backwards, nearly falling back onto my seat. I stand there, hunched over, covering my cheek with my hand. But no matter how much pain I'm going through, this smile is never coming off my face.

"This isn't you." Tommy spits, looking at me with an icy glare. I giggle, shaking my head. "This isn't right. You've lost hope. Get a grip!"

"In order to feel safe, you have to be ready to give up the things you're worried you might lose." I mutter. I've said all that I need to, I'm done.

As we glare at each other a knock on the door upstairs echoes down into the ravine.

"I hope it's Tubbo." Tommy mutters, walking past me to the stairs. I follow him, letting go of my burning cheek. When we get up, I stand further back while Tommy walks up to the door. As a precaution, we open the door with a sword in the unlikely scenario that it is someone who means harm.

Tommy opens the door, sword pointed lazily in the general direction and yelps. In a second Tommy's sword is on the floor and Dream is in the house. I jerk away instinctively then relax and beam at the masked man.

"Dream!" I chirp, holding out my hand to shake. He accepts, shaking it firmly. "I've been expecting you."

"Sorry I took so long," Dream grumbled, "Had to make a stop."

"Well, come in, come in! How have you been?" I ask kindly, being a good host.

"Good." He answers calmly, stretching his wrists.

"Right, anyway! Now I know that you want Schlatt gone, and that you are well off financially."

"Yes, I suppose so." Dream answers slowly.

"And that you want L'Manburg back-"

"Wait, why would you want L'Manburg back?" Tommy accuses. In all honesty I had forgotten he was even here. "You hated us, blew us up remember?"

Dream turned slowly to face him,

"I've had a change of heart."

The silence is heavy and awkward, but I push through it, I don't have time for this.

"I need TNT, lots of it." I say shortly to Dream. He turns to me and then to the ender chest and pulls out one stick of dynamite.

"This obviously isn't all of it but it's a token, I'll get you your TNT. Schlatt's too ambitious and needs to be brought down. I'll help you if you need it."

"I'm detonating at the festival." I say excitedly, "And, if you're there, you might want to leave before Tubbo's speech."

Dream nods slowly, chuckling. But Tommy yells, picking up his sword and pointing it at me.

"Give me the dynamite." He says slowly, and I put my hands up, one hand still grasping the dynamite tightly. He moves the sword slowly closer but that's when it bounces of a rigid chest plate.

"I'll have to step in here." Dream says darkly, looking down at Tommy. I watch Tommy's expression melt from anger to defeat over Dream's shoulder.

"Fine. I'll follow you, Wilbur, in whatever you do but just know that this is a bad idea. I just want my home and Tubbo back."

Then he plods past us down the steps again, probably to find solace in Tubbo through the tunnel. The two of us listen closely to Tommy until we know he's gone.

"I need something in return." Dream says, turning to me. I look down at him and smirk,

"Anything."

"Promise me you'll blow it up, no matter what."

I grin at him,

"Deal."

We stand looking at each other and somewhere deep inside of me I realise that I've just sold my soul to the devil.

The door suddenly swings open and Techno barges in. He dumps his stuff and looks at both of us while taking off his mask.

"Anarchy." He deadpans, "Woo." Then goes down the stairs as if he hadn't just eavesdropped the whole time.