Runaways: A Dream SMP AU

8

"I want you two on my side."

The words rung in Tubbo's ears, incomprehensible. He'd just emerged onto the treehouse balcony in time to hear it. That voice... he knew that voice...

"Fundy!" Tubbo blurted, racing down the steps of the treehouse. Fundy's ears pricked, his eyes lighting up. "Tubbo!" he called out happily. But Tubbo skidded to a halt as memory caught up with him. Fundy wasn't his cheerful fellow soldier of L'Manburg anymore. Fundy was Schlatt's right-hand-man.

Tommy turned around. "Tubbo, thank god you're here. Fundy claims he was never on Schlatt's side and wants us to help him take back L'Manburg," he stated matter-of-factly. Tubbo froze, staring, his jaw slack.

Take back L'Manburg.

That goal— that dream— they'd given it up when they ran away.

But... if Fundy was here, asking them to take back L'Manburg...

Fundy was alive.

Manberg still existed.

Wilbur didn't blow it up!

They were all alive!

There was still a L'Manburg to take back!

"Fundy, what happened during the festival?" Tubbo asked urgently. What had changed Wilbur's mind? He had seemed so far gone...

"The festival was cancelled, Tubbo. Schlatt told everyone he was distraught over your disappearance, but he confessed to me he knew you were a traitor. I think he had something planned for you. You were right to run away," Fundy told him.

You were right to run away.

It was all Tubbo wanted to hear. But he heard the rest, too, and suddenly he felt a new certainty, deep within.

We were wrong to run away.

Schlatt was still a tyrant. He was still ruling with an iron fist, still there, poised to hurt anyone who opposed him. Wilbur was almost certainly still planning to detonate everything. Nothing was better. If anything, it was worse.

And life in Leafshire wasn't perfect, either. Memories and fear haunted them day and night. Tubbo straightened up, lifting his chin and standing tall. He didn't look like a fearful runaway anymore.

He looked like a leader.

"Tommy, we have to do this."

"Do what?" Tommy asked cautiously, although he surely knew. "Tubbo, you can't seriously be considering this."

No.

Tubbo wasn't considering it.

He'd made up his mind.

"We have to take back L'Manburg."

***
November 10th

The TNT was piling up.

There was more of it.

So much more of it.

Tucked under the grass of Manberg, silent and hidden and deadly.

Red, red, red.

The wound was beginning to bleed.

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Short again, I know! But it did get what I wanted to convey across, and it is important to the story