PHOENIX

Chapter Seventeen: Reunited

"Wilbur!"

I turn around and hug him tightly, glad to see him for the first time in about a week.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" I pull back, noticing he's no longer wearing a L'Manberg uniform.

"We need to talk about the fact that you're bleeding, but first we have to get out of here before they notice you're gone" Wilbur grabbed my hand and we made a run for it, eventually catching up to Tommy.

"Tommy!" I jumped on him, crushing him in a hug.
"Get off me!" Tommy complained, trying to hold back a smile.

"Holy shit! What happened to your face?" Tommy leaned forward to get a better look.

"Schlatt fucking cut me with a knife, and it still hurts like crazy! I haven't even seen it myself though" I touch it again and cringe.

"I'll kill that bastard," Tommy muttered, anger in his voice.

"Are you okay enough to make it for a while?" Wilbur asked gently.

"Yeah I think so" Nodding, I start to follow them.
"Wait, what about Tubbo? We can't just leave him!" I realise, stopping suddenly.

"We need a spy on the inside. Besides, Niki is still there. Don't worry, we discussed it with Tubbo earlier, so he already knows you're coming to Pogtopia" Wilbur assured me.

"Pogtopia? And if anyone needed to get out of that hell, I'd say it was Niki and not me" I reply, following Wilbur.

"Niki is on her own mission over there, secretly rallying up citizens to fight against Schlatt" Tommy said from behind me.

"Oh......why didn't she tell me? I could've helped" I said quietly, trying not to sound as hurt as I felt.

Wilbur and Tommy glanced at each other, obviously keeping secrets. So this is how it is now. Maybe I'm just over reacting, but I just spent the past week enduring Schlatt's shit and feeling useless as my best friend betrayed us and my country was taken apart bit by bit. Tubbo told me he'd let me know if Wilbur needed anything from me, but here was Wilbur, Tommy, and Niki planning a whole revolution without me. It was my home too, and I wanted to protect it just as much as anyone else.

"Listen Nix, you were starting to scare Niki. She hadn't heard from you in a while, and when she saw you hanging around Schlatt she thought maybe you were......" Tommy rambled.

"A traitor? Seriously?" I shook my head in disbelief and hurt.

"Well what are we supposed to think? Fundy burnt down the flag!" Tommy argued, trying to make himself seem in the right.

"I just can't believe you'd think that for a second I'd even consider siding with Schlatt" I crossed my arms, still following Wilbur who was silent that entire time.

"Well we know for sure now" Tommy mumbled, looking at my cheek.

"We can't argue right now, we have to talk about what happened tonight" Wilbur finally spoke, breaking the tension as we walked.

"Wilbur, I could've taken my shot" Tommy shook his head, upset about earlier.

"Killing Schlatt wouldn't do anything, it wouldn't fix a single issue. Then Quackity would become president, and who knows if that would be worse" Wilbur explained, his voice getting louder.

"Tommy, I have a question for you. This festival, this is a good idea. This doesn't seem evil, y'know?"

"Yeah" Tommy responded quietly, his eyes focused on Wilbur up ahead of him.

"Tommy......are we the bad guys?"

Tommy and I both stopped walking.

"We just kind of made ourselves the leaders, and then we had a vote and he won in a coalition government which is completely legal. Now we're trying to overthrow him. It feels like we're the bad guys, Tommy. It doesn't feel correct" Wilbur was still faced away from us, his voice wavering.