Taken- A Dream SMP Fanfic

Chapter Twenty Six- The Calm Before The Storm

You watched uncertainly as Wilbur ran his hands through his hair. He was clearly upset about something.

"You should talk to him," Tommy suggested.

"Why me?" you asked, not unwilling, but curious.

"You're the only one he really listens to," Tommy said with a shrug. "Plus he's less likely to get angry at you than the rest of us."

"All good points," Dream chimed in from the branches of a tree above you.

"Also he doesn't seem to scare you at all," BadBoyHalo added. "Pretty sure he scares the rest of us."

"I don't like to go near him when he's angry," Philza put in, "and he's my son, so that's saying something." 

You glanced back at Wilbur, who was staring out into the distance. He really did seem sad about something.

You walked over to the cliff's edge. 

"I heard you talking about me," Wilbur said without looking up. 

You sat down on the grass beside him, letting your feet dangle off the edge.

"We just want to know what's bothering you," you said gently.

"I'm fine," he grunted, his eyes still locked on something far away.

"Clearly not," you said. "You do remember you can't lie to me, right?"

Wilbur gave you a small half-smile, then looked back over the cliff. You realized that the streets of L'manberg were visible in the distance. 

"What happens next?" he asked abruptly.

"What do you mean?" you questioned back.

"What happens after we beat the Piglin King?" he clarified. 

You thought for a moment. "I don't really know," you replied honestly. "Hopefully we can go back home."

He was silent for a long moment. "What if I don't want to go home?" he asked quietly.

"Why?" you asked back.

Wilbur sighed, running one hand through the white streak in his brown hair. "I don't want to go back home because back home means back to the script. Back home means back to not being able to change our own lives! Y/N, we have freedom here! We can decide for ourselves who we want to be! I... I don't want to give that up."

You followed his gaze out to the streets of L'manberg. "You built a whole country so you could be free," you said, understanding. "But you've never achieved that there, have you?"

He didn't answer for a long while. "Before I pressed the button in the control room, back when this all began," he started finally, "I told Phil something I haven't stopped thinking about since we got here. I once said 'the thing that I built this nation for doesn't exist anymore', but it does! Y/N, my vision, my country, my unfinished symphony, it exists here! How can I leave when I've found what I've been trying to create for so long?"

You took a moment to process what you'd just been told. He'd made several good points.

"What made L'manberg free?" you asked after a moment. "What made it different?"

"The people," Wilbur answered instantly. "L'manberg was a land where people could choose who ruled them. They could choose their own paths."

"Those people are still here," you reminded him. "But when we go home, where will they be? If L'manberg is the people, then your vision won't be here anymore. Everything that we've experienced here has changed us, but it can't change what we live for. If you want your country, follow its people. Come home."