Things That Need To Pass (passerine!Technoblade x OC) {COMPLETED}

The Closed Curtain (2)

(3rd person POV)

"Far, far away," Philza continued, unable to stop now that he had started. Maybe it was the way that Wilbur was looking at him—open and undefended, as if he no longer feared but instead expected this betrayal.

Maybe it was the way Techno stood protectively in front of him, as if Philza was someone Wilbur needed protection from. Maybe it was that despite their earlier tearless farewell, deep down, Philza knew it would come down to this.

No subterfuge. No vague remarks. Just honesty this time, no matter how harsh and painful. "I'll take Dream to a place where he can't hurt you, can't hurt anyone, ever again. And I'm going to lock the door behind me and throw away the key."

"It's the only way to make sure he can't come back." Eryn said slowly.

"The only way?" Wilbur asked. "The only way to end the reign of an all-powerful deity just so happens to involve you leaving me in the dust for... how many times is it now, Philza? How many times are you going to leave me before you even say a proper fucking goodbye?"

"We already—"

"Don't give me that shit!" Wilbur snapped, his brown eyes furious. He'd gotten his eyes from his mother, the fury from his father. "A few words of wisdom and a piece of fucking jewelry does not count as a goodbye in any godsdamned universe."

"I asked you. I fucking asked you if it was goodbye." Wilbur looked like he was going to explode with how angry he was.

"Goodbye, then," said Philza. "Is that what you wanted? Did you want me to say the words? Did you want me to tell you that I would give up air and life and open skies if it meant I got to stay with you?"

"But if you want honesty, Wilbur, here it is: you know the face of sacrifice well. You have already made the calculations in your head, and you already know this is the right call. The only call. You already know this will hurt like hell, but it will be a necessary hurt."

"This is my Blue Valley, Wilbur." Philza felt his heart ache, longing to tell Wilbur I'll be back, you'll see me again, I'll visit you.

He saw the words land, felt it as if he'd taken a dagger to his own heart.

Wilbur had the look of a man standing at the gallows, but it was not his execution. And that tortured sorrow in his eyes—torn between grieving and refusing to believe there was anything to grieve at all—that was from Philza, too.

Through it all, Techno had stood in his stoic silence, content on making Philza feel the weight of his anger without having to say a word. But now he opened his mouth to speak, but it wasn't a demand or a dry remark or a sharp reproach that fell out in quiet, hesitant syllables.

It was a question.

"Wilbur, can I see that necklace?"

His anguish momentarily clouded by confusion, Wilbur reached into his pocket and pulled out Philza's last gift, the only remnant that would remain of him.

Sitting on Wilbur's palm, dangling from an iron chain, was a single bright-green emerald.

"I'm sorry," Philza began. "I'm sorry that leaving you is the only way I can save you. I'm sorry that you both fought so hard, so long, just to say goodbye again. I'm sorry that I can't be here for the aftermath. I'm sorry that there's too much left unsaid between us."

"I'm sorry I was too much of a coward to say all this before, but I hope I can make it up to you now." He tried for a smile, even as tears blurred his vision, turning everything into hazy smudges. "Wil, Techno, I—"

And then arms were going around him, pulling him into a warm embrace. For a moment, there was only a tangle of limbs and three beating, broken hearts, indiscriminate from one another. Clarity came in bittersweet waves.

It was Wilbur's face buried in his left shoulder, Techno's arms around them both. It was Techno's foot on his toes and the pommel of Wilbur's rapier digging into his gut, Eryn watching in amusement. It was tragic and it was clumsy.

It was goodbye.

"It won't be for forever," Philza promised through his sobs. "I swear on you both, I will find a way back to you. Someday, there will be nothing to fear anymore, and I'll find you again, even if it takes me eons."

None of them said what they were all thinking. Wilbur didn't have eons, and neither did Techno now. But they knew what he meant anyway, and they believed him. Someday. They would hang onto that promise. They would take it to their graves.

"If there's one thing," Wilbur said, pulling back to look Philza in the eyes, "that I want you to know... I forgive you." His face fractured into a million different emotions. "I forgive you, Dad."

"Thank you," Phil whispered. "Thank you, my boy."

And Techno only had his silence, but it said more than Philza could in a thousand years.

He stepped back from them, his oldest son and his oldest friend.

When Techno began swaying on his feet, Wilbur wordlessly wrapped his arm around the former god's, and they stood there together, leaning on each other.

Philza's heart was free.

He gave them a nod. Techno looked away to wipe furiously at his eyes. Philza had to stifle a laugh. Stubborn, until the very end, aren't you, my friend?

It was time.

The god of freedom turned towards the boy sleeping on the broken bell. Sleeping, or waiting, or dreaming—whichever explanation would hurt least for him. Philza gathered the Green God into his arms, as he had once borne the body of his youngest son at his deathbed, as he had once carried Wilbur to bed when he was smaller and the world was only the hallway from the library to his childhood bedroom.

He walked to the very edge of the tower with only a young king and a new mortal to mourn him.

He spread his wings, obsidian feathers gleaming in the dying fires of the last city he would ever fail to protect. And then he flew.

He did not look back.

The wind was at his face, cold and cutting, but he had never tasted anything sweeter. When he began his descent, straight towards the gate to his final fate, he felt the Green God stir slightly in his arms, a child disturbed from a beautiful dream.

He might have whispered a name, but it was lost to the air.

God. Such a big word for such a small thing.

They were the beginning, and they would be the end. Prologue and epilogue.

The void rushed towards them. Philza closed his eyes. It was better this way. He would get to control the darkness. It was his call. His terms. His sacrifice.

I'm sorry, Tommy, he thought, one last tear slipping down his ancient face, but I'll be seeing you soon.

They entered the void together. The gate closed behind them.

And the universe shifted.

a/n

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ME GUSTAAAA

naur im sorry-

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