In the Shadows We Fight (for justice and ourselves)

Are you willing to forgive?

Tubbo remembered the first time he had gone on patrol with his father. He had been training for years at that point, and he already knew that he was going to be his father's underling. In the beginning, Tubbo had resented heroes and sidekicks. He had spent his childhood learning to fight and build machinery instead of playing like other children. He knew from that young age that his father would never love him unless he was 'good enough', and Tubbo knew that his father's standards weren't easily achieved. He despised the concept of heroes. He didn't understand why anyone would throw away their lives for people they didn't know. He had seen his father after his patrols. He had been to enough meetings and met enough heroes that he knew how tiresome being a hero was. It was thankless work for most heroes. Only the extremely famous ever got gratitude, and Tubbo couldn't understand why anyone would willingly put up with that.

He changed his tune when he saw another hero and sidekick duo. Tubbo's father always complained about Dream, the most famous and technical best of all the heroes. Tubbo knew every insult his father had spewed about the hero like the back of his hand. For some reason, Tubbo liked Dream. It was for an entirely petty reason, Tubbo knew. He only liked Dream because he was more than aware that his father hated the same hero. Tubbo knew that if his father hated Dream, that meant Dream was everything his father wasn't. Dream must have been a good man and even better hero. That was the conclusion Tubbo came to, so he immediately set off to learn all about the hero his father so verbally hated.

That was when Tubbo found out about Dream's sidekick, Reverie. His father didn't have a word to say about the sidekick. When Tubbo asked, Schlatt didn't know who Tubbo was talking about until Tubbo gave him details. Reverie was someone who had slipped under Schlatt's radar, and Tubbo was curious as to how the sidekick could pull it off. That was when he saw Reverie in action. The sidekick fought valiantly against villains, and he rescued a group of civilians. Tubbo had watched that sidekick get beat to a pulp without ever refusing to give up. Tubbo couldn't understand why someone would allow themselves to get that hurt, and his confusion only grew when he saw how the civilians Reverie had saved flocked to Dream like he was the one who had kept them from dying, casting a bloodied and bruised Reverie to the side. The sidekick didn't say anything, merely waited for his hero to get finished accepting praise. Tubbo had felt anger rush through his system that day, and even though his father warned him never to speak to other heroes, Tubbo had marched right over to demand why Reverie was fine with Dream taking all the credit. At this point, Tubbo wasn't a sidekick yet. He wasn't in costume. He demanded answers as little ole' Tubbo. Reverie stared at him before a half-smile appeared on his face. He told Tubbo that it didn't matter who was thanked as long as the civilians were safe. For the record, he said it with a lot more curse words than that, but Tubbo refined the words for his own memories.

From that moment on, Tubbo kept up with the news about Dream. He tried to find articles about Reverie, but it seemed no one cared. Tubbo could see Reverie in the back of photos that Dream was in the foreground, enough to be seen but far enough away that he could melt away into the background. No one seemed to care about this particular sidekick. Looking into it, Tubbo found that no one cared about sidekicks. He had seen another hero, Punz, and his sidekick, Integrity, and the same phenomena happened. Everyone was quick to compliment or criticize Punz, but Tubbo couldn't find a single mention of his sidekick in any article he found. A few days before he would come out as a sidekick, Tubbo had been watching TV while his father passed out from too much alcohol behind him. It was some late night show featuring Punz. They were on a segment where callers were able to ask Punz questions. Tubbo had stolen his father's phone to call the show. By some miracle, he was one of the callers chosen to ask their question. Tubbo blanked out for a second, righteous anger on his tongue, and he demanded to know why Integrity never got any credit. The late night show host didn't even know who that was! Punz, however, leaned back in his chair. He stared at the ceiling for a long moment before he spoke. Tubbo clutched the phone in his hands, watching the screen and praying for answers.