The War of L'Manburg

Chapter 9: Sky High

A couple of days passed and the remaining leaders of L'Manberg grieved for their lost friend. Sometimes they sat together and recounted every memory they could think of about Fundy. Other times they would sit by themselves and just cry. War is waged by nations, but it is human beings who pay the price.

The citizens who had helped them in the war seemed to believe that all hope had been lost. They too had lost loved ones in the battle. Fundy's death came too soon after their victorious fight.

One morning, Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo were eating a depressing breakfast when they heard the sound of mining. They went outside and to their horror, there was a gaping hole in the wall surrounding L'Manberg. Through the clearing dust three figures emerged, Dream, George, and Sapnap.

Wilbur was filled with rage. "Don't you think you've hurt us enough! You little green lizard snake thing."

George drew his bow and pointed it at Wilbur. Slowly, Dream placed a single piece of TNT on the ground, inside L'Manberg. "We are here to give you an ultimatum," Dream said. "If you do not rescind your ownership of this land, I will light this piece TNT."

"You really think we are afraid of a single piece of TNT?" Wilbur scoffed.

"You've already done enough horrible things against us. You killed Fundy!" Tommy ended with a  scream.

"Gentlemen," Wilbur said to his friends. "I want you to stand alongside me here." Tommy and Tubbo stood on either side of Wilbur. They were still dressed in their revolutionary uniforms. Wilbur could almost believe that Fundy was there standing with them, that they were still young men hoping for a brighter future. "Independance or death," Wilbur said. "If we get no revolution, then we want nothing. We would rather die than give in to you and join your SMP, Dream. You can blow up one piece of TNT in our door, it means nothing to us."

Without a word Dream crossed to the other side of the wall, outside L'Manberg, and drew his bow. "Get back, don't let this hurt you," Wilbur said. Dream fired a flaming arrow at the TNT. It immediately exploded, then suddenly something happened. The one piece of TNT exposed many more that were buried in the ground, it set off a chain reaction. Deafening blasts filled the air and the men of L'Manberg were thrown off their feet. Wilbur was getting flashbacks. "Wait what?!" they screamed. "NO!" They ran, with no knowledge of where the explosives were buried. How did this happen without their knowledge? It had to be Eret. Wilbur turned and saw the caravan, their home, the center of their revolution, get blown sky high. Scraps of burning metal fell to the ground. The caravan was beyond recognition. Fortunately the explosions stopped there.

"Where's the declaration?" Tubbo yelled.

"It's alright, I've got it one me," Wilbur replied.

"Down the hole everyone!" Tommy said. "I made it in case of an emergency." There was a tunnel underneath the space where the caravan was parked. It was a straight drop down at least 6 feet. The men didn't hesitate. It turned into a long tunnel, not much different than the one Eret had led them into. Wilbur tried to banish that thought from his mind, Tommy would never.

"Well I thought, odds are we were going to be on the run for a little bit after everything that happened," Tommy shouted between breaths as they ran.

"When did you make this?" Wilbur asked.

"No time to explain! Just follow me, into the bunker!" They entered a small room and Wilbur felt a sense of deja vu. This time though, the room was smaller than Eret's and it was made of obsidian. Tommy sealed the space where they had entered from. To Wilbur's relief there was another exit on the other side. "I honestly d-don't think we can win this," Tommy's voice seemed to be an octave higher than usual. He laughed nervously. "But you know what we have left? We have each other and-and I'm going to play the music disc that Dream forever tried to steal from me." He took out 'cat' and placed it into the juke box. He wanted to remind them of their days of victory in this time of hopelessness. "Now in this last moment between us, I'm really not sure how long we have left. Any last words? I-I don't know this is kind of a last plan bunker I was hoping to majestically mine."

"Will, this is the point where you pull out the sly last move," Tubbo said. "Please," his voice cracked and his face was filled with desperation.

Wilbur could feel their expectation, he was their leader and they looked up to him. "Look," he said. He sighed and hung his head, not wanting to meet their eyes. "There is no sly last move. We are severely outnumbered, and well, the odds aren't in our favor. W-we should probably just accept the conditions of surrender. They've entrapped our land, they've set bombs on our land, they've destroyed all our homes, and I-I feel I would be a bad leader if I didn't look for conditions of surrender. Tommy, I want you to come with me to meet Dream." Wilbur's eyes were starting to water.

There was a moment of silence. "If you think that is for the best," Tommy sighed.

"And I want you to make sure you don't run your mouth Tommy. No challenging Dream on his honor, none of that," Wilbur said.

"Okay," Tommy said quietly. He let out a resigned puff of air. They slowly stood. Wilbur felt weak, it had all been in vain. Each of their sacrifices had led to this moment of defeat. "Gentlemen, it's been an honor working with you all," Tommy said as they exited the bunker.

"Tommy you did well, you were a good right hand men," Wilbur said. "It's just a shame it has to end like this, looking for surrender on our own lands. Let's go find Dream." They passed through the black walls that had protected them from the outside world, but could do nothing against the corruption within their home.

Wilbur immediately felt overwhelming hate when he saw Dream. He took a deep breath to calm himself. "Hello Dream, we are here to negotiate surrender," Wilbur said. "I'd say we fought well."

"You could say that," Dream said.

"You!" Tommy shouted. Wilbur could almost imagine the smug look on Dream's face underneath his mask.

"What do you mean?" Wilbur asked.

"You fought well with how much you were against. You were at a disadvantage," Dream said.

"Dream, don't say that," Tommy said. "We fought incredibly."

"You fought incredibly well, but we just fought a little bit better."

"You egotistical green thing. Dream! You know what? Why don't we fight right now?! Why don't we fight right now?!" Tommy started shouting.

"Tommy!" Wilbur said, trying to hold his friend back. "Tommy calm!"

"One versus one! A little bow match," Tommy kept yelling, his face was getting red. He was consumed with rage. Dream was standing nonchalantly with most of his weight on one leg, like he didn't have a care in the world. How dare he act so smug! He had killed so many innocent people!

"Tommy! Your passion will get you no where!" Wilbur tried again to calm his friend, but it was no use.

"Dream, you've already blown up our home, so what do you have to lose?" Tommy asked. "Let's do a 1v1 in front of everyone, I don't care."

"What was the one thing I asked Tommy?" Wilbur said quietly.

"Wilbur, you know I have to do this."

"One thing, you couldn't even do one thing," Wilbur shook his head.

"What are the details of this 1v1?" Dream asked. Wilbur's eyes widened, this was unexpected. Dream had already won the war! Why would he risk his life to fight Tommy? Pride, glory, power. It wasn't enough for Dream to simply defeat them in battle.

"Dream look at me, a one versus one for L'Manberg. Me versus you, with poison to weaken us."

"Tommy, this isn't worth it," Wilbur said.

"Wilbur, we-we've got to do it."

"Tommy, your life is worth more than the revolution!"

"Wilbur! Look around us! Look at all that we have sacrificed, for the independence."

"This man does not speak for me Dream, but if this is something you both are willing to do, I will do nothing to stop it."

"If you win then you can have independence," Dream said. Wilbur's mouth dropped open. "If you lose, you don't get independence," simple enough Wilbur thought. "and I get Tommy's disc Mellohi." There was complete silence. They all knew how important Tommy's discs were to him. They were his most prized possessions.

"The disc?" Tommy said, gazing into the distance. He no longer seemed like that confident man he had been moments before. "Deal."