| b u g s | MCYT(OC)

~Aftermath and Burnout~

Punz was the first to drop their arm, harshly ripping away from it as if it would burn him if he waited any longer. Ponk wasn't far behind, watching with a sinister smile as Moth fell harshly to the cold stone floor of what used to be Tommy's house.

They were forced to set their respawn, and then forced out of everything they'd worked so hard to get. Their netherite armour, the tools they'd had with them, and even the flowers they'd been so excited to plant outside the Hto Dog van. Punz claimed they weren't allowed anything, no matter how little it would help them escape. They figured that he was lying by the smirk on his lips.

And so they stood, huddled in a corner, watching fearfully as the two men rummaged through their things and shoved them into a chest they'd dragged in.

It'd been a while since they were scared.

"C'mere." Punz huffed, pulling something else out of the chest. Their mind froze, and the rest of their body followed. When the men saw this, Ponk groaned and grudgingly dragged them over and sat them on the edge of Tommy's bed.

They sat petrified, too scared to move even the slightest muscle. They could feel the men pulling their wings out further behind them, but they sat still.

And then the searing pain of something being clamped onto their wings, and they screamed. They jolted away violently, only pulling on the wings more when Ponk's grip on the thing didn't let up.

It burned. They screamed and screamed, but the pain refused to fade. It seemed to never let up.

And then they moved onto the next wing.

The pain increased tenfold, and so did the volume of their screams until, finally, they passed out from the pain.

The men worked methodically, clipping Moth's wings together and making it impossible for them to use them any time soon.

~

Everyone in Manburg heard their screams. Niki had to hold Tubbo back when he tried to sprint off and held him when he broke down, shielding him from Schlatt's view so they wouldn't get in trouble.

In just one day, he'd lost everything. The nation he loved, the people he looked up to, and the friend he'd just found again.

No amount of bandages would fix something like that.

~

"Schlatt?" Tubbo knocked softly on Schlatt's door, voice hardly more than a whisper. Schlatt looked up, the same sick grin he'd worn at the election growing on his lips again.

"Tubbo!" He yelped, standing up quickly. "Come in, come in. What can I help you with?"

"I want to make a deal."

~

"They're going to get hurt!" Tommy yelled, pacing only growing more furious as they fought. "You heard Tubbo screaming earlier, something big happened. What if we don't get there in time, Wilbur?"

"We can't do anything." Wilbur snapped. "We've been banished. They'll kill us on sight and take all of our friends with us."

"That doesn't mean we're powerless! We could sneak in, maybe get some more invisibility potions, there are ways!" Tommy continued yelling, tugging at his hair as he spoke and feet pounding harshly against the dirt beneath them.

"It's two versus a nation, Tommy. Face it, we're nothing compared to them." Tommy's arm swung through the air, stopping only centimeters from Wilbur's face. Both seemed surprised by the action. "You were going to hit me."

"No, I-"

"You were going to hit me!" Wilbur yelled, taking his turn at being mad. "I built a nation with you, I saved you so many times, and you were going to hit me! Your brother!"

"I wasn't going to hit you, fish fucker!" Tommy yelled, already crying. "I mean- maybe I was? But you deserve it, you selfish fucking asshole! They are our friends, you don't get to decide that they don't matter anymore!"

"I never said that."

"No, but you sure as hell implied it." Tommy hissed. "We heard Tubbo screaming. That means either he or Moth are in serious danger."

"What happened to hating them?" Wilbur bit back, eyes narrowing at the boy. "You're always complaining about Moth and Tubbo. I've never heard a single good thing come out of your mouth without somehow putting them down at the same time. You're a fucking hypocrite, Tommy."

"Maybe I am." Tommy stepped down a bit, and Wilbur did the same. "Maybe I think that Moth is a douche for only taking Tubbo flying, and maybe I call Tubbo clingy, but that doesn't change the fact that I care about them. Are you telling me that you don't?"

"Not at all."

~

They couldn't move. Their wings stuck like a wet shirt to their back and refused to fold out. If they pushed too hard, the dull ache became a burning pain again. Tears pricked their eyes like needles, but they couldn't bring their arm up to wipe them away.

The room was cold. Much too cold for Tommy to have lived there comfortably, but that made sense. Not only was he never cold, but he himself seemed to be a heater. Moth was nothing of the sort.

No, without their friends there, the room was starkly and scarily cold.

Through one of the holes in his wall, they could see the stars outside. The sky seemed darker than normal, more ominous and overbearing. This wasn't the same view they'd seen last night when Tubbo had helped them finish their house.

The men hadn't bothered to put them under any sort of blanket, but they couldn't move to do it themselves. Maybe it was the cold or maybe the pain, but all of their body seemed numb.

Punz had taken their headphones. They couldn't move. They had no stimulation.

If the isolation didn't drive them crazy, their ADHD would. They would've preferred the isolation to the restless, scream inducing moments when they just needed to be doing everything at once. They were practically wishing for it.

They could handle isolation, after all. Years of it had taught them that. What they couldn't handle was their mind.

It'd almost been the end of them once, and they didn't want that again.

~

A/N:

Heyo! early update this week just like i promised! :D no guarantees on next week's update time, though, because by the time i'm publishing this i'll actually be on my way home from getting a tattoo and idk how well i'll be able to write afterwards! it probably won't be bad, but i'll post an a/n chapter if i need to take a week off. other than that, thank you all for reading and have an AMAZING rest of your day!

-Bee