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the day starts with techno knocking at tommy's door, telling him to dress fancy.
tommy doesn't actually have much fancy clothing. he has clean clothes, sure (courtesy of phil; the man couldn't stand tommy's old tattered clothes and had bought him an entire new wardrobe), but he doesn't have anything that could be deemed fancy attire.
so, being who he is, he steals some. a nice, ironed shirt from technoblade, a pair of phil's fanciest slacks, and he even finds one of wilbur's ties to put it all together. he merits his own sneakers fancy enough (they're not, but no one else is his shoe size), and steps out of his room, feeling just a bit silly. being underdressed never makes him feel abashed, but being overdressed? it makes him feel like a tory.
however, once he sees the rest of his family, his nerves calm. they're all wearing similar clothing, though they look a lot more regal, with all the jewelry they're wearing. they take one look at him and smile.
"oh, darling, aren't you handsome?" wilbur coos, stepping closer. he slips behind tommy, and soon the blond feels hands in his hair. "let's just get some nice clips in here, alright? do you want white gold or rose gold, toms?"
tommy opens his mouth to respond, but techno says, "rose gold," the man sends a smile in tommy's direction, "they're my favorite."
"the illusion of free choice," phil sighs, grinning. they're all giddy, tommy notes. they seem excited to go wherever they're going. "come on, mate, let's get you some rings."
techno purrs, loud and clear, "emeralds and gold, all over you. you want that, huh?"
tommy laughs, "you guys are being weird today." he sees the way they glance at each other, lips curled into smirks. "what's going on?"
it's wilbur who answers. "we have a surprise for you," he sings, fingers twisting blond locks into tiny braids, "we're excited to show you, that's all."
tommy hums noncommittally, "alright. let's go, then."
"just a few finishing touches, sunspot," phil admonishes. he grabs a thin gold necklace and wraps it around tommy's neck gently. techno gets a few rings, ones etched with green stones, and places them on tommy's fingers. "you need to look your finest."
"you need to look like a Craft," wilbur adds. he pulls his hands away from tommy's hair and moves to face him. "you look precious, love," he watches techno place the last ring on tommy's index and announces, "he's ready."
"oh, look at you," his father coos, "all nice and covered in jewels and luxury; you were made to be lavished." the words bring a flush to tommy's cheek.
"we're leaving, then?" techno asks. at phil's nod, tommy begins putting on his coat. it's fluffy and blue, a perfectly identical, smaller version of techno's. it goes smoothly with his outfit, he thinks. by the way techno's eyes shine when he tugs it on, he can tell techno likes it, too.
wilbur takes tommy's hand, looking over his shoulder. he calls out, "tech, you got everything?" tommy briefly wonders what 'everything' is, but he doesn't question it outloud. he knows how important surprises are to the family.
techno nods. "everything we could ever need."
tommy... doesn't quite like how he said that. but wilbur's pulling him out the door, and he lets it happen easily. he steps out into the cold tundra air, trailing behind his family loyally.
___
"are we there yet?"
"no."
"are we there yet?"
"no."
"are we there yet?"
"..."
"are we-"
"if you don't shut the fuck up--"
___
tommy realizes where they're going around a minute before they actually get there. he's travelled this path countless times- before sam threatened to kill me if i ever came back, tommy muses mirthlessly.
"guys?" he starts, "why are we going to the prison?" the others glance at each other silently, conveying words with their eyes that tommy couldn't read. tommy's stomach churns at the hesitance he can identify, though. he slows to a stop. "i can tell that's where we're going," he continues, trying to keep the fear out of his voice, "i'm not stupid."
they'll all still silent, peering at him and then looking at each other. surely they didn't forget, he thinks desperately, surely they didn't forget everything that happened there, they- they wouldn't. he took a deep breath, cementing, they wouldn't. they didn't forget.
right?
"did you guys-" he inhales sharply, "you guys remember what fucking happened to me in there, right? the- my death? seeing ghostbur and ranboo die? watching my abuser get broken out," he glares at phil and techno pointedly, who look away. "and, fucking sam," he trails off. he doesn't want to talk about sam.
they're all quiet. tommy kicks at the gravel beneath his shoes angrily, "i'm not even allowed near there. i'm a security threat, remember?"
techno snorts, and tommy bristles at the noise. "a security threat," the man echoes, "you?"
"i broke in there first, you know," tommy snaps, "before you ever did. without any fucking infrastructure knowledge or anything, too. don't underestimate me, technoblade."
"tommy," wilbur finally speaks up, "darling, we're not gonna do anything to cause you pain, alright? don't you trust us?"
no, his mind answers.
"i guess," he says instead.
wilbur beams, "then believe in us. you're gonna love this, i promise. we're going into the prison, yes, but–" he shoots tommy a look when the blond opens his mouth to protest, "you're with us. you're safe. believe me, sam isn't gonna hurt you." he exchanges a look with phil and techno, voice light like tommy was being kept out of an inside joke.
reluctantly, tommy starts walking again. techno intertwines their fingers, and tommy doesn't object.
___
when tommy walks into the prison, the first thing he notices is that the alarms don't go off. he'd been expecting sam to immediately materialize out of thin air and kill him the second he'd stepped foot into the entrance, but everything was eerily silent. next to him, his family grins.
phil leads them all through several portals, needing a few keys to get into some rooms and hallways. tommy's allowed to keep his items, which is a new feeling. he's never been in the prison wearing armor.
there's no alarms, still. the hairs on the back of tommy's neck are stood still, and he shifts closer to techno, who's hand is still in his own. "this is weird," he mumbles as phil takes out yet another card and unlocks a room.
"it'll all make sense soon, fledgling," phil coaxes, "don't worry."
that's much easier said than done. pandora's vault is... deserted. had sam abandoned it now that dream was out? was the prison now useless? surely not. sam devoted himself to this place, he wouldn't have just left it alone. no, something was happening. something really, really bad, and his family was behind it, for sure.
"you're worrying," phil chides, "what'd i just tell you to not do?"
"sorry," he mumbles, dropping his gaze to his shoes.
he stares at the sneakers for another few minutes as he blindly follows the others (tommy blindly following others? what an overdone motif, his mind jeers), and then everyone stops. tommy glances up, seeing a new door. it's obsidian-crested, and probably only openable with a key card, which phil probably– oh, yeah, there he goes.
tommy watches phil take out a silver key card from his pocket, smiling cheekily at wilbur and techno.
"everyone ready?" he asks. his brothers nods excitedly, grinning from ear to ear.
tommy doesn't think he is, but phil swipes the key card through a slit and the door slowly creaks open.
...
it's-
it's a prison.
there's nothing more to it. just lines and lines of obsidian cells, three by three block rooms meant to guard prisoners. he doesn't understand what sam would've used this many cells for. there has to be, like, twenty-five empty cells just in this room. that's more than half the server, at least. tommy stares emptily.
"you are never to come near this prison again. if i ever see you near the grounds of this prison, i'll kill you," sam's voice rings in his head. tommy gingerly lets go of techno's hand in order to clench his free hand into a fist, digging his nails into his skin. he feels a bit too crowded, in this ghost town of a building.
"why are we here?" he asks finally, when he realizes his family is staring at him expectantly. why bring him to the place of so much of his trauma for no reason?
wilbur beams, "oh, you don't know!" he nudges techno, "he doesn't know, tech. we didn't explain it to him."
"we're here," phil interrupts, "because we put together a... court case, you could say."
"and you're the judge!" wilbur chimes in happily, "everything is your decision."
techno snorts, "even though you don't have the best history with decisions." he gets three glares for that comment. he shrugs, "what?"
just then, tommy hears something; a muffled whine of some sort, coming from one of the prison cells. he blinks, taken aback. he'd assumed those were empty, seeing as there was no one in the prison. he got closer to the cell, looking through the bars.
on the other side is quackity, bound by several thick ropes and gagged.
tommy takes a step back, wide-eyed. "what the fuck?" he exclaims, keeping eye contact with the duck hybrid. the man is bruised and bloodied, like he'd been roughed up before being transported here. his heart lurches in fear. "quackity," he chokes out, speaking over the anxiety building up in his throat, "what the fuck are you doing here?" he reaches forward, trying to open the door.
"nuh-uh," wilbur tuts, hitting tommy's hands away. tommy jumps; he'd almost forgotten his family was behind him, "we need to have his trial, darling."
"his– his trial?" tommy asks, confused and scared and what the fuck? he needs to save his friend, what the fuck is a trial?
wilbur nods fervently, "yes, dear. everyone here needs to have a trial. you know, to see if they're worth keeping around based on how they've hurt you."
tommy's heart stops. "everyone?"
with a sinking feeling in his gut, he looks to the next cell. inside is fundy, in a similar condition to quackity.
"what the fuck?" he whispers, then louder, "what the fuck?!" he looks at his family, "you guys– you guys are sick. what the fuck are you doing?"
techno steps forward, "protecting you, obviously. since clearly you can't do it yourself."
wilbur scoffs, adding on, "and we thought tubbo was a pushover. you just let anyone do anything to you with no consequences, huh?"
at his friend's name, tommy gets closer, fists clenched at his sides, "is tubbo here?" he almost doesn't want an answer, heart beating rapidly in his throat.
wilbur grins, easy and playful. "of course," he responds, "somewhere in here. everyone is, toms. except schlatt and ranboo, for obvious reasons."
phil, who's mostly been quiet, begins listing, "quackity, fundy, tubbo, foolish, hannah, jack, niki," the man pauses, smiling widely at tommy as if he has a huge surprise, "dream."
tommy blinks, rearing back. "dream's here?" the thought made his fear grow incredibly more. he inches towards phil, almost subconsciously seeking protection.
wilbur coos, "oh, sweetheart, he won't hurt you! you're with us now, remember?"
technoblade brings a hand into tommy's hair, "you're safe, sunshine. you know that, come on."
"he'll never hurt you again," phil vows, grinning, "not after today."
"no one will hurt you after today," wilbur tacks on.
tommy takes a step back, away from techno's hand and his family's burning words. he tries to find solace in the guaranteed safety, but at the same time, quackity's a few feet away, trapped in a tiny cell, completely beaten up. he takes a shaky breath, stepping closer to his friend's cell. dream can wait, no matter what his mind is screaming at him.
"let him out," tommy orders, glancing at quackity. the man's eyes crinkle, like he's trying to smile at tommy reassuringly. tommy's heart pangs. "right now."
"that's not how this works," wilbur admonishes lightly. "you have to list the bad things they've done to you, and the good things they've done. then, we'll tell you what we think you should do."
"we'll spare anyone you want," phil says, "with some minor exceptions."
"go on, kid," techno urges, "what's quackity done to you?"
tommy tries to think. quackity hasn't done anything bad to him, not really. the man is an amazing friend, and has given tommy so much comfort throughout the years they've known each other.
but.
"um, he cheered when we were exiled the first time," he starts, and he tries to ignore the betrayed look his friend sends him, "but he's apologized for that, and he clearly was being manipulated by schlatt, so that's okay. and i guess he started the butcher's army, which tried to hurt techno, instead of coming to rescue me from exile even though he knew i wasn't doing well. but he apologized for that, as well."
but that stuff doesn't really matter to him, not really. well, it does, but others have done so much worse. and quackity's just such a good friend, it's impossible to judge him for his past actions.
"but when dream escaped prison," tommy starts again, "i went to him after i saw phil. he held me, calmed me down. gave me armor, and weapons to protect myself. told me he would always be here for me, that las nevadas would always welcome me with open arms."
"ours," wilbur huffs under his breath. tommy would roll his eyes if he wasn't trembling in fear.
he smiles shakily at quackity, trying to reassure him, like the other man had done before. "he cares about me, more than almost everyone in this server. and when i died and got revived, he was so happy to see me. it was like he could finally breathe again, he told me," he tears his gaze away from quackity to look at his family, "don't kill him, please. he's like a brother to me."
maybe making his family jealous wasn't the best move, but he needed to convey importance. he holds his breath as wilbur opens his mouth to talk.
"fine," he mumbles, "but only because he clearly has your best interest in mind."
tommy's shoulders sag in relief, "thank you."
phil pushes him forward, "go judge the next person with your brothers. i'll go take quackity outside, alright? you want him to be safe?"
"yes, please," tommy pleads, "thank you, dad."
wilbur leads him to the next cell, the one fundy's in, while phil leads quackity away. tommy just cocks his head as he looks at the fox hybrid, saying, "fundy's never done anything bad to me. all the memories i have with him are from hanging out in l'manburg, and those are good memories."
"are you sure?" techno inquires, "you have a habit of lying to us about what people have to you."
tommy glares, "fuck off. fundy hasn't done anything." he whirls around and faces wilbur, "you don't feel bad about doing this to your son?"
but wilbur just glares icily at the fox hybrid, "he's not my son anymore."
tommy steps away. alright, then. "he hasn't done anything," he says after a pause, "let him go."
they go on and on like this. he begs for the release of hannah, boomer, foolish, puffy, and purpled. people who haven't done anything to him, and definitely don't deserve to be here. he considers all of them friends, or at least close acquaintances.
and then he gets to tubbo.
he almost sinks to his knees, seeing tubbo all beaten up like that. he glares at his brothers, immediately muttering, "you guys are fucking assholes."
"he exiled you," wilbur reasons, "didn't visit you. replaced you. you still think he's worth it?"
"tubbo's worth everything, dickhead," tommy responds heatedly, "he fucked up a few times, yeah, but he didn't know dream was planning to– you know. and he's my best friend, so fucking let him go."
wilbur looks at techno and sighs, "runt trusts too much." techno nods his agreement.
"'course i trust my best friend, asshole. let him go!" tommy demands, and his brothers reluctantly comply. "you guys are assholes for all of this. i don't want anyone dead!"
"oh, you don't?" wilbur grins. "go look at the next cell, dove."
with a wary glance at him, tommy moves forward, peering into the next cell.
his heart stills instinctively.
staring right at tommy, unmasked and vulnerable, is dream.
tommy steps back once, twice, and then bumps into techno. dream just stares at him, eyes lit up and crinkled, like he's smiling. tommy can imagine what he'd say if he wasn't gagged. come on, tommy, you wouldn't hurt me! we're friends!
we're not, tommy reminds himself carefully. then he turns to techno, "kill him."
wilbur whines, "i wanna kill him!"
"i don't care who does it, just, someone," the blond glares, "get rid of him. i can't stand the sight of his ugly face."
exile, doomsday, the final fight... tommy wants dream fucking gone. he's tired of the fear he feels when he sees the man, the dull anger always pulsating under his veins. he wants dream dead, and he wants him dead now.
"go on," he urges, and moves onto the next cell with a shudder. he hears wilbur let techno be the one to kill dream, and then the brunette is at his side.
when he hears a sword be drawn from its sheath, he smiles to himself.
he goes on to forgive people. jack and niki, who wilbur almost didn't spare because of their attempt to kill him, sapnap, who really hadn't done anything wrong as of lately. karl, george, bad, skeppy, eret, and so on. a bunch of people that shouldn't be here, but are here.
he feels lighter, with dream dead. less weighed down by his past.
then they stop at sam.
tommy inhales deeply, then starts, "i'm mad at you. and i know that i should hate you, but i don't. i think, now that dream's dead and you don't have to watch over the prison twenty-four seven anymore, you could regain some of your humanity. and we can work on our friendship, with puffy, i think. if you, um, want to. i don't know if–" at sam's vigorous nods, tommy smiles, "okay! okay, yeah. we'll work on it," he vows. then he turns to wilbur, "don't hurt him, please."
and they're done. sam was the last person. tommy slumps into wilbur's side, tired out. the brunette places a kiss to the top of his head. "how are you, precious? feeling good?"
"mad at you," tommy says truthfully, "for hurting so many innocent people. but yeah, actually. i feel lighter."
"that's good," wilbur hums, "let's get you home, alright?"
and with that, they make their way out of the prison.