Antiheroes

Chapter 58: Story

George POV.

Despite the apparent alliance that has formed between Dream… er Clay, and Philza, it was clear that the older blond didn’t trust him. He had been sending the sociopath cautious looks the entire time and made sure that he was always standing between Dream and Tommy in case Dream tried to do anything.

If I hadn’t known anything about what Dream had done to Tommy with Wilbur then I would have thought that Philza was being overprotective and overreacting. However, when I knew about him locking Tommy up, locking someone up who was an innocent teenager for weeks and planning on doing who knows what to him.

“I’m going to head to bed now,” I decided, no longer wanting to have to be in this tense atmosphere. “I’ll see you in the morning Phil.” I said while smiling at my mentor, before lowering my gaze and adding on. “Same to you Tommy.”

Both of them nodded as I turned to leave, Dream followed me wordlessly, probably not wanting to spend a minute alone with Phil, and I allowed him to. I walked through the corridor which was quiet and empty, and headed to my bedroom, allowing the blond to follow after me and waiting for him to catch up when I was in front of my door.

“So this is where you live huh?” Dream asked as I opened the door and stepped inside. “I have to admit I thought it would be a lot more grand.”
“You don’t get to compliment or criticise this place,” I responded, shutting the door as he followed me inside. “You are still in trouble.”

“I’m just saying,” he reassured me, raising his hands defensively. “I can’t believe that all I needed to do to find this place was walk down a random alleyway. I thought it would be like the batcave.”
“Dream stop,” I continued. “You are in trouble, remember.”

“Fine. I remember.” Dream nodded, sitting down as his face suddenly went solemn. “And I know that you want an explanation and you’re going to get one. It’s just…”
“It’s just what?” I raised my eyebrow in question.

“You might not like Phil after what you found out he did.” He said after letting out a long breath. I just gave him a confused look, unsure of what he was supposed to mean by that. I mean, how was I supposed to understand that?
“What do you mean?” I questioned.

“When Philza found out about Techno and I having powers he became quite focused on training the two of us to be heroes.” He explained. “I know what happened probably wasn’t his intention, but he began neglecting Tommy and Wilbur and he’d started pushing us to breaking point to try and make sure we were strong physically and mentally.”

I was somewhat taken aback by what Dream said. There was no way that that was true, was there? I’ve known Philza for eight years and he’s been nothing but kind to me. And he’s been nothing but kind to Bad, and Karl, and Ranboo, and Tubbo too. In fact I even said that out loud as I shook my head at him. “Dream, that can’t be true.”

“You don’t have much reason to trust me George, but please at least listen. I know how far fetched it seems but please.” Once again I nodded as I watched him, allowing him to continue
“When the government found out that Techno and I had powers, the government wanted to take us to a facility to both study us, and attempt to train us as weapons.”

“What?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow at his words. I knew that the government could be cruel at times, but the fact they were going to take two children to be experimented on is what scarred me. “No government would ever do that. The-they would care about their people, not experiment on them.”

“They did care about their people,” the blond nodded. “And their people would be at risk by two kids with superpowers who went through the trauma of experimentation and witnessing their friends die. Nobody thought we would be able to keep our powers in check if we were allowed to go free, nobody except Philza.”

He seemed upset as he said it, and Dream acting like that didn’t make sense to me. “Isn’t that a good thing?” I questioned. “Philza not wanting you to get taken away?”
“It was good and bad.” The blond answered, and before I could ask what he meant he carried on.

“Philza was in over his head. He had no idea how to train kids to fight crime and both Techno and I knew it. So we ended up giving all our time to help him.”
“That’s kind of you. I didn’t think you had it in you.” I smiled at him, and watched as his expression momentarily faltered into a bright grin before gaining focus again.

“Yes… well… anyway.” He continued. “Philza became so focused on trying to train us that he ended up forgetting about other things in his life. Those things being-”
“His other two sons, right?” I cut him off with the question, before watching as he nodded at me.

“Exactly.” He nodded solemnly. “He was so focused on making sure he didn’t lose me or Techno again that he accidently lost both of them.” That part made me sad, even making me go so far as to pity Wilbur. “He had to grow up quickly to start taking care of his younger brother. Well, all three of us had to grow up in one way or another, but Wilbur had to do it alone.”

“That’s sad,” I murmured. “You wouldn’t know that was the case by looking at Tommy, or at Phil… or at yourself.” I whispered the last few words under my breath, before turning back to him again. He had heard what I had said though, and reached his hand up to run it through my hair.

“Anyway. After seeing how Philza became when we got powers, and after Wilbur had to leave Tommy behind, it was understandable that the two of us were worried for him. Tommy was a brother to Wilbur and was like one to me. When he came back we just wanted to see him safe with us.”

I listened as he finished the story, but as I looked I saw guilt creeping up in his expression. And I was about to question it when the door was thrown open and Karl burst into the room.
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