The Childrens Rebellion

Back On Track...And Into a Trap.

When they next used the regenerator on him, it worked with little fanfare, though Tommy was afraid his heart would stop.

(Was he?)

It didn't, and Ponk, though he had a few theories, never figured out why they hadn't been able to use medicinal technology while he had been unconscious.

Speaking of being unconscious, apparently, he'd been out for three days. And despite modern medicine being a thing, because of the...occurrences, they hadn't been sure whether he'd live or not.

"You had a moderate concussion, a cracked cranium, four broken ribs, a shattered femoral shaft, a fractured wrist in your left hand, a cracked one in your right, and hemorrhage, briefly, before we treated that," Niki told him, looking slightly affronted when he'd asked. He sat on the edge of his medical cot and twisted his wrist slightly, glad they had things to help him—otherwise, he might have been injured for six months or more.

It was also Tubbo, unsurprisingly, who was the first one to visit him, the brown-haired Shulker bursting into the room and screaming about how his husband had told him that a certain Avian was actually awake. Niki told him to shut up, and Tommy cracked a weak grin.

"You look like shit," Tubbo told him quietly. It turned out they were at the Fleet hospital, which made a lot of sense. The alarms that Niki had pressed had led to her assistants' bracelets—Lani and Ranboo and Ponk, who were staying on Terra for the time being.

"Thanks," he said dryly.

"Seriously," Tubbo said seriously. "The aftermath of that fucking Feline was terrible." He wrinkled his nose. "We were up on the bridge, talking, and suddenly we get a call—and it's an emergency—so of course we think it's a mission, and then it's Fleet school, and they're fucking telling us that your heart keeps failing."

"I'm...sorry?" he tried.

Tubbo waved a hand at him. "Not your fault." Tommy didn't have the heart to tell him it might be. "So we rush down there, and it's a huge mess—apparently Niki was notified first, and Lani is rushing around grabbing things, and Ranboo is there as well, and every time they use the regenerator or the bone knitter on you, your heart fails—"

"—and I'm pressing my hand against the glass and wondering if this stupid gremlin child I knew was going to die," Wilbur continued, hands in his lap. Tommy frowned, wondering if he'd always cared like that. "Seriously, Tommy. You were in manual surgery for seventeen hours. There were only four qualified medical officers who knew how to do manual surgery."

"Including Niki?"

"Of course," Wilbur scoffed. "Niki knows everything."

"I can't imagine how you felt," Purpled told him as Tommy spooned cocoa puffs into his mouth.

He glanced up, swallowing. "What?"

"How you felt," Purpled said sadly, bumping Tommy's shoulder. Fortunately, they were alone, for once. "When you watched them die."

"Oh," he said.

Purpled gave him that look, and Tommy didn't like that look. "Was it..." he trailed off as they finally started to breach an area that Tommy never thought he'd have to talk about again. "Was it easy, at least?"

"To watch them die?" Tommy snorted. "Never."

"No," Purpled said. "Their deaths. Was it fast?"

"Yes," he told the Human. "In an instant."

"I'm glad that it wasn't painful," Purpled said with a sad smile.

"Did you not watch the executions videos?" he asked, tilting his head.