A City of Secrets and Masks

-Seventeen- Begining Plans

Dream was terrified, honestly.

Tubbo, Sapnap, and, George were all in the small hospital room near the top of the Hub. None of them were awake. Sapnap was breathing through an oxygen mask, both of George's legs were in a cast, and Tubbo was on so many machines he looked like he was tied up in wires. Tubbo's wound wouldn't have been too bad if he'd gotten more imedienent treatment- he'd bled out quite a bit.

It hurt to see his friends laid out, each helpless. Healers rushed in and out. Dream ended up staying in the room overnight- He couldn't stand the thought of going to an empty apartment. Dream slept in the armchair. Phil had also stayed overnight, taking the small loveseat.

He hadn't slept, really. He was sure Phil hadn't slept earlier. They both moved too restlessly for that, listening carefully for the beep of each of their heart monitors.

Everyone had a moment of panic early on in the night. They'd given George some meds and he passed out. The healers were working on George, putting casts on his legs, when Sapnap's monitor had beeped. His O2 levels were dangerously low.

There were a few tense minutes as the healers tried to get everything sorted out. Eventually that beeping stopped and things calmed down. But Dream was sure both him and Phil were waiting for that beeping to start again. They were waiting, hoping it wouldn't happen but waiting, for a flatline.

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Morning came all too slowly. Both Dream and Phil were up when the first bit of light shone through the windows. Wilbur, Bad, Skeppy, and Techno were there soon after- Even though everyone was tired, it seemed like no one slept.

Tubbo, for better or worse, was the first of the injured to wake up. Both Dream and Phil rushed to his side. He sat up and stretched and looked around.

"Good morning!" Tubbo said, his cheerfulness a direct counter to the energy of the room. "Did we win?" He seemed to do a headcount, his smile dropping. "Where's Tommy?" Dread pooled in the bottom of Dream's stomach.

The silence weighed heavily on the room. Tubbo looked around, worry growing on his face. "Well? Where is he? Did he go home already?" Tubbo asked. His voice was painted with cheerfulness, but his panic shone through.

"Tubbo..." Wilbur was the one to speak up. "He's gone."

"What do you mean, gone? Gone home?" Tubbo said, his eyes wide. "Or dead?" Oh God, he thought. Oh God Tommy's dead and it's my fault i should have been stronger i could have protected him why am i so weak i-

"No, he's not dead, as far as we know. Kidnapped." Phil cut in.

"We have to go save him." Tubbo said. He sat up and started trying to get out of bed. Wilbur rushed over and stopped him.

"Tubbo-!" Dream stood up but Tubbo quickly settled back down, dropping his head.

"Please leave." Tubbo said, putting his hands to his face. His hair fell in front of it just enough to hide his expression.

Everyone looked at each other and stepped out of the room. Everyone except for Phil. Phil sat down on the end of the bed, and watched Tubbo carefully. Heaving, yet silent sobs overtook the boy's body. Phil reached over and rubbed his back, trying to comfort him.

"Philza..." Tubbo said, looking just a bit. His eyes were full of tears. He met Phil's eyes and glanced away quickly "Philza, he's going to alright, right?" He tried to wipe his tears away, but more kept coming. "He isn't going to die, right?" Tubbo looked into Phil's eyes again, searching for an answer.

"We're going to get him back. We can't just leave him there. We'll get him before they can do anything to him- we just need to prep a bit."

Tubbo nodded, taking a shaky inhale. "Phil," He paused and took another breath. "Phil, it wasn't my fault, right? It's not my fault I couldn't save him, right?"

Oh. That's what had the boy so troubled. A hero complex.

"Tubbo, it's not your fault. It's not your job to be responsible for Tommy. If anything, it's the villian's fault."

Tubbo gave another nod, although Phil could tell he wasn't totally convinced. Phil gave him a smile and pulled him in for a hug.

The others were probably debriefing in the hall. He could catch up later. Right now, Tubbo needed just a bit of comfort.

And Phil was glad that he could provide it.

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"So. What happened last night? I was there and all, but a full retelling may help all of us piece together things we didn't see." Dream said. The others all nodded- made enough sense.

After everyone had pieced together the timeline, discussion stalled. They had no idea why the Assemby would want to take Tommy, out of all of them. He had just developed a power, but that wasn't too special.

"Maybe they just needed a child?" Bad piped up.

"For what? Selli-" Skeppy startedl

"Not whatever you're about to say. Maybe chores or something? Like, they're going to make him clean their house!"

Techno snorted. "Like the orphans in Annie?"

"Yeah!"

Wilbur cleared his throat. He'd thought about it and he thought it all had clicked into place for him. There was only one issue- He needed to tell them about his Mute issue.

"Gentlemen. I think I have something." He bit his lip. That sentence put him too far in, no takebacks now. Wilbur took a breath and pulled up his sleeve.

Gasps of shock chorused throuought the room. Everyone seemed to have different reactions- Bad put his hands to his mouth and muttered a Languge! to Skeppy, who softly said "What the fuck...". Dream pulled down his mask, as if to get a better look. Wilbur was careful not to look at his face. Techno just tilted his head, his mouth open slightly in shock.

"Not pretty, huh? The girl Sap was fighting- Niki- she has a charm speak power of some sort. Charmed me into stabbing myself with a needle full of black sludge. Ever since, my powers have been on the fritz. I think it was a power dampening serum."

Techno and Dream put the rest together at the same time. They both blurted it out at once- "They needed Tommy's blood to make a power muting serum!"

"Yup. I don't know how long we have until they come up with it. Once they get it, who knows what they could do."

"They could mute the entire city, aside from themselves!" Bad gasped. Wil nodded.

"We need to get to work making an antidote for this, stat!" Techno proclaimed. Everyone nodded.

There was a moment of silence.

"None of us know anything about medicine, right?"

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A/N

so uhh yea less painful (????) ch

anyways, we are now at the buildup for the next story arc (yay!!) this one is the next to last one (not so yay!!)

I need to start figuring out how this end piece is gonna play out, and I think I may do some polls.

We love audience interactivity in this house lol

also we are just a bit away from 10k reads!!! pog!!! i wanna do something BIG for that, but if yall have any ideas drop em here!!

uhhh oh yea I have a twt if anyone's interested in that! @ . aceofsun1

you just get to see me tweet about whatever i feel like lmao. it's basically these a/ns but shorter and worse.

also also!! more or less angst? do you need a fluff bonus chapter before we move on??? yall were really dying in the comments a few chs ago and i was happy (the sadness was the intended effect w/ those parts) but a bit concered.

that's it, sorry for the short ch, I wanted to get something out today but the election stream and school just -killed me-

Hope you enjoyed!!!!!

-ace :)