Chapter Text
Today was terrible. Simply awful .
Wilbur was running. Running from who? His brother of course, because the world just hated him.
He sprinted through the dense forest surrounding where he had been minding his business and finally, he saw it. His saving grace. A nether portal. Ruined, faulty and forgotten but functional nonetheless.
His chest heaved with each breath but he pushed on knowing it was his only chance away from his brother. Despite being a piglin, Techno fucking hated the nether. He found it hard to navigate, he hated talking to other piglin and he absolutely despised the humidity. It ruined his hair.
Wilbur's ears perked up trying to listen for him, swivelling around as they scanned the surroundings while his nose tried to catch his scent under all the smells of the forest. Nothing yet.
Hesitantly, he stepped through.
He wouldn’t have given up Wilbur's trail so easily considering he’d been hunting him since the second he heard Wil had been revived. Wilbur's legs burned as he waited for the magic to finish washing over him before the heat finally hit him.
The nether was nothing short of intense. The heat hits you like a punch to the face and the terrain is almost designed to either kill you or make you hopelessly lost. Personally, Wilbur hated the smell.
That, however, wasn’t even the worst part. The residents of the nether were more deadly than any lava pool or ghast you can come across.
If you piss off a piglin the whole sounder comes after you, they injure you in the legs and follow your trail until you exhaust. From then on you’re at their mercy. That brutality and intelligence was the reason they were able to take over the nether from the pigmen.
No one knows the exact history of them stealing away the dimension, all the overworlders know is that suddenly new biomes appeared with the piglin felling hoards of pigmen and building bastions over the sites of the massacres.
A sign of victory. An insult to those who died.
Phil had talked about the pigmen before, having met them before their extinction. Apparently they were pretty useless, just kinda stood there waiting around and doing nothing. They only ever reacted if you killed one, from then on they’d swarm you.
Piglin were far more useful, they built, traded and brewed whatever you needed. All at a hefty price of gold, nether gold if you were unlucky, but if you had the money that's all they cared for. If you wore gold, had some extra on you and mind your manners you'd usually be safe.
Nether gold was such a finicky thing. Piglin coveted it more than anything else overworld traders gave them, though not without good reason. It was easier to enchant and mould into jewellery and armour, it was also far longer lasting than its overworld counterpart. It was harder to gather in large quantities without having to hunt miles for it and piglin were obviously territorial as shit over it. They’ll kill you if they see you mining it in a heartbeat.
That's probably why Techno almost exclusively wore it. It was a massive flex.
All that is to say, piglin were underestimated far too often. They are unpredictable, they're savage and they're greedy but they aren't animals and that's what makes them so dangerous. They were smart and they would do anything in their power and beyond to get whatever it is they wanted.
At any cost.
Techno was just as cunning as the rest of his species when he felt the need. The potato war is one of the less bloody examples of his intelligence. The man was a genius, only tempered by those voices in his head and a thirst for blood.
People tend to forget that one can be smart and brutal. They think that because Techno isn't a smooth talker like Wilbur, he can't get half of what he wants done.
That's usually their last mistake with Techno.
Wil didn’t know much about what had happened while he was dead but time had done nothing to smooth down his vicious streak judging by how relentless he was being in the chase.
He hadn't even had much time to be alive! How could he have already pissed him off?
Wilbur grumbled under his breath while he tried to think back on anything he could’ve done to piss off Techno, picking a random direction in the nether and walking that way. He was pretty sure it wasn't anyone’s birthday though he wasn't too sure what the date even was currently.
Maybe it was because he hadn’t come to visit? Techno never really worried about those things usually so why would he worry now? He shouldn't even want to talk to him after L'manburg!
Wilbur kicked a stray piece of netherrack near his foot.
The problem with dying was that he didn't stay dead like he planned, so now he has his very pissed off brother chasing him down without even a shred of mercy! His legs hurt, Techno knew he hated any kind of exercise and here he is making him run for his life! How cruel is that?
He kept his ears perked to try and listen for his brother, slowing his walk even further. There was no sense in running since he’d only sweat and make it easier for Techno to track. He doubted the scent of rot and smoke that clung to his jacket did much to mask what his brother had become so fond of.
There's also the horrifying fact that piglin chase their prey into exhaustion. Something that didn't look particularly good at the moment given his… situation. He didn't exactly want to end up like the hoglins Techno would haul in every Sunday for Phil to cook. He used to be so impressed that Techno could kill one of those one on one.
Wilbur suppressed a shudder as he thought back on the way their throats would be ripped out like some wild animal got to them. Sure, fox hybrids were predators in their own sense but what could he do against that? Nothing.
That was always something Techno took great pleasure in. He always loved the strength disparity between them, it made him feel like a much better protector. Soothed something in his brute instincts. Wilbur misses when his brother was his protector.
He used to find safety in that fact; His brother being so much stronger than him. Always being able to keep him safe and provide for him. Always willing to play with Wilbur, matching his boundless energy as a cub. Now he could only dread it.
To be honest, he wasn't even sure what would happen when Techno caught him.
Not if, never if. When. He knew his brother like the back of his own hand, he knew he’d never fully escape him. His brother was always able to find him no matter how far he ran. It would’ve just been pretty pathetic to roll over and just let Techno do whatever it was he wanted. Wilbur's pride couldn't take it.
He didn't have that promised safety anymore anyway. He threw that away when he died.
Wilbur ignored the way his ears drooped at that acknowledgement. He wasn't sulking. He had just… always been closer to Techno than anyone else. Sure him and the rest of his family were close, he trusted each and every one of them with his life… or at least what's left of it now.
It's just that Techno always got him.
He was unwavering in his loyalty, willing to do just about anything for the rest of them. He always just knew what Wilbur needed. Sometimes Wil didn't want to be the charismatic one, sometimes he wanted to be the one to listen and Techno would always pick up the conversation for him.
He would hold him to his chest at a moment's notice whenever Wil got a bit too… shaky. He was firm, steady in a way Wil always struggled to describe to others. He was Wilbur's baby brother, his younger twin. His other half.
People always thought that it was Wilbur with the boundless energy between the two. They couldn't be more wrong if they tried. Wilbur was the moon to Techno’s sun. Techno was the one that gave him the motivation and energy to be himself.
It’d be fitting for him being the one to take it away and finally kill Wilbur.
He could handle Phil being furious with him any day, Tommy’s bitterness could be swept away with just the right words but Techno? He could never handle Techno. He had only ever angered Techno once in his life.
It was a silly prank. A stupid one. He cut off some of Techno’s hair from that braid he adored so much and laughed at Techno’s shocked face. He was a stupid kid, for some reason he didn't expect Techno to get angry with him. He never had before.
Techno screamed at him for it. Ripped him apart with nothing but words but the killing blow? It was when he went quiet. He looked at him with blank eyes and told him to leave his sight and to not come back.
The next few days were as if Wilbur never existed to Techno.
Phil scolded him when he realised what he had done but it did little to make him feel any worse. Wilbur hated being ignored. It drove him mad. He needed to speak, to get his words out there in the world and to be recognised for it.
Anything else is unacceptable.
Phil was busy with Tommy who was barely a year old so Techno was really the only one Wil ever spoke to. He had friends from school but they didn't matter. They were temporary. Time wasters until he could finally return to his brother.
But that's just what Techno did. He didn't even twitch as Wilbur would try to get in his face and scream. Wilbur begged, cried, insulted, tried to bribe and even got physical but nothing ever came of it. At some point, any attention would've been good attention.
Techno gave him absolutely nothing.
He didn't speak whenever Wil was brought into a conversation, he would move if Wil ever tried to touch him and he wouldn't even blink as Wil tore his books from his hands and threw them against the wall.
In the end nothing Wil did worked. It was only when Techno decided Wilbur felt sufficiently sorry that Wilbur was allowed to exist again. Allowed to be acknowledged by the one he held dearest. Even after that, Techno never trusted him with his hair again.
Wilbur's heart still stings at that.
It did teach him a lesson though, something Techno wanted him to never forget. Wilbur might be the loud one, he might be the sly fox that twists words and bends definitions until he gets what he wants but Techno? He’s the one that lets it happen.
He makes sure Phil never hears of Wilbur's particularly bad slip ups. He makes sure the ones that won't fall in line with Wilbur's words sit down and shut up. He is the one that Wilbur relies on to be Wilbur. Neither would have it any other way.
Wilbur liked being Techno’s and was willing to do whatever it was that Techno rarely demanded and Techno made sure Wilbur was allowed to be the spoiled brat he deserved to be.
Looking back on it, he knows it was manipulative of Techno to do. He had only refined his techniques with all of them as he grew up. Maladjusted, is what Phil said once. He reckoned that Tech simply skipped a couple milestones and that's how he became the way he is.
They're all maladjusted in some sense. The whole family was fucked up when you really peeled back the silly little mask they wore around others. Phil was homicidal on his best days, willing to do just about anything to keep his kids close. Techno was calculating and manipulative when he decided someone needed ‘adjustments’.
Wilbur himself couldn't tell the truth for the life of him. A dramatic, neurotic, compulsive liar with just enough charisma to get out of the consequences of his actions. Tommy developed unhealthy attachments to others and simply refused to let them go no matter how much they struggled away from him.
They all shared one thing though. They all loved just a bit too much.
Phil stole away Techno and Tommy from wherever they came from, probably razed the places to the ground so there was nothing left for them there. Wilbur is pretty sure he’s Phil's biological child but honestly he never knew with Phil sometimes.
Techno has frankly unnerving amounts of data on everyone any one of them interacts with, lists upon lists of notes of the person's quirks, behaviours, personality and actions that he deems wrong. Irredeemable. Unworthy.
He keeps all of them nice and up to date until he can finally form the excuse of that person not being ‘good’ for them. Allowing him to demand them to be cut off from their lives. If that didn't work he’d just kill them.
It got so bad that at one point Phil had to force Techno to enlist a three strike system for those people. Their village population just couldn't handle the rate of disappearances. It calmed down as he got older though, that or he just hid it better.
Wilbur continued his trek through the nether, knowing the inevitable would come. His brother was probably stalking somewhere behind him, ready and waiting for his chance to scare the shit out of Wil before doing him a favour and killing him.
Maybe this time he’ll get to see their mother rather than be stuck in limbo. That'd be nice.
Wilbur stopped at the end of a ledge, he was nearing a basalt delta now. The smog that surrounded it was thick in the air and fuzzed up his eyes on contact. If he went in there he’d be unable to see two feet in front of himself. It'd be a gamble on whether he was landing on basalt or straight into a pool of lava.
That's when he heard it. The clopping of hooves on netherrack.
Oh fuck. Surely not.
Wilbur shifted towards the direction of the sound, his nose finally caught up. Hay, snow, that unmistakable scent of cinnamon that trailed behind only one person.
His heart stopped in his chest and his ears shot back, terrified. He didn't even have time to run.
Techno followed closer than Wil thought and he was following on that damned horse.
Just like a fox hunter.
How fitting.