Chapter Text
Tommy is... He's sixteen, right?
Yes, it is right. His birthday was only last month. The boy still remembers his… probably the first birthday in his life, which he could actually call really good.
Too much in the boy's life does not go according to any of his plans at all.
However, this little moment of confusion -the very fact that he needed some time to process his age- opened blondes eyes to the fact that lately he had completely forgotten to keep track of not only his age -Prime, he's actually sixteen now!- but also the passage of time in general.
It's already been half a year since Minecrafts adopted Tommy! The boy grew to be so relaxed that he even lost track of time.
The very thing he wasn't supposed to lose.
This... This is not good. That... That's terrible!
This is one of the main rules Tommy had set for himself. He can't afford to break any of those so easily! Really, what's wrong with him?
Does a relaxing and truly safe environment really do that to a man?
Wait a minute. When was the last time he had set a checkpoint?
Fuck. He should check, because he's not sure about that right now.
Memory for dates, names and all that other shit -even though it's important- fails Tommy a lot, as he paid with this type of memory at that very period of his life... Although, most likely he was destined to lose it one day anyway. So nothing so supernatural after all. He has already managed to get used to it, and this is not really a problem, considering what the boy received in return.
Fortunately, The Universe did not demand anything more from him at that moment than just that. She - The Goddess of Fate as the boy assumes- generally seems to be smiling at him considering how much he has gotten away with unscathed.
Now, the most important thing for the boy is to not go beyond the limits of his powers any more than he already did. Preferably.
At the moment Tommy has only 3 open loops, so actually there is nothing to be afraid of.
The boy turned his gaze to his wristwatch. It's only been 5 minutes since the last time he checked!
Tommy is in the most boring history class of his life.
No, seriously!
This is another lesson on the same topic that has probably been brought up for close to a hundred, if not even more times. Even his classmates, including the straight A's student, are looking rather bored, especially Tommy, who already remembers this one by heart, considering how many more times than the other's he had to attend it.
Early L'Menburg's War for Independence led by William Soot and his younger brother Thomas Innit. By the way, Tommy is the namesake of a guy! It's funny, isn't it?
Wow, how low Tommy has fallen to somehow entertain himself during this lecture. Even such a useless fact he already knew for a really long time seems a little bit entertaining to the boy.
But is this very story really that important?
No, of course Tommy understands the value of history, and the value of individual local themes and events for each region.
However, the fucking war is lost and L'Menburg's rebellion is crushed to ushed. This city -noe named Manburg- is still considered part of The Essempi. So to exaggerate the same topic so much, talking about the impossibility of a protest... There is no actual need for this.
Seriously, is the government so afraid of rebellions and L'Man- khm. Manburg's residents? What bastards lot's of them. Another reason to hate the Essempi's government adds to Tommy's list.
Someday. Someday he'll get out of here. Because waiting for a change here is quite pointless.
Oh yes! The date of his last checkpoint. How the hell did his mind go from such an important matter to the stupid history? (Ignoring how he's in history class at the moment.)
Tommy touches his watch a couple of times and it flashes semi-transparent somewhat holographic numbers that only he can see.
Clock synchronization is the best thing that ever happened to a boy, really. Apart from a couple of other things, of course.
And so it was-
2 months ago?!
…
Tommy should definitely set a new checkpoint when he gets home.
During these 2 months enough things had passed that he did not really want to accidentally lose and have to recreate due to an unexpected death.
You never know when a car might hit you or something. And with Tommy's ability the only thing he'll have to deal with because of sudden death, besides the damn pain of it, is the Butterfly Effect.
This is such a thing, that it is extremely difficult to compete, and the reality of the phenomenon is beyond doubt. At least Tommy doesn't have any, because he had been taught by this bitter experience of his own.
Tommy returns home after a short walk with his best friends after school.
Tubbo had already rounded the corner for his home, and Ranboo went with him, as the two of them are having another sleepover tonight. Although this is a frequent occurrence for the trio.
Tommy is not in the mood for coming today, and he also wants to set a checkpoint.
The boy worked out several conditions necessary for this process, one of which is a calm environment and no plans.
In fact, when he thinks about it, Tommy notices a lot of oddities with Minecrafts. Especially lately.
Tommy is more than familiar with the fact that their work schedules are screwed up. Phil's schedule can be considered the most stable, but this 'normality' only works when compared to Will's absolute chaotic schedule -or the total lack of it- and Techno's extremely confusing one, while the latter claims that he actually has it, and that it's quite stable.
Tommy is perfectly able to tell that is a lie -for Prime's sake- and is a bullshit, if he've ever seen one.
However, now his family stays at work much longer than usual.
No, Tommy, of course, has already encountered such behavior way more than once. When, for example, Will's music store met an opponent in the form of a popular music chain store, it decided to open right across from Soot hing rhymes. It has been a very difficult month for the entire Minecraft's network and has partially affected all businesses due to the instability of their owners.
However, no such events right now did happen.
When Tommy asks what is keeping them late, they refer to mystical 'problems in the business'. Yeah. Tommy has eaten this way more than once.
The emotional tiredness of his dear family members hurts Tommy, and just imagine how he felt when he saw a strange bruise on Techno's hand!
Something has recently settled on the subcortex of Tommy's consciousness. He doesn't have a very good feeling about something which involves his family.
If the boy has learned to trust anything for all the -Prime knows how many to be honest- years of his life, it's to trust his own feelings.
When he finally reached the house, Tommy stopped interrupting his train of thought.
The boy can hear the muffled sounds of the television and Wilbur's voice -Tommy can't quite make out what exactly his brother is saying though- from the slightly ajar window. He is sure that the whole family is sitting on the couch listening to TV in the background, chatting with each other along the way.
Maybe..? They'll never know... Tommy has done this before with pretty much all of his foster families! However-
Tommy hesitated, weighing the pros and cons of doing what he had in mind.
Yes, he has done this before. Many really had it coming, while at other times Tommy did it for his own well-being, or sometimes literally survival.
But Tommy respected Minecrafts. Really loved and appreciated their feelings and privacy, because he received all the same in return. Habitually, at the very same moment in parallel with his thoughts, Tommy began the standard procedures of starting the loop.
Time coordinate: determined. Terrain coordinate: set. Fast response: -Tommy touched his wristwatch- set.
Technically speaking, he doesn't have to touch it for synchronization to work. He just needs to concentrate on it, though touching is easier.
Wait.
Oops... it's even a bit embarrassing. Apparently, he no longer has any other choice...
…
Tommy is already too lazy to cancel the fresh perfectly tuned loop.
With a nod, the boy loudly exhaled, grabbed the doorknob and activated his second ability.
Tommy has 2 abilities. As unexpected as it may sound, it's true.
Not that it was rare for a human to have the ability. And dual powers are way more common than you might think at first. Yes, this is not the most frequent occurrence according to statistics, but this is only because most of these individuals are hiding the fact of possession. Tommy is also hiding one of his powers after all...
However, rare hybrids such as Enderman hybrids like Ranboo tend not to have any abilities, just like Tommy's best friend himself.
While no one knows about Tommy's time loop ability -the boy did a fucking great job of hiding this fact- probably everyone knows about the boy's second power, though they don't question it enough to know the whole truth about it. But is half-lie really a lie at all?
It's name is attention. Tommy often uses it openly. Everyone thinks that it's a very minor invisibility. It is, in fact, not.
When someone asks the boy how his ability works, Tommy is happy to tell.
There are many senses people has. It's like- Five or so. Tommy mainly work with only two of them: vision and sound.
While Tommy can't disappear, or become invisible or completely mute himself of any sound, Tommy can shift anyone's attention away from himself, and/or any object he touches.
Attention is quite an important matter to shift, though not exactly the one you would've thought you lost your track of because of somebody's power.
That's why it's handy. And that's why it works only for a couple of seconds or so. But it's enough!
And even though everyone who asks him that doesn't really question it further, satisfied with such a complex answer -which is kinda out of character for Tommy- he still has hidden the other side of a medal away from their eyes.
Tommy can shift the very same attention not only away from himself, but even directly into himself too.
Usually, he tweaks it so that others consider it his natural charisma or luck, but the guy is not that worried about revealing this moment.
After all, it's a good response to what Tommy might respond if forced to. What is he hiding about his ability? Reverse action! And not a single word about the mere existence of time loops.
Tommy really has too much to think about ahead of time and it has already exhausted the guy so much…
Okay, it's time to celebrate back in reality.
The boy activated his attention ability and distracted everyone -even himself- from his own sound, and the door's sound too.
It's ability is great for pranks on someone, playing hide and seek -nobody really plays with him anymore since he always cheats- or... or just hiding.
Tommy can completely remove his visual or sound presence for all people around him and/or an object/creature he touches on a psychological level.
Now he has removed any door sounds. Seriously, right now Tommy can rip that door to shreds, knock it off its hinges, or basically do whatever he wants, and to the other people around it would make absolutely no sound for the next few seconds.
But, due to time limits, Tommy had to slip inside very quickly and hide behind a closet at the last moment, when the boy already felt like he was running out of time.
With difficulty -due to the fact that he has to be quiet- catching his breath, Tommy listens to what is going on in the house.
He's right, judging by the sounds Phil and Techno are sitting on the couch right now, while Will is on the chair.
They're watching- Prime knows what. Tommy can't quite make out the gist of the dialogue going on on the TV.
An episode of some shitty show that his family -for some unknown to him reasons- decided to watch -Really, what is it?- as interrupted by an advertisement that apparently involved playing the piano, judging by Will's annoyed subsequent reaction to as "The actor doesn't even play at the same tempo as the music! Indeed, it is obvious that he had never seen a piano in his life before this, of course, a terrible period of his career."
The piglin hybrid is great at playing a range of instruments, Tommy will give him that. Therefore, he knew exactly what he was talking about, so the boy decided to trust him in this matter.
As Wilbur himself told him, his passion for music began as a hobby and at the same time a possible school activity. He persuaded Techno to start his own training in playing the instrument so that the twins could play in a duet once they were in middle school.
What started out as a hobby ended up being the synchronization of his ability.
Synchronization is something that enhances powers, makes them easier to use, or something that makes it possible to use the abilities in new ways. Everyone has it completely unique and it is extremely difficult to find what is your own.
In Will's case -as far as Tommy was able to figure out- his synchronization works in such a way that when he plays an instrument, his mind control gets a bit stronger or maybe just less noticeable?
Tommy didn't pry into that matter though. And it's not that Will stands out for the incredible strength of his ability. Tommy himself manages to easily break free from the fetters of his seemingly soft, but yet sharp and commanding words that penetrate deep into the mind. And Wilbur seems to be trying hard for this!
Will is surely no match to Siren, who`s the first to spring in mind of Manburg citizens at the mention of mind control. A terrifying villain who uses his ability to do very scary and even crazy things. One of the three founders and leaders of the Syndicate. It's like comparing a wolf and a -quite a cute one if you so please- chihuahua, really.
Speaking of synchronizations, Phil and Techno seem to share a simple one, which is extremely odd if you`d ask Tommy. He had heard about one of the rarest types of synchronizations before: syncs with certain people. However, for the first time he saw one was at this exact family.
Tommy still doesn't fully understand exactly how the piglin-avian synchronization works.
They call their Chat of all things- Like they`re fucking streamers, for Primes sake.
Techno has voices , which is his ability. He hears them… All the time. Tommy is sometimes really amazed by the endurance of the man and his psyche. He wouldn't have been able to live like that himself, to be honest.
Techno has been calling his voices a Chat for a long time, and somehow his Chat is connected to Phil's flock.
The power of a man with wings is just this flock as he calls it. He can accept a variety of birds into it. Though it seems to work best with crows. Actually, they are very smart birds. They are apparently quite fond of the boy too.
Phil's flock lives in a poultry house which is a small extension near their house. Phil also calls the members of his flock Chat.
They are separate yet collective consciousnesses(?), but sometimes they can transmit information to each other..?
Look, Tommy really doesn’t understand how this works at all and gave up understanding a long time ago. He just takes it for granted, for Primes and a bit of his own sake.
Speaking of birds, he really hopes they won't somehow tell Phil OR Techno about his eavesdropping before Tommy feels satisfied with his search.
That thought forced Tommy to come to his senses and return to the eavesdropping he nearly forgot about, lost in the thoughts as usual.
Tommy noticed nothing interesting and worthy of attention for the next 10 minutes. When the boy had already begun to despair, the news intro music began to play.
The male voice of the announcer began to tell something Tommy didn't really care about that much, until one moment.
The man announced that the authorities had officially confirmed the fact and even the date when some heroes from The Capital would be sent here to Manburg. Heroes such as the Dream team, which is the most popular small hero group, will arrive in the city in 3 weeks.
Tommy remembers just recently there were rumors about the matter, and looks like they turned out to be true.
Villains from the shadows and even in the open like the Syndicate, pose a great threat and therefore it seems like the government decided to deal with such threats to their power and control over the population.
Lately, Tommy has been hearing here and there that "Manburg is now back on the road to becoming independent through rebellion and at this rate it could soon become the villainous capital, throwing the current one from the throne."
...
Actually, Tommy can understand a lot of the lessons of history fixated on that fucking Independence War now.
Once again immersed in his thoughts, Tommy almost missed the next dialogue.
But the thing shocked the boy, not only catching his guard, but completely shattering him.
“As Jester predicted, this is indeed happening…” Wilbur spoke somewhat quietly compared to his usual way of speaking.
Stop. What? Jester who`s like- Jester from Las Nevadas ? That Jester?
The Jester who is the leader of -arguably- the most feared yet secretive villainous organization? THAT JESTER!?
Why does he even say it like- Like he heard such information firsthand ? What?
“What, you really didn't believe him until the very official announcement? Bruh. Typical Wilbur.” Techno habitually mockingly responded to its twin.
“I've just tried to stay optimistic, Blade.” Brunet threw his brother in response to the instigation.
“Uh-huh.” Tommy almost really saw his brother's nod in his skeptical voice.
“What? Would you like more heroes in the city?” And at Will`s question he heard a rising brow. Prime, he really grew to know his family pretty well.
“We are ready for their arrival anyway.” Phil added into some sort of a somewhat regular dispute.
What the fuck is going on?
For the sake of Holy Prime, why is his family talking about such things in such a casual tone!?
“Why are you so skeptical of him anyway? He is our ally, and we have been working side by side for years. You know full well that such predictions of his can almost certainly be trusted, Wil.” Techno sounded casual. Way too casual for the things he just told out loud.
And- Wow.
His family are fucking ALLIES with Las Nevadas ?! He just found out for the first time that they are simply involved in a villainous community, so that must mean that they also turn out to be -
Wait-
No way.
No fucking way…
Wilbur, Philza and Technoblade are in the Syndicate ?!
No-no. More. Way more than just that.
Tommy was able to practically feel the gears inside his head turning. Puzzle pieces he gathered during the 6 months he spent with Minecrafts are coming together, finally starting to form a somewhat full picture.
Philza`s dark wings and the crows basically being his flock and following around at home.
Techno`s musculature and fucking light pink hair
Will's fucking ability and musical synchronisation...
They are Zephyrus , Protesilaus and Orpheus , the three leaders of the Syndicate.
They're fucking supervillains or some shit...
Wow.
Tommy`s just-
Wow.
He doesn't even know how to react to it.
However, the boy's body apparently knows how to, and knows very well. It has long since developed a defensive reaction to such moments: a panic attack!
Tommy couldn't breathe normally due to the fact that something blocked the access of oxygen to his lungs. Rapid breaths instantly switching with almost no breaths from the boy.
Tommy couldn't see properly because of the cloudy mist that appeared in his eyes. Tears flowed from the boy's eyes like they were oceans.
Tommy couldn't stop shaking . Chilling shivers ran through the boy's entire body.
However something -albeit not for long- brought him back to consciousness.
The TV went silent and the voices in the background stopped, and he could- He could hear footsteps coming his way!
Fuck- He was heard by. Shit, fuck.
FUCK! Fuck, fuck, fuck…
What will they do to him when they find him in such a condition?
No, no, stop. Fuck. Even worse. What will happen to him when they find out why is he in such a state.
They'll find out that he- That he was fucking eavesdropping!
Fuck.
Tommy panicked even more. However, the boy's reflexes worked despite himself. When Tommy could already see the shadow of the one who was approaching the passage leading from the living room to the corridor where Tommy now sat curled up in the ball, the boy pressed the button on his watch and-
The loop collapsed, bringing Tommy back .
The boy found himself at around fifteen minutes prior to what had just happened to him.
Standing before the entrance. Again.
When returning with a panic attack, in fact it's much easier to deal with.
After all, the boy's body was in a normal state, and therefore, if Tommy was able to return, then his mind would be able to deal with it very quickly so as not to start a new panic attack in an unaffected body. Tommy sometimes tends to use that strategy to fix his condition.
A minute later, his breathing is finally even, and the boy himself has calmed down.
So, the first thing Tommy needs to do now is think through what he had just got to know. And therefore it’s better for the boy to do it inside his own room.
Standing like this on the threshold -as he dies right now- is not only creepy as a shit, but also raises questions not only from passers-by, but also from Phil's crows. Seriously, these little shits are like on the human level of consciousness!
So, yes. In general, that's why Tommy needs to move on, yeah. At least just shift, moving a lot isn't really required-
Taking a deep breath, exhaling it. Tommy clears his head for a time being and steps inside, unlocking the door as loudly as possible.
He brushes away his family's(?) greetings, making a weary grimace and yawning here and there.
“I've been like- scrolling Twitter all night so I'ma head out to my room where I'll sleep till tomorrow evening, aight?” Tommy came up with an excuse as he went upstairs.
“Alright Toms, good night.” Wilbur answered him with a very warm smile that almost left a warm feeling in Tommy's chest. But the boy quickly cut it off with a simple nod in return. With a usual whining, he headed upstairs.
Entering his room and quickly shutting the latch, Tommy finally stopped the performance.
Throwing his facade, the boy slides down, leaning on the door.
Ok. Good.
His family may or may not be villains.
There's a chance.
A possibility.
Although-
Yes. They are definitely some kind of villain. This does not mean that they will turn out to actually be-
Who is he trying to fool? Himself?
No. Denying the case certainly won't help in any way...
Wilbur is Orpheus. Will is Siren, as the villain was called by the people. Tommy was literally just making his brother comparison to a mind-controlling villain and-
Tommy loudly exhaled.
No, no, no. No panic attacks, everything is fine. Everything is just fucking awesome! In fact, that's great! Yea. If you keep lying to yourself, you will start believing, that's what he read about once.
Technoblade is Prothesalius. Blood God. Man was called the most cruel villain. Yes, pfft. The very thing that Tommy's completely uninjured freshy little old teenage mind needed.
AND-
Phil.
Oh dear Gods, Philza Minecraft. Crows chasing his very steps. Man's terrifying aura of a seasoned villain. And fucking withering too.
Tommy's world began to crumble again. Spinning around his head. And he thought he had finally found someone different, someone hitting close to home...
His family are villains. Supervillains , you be more specifics. The leaders and founders of arguably the most terrifying of any villainous organizations, The Syndicate .
Should he be afraid? For his life, health, the remaining pieces of the mind?
Should the boy be afraid of them ? Are they just the same as everyone else? And so did Tommy just start enjoying life...
What will they do when they find out that Tommy has revealed their secret?
Will they demand silence from him? By force? Or forced to obey?
Would they kill Tommy? Or maybe forced to become a villain with them?
Oh Prime what may they do if found out about Tommy's powers-
No, no, for fuck`s sake no!
They... They're not like this-
They're not!
Tommy believes in it by heart. Or- at least he wants to.
He-
Tommy needs to sleep.
Yes, this is a good decision. With a fresh mind, thoughts are way more coherent.
Tommy turned his gaze to the bed.
“I'm definitely not up to checkpoints tonight.” he whispered, getting up and heading to bed, not even bothering to change his clothes.
Tommy did not even notice how much this situation exhausted him, and therefore right at the moment when his head touched the pillow, the boy was instantly out like a light.