Prompted by Soupstarsandsilence. Sorry if Tommy feels a little OOC in this, but I guess that's the point-
Setting up the potato farm took longer than Technoblade had intended it to.
He hadn't really left the cavern in days, preoccupied with moving dirt around and hauling buckets of water down the winding stone staircase. His work hadn't been in vain though, Pogtopia finally had a functioning farm that could feed all the people who were a part of their resistance. Despite everything, Techno was honestly a little proud of it. Wilbur had come to check on the progress a while ago but hadn't shown up since. His eyes had been feverish with the desire for retribution, almost too close to full-blown obsession for comfort. Technoblade should have checked up on him sooner, he knew this – would have done so if the farming hadn't been distracting him.
This war was running Wilbur ragged, that much was clear. His hands trembled and the dark circles beneath his eyes combined with his already pale complexion gave the impression of ill health which Techno couldn't shake. The details of what exactly had happened before his brothers were exiled had been left vague, Wilbur didn't write about it in his letter asking for Technoblade's help. But it had undeniably been bad and left its marks.
Tommy too. His hair was longer, his face a little more scarred. He'd come by a few times when Techno started working on the farm, but was shooed off when he didn't help and only got in the way of Techno's work. He didn't have any time to waste on antics when he had to make sure they wouldn't starve before their revolution got properly planned and supplied.
Wiping off the sweat from his face, Technoblade put down the hoe for the last time when he was satisfied with the final setup. The farm had turned out a bit... bigger than it probably needed to be. Once he got started on a chore like this it was often difficult for him to snap his brain out of it. That only meant more potatoes for him to harvest later though. He walked out of the hallway he had carved into the cave's hollow and almost straight into Tommy, who was moving in the opposite direction.
"Blade! I've been looking for you!" Tommy beamed at him, grabbing his arm. Say what you want about the kid, at least he was the one person always excited to see Techno. He couldn't help the small smile of his own in response.
"Why are you in a hurry, Tommy?"
"I'm not, I'm not." Tommy's eyes shifted to the side. If Techno wasn't incredibly sleep-deprived he might have pinpointed that as strange behavior. "I was looking for you."
"Me? To what do I owe the pleasure?" Techno shook him off lightly and brushed past him to keep walking, hoping to find Wilbur and show him the farm. Tommy did a little skip to catch up, getting in front of him.
Then Tommy stopped suddenly. Techno stopped too. "Can we talk?"
"We're talking right now, Tommy."
"No, I mean can we talk? Somewhere private." Tommy stared at him, eyes wide and pleading. Somehow they had become darker than they used to be. Less the color of a cloudless summer sky and more that of a stormy ocean, deep and unfathomable.
Technoblade wondered why he hadn't noticed that earlier. "Uh, yeah sure... about what?"
"Thanks, big man!" Tommy started walking again and Techno followed. His fingers clenched around nothing, sudden anxiety spiking. He shoved it into the far corner of his mind though, not feeling up to deciphering the reason.
"Sit down." Tommy had led them to the small area he was using as a bedroom, the bunk pushed into one corner with chests up against the opposite wall. A few pieces of tree trunk had been posed around a burning campfire, the smoke escaping through a crevice into the greater ravine so it wouldn't hang around and smother them. Techno took a seat on one of the improvised chairs.
"What did you want to talk about?" he asked, stretching his sore legs out in front of himself. They ached from all the manual labor, muscles protesting at finally being allowed to go still. Tommy turned around, holding two cups.
"I've got tea. It's the good stuff, according to Tubbo. I think he put honey in it or some shit." The cup was more or less pushed into his hands, not giving Techno a chance to refuse. The liquid smelled sharply of lemon, with undertones of sweetness. He wasn't too fond of tea normally but Techno couldn't remember the last time he had anything to drink, so he accepted it.
He held the cup with two hands as he looked at Tommy taking a seat across from him. "Thanks. Have you seen Wilbur by the way, I want to show him the finished farm?"
"Yeah, he's around." Tommy waited without expanding, eyes drifting down to the cup Techno was holding. Techno downed it all in one go just to escape those prying eyes, noting it tasted about the same as it smelled. Sour and watery with a hint of sugar. Tommy smiled, watching him.
"Not gonna lie, Tommy, you're acting really sus. Are you gonna tell me what you wanted to talk about or-"
"Oh yeah! It's about Wilbur too actually." Tommy put his cup down, hands flitting around nervously. "You've been noticing how weird he's acting lately, right?"
"Hm, a little. Could be the stress of organizing a violent resistance." It was meant to be a joke, but Tommy's eyes grew only wider, nodding eagerly.
"Exactly! It's been killing him, I mean- you weren't there for that part but ever since he started going on about gaining independence Wil's just been... I don't know, acting all mental and stuff. I think it's driving him up the wall and seeing him like this just isn't normal, you know?"
"Whoa, Tommy, hold on." Techno held up his hand to get his brother to slow down, having trouble following the rapid spew of words coming out of him. "Where's all this coming from?"
"You aren't listening to me! I'm saying it's been like this for a while, Techno! And I've been trying to make it clear to him how crazy he's been but he's not getting it!" Tommy stood up, form wavering. Or maybe that was just Techno's vision. He was dizzy, must be more tired than he thought. "I hoped that maybe when you got here you would see it too and talk some sense into him but you're just the same."
Techno frowned up at him, slightly offended. "The same how?"
Tommy shook his head as if he couldn't understand Techno's confusion. "Obsessed with this whole Pogtopia thing. You've been farming for three days straight, man. Wilbur has barely slept in a week. You're both being terrible to yourself. And for what? Some stupid war that could get us all killed?"
He wanted to respond, but Technoblade's tongue felt too big to fit his mouth suddenly. Numb and clumsy, unable to form proper words. He couldn't get a hold of his own thoughts, all turned slippery.
Tommy grinned again and that was wrong too, sharp and dangerous. "But I'm not going to lose anything else. I just- I'm sorry but I can't lose you two as well, okay? I have to keep you two safe."
Trying to get up was useless when both his legs felt made solid, glued to the ground. Techno's fingers tried to hold onto the cup tighter but it just fell from his grip, shattering on the cavern floor. He swallowed around that horrible numb feeling to force his throat into cooperation. "Tommy, what did you put in this tea?"
"I got it all figured out," Tommy said happily, closing the distance between them. Techno was lightheaded, unable to focus on the movement. He blinked slowly, eyelids working against him and wanting to stay shut. Faintly, the tea had made him nauseous, but it was hardly there over what he could identify as the drugs making him sluggish, exhausted. "You won't have to worry about anything, trust me. I'll get my disks back and then we can all leave. All four of us."
Hands being put on his shoulders made him jolt. Techno couldn't tell where the touch had come from, the world spinning around him in a blurry cascade of colors. It pushed him to the floor, and his body was too heavy to resist. His head hit the stone painfully but still nothing compared to the floaty sensation in his mind, weakly scrambling for purchase. Disconnected, he didn't feel really there anymore.
It was horrible.
He tried saying Tommy's name but didn't think it came out right with how he was fumbling over the two syllables. Tommy had kneeled down at his side, the guilty expression on his face one of the only things Techno could make out through the fogginess of his vision. "I'm gonna fix this, Techno. I promise."
When he closed his eyes, he couldn't open them again no matter how hard he tried. Tommy's footsteps receding into the ravine was the last thing Technoblade heard before his thoughts slipped away. Floating into a state of half-consciousness, he barely understood what happened next.
When he came around enough to think again something was pulling at him, dragging him over the ground. They propped him up against a hard surface – a wall, his brain sluggishly provided, though this was about the extent of what his mental reasoning would allow under his current circumstances – two pairs of hands positioning him so he wouldn't slouch over.
There was talking, voices distorted through his sedated state. Technoblade mustered all his effort to blink his eyes open again, squinting through the haze to make up Tommy and Tubbo seemingly caught in some sort of argument. He turned his head, a small movement which cost way more effort than it should, to see Wilbur lying against the wall next to him, chin resting against his chest. A small flutter behind closed lids indicated he'd also been drugged.
"-old you, I know what I'm doing." The words came through slowly, difficult to parse. Tommy was gesturing while he ranted. "Just the two of us, we can do this."
Whatever Tubbo answered was lost to static. Techno groaned, attempting to move but finding his muscles uncooperative at best, frozen up at worst. He wasn't sure where they were, some small chamber he'd never seen before.
"He's waking up!" Tubbo squeaked, voice going high-pitched.
"Shit!" Tommy putting a hand on his face made Techno flinch. His head was pounding, body working overtime in an attempt to reject the narcotics from his system. Tommy turned to Tubbo. "I gave him the same dose as Wilbur, maybe it wasn't enough?"
Tubbo swallowed. "He's a lot bigger, yeah."
"I got a backup plan," Tommy said. The glint of sharp metal caught Techno's eye, making him panic.
Warm fingers trailed down his cheek, tugging at his hair a little to expose his neck. Techno winced. "W-wait!" His hand shot out to curl around Tommy's wrist but there was no strength in him to actually stop what was happening. "Tommy, don't-"
And for that moment when his brother faltered, Techno thought there might still be some sense to talk into him. Make it clear that this was a stupid fucking idea. Then Tommy sighed, looking apologetic but decisive.
"I'm sorry." Techno hardly felt the prick when the syringe was pressed into his skin but became unpleasantly aware of coldness spreading from the injection into his veins. It wasn't too dissimilar from before – just worse. Dark and cloying and settling on him like a mist. He hated it. His hand fell from Tommy's arm uselessly.
"We're going to fix this," Tommy said as he straightened - the same thing as before. Techno wanted to scream at him; to tell him there was no need for him to fix anything. Not by himself, at least. Not with only the two of them. But all he could do was slump back, vision tunneling shockingly. Watching helplessly and unable to lift a finger as unenchanted netherite was strapped into place and iron swords were looped onto belts.
Two boys off to a fight that horribly exceeded them.
Something that shouldn't ever have happened. If he'd only been paying more attention, if he'd noticed Wilbur's state sooner, if he'd understood the desperation in Tommy. If only he hadn't gotten so distracted by that damn farm.
More than anything, Techno's last conscious thought was that this was probably his fault.