Tommy was panicking just a little.
It was only a little bit, if you ignored the panic attack that he was currently trying to ignore. His mind was racing as he tried to gauge just how this plan had gone oh so horribly wrong. Maybe it was when he'd kicked a can, or it could be when he'd missed the oh so obvious hero trailing them. But it no longer mattered just how their little stealth mission had gone so wrong, just that they were now fighting a set of heroes in what was probably a life or death situation.
"Apollo! Duck!" Tommy ducked as Tubbo sent an explosive marble over his head. Tommy snickered when the hero that he had been fighting exclaimed in shock. Tommy quickly moved from that fight to the other side of the field before the hero had even recovered. He'd needed the save.
"Gambit to the side!" Tommy ducked past Tubbo who jumped to the side just in time to avoid both a knife aimed for his side and a light blast from Tommy aimed at the ice-related hero. Would it have been important to know which heroes they were fighting? Absolutely, however that was more Tubbo or Ranboo's forte.
"Shadow, where are you?" Tubbo asked, into their comms. Tommy was still adjusting to hearing Tubbo both on the field and directly in his ear, though luckily his momentary distraction was only that, momentary. "We need evac now!"
"Sorry, sorry, I got caught up in some- ow!" Ranboo hissed before their line cut out. Tubbo made a noise of concern as Tommy jumped and sent down a burst of light. Maybe he'd be able to blind the heroes long enough for him, Purpled, and Tubbo to escape. Maybe they'd just get lucky and Ranboo would be able to save them. Wait… where was Purpled?
"Shadow, update." Tubbo tried again regardless, sending another marble to Tommy to throw at whoever he wanted; Tommy chose the hero with the speed power, who he was also working on blinding. Of course, Speed power meant that she had a very quick recovery time, which was annoying to deal with.
That and Tommy couldn't keep healing himself from the punches that he was sure were meant to keep him down indefinitely.
"Plasma, where did you go?" Tommy asked, ducking under a particularly fast punch and jumping away as the marble exploded. Tommy ducked under a bolt of ice, and Tommy made a noise of irritation as he sent another burst of light towards them.
"Sorry, sorry, my hands were burning." Purpled's voice appeared. "Apollo, duck." Tommy ducked again, just barely avoiding the plasma-like substance that passed over his head. He watched as the speedster was very suddenly stuck to a wall with a radioactive purple goo like substance. Tommy laughed at the look of offense and disgust on her face.
"Thanks." Tommy uttered, taking the splitest second to breath before pushing himself back up and running towards where Purpled had reappeared on the battlefield. Though, he made a detour to meet up with Tubbo when the other yelped from pain.
"How many heroes are you guys fighting?" Ranboo's voice was back, sounding much more exhausted than before they disappeared. That made Tommy far more concerned than he would care to admit. If Ranboo got too tired, they wouldn't be able to get everyone away from the fighting.
"Uh…" Purpled hesitated on answering, which was fair. Even Tommy wasn't entirely sure just how many heroes they were fighting. Everything was blurring just a tad, and he was sure his breathing wasn't supposed to be this fast.
"A good nine, maybe eleven." Tubbo responded. Tommy rolled his eyes as he jumped over the hero that could summon plants, another blast of light pulsing from his fingertips. He heard her scream suddenly, and he wondered if he just overloaded her sight. Was he even able to do that? Tommy didn't know, nor did he entirely care.
"I'm on my way."
"Gambit first, he's bleeding heavily." Tommy instructed, dodging around an explosion that Tubbo had set for the hero who could control water. Either he'd never read Percy Jackson, or he just wasn't able to control blood, whatever the case, Tommy was thankful.
He lifted his middle finger regardless when that particular hero regained their bearings. He got a growl-like response that only made Tommy laugh, even if he now had to duck under a particularly sharp jab of water. It evaporated when Purpled launched a burst of plasma at it, and it took the smug look off the hero's face, well, the parts that they could see.
"Got him." Ranboo sounded… Tommy worried about his friend. Ranboo wouldn't even be able to come back to get Purpled, nevermind transporting Purpled back and then coming for Tommy. Tommy gasped when pain licked up his back. Of fucking course they had the fire hero here.
It now clicked which hero group they were fighting. The Elementals were a pain in the absolute ass, in Tommy's opinion. They had the fire user, the water one, the speedster, the earth bender, the plant one, the wind one, the ice one, and… Tommy didn't know the rest, actually.
"Oka- Fuck!" Tommy shouted when he was suddenly stuck against the wall, pain erupting from his side from where he was now pinned to the fucking wall by a sword. A sword! There were three exclaims of Apollo, three through the comms system they had and one echoing slightly from across the field.
Tommy could feel his powers wanting to heal the wound, however Tommy didn't need that, didn't want that. If he healed now, it could kill him, which is probably the only reason why his powers didn't start healing him.
Tommy gasped when the hero came back to twist the sword. Tommy kicked out, smiling in satisfaction of the hero backing away quickly, buckling over in pain. Good, he was a fucking asshole. He groaned as suddenly Purpled was at his side, and Tommy… could nearly feel the worry and fear on his friend. It was coming and going in waves, or maybe that was his vision coming and going. Was something important hit? Was Tommy dying?
"He's sixteen!" There was a shout across the battlefield. It sounded like the fighting stopped, but Tommy wasn't sure.
"Come on, 'pollo, hang in there." Tommy groaned as the sword was removed from his side. He cried out as he tumbled forward. "I got you," He was sure it was Purpled holding him and gently lowering him to the ground. His vision was blacking out.
In the distance, further away, Tommy could hear…
"Techie…" Tommy's voice was a slurred whisper as he forced his eyes open.
"Take me, don't… take me instead." Tommy's eyes widened in sudden fear. "Hurt me instead." was tacked on. "He's just a kid, he's sixteen. His friends are just seventeen." Tommy's breathing, which had slowed considerably, picked back up as he watched his brother be forced to his knees as the nine heroes surrounded him.
"Techie…" Tommy tried to push himself up, as tears fell for an entirely different reason, and out of Purpled's arms, though the other simply tightened his arms around him. Tommy was too weak to actually fight against Purpled, and slumped in his arms.
Tommy cried a little more when his brother, Technoblade, Protesilaus, whatever people knew him by, locked eyes with him. He cried a little more, one arm extended towards Techno as the other mouthed that 'It's okay, it's okay Theseus'.
Tommy wasn't awake much longer after that.
"He's not going to be happy when he wakes up." Tommy could hear talking going on around him. "Techno's literally his whole world." He was pretty sure that it was Purpled talking, but he wasn't sure. He could hear someone mumble a response, but Tommy didn't, couldn't, catch what was said.
"What are we supposed to do? Go stage a rescue?" That was most definitely Tubbo, who sounded agitated. Tommy groaned as he tried to force his eyes open… He didn't succeed, and the effort that Tommy gave only exhausted him. "Tommy?"
Tommy fell back into the void of unconsciousness.
Tommy could hear someone humming, and it sounded so much like his mother. Tommy whined slightly, and this time his eyes did manage to open. His mom was sitting next to him, and she was reading a book whilst she hummed to an otherwise empty room.
"Mum-" She looked up sharply, her face softening as she moved a little closer.
"You aren't ready to be awake yet, Toms," She murmured, reaching forward and running her hands through his hair. Tommy felt his eyes tear up as the urge to cry struck him.
"Techie…" It's all my fault- Kristin shushed him slightly.
"Get some more sleep, Toms." Tommy wanted to argue, wanted to shake off the drowsiness and go and find his brother. But Kristin, who everyone knew as Hecate, was not someone that you could fight or argue with.
Tommy's eyes fell closed once more as the void called him back.
Tommy woke up with a headache. He was also actually awake, which was a little uncomfortable now that Tommy had been asleep for… a number of days to a week or two. He didn't actually know how long he'd been asleep, because he'd woken up alone. That was fine, Tommy didn't want to be convinced to go back to sleep anyways.
He was alone for maybe five minutes before Purpled crashed into the room with wide eyes. Tommy snorted in amusement as Purpled tumbled trying to get back up quickly. Purpled glared at him from the ground, finally getting himself under control. He pushed himself up and sat on the edge of the bed.
"How are you feeling?" Tommy was honestly expecting a 'you weren't supposed to be awake yet'. But he liked that that's not the route that Purpled had decided to work with.
"My-" Tommy cut himself off, his voice sounded rough and he swallowed uncomfortably. Purpled pointed somewhere beside Tommy, and Tommy glanced over to see a glass of water. Oh, good, they knew he wasn't going back to sleep this time.
Tommy moved to push himself up, groaning in sudden pain which caused him to stop his attempt of getting up. Purpled was closer to his side suddenly, hands gently resting on Tommy's shoulders as a noise of concern escaped the other.
"What happened, you okay?" Purpled's voice had a small hint of panic and worry lacing it.
"Yeah, yeah, my side feels like it's on fire." Tommy responded. Purpled, once sure that Tommy had no intent of trying to get up a second time, let go of his shoulders and moved to check on Tommy's side.
"You're not fully healed yet." Purpled sounded annoyed slightly, like Tommy was supposed to be healed already. Tommy would have tried to heal it if he had the energy, but he barely had the energy to move his arms. Purpled sided as he moved to sit directly next to Tommy. "Let me help for now." It was not a request but a demand, and there was no way Tommy was going to argue with Purpled right now.
"Okay." Tommy's voice was quiet and partially strangled.
"What's on your mind?" Purpled asked as he moved to help Tommy sit up. The goal was to not agitate his side too much, though it took a lot out of Tommy by the time he was sitting up. He could just about hear Purpled cursing himself for moving Tommy too much. "Here." Purpled grabbed the cup, holding it up so that Tommy could drink from the straw before responding. Tommy sighed as Purpled put the cup back on the side stand. It took Tommy a hard moment to realize that he was in his room from his childhood home.
Ah, so the memory of his mom reading and humming at his side wasn't just a dream. He swallowed hard, with the knowledge that Techno's room was in the same hallway.
"Tech?" Tommy asked, his voice wavering. Purpled hesitated, a clear expression of contemplation on his face.
"We haven't heard anything about him yet." Purpled uttered. "The adults won't let the three of us in on anything." Tommy felt his face fall as a few tears slipped. He quickly rubbed them away as he tried to get an even breath in.
He needed to heal, and he needed to get the energy to do that. Tommy swallowed as he nodded.
"Okay." He could practically feel the surprise on Purpled, though the other jumped on the obvious drop in conversation topic.
"Tubbo and Ranboo are on their way over," Purpled offered. "Ranboo overworked himself pretty hard during-" Purpled very quickly changed his explanation. But Tommy still felt his heart drop momentarily. "And Tubbo's leg is still a little tender, too. Stitches and all that." Purpled sighed.
"Wish I took the moment to heal Tubbo during… everything." Tommy groaned, letting his head fall back.
"He doesn't blame you." Purpled uttered.
"I know Tubbo-"
"No." Purpled interrupted him. Tommy refused to look at him, instead staring at his lap with a heavy heart.