Tommy couldn't pull his eyes away from the syrup congealing on his plate, to pay proper attention to what Fundy was saying.

He was probably talking about Wilbur anyway. And if that was the case, Tommy didn't know if he even wanted to hear it.

Wilbur left. He was the one who decided he didn't like being around there anymore, so he packed his stuff and barely gave a warning and then he was gone, without giving a shit what Tommy felt about it.

The only words that stood out to him were the ones Fundy said at the end of his explanation of all that he had been up to since Wilbur did his crappy little 'apology tour'. "I know how to get there," Fundy said.

"Get where?" Techno asked. He'd stopped making pancakes and was simply leaning against the stove, arms crossed, looking tense. Phil was sitting on a chair nearby, pale and motionless in a way Tommy had never seen him. He hadn't spoken a word through all of Fundy's speaking.

"Utah. SMP Earth."

The silence that fell over them after those words was tense. Michael slammed his fork into his plate, trying to spear a piece of pancake. Ranboo startled, pulling the tensile from the child's hand. "And uh, now you want to go there?"

"It's not fair he gets to fuck off and start a new life, right? While we're all stuck here waiting for whatever disaster strikes this place next. Quackity hasn't exactly been a joy to be around." Fundy's smile seemed closer to a snarl the way his lips pulled back to reveal his incisors. He didn't shift out of his fox form often anymore. Tommy remembered Fundy telling him back in Manburg that he felt safer in that form. "I want to go there too. I don't even want to be near him or anything, just… go somewhere better."

"If that's what you want," Techno said.

"It is." Fundy looked up at them. "I suppose I just wanted to tell y'all. And you know, if you do want to come…" He glanced at Phil.

"We need to think about this," Phil said. But then he went quiet.

"I'm sick of this place, is all," Fundy mumbled. Tubbo nodded and got up.

"Yeah, it's kind of shit here, huh?" He walked over and bumped his shoulder against Fundy. "Things went downhill when we weren't in the cabinet anymore."

Clearly, it was meant to be a joke. Tubbo used to be closer to Fundy than Tommy ever was. They were friends, little as that meant anymore. Techno snorted at the comment.

"You mean that time you dropped an anvil on my head?"

"Yeah, great times, right?" Tubbo asked, throwing his arm over Fundy's shoulder. Fundy managed a half chuckle. He leaned into the touch.

"I don't want to be here much longer. I could really use the help." He looked at Phil again.

And this time Phil sighed and stood up. "We'll figure something out. And whoever in this room wants to come along, they can. SMP Earth is pretty big, wouldn't be a bad place to relocate at all." He put his hand on Fundy's shoulder.

"Get in here, Boo." Tubbo gestured with his arm.

"Me?!" Ranboo asked, halfway startled.

"You were very briefly part of the cabinet too, come on. We're making this a group hug."

Barely resisting the peer pressure for more than a second, Ranboo shuffled over and allowed Tubbo to pull him into the hug. Niki giggled as she took pity on the poor man and joined them. Tubbo gestured at Tommy next.

"You're so fucking sappy sometimes," he said.

But maybe he did get up, and allowed Tubbo's arm to curl around him.

"Did you get everything?"

Tommy closed the chest in front of him and looked over his shoulder at Tubbo, who was the one who asked the question. Honestly, he'd kind of been zoning out staring at the chest's contents for the past few minutes without paying attention. But that probably meant he didn't need anything else from inside it.

"Guess so," he said. The discs felt heavy where they were weighing down his backpack. Tommy was so certain he should take them. They were the first thing he grabbed.

Now he wasn't so sure anymore.

In a way, the discs caused a lot of terrible shit to happen. Maybe taking them with him was a bad idea. Even if leaving them behind would feel like ripping off parts of his skin. Tommy was strangely familiar with the sensation. His fingers were bandaged because he couldn't stop picking at the edges of his nails lately. He didn't do it on purpose! And if Phil would stop commenting on it constantly, that'd be great!

"Tommy?" Tubbo asked, a little louder. Tubbo's arm tensed as he gripped his sword tighter, and Tommy could see him try to follow his eyes where they were pointed, staring at the horizon aimlessly. He wasn't looking at anything in particular though.

There was a plume of smoke rising in the distance. Tommy thought it might be the direction of Las Nevadas.

"Yeah, I'm good," he answered, also raising his voice so Tubbo could catch it this time. He dropped the lid of the chest, allowing it to slam shut and kick up some dust. He hadn't been in this place since he was exiled, it wasn't really a surprise Tommy hadn't left anything behind there he'd want to take. But they were leaving the server.

Like, actually, fully, properly leaving the server.

And thus Phil had heeded them that coming back once they were gone for a while wouldn't be easy, they should check they had everything they wanted with them.

"What about you? Anywhere else you need to go?" Tommy asked, stepping up next to Tubbo. Tubbo looked at him, then shrugged.

"Eh, we're probably going to get there and still realize we forgot a ton of shit, right?"

Tommy laughed. "That always happens, doesn't it?"

"We'll be trying to chop trees with a wooden axe," Tubbo added. "Or… Or not have any buckets to carry water. Something like that." He grinned.

"We'll have a bucket," Tommy disagreed. "There's like, eight of us. Somebody is going to have a bucket."

"Do you have a bucket?" Tubbo asked.

Tommy scowled in response. "Why the fuck would I have a bucket?"

"You're literally proving my point." Tubbo laughed again.

They avoided the Prime Path when they started to head back. Tommy didn't feel right walking on it anymore. Not that any of this felt right. But maybe it didn't have to. If Tommy was going to sit around waiting for things to feel better before he did stuff, he'd be old and gray by the time something happened.

The trick was doing stuff even when it felt wrong.

The crater of L'Manburg always seemed much deeper than Tommy remembered it being. Every time he looked into it, he felt as if it could swallow him whole. There were no railings on the edges. They didn't go down to Pogtopia to check if they left anything down there.

"It's kind of weird that we're leaving, right?" Tubbo asked. The flag near the bottom didn't move, hanging limp and sad and dirty. Oddly fitting. Tommy didn't know who put it there. Couldn't be Wilbur. Wasn't him. Who else cared about their old nation enough to hang a flag for its remembrance?

Eret, maybe.

"I'm fucking happy to be out of here," he said. Loudly. Trying to breathe truth into the words.

That didn't really work, did it? But Tubbo smiled and nodded, and that was good. It was better, even. Tommy didn't care if he was scared. He had been scared since the ocean rose to his chin and water compressed on his chest from all sides. All he did anymore was try to find ways to feel less scared and then fuck that all up. So he was scared. He was so fucking scared.

But that had to be okay.

Tubbo stood beside him, close enough that their shoulders touched, and Tommy could feel his warmth. The sun was almost dipping down into the crevice behind the crater. There was no bench, and no soft notes of music playing. But it was nice. It was the same as it used to be, before.

They waited to leave until it was so dark they couldn't see the flag anymore.

Technoblade's house wasn't really made to fit too many people in it, and that showed.

Fundy had been staying in Phil's cabin the past two days. Tubbo lived with Michael and Ranboo, obviously. But Niki had no choice except to sleep at Techno's place since Phil's cabin was a mess getting everything ready for their departure and couldn't have another permanent guest. Techno decided to offer her his room, so he was using the couch lately. If he slept at all. Tommy couldn't actually remember seeing Techno sleep in the past days. Often they all hung around inside Techno's living room or were together for meals since they were trying to lay low and not let others on the server catch on to what they were planning.

Sometimes, Tommy liked it.

In a selfish way, it reminded him of the van. When everybody got along and they laughed about the stupidest things and they didn't have enough to get by so they shared all of it. They weren't good times, but they were times that were so far away nostalgia could give them a fond glow in his memories. Tommy remembered being happy then. Which meant he could ache for having it back.

Other times though, it got really fucking loud.

Way too loud. He grabbed a cloak from a hook on the wall - he didn't know who it belonged to, probably Techno since it was fucking huge and all - so he could step out onto the wooden porch. The cold slammed into Tommy like a brick wall and he shivered, pulling the heavy fabric around himself more properly. It was pretty dark. Nobody saw the point in refilling the fuel for the lamps because they'd be leaving soon.

Tommy shuffled to the side and rubbed his hands together, exhaling on them to try and warm them up.

"If you're cold, you should head back inside."

Tommy jumped at the voice behind him, needing to squint his eyes to properly see Techno since it was so dark.

"Fuck man, you scared me. Can you not be so creepy?"

"You're standing on my porch," Techno pointed out. "And I was standing here first."

Tommy put his elbows on the barrister, then instantly regretted it when the snow clinging to the wood soaked into his shirt instead. He didn't want Techno to notice though, so he kept them there.

"I thought you were inside," he said.

"Too crowded," Techno said, rubbing at his temples. Maybe the voices were bothering him.

"Yeah, it's a lot."

Techno sighed, leaning against the wall. He looked at Tommy as if he was considering something, then away again. It really got on Tommy's nerves.

"What?!" he asked loudly.

"Nothing," Techno said with a shrug. Tommy scowled at him.

"No, I can see you're judging me. What?"

"I'm not," Techno said. "Just thinkin'."

"About what?" Tommy asked.

Techno shrugged a second time. "Stuff."

"You're so fucking annoying," Tommy complained.

Techno chuckled, though he still refused to answer. Tommy wanted to pry, but he didn't. The thing was, they were probably not talking about a lot of stuff. Ever since he moved back in with Techno, Tommy felt like the less they talked the better they got along. He didn't want to ruin what he had this time. So he bit his lip and fell silent.

He wondered if - when they went to a new server - they'd need to talk.

Tommy had no clue what he would say.

"You got everything for tomorrow?" Techno asked suddenly.

"Yeah, I got all my stuff. What about you?"

"We'll need to come back for most of the animals once we're set up," Techno said. "But aside from that, I think I've packed what I need."

"Good, good,..." Tommy trailed off.

Techno stepped up next to him, brushing off the banister with one gloved hand before also putting his elbows on it. "Seriously, what's wrong?"

"Why would you say something is wrong?" Tommy asked. Techno leveled him with a bored, deadpan look. "Ugh, I don't know. I guess I just don't know what to expect. Change is scary, man."

"Not much will be changing except we'll all have our own homes again," Techno said. Tommy shook his head.

"You really think that's the only thing that will be different when we move to a whole new server?"

"Pretty much," Techno said.

Tommy opened his mouth before promptly closing it. He supposed Techno had a point. Would things really be different from what they were currently? Different than this server was near the start for sure, but lately things had been pretty quiet. Maybe it could just be like that, minus the threat of Dream looming over the back of his mind.

And Wilbur…

Wilbur would be there.

Prime, Tommy hadn't even considered that yet. But Wilbur would definitely be there.

Even if he moved to another corner of the server, he'd have to walk around with the knowledge that Wilbur was there.

He startled a little when a hand wrapped around his shoulder. It was almost a hug, though not quite. And Techno played the gesture off by awkwardly brushing some snow from the collar of the cape, complaining about how it was his so Tommy shouldn't be so careless with it.

But Tommy smiled and rubbed at his face, the cold stinging his nose and cheeks. His eyes too, though that could be something else.

And for a moment, he could almost start to miss this place.

The straps of Tommy's backpack kept digging into his shoulders but he didn't want to adjust them.

"Mind you, it's not an exact science," Phil said, putting some more stone blocks into play.

"But it'll work?" Fundy asked.

"Unless I screwed up somewhere along the way," Phil answered.

Techno cleared his throat slightly. "And how will we find out if you screwed up?"

"Well, I suppose our innards will be turned to mush and spread along several miles of the server we're traveling to," Phil said. "No reason to worry about that though, is there?"

"Phil?!" Ranboo sounded alarmed, and when Tommy looked over it seemed to be that Ranboo was covering Michael's ears with his hands. Tubbo laughed, and The zombie piglin child blinked up at them, completely unaware of the conversation. And thus not realizing Phil had just admitted that a small mistake could kill them.

"I'm confident I managed to get it right," Phil insisted. "More or less." He cackled, and Tommy was at this point completely certain Phil was - to some degree - fucking with them on purpose.

Phil checked his own bags before nodding.

"Look, worst case scenario we don't all land in the same spot. Should be an easy fix, we have communicators."

"Where will we be landing?" Niki asked.

"Somewhere in Utah."

Utah. The place wherever Wilbur fucked off to.

Phil used his flint and steel and the portal lit up. The swirl was an off-gray and blue color, making it distinctly different from Netherportals. Tommy hated those, and how nauseous they would leave him. So he wasn't looking forward to this either.

"Who wants to go first?"

Techno was already stepping up when Tommy shot his hand into the air. "I will."

"I'm going first to make sure the coast is clear," Techno said firmly.

"Fine, but I'm going second then." Tommy didn't want to hang around a second longer than necessary. Once he made the decision to leave, he wanted to leave quickly. No reason to second guess himself.

Techno nodded, gave Phil a look - something passed between them but Tommy had given up on trying to understand those two ages ago - and then stepped forward. His body disappeared into the portal and Tommy winced as his airs popped, the sudden change of pressure in the air around them.

"So… Did it work?" Niki asked. She messed with her hair, which refused to stay stuck in the ponytail she put it in.

"We'll know in a few minutes," Phil said, fiddling with his communicator. If the portal did not 'smear' Techno as Phil put it, he'd be able to shoot them a message.

And sure enough, after a few more seconds the device loudly pinged.

"Okay, Tommy, you're up," Phil said.

Tommy didn't ask why Phil was suddenly in a hurry now that they had confirmation the portal was set up correctly. He took a deep breath, tucked his chin into his chest, and powered through. A short sting. It would be just like tearing off a bandaid.

The feeling of entering the portal chilled him through and through.

Tommy shuddered, the cold seeped into his very bones. He stepped off the frame through to the other side, expecting new ground under his feet. When he traveled into the Nether, that's always how it went. Except this time his heel met no resistance and he barely had time to realize there was nothing on the other side of this portal before he went through.

Crap!

He stumbled before pitching forward, cartwheeling his arms with desperation. Tommy fell.

Fleetingly, he had a chance to wonder if teleporting to this server reset his life count. A new spawn anchor, no more final death? Or was he really going to splatter on the ground and die for good?

Then his forehead hit a branch and that thought was solidly wiped away.

He didn't feel his body impact with the ground, maybe because the blow was kind of cushioned by him falling on top of somebody. Or maybe because the pain was already all-encompassing so a few additional broken bones wouldn't make much of a difference. Tommy coughed, feeling his ribcage ache.

"Ow…" The person who he landed on top off muttered and pushed him off. Tommy rolled onto his side, gasping. Blood was pouring down the side of his face and it made it hard for him to see. He blinked against the stinging, curling up into more of a miserable ball.

Phil must have miscalibrated the coordinates when it came to height. The portal's exit was way too high up.

"Tommy?"

For a moment, he almost forgot about the blunt force trauma and how much everything hurt. Because he recognized that voice.

"Tommy, what the fuck are you doing here?"

"Not now, Wilbur, I'm dying," Tommy said.

"You're not-" Wilbur knelt next to him, awkwardly hovering. "Seriously, how did you get here?"

Tommy stuck out his arm and Wilbur grabbed his wrist, half pulling him upright. His skin was warm. Tommy had assumed he'd at least have a day or so to prepare for what he'd say to Wilbur, but in the end, he found the only words that came to him.

"Prick, you're acting like you didn't even miss me!" Tommy coughed again and bent over.

"Oh, there you are." Techno limped towards them. His ankle was bent the wrong way, and he was holding his shoulder where blood was seeping into his shirt.

"Dude, why didn't you warn us the portal is a death trap?" Tommy asked, ignoring the way Wilbur was gaping at both of them. Clearly, he didn't expect them to show up.

"I tried to, Phil got a bit overenthusiastic." Techno looked vaguely upward, taking Tommy's other elbow in his hand to haul him to his feet. "We'll have time to catch up later, we're going to have a few more injuries on our hands soon."

"Phil is here?" Wilbur asked. He bit his lip, uncomfortable. Served him right after leaving without warning!

"Later," Techno repeated. "We have a lot to talk about, actually."

Tommy nodded, head pounding something fierce. Talking should be the furthest thing from his mind. He needed a nap of over a year before he'd be ready.

But Wilbur didn't let go of him. Maybe that could count for something.