The center of noise, found within sight,

Someone once said it would be you and-

~

The sun crawls up the sky, slowly but surely, a ball of fire in the vast blue.

Below, wind sweeps through the grass with an odd feeling of urgency, flowers waving in the breeze, slender stalks bending.

A sprig of trillium, sporting a single white flower, beams to the sun, and a single petal shrivels, drifting down silently to the ground, soft and bright against the darkness of the dirt.

The calm before the storm.

Phil shoved open the door, stamping down the giddiness at seeing his son alive.

Broken, defiant, and fiercely determined, but alive.

"Wilbur," he started softly. "Don't."

Wilbur turned, startled, moving to block the button from Phil's view.

"Phil." His voice was impossibly soft, and Phil had to strain his ears to hear.

"Wilbur, please. There's got to be a better way than this."

Wilbur blinked slowly, eyes calculating. "Than what?"

Phil waved a hand at the cave wall, indicating where L'Manburg would be outside the darkness. "Blowing it all up. Wilbur, please, it doesn't have to end this way."

A pause. And then Wilbur turned on him, fury in his gaze. "How did you know." He spat each word from gritted teeth. "How much did Dream tell you-"

"He told me nothing. I- I figured it all out by myself." It wasn't technically a lie, but it still tasted like ash in his mouth.

Wilbur sighed, dragging a hand down his face and slumped against the wall, eyes unfocused.

"You don't understand, Phil." The words seemed to have been dragged from somewhere deep inside him, bitter and sharp like broken glass.

"No, I don't. But I'm here to make you understand."

"I've been staring at his button for so long, Phil. I've come so close, so close." His voice dipped, giving into a soft sound of despair.

"So don't press it," Phil coaxed gently, as though talking to a wounded animal. "Walk away from it, and come back home. Please, we can be a family again."

Wilbur glanced up at him, then gave a hollow laugh. "If you still believe that, Phil, you're far more idealistic than I thought."

"Wilbur, please. I know I messed up, I did things I regret." Regret so much that I've turned back time.

"Give me another chance. Give us another chance. A family can't be broken so easily."

Wilbur gave him a tired look and fell into silence, drifting off into thought.

Phil didn't rush him.

And then, finally, Wilbur lifted his head. "Fine."

Phil blinked, not expecting Wilbur to have actually given in, but there were no complaints. He exhaled slowly. "Thank you."

Wilbur nodded. "They're fighting outside. You- you should go stop them. I'll come right after you, I just need a moment to say goodbye to this room. I've spent so long here, it feels only right to give it one last look before I leave it forever."

Phil nodded and turned, heading into the corridor, head dizzy with relief.

He had done it.

~

Techno whirled away from Tubbo's limp form, lunging at Tommy, who stumbled backwards, scrabbling frantically to draw his bow.

Dream gave a shriek of glee, skin glowing with multiple potion effects. "TEAM CHAOS!"

Techno smirked, raising his sword and cutting an arrow out of the sky. Tommy lowered his bow warily, switching to a sword instead, holding it up just in time to meet Techno's strike.

"You're the traitor," Tommy panted, eyes shining.

"Actually, I'm not. I've always told you exactly what I wanted." His voice was deadly calm.

"You killed Tubbo!" Tommy gritted his teeth, hands shaking as he braced his weapon against Techno's, stopping it from reaching his throat.

"You made him the president," Techno snapped. "You knew what would happen."

Dream stalked to Techno's side, blood dripping from his axe head. Tommy didn't want to know who it belonged to, know of how Dream had hurt his friends.

"Techno wasn't the traitor, Tommy." Tommy could hear the smile in his voice.

"Then who was?" Tommy tilted his head.

Dream laughed. "Wilbur. It was Wilbur."

"That's not true," he sputtered after a moment of shock. "Wilbur would never betray his nation!"

"If that's what you believe, you don't know Wilbur as much as you think." Dream chuckled and nodded at Techno, who lifted his sword.

Tommy fell silent.

Techno smiled. As far as he was concerned, this battle was already won.

Tommy knew it too, and loosened his grip on his weapon, rolling out of the way as Techno's blade came down.

Techno was faster though, and drew a loaded crossbow. The arrow flew true, pinning Tommy to the ground by the hem of his shirt.

"This is the end, Tommy," he smirked, stepping forwards agonizingly slowly.

Tommy stared at him, the confidence that shone in his blue eyes finally gone. "Techno don't-"

Techno raised his sword.

Blood for the blood god.

And then the world was blasted apart.

~

Phil grimaced as his wings brushed against the damp tunnels and he shuddered, quickening his pace, eager to return to the sunlight. The underground always made him feel uneasy.

And then he heard it - the sizzling of live explosives, echoing through the walls.

No.

Wilbur, no-

The world exploded.

The ground was ripped apart, the tunnel being blasted into instant nothingness. Phil tented his wings, wrapping them around himself, letting out a cry of pain at the unbearable heat that burned his feathers and seared his flesh.

Numbly, his mind recognized that his wings were definitely damaged beyond repair - not that that mattered.

Rocks and debris rained down from the sky, smashing back to the ground, followed by the lighter clattering of smaller flecks of earth.

And then silence, a wrong sort of silence that seemed to echo with noise. He stood up, ears ringing, the world far too bright. Everything was coated in ash, a haze hanging in the air.

Sunlight fell upon his face and he blinked, stunned.

"Wil." He exhaled and turned back towards the cave where Wilbur had been just a moment before, and even before his eyes could make out Wilbur's limp form, he knew Wilbur was dead.

Without Phil's wings to protect him from the explosion, there was no question about it.

His son was dead.

Again.

He drew one hand down his face roughly, nails digging into his skin, the sharp pain bringing him back to reality.

Bring me back. Give me another go.

I'll get it right this time.

Two left, fallen angel.

The world tilted around him, and everything was wrenched away from him in a single twist.

==============================

Is the first part of each chapter a riddle?

. . . perhaps.

Am I hiding things in my story again as always? Definitely >:)